MC Esports x NVIDIA GeForce Cup

Rule Set

• NVIDIA GeForce Cup organisers reserve the right to change, modify, or adapt all rules as deemed appropriate by the NVIDIA GeForce Cup in order to uphold and maintain a spirit of overall fairness and good sportsmanship.
• These rules are valid for the duration of the tournament. With their participation in the tournament the participant states that they understand and accept all rules.
• The tournament organiser is not responsible for any additional agreements, nor do they agree to enforce any such agreements made between individual players or teams. The tournament highly discourages such agreements taking place, and such agreements that are contradicting the tournament rules are under no circumstances allowed and are a punishable offence.
• By playing a round teams are accepting the server in its current state. In the event of a CS:GO update, ISP issue etc that causes significant problems with the server teams should pause the match and immediately contact an administrator via the discord "support" channel.

Schedule

Tournament dates are as follows:

• Open Qualifier 1: 5th & 6th of NOV
• Open Qualifier 2: 12th & 13th NOV
• Quarter Finals: 19th & 20th NOV
• Country Finals: 3rd DEC

Players eligibility, restrictions & conduct eligibility

• This tournament is open to Australian & New Zealand residents ONLY.
• Participants must sign up via the NVIDIA GeForce Cup page.
• If a team qualifies for an NVIDIA GeForce Cup LAN event, all members of the team are responsible to maintain a roster with the ability to compete once the team qualifies for the event.
• Qualification for the NVIDIA GeForce Cup LAN event requires the team to maintain at least a core three players who have competed and qualified for the LAN spot.

Restrictions

• Only players who have registered via the portal may participate in this tournament.
• Rosters will be locked TWO hours before scheduled game start, any changes to the roster after that time MUST be approved by tournament administrators or may result in an automatic forfeit.

Conduct

• All teams and players must abide by NVIDIA GEFORCE CUP tournament rules and code of conduct and must uphold the spirit of fair play and respect towards all other tournament participants. These behaviours must be applied both in and out of game.
• Players must uphold applications of fair play, non-violence and comply with the directions of administrators.
• Unsportsmanlike conduct of any type, both online and offline, including but not limited to racist or abusive remarks and attempts to circumvent or abuse any league policy as determined by the NVIDIA GEFORCE CUP will not tolerated and is subject to punishments including forfeits, expulsions, bans, or any other action deemed appropriate by the NVIDIA GEFORCE CUP.
• Required participants to label themselves in NVIDIA GeForce Cup matches with an in-game alias similar or distinguishable enough to their alias used for sign up. Inappropriate in-game aliases will not be tolerated, including names which include racist, vulgar, abusive, drug related themes. You are also required to correctly set your team name, setting your team name to anything other than your actual team name may result in penalties.

Coaches

• Coaches are not allowed in this tournament.

Administrators

• The tournament Administrators reserve the right to make judgment on cases that are not specifically supported, or detailed in these tournament rules, or even cases that contradict these rules may be taken in extreme cases, to preserve fair play and sportsmanship.
• When conflicts occur in the play, players to ping admins in the NVIDIA GeForce Cup Discord under “Support” administrators will be present to address the situation.
• During the event, the administrators will address the situation and deal with any issues which may arise.
• Any technical issues or issues which involve other teams, players must inform the admins and the appropriate actions will be taken.

Structure

• Team allocation to be determined by tournament administrators.

Vetos

The veto format will go as follows:

• Team 1 will veto first map.
• Team 2 will veto second map.
• Team 1 will veto third map.
• Team 2 will veto fourth map.
• Team 1 will veto fifth map.
• Team 2 will veto sixth map.
• The remaining map from the pool will be the map played.

Best-of-3 vetos will be determined by the higher seed. The veto format will go as follows:

• Team 1 will veto first map.
• Team 2 will veto second map.
• Team 1 pick veto first map.
• Team 2 pick veto second map.
• Team 1 will veto third map.
• Team 2 will veto forth map.
• The remaining map from the pool will be the third map played.

Map Pool

The following maps are available for veto and selection:

• de_inferno
• de_vertigo
• de_nuke
• de_mirage
• de_train
• de_dust2
• de_overpass

Game Settings

• Freeze Time - 15 seconds
• Round Time - One minute and 55 seconds
• Regulation Max Rounds - 15
• Regulation Start Money - $800
• Regulation Side Selection - Knife for sides
• The team with the most alive players at the end of the round picks their side
• In case of a draw, a team will be randomly selected to pick their side
• Overtime Max Rounds - 3
• Overtime Start Money - $16,000
• Overtime Side Selection - in overtime, teams first play the side they last played in regulation

Pre-match Guidelines

• Check in: Players will have to provide and set up their own voice server programs to be used before the games begin.
• For the veto process, teams must nominate one person for the vetos.
• Gamer server information will be provided and distributed to the teams by the referees.
• Teams are expected to respect the starting times of each of their respective matches. Fifteen (15) minutes ONLY will be given to each team after their expected starting time to have a minimum of four (4) players in the server. Failure to ready in the server within fifteen (15) minutes of designated time may result in a forced forfeit.
• In the event of a team not being able to have the minimum in the server. Teams must provide a screenshot of server as sufficient proof.
• No reschedules are permitted for this tournament.

Match Process

• All matches must be played on the server assigned to your team by tournament administrators.
• Your Steam ID you compete with must remain consistent with the Steam ID you are registered with. All rosters will be validated by Steam ID upon joining the server. Only registered and eligible participants from the assigned teams will be allowed in the assigned game server unless otherwise agreed upon by administrators.
• A tournament match cannot end with a draw. A winner and a loser are to be set for each tournament match.
• Once a match goes live, it cannot be restarted, if a player disconnects during the pistol round, pause the match during the next freeze time.
• Teams are limited to 2 x 5 minute pauses per each half and 1 pause per each overtime set. Teams may initiate these by writing ".tech" during freezetime. A pause will last 5 minutes and then both teams can unpause the technical pause. The team who pauses may unpause earlier if they wish although they will not receive the remaining additional time later on. Teams also have 4 x 30 seconds pauses that they can use throughout the map. They may initiate these with ".tac" during freezetime.
• All matches must be played to the end (where a winner and a loser have been found). A team leaving the tournament match before a winner has been found will forfeit the remaining rounds. Leaving a match shall result in the remaining rounds being awarded to the opponents.

Cheats & Exploits

• No 3rd party applications are permitted to be used within this tournament that manipulate, change or alter Counter-Strike: Global Offensive gaming environment. Any player that is suspected or caught using the above must provide their POV demo file which will be reviewed by admins. Pending the result of review, player may be disqualified from the tournament.
• Cheats, Hacking or exploits include any unauthorised manipulation of: server configurations and server variables, client configurations and client variables, models, skins, entities, textures, weapon, sounds, or anything else that subverts the rules. Hacking includes but is not limited to: wall hacks, aim bots / auto aimers, speed hacks, ESP, or any other 3rd party program which alters the game in a way that was not intended by the developer.
• No 3rd party settings which alter the graphics in anyway are permitted. If a player is found to have used any applications which alter the graphics in anyway player may be disqualified.
• Exploits and infractions will be dealt with on a case by case decision.
• Betting: If a player, team manager, or team sponsor is found betting on their own match, regardless of their bet placement, the tournament match will be overturned and the offending player, team manager, or team organization that placed the bet will be disqualified.
• If a player is found to have been letting another user access their account during a match, the match will be overturned, and the player will be disqualified from tournament participation.
• If a player is found to be cheating and/or using illegal customization on any server, any matches played by the user for the team the player is on at the time of the detection (not the time of the ban), in addition to any matches played for any other team after the time of the detection, will be overturned.

Server

• If a CS:GO update occurs and a player is unable to connect/rejoin the game due to the update then the team should immediately contact an administrator via the Discord "Support” channel. They should not continue playing the match and instead pause or disconnect from the server entirely. The match will then be restored on an updated server from the last fully played round unless both teams agree on an earlier round.
• An administrator may restore it to an earlier round if it is abundantly clear that a team is not participating due to the CS:GO update. For example, all 5 players remain in the spawn/do not purchase weapons/do not go to bombsites. However, if there is any doubt, eg a team buys unconventional weapons/still proceeds to bombsites/still engages their opponents in firefights then it will be restored from the last fully completed round.
• If the Nvidia GeForce Cup administrator team believe a CS:GO update will significantly impact league matches (for example cause crashing ingame etc) then they will relay this information via the forums and request that teams reschedule the night's matches. If the teams ignore this warning and choose to play the match then they do so at their own risk and we will not force replay completed rounds after the match due to playing in abnormal circumstances. The administrator team will not allow forfeits to be taken for matches affected by CS:GO updates.

Demos

• Players must record their Point of View (POV) in all matches. Upon administrator request, players must provide their POV Demo file. Failing to provide a POV Demo file may result in disqualification. Submitting only partial POV Demos or corrupt POV Demo files may also result in disqualification.

Disputes

• The content of disputes, support tickets, discussions or any other correspondence with the tournament Administrators are deemed strictly confidential. The publication of such material is prohibited without a written consent from the tournament Administrators.
• Dispute Resolutions - all disputes must be filed via the link found in the Discord "support" channel within 24 hours of the conclusion of the match along with the demo, specific infraction, and the round in which the infraction occurred. Disputes will be resolved by Tournament Administrators and all decisions are final.

Prizes

• Prize pool & additional information - winners will be contacted via email (to be provided on signup) within 14 days from tournament end with appropriate paperwork and forms. Teams will be notified when the prize pool has been distributed within this email, prize winnings are paid to all eligible participants within 90 days of receiving the completed paperwork barring submission errors.