Today, registration for the NS2WC opened (http://unknownworlds.com/ns2/ns2wc-registration-open/)
And the NS2WC launched (http://ns2wc.com)
As veteran, competitive players you will hopefully be happy to see that your feedback has been taken into account for the live event! The NS2WC team could use your experience and eye when it comes to the rules. This is a complex event, so they are long. But cast an eye down them, and see if you can see anything that will cause problems for competitive play. The original source is here. Here they are reproduced in full:
Natural Selection 2 World Championship 2013 Rules
1. Introduction
(a) The Natural Selection 2 (‘NS2’) World Championship (the ‘contest’) is organised by a committee (the ‘organiser’) formed of a representative of the NS2 community (the ‘community’) and a representative of Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Inc (‘UWE’).
(b) The organiser has authority over the operation, form, and all other aspects of the contest.
(c) The organiser may in exceptional circumstances make changes to all rules set forth herein at any time without warning or explanation if such a change is necessary for the good order and timely progress of the contest.
(d) In the unlikely event of a change per section 1(c) an announcement of that change shall be made via the web page http://twitter.com/ns2wc (‘twitter’).
(e) The organiser will appoint various individuals (‘admins’) from time to time throughout the contest to discharge various duties, including but not limited to administering brackets, refereeing matches, arbitrating disputes and other functions as may be necessary for the execution of the contest.
(f) The identity of admins appointed under section 1(e) will be made available on the web site http://ns2wc.com.
2. Eligibility for Entry
(a) The contest is open to entry by any team of any combination of players resident in any location in the world, subject to the various conditions throughout these rules.
3. Players and Teams
(a) Players must enter the contest as a member of only a single team.
(b) Players may not play as a member of a team other than the single team they entered the contest as a part of.
(c) Players must use only a single SteamID during the contest.
(d) A team must be at all times during the contest composed only of the players originally registered at the point of registration as the constituents of that team.
(e) In exceptional circumstances, the organiser may at its discretion permit a team to change its roster of registered players during the contest after a representation from that team as to why such a change is justified. For example, illness or incapacitation of a team member.
4. Registration for Participation
(a) Teams may register only via the form found at the web page http://www.ns2wc.com/?page_id=2059 (‘registration form’)
(b) A team must be registered wholly and fully in the first instance
(i) The effect of section 4(b) is that a team may not be registered piecemeal over several registration submissions
(c) The contest will have space for only twenty-eight teams.
(d) The first twenty-eight teams to sign up via the registration form will compete in the contest, subject to section 4(e).
(e) Teams that have ranking in the Premier and Division 1 divisions of the Natural Selection League found at http://www.ensl.org (the ‘NSL’) will receive priority eligibility for receiving a space in the contest.
(i) Only sixteen teams may receive priority eligibility under section 4(e)
(ii) Priority eligibility under section 4(e) will be awarded on a first come, first served basis
(iii) A team with NSL ranking that does not register before Thursday, November 28th 2013 forfeits their priority eligibility under section 4(e).
(f) Teams in excess of the twenty-eight spaces may register and possibly receive a space in the contest under section 4(g).
(g) Should a registered team be unable to assume their place in the contest and compete in a timely manner, their space will be awarded to waiting teams under section 4(f) in sign up order.
(h) Registration will open on Friday, November 22nd 2013 and close on Saturday, November 30th 2013.
5. Contest Format and Structure
(a) The contest will consistent of a sequence of stages, composed of matches, composed of games.
(i) A match is a sequence of games played between two teams
(ii) A game is a single instance of Natural Selection 2 play leading to the victory a either game faction.
(b)The contest will open with a Group Stage, played in Round Robin format.
(i) Within each group, each team will play once against every other team
(ii) Matches in the Group Stage are composed of four games
(iii) Winning a game in the Group Stage earns a team one point.
(iv) Each group is composed of seven teams (there are, therefore, four groups).
(v) Registered teams with a space in the contest will be seeded within groups as determined by the organiser, based on NSL Season 3 results and the results of previous NS2 tournaments.
(vi) If two teams complete the Group Stage with equal points, a tie breaker will be played
1. A tie breaker played under section 5(b)(vi) will be of a best-of-four-games format, and;
2. should the tie breaker proceed to two games won by each team, a final tie breaker in best-of-three format will be played.
(c) The two teams finishing with the first and second highest point scores in each of the four groups will qualify for the Winners Bracket
(i) The Winners Bracket will be comprised of best-of-seven-games matches
(ii) Teams that have qualified for the Winners Bracket will be drawn by the organiser into a single elimination bracket
(iii) Teams will only play a single match in the Winners Bracket
(iv) Teams that finished the Group Stage with the highest number of points in their group may choose either their starting faction or the map played for their Winners Bracket match.
(d) The four teams that win their Winners Bracket match will proceed to the Finals Series
(i) The Finals Series will be composed of semi-final and grand-final matches played in a single elimination bracket
(ii) The two semi-finals matches will be in a best-of-five-games format
(iii) The grand final match will be played in a best-of-seven-games format
(iv) The Finals Series will be played under special conditions, see part 6.
(v) The formats of the Finals Series matches are subject to change due to the live nature of their play, by registering for the contest teams acknowledge such change may occur.
(vi) The team that wins the Finals Series grand final match is the winner of the contest
(e) The two teams finishing with the third and fourth highest point scores in each of the four groups will qualify for the Horizon Bracket.
(i) The Horizon Bracket will be of a single-elimination format: quarter, semi, and final matches.
(ii) Quarter final matches will be of a best-of-five-games format
(iii) Semi final matches and the final match will be of a best-of-seven-games format
(iv) Teams that finished the Group Stage with the third highest number of points in their group may choose either their starting faction or the map played for the quarter final matches
6. Match Operations
(a) At the start of any match throughout the contest, an admin will flip a coin.
(i) The winner of the coin flip may choose either which faction they start as, or the map to be played
(ii) The loser of the coin flip may choose either which faction they start as, or the may be played: Whichever of the two was not chosen by the winner under section 6(a)(i)
(b) During a match, a map is played in sequence for two games before a new map is chosen.
(i) The team choosing which map is played alternates every two games.
(ii) A map may be played for a maximum of two games per match.
(c) During a match, teams will switch faction at the conclusion of each game.
(d) A team is late to a match if at the allotted start time that team does not have six players in the Ready Room of the match server.
(i) A team that is more than thirty minutes late to a match may receive a forfeit loss in that match at the discretion of the opposing team and subject to review by the organiser.
(ii) A team whose opponent in a particular match receives a forfeit loss will be awarded the maximum potential points of that match or proceed in their elimination bracket, as applicable by stage.
(e) If a team encounters a serious problem such as a player drop, technical failure or other incapacitation within the first thirty seconds of a game, they may call ‘Not Live’ or ‘NL’ via NS2 text-chat.
(f) When section 6(e) is invoked, the game will be reset after the team has had a reasonable amount of time to rectify the causal problem.
(g) When section 6(e) is invoked, the game must be reset to the spawn locations in effect before the invocation.
(h) After thirty seconds have passed, a game may not be reset and the winner will be defined by NS2 game logic except at the discretion of the organiser under exceptional circumstances.
(i) Once a game has begun, no player on any team may enter the Ready Room until the game has concluded, except in cases covered by part 7.
(i) In cases permitted by part 7, the time spent in the Ready Room must be as short as possible.
(j) All matches must be played on the version of NS2 live on the Steam platform at the time of play.
7. Substitution
(a) Teams may substitute up to two players between games, at all times subject to the terms of part 3.
(b) If a team suffers a player drop during a game, they may not substitute a new player to replace the dropped player, except in the case of section 6(e).
(c) A dropped player may rejoin the game in progress.
(d) At the conclusion of a game in which a player has dropped a team may introduce a substitute for that player for the remainder of the match and that player will not count towards the substitution maximum in section 7(a).
(e) Teams may substitute any number of players between matches.
(f) All substitutions under this section must be consistent with section 3.
8. Maps
(a) The maps to be played in the contest will be
(i) ns2_nsl_biodome (ModID: A8C04E7) by ObliviousSight
(ii) ns2_nsl_descent (ModID: 7d527cc) by Mendasp
(iii) ns2_nsl_jambi (ModID: 9d2eabc) by xtcmen
(iv) ns2_nsl_summit (ModID: 735cebc) by Mendasp
(v) ns2_nsl_tram (ModID: 7741098) by Mendasp
(vi) ns2_nsl_veil (ModID: 78ac3ed) by Mendasp
9. Servers
(a) Contest games will be played on servers approved and in some cases provided by the organiser (the ‘servers’)
(b) All reasonable efforts will be made to mitigate the effects of a high-ping-differential on participant players
(c) In certain high-ping-differential cases, including but not limited to intercontinental matches, servers may be ‘cycled’ each game, with the server at all times chosen to provide the team playing on the marine side with the more favourable ping
(d) Section 9(c) shall not apply to Horizon Bracket semi-final and final matches. During these matches, if there is a high-ping-differential, the server may be cycled every two games, with the server chosen to provide the team playing on the marine side with the more favourable ping for the first game.
(e) Intercontinental high-ping-differentials may where possible be mitigated through the use of an intermediary server location, rather than through an application of 9(c)
(f) Servers must run the version of NS2 live on the Steam platform at the time of a match.
(g)Servers must have the following mods installed:
(i) NSL Mod (ModID: a2ddae8)
(ii) No Close Spawn + Spectator Lights (ModID: 73ca53d)
(h) Server consistency checking json files must include:
{“restrict”: [ "lua/entry/*.entry" ],“check”: [ "game_setup.xml", "*.lua", "*.hlsl", "*.shader", "*.screenfx", "*.surface_shader", "*.fxh", "*.render_setup", "*.shader_template", "*.level", "*.dds", "*.jpg", "*.png", "*.cinematic", "*.material", "*.model", "*.animation_graph", "*.polygons", "*.fev", "*.fsb", "*.entry" ] “ignore”: [ "ui/crosshairs.dds", "ui/crosshairs-hit.dds", "ui/exosuit_HUD1.dds", "ui/exosuit_HUD4.dds", "ui/marine_minimap_blip.dds", "ui/minimap_blip.dds"]}
10. Communications
(a) All participant team captains (‘captains’) must provide a contact email address at registration, and must regularly check that address for contest updates from the organiser.
(b) The organiser and admins will only communicate with captains or a designated representative in their absence.
(c) All players may engage in good-natured heckling, banter, sledging and other such communication via text chat at all times during matches.
(d)Under no circumstances may communications referenced in 10(c) or any other communication be vulgar, sexual, expletive, racist, unsportsmanlike, or otherwise inappropriate in context of an audience of all ages and sensibilities or inconsistent with the values of contest sponsors.
(e) No player may at any time discuss the rules of the contest or express grievances with regard to contest organiser decisions in text-chat or game VOIP while a game is being live-streamed.
(i) The purpose of section 10(e) is not to stifle debate with regards to rules or tournament decisions but to direct those legitimate concerns to a more appropriate forum than a live stream.
11. Game Modifications and Sportsmanship
(a) No player may at any time use an ‘mod’ of any kind, to NS2 lua script or otherwise, except:
(i) Custom crosshairs
(ii) Custom HUD layouts
(iii) Transparent maps
(iv) Custom map colours
(v) Other mods that do not change game shaders, textures, models, gameplay logic, aim-assistance or otherwise grant unfair advantage
(vi) Custom alien vision is expressly prohibited
(b) Players may not cheat
(c) Players may not engage in unfriendly, unsportsmanlike, or other behaviour not in keeping with the ideals of good sportsmanship.
12. Permitted Strategies
(a) Where consistent with part 11 and excepting sections 12(b) and 12(c), players may use any and all tactics and strategies to win.
(b) Players may not
(i) Place structures in places where it is reasonably clear that the structure is out of the bounds of normal play on a map (For example, on top of wall geometry).
(ii) Use any macros, scripts, or other tools outside NS2 that confir unfair advantage.
(c) In the NS2 versions used during the contest, there are likely to be bugs and other code flaws capable of materially affecting gameplay outcomes and influencing gameplay in ways that are obvious to any reasonable player as being inappropriate. Players may not exploit such flaws.
13. Rule Enforcement
(a) The organiser may at their discretion apply penalties to players and teams that fail to abide by the rules set out herein and directives of the organiser and admins. These penalties will be proportionate and fair, and applied in the interest of maintaining fair play, a positive contest atmosphere, the reputation of sponsors and the integrity of the contest and NS2 for current and future players.
[PART TWO IN SECOND POST]
And the NS2WC launched (http://ns2wc.com)
As veteran, competitive players you will hopefully be happy to see that your feedback has been taken into account for the live event! The NS2WC team could use your experience and eye when it comes to the rules. This is a complex event, so they are long. But cast an eye down them, and see if you can see anything that will cause problems for competitive play. The original source is here. Here they are reproduced in full:
Natural Selection 2 World Championship 2013 Rules
1. Introduction
(a) The Natural Selection 2 (‘NS2’) World Championship (the ‘contest’) is organised by a committee (the ‘organiser’) formed of a representative of the NS2 community (the ‘community’) and a representative of Unknown Worlds Entertainment, Inc (‘UWE’).
(b) The organiser has authority over the operation, form, and all other aspects of the contest.
(c) The organiser may in exceptional circumstances make changes to all rules set forth herein at any time without warning or explanation if such a change is necessary for the good order and timely progress of the contest.
(d) In the unlikely event of a change per section 1(c) an announcement of that change shall be made via the web page http://twitter.com/ns2wc (‘twitter’).
(e) The organiser will appoint various individuals (‘admins’) from time to time throughout the contest to discharge various duties, including but not limited to administering brackets, refereeing matches, arbitrating disputes and other functions as may be necessary for the execution of the contest.
(f) The identity of admins appointed under section 1(e) will be made available on the web site http://ns2wc.com.
2. Eligibility for Entry
(a) The contest is open to entry by any team of any combination of players resident in any location in the world, subject to the various conditions throughout these rules.
3. Players and Teams
(a) Players must enter the contest as a member of only a single team.
(b) Players may not play as a member of a team other than the single team they entered the contest as a part of.
(c) Players must use only a single SteamID during the contest.
(d) A team must be at all times during the contest composed only of the players originally registered at the point of registration as the constituents of that team.
(e) In exceptional circumstances, the organiser may at its discretion permit a team to change its roster of registered players during the contest after a representation from that team as to why such a change is justified. For example, illness or incapacitation of a team member.
4. Registration for Participation
(a) Teams may register only via the form found at the web page http://www.ns2wc.com/?page_id=2059 (‘registration form’)
(b) A team must be registered wholly and fully in the first instance
(i) The effect of section 4(b) is that a team may not be registered piecemeal over several registration submissions
(c) The contest will have space for only twenty-eight teams.
(d) The first twenty-eight teams to sign up via the registration form will compete in the contest, subject to section 4(e).
(e) Teams that have ranking in the Premier and Division 1 divisions of the Natural Selection League found at http://www.ensl.org (the ‘NSL’) will receive priority eligibility for receiving a space in the contest.
(i) Only sixteen teams may receive priority eligibility under section 4(e)
(ii) Priority eligibility under section 4(e) will be awarded on a first come, first served basis
(iii) A team with NSL ranking that does not register before Thursday, November 28th 2013 forfeits their priority eligibility under section 4(e).
(f) Teams in excess of the twenty-eight spaces may register and possibly receive a space in the contest under section 4(g).
(g) Should a registered team be unable to assume their place in the contest and compete in a timely manner, their space will be awarded to waiting teams under section 4(f) in sign up order.
(h) Registration will open on Friday, November 22nd 2013 and close on Saturday, November 30th 2013.
5. Contest Format and Structure
(a) The contest will consistent of a sequence of stages, composed of matches, composed of games.
(i) A match is a sequence of games played between two teams
(ii) A game is a single instance of Natural Selection 2 play leading to the victory a either game faction.
(b)The contest will open with a Group Stage, played in Round Robin format.
(i) Within each group, each team will play once against every other team
(ii) Matches in the Group Stage are composed of four games
(iii) Winning a game in the Group Stage earns a team one point.
(iv) Each group is composed of seven teams (there are, therefore, four groups).
(v) Registered teams with a space in the contest will be seeded within groups as determined by the organiser, based on NSL Season 3 results and the results of previous NS2 tournaments.
(vi) If two teams complete the Group Stage with equal points, a tie breaker will be played
1. A tie breaker played under section 5(b)(vi) will be of a best-of-four-games format, and;
2. should the tie breaker proceed to two games won by each team, a final tie breaker in best-of-three format will be played.
(c) The two teams finishing with the first and second highest point scores in each of the four groups will qualify for the Winners Bracket
(i) The Winners Bracket will be comprised of best-of-seven-games matches
(ii) Teams that have qualified for the Winners Bracket will be drawn by the organiser into a single elimination bracket
(iii) Teams will only play a single match in the Winners Bracket
(iv) Teams that finished the Group Stage with the highest number of points in their group may choose either their starting faction or the map played for their Winners Bracket match.
(d) The four teams that win their Winners Bracket match will proceed to the Finals Series
(i) The Finals Series will be composed of semi-final and grand-final matches played in a single elimination bracket
(ii) The two semi-finals matches will be in a best-of-five-games format
(iii) The grand final match will be played in a best-of-seven-games format
(iv) The Finals Series will be played under special conditions, see part 6.
(v) The formats of the Finals Series matches are subject to change due to the live nature of their play, by registering for the contest teams acknowledge such change may occur.
(vi) The team that wins the Finals Series grand final match is the winner of the contest
(e) The two teams finishing with the third and fourth highest point scores in each of the four groups will qualify for the Horizon Bracket.
(i) The Horizon Bracket will be of a single-elimination format: quarter, semi, and final matches.
(ii) Quarter final matches will be of a best-of-five-games format
(iii) Semi final matches and the final match will be of a best-of-seven-games format
(iv) Teams that finished the Group Stage with the third highest number of points in their group may choose either their starting faction or the map played for the quarter final matches
6. Match Operations
(a) At the start of any match throughout the contest, an admin will flip a coin.
(i) The winner of the coin flip may choose either which faction they start as, or the map to be played
(ii) The loser of the coin flip may choose either which faction they start as, or the may be played: Whichever of the two was not chosen by the winner under section 6(a)(i)
(b) During a match, a map is played in sequence for two games before a new map is chosen.
(i) The team choosing which map is played alternates every two games.
(ii) A map may be played for a maximum of two games per match.
(c) During a match, teams will switch faction at the conclusion of each game.
(d) A team is late to a match if at the allotted start time that team does not have six players in the Ready Room of the match server.
(i) A team that is more than thirty minutes late to a match may receive a forfeit loss in that match at the discretion of the opposing team and subject to review by the organiser.
(ii) A team whose opponent in a particular match receives a forfeit loss will be awarded the maximum potential points of that match or proceed in their elimination bracket, as applicable by stage.
(e) If a team encounters a serious problem such as a player drop, technical failure or other incapacitation within the first thirty seconds of a game, they may call ‘Not Live’ or ‘NL’ via NS2 text-chat.
(f) When section 6(e) is invoked, the game will be reset after the team has had a reasonable amount of time to rectify the causal problem.
(g) When section 6(e) is invoked, the game must be reset to the spawn locations in effect before the invocation.
(h) After thirty seconds have passed, a game may not be reset and the winner will be defined by NS2 game logic except at the discretion of the organiser under exceptional circumstances.
(i) Once a game has begun, no player on any team may enter the Ready Room until the game has concluded, except in cases covered by part 7.
(i) In cases permitted by part 7, the time spent in the Ready Room must be as short as possible.
(j) All matches must be played on the version of NS2 live on the Steam platform at the time of play.
7. Substitution
(a) Teams may substitute up to two players between games, at all times subject to the terms of part 3.
(b) If a team suffers a player drop during a game, they may not substitute a new player to replace the dropped player, except in the case of section 6(e).
(c) A dropped player may rejoin the game in progress.
(d) At the conclusion of a game in which a player has dropped a team may introduce a substitute for that player for the remainder of the match and that player will not count towards the substitution maximum in section 7(a).
(e) Teams may substitute any number of players between matches.
(f) All substitutions under this section must be consistent with section 3.
8. Maps
(a) The maps to be played in the contest will be
(i) ns2_nsl_biodome (ModID: A8C04E7) by ObliviousSight
(ii) ns2_nsl_descent (ModID: 7d527cc) by Mendasp
(iii) ns2_nsl_jambi (ModID: 9d2eabc) by xtcmen
(iv) ns2_nsl_summit (ModID: 735cebc) by Mendasp
(v) ns2_nsl_tram (ModID: 7741098) by Mendasp
(vi) ns2_nsl_veil (ModID: 78ac3ed) by Mendasp
9. Servers
(a) Contest games will be played on servers approved and in some cases provided by the organiser (the ‘servers’)
(b) All reasonable efforts will be made to mitigate the effects of a high-ping-differential on participant players
(c) In certain high-ping-differential cases, including but not limited to intercontinental matches, servers may be ‘cycled’ each game, with the server at all times chosen to provide the team playing on the marine side with the more favourable ping
(d) Section 9(c) shall not apply to Horizon Bracket semi-final and final matches. During these matches, if there is a high-ping-differential, the server may be cycled every two games, with the server chosen to provide the team playing on the marine side with the more favourable ping for the first game.
(e) Intercontinental high-ping-differentials may where possible be mitigated through the use of an intermediary server location, rather than through an application of 9(c)
(f) Servers must run the version of NS2 live on the Steam platform at the time of a match.
(g)Servers must have the following mods installed:
(i) NSL Mod (ModID: a2ddae8)
(ii) No Close Spawn + Spectator Lights (ModID: 73ca53d)
(h) Server consistency checking json files must include:
{“restrict”: [ "lua/entry/*.entry" ],“check”: [ "game_setup.xml", "*.lua", "*.hlsl", "*.shader", "*.screenfx", "*.surface_shader", "*.fxh", "*.render_setup", "*.shader_template", "*.level", "*.dds", "*.jpg", "*.png", "*.cinematic", "*.material", "*.model", "*.animation_graph", "*.polygons", "*.fev", "*.fsb", "*.entry" ] “ignore”: [ "ui/crosshairs.dds", "ui/crosshairs-hit.dds", "ui/exosuit_HUD1.dds", "ui/exosuit_HUD4.dds", "ui/marine_minimap_blip.dds", "ui/minimap_blip.dds"]}
10. Communications
(a) All participant team captains (‘captains’) must provide a contact email address at registration, and must regularly check that address for contest updates from the organiser.
(b) The organiser and admins will only communicate with captains or a designated representative in their absence.
(c) All players may engage in good-natured heckling, banter, sledging and other such communication via text chat at all times during matches.
(d)Under no circumstances may communications referenced in 10(c) or any other communication be vulgar, sexual, expletive, racist, unsportsmanlike, or otherwise inappropriate in context of an audience of all ages and sensibilities or inconsistent with the values of contest sponsors.
(e) No player may at any time discuss the rules of the contest or express grievances with regard to contest organiser decisions in text-chat or game VOIP while a game is being live-streamed.
(i) The purpose of section 10(e) is not to stifle debate with regards to rules or tournament decisions but to direct those legitimate concerns to a more appropriate forum than a live stream.
11. Game Modifications and Sportsmanship
(a) No player may at any time use an ‘mod’ of any kind, to NS2 lua script or otherwise, except:
(i) Custom crosshairs
(ii) Custom HUD layouts
(iii) Transparent maps
(iv) Custom map colours
(v) Other mods that do not change game shaders, textures, models, gameplay logic, aim-assistance or otherwise grant unfair advantage
(vi) Custom alien vision is expressly prohibited
(b) Players may not cheat
(c) Players may not engage in unfriendly, unsportsmanlike, or other behaviour not in keeping with the ideals of good sportsmanship.
12. Permitted Strategies
(a) Where consistent with part 11 and excepting sections 12(b) and 12(c), players may use any and all tactics and strategies to win.
(b) Players may not
(i) Place structures in places where it is reasonably clear that the structure is out of the bounds of normal play on a map (For example, on top of wall geometry).
(ii) Use any macros, scripts, or other tools outside NS2 that confir unfair advantage.
(c) In the NS2 versions used during the contest, there are likely to be bugs and other code flaws capable of materially affecting gameplay outcomes and influencing gameplay in ways that are obvious to any reasonable player as being inappropriate. Players may not exploit such flaws.
13. Rule Enforcement
(a) The organiser may at their discretion apply penalties to players and teams that fail to abide by the rules set out herein and directives of the organiser and admins. These penalties will be proportionate and fair, and applied in the interest of maintaining fair play, a positive contest atmosphere, the reputation of sponsors and the integrity of the contest and NS2 for current and future players.
[PART TWO IN SECOND POST]