Rules and Format

Season Format

• Regular season begins the week of November 10-11th.
• The default match time is Saturday, 12:00pm PST.
• Each team will play one match per week (BO3).
• Regular season ENDS December 8-9.
• Playoffs begin December 15-16, with one round played per week except for the Ro8 and Ro4 which will be played on same weekend.
• Quarters (Ro8) and Semis (Ro4) of the playoff bracket will be played January 12-13. Live Finals in LA on Feb. 2-3.

Eligibility

• Players and team coordinators must currently be enrolled in a college, university, or postsecondary institution as students and have a functional school-provided email as verification. They must also sign up for the school they are currently attending. Faculty, staff, pre-freshmen and alumni are unfortunately not eligible for participation in any CSL LoL tournament. Graduate students are allowed to play, provided they are currently enrolled in school.
• Any player that satisfies the above mentioned qualifications under the eligibility section may form a team, however, official club and/or eSports organizers may have precedence to team organization.
• Players with an official pro-gaming license are ineligible for competition. Players who have lived 1 year or more in a pro-gaming house as a full-time pro gamer are ineligible.
• Students under academic probation or other school-related disciplinary action are ineligible to play.
• You must be enrolled as a full-time student to participate.
• Students with an account that is banned/suspended at the time of registration/competition are ineligible to play.

• Colleges are permitted to have multiple teams register for a tournament, but must have unique rosters. These teams will be assigned numbers (1, 2, 3) in order of registration and is not meant to reflect skill level.
• Players and team coordinators may not sign up with more than one team (even from the same school), and must be on their school's team. Coordinators are excused of this rule if their only intention is to coordinate and not compete in multiple teams.
• Accounts used for tournaments must belong to the player. Borrowed accounts are not allowed. There are no level restrictions (e.g. Level 30s may participate) or ELO restrictions.
• Rosters must have a minimum of five (5) people at registration, including a designated team captain and team coordinator. There is no maximum to the number of players on a team. This roster may be altered throughout the season, however, changes must be accepted by an administrator at least 24 hours prior to any scheduled match.

• Competition Method: 5 versus 5, Servers dependent on region.
• Permitted Maps: Summoner's Rift.
• Game Mode: Games must be played using standard tournament draft.
• Game Length: Games will be played until a winning team is determined. No time limit.
• Game Winner: The winning team is defined as the team that destroys their opponent's nexus first, or forces their opponents to surrender.
• Series Length: Best of Three (Bo3).
• Restrictions: There are currently no item or champion restrictions. At the discretion of the Head Administrator, restrictions may be added at any time during the tournament and will apply to all matches.
• Bans/Picks: Snake draft format. Six (6) bans must be made per game, three (3) from each team. No time limit. The team with the higher seed takes first ban (fb), first pick (fp), and choice of side. Subsequent games alternate teams with fb/fp/side. If one team has no seed, the team with the seed takes fb/fp/side. If both teams have no seed, notify an administrator and it will be determined via coin toss.
• Bans: 1-1-1-1-1-1
• Picks: 1-2-2-2-2-1
• Team captains are no longer required to be the banning player, but either a team captain, co-captain or a previously designated substitute who has been given the power to act as captain in the absence of the original captain and co-captain must be present for any matches. This is done to ensure that any decisions made affecting either teams can be witnessed by a responsible member of each team.
• Roster: Team rosters may be changed up until the regular season ends in December 8-9. Removing and adding players in order to transfer between a university’s multiple teams is prohibited. Team lineups - a combination of five players - is due every week before a match. Teams can submit different players for the lineup from week to week, but must use the players from the submitted lineup but not during matches (cannot switch in the middle of a Bo3 unless using a substitution).
• Scheduling/Forfeits: The first game of each round must begin at the specified time. If both teams agree to reschedule an administrator MUST be notified within 72 hours of the scheduled match through email to lol@cstarleague.com. Reschedules can only happen BEFORE the scheduled date. Matches are allowed to be played after the scheduled weekend if given administrative approval.
• If an entire team fails to show up within fifteen (15) minutes of the scheduled game start, the team automatically forfeits the set. Screenshots must be taken and sent to an admin (email listed above).
• If a team partially fails to show up by fifteen (15) minutes of the scheduled game start, they must choose between: 1) playing without the absent members or 2) forfeiting the first game. Choosing to forfeit the first match in a Bo3 will provide the partially-present team an additional 55 minutes for the rest of their team to arrive. If players still don't show up by game 2, the team may again choose to play with the currently present members or forfeit the entire match.
• The time period for no-shows may be extended at the agreement of the entire opposing team and the tournament administrators.
• Forfeits and withdrawals unrelated to no-shows may be declared at any time by team coordinators with the consent of their team's members.
• Reporting Results: After the match is complete, coordinators will be able to report their matches on the website on the match’s page. The winning team must submit replays. Once reported, the result will be automatically processed and displayed as the score for that match. Coordinators are still encouraged to screenshot every post-game lobby in case of issues that may arise, such that there is evidence of wins or losses.
• If, for any reason, a team which has qualified to play in playoffs and then finals (top 4 or higher) is unable to play in the February 2-3 finals in California, they must notify an admin of the teams inability to play before the beginning of playoffs (December 15-16). Failure to do so can result in a permanent ban of said team, and potentially the school itself for the entire next season, as well as forfeiture of any prizing resulting from their placement in the AZUBU Collegiate Champions. The severity of the punishment is at the discretion of the CSL admins. If at any point in time an occurrence takes place for which a course of action has not been outlined in the official rules, the CSL reserves the right to determine an appropriate response at all times.

• The following events may cause stoppage of play, the list is not exhaustive: unintentional disconnection (losing connection due to game problems or internet), intentional disconnection/game leaves (players quitting the game), server crashes.
• Stoppage of Play Procedure: A player experiencing technical issues on either team may call for a restart of the game prior to first blood within the first five (5) minutes of the game, before the timer displays "5:00".
• The player requesting the restart must be experiencing one of the following: a hardware malfunction (e.g. any equipment malfunction), physical disruption (e.g. breaking furniture), or game configuration problems (e.g. issues with runes, masteries, and/or summoner spells).
• They must then declare in all-chat for a restart, notify an administrator, and intentionally disconnect from the current game. After the disconnect, the game is void and must be restarted unless an administrator determines otherwise.
• Any unintentional disconnection before first blood within 5 minutes OR a client crash prior to champion selection will require a game restart.
• Intentional disconnects without a specified reason will not be considered stoppage of play and the game will continue as normal.
• In the rare case that a Riot Games server crashes, the Head Administrator will determine the next course of action.
• Unfair Play: Includes, but is not limited to: cheat programs, map hack programs, intentional disconnection without prior reasoning, intentionally allowing opponents to win, unsportsmanlike/disruptive behavior and unprofessional actions towards other players/officials/shoutcasters, use of a game bug determined by the Head Administrator to be unfair, use of an ineligible player.
• If unfair play is discovered by any player, the offending player may receive a warning, forfeit/loss, or disqualification from the tournament at the agreement of at least three (3) administrators on a case-by-case basis.

• Lineups (a team of five for that week’s match) are due 5 days before the date of the match, by Monday 11:59pm PST. They may be submitted and/or changed by the team coordinator at any point before the deadline.
• Late lineups submitted within a 48-hr grace period will result in a warning for the first two offenses. Any late lineups after these two offenses will result in:
• one point being given to the other team if not submitted by Monday, 11:59pm PST
• automatic forfeit if not submitted by Wednesday, 11:59pm PST.
• Each division's matches will have a pre-set date and time (Saturdays 12:00pm PST). Matches must be played at the default time unless both teams agree to play their matches beforehand. Matches can be postponed for after the weekend with administrative approval.
• All players and team coordinators should join channel "ACL" in the game client to find their opponents and to wait for their match. Please refrain from spamming while in the chatroom. The chatroom serves various purposes which are included but not limited to: finding opponents, helping casters find a game to spectate, and contacting an administrator. Team coordinators are responsible for adding the opposing team's coordinator in-game prior to each round of the tournament, for ease of contact. You may also use the CSL chatroom. It is mandatory that at least one member from each team has LoLReplay installed and running during the tournament to record matches in the case of a major dispute. This program may be downloaded for free from: http://www.leaguereplays.com/download/.
• During the course of the tournament, it's encouraged for players to take and save screenshots of chat logs between themselves, teammates, and opponents in the case of any conflict.
• All chat should be limited to glhf or related (for honoring the opponent), pause or related (for PAUSING the game) and gg, good game or related (for ENDING the game). Players can ask to remake the game in the first 30 seconds if there are latency issues and no summoner spells have been used. In the case of remake, teams must use the same picks and bans.
• Note: This chat rule is not meant to be strict; however, if a player asks for chat to stop, his or her request must be obliged. Continuing to chat will result in a set loss, the player is not even allowed to acknowledge the stop request; if even one more chat line is sent, the player can leave and claim a forfeit.
• PROCEDURAL NOTE: To claim a set win, please request politely: "please stop chatting or I am reporting you for a chatting violation," and then do not respond to further provocations by other players. If the other player continues to chat and BM, it would be perfectly acceptable to, at that point, leave the game and send us a screenshot or the unfinished game replay to claim a win. RULE ABUSE IS PUNISHABLE BY SET OR MATCH LOSSES - this rule is meant to preserve sportsmanship and not to trick your opponents into forfeits.
• Teams may agree to allow non-official observers/casters, but by doing so, they will also waive their right to contest the match results due to stream cheating.
• Streams should be on 3m delay, with both teams consenting, and only the streamer may observe, in order to minimize cheating PLEASE NOTE: any time a game is streamed there is the potential for cheating.
• CSL reserves the right to observe and stream games. If you would like to have your match streamed, please notify an administrator at lol@cstarleague.com at least a two weeks in advance, or send over your LoLReplay file a week in advance.

• After lineup submission has been locked, coordinators will not be able to make any changes to their submitted lineup. If they wish to make a substitution, they must notify an administrator by emailing lol@cstarleague.com. Upon approval, the players will be changed and displayed on the match details page.
• Teams will have a maximum of 5 substitutions that they can make during regular season. Only one substitution will be allowed per match.
• Once the season has started, transfers between multiple schools’ teams can only be made with the approval of the Head Administrator. If approved, this transfer may only occur once, and the player will be placed permanently in his new team until the end of Season One.
• Note that transfers will only be allowed on a case by case basis. For example, transfers will not be allowed for teams intending on ‘stacking’ other teams from the same school.