Ladle/Guidelines

Note: The following page has been supplanted by Regulations

=Stages=

Stage 1 - Preparation
A Ladle Enthusiast will prepare the wiki for a new event keeping the following in mind: Per tradition, the Ladle will be played on the first Sunday of every month (except for January, which will take place on the Sunday following the first Tuesday of the month). The opening round of play will start at 18:45 GMT for a 16 team bracket, and 18:00 GMT for a 32-team bracket. The start times will change to follow Daylight Savings Time in the EU. Generally, 45 minutes is allowed to complete each round.

Stage 2 - Adding the teams
Only the Team Captain is authorized to place your team on the Challenge Board. Team Captains must also list their Global ID. Changes to the team roster can happen at any time, however, the cut off for the provisional placement of teams is 18:00 GMT on Thursday before the event. This will allow time for server admin's to update their servers. Teams will also be able to finalize their players based on the brackets. It will also will allow players and enthusiasts to post their predictions on the forums, if they want to. If your team misses the sign-up deadline, and one or more teams have a bye in the first round, you may ask the team with the first bye for permission to fill the open slot.

The most important thing for players to do in this stage is to:
 * Elect a Team Captain who you can trust, who listens to everyone in the team, who is capable of communicating with other Team Captains, and can follow the procedure to the letter on the night.
 * A Team Captain should also be familiar with authentication. (You may also wish to elect a stand-in in-case the Team Captain can't make it.)
 * A team leader should have their team signed up before the deadline

Stage 3 - Setting the challenge board
Ladle Enthusiasts meet On #Armagetron sometime between 18 and 22 GMT the Thursday prior to the Ladle to determine the brackets.

Once here one Enthusiast will fill in the servers to play on,
 * Odd numbered ladles have Finals played in a US server.
 * Even numbered ladles have Finals played in a Euro server.
 * Servers must flow smoothly.

Once servers are set and agreed on by players then someone will check to make sure they have .randomteam working (try to make sure you put testing Prior to this) this divides arguments by spaces so no names can contain spaces or else there will be errors. once confirmed one players does .r and another follows with the .randomteam command, the result of that .randomteam sets the challenge board up. once player adds them in accordingly and others confirm. If a .randomteam error was not caught in the initial testing than test and redo the .r and .randomteam commands.

Stage 4 - Playing the ladle
Teams meet at the designated servers on Ladle day and play the best of 3 matches.

Administration will record results on the brackets as they come in. The brackets should be followed, unless Team Captains have legitimate reason to alter the course of progress. The only thing to be decided, if there is any question, is the server. If there is an issue with the primary server Team Captains can discuss moving to the secondary server (examples: the majority of the players are from the US/EU and want to play on a "home" server, or the primary server becomes unstable).

Team management is available on all Ladle servers. Designated Team Captains should lock their teams so no random people can join, then invite their teammates as they arrive. All players are required to login to play, and those without forum accounts must be /OP'd by the captain. More on that here.

The following guidelines for all players may prove useful:


 * During the event, do not listen to anyone external to your team; rely on your Team Captain for information as to who you are playing and where.
 * Regarding ping, make sure your Team Captain is aware of your server preference.
 * Regarding imbalanced teams... anything less than a full of team of 6 is your problem... an obliging opponent may reduce their numbers if they wish...
 * If opponents don't turn up on time, they forfeit, unless again a team wishes to delay the start... though this causes problems for subsequent timing...
 * Regarding new players turning up: server admins can make their server private, lock it once all players are in, or kick new players immediately.
 * You may only play for one team during Ladle. No switching or joining another team after your's has been eliminated.

Stage 5 - The outcome
Players use the forums to congratulate the winners, discuss issues, and eventually vote for changes where needed.

The majority of Ladles run smoothly, however, problems occasionally arise. If the problem is a specific player (or group of players), they can be shunned/IP banned for the following Ladle. Problems with settings, dates, and general Ladle management can be settled using the quarterly voting system (currently every 3 Ladles starting from L-21). A Ladle Enthusiast creates a "voting discussion thread" on the forum to decide on which issues need a vote. An example can be found here.

Stage 6 - Quarterly voting
After the discussion is exhausted, and with enough time for a fair vote (at least a week before Ladle day), a "Ladle voting" thread is created. An example of such thread exists here. Only Team Captains or someone in charge of the team currently signed up on the Challenge Board may vote; only one vote per team. The vote ends when the Challenge Board is closed to sign-ups (see above). The results of the vote are then edited into the wiki and the ladle.cfg files. Read more about Ladle/Guidelines/Voting

=Responsibilities, duties and rules.=

Global Moderators
Duties include starting the matches, editing team names to reflect scores, settling disputes between teams, silencing spammers or distributive spectators not using the /team chat. They may also silence participating players if they are being insulting to the opponents or distracting them in a obvious way. They may kick constant hassling spectators that are avoiding the silence feature by rejoining. They are also above the Team Leader's and Team Member's in terms of authority so they may make the final decision if there is a disagreement between the two team leaders.

Team Leaders
If there is no GM to referee over the round then both team Leader's equally decide what should happen. Duties include starting the matches, editing team names to reflect scores, silencing spammers or distributive spectators not using the /team chat. They are above the Team Members in terms of authority so they make the final decision for their own participating team. Both Team Leader's have equal share of the complete decision, if there is no GM present and there is a dispute between a decision that prevents the matches from beginning (or continuing) then a GM must be called in to make a decision.

Team Members
They have no specific authority other than all equally deciding on a new Team Leader if the original team leader is not present (or wishes to promote somebody else to the new Team Leader).

=How Global Moderators are elected.= ''Still needs to be voted on and finalized. How will they be elected? Will they be referrals or applications? etc, etc.''

Requirements
Before becoming a Global Moderator the requirements are -
 * To not be participating part in the current Ladle that they will be moderating.
 * They must be able to oversee two matches simultaneously.