General Rules

This section of the tournament website is dedicated to the generic rules of all our tournaments, if you are looking for the game specific rulesets please follow the menu links for your chosen event.

Entry Criteria

All players must be aged 16+ to participate in any cash prize winning esports tournaments. For fun tournaments, please see individual rulesets for any age restrictions. 

Players must be registered with a participant ticket for the relevant event they are wishing to take part in. Registration will close by 4pm on each Thursday of the event for teams. Players must be signed up to the tournament to participate, an event ticket alone does not guarantee tournament entry.

If sign ups are closed, but the tournament hasn't started yet, it would be best to check with the admins to see if you or your team can still participate. For tournaments that start on a Saturday, then please check with the relevant admins to find out any specific information around sign ups or player/team briefings.

A briefing will take place with team leaders and/or team managers prior to each tournament commencing which must be attended by at least 1 representative per team. 

At least one member of the team must remain in the tournament Discord channel throughout the tournament times. discord.gg/epicLAN

Voice Communication

Either in-game or externally provided voice communications are permitted, such as TeamSpeak or Discord. Note that EPIC.LAN may not be able to provide these dedicated voice comms resources for all of those listed due to licensing restrictions, teams should be prepared to make their own voice communications arrangements. Locally hosted voice communication tools are recommended. 

Grand Finals/Stage Games

During the Final, teams will be assigned their respective referee to administrate team communication during tech pauses and coach communication outside of tactical pauses.

In-ears are a requirement for all players who reach the Grand Final of their respective tournament/when playing in an esports stage match. We recommend players bring their own choice of in-ears, which will be setup for game audio underneath their regular headphones. Headphones will be used for mic communication. Players will provide their own peripherals for stage use. Should a player not have their own choice of in-ears specifically, a basic pair will be provided for stage use. EPIC.LAN provided in-ears are new and provided to players to keep. 

Teams must abide by any change in playing environment (moving to a stage setting) and any regulations associated for tournament Finals.

Streaming

Players are allowed to stream their own games throughout the weekend. However EPIC.LAN will reserve the right to ask you to stop streaming for the reasons that include but not limited to; network issues, bandwidth issues, commercial restrictions or matters of competitive integrity. If you are playing in the tournament, you must stop streaming if you are asked to do so by an admin. 

Players are not allowed to stream games that are featured on the official EPIC.LAN streams.

All streams must have a minimum of a 3 minute stream delay set at all times. 

We may ask you to provide further information after the event has concluded to help us understand how much reach our event gets.

Player Names & Team Names

Player names, team names and images may not be offensive or crude. They must match the name used when signing up to the tournament system unless explicit permission has been given by the admin team. Any name that is deemed offensive will be changed on the tournament website without notice and your name will not be broadcasted on any EPIC.LAN stream. An official warning will be given to the team that breaches the rule and any further attempts to change the name back will result in further punishments given.

 
Tie-Breaker Situations

Tie-Break situations may arise in the group stages when 2 or more teams are on the same level of points. In this scenario, there will be a process we will follow to determine which teams will navigate out of the groups. This will be done in the following ways across all our esport titles at EPIC.LAN:

• Head-To-Head
• Round Difference
• Rounds For (if RD is exactly the same)

If the two or more teams are still tied, then the following formula will be applied.

Did the team beat the bottom team in the group? If yes, by what score?

If the score is the same against the bottom side in the group, then the admins will strip away that result and go through the other results using points 2 and 3 above to compare the sides.

If the teams are still tied after that (in a very rare scenario would that happen), then we will determine the team to go through by playing either a full map of a certain game or a variety of Overtime rules that each game can apply. So for example, if it is a CS:GO tie breaker needed, then the two teams would veto and play overtime on that particular map. Whoever wins proceeds to the elimination bracket in their place.

Betting Website Featured Matches

EPIC.LAN is a place where we believe in competitive integrity and thus we actively persue the prevention of match fixing and throwing of matches to get extra income through a secondary route.

Any players who are participating in the tournament and bet against their own team and the proof is found through Tournament Admins, Betting website staff or Game developers, then they will be disqualified from the tournament, any prize winnings will be forfeit for the entire team. Additionally a 5 year ban from all EPIC.LAN Tournaments whether online or at LAN events will be sanctioned to the entire team.

All of these punishments can be ruled if a team was found to be drunk or under the influence of drugs which impeded their ability of playing with integrity and fairness for both sides involved. We expect teams to act in a professional manner when playing these games to an audience of potential thousands.

Game Developer Bans

In the extreme example that Game Developers (Ubisoft, Valve, Blizzard, Riot etc) have stepped in and stipulated a certain ban that is game wide (this includes Match Fixing and VAC bans specifically from Valve) then EPIC.LAN will uphold these bans on players. We do not condone cheaters, match fixing or any toxic behaviour of any kind. Players that are on any such lists are banned from competing in any EPIC.LAN sanctioned tournament (online or offline). For further information around punishment time limits, please see the bottom of this page.

We currently have a ban on players who do get VAC Banned on games like Counter-Strike:Global Offensive, these are reviewed case by case and the duration of the ban is detailed in the punishment section at the bottom of this page. Any player found with VAC Bans on their accounts (first or secondary accounts) will be added to this list and will be emailed as and when we find out such bans.

Cross Event Bans

If other Tournament Operators have banned players, then we may review each of the cases they present and mirror such bans. We do not actively and automatically ban people as soon as these organisations do, however if they provide us with the means to review the evidence and we find it enough to fit a ban, then we will include that player or team on our ban list.

Forfeitting Matches

If a team drops out of an EPIC.LAN tournament, and is within the prize placements (Top 8), then that team will forfeit their prize money as well as their place within the tournament.

Code of Conduct

All players must abide by our Code of Conduct when taking part in our events without exception.

Cancellation of Tournaments

Epic Gaming Ltd. reserves the right to withdraw any tournament should there be an insufficient number of participating teams.

These rules are subject to change. The game admin and tournament team leader decisions are always final.