This page contains the game-specific rules for Gamer.LK Dota 2 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 Dota 2 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 Dota 2 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 FIVE 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.

4.3. – 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 Steam and 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. – A team CAN START a game shorthanded. You can only be shorthanded by one player. For example, a team can start a game with 4 players. If you are missing more than one player, you cannot start 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 Winner
The team who destroys the opponent’s throne/ancient first, or if the opponent surrender.

6.2. – Lobby Settings
The following settings will be used for the hosting of Match Lobbies. If a setting is not listed below, it should not be changed from its default state.
– Server Location: Singapore (may be changed at the discretion of Tournament Staff)
– Enable Cheats: No
– Fill Empty Slots With Bots: No
– Version: Tournament
– Game Mode: Captain’s Mode
– Starting Team: Refer to rules under Sides & Drafting Order (Selection Priority)
– Spectating: Set to a Dota TV ticket (if available). If not by default spectating will be Enabled. Delay will be set to 2 minutes (for online matches) At LAN events, delay will be decided by Tournament Staff.

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. – VAC Bans
6.5.1. – From February 2018 (the start of GCDL Season 12), all players and the Steam accounts they use to register at each Gamer.LK Ranked Dota 2 tournament will be recorded. Upon registration, each account will be linked to each player and at each tournament they register, all their accounts on record will be tracked for VAC bans.
6.5.2. – If a player’s account is caught cheating by the game publisher’s anti-cheat system (Valve Anti-Cheat), they will not be allowed to ever take part in any Gamer.LK Ranked Dota 2 tournaments or tournaments organized by Gamer.LK, both online and offline. This is a lifetime ban.
6.5.3. – This ban applies to players who have submitted their steam accounts for any applications or registrations with Gamer.LK (besides tournaments) as well.
6.5.4. – Situations such as the sale of Steam accounts or transfer of an account to a third party, using the same mobile number on multiple accounts which in itself is illegal to Steam Terms and Conditions will in no way be considered an exception to this rule.
6.5.5. – Regardless of the situation or game for which the VAC ban applies, there will be no exception to this rule.
6.5.6. – A link to a complete list of players currently banned from all Gamer.LK Ranked tournaments can be found at https://gamer.lk/blacklist.
6.5.7. – In the situation where players have registered with accounts that are VAC-banned that are not on Gamer.LK’s records, they will not be allowed to play with the accounts and have to use a fresh account.

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. – Scripting
The use of scripts such as insta-hexing, auto-blinking, auto-orchid or techies scripts are illegal.

7.3. – Use of Third Party Softwares
The use of any third-party addons, hooks, programs or wrappers that interact with or alter the DOTA 2 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 Steam 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 steam 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. – Lobby Hosting
All lobbies should be hosted ONLY by Gamer.LK Staff. Under no circumstance should players join a lobby created by anyone else.

8.2. – Sides & Drafting Order
8.2.1. – The side and drafting order will be determined by an automatic in game coin toss.
8.2.2. – In the event the ingame coin toss system doesn’t work during a LAN tournament, a physical coin toss should be performed by the Tournament Staff where the “first team (higher seed)” on the tournament bracket will get to call heads/tails. The team that wins the coin toss will get Selection Priority (for sides/drafting order).
8.2.3. – In the event the ingame coin toss system doesn’t work during an online tournament, the “first team (higher seed)” on the tournament bracket will get  Selection Priority (for sides/drafting order).
8.2.4. – The team with Selection Priority may pick either their side of the map or the drafting order (first pick, second pick).
8.2.4.1. – Best of ONE game: The team who wins the toss gets the Selection Priority.
8.2.4.2. – Best of TWO games: The team who wins the toss gets the Selection Priority. Each game will have a new coin toss.
8.2.4.3. – Best of THREE games: The team who wins the toss gets the Selection Priority. Each game will have a new coin toss.
8.2.4.4. – Best of FIVE games: The team who wins the toss gets the Selection Priority. Each game will have a new coin toss.

9. MATCH RULES

9.1. – Picks & Bans
The hero pool always consists of all available heroes in Captains Mode and might therefore change several times during the competition if a Dota patch is released in-between the tournament.

9.2. – Pauses
Each team has the right to pause the game for a coherent reason by announcing it on chat. The game must not be resumed if paused until Gamer.LK Staff specify to do so.

9.3. – Pause Time (Online matches only)
9.3.1. – Each team will receive a total of 20 minutes of pause time for each match. For example, if a team pauses the game for 10 minutes and later pauses it again for 10, they can’t pause anymore.
9.3.2. – After the time exceeds, Gamer.LK Staff can force the continuation of the game shorthanded.
9.3.3. – The following situations with no pause time left are listed for reference.
– If more than one player in the same team is missing, the match is forced to continue and the missing player can reconnect.
– If an entire team is missing, the match will be awarded to the opponents (a match forfeit).
– If players from both teams are missing and no pause time is left on both teams, Gamer.LK Staff may keep the match paused till one team has a complete or sufficient roster to proceed at their discretion.

9.4. – Disconnects & Reconnects
If a player disconnects, the game is to be paused instantly. The above pause time (Clause 9.3) will come into effect. The affected player can rejoin the game during the pause time. If there is no pause time the game will continue and the affected player will still be allowed to rejoin later on. If the player is not able to reconnect because of a game bug, the game will be played forward until the next minute mark and can be reloaded from there if the opposition team agrees as well. If in the case of a game not being reloaded after such a try, the game will have to be re-hosted as in the clause below.

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.
– 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 lobby must be immediately rehosted and the game must restart from the last backup/save.
– If the latest backup/save is in the middle of a critical action (as decided by the GLK Referee/s), a previous backup must be used. In the event of a previous backup being unavailable the game must continue with the backup that is available.
– If a backup can’t be found or used after a crash, the lobby must be rehosted and the game will restart. All players have to pick the same heroes and items as previously and must go to the same starting lane. After initial ‘creep’ contact, players may change lane.
– In the event of a time issue, Gamer.LK Staff will decide accordingly.

10. PENALTIES

10.1. – Penalties on Player Conduct
 Players who are caught swearing, behaving in a hostile manner, halting play without cause or trash talking towards their opponents or staff or spectators will receive a Warning + Level 1 Draft Penalty on the first infraction. Continued infractions will receive Level 2 and 3 Draft penalties subsequently. The fourth infraction will result in the forfeiture of the match.

10.2. – Penalties on Throwing a Match
 Players who are caught throwing a match, sabotaging a match or quitting the game before it ends will receive a default loss and the team will be disqualified from the Tournament. The player will also be banned from taking part in the next Gamer.LK Ranked Tournament. 

10.3. – Penalties on Unprofessional Behavior
Players who are displaying unprofessional behaviour, such as the player not complying to Tournament Staff commands, team managers or spectators related to the player not complying to Tournament Staff commands, creating unnecessary situations and showing a flagrant lack of respect to the Tournament Staff will receive a Warning + Level 1 Draft Penalty on the first infraction. Continued infractions will receive Level 2 and 3 Draft penalties subsequently. The fourth infraction will result in the forfeiture of the match.

10.4. – Penalties on Punctuality
Teams with not a full roster (only 4 players present) will receive the following penalties depending on the duration of their delay in being punctual:
– Being late upto 5 minutes: Warning + Level 2 Draft Penalty
– Being late upto 10 minutes: Warning + Level 3 Draft Penalty
– Being late by more than 10 minutes: – Default loss on the game.