Thank you to everyone who contributed to the thread where potential rules were proposed (https://www.warzone.com/Forum/276576-potential-new-official-ladder-rules). There was a lot of good discussion and I'm happy to announce that we can unveil the official rules of the ladders. Since the reception of the rules was mostly positive the rules are very similar to what was proposed in the previous thread. There are a few changes that take into account some of the biggest concerns. The rules have also been added to the wiki pages for the respective ladders.

These rules will go into effect immediately unless otherwise stipulated.

---

1.) A player can't start playing on the 1v1 ladder with an account if they have another account with unexpired games. Games expire after 5 months. Violations will be punished with a warning and then a suspension.

2.) A player may only play on the Seasonal Ladder with one account per season. Violations will be punished with a suspension on all implicated accounts.

3.) A player may not play on the Real Time ladder with an account if they have another account which is currently ranked. Accounts become unranked after 3 days of inactivity on the ladder. Violations will be punished with a warning and then a suspension.

4.) A player may only play on a team ladder if there is no team consisting of the same players (not accounts) with unexpired games. They may join the ladder on a new team if at least one of their teammates is a new different player or if one or more of the players on the old team is not on the new team. Essentially, if the only difference between two teams is that a player has been replaced by an alt of the same player, then it is not considered to be a different team. Violations will be punished with a warning and then a suspension.

5.) Since the community isn't able to agree on what constitutes stalling, there won't be any enforcement of rules against stalling.

6.) Manipulation of the force-finish in the Seasonal Ladder is not allowed, and the use of vacations towards the end of a season leading to force-finish will be considered especially suspicious. Violations will be punished with a suspension. Fizzer retains the right modify results in egregious cases as has been done in the past possibly resulting in the loss of games and/or trophies.

7.) A player may not have two ladder teams ranked at the same time in any ladder.

In addition, each season of the Seasonal Ladder will be extended from 60 days to 75 days since the next season rarely starts immediately, in order to cut down on force-finishes unless there are reasonable objections.

---

Rules 2, 3, and 6 will go into effect immediately. There will be a grace period of 5 months before Rules 1 and 4 are enforced in order to allow all games that are unexpired at this time to expire.

Edit:
It was brought to my attention that I didn't cover the case where a player is playing a team ladder with two different sets of teammates at the same time. You can't have two accounts ranked at the same time in any ladder.

Edited 12/6/2017 16:40:31

There will be a grace period of 5 months before Rules 1 and 4 are enforced in order to allow all games that are unexpired at this time to expire.

Curious. I get why the grace period is here, but what if someone plays on multiple accounts during that grace period. Do I just wait till report them until after rules come into effect?

Love it. Great job!

Curious. I get why the grace period is here, but what if someone plays on multiple accounts during that grace period. Do I just wait till report them until after rules come into effect?

If they have unexpired games that started after the rules went into effect on multiple accounts you should report them. The grace period is just so that games played before the rules were official aren't counted.

Edited 12/6/2017 06:14:36

Thanks for clarification.

Great work guys!

Unfortunately stalling won't be punished. Points 5 and 6 could be a little bit contradictory since the season can be manipulated by stalling.

Will that be punished then?

You know how, for stuff like insider trading where it's kind of a pain to prove if it really was/wasn't a coincidence, companies have cover-your-ass systems in place? Trading only during specified windows, reporting stuff in advance, etc. Stuff to lower workload on both ends- if you follow the system, you won't get in trouble + if you're enforcing the rules, you don't need to look too closely at people who follow the system. And if someone's following the system but tries to break the rules, you get them instantly.

I think those would help enforce some of these, especially the ones involving ladder abuse. E.g., for vacation abuse on the Seasonal Ladder it would be nice to have an established "okay if you plan on taking a vacation, you have to start it during this time and it has to be at least X days long" period.

Edited 12/6/2017 06:55:48

Very disappointed that the definition of stalling couldn't be determined. Though, Very happy with the progress being made to make the ladders a fairer and competitive place.

It's only in the community interest to have some type of definition so the type of "Alhazi" stalling can at the very least be punished and prevented.

Something is better than nothing to avoid the extreme and clearly obvious cases of stalling.

Technical question - how could i know that what Beren wrote is a real thing. I could create new thread and edit wiki aswell.

because the eye of the fizzer is allways wacthing

Edited 12/6/2017 11:36:55

We can test that theory right now Krzystof.

9 AlturoSensei 2082
16 Equivoque 2030

Those accounts are simultaneously ranked on the 1v1 ladder, and are the same player.


I bet neither one gets suspended.

I think you still gotta wait 5 months for that experiment, Nauzh

Edited 12/6/2017 15:29:24

"If they have unexpired games that started after the rules went into effect on multiple accounts you should report them. The grace period is just so that games played before the rules were official aren't counted. "

Nah, couple days at most according to that.

All I got from this is that I'm free to stall on all the ladders now :D

Is a ladder team of two accounts/one player still permissable?

We can test that theory right now Krzystof.

9 AlturoSensei 2082
16 Equivoque 2030

Those accounts are simultaneously ranked on the 1v1 ladder, and are the same player.


I bet neither one gets suspended.

hmmm, not sure if they're the same player-since there are lot of players with Italian flag on ladder, who play only 1v1 (too much games in short time)-but how to say those two are the same?

Yes aura, it's just not allowed for me to for example play with alt A and alt B and then switch to alt A and alt C. If i want to start a new run it has to be at least with one other player which isn't myself.

use of vacations towards the end of a season leading to force-finish will be considered especially suspicious. Violations will be punished with a suspension. Fizzer retains the right modify results in egregious cases as has been done in the past possibly resulting in the loss of games and/or trophies.

And here we are again, what on earth means "end of a season"? Is it a 5-days, a week, 10 days, 2 weeks. One may consider everything suspicious. And now we come to conclusion that "violation will be punished with a suspension", but we will not tell if what is regarded as "end of a season".

It is best to have no rules, rather than bad rules. Isnt vacation meant to be as worst-case scenario, when one needs to be away for longer period. Its not just about planned vacation. Just disable vacation on ladder games and make it known to everyone. Having exception rule for every single case devalues vacation rule as a whole.

Have not paid attention to forum, but it seems somehow people came to senses and realized there is no such thing as stalling. If game allows you to make a move within 3-days, than it is ones choice and right to do it when he chooses to.

Funny to see how people think that now the new rules will deter alt-accounts on ladder. I think there were more cases with no direct action taken against those who were revealed.

They're definitely the same player.

Anyone arguing otherwise is trolling or a complete retard.

They both grinded autogames at a rate of 50+ games a day to play on the 1v1 ladder as soon as possible. The second account was made right after the first one got ranked on the 1v1 ladder because he wasn't happy with the rank he got the first time. They're the same flag, they have near identical winrates, same playstyle.

"Have not paid attention to forum, but it seems somehow people came to senses and realized there is no such thing as stalling."

Right.

https://www.warzone.com/MultiPlayer?GameID=6355351

Playing like that is perfectly acceptable.

Edited 12/6/2017 22:04:16

They both grinded autogames at a rate of 50+ games a day to play on the 1v1 ladder as soon as possible. The second account was made right after the first one got ranked on the 1v1 ladder because he wasn't happy with the rank he got the first time. They're the same flag, they have near identical winrates, same playstyle.

Haha this makes it sound like you're the player.