UCEA Rocket League Fall Season - Rules

GAME

Entry and Prizing

Entry Fees: $100 USD per team Prizing: $4,500 Prize Pool

First Place Overall: $2,000 USD

Second Place Overall: $1,250 USD

Third Place Overall: $750 USD

Fourth Place Overall: $500 USD

Mode: All games will be three versus three soccar with regulation of five minutes.

Version: The version used will be the most current version approved for play by Psyonix.

Player: All players will have a unique RocketID.

Team Sides: The team coming into the game with the highest seed will be the blue team. The lower seed will be the orange team. If there is no seeding, the team in the top line of the match up will be blue with the lower team being orange.

Account Platform: Teams may compete on either PC, XBOX or PS4. If a team is playing on a PC, they are allowed to use a PS4 or any approved Scuf gaming controller in place of a mouse and keyboard. No mods or additional programs are allowed to be used throughout the duration of the season. All tournament operators reserve the right to randomly check peripherals being used during competition to ensure competitive integrity.

Overtime: If there is no decisive winner during the regulation time, overtime is to be played. The first team to score in overtime will be deemed the winner for that round.

Disconnects: If either team experiences a player disconnect, the following situations will be carried out:

If no score has been made and less than two minutes have passed, the round will be restarted at five minutes.

If no score has been made and more than two minutes have passed, the round will be restarted at the time the disconnect occurred.

If a score existed, no matter what amount of time is left, both sides must confirm the disconnect.

If it is confirmed, the round will be restarted with the time remaining that occurred during the disconnect as well as the score that existed prior.

Disconnects will not affect prior rounds won or lost.

If the disconnected player cannot rejoin, a qualifying substitute player may be subbed in. If there are no substitutes available, then the team will move forward with 2 players.

Server: The blue team will choose the server at the start of the game. After each round, the loser may elect to change the server selection.

Arena: Both teams will mutually agree to an arena to be played prior to start time. If no arena can be decided upon, a tournament operator will be informed. At this point, both teams will choose one arena choice, and the tournament operator will do a coin flip to decide the final selection.

The arenas that can be chosen from are as follows: Aquadome, Champions Field, Champions Field (Day), DFH Stadium (Day), DFH Stadium (Storm), Mannfield, Mannfield (Night), Mannfield (Storm), Neo Tokyo, Salty Shores, Starbase ARC, Urban Central, Urban Central (Dawn), Urban Central (Night), Utopia Coliseum, Utopia Coliseum (Dusk), Wasteland, Wasteland (Night)

REGISTRATION

Eligibility: All teams must be part of a post-secondary institution in the United States or Canada. All teams are required to have a non-player coach or administrator for the team. Main points of contact must be a paid or unpaid official staff member of the respective institution’s esports program. Qualifying institutions may enter up to three different teams with unique names for identification.

Teams: Teams will be made up of three main players plus up to two substitutes. As previously stated, each team is required to also have a coach or admin role aside from active players.

MATCHES

Group Stage: Matches will be best of five. All matches will be played on Monday and Thursday at 8:00 PM Eastern Time each week. Group Stage will follow a double round robin format. All matches will be played online.

Due to delays in campus openings and the pandemic, Matches 1 through 4 will not count towards seeding or forfeit status. They will follow the format for double round robin, but will be more lenient to allow institutions to organize their teams.

Reschedules and Forfeits: If a reschedule is wished to be made, both teams must agree and inform a tournament operator. All reschedules must start from 8:01 PM to 11:59 PM Eastern Time on the same day as originally scheduled.

Reschedules that are out of the control of the institution such as but not limited to: weather, drills, shutdown, internet outage, power outage, holidays, etc. will be allowed to be played during reschedule week.

All reschedules must be agreed upon by both involved teams more than 24 hours prior to the original start time.

Reschedules not made in time or if a team does not show up to the match within 15 minutes of start time without proper communication, this will be considered a forfeit. If a team reaches two forfeits, they will be eliminated from the tournament.

If both teams agree prior to 24 hours before the original time that a match cannot be played, and neither team has two forfeits, the match may be started anytime from Sunday at 8:00 AM to Friday at 11:59 PM Eastern Time during the Reschedule Week listed below.

*NOTE: Reschedules cannot replace matches scheduled for November 3rd and 6th. All original matches must still be played during reschedule week.
The following schedule will reflect the competition days for group stage:

Match 1: September 21, 2020 (preseason)

Match 2: September 24, 2020 (preseason)

Match 3: September 28, 2020 (preseason)

Match 4: October 1, 2020 (preseason)

Match 5: October 5, 2020

Match 6: October 8, 2020

Match 7: October 12, 2020

Match 8: October 15, 2020

Match 9: October 19, 2020

Match 10: October 22, 2020

Match 11: October 26, 2020

Match 12: October 29, 2020

Reschedule Week: November 1-6, 2020

Playoffs: All teams from each group will move to the playoffs. Playoffs will include a single-elimination bracket that is seeded according to final standings from the group stage. All matches will be best of five (5) excluding Finals which will be best of seven (7). Matches from each Round will be online and produced by UCEA.

The following schedule will reflect the competition days for playoffs:

Round 1: November 9, 2020 - 8:00 PM Eastern

Round 2 (Quarterfinals): November 12, 2020 - 8:00 PM Eastern

Semifinals: November 21, 2020 - 7:00 PM Eastern

Third Place Game: November 22, 2020 - 6:00 PM Eastern

Final: November 22, 2020 - 7:30 PM Eastern

Tiebreakers: In the event of a tie between one or more teams with respect to either playoff advancement or playoff seeding, the advancing or higher seeding team will be determined using the following tie breaking methods, in the order as it is listed:

Group Stage Head to Head: If the teams played each other during the group stage, the winning team of that match will win the tiebreaker.

Round Differential: A tournament operator will collect the total number of maps lost throughout the relevant games already played. The team with fewer maps lost will be deemed the advancing or higher seeded team. If more than one team is tied, then seeds will correlate to standings based on maps lost.

Best of One Head to Head: If teams are still tied after the round differential has been determined, there will be one round played head to head. The winner of this round will be given the higher seed.

Broadcasting: Each school is encouraged to stream their respective matches on their own channels. The Unified Collegiate Esports Association will stream a “match of the day” each game day for the duration of the season. The UCEA will provide casters, overlays and production. Each team will be able to submit a request form to have their games featured. These matches will be chosen at random by UCEA. All media used by a team may be used by UCEA for promotional and marketing purposes. Media produced by UCEA may also be used for positive promotional materials by the institution in which the media involves.