This page contains the game-specific rules for Gamer.LK Overwatch Ranked tournaments. These rules must be followed in conjunction with the General Competitive Rules of Gamer.LK Ranked Tournaments.

GENERAL COMPETITIVE RULES AT GAMER.LK RANKED TOURNAMENTS

The General Competitive Rules can be found here. The general rules listed there apply to all gaming titles and all teams/players who register for any Gamer.LK Ranked Competitive tournament are expected to follow them.

1. TOURNAMENT BRACKET

The tournament bracket used (single elimination/double elimination/group stage) will be decided by the Organizer and announced on the Tournament Announcement posted on Gamer.LK. The Organizers will make every effort to have a Best of 3 semi-finals and finals but depending on time constraints this may change at the discretion of the Organizers, in discussion with Gamer.LK. The Gamer.LK Ranking system will be used for the purpose of seeding to make the draws as and when needed. No other ranking will be considered.

2. TOURNAMENT COMMUNICATION

All teams and players are required to join the Sri Lanka Overwatch Community Facebook group to stay up-to-date with the latest information regarding the game and the local community.

3. TEAM COMMITMENT

3.1. – By submitting a registration for a Gamer.LK Ranked Overwatch tournament, all teams and players acknowledge without limitation to comply with the rules set herein and especially with the decisions made by the Gamer.LK Staff.

3.2. – All competitors are expected to know and understand all the rules described here. Not knowing that a rule existed or that it was in place will not be considered as an acceptable reason for breaking said rule.

3.3. – A player or team’s name, icon, profile picture or logo may not contain any of the following: profanities, obscene language, gang affiliation, drugs, sexual material, offensive material, slander of Gamer.LK or it’s administration, partners or sponsors.

4. TEAMS AND PLAYERS

4.1. – Team Size
4.1.1. – A Team has to consist of at least SIX players.
4.1.2. – Upto TWO substitute players can also be registered for each team.
4.1.3. – Each player can be registered and can subsequently play for only one team during the tournament.

4.2. – Substitutions
4.2.1. – The substitute player/s must be registered with the team prior to the tournament starting.
4.2.2. – Use of a substitute player must be informed to the Gamer.LK Staff well before the start of the scheduled match.
4.2.3. – The use of non-registered, suspended, or otherwise ineligible players in a match is not allowed under any circumstances.
4.2.4. – Doing so will result in a suspension or extended suspension of the individual in question, suspension of relevant team management, and may result in match overturn.

4.2.5. – Substitution can only happen BEFORE the match starts OR only AFTER a map ends. Players cannot be substituted in the middle of a map.

4.3. – Stand-ins
4.3.1. – By definition, a stand-in here refers to a player who hasn’t been registered to a team on the registration form but wants to play for a team after registrations close/matches commence.
4.3.2. – At LAN tournaments, the use of a stand­-in is allowed but they have to be presented and registered at the Registration Desk before they are used.
4.3.3. – The use of a stand­-in in online tournaments is strictly prohibited and is grounds for disqualification.
4.3.4. – This applies to account sharing as well. The Steam account that was used during registration should be the only one used for playing.
4.4.5. – In LAN tournaments which have qualifiers (such as SLCG), no player that played in any other team at any qualifier that was completed can be used as a stand-in.

5. MATCH SCHEDULE

5.1. – For online tournaments, both teams scheduled to play at a certain time should be present online on TeamSpeak at least 30 minutes before the scheduled start time. For LAN tournaments, teams should be present at the venue well before an hour of their scheduled match time.

5.2. – If by 10 minutes past the scheduled match start time a team doesn’t have enough players to play, the match will be deemed a walkover to the team that is present with its full roster.

5.3. – Matches should be played as 6on6 with 12 players. However, if a team is missing a player the match can commence shorthanded ONLY if the opposing team agrees. Only a maximum of 1 player can be missing (5 players should be present) to commence a game.

5.4. – In a best of 3 or 5 games match, a maximum delay of 10 minutes in between matches will be allowed.

5.5. – Regarding the scheduling of online matches, matches can be played on all days of the week (including public, bank. mercantile holidays, etc) and will be scheduled beforehand and announced on a “Draw/Schedule” on Gamer.LK. Scheduling will be done at the discretion of Gamer.LK Staff.

5.6. – Gamer.LK and any Organizers will make every effort to inform the teams of scheduled match dates and times – but please note it is the responsibility of the teams to check their game time and date. Gamer.LK or any Organizer will not be responsible to inform matches to teams. Not attending a match due to not being informed of the schedule is NOT an excuse.

6. GENERAL GAME RULES

6.1. – Match Settings
– Rule Set: Competitive
– High Bandwidth: On
– Map Rotation: Single map
– Return to lobby: After a game
– Hero selection limit: 1 per team
– Health modifier: 100%
– Damage modifier: 100%
– Healing modifier: 100%
– Ultimate charge rate modifier: 100%
– Respawn time modifier: 100%
– Ability cooldown modifier: 100%
– Disable health bars: Off
– Disable kill cam: On
– Disable kill feed: Off
– Headshots only: Off
– Role selection limit: None
– Allow Hero Switching: On
– Respawn as random hero: Off
– Team balancing: Off
– When balancing occurs: After a mirror match

– Disable skins: Off
– Auto-pause: On

6.2. – Game Mode
Wherever possible the Organizers and Gamer.LK staff will try their best to use the below modes, however this may change without prior notice or depending on the situation.
– Start of the tournament upto quarterfinals: Best of Three
– Quarterfinals & semifinals: Best of Three
– Finals: Best of Five

6.3. – Use of Lobby Chat
Use of lobby chat is limited to the team captains and referees. Noone else should be using the lobby chat. Doing so can result in penalties being issued against the team. Continued spam/abuse may result in the match being awarded to the opposing team and draft penalties being issued.

6.4. – Use of Public Chat
Public chat can only be used by the team captains and/or Tournament Staff regarding game pauses, disconnections, etc. Team members are allowed to greet each other at the start and end of the match on public chat (i.e: GGWP, GLHF, etc) but should avoid using it during a match. No foul language is allowed on public chat and doing so may lead to the match being awarded to the opposing team and the offending team being disqualified from the match. Draft penalties for future matches may also be applied.

6.5. – Spectators
Only Gamer.LK staff will be allowed as observers or spectators. NO other persons will be allowed to spectate or observe a game. Casters who have sought prior permission from the Gamer.LK Overwatch referee team will be permitted access.

7. GAMEPLAY RULES

7.1. – Abuses & Exploitation
Exploiting game or map bugs/glitches/flaws (“exploits”) for the purposes of gaining an unfair advantage is prohibited. Exploits that are not specifically named here are still prohibited but will be dealt with on a case-by-case basis. Gamer.LK Staff reserve the right to decide what will be deemed as an exploit or abuse.

7.2. – Tie
In the event of a score tie between 2 teams, the remaining control map from the map pool after the initial pick and ban will be played to break the tie and decide a winning team.

7.3. – Use of Third Party Softwares
The use of any third-party addons, hooks, programs or wrappers that interact with or alter the game or its client, its appearance or behaviour for the purposes of gaining an unfair advantage is prohibited. Exceptions: Third party voice communication software such as (but not limited to) Teamspeak are allowed.

7.4. – Impersonations
Impersonating an eligible player by attempting to alias as them, using their Battle Net account or by any other method is prohibited and will result in the aliasing player and the player they are aliasing as being removed from the tournament. The Tournament Staff will have access to player IP addresses and other information to monitor accounts and players.

7.5. – In-game names
Each team member must have his/her primary nickname or something very similar as his ingame name during all matches to be easily identifiable for referees, broadcasters, and viewers. What counts as similar is for the Gamer.LK Staff to decide. The only additional information allowed in a player’s in­game name is clan tags or sponsor names. Team members are kindly requested to limit the use of profanity on in-game names/aliases as this degrades the value of the team and the tournament as well.

8. HOSTING & SETTINGS

8.1. – Available Maps (Map Selection Pool)
The following maps will be available under each respective map category.
– Control Maps: Ilios, Lijiang Tower, Nepal, Oasis
– Escort Maps: Dorado, Junkertown, Watchpoint: Gibraltar, Route 66, Rialto
– Assault Maps: Hanamura, Horizon Lunar Colony, Temple of Anubis, Volskaya Industries
– Hybrid Maps: Blizzard World, Eichenwalde, Hollywood, King’s Row, Numbani

8.2. – Sides & Drafting Order
8.2.1. – For online tournaments, the “first team (higher seed)” means the team mentioned first on the match page or bracket list posted. For example: if a match is between Team A vs Team B, Team A will be considered the higher seed.
8.2.2. – The team with Selection Priority will start the Map Selection Process outlined in Section 9.
8.2.3. – In LAN matches, Selection Priority will be determined by a coin toss.

9. MATCH RULES

9.1. – Map Selection Process
The map selection setup will be as follows, the higher seed in the draw will be given two options;
9.1.1. – Pick map category (Assault, Escort, Control and Hybrid)
9.1.2. – Choose the first map ban and first map to play,
9.1.2.1. – If team, which is the higher seed in the draw picks, option 1 then they will have the opportunity to pick out the map category that will be played for the first game and the opposing team will be awarded first ban.
9.1.2.2. – If the higher seeded team picks option 2, then they will have the opportunity to ban the first map from a map category and pick the map from that specific category chosen by the opposing team.
9.1.2.3. – The loser of map 1 will be represented with the above options again.
9.1.2.4. – In a Best of 3 (B03) setting one category can only be played once and after it has been played, the said map category will be locked for that particular series.
9.1.2.5. – In the event of a map draw, the team who did not have the decision making power for that map in question, i.e the team who didn’t get to decide between map category and map ban, will be awarded to make the decision for the next map (pick map category or map ban)

9.2. – Pauses
Each team has the right to pause the game for an acceptable duration, if a player announces it at least three seconds in advance and calls a coherent reason (not necessary, if someone disconnects). Each team is granted a total of 10 minutes pause time during the match. The game must not be resumed before both teams agree with it. If total pause time of 10 minutes runs out, the game has to be resumed, no matter if the issue got fixed or not. If one team refuses to resume the game, the oppose team will receive a default win. Gamer.LK Staff reserve the right to request teams to pause during the match in case of any other issues, and the time used to pause the match will not count for the team it was requested to. Abusing the pause time can lead into punishment or direct team disqualification.

9.3. – Disconnects & Reconnects
If a player disconnects, the game is to be paused instantly. The Pause rules will the come into effect and once the time exceeds, the game will continue and the team is allowed to continue to play the match at a disadvantage.

9.5. – Match Interruptions & Crashes, Bugs
The following rules only apply if a match is involuntarily interrupted due to a player crash, server crash, network failure, power failure, etc. These will most likely only apply to a LAN setting where such situations can be verified by Gamer.LK Staff. In all situations, a rehost of the game will be applicable but this may change depending on the situation.
– If a player’s PC crashes or a player disconnects, the game must be paused. The disconnected player must return into the game

– If multiple players disconnect, the server crashes or lobby shuts down or network fails and there is no match to be found when retrying, the match which got affected must be replayed.
– In the event of a time issue, Gamer.LK Staff will decide accordingly.