NBA 2K21 Rules and Regulations META High School Esports NZ rules and regulations apply to all individual game title. This rule set is for NBA 2K21 Play Now and Pro-Am divisions.

Basics 1 game per round (per week)- for both game modes Matchday- Thursday Time- 5pm (unless stated otherwise)

1. NBA 2K21 Pro Am and Play Now Game modes NBA 2k21 divisions will be open for all students for both game modes. Divisions will be split into pools for leagues depending on numbers. Players cannot enter for both the Play Now and Pro-Am game modes for NBA 2K21. They must select one as both game modes fall on the same day. NBA 2K21 will have two separate divisions split between the two prominent consoles- Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Participants may use the next gen consoles- PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X but for META High School Esports NZ will be played using the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of the title. 1.2 Game Modes NBA 2K21 Play Now. Play Now is one player from each school compete controlling an entire NBA team, across 4 quarters. The player with the most points at the end of 4 quarters will be the winner. If teams’ points are drawn at the end of the 4th quarter the game will be go to overtime. Overtime is played in quarters until a winner is found. NBA 2K21 Pro-Am Pro-Am is competed between 2 teams of 5 players. Every player on the court is controlled by a single person. Each team consists of 5 players and a maximum of 4 substitutes. Substitutes cannot be used during the game. The 5 players who start play from start to finish. Players compete using a My Player character created in My Career, by each participant. Find more information here- https://nba.2k.com/my-career/. Once teams have 5 players, a team captain will create the team’s uniform and arena, with custom colours and logos. Warning- for NBA 2K21 pro-am players, you will have to ‘level up’ your player to a certain level to be competitive against others who already play the game. Your player will start at a level 65 overall rating. A competitive rating will be from 88-99 overall rating.

2. Pro-Am Team 2.1 Pro-Am Team creation Teams will be required to create a school team on NBA 2K21. The team’s logo, uniform, name, and arena are customisable in the game. Teams must have the following additions to the pro-am team: • School Name to begin team name. Example- St Bernard’s Nets • Primary colour of team’s home uniform to match their school’s primary colour. • Secondary colour of away uniform to match school’s primary colour. • All away uniforms must have white as their primary colour. • Logo must be an appropriate picture and falls under the code of conduct of META High School Esports NZ, Victory Up, and their own school’s code of conduct. • No inappropriate imagery is to be used to decorate the arena, uniform, or logo of the pro-am team created for META High School Esports. Team Captains or an assigned member of the team will be responsible for creating the Pro-Am team in-game and inviting all registered members of the team. 2.2 Pro-Am Team on NZSSE Platform All teams registered to META High School Esports NZ will be created on the NZSSE Platform. Pro-Am teams can customise this team on the platform to match the in-game Pro-Am teams name and Logo. On the platform, all teams are assigned a Team manager account with login details. The head of your school esports will be provided with the login details which will be passed on to the students. This account is how team’s check-in to a match and enter results. 2.3 My Career/ Pro-Am builds There are no restrictions on builds or badges used for the upcoming season.

3. Play Now Students that register to participate in the Play Now game mode will be working by themselves most of the time. They still fall under the rules and code of conduct of their school/ institute they represent. The also fall under the supervision and management of a staff member of their school. On the platform all play now players will fall under their own team with a ‘Team Manager’ account created. The head of Esports will give all Play Now players the login details for the ‘Team Manager’ account.

4. Match Day 4.1 Schedule The draw for the META High School League will be released prior to the competition beginning. All matches, for both game modes, are best out of One unless informed otherwise by Victory Up. 4.1.1 Schedule changes Teams may request a change in the schedule. A request to have the schedule changed must be sent to [email protected], no later than one week out from the match you wish to reschedule. 4.2 Pre-Match Set Up For all matches, Pro-Am team Captains and Play Now players will check-in and enter results online through the NZSSEsports website http://www.nzsseports.co.nz/. Using your ‘Team Manager Profile’ 4.2.1 Login All players/ Team captains playing in the tournament will sign in on the NZSSEports website using your ‘Team Manager Profile’. Teams must check-in on the NZSSEports website no later than 30 minutes before match starts. 4.2.2 Home team/ Opponent Team Captains for the day, must stay in contact with the opponent right up to the match start time. The ‘home’ team is the team stated as ‘Home’ on the tournament schedule. The Home team is required to set up the match and invite their opponents. 4.2.3 Location All students/ players, when playing online, will do so from their school grounds or from home. It is the responsibility of the schools themselves to provide a location capable of allowing students to compete if they wish for the students to play from school. Live venue may become available before the season begins, or during the season. School’s will be notified if venues become available. 4.3 Match setup 4.3.1 Play Now Opponents must be ‘friends’ to invite each other to a play now match. Once you have your opponent’s username for NBA 2K21, send them a friend request. Once the friend request has been accepted, go to the Play Now option from the main menu, select Play with friend online and send the invite. Enter the following settings to setup the match: Game Settings NBA 2k21 • Difficulty- All Star • 4 Minute Quarters • Game type- Simulation

4.3.1.1 Players may not go the same team in consecutive games for a best of three series. Example- (if a player selects the Lakers for their first game, they cannot select the Lakers for the 2nd game of the match. If a 3rd match occurs, then the player that selected the Lakers for the first game may select them again for that 3rd match.) Players may only select current NBA teams and rosters. You cannot select All Star teams or Legendary teams. 4.3.2 Pro-Am Team Captains of each team gather the teams inside their own Pro-Am team arenas. Once all members are inside and waiting, the captain of the home side will set a password and send the password to the opposing team captain. You do this by changing the match from public to private and inputting a password. Once this is done have all the teammates begin search. The opposing team captain does the same thing on their end and all his team starts the search. Team captains should be ‘friends’ to make it easier to communicate. Match will begin. • You cannot change the settings of a Pro-Am match. • For the password do not use any obscene words or language. Make it easy but unique.

5. During Match Once the match begins, teams and officials fall under META High School Esports (HSE) NBA 2K21 NZ rules and Victory Up’s code of conduct. Teams must also abide by its own school codes of conduct and rules concerning behaviour and conduct. The in-game settings are default apart from the match setup settings. There are no rules around timeouts or gameplay for META High School Esports NZ. If a problem occurs the player for Play Now or all members of the Pro-Am team must stop playing, this will indicate to the opponents that a problem has happened. Message the problem to your opposition using the ‘Match Chat’ function on the NZSSE platform. 5.1 An Unintentional Disconnection Games may be restarted if any of the following happens: • A hardware or software malfunction (e.g., monitor power or peripheral disability or game glitch). • Participant suffers an illness or injury during the match can notify Victory Up and the match may be restarted if a substitute is available to play the match. However, the match will not be rescheduled. If the team cannot find a substitute or the match has progressed past the halfway mark- the opposing team will be awarded the match. 5.2 Streaming All games must have at least one person streaming the match online. If you choose to leave the mics on in the stream please remember the code of conduct and rules on swearing, hate speech etc... Students are encouraged to clip highlights and send them to Victory Up to be part of the weekly highlights reel. 5.3 Methods of Victory NBA2K21- Victory is achieved in a similar way to traditional basketball: • Score more points than your opponents in the allotted game time. • If the scores are tied at the end, then an extra quarter will be played until a winner is found. • Play Now- if a player surrenders by leaving the game without a reasonable excuse. • Pro-Am- If more than 3 members of a team leave without reasonable excuse, the opposing team will be awarded the Victory. 5.4 A.I. Players If a player quits the match and it is intentional, the game must be finished with an AI player. If the team who has an AI player wins, the opposing team can dispute the win by sending an email to Victory Up. A decision will be made within 24 hours. Games cannot begin with A.I. players for Pro-Am mode. 6. Results Victory Up will collate results each week. Results will also be posted on NZSSEsports website as part of the tournament ladder. Victory Up will upload results with the new ladder standings 48 Hours after Match Day. Each division will have its own table. 6.1 Online Match Results Victory Up will record results and match outcomes through their website www.NZSSEports.com. Pro-Am teams and Play Now players do this using the ‘Team Manager Profile’ on the platform Entering Results • Select game you just played in ‘My Tournaments” • Select win or loss • Send screenshot by clicking on ‘select file’ • Start the next match if required or select submit results 6.2 Divisions Ladder Every division will be broken down per region. Each game title will have its own ladder or table. Leader boards will be updated within 48 hours of the most recent matches that have been played. 6.3 Types of matches/ Points scoring. Best out of one The points system for best out of one game to make up the match. Teams will earn points in the following manner: • The winning team will be awarded 3 points. • The losing team will be awarded 0 points.

Best out of three The Points system based on best out of three games to make up the match. Teams will earn points in the following manner: • The winning team, which is the team that wins two out of the three games, will be awarded 3 points. • The losing team will receive either 1 point or 0 points. • For the losing team to be awarded one point, they must force a third game in the match. The third game only happens if neither team manages to win both of the first two games.

7. NBA 2K21 Post Season Information 7.1 Battle of the Consoles When the winners of the regional finals of each division (Xbox and PlayStation) are decided, the two winning teams will play off against one another for the single best player or Team in the Nation. This can only happen if the Nationals are played at a live event due to the restraints of the consoles not having cross- play between the platforms. 7.2 Championship Tournament Winner of Nationals competition for NBA 2K21 Play Now mode, will be invited to the META championship tournament. A competition between the best schools from each state of Australia. Currently there is no Pro-Am trans-Tasman competition. Teams will be informed if this changes. New Zealand has a spot in the Championship tournament and the winner of the PlayStation Nationals tournament will fill this spot. (the META NBA 2K21 in Australia is only competed on PlayStation.) Options for the winner of the Xbox division will be explored and teams will be notified of the change. 8. Broadcast One match a week will be broadcast by the Esports team at Whiro Esports. For the broadcast participants will be sent an information form asking simple questions about themselves and Esports in general. These questions will help the broadcast and commentators (shout casters) talk about the teams or participants involved in the match. Students do not have to answer questions if they do not want the information broadcast on the stream. Any questions they do ask will be taken as permission to be used by Victory Up and the broadcast team. Schedules and broadcasting platforms will be released during the season.