The Warcraft3.info League (here and elsewhere referred to as “W3iL”) is a Warcraft 3 association of clans to compete among themselves. The official W3iL webpage is https://warcraft3.info/league.

Clan

Participating teams will be referred to as "Clan". Each Clan must consist of at least six members at all times, else it is deemed inactive.

Team Manager

Every Clan has to assign a Team Manager, who is responsible for a Clan and is the entity that will receive any prizes that Clan wins. The Team Manager can be a player or another person. The Team Managers must have access to an active PayPal account to receive prizes.
Team Managers are in charge of scheduling the clan wars and will handle the communication with the admin team.

Player

Each player may belong to no more than one Clan within the W3iL.

League Admins

League Admins are the officials designated by the W3iL as such for the purpose of administering, monitoring and judging any aspect of the W3iL competition. They are the final authority on all rules.

League Admins are:

Clan War

When two Clans in the W3iL compete against each other, it is termed a Clan War. A Clan war consists of a set of four (4) one vs. one (1on1) matches and one (1) two vs. two (2on2) matches.

Match

A Match is part of a clan war and is played between either two (1on1) or four (2on2) players. The first player(s) who win(s) two maps, win(s) the match.

Game

A Match consists of at least two and no more than three individual games. Every game is played on a map from the mappool (7.4.) of the associated format (1on1 or 2on2). A map can only be picked once per match.

Points

The Clans earn points by winning games within the matches.

If a match is won 2:0, the winning Clan earns three (3) points and the losing Clan none (0).

If a match is won 2:1, the winning Clan earns two (2) points and the losing Clan one (1) .

General

Commitments

Every player must own a legal copy of WarCraft III: The Frozen Throne or WarCraft III: Reforged to participate in W3iL.
Players agree without reservations to comply with the rules and regulations as well as the decisions made by the League Admins. The application of these rules and regulations is at the sole discretion of the admins. Any decisions made may overrule the following rules and regulations to maintain the spirit of competition. Players must obey the instructions made by the admins at all times.
Every player acknowledges the right of the admins to modify these rules and regulations at any given time and without prior notice.
Every player is asked to maintain an adequate level of respect and friendliness with the other players and the admins. Insults and unfair or disrespectful behavior towards the admins and the other players will not be tolerated.
Participants must be at least 14 years old at the time of competing.

Game Accounts

Every player is required to list the Battle.net Battletag that is used to participate in their profile on the W3iL official page.
Every player is responsible for updating their game account if they decide to use a new game account to participate.
The use of a game account other than the one listed on a player’s profile is prohibited.
The use of multiple accounts for the same tournament is prohibited.
All players agree to their game accounts being visible to third parties.

League language

English is the official language during a clan war, both in game and any official W3iL channel.

Clans

Requirements

The Clan must be created on the W3iL webpage.
All clans must consist of at least six members at their registration. The same applies for existing clans who participated in the last season, or else be deemed inactive in the W3iL.
All members must register themselves and join the clan on the W3iL webpage.

Academy Teams

Clans may have one Academy Team. Academy Teams may not play in the same group as their main team. An Academy Team will be excluded from the Playoffs if the main team qualifies for the playoffs. With the signup it has to be clearly determined if one team is an Academy Team or not.

Lineup Changes and Transfers

Lineup changes must be approved by the Admins.

Removing Players

Removing existing players from the Clan roster due to personal issues, clan decision or bans is allowed. The Admins must be informed immediately.

If a removed player has already played a match in the running season of the W3iL they are locked to their initial Clan and cannot participate with another Clan for the rest of the season. This rule also applies for Academy Teams.

Hiring Players

Clans are permitted to hire two additional players during an active season of W3iL, as long as the player has not participated in any match for that season yet.
Players who have been part of a Clan during the season, but have not played a match, are permitted to transfer to another team.
If the number of players drops below six members, Clans are permitted to hire additional players under these limitations.

Transfers

All other transfer scenarios between two clans are not permitted during a running season of W3iL.

Competition System

The competition consists of the following stages:

Signup
Preliminary Round

The Main Season
The Playoffs

Signup

Dates

The signup phase and it’s dates will be announced by the Admins at the beginning of a new season.

Requirements

The Clan must fit into the regulations of section 4.1..

In order to sign up, an official request from the Clan’s Team Manager must be sent to an Admin.

The Admins have the authority to deny a request at all times, even if the requirements of 4.1. are fulfilled.

Existing Clans do not need to sign up for the following season and remain in the W3iL, unless they no longer fulfill the requirements of the League, deny their participation at the end of a season or are excluded by the Admins.

Preliminary Round

In order to reduce the amount of participating Clans within the W3iL, there may be a Preliminary Round. If a Preliminary Round is held, it will be announced by the Admins before the beginning of the Main Season, as well as the applied format.

The Main Season

Format

Depending on the number of participating teams the format will be as follows: The Main Season is played in a mixed system (see below) with two groups.

The main season will be played in a mix between the swiss and the danish system. At the start of a season, teams will face randomly drawn opponents with the same win-record, until this is no longer possible. Once a team can not be matched with a team with equal score, they will face the team closest to them in the standings. After 6 playdays, the top 4 teams of each group will qualify for a single elimination play-off bracket. (See 5.4)

The group draw/seeding and the matches on the first play week will be determined by the placement in the previous season. New Clans are seeded by the admins.

Ranking

The criteria for the ranking are as follows (in this order):

Clan Wars won

The amount of Clan Wars being won during the Main Season.

Points

The number of points earned during the season (2.9.). Penalty points apply for this criteria.

Buchholz-Score

In case of a tie in the first three criteria, the Buchholz-Score applies. The score is based on the strength of the opponents the team defeated during the season. A win gives the team half the points of the number of the wins from the opponent (for example against a team with four (4) wins it gives you two (2) points, against a team with five (5) wins, 2,5 points and so on. The cumulated points by this system will be compared against the Buchholz-Score betweens tied teams.

Direct comparison (only for playoffs-seeds)

In the event that two Clans are tied, the direct comparison Clan War within that Main Season will be the decider.

Decider (only for playoffs-seeds)

In the event that two Clans are still tied after the ranking criteria described above they have to play a Clan War to decide who advances to the playoffs.

In case of an unbreakable tie between more than two Clans, the final ranking will be determined by Ace Matches.

Therefore the Team Manager must designate a Champion to compete in deciding best of three 1on1 Matches between the tied Clans.

The Playoffs

Format

The top four Clans of each Group A and Group B after the Main Season are seeded into a single elimination bracket as follows: First place (Group A) against fourth place (Group B) and second place (Group A) against third place (Group B) and vice versa.

Therefore the playoffs start with the Quarterfinals. The Playoffs are played in a single-elimination-format.

One Clan War is played in every round of the Playoffs.

5.4.2. applies.

Ranking

A Clan which scores eight points advances to the next round automatically. The remaining games and/or maps are not required to be played. Clans earn points as per rule 2.9..

Prizes

The W3iL prize pool is crowdfunded. The crowdfunding website can be found here. Every donation raises the total prize pool.

The top three teams are rewarded with the following distribution:

1st 50 % of the prize pool
2nd 35 % of the prize pool
3rd 15 % of the prize pool

The prize money shall be transferred no later than 30 days after the conclusion of the grand final via Paypal to the respective Team Managers’ accounts.

Clan Wars

Schedule

All Clan Wars schedules are prepared by the admins. The Team Managers are asked to follow the schedule within reason.

If a clan is not able to play the match at the scheduled time, the match may be preponed to a more fitting date and time. Preponing is only possible in regular matches (6.1.2.), and only if the opposing Team Manager and an Admin agree to it and the suggested date.

If Team managers fail to reschedule the Clan War, it will be held as previously scheduled. Active hindrances by Team Managers may be punished with Penalty Points (9.).

It is not allowed to pre-/postpone a single match within a Clan War. All matches must be played within a reasonable and successive time period, allowing for short breaks in between.

Highlighted Clan Wars

Highlighted Clan Wars are chosen to be broadcasted on Sunday 17:00 CET by a Partner Broadcaster (8.). Therefore, Highlighted Clan Wars may not be rescheduled barring exceptional circumstances, which will be judged and addressed with the admins.

All matches are played one by one. It’s at the discretion of the Admins to decide the order of play. If players have limited time on the day of playing, they must inform the admins in good time, in order to schedule games.

In the case a major tournament (such as Warcraft Gold League or similar) occurs at the scheduled time, the Admins have the right to pre- or postpone the match. If no suitable time slot is available, the match may be postponed even further. The final decision is made by the Admins.

Regular Matches

All non-highlighted matches are considered regular matches.

Order of Submatches

The Team Managers must declare the order of matches being played beforehand. The declared order has to be shared with the Admins. In cases the Team Managers fail to find an agreement about the order of matches, all seeded players have to show up at the scheduled time and be available until their last match has been played.

Lineups

The Team Managers seed their players on the W3iL website in parallel and hidden. The Team Managers seed players + every player’s race to random selected starting maps. A map will only be a starting map once for each clan war.

A seeded player (along with his race) cannot be exchanged within the match once they are seeded and confirmed. Players shall only be seeded for one 1on1 match of a clan war and a subsequent 2on2 match if required.

Seedings must be entered on the W3iL website no later than 30 minutes before the clan war.

The lineups will be released when the Clan War starts.

Vetoing

In each match both 1on1 players and 2on2 teams may veto two maps. Those maps are eliminated from the match and will not be played.

After the starting map (game 1) is played, both players/teams veto in following order (A=winner, B=loser): A-B-A-B ⇒ The loser from first map (B) picks then the second map, if a third map is required the last remaining map will be played.

Match Regulations

Game Version

All games are to be played on the latest Battle.net official game version. Using other game clients, such as Netease or similar, is prohibited.

Game Settings

The match settings have to meet the following requirements:

Game Speed: Fast
Lock Teams: Yes
Random Races: No
Random Hero: No

Observers: Full Observer

Visibility: Default

Handicap: 100%

If the game is broadcasted, players are to use Red, Blue or Yellow as their colours. The player or team mentioned first in the grid has to pick red.

Hosting

Games will be hosted by one of the admins or a team manager (as long as the manager is not participating in that map).
Games will be hosted on the location that provides the fairest conditions to all participants. Admins have the authority to determine the location.
The host shall only start a game if all participants are ready.
Admins and players must make sure the correct map is hosted.
A protest after the game has been played for more than one minute is void.
If one of the participants experiences temporary difficulties during a game, they must communicate this to their opponent by taking a timeout.
If the problem is not fixable without leaving the game, It is the Admin’s decision on how to proceed, taking into account any existing schedule and the current state of the game.

Maps

These are the maps included for 1on1 and 2on2 games:

1on1 map pool

Amazonia
Autumn Leaves
Concealed Hill
Echo Isles
Last Refuge
Northern Isles
Terenas Stand LV

2on2 map pool

Hillsbrad Creek
Goldshire
Gnoll Wood
Lost Temple LV
Tidewater Glaves
Turtle Rock
Twisted Meadows

Map versions

Games are to be played on the W3Champions-versions of the maps. It is not allowed to play on map versions that differ from the W3C-ladder maps.This also means that the zoom-function is allowed (see 7.11.).

Hosting another a map version different than the regular ones will result in a warning or in penalty points (see 10. Penalty Points and Punishments).

Races

Players are not permitted to switch their races within a match.
The race chosen in progress of seeding by the Team Manager (race on the official homepage), is their selected race for the duration of that match.
Switching races results in a default loss of that Game.

Observers

In every case, observers must not type any message during the Clan Wars. Failing to comply after one warning can lead to further Penalty Points and exclusion from observing future games.

Broadcasted games

Whenever a game is broadcasted, only Team Managers, Official Broadcaster and Admins are allowed to observe the games.
Other, unrelated observers are forbidden.
Only one Team Manager per Clan is allowed as an observer.
In the case where a game lobby is full, the priority described above determines who is permitted to stay in the game

7.6.2 Regular games

Games without Broadcasters may be observed by the participating Clans, as long as both Team Managers agree.

Match Results

After a match is finished, the Team Managers must enter the result on the W3iL website immediately.

Replays

After a Clan War is complete, the Team Managers of the participating Clans are responsible for sharing all replay files with the Admins by uploading them to the official webpage. Replays are a proof of victory, therefore the winning Players Clan of each unique Game must provide the replay. The replays have to be uploaded within three days. The Deadline begins the day after the Clan War was played, using CET timing.

If replays are not shared with admins within time, the responsible Clan will be punished with penalty points.

Disconnects

In the event of a disconnect during the first four minutes of the game, the game will be restarted provided there was no major contact between the players or that no major event occured (such as but not limited to a hero kill or AOW loss). In case of dispute, an admin will decide to grant a regame or not.
If a player disconnects after the fourth minute has passed, it is up to their opponent whether the match will be restarted or not. An Admin must be informed no matter the decision.
If the disconnected participant was clearly winning the match, the replay must be sent to an Admin who will then decide whether the match will be restarted.
In the case of a rematch the participants must choose the same races they picked in the initial match. If a participant chose random races, they must pick the race received in the initial match.

Default Wins

Under the following circumstances, a Team Manager may claim a default win by contacting an admin:

Technical loss can be given for abusing ingame bugs. Decisions are made by the admins.
A player has the right to take a break in the game for up to 5 minutes. If the pause is prolonged, the opponent has the right to call for the techwin by admins's decision.
If a player is missing at the scheduled time and fails to arrive within the following 15 minutes, the opposing team has the right to claim Default Win for all matches involving the missing player.

Third-Party programs and Cheating

The use of cheats, hacks, smurfing or account sharing are strictly forbidden. The zoom-function from the W3Champions-client is allowed.
It is forbidden to watch or to listen to any sort of broadcast of your own matches while the match is still underway.
The Admins reserve the right to ban participants from the league because they have been banned from other leagues or tournaments for cheating or unfair behavior.
Any kind of unmannered behavior (insulting, profanity etc.) is forbidden and will be punished.

Broadcasting

Permission

Regular Clanwars

In order to cast a Clanwar, the caster has to write one of the team managers via Discord at least one hour before the Clanwar a short message with his Battle.net-ID.

Highlighted Clanwars

For highlighted Clanwars the caster has to write the responsible admin via Discord at least one hour before the Clanwar starts a short message with his Battle.net-ID and his twitch-link.

Stream delay

No stream delay is required.

Multiple Broadcasters

If there are more Broadcasters interested in casting a game than slots available, it is the Admin’s decision on which broadcaster is given priority.

Player Streams

Players are permitted to Stream their own games in first person view. If players want to stream other games, they are considered Broadcasters and must be approved by the Admins as per 9.1..

Penalty Points and Punishments

Violations against those rules will be punished with Penalty Points. Penalty Points last for the entire season. The Points (2.9.) scored by a Clan during the season is reduced by the amount of Penalty Points the Clan received.

as following:

Aliasing

Both involved players are banned for the whole season.

The Clan shall receive 15 Penalty Points

All involved Matches are lost for the violating Clan

Hindering to schedule

Team Managers who refuse to communicate with the opposing Clan or fail to give proper options for rescheduling a Clan War on time, shall be punished as following:

The first offense will result in a warning by the admin team.

The second offense incurs 2 Penalty Points, if no improvement has been archived.

In cases no improvement occurs, 5 Penalty Points shall be incurred and the Clan may be excluded from the league. The decision is made by the Admins.

Failing to organise / Missing seedings

If a Clan is failing to organise the Clan War and doesn’t provide seedings at the defined starting time (default time, if no starting time was defined) of a Clan War or similar faults which result in the Clan War is not being played at the scheduled time, the Clan is punished as following:

The first case is punished with 5 Penalty Points, the second and third case with 10 Penalty Points. For the third case, the responsible Team Manager may also be excluded from the season.

The Clan War may be held at a later time. The decision is made by the admins.

No showing

If a Clan’s player is failing to show up at the scheduled time, it’s Clan is punished as following:

The first offense will result in a warning by the Admins. The second case is followed with 2 Penalty Points. Any further violations result in 5 Penalty Points each. The concerned Match(es) is/are lost in all cases.

Unsportsmanship and rude behavior

Unsportsmanship and/or rude behavior (e.g. offensive language, troll pausing during the match, offence / insulting behavior towards players or admins in game or on social media) is punished with Penalty Points.

The first case is punished with 1 Penalty Point, the second case with 5 Penalty Points and the third case with 10 Penalty Points. The player may be excluded from the season.

Missing Replay

If a Team Manager fails to share a replay with the Admins as explained in 8.8., the Clan will be punished with 1 Penalty Point per missing replay.

Chatting while Observing

Chatting during a game is punished as following:

The first case results in a warning, following cases are dealt with 1 Penalty Point for the Clan. The chatting player will lose his permission to observe following games for the rest of the season. The same applies for chatting casters.

Match fixing

Match fixing results in a permanent ban of the affected player. All affected matches are lost for it’s Clan. In cases the Clan is involved, the Clan may be excluded from the league permanently.

Hacking

Confirmed Hackers are permanently banned from the W3iL. All played matches are lost. In cases the Clan is involved, the Clan may be excluded from the league permanently.

Hosting wrong map-version

Hosting another version than the Warcraft3-Champion-version will result in a rehost if it gets clear within the first two minutes of a game. Repeated and/or intended violations will get a warning at the first time. At the second time it will be punished with 1 Penalty point and a defloss for this game. At the third time the Clan will be punished with 4 Penalty Points and a 0-2 defloss for the affected match (not the entire clanwar).