Teamfight Tactics Rulebook

I. Overview

We’re excited to have you for CEA’s second Teamfight Tactics tournament! The competition will take place weekly over the course of Set 11, with teams of 4 competing head-to-head in Swiss rounds before cutting to a single elimination bracket.

Each week, your team of 4 will play best of three matches against your assigned opponent. For each placement one of your players earns, your team will receive points from eight for first place down to one for eighth. After each game, the team with more points will be determined the winner of the game.

The teams with the most wins will advance to single elimination playoffs, where they will play best of five matches instead, with the same scoring mechanism, until one team is crowned the champion.

II. Season Schedule

Week 0 is a mandatory practice week to prepare for the regular season. While matchups will be made available, results will not count towards Regular Season standings.

April 20: Week 0 (Pre-season)

April 27: Regular Season Week 1

May 4: Regular Season Week 2

May 11: Regular Season Week 3

May 18: Regular Season Week 4

June 1: Regular Season Week 5

June 8: Playoffs Round 1

June 15: Playoffs Round 2

June 22: Playoffs Round 3 (if necessary)

III. Tournament Rules

Tournament structure

The pre-season match will follow the same rules as the regular season to help teams and CEA staff identify logistics issues. The results of the pre-season match will not be used to determine playoffs qualification. Teams will receive an opponent or a bye and are expected to follow all rules relating to match scheduling, gameplay, and reporting of results.

The regular season will comprise five weeks of best-of-three matches and will be used to determine which teams qualify for the playoffs phase, as well as the seeding for those teams. Each week, teams will be matched with an opponent or given a bye following a non-elimination Swiss format.

The playoffs will be a single elimination tournament bracket spanning three more weeks of play and comprising the top teams from the regular season. Playoff matches will be best-of-five games.
Weekly schedule

Matches will be distributed each week on Monday.

Lineup submissions are due on Friday at 12PM Pacific Time or 24 hours before each scheduled match.

Matches are expected to begin on Saturday at 12PM Pacific Time absent rescheduling.

Match results are due by Sunday at 4PM Pacific Time.
Team registration

Player eligibility: All players participating in the TFT competition must have an active North American League of Legends account in good standing displayed on their tournament interface profile. Only registered team members playing under their main account are allowed to play for a team. If their main account is not in North America, the opposing team must be notified with the Summoner Name and region of their main account.

If evidence of a player using a non-primary account is found:

– on the first offense for that player’s team, a warning will be issued to that player’s team and the team must provide the correct Summoner Name on the tournament interface

– on the second offense for that player’s team, CEA admins and Company rep (if there is one) will be notified and player(s) will be suspended for 2 weeks

– on the third offense for that player’s team, the team will be disqualified and all players on the team will be recorded. Punishments will be escalated to second offense if found guilty in following seasons.

All players must have their playcea.gg accounts linked to the correct Summoner Name.

Team rosters: a team may start the season with 4-10 participants. Rules for qualifications for rostered members can be found in the CEA player handbook.

After the beginning of Regular Season play, a player rostered on a team may not transfer to another roster within the same company for the same game without the Game Lead’s approval.

The main circumstance permitting a transfer would be a team losing players and falling below the minimum team size.

Companies with multiple teams playing the same game may have players on multiple rosters as outlined in the general rules on the CEA player handbook. Being a floater is not considered transferring.

After week 2, removing players from the roster does not free up additional spots.

Half-team/joint-team policy: the policy is outlined in the general rules in the CEA player handbook.

Registration: the TFT registration fee will be $160.00USD per team. The captain pays this fee during registration on the CEA website.

Game version: all tournament matches will be played on the live patch of the game.
No-shows and player substitutions

The no-show policy is outlined in the general rules at https://cea.gg/pages/handbook. The game does not allow playing without absent members; each team must field four players.

Players may substitute in following the completion of a game. In other words, in a best-of-three series, Player 1 could play in game one, be substituted for Player 2 in game two, and be substituted back in for game three.
Match rescheduling

The first game of each round must begin at the scheduled time. The default start time for matches is 12 PM Pacific Time. Teams may request to reschedule their match to start at a different date or time between the time the matches are released each week and the following Sunday at 12 PM Pacific Time. For matches with multiple games, teams may agree to play each game at separate times as long as all games of the match are played on the same patch.

For a team to reschedule, a request must be submitted by the team captain to the opposing captain in writing. Opposing captains are under no obligation to accommodate any request. If both captains agree on a new time, they must both notify the organizers via the #reschedule-reporting channel on the Discord server no later than 1PM Pacific Time 24 hours before the earlier of the originally scheduled match time or the newly scheduled time. CEA staff may not be available to assist with issues outside of the Saturday 12 PM window.
Series length

During the pre-season and regular season, teams may optionally agree to play a best-of-one game instead of a best-of-three game. For a team to change its series length, a request must be submitted by the team captain to the opposing captain in writing. Opposing captains are under no obligation to accommodate any request. If both captains agree to shorten their match, they must both notify the organizers via the #reschedule-reporting channel on the Discord server no later than 1PM Pacific Time 24 hours before the scheduled match time.

Scores will still be reported as a best-of-three match. The winning team will submit a 2-0 victory with the scores being duplicated for the second game.

VI. Game Rules

Game setup

The team captain of the team that is on the left side of the bracket is responsible for setting up the lobby by default, creating a Normal TFT game and ensuring the participating rosters of both teams are in the lobby. During playoffs, the higher seed is the host for the match.
Determining winners

Each player will earn points for their team based on their final placement in each game.

1st: 9 points

2nd: 7 points

3rd: 6 points

4th: 5 points

5th: 4 points

6th: 3 points

7th: 2 points

8th: 1 point

The winning team of each game has the most total points earned during that game only.

A team wins a match when:

Best-of-one: the team wins one game.

Best-of-three: the team wins two games.

Best-of-five: the team wins three games.
Match reporting

The winning team’s captain must submit results (game score) to the tournament management platform no later than 4 PM Pacific Time on Sunday. Failure to submit results by the deadline will lead to a warning for the winning team or, at the discretion of the tournament organizer, a loss to both teams. The winner of each game is also expected to post screenshots documenting the game result in the #game-screenshots channel of the Discord server.
Stoppage of play

Currently, Teamfight Tactics games cannot be paused once begun. Players experiencing issues may call for a restart prior to a Game of Record being established.

The player requesting the restart must be experiencing one of the following:

– a hardware malfunction (e.g. any equipment malfunction)

– a physical disruption (e.g. breaking furniture)

They must then declare in all-chat for a restart. The Game Lead should be contacted immediately.

In the event of a game server crash or server-wide connection issue, the game will be voided regardless of outcome and the Game Lead should be contacted immediately.

A game of record (“GOR”) refers to a game where all eight players have loaded and which has progressed to a point of meaningful interaction between opposing teams. Prior to this point, if a serious issue has occurred, players should pause the game and contact CEA administrators to assess the situation. Once a game attains GOR status, the game will be considered as “official” from that point onward. After the establishment of GOR, game restarts will be allowed only with CEA admin approval. TFT games will be treated as GORs at stage 2-1.

The Game Lead may also void the outcome of a game in the event of exceptional circumstances not covered by these terms.
Tournament advancement

After regular season play concludes, the top 8 teams will advance to the playoff bracket. Ties will be broken by:
1. Number of match wins
2. Number of game wins
3. Number of opponent match wins
4. Number of opponent game wins

With wins by forfeit/bye are treated as wins for number of match wins and contribute the team’s average game score for purposes of counting number of opponent game wins.

V. Cheating and Misconduct

CEA policy around cheating and misconduct is outlined in the handbook in the CEA player handbook.

If you, as a Player, sincerely believe that your opponent:

– cheated,

– exhibited behaviour that was hostile, toxic, vulgar or otherwise unacceptable,

– or infringed on either these rules

Please follow this step by step process:

– Take screenshots or make a desktop recording the behaviour in question. Either through use of screenshot tools like Gyazo, or video encoders, such as OBS (both of which are free to use).

– Contact your Team Captain and present your evidence to them.

– Your Team Captain should then contact the Game Lead and make the case clear to them.

– The Game Lead and the CEA team will then decide what action needs to be taken, if any.

Finally, take a deep breath and take a step back. Many players in the CEA are filled with good will and a desire to have fun. Often an incident of cheating is an accident or an honest misunderstanding of the rules.

The CEA investigates thoroughly all claims of cheating. If the CEA determines that a player deliberately and knowingly violated rules set out by the CEA, the game publisher, or game platform in order to achieve an in-game advantage, that player will be removed from all CEA events for the remainder of the season. In addition:

All games in which the cheating player participated will be marked as a loss for the cheating player’s team.

Other penalties will be applied as appropriate.

VI. Contact Info

Discord server: https://discord.gg/cea

Email contacts:

Game and rules related: [email protected]

Business, money, and sponsorship related: [email protected]

Other: [email protected]