This document ("Rules") sets forth the rules of game play, general rules, procedures and penalties for HoN Tour Open and stand alone events presented by Frostburn Studios, LLC. By submitting an entry or participating in any tournament you agree to have read, accept and respect the "Rules".

a) In-Game Name ( or IGN) - a player's pseudonym/ Heroes of Newerth account name, used for registration and identification during the tournament.
b) Player - Any participant who meets the eligibility requirements and registers for an event.
c) Team - A group of players that competes in HoN Tour events or stand alone events. Consists of a maximum of 7 players.
d) Team Member (or Member) - a player that is part of a team.
e) Team Representative - a team member that represents the team, manages it and is responsible for the interaction with admins or other teams.
f) Admin (or HoN Tour Admin) - A designated individual presiding over HoN Tour events who is responsible for enforcing the Rules and is to be contacted by Team Representatives regarding any Disputes or Match rescheduling. A list containing the In-Game Names of the Admins can be found at the Support page. The Head Admin presides over the HoN Tour Admins.
g) Shoutcasting Group (Coverage Partners or Caster) - official Shoutcasting Groups that have been verified and are allowed to stream or cast HoN Tour Matches.
h) Tournament (Event) - a tournament that is hosted on Hontour.com, either part of the HoN Tour Season, a tournament series or as a stand alone event.
i) Map - A Heroes of Newerth virtual environment on which teams compete.
j) Game - One Heroes of Newerth session of play, played between 2 teams, ending when a winning condition has been met. A game is identified by an ID and a Replay.
k) Match - A match is composed of a series of Games.
l) Winning conditions - for a Team to win a Game, one of the following conditions must be met:

a) Team destroys the opposing team's World Tree/Sacrificial Shrine
b) Opposing team passes a vote to concede
c) All players on opposing team disconnect
OR
d) Opposing team forfeits the game or match.

m) Round - A round is composed of several matches, the winners of these matches proceed to the next round.
n) Disputes (or Disputed) - A controversy over a match where teams or players disagree and present to an Admin for a decision.
o) Warning - A verbal or written indication from an Admin towards a team or player, given for disrespecting the rules.
p) Forfeit - a team surrendering a match to the opposition, voluntarily or by the ruling of Admins, is considered a forfeit.
q) Disqualification (or Disqualified) - The removal of a team or player from the current HoN Tour Season or Event by an Admin, for violation of the Rules. After being disqualified, team or player may not allowed to play in any matches for the remainder of the season or event.
r) Disconnect - When a player's connection drops unexpectedly from a match due to connectivity issues.
s) Ghost (or Ghosting) - Giving in-game information about a team's position, ward placement or any vital information, to its opposing team.
t) Account sharing - Giving your account’s password to another person, and such person using your account is considered account sharing. Account sharing is prohibited.
u) Dirty ringing - A person playing for a team, using the account of a team member without being the owner of that account. Dirty ringing is prohibited.

1. Players

1.1. Eligibility
a) Any player that normally has access to the NA/EU/AUS/LAT/CIS client may participate in tournaments hosted on Hontour.com.
b) If a player is banned from Heroes of Newerth, such player will not be allowed to play in HoN Tour events for the duration of the ban.

1.2. Prohibited actions
a) Account sharing is prohibited
b) Dirty ringing is prohibited.
c) A player cannot be in 2 teams at once and cannot use more than one registered account.
d) A player that participated in an event with a team, cannot play for another team during the same event.

1.3. Player's Responsibility
It is the player's responsibility to:
a) show up on time
b) know the schedule
c) respect the rules
d) remove all mods before tournament matches

1.4. Team Representative’s Responsibility
It is the Team Representative to:
a) sign-up for events where needed
b) communicate with opponents
c) communicate with Admins
d) handle any other issue that may come up

2. TEAMS

2.1. Team components
A team is composed of 1 Captain and maximum 6 members out of which one can be Co-Captain. The Captain and Co-Captain are able to draft. The Team Representative is any of these players (is not necessarily the "Captain" shown on team profile).

2.2. Team permissions
The Captain is able to disband the team. The Captain and Co-Captain are able to manage the team’s roster (promote to a higher rank - at most equal to their own, demote, or kick from the team) and edit information via the team profile.

2.3. Team disband
Once a team is disbanded via “Disband” button it cannot be recovered, the team is disqualified from the current HoN Tour season and the team’s points are erased.

2.4. HoN Tour Open - Roster adds & limitations
For the roster used to play in the HoN Tour Open Qualifiers the following limitations apply:
a) Teams may add players prior to the start of the HoN Tour Open Qualifiers, and during the event until they reached the maximum of 7 players.
b) Teams may shuffle any number of players for the second Qualifier if they fail to reach the Playoffs after the first Qualifier.
c) Teams are allowed a maximum of 7 players per Qualifier.

2.5. Roster lock during the event
Roster is locked if the brackets are made, contact an Admin to perform any roster adds if new members can't join.

2.6. Playoffs Roster Rules
a) A team that has qualified for the Playoffs must provide their 5 man roster (composed of the members that have participated in the respective Qualifier) plus 2 substitutes to the HoN Tour staff by Wednesday, 22nd February 2024. b) If a roster is not provided, the Playoffs spot will be given to a runner-up team.

2.7. World Finals Roster Lock
a) A roster cannot be changed after a team qualifies for the World Finals.
b) In case more than 5 players are used during the Playoffs, the winning team must submit their 5 man roster for the World Finals. This 5 man roster must be selected from the players who have participated in the Playoffs.
c) If the invited team cannot provide their 5 man roster, the invitation will go to the runner-up team.

2.8. Traveling Disqualification
All players from the winning team must be able to travel to the World Finals in Bangkok, Thailand from March 27th - April 3rd, 2024. If any member of the team cannot meet these conditions, the team will be automatically disqualified and their position will be given to the next qualifying team. If only 1 player from the team cannot travel due to visa restrictions or other traveling complications, an exception may be made and a replacement may join the team. Frostburn Studios reserves the right to make the decision on this ruling.

2.9. Traveling Information
All players from the winning team must submit their travel information to Frostburn Studios immediately after qualifying for the World Finals. This information includes the full name, date of birth, email, and preferred travel airport for each player on the winning team. If this information is not submitted by the end of day on March 5th, Frostburn Studios reserves the right to disqualify the team and offer the position to the next qualifying team.

2.10. Ultimate Rulings
Frostburn Studios reserves the right to make any decision that they deem necessary, including but not limited to:
a) Disqualification of a team
b) Determination of tie breaking circumstances
c) Final ruling on any conflict or dispute
d) Adjustment or modification to any rule at any time throughout the tournament

2.11. Stand-alone Events (Weekly Cups & Others)
There is no limit and no penalty to join a team that participates in stand-alone events unless specified otherwise. These roster adds may be removed after the event ends. All other HoN Tour rules apply.

2.12. Returning to your team
Teams will suffer no penalty when returning to their original team after changing teams to participate in a stand-alone event. Contact an Admin for help if necessary.

1. Disputes and Admin decisions
Any disputes that arise during gameplay should be addressed after the game finishes and reported to a HoN Tour admin along with supporting evidence (screenshots, match ID’s, and/or stream links).
All disputes may be appealed to the Head Admin in the event you feel that you were treated unfairly by an Administrator. Any decision made by the Head Administrator is final and may not be appealed further.

2. Sportsmanship
All Players will be required to uphold and observe an universal level of sportsmanship. Unsportsmanlike conduct includes, but is not limited to, racism, use of profanity, rude acts, vulgar acts, acts of belligerence, and disrespect towards players, Admins, or any person involved with HoN Tour Open and stand alone events.

3. Streaming, casting and spectating

3.1. 6 minute Delay Rule
The broadcaster must enable a 6 minute delay for any streamed HoN Tour match or stand alone event

3.2. Who can stream
a) Any player may stream from a first person point of view, as long as they let the opponents know. Such player may receive an Official Warning if he disrespects this (See Penalties).
b) Approved casters and co-casters may broadcast the match.

3.3. Spectating limitations
a) Mentor Player and Spectate Player functions do not work as Tournament Rules is enabled.
b) Apart from Admins, Frostburn Staff and approved casters and co-casters, the HoN Tour system does not allow other observers.

3.4. Becoming an approved caster/co-caster
Please refer to the Caster application to apply to become an approved caster for games using the HoN Tour system.

4. Pausing streamed Games before creep spawn.
a) If the match is being streamed, teams are allowed to pause before the first creeps spawn, but the game must be resume after a total of 5 minutes of paused time.
b) Opponents have the right to unpause anytime after 5 minutes have passed from the second the Pause Vote is called.

5. Covering mini-map during Streamed Games.
If a streamed game is paused, streamers should cover their minimaps to prevent ghosting or accidently giving away any valuable information.

6. Admin rulings and Exploitation of Rules
- If a player attempts to manipulate or exploit the Rules in any way other than for its intended use, Admins reserve the right to make a final ruling on the rule in question for the given match and/or dispute.
- Admins reserve the right to make a final ruling for situations that are not covered by the rules, or make exceptions in rare cases.

7. Prize Policy

7.1. HoN Tour Open prizes
a) Cash prizes will be sent to Team Representatives via Paypal, and they will be contacted personally for further details.
b) Team Representatives are responsible for appropriately dividing and distributing the cash prizes between the team members.
c) Flights and accommodation prizing will be communicated to the Team Representatives once it has been planned.

7.2. Other Events prizes
a) Gold coins and in-game content: Team Representatives must submit a HoN Tour ticket to our Helpdesk specifying how to distribute the prize. If no request was filed, then the prize will be distributed evenly between players that played.
b) Cash prizes will be sent to Team Representatives via Paypal, and they will be contacted personally for further details.
c) Team Representatives are responsible for appropriately dividing and distributing the cash prizes between the team members.
d) Hardware prizes will be sent to each player, and they will be contacted personally for further details.

The following warning and penalty systems apply globally for ALL events hosted on Hontour.com (this includes both HoN Tour Open matches and stand-alone events).

1. Warning Types:
- Verbal warning - given on a first minor offense, or in case of inconclusive data. May be given a few times before an Official warning is issued, depending on situation.
- 1st Official Warning - given on the first offense or after the verbal warning.
- 2nd Official Warning - given on the second offense.
- 3rd Official Warning - given on the third offense.

In general, for one offence a player will receive a verbal warning or an official warning (1st, 2nd or 3rd).
If the whole team is guilty, all players involved will receive a warning.

2. Banned from events - 3 Official Warnings
Once a player receives a 3rd Official Warning, the player is banned from participating in any events on Hontour.com (this includes both HoN Tour Open and stand-alone events) for six months.

3. Forfeiting Penalties
The following apply for all events hosted on Hontour.com:
a) Forfeiting any game of a match, results in a match and round forfeit.
b) Forfeiting a match will result in the following penalties:
- first non-bye round in Single Elimination: 100% reduction of points and prize.
- other rounds: if a team played over 51% of their matches (x% matches played), they receive x% of the points and prizepool.
c) Excluding the first round - a team that forfeits a Winner Bracket round may play in the following Loser Bracket round.

4. Account sharing - Penalties
Upon investigation, if a player is found to have shared their account (another person has used any alt account in the account cluster) the player will be advised to change the account’s password and:
a) Conclusive proof (intentional share): such a player will receive one Official Warning.
b) Inconclusive proof: such player may receive a Verbal Warning if needed.

5. Dirty Ringing - Penalties
Upon investigation, if a player is found to have used another player’s account in order to play for a team, the following will happen:
a) Conclusive proof:
- all members of the team (that used a dirty ringer) that played and the dirty ringer will receive an Official Warning
- a 20% points and prize deduction will be applied per dirty ringer used.

b) Inconclusive proof: the player that owns the account may receive a Verbal warning if needed, and be advised to change the account’s password.

6. Ghosting - Penalties
Upon investigation, if a player is found to have ghosted during an event, the following will happen:
a) Conclusive proof: such a player will receive an Official Warning or will be disqualified.
b) Inconclusive proof: such a player may receive a verbal warning.

7. Pausing a streamed before creeps spawn - Penalties
a) If in a streamed game the total amount of pauses exceeds 5 minutes before creeps spawn, all members will receive either a Verbal or an Official Warning.
b) If a player streams from a first-person perspective and fails to notify their opponents, leading to a violation of Rule 6. Pausing streamed Games before creep spawn, the offending player will receive an Official Warning.

8. Unsportsmanlike conduct - Penalties
Disrespecting the Sportsmanship rules will result in penalties at Admin discretion.

9. Disrespecting Admin rulings & dragging matches
If a situation arrises and an Admin made a ruling about a match, players must respect the Admin's ruling. Refusing to comply (and dragging out the respective situation or match) may result in a penalty at Admin discretion.

10. Delays due to MODS
If a team causes delays due to MODS (players not removing MODS) for more than 3 times in a month, in any events, such team may receive an Official Warning.

11. Penalties Disclaimer
If the player commits a gross infraction of the Rules a harsher penalty may be applied as needed and at Admin discretion. Penalties may be issued up to and including temporary or permanent bans from Hontour.com events.

These Game Rules apply to any events hosted through the HoN Tour system.

1.1 Match Scheduling - All matches will be scheduled via the HoN Tour scheduling system. The schedule for any events hosted through this system can be viewed at CALENDAR.

1.2. Reschedule

The rounds that may be rescheduled are:
- Weekdays rounds - within the respective day, or with Admin approval to another day
- Weekend rounds - HoN Tour Open: on the first Sunday of the cycle, the last round of the day (applies to all divisions)
- Weekend rounds - stand alone events: may be allowed depending on the overall schedule of the event.

Condition: a rescheduled match must be finished before the next scheduled round, and both Team Representatives must agree and contact the same admin.

Exception: teams may reschedule a match IF the servers experience downtime during the scheduled play time of a match. No team will be penalized in the event that HoN Servers are down.

2. Match Play

2.1. Entering the lobby
If a player has to play in a scheduled match, the “HoN Tour” button appears instead of “Play Now” button in the Heroes of Newerth client.
The player has the option to accept the HoN Tour match, cancel, or access team matchmaking, once the “HoN Tour” button is clicked.
The lobbies will stay open 30 minutes before and 10 minutes after the posted start time of the round.

2.2. Ready Up and Game Start - All team members must ready up before the 40 minutes lobby expires, else such team will Forfeit, even if all members are present.

2.3. Broadcasted Matches Start time - if a match is going to be covered by Honcast or an officially appointed broadcaster, the respective teams must start the match UNTIL scheduled time (they no longer have the +10 minutes after scheduled time).

2.4. Automated Game Creation - The game is automatically hosted by the system, with the correct specification and server.

2.5. Automated Side selection - For the first game in a series, the side will be automatically and randomly selected by the system for each team. For subsequent Games, the sides will alternate.

2.6. Automated Server selection
The games of HoN Tour matches will be automatically hosted on servers according to each team's home region from their team profile on the HoN Tour website following the list below:

- EU vs EU: EU server
- EU vs USE: First server: random between USE or EU server, for subsequent games the server will be alternated.
- EU vs USW: USE server
- EU vs AUS: USW server
- US vs US: US server
- US vs AUS: USW server
- LAT based teams: register as USW
- CIS based teams: register as EU

2.7. Lobby crash / Fail to load - If teams fail to load in the picking screen, or lobby does not function properly, such lobby may be remade by Admins. If the lobby is remade in such circumstances, and a team received a Forfeit due to the system malfunction, such forfeit will be erased from the score.

3. In-Game Procedures

3. 1. Pause - Each team is entitled to two pauses, each lasting a maximum of ten minutes. Opponent team may not unpause during this time.

3. 2. Pause Abuse - If a team does not have a reason for the pause and abuses its right (example: pausing for no reason 2 times in a row, wasting 20 minutes of the opponents time), the team may be subject to penalty at Admin discretion.

3. 3. Disconnects - Unintentional
If a player unintentionally disconnected at any point in the game, either team may pause the game. After a period of 20 minutes (or 2 uninterrupted pauses) either team may choose to continue on without the player's presence. If the player completely drops from the game, any items the player may have obtained throughout the course of the game are eligible to be used by any player who would pick them up.

3.4. Disconnects - Intentional
If a player intentionally leaves after the match has started, the team may continue to play without them.

3.5. Remake - If a game is remade, the players must join the HoN Tour game lobby again and all players must press the "Ready" button in order for the new game to start.

3.5.1 Remake in case of Server Crash
If the server crashes, Team Representatives are required to contact the same admin to solve the issue.

3.5.2. Remake - Player disconnects during Picking Phase
a)Blue or Pink Player disconnects (Lock Pick, Banning Pick, Captain's Pick and Banning Draft modes.)
- Any locks, bans and picks BEFORE the Blue/Pink Player disconnected, are required to be repeated.
- Any locks, bans and picks AFTER the Blue/Pink Player disconnected have no value and teams may pick, lock and ban other heroes.
b) Player disconnects (all modes and all players, except the players from a).)
- Teams continue the picking phase, then either team may request a remake.
- Players are required to pick same heroes they had once the game started, the disconnected player's team is allowed to swap heroes, while the other team cannot.

3.5.3 Remake - Player disconnects after Picking Phase and server issues
a) Player disconnects before either team left the base - remake with the same draft and lanes is allowed.
b) Player disconnects after lanes are visible or there was kill - remake is allowed only with admin approval AND new draft.
c) Server failure - if a remake is required in case of severe server issues, then it requires admin approval, and to follow the rules 3.5.3. a) and b) for the draft.

3.5.4 Remake - Other Reasons - Opponent Team accepts
A Game may be remade if a remake vote is passed by both teams.
Admins may force remake a game if the remake vote is still active.

4. Forfeits

4.1. Forfeit - one team is missing players
If a team does not have the required number of players (5 for 5v5, 3 for 3v3, etc.) and they are not readied up before timer ends (10 minutes after scheduled start time OR 10 minutes after last round ended for delayed matches), then such team will forfeit the game and the opposing team wins. The HoN Tour system will automatically grant the forfeit win to the opposing team.

4.2. Double Forfeit - BOTH teams do not have enough members
If both teams forfeit (as defined at 4.1.) the HoN Tour system will automatically grant a double forfeit.

4.3. Forfeit in the first round of the tournament
Any forfeits in the first round of a tournament leads to automatic disqualification of the entire event.

4.4. Forfeit a certain game during a match
Forfeiting any game within a match will result in a match forfeit.

5. Match Reporting:
The HoN Tour system automatically reports match results.

6. Restrictions

6. 1. Hero and Item Restrictions - unless otherwise specified, all items that are available in the Tournament Rules game options are permitted in HoN Tour events.

6. 2. Hero Skill Restrictions - Fissure Blocking: blocking allied or enemy creeps is deemed legal. Pulling Ancients into the lane creeps, using Devourer or Behemoth is deemed illegal.

6. 3. Strategy Limitations - There are no item limitations. Backdooring is allowed.

6. 4. Game Exploits and Violations - It is illegal to intentionally utilize any game exploits for the purpose of generating a competitive advantage. Admins have discretion to determine the intention and extent of the violation and penalty.

6. 5. Hacking - Hacking in any form is considered a violation of the Game Play Rules and will result in immediate player disqualification. Hacking includes, but is not limited to: map hacks, unit hacks, or any third party program not deemed legal by an Admin.

7. Game Chat - Game chat is permitted as long as it is done in a sportsmanlike manner. All chat should be kept to a minimum. Chat violations fall under unsportsmanlike conduct and may be disputed, resulting in an Admin enforcing a penalty.

The Rules may change at any time. It is the players’ responsibility to keep up to date. Once rules are modified the date below will be updated.

Frostburn Studios reserves to add, change, or modify any rule as they see fit.