2021 NIRSA NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIPS ROCKET LEAGUE RULES

Page | 1 Table of Contents

ELIGIBILITY...... 3

COMMUNICATION...... 3

CAPTAIN’S MEETING...... 4

PLATFORMS ...... ……...... 4

UNIFIED...... 4

TOURNAMENT DIVISIONS...... 5

TOURNAMENT FORMAT ...... 5

MATCH/GAME SETUP...... 6

SCORE REPORTING ...... 7

FORFEITS ...... 8

DISCONNECTS...... 8

RESCHEDULES………………………………………………………...... 8

SPECTATORS ...... 9

GAME CONDUCT/SPORTSMANSHIP………………………………………………………………………………………………...9

Protests/Appeals…...... 10

Page | 2 The championships will be governed by Collegiate Rocket League rules. Those rules can be found at https://esports.rocketleague.com/crlrules/. The following modifications will be adhered to:

1. ELIGIBILITY 1.1. To be able to participate in this tournament, players must be enrolled at an institution. ● Undergraduates – minimum of ½ full-time enrollment status. o Must be considered an Undergraduate student by University’s Registrar. ● Graduate – minimum of six credit hours o Must be considered a Graduate student by University’s Registrar. 1.2. If a player is graduating the term of a NIRSA Championship Series event, and is enrolled for less than the minimum hours required for eligibility, then a letter from the registrar stating that the player will be graduating the same term of the event should be submitted along with the other registration materials. 1.3. For NIRSA Championship Series events that occur during an academic break, the preceding term will be used to determine eligibility. 1.4. For this tournament, teams are permitted to be made up of individuals from different institutions. All players are required to fill out all the necessary forms as they would for any regular team. 1.5. For this tournament, we are only limiting NACE players from participating in the tournament. All other national governing bodies will not be recognized as “varsity”. In addition, this rule only applies to varsity esports programs that have a varsity Rocket League team. 1.6. Players may not be allowed to play in the tournament if they currently appear on a varsity roster for Rocket League. Former varsity athletes are allowed to participate after one full academic year has lapsed from the final academic year, they were listed on a school’s varsity roster. ● Players who were or are active on a NACE Rocket League roster for the current academic year are ineligible to participate in the 2021 NIRSA National esports Championships Rocket League Tournament. 1.7. Teams are limited to a number of former varsity player(s) they can register. For Rocket League, 1 former athlete will be allowed to participate on a Rocket League team. 1.8. Players must not have been declared a professional athlete for Rocket League. For this tournament the following leagues are defined as professional: ● ELEAGUE: Rocket League ● Rocket League Championship Series (excluding Collegiate Rocket League) 1.9. If a participant has appeared on a roster for either of the leagues aforementioned in rule 1.8, they are ineligible for the NIRSA National esports Championships: Rocket League Tournament.

*The entire NIRSA Championship Series Player Eligibility Requirements can be found at https://play.nirsa.net/nirsa-championship-series/player-eligibility-requirements/

2. COMMUNICATION 2.1. Tournament communication will be conducted through the NIRSA Discord Server. 2.2. All captains are required to join the Discord server (https://bit.ly/NIRSAesports). 2.3. Participants and coaches are allowed to join the server and ask questions in the Rocket League Section. 2.4. Questions shall be directed to the Questions channel under the Rocket League Category.

Page | 3 2.5. Teams may communicate within their own discord, party, or xbox chat. 2.6. If it is found that a player leaves their discord and joins other teams, they will be subject to disciplinary action. 2.7. There will be team chat channels available for teams to use.

3. CAPTAIN’S RESPONSIBILITIES 3.1. Captain’s will be the representative for their team. Any issues regarding score submissions, protests or appeals, and team conduct will be the responsibility of the captain. 3.2. There will be a required Captain’s Meeting that will be held over zoom. The meeting will be recorded. The topics we will cover in the meeting is as follows: ● Introduction to committees and point of contacts ● Tournament structure and format ● Rules and policies ● Discord o Announcements and updates channel o How to contact opponents o Game check-in procedure o How to report scores ● IMLeagues o How to view and access schedule 3.3. All captains are required to thoroughly read the information provided from the tournament staff.

4. PLATFORMS 4.1. The following platforms are acceptable to play Rocket League in the NIRSA Esports Championship: ● PS4 ● PS5 ● Switch ● PC o o ● ● Xbox Series X

5. UNIFIED 5.1. This tournament will have a Unified division. Unified Sports joins people with intellectual disabilities (athletes) and without intellectual disabilities (partners) on the same team. An athlete is defined by Special Olympics as an individual with intellectual disabilities. A partner is defined by Special Olympics as an individual without intellectual disabilities 5.2. Teams choosing to participate in unified 3v3 division will need to have at least 1 athlete on the roster. 5.3. Unified teams are granted the option to waive participation in the Unified division to participate in the recreational or competitive division based on their team member with the highest rocket league ranking. Page | 4 5.4. All rules and settings will remain the same with the only modification being to 5-minute match length.

6. TOURNAMENT DIVISIONS 6.1. There will be 5 divisions for this tournament. They are as follows: ● 3v3 Competitive ● 3v3 Recreational ● 1v1 Competitive ● 1v1 Recreational ● 3v3 Unified 6.2. The divisions for this tournament will be based on individual player ranks. The breakdown of rank assignments is as follows: ● Competitive Ranks: o Champion 1, Champion 2, Champion 3, Grand Champion 1, Grand Champion 2, Grand Champion 3, and Supersonic Legend ● Recreational Ranks: o Diamond 3, Diamond 2, Diamond 3, Gold 3, Gold 2, Gold 1, Silver 3, Silver 2, Silver 1, Bronze 3, Bronze 2, Bronze 1 6.3. The person with the highest rank on your team will determine which division you will play in. For example, for 3v3 if two of your team members are Diamond 1 and one of the team members is Grand Champion 2 that whole team will be required to play in the competitive division. 6.4. If your team qualifies for the Recreational Division and you would like to play in the Competitive Division, you may request the tournament staff to move your team to that division. However, if your team qualifies for the Competitive Division you must play in that division. 6.5. If there is a ranking that is in question, we reserve the right to verify one’s rank. We will utilize https://rocketleague.tracker.network/ to verify rank. 6.6. It is up to the discretion of the Competition/Operations Committee to move a team to a different division based on performance. This will however be communicated with the participants in question before an official change happens. This will be considered only after pool play. 6.7. Players are allowed to register for 1v1 team, one 3v3 team and one Unified team. Players are prohibited from registering for two 3v3 or 1v1 teams regardless if they are in different divisions. For example, a participant is permitted to play on a 3v3 Competitive Team and a 1v1 Competitive Team. 6.8. The Unified division is reserved for Unified players only.

7. TOURNAMENT FORMAT 7.1. This tournament will be administered using IMLeagues. All participants must be registered through IMLeagues and must be on a roster to be eligible to play throughout the tournament. 7.2. Roster Limits: ● For 3v3, the max amount of participants allowed on a team is 4. o NOTE: Only 3 players are allowed on a team for a match. This extra roster spot is reserved for an emergency substitution. If a player is substituted out, that player will be out for the remainder of the tournament. Teams are only allowed to substitute in between matches so this will not be allowed during a match.

Page | 5 ● For 1v1, the max amount of participants allowed on a team is 1.

7.3. Pool Play: ● Teams will be placed in pools of either 4 or 3. Teams will play two pool play matches leading to playoffs. 3v3 Pool play matches will be the Best-of-Five. 1v1 pool play matches will be Best-of-Three. Pool play will begin Thursday. ● Pools will be separated by time zone. Teams will be able to choose which time zone they would like to play in for pool play upon registration. Teams can choose Eastern Standard, Central Standard, Mountain Standard, or Pacific Standard. o NOTE: Teams will not be grouped by time zone during playoffs.

7.4. Playoffs: ● For a pool of 4 the top 3 teams will make it to the playoff bracket. For a pool of 3 all teams will make it to the playoff bracket. After pool play, teams will compete in a single elimination bracket. Seeding will depend on where teams finish in pool play. Seeding will be determined by NIRSA Tournament Administrators using the format of Win %, Head to Head matchup, Point Differential, and Points Against. ● 3v3 playoff matches will be the Best-of-Five with the exception of the 3v3 finals. The 3v3 finals will be the Best-of-Seven. ● 1v1 playoff matches will be the Best-of-Three with the exception of the 1v1 finals. The1v1 finals will be the Best-of-Five.

8. MATCH/GAME SETUP 8.1. 3v3 ● Matches should be set to 5 minutes. The “home” team on IMLeagues will create the game lobby. The “visiting” team on IMLeagues will have the choice of which team is which color. ● During a match, if a team loses a game they will have the option to host the next game in that match. That trend that the losing team of a single game will have the option to host the next game will continue until the match is complete. NOTE: This is an optional change and is not required to be done for the match to continue. ● The game settings for 3v3 should be set to the following: o Game Mode: Soccar o Arena: DFH Stadium o Team size: 3v3 o Bot Difficulty: No bots o Preset Settings: Custom o Match Length: 8 minutes o Max Score: Unlimited o Overtime: Unlimited o Series Length: 5 games (7 games for the championship) o Game Speed: Default o Ball Max Speed: Default o Ball Type: Default o Ball Physics: Default o Ball Size: Default o Ball Bounciness: Default Page | 6 o Boost Amount: Default o Rumble: None o Boost Strength: 1x o Gravity: Default o Demolish: Default o Respawn Time: 3 seconds o Region: Any region agreed upon by both teams o Joinable By: Name/password to be determined by the hosting team

8.2. 1v1 ● Matches should be set to 8 minutes. The “home” team on IMLeagues will create the game lobby. The “visiting” team on IMLeagues will have the choice of which team is which color. ● During a match, if a team loses a game they will have the option to host the next game in that match. That trend that the losing team of a single game will have the option to host the next game will continue until the match is complete. NOTE: This is an optional change and is not required to be done for the match to continue. ● The game settings for 1v1 should be set to the following: o Game Mode: Soccar o Arena: DFH Stadium o Team size: 1v1 o Bot Difficulty: No bots o Preset Settings: Custom o Match Length: 8 minutes o Max Score: Unlimited o Overtime: Unlimited o Series Length: 3 games (5 games for the championship) o Game Speed: Default o Ball Max Speed: Default o Ball Type: Default o Ball Physics: Default o Ball Size: Default o Ball Bounciness: Default o Boost Amount: Default o Rumble: None o Boost Strength: 1x o Gravity: Default o Demolish: Default o Respawn Time: 3 seconds o Region: Any region agreed upon by both teams o Joinable By: Name/password to be determined by the hosting team

9. SCORE REPORTING 9.1. Scores will be reported via the NIRSA Discord Server. 9.2. Each team must submit and/or verify that the scores are correct within 30 minutes of the end of the match.

Page | 7 ● If the scores for a match are not submitted on time both teams may be subject to a double forfeit. 9.3. Scores should be submitted for each individual game within a match. (i.e Team Blue beat Team Red 3-1, with scores of 5-4, 2-3, 6-4, and 4-1).

10. FORFEITS 10.1. If contact cannot be made with a team at their designated game time by a tournament administrator, the game shall be deemed a forfeit. The non-forfeiting team will win the match 3-0, with each game having a score of 2-0. 10.2. Contact will attempt to be made via the NIRSA Discord Server.

11. DISCONNECTS 11.1. 3v3 ● If a player(s) disconnects in a 3v3 game the game will continue 2v3 (or 1v3) until the player can reconnect or the game is over. ● If the whole team disconnects then they will lose that specific game. ● If the disconnected team was winning or the score was within 1, the opposing team will win the game by a score of 2-0. ● If the disconnected team was losing by 2 or more, the game will be reported as the score at the time of the disconnect. ● The match will continue onto the next game (unless the disconnect results in one team winning the match). 11.2. 1v1 ● If a player disconnects in a 1v1 game they will lose that specific game. ● If the disconnected player was winning or the score was within 1, the opposing team will win the game by a score of 2-0. ● If the disconnected player was losing by 2 or more, the game will be reported as the score at the time of the disconnect. ● The match will continue onto the next game (unless the disconnect results in one team winning the match). 11.3. Stoppage of Play ● Tournament Administrators may pause a Game or Match at any time and for any reason. In the event of a stoppage of play, Players must remain at their devices and may not communicate with other Players until the Game or Match is resumed. Each Team is allowed a maximum of one pause request per match.

12. RESCHEDULES 12.1. All games will be scheduled on imleagues. It is the captain’s responsibility to reach out to the staff of the tournament to request for a reschedule. The Competition/Operations staff have sole discretion to reorder the schedule and/or change the date for any match of the Tournament. However, if the Tournament schedule is so modified, players will be notified as soon as possible. 12.2. During pool play, teams can request for a reschedule. If you realize you need to reschedule you must contact the tournament administrators (via email or discord) immediately. This should be done when the full schedule is released. Page | 8 12.3. For playoffs, players are expected to look at the bracket to see when they would play if they were to advance. Reschedules can be requested but the game must be completed prior to the next round. 12.4. The tournament staff will have the final say on all reschedules and reserve the right to deny a reschedule request for any reason.

13. SPECTATORS 13.1. Streamed Matches will be hosted by NIRSA leadership through private matches. 13.2. In-game Observers are not permitted except for Tournament Administrators and their Designees. 13.3. viewers and chat will be moderated by NIRSA staff and bots.

14. GAME CONDUCT/SPORTSMANSHIP 14.1. Series Sportsmanship ● We wholeheartedly embrace the position that, for sportsmanship to prevail, coaches, student-athletes, and fans must display respect, fairness, civility, honesty, and responsibility before, during, and after all athletic contests. The NIRSA Championship Series is committed to holding tournaments in a safe and inclusive environment free from bullying. Offensive language including profanity and/or derogatory remarks of any kind directed at tournament staff, student-athletes, coaches or team representatives will not be tolerated and are grounds for removal from the Tournament. 14.2. Non-Discrimination Policy ● Standing against bigotry by holding fast to the basic principle of respect for human rights, in all matters both public and private, the NIRSA Championship Series and the NIRSA Services Corporation (NSC), a wholly owned for-profit subsidiary of NIRSA, strives to promote civil society and social justice. It is our stated position that the NSC upholds the tenets of the NIRSA Mission Statement to foster quality recreational programs, facilities and services for diverse populations and that it demonstrates a commitment to excellence by utilizing resources that promote ethical standards. Accordingly, the NSC does not tolerate discrimination against persons based on race, gender, religious affiliation, age, marital or civil union status, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, ancestry, intellectual development, or physical ability. 14.3. Players must be respectful of other Players, Tournament Administrators, spectators, and sponsors. Players shall not behave in a manner which is disruptive, unsafe or destructive, or which is otherwise harmful to the enjoyment of the Game by other users. In particular, Players shall not engage in harassing or disrespectful conduct, use of abusive or offensive language, game sabotage, spamming, social engineering, scamming, or any unlawful activity. 14.4. Participants that are reported for unsporting-like behavior, using abusive or foul language, or using insulting or derogatory language will be penalized and may be subject to removal from the tournament. 14.5. All reported unsporting like behavior will be reviewed by the Assessment & Participant Experience Committee. If you are reported for using abusive or foul language you will be contacted and given a verbal reprimand. If you are reported 3 times throughout the duration of the tournament then you will be disqualified from further play.

Page | 9 ● If the Assessment & Participant Experience Committee deems that a single reported action is enough to be removed from the tournament, they reserve the right to do so. 14.6. We will be utilizing a discord channel for reporting unsporting-like behavior (i.e. foul & abusive language). Participants that would like to report an opponent for game conduct will need to utilize the discord channel. Participants are encouraged to submit game clips displaying the infractions if possible. If participants are not utilizing Discord, then they will need to write an email with details of the unsporting-like behavior.

15. PROTESTS/APPEALS 15.1. Only protests of eligibility and misapplication of the Rules of the Game will be considered. 15.2. Protests concerning player eligibility must be made to tournament administration immediately upon discovering there may be an eligibility issue. ● Eligibility concerns about players that are considered ineligible at NIRSA Events but believe they should be eligible must be handled prior to the event using the appeals process which will be reviewed by the NIRSA Championship Series Standards of Competition Work Team. If a team or individual wishes to submit an appeal they must fill out and submit the NIRSA Championship Series Online Appeal Form. ● The Online Appeal Form must be completed within ten business days of the sanction (NOTE: Request for eligibility exceptions must be made a minimum of 30 days prior to the respective contest). ● The reasons for the appeal should be clearly outlined. The form responses with document(s) will be submitted to the NIRSA Championship Series Standards of Competition Work Team Chair for review by the appeals committee. ● If a team or individual wishes to appeal or protest player eligibility during the tournament they will need to contact a Protest/Appeal Committee administrator and fill out the Protest/Appeal Form. 15.3. If there are concerns that a participant in a NIRSA event is illegally participating, the Tournament director and protest committee will determine if action is necessary. ● The player is allowed to continue playing unless deemed ineligible. ● Individual raising concerns should provide any research or proof to the Tournament Director who may conduct additional research. ● If found ineligible, the team will forfeit all games the ineligible player checked in to participate. ● If the ineligible ruling occurs during bracket play, the team will be removed from the bracket and the team last defeated will be advanced if the next game has not started. Games will not be delayed or rescheduled to research eligibility or allow a defeated team to return. 15.4. For protests of a misapplication or misinterpretation of a rule to be valid and eligible for consideration, for each protest: ● The captain of the team must contact a tournament administrator via Discord in the Protest/Appeals channel. ● The captain must fill out the Protest/Appeal Form ● NOTE:Teams will have the ability to pause and protest the decision if the protest happens during a match. 15.5. The Protest/Appeals Committee will process all protests and appeals during the tournament and will have the final ruling on such matters. Page | 10