AFL Rules

For judges, and players who'd like to know how these rules will be used, we have a separate document for interpreting the rules.

Also, Game Procedure tells players how to play an actual game.

Teams

 * 1) Teams need a team name, and a team name-tag which will be inserted in the name of the player during games.
 * 2) Teams can consist of up to but not exceeding ten members.
 * 3) Teams are responsible for their own organization. Lack of organization can well end up in forfeiture of a game, so make sure that you stay on point and organized.
 * 4) Every team will make a roster, which will not change over the course of the season.
 * 5) Teams can drop players from their teams at any time during the regular season. Teams must notify a judge of drops before the next game.
 * 6) To add a new player to a team, the team must get approval of a judge.
 * 7) After the playoffs begin, no new players can be added, and a drop requires league approval (approval of a judge).
 * 8) Teams will consist of a team captain and up to nine other members
 * 9) Teams can contact the league for whatever reason through the #afl or #armagetron channels on irc.freenode.net or on the armagetron forums at forums.armagetron.net. Due to the potential for time-wasting conflict, we will not accept references to something he or she said on this or that server or so and so's forum for the purposes of mediation.  The AFL pages on wiki.armagetronad.net will keep current contact information for all league contacts.

Servers

 * 1) The behavior of all servers participating in the AFL will be exactly the same, and settings will be provided by the league to the server admins.
 * 2) Servers will use rules approved by the league.  We'd like to allow cycle_rubber modifications within reason to correct for lag, but due to the widespread notion that rubber has nothing to do with lag, we can't make this allowance.  Help change the mistaken widespread notion!
 * 3) Teams must choose a server to be their "home server." We recommend teams choose a server where their team has a low ping as a whole and with an administrator that is friendly to the team.  Ideally, teams would provide their own home servers, but due to the bandwidth and performance requirements, the league is attempting to provide servers for teams to choose from.

Games

 * 1) In games, teams can have a maximum of five players on the grid. Teams that show up with less than 5 will be expected to play with what they bring, or forfeit. Teams that show up with more than 5 will be allowed to use their extras as alternates and make substitutions. However, at no point can more than 5 teammates appear in the round. If this should happen, the extra player should kill himself within seconds of the round starting, or else the round will be declared invalid, possibly the match declared invalid, or some other really nasty penalty will be given.  The league's approved settings should reduce/eliminate the risk of a team playing over 5 players accidentally, but it cannot eliminate the risk of a team starting a round with only 4.  Tough luck.
 * 2) Each game will have a home team and a visiting team, as in professional sports.
 * 3) A game will consist of three matches played at the home team's declared server.
 * 4) The winner of the game is the first team to reach two match wins.  If this should be the first two matches, playing the third match is optional, but allowed if time permits.
 * 5) For a match to be considered as being conducted as a league match, there must be a recording made with either the latest release of 0.2.8 or the latest 0.3.x release (currently 0.3.0). While any version is allowed for play, a recording made from the trunk will not be considered as having met this requirement.  We are studying whether or not a server-side recording is to be accepted.

Season

 * 1) Matches will generally be played on Tuesdays UTC, and Sundays will be used as an alternative day in case of complications with Tuesday, but we can't guarantee the matches will always be scheduled on those days. Check your schedule.
 * 2) Over the course of the season, each team will play each other twice, one game played at their declared home server and one game played at their opponent's declared home server.
 * 3) Teams will be ranked during the season according to their win-loss record. Any ties brought about by this system will be resolved by head to head results.
 * 4) The final rankings of the season will be used to seed teams in postseason play.

PostSeason (Your chance to win a chip!)

 * 1) To qualify for the post-season, a team must consist of at least 60% of the roster that existed at the time of their second game in the regular season.
 * 2) The postseason will consist of a series of one-off elimination games in a bracket-tournament setting.
 * 3) Teams will be seeded according to the final season rankings.
 * 4) Teams will play at the declared home server of the higher seeded team or an available quality neutral league server.
 * 5) Teams will be eliminated in every round of the tournament, leading up to a game between two final teams, which will be the championship game, and the winner of this game will be declared champion.  Should the playoffs contain 8 teams or more, the top 4 positions will be determined, otherwise only the championship game will be played.

Rewards

 * 1) The prize for winning the championship game will be some t-shirts with a to-be-determined graphic by DrJoeTron.  Note: this does not apply the the Summer 07 season.

Sportsmanship

 * 1) Don't be a douche. We'll look at the recordings, and we'll know, and you'll know, and we'll tell your mother.
 * 2) Also, some really bad sportsmanship can entail severe penalties, like forfeiture of the game, suspension of a player, and even suspension of a team.
 * 3) Bad sportsmanship can be considered any of the following:
 * 4) * Insulting the opposing team
 * 5) * Declaring the game to be a bad game due to the fact that your team lost. While it may be true that it was a bad game, it's still bad sportsmanship to raise a fuss about it.  If you truly believe the game was bad, speak to a judge about it to resolve the problem.
 * 6) * Core dumping a player's own teammates
 * 7) * Refusing to play competitively
 * 8) * Quitting a game because the player's team is losing.
 * 9) * Anything else your PE teacher told you was bad sportsmanship.
 * 10) Penalties for bad sportsmanship will be assessed based on degree of infraction, rate of infractions, and so forth.  Basically, you might get away with something once when the judges sympathize with you, but don't expect it to happen a lot.  The point is to have fun, and you should behave in a manner that is conducive to everybody having fun, not just you.