Our Rules
AoE Esports Bylaws
AoE Esports was founded to create an opportunity for student-gamers to play other teams locally, across the country, and soon around the globe in a competitive environment. Just like in traditional sports, our teams play in-person at our LAN Center inside the Troy College and Career High School. We have weekly practices and league matches culminating over a 12-week season that includes playoffs and a championship. We have events throughout the year that include leagues, tournaments, instruction and training, and event hosting.
General League Information:
Divisions
Our esports are divided into 3 skill level divisions. Recruit, Gold, and Elite. Skill first determines which division a player belongs in. Note that these divisions are to ensure equitable, competitive match play.
Day of Play
In-Game Protocols
The home team will always be responsible for creating the lobby/custom match. This team will know their “home” designation as the left-side of the matchup. For example, “Team A vs. Team B” would indicate a home-team position for Team A and an away-team position for Team B. Thus, Team A would be responsible for creating the lobby/custom match.
As a reminder, all teams should have clarified their custom match conventions in the Discord server channel as early as two days before and as late as 24-hours before match time. This will provide transparency.
If the home-team has not created the lobby/custom match within 10 minutes of the match start time, a screenshot as evidence should be taken by the away-team and submitted to the league Director. If the away-team does not enter the custom match as created by the home-team within 20 minutes of match time, the home-team should take screenshots as evidence and post it in the appropriate score reporting channel with a brief explanation.
Because of the sensitive nature of the age of our athletes, no correspondence between players on opposing teams is permissible except for the following phrases.
Good Luck/Have Fun (gl, hf, glhf, gl hf)
GG (gg, good game, good games)
Disregard of the previous rule will result in the following:
First Offense = 2-game ban for violating player
Second Offense = Season long ban for violating player
Third Offense = Ban for the season (this third offense will include offenses by alternative players on the same team)
Recurring Forfeitures
AoE’s central aim is to create a more professional platform for student esports athletes; thus, we take a strict stance against repeat forfeit. Two consecutive forfeits of matches without proper communication with the league and/or opponents could result in a season-ban. Please note there will be no refunds of league entry fees due to consecutive forfeit league removal.
Note that all rules in AoE’s rulebook are subject to change upon review of our team.
BM/Toxicity Policies
OVERVIEW
Most important to all AoE Esports titles is this: under no circumstances will AoE Esports accept misconduct among players and coaches. Our mission is focused on safety, professionalism, and sportsmanship. Anything that AoE Esports classifies as inappropriate may lead to disqualifications, forfeits and/or bans.
This document will detail, in general, all aspects of AoE Esports’s stance on toxic behavior, bad manners, and how we intend to respond to them. All instances of disputable behavior will be investigated by the AoE team.
What is “BM”?
Bad Manners are nonverbal communications or actions in-game or in a chat that are meant to disparage, criticize, or harass a representative of another team. Some examples are as follows: (Please note that this list is not comprehensive, and evidenced behaviors that can be described as “BM” but are not listed here still qualify):
- “Teabagging” - The repeated crouching and standing motion over a dead enemy’s body
- Spraying gunfire at a dead body
- “Dancing” or bunny-hopping repeatedly over a dead player
- Any emoting over corpses
- Any usage of sprays/graffiti in a demeaning or unsportsmanlike manner, such as over a corpse
- Knifing a player for a kill/elimination (rev. 10/18/21)
- The only circumstance in which knifing is acceptable at this time would be in Valorant in the use of an Astra ultimate in which a knife at the edge of the wall is used to detect an opponent.
What is Toxicity?
Toxic behaviors are like Bad Manners except they are typed or verbal. Any message that a player or coach makes that is meant to disparage, criticize, or harass a representative of another team.
- Phrases such as, but not limited to:
- ez, ezwin, diff, int, noob, l2p, you’re bad, etc.
- Foul language is unacceptable at any time.
- Racist language will result in an immediate permanent ban of a player and potential season-ban of the team at the discretion of the AoE Esports staff.
What happens to players and teams?
Below is the list of consequences based on offenses:
- First Offense - 2 game ban for violator only
- Second Offense - Season long ban of violator (if this makes a team's roster too small, coach and AoE Esports staff can coordinate)
- Third Offense – School or Club ban for the season (this would imply a new violation by another team member as previous member was banned)
Appropriate language and words that are acceptable
- Phrases such as, but not limited to:
- gg, ggs, glhf, gl, nice, nice shot, etc.
Note that all rules in AoE Esports rulebooks are subject to change upon review of the AoE Esports team.