General Information
1.1 Introduction
GameArena is running the Battlefield 2 ladder as a service to the community.
This ladder is an opportunity for teams to compete in a fair, sportsmanlike and enjoyable way. All of the following rules are designed to ensure those ideals. These rules are specific to the Battlefield 2 competition. All players should read the GameArena general ladder rules, and the GameArena Terms and Conditions. Where there is any conflict between these rules and the general ladder rules or terms and conditions, these rules apply.
1.2 Outline of Competition
The GameArena Battlefield 2 ladder will have a regular season of challenges of at least 16 weeks.
The time may be extended to allow for any stoppages, or for other reasons as may be required. Up to ten players per team will compete on one map per match.
At the end of the regular season, the ladder will be locked and the top 8 teams will participate in the finals. Finals will be run by the Ladder Managers in a format published by them during the regular season. Once the finals are completed, the winning team will be declared the season\'s champion.
1.3 Match Format
in the GameArena BattleField 2 Ladder will be run in "Conquest" mode. The round length will be 30 minutes, and each team will play each side once.
\r\nThe challenging team will play the US team in the first round, and then swap to the MEC or Chinese side in the second round.
Example: Team #20 has challenged Team #10. When players from Team #20 join the server, they join the US side. Once the first round has finished, Team #20 change to the MEC or Chinese side, and Team #10 change to the US side.
1.4 Punkbuster
The most current version of punkbuster will be enabled on the server. Players must have the same version of punkbuster running on their computers to play in the ladder. Players should ensure they have nothing installed that will cause a punkbuster violation. We recommend that players ensure that they can connect to one of GameArena\'s public Battlefield 2 servers before the match commences to ensure there are no compatibility issues.
1.5 Communication with GameArena
All teams are required to ensure that their contact email address listed on their team information page is up to date and checked regularly, and that their team captain\'s email addresses in their GameArena profiles are also up to date and checked regularly. This is the primary means of contact, and all rules changes, important announcements etc. will be made through these email addresses.
All players, especially team captains, are encouraged to check the GameArena Battlefield 2 forums regularly, as the Ladder Managers will both announce upcoming changes for discussion here, and check them regularly for informal feedback on the progress of the ladder.
2. Challenge and Defense
2.1 Challenge Height
A team may challenge up 50% of their current ranking, or 7 positions, whichever is greater. If the team\'s current ranking is an odd number, the 50% will be rounded down first, and then applied.
Example:
Team #20 may challenge team #10:
(50% of 0 = 10, so 10 ranks \'up\' from 20)
Team #21 may challenge team #11
(50% of 21 = 10.5, rounded down = 10, so 10 ranks \'up\' from 21)
Team #10 may challenge team #3
(7 positions up from 10)
2.2 Making a Challenge
The challenging team will select 3 maps and 3 game times and offer them to the team they would like to challenge. The defending team will select 1 map and 1 time they are comfortable with. At this point, both teams will receive an email with the selected booking time, selected map, passwords to join and a list of players from both teams that are eligible to play in the match.
When the challenging team makes their challenge, their team roster is locked. Only players on the roster who have a joining date are eligible to play in the match (not players \'invited to join\'). The challenging team should ensure that all players they wish to use in the match have accepted an invitation to join and have correctly registered their nicknames in their profile before they issue the challenge.
2.3 Accepting a challenge
The defending team will be notified of the challenge by email. They must respond within 48 hours of the challenge being issued. GameArena strongly recommends that the defending team not leave accepting the challenge to the last minute. The acceptance of the challenge must be done through the GameArena website, which may occasionally be unavailable. If a defending team is unable to enter their acceptance of the challenge due to a website outage of less than two hours, the Ladder Managers will take no action to reverse the forfeit for not entering the acceptance.
When the defending team accepts the challenge, their team roster is locked. Only players on the roster who have a joining date are eligible to play in the match (not players \'invited to join\'). The defending team should ensure that all players they wish to use in the match have accepted an invitation to join and correctly registered their nicknames in their profile before they accept the challenge.
3. Playing the Match
In this section, we describe what should happen while a match is being played. If there are any problems (server crashes, players spawning on the wrong team) please see Section 4.
3.1 Time Limit
All matches will be allocated 1.5 hours to be completed. This should be more than adequate to allow for an entire match. If the server time runs out before a match is completed, the match will be decided by the rules in the scoring section (see section 3.7).
If a team can prove that their opponents have deliberately wasted time, the time wasting team may suffer a forfeit. Time wasting can include demanding extra time to have players connect, demanding map restarts due to players spawning on the wrong team etc.
3.2 Joining the Server
The match server will appear at the time of the booking in the "GameCreate" tab in The Arena.
At any time during the match, a Referee may join the game for admin purposes.
\Each team must be ready to join the server at the time it starts. Teams are allowed 10 minutes to connect to the server and be ready to play. Any team that has less than 7 players on their team after this 10 minute period forfeits. There is no requirement to match the numbers of the opponent: both teams are entitled to have 10 players in the server, whether or not the other team fields less players.
At no time may a team have more than 10 players connected to the server. If a team intends to have substitutes at some point, the players being substituted out must leave the server before the new players join. This includes during the two minute breaks between rounds.
The challenging team will play as the US side first, and should join that side when they join the server. The defending team will play as the MEC or Chinese side first, and should join that side when they join the server.
3.3 Preparing for the Match during Pre-Game
Each team must nominate one of their players to be a \'spokesperson\' for the team - the person that will speak on behalf of the team during the match. This is the person that the Referee will ask questions of, who will announce that their team is ready, etc. It is expected (but not required) that this person be a captain of the team.
If a Referee has not joined after 5 minutes of the server starting, the teams should decide (through their spokespeople) which team will handle the administration of the server for the match. If this cannot be decided, the defending team will handle the server administration. Each team should have at least one member in every war that is familiar with the commands needed to administer a match - please see section 7.1 for the few commands required.
3.4 Starting the Match
The match must start no earlier than 5 minutes and no later than 10 minutes after the server starts.
Once both spokespeople announce that their team is ready, the person administering the match (Referee or otherwise) will issue the map restart command. This will commence a 1 minute countdown, and then play will begin. It is recommended that both spokespeople (or the Referee if present) will announce ROUND 1 - LIVE so that both teams are clear that round 1 is starting.
3.5 No Artillery Rule
For the duration of the season the use of artillery is disallowed for match play. The commander is still allowed to be used to its full extent except for the use of artillery. In the event that artillery is used during round play the team that has breached the rule will be forfeited from the match and a dispute should be entered stating as such and evidence should be submitted to prove the claim. Note both teams can still use artillery if agreed upon and documented as such before the match has commenced under section 4.4.
3.6 Swapping Sides
After the round has completed (either due to ticket loss, or time) there will be a break. This will be one minute unless both teams agree otherwise. The teams MUST swap sides during this time. If a player intends to be away from the computer during the break, they should swap before they leave. The next round of the match must not be started until all players are on the correct team. If it is clear that a player is not swapping teams and the next round is due to begin, that player is to be kicked from the server by the match administrator. See section 7.2 and 8.1 for guidelines regarding the use of administration commands in the server.
Once both teams have completely swapped sides, the person administering the match will issue the map restart command. This will commence a 1 minute countdown. It is recommended that both spokespeople (or the Referee if present) will announce ROUND 2 - LIVE so that both teams are clear that round 2 is starting.
3.7 Match Flow
Each team plays each side once, swapping at the break. Thus, the challenging team will play as (for example)
Round 1: US
Round 2: MEC
3.8 Scoring
Each team must take a screenshot at the end of each round, showing the tickets remaining. At the end of the match, each team totals its remaining tickets from each round. The team with the higher total remaining tickets is the winner. In the event of a draw, refer to section 3.9. It is recommended that the spokespeople for each clan agree on the result after the match to prevent mathematical errors in the score entry.
If the match is ended for any reason (excluding those matches that are affected by disruptive and untowards behaviour by a team - see section 3.1) before two rounds are complete, the match will be cancelled. Both teams should enter a dispute with the words \'Match Incomplete, less than two rounds played because of X\' (where X is the reason) and the Ladder Manager will cancel the match.
3.9 Post Match - Completing the Challenge
Each team must enter a result within 4 hours of the match starting (approximately two hours after the match ends). The result will either be the score, or a dispute. Each team is strongly advised to check the score they enter carefully and if possible to verify it with the other team (see 3.7 above). If the scores entered match, then the challenge will be complete. If the scores differ, or either team enters a dispute, both teams will be marked as involved in a dispute and a Ladder Manager will be required to resolve the issue.
3.10 Successful Challenge or Defense
If the challenging team is successful, then they take the position on the ladder of the defending team, \'pushing\' the defending team (and all teams that were between the challenging and defending teams) down a spot.
If the defending team is successful, or the match is drawn, then the defending team is marked as \'protected\' and may not be challenged again for 48 hours. This protection may be voluntarily dropped by a team captain at the \'my teams\' page. The unsuccessful challenger will be marked as \'vulnerable\' and is unable to make a challenge for 48 hours.
3.11 Pre Finals Roster Lock
To ensure that clans involved in the finals do not unfairly use players from the roster of a team that is not involved in the finals, the ladder managers will announce an eligibility cutoff date for finals participation. All players who compete for a team must have a joining date earlier than the eligibility cutoff. It is anticipated that this cutoff date will be at least 2 weeks before the end of the regular season.
4. Resolving Common Problems
4.1 Server Crashes
If the server crashes, both teams should attempt to contact a Battlefield 2 Ladder Manager or another GameOp in ArenaChat, and wait for 10 minutes, or as long as required by a Ladder Manager, for the server to restart. If the server has not restarted after 10 minutes, and no Ladder Manager indicates that the teams should continue waiting, then the match is over.
If the server is restarted, the round that was in progress when the server crashed will be replayed. All scores for rounds complete before the server crash will be counted. If the server crashes when a team has one ticket remaining, that round will be deemed to be completed, and the score for that round will be X - 0 (as if the team with 1 ticket remaining had lost their last ticket).
4.2 Players failing to switch teams, or spawning on the wrong team.
If a player fails to switch sides after a reasonable time in the break after round 1 (60 seconds is a reasonable time, unless otherwise agreed) the person (Referee or player) responsible for administration of the match should kick the player from the server.
If a player connects or spawns on the wrong team takes any action before they leave the server or change to the correct team, it is likely that player\'s team will forfeit the match. The first 30 seconds of any round in Battlefield 2 are critical, and this will be taken into account when deciding how much effect the player on the wrong side had on that round.
4.3 Server fails to start.
If the server fails to start within 15 minutes of the booking time, the match will be considered cancelled. Both teams should enter a dispute noting that the server failed to start, and the Ladder Managers will cancel the match.
4.4 Gentlemen\'s Agreements - Pre Approval
Sometimes teams may wish to enter into an agreement before the match that the ladder rules for that match will be varied in some minor way. If a captain from both teams approaches a Ladder Manager at least 24 hours before the match, explains the exact agreement, and indicates that they freely agree to be bound by those rules, then the Ladder Managers may choose to allow the variation. If this happens, the Ladder Managers will dismiss any disputes that fall within this variation.
Only minor variations may be allowed, and they must be approved by the Ladder Managers at least 24 hours before the match. Examples of variations that will not be allowed include anything that changes how the game will be played, or anything that may unfairly prejudice other teams on the ladder.
Example A: A captain from both teams approaches the Ladder Manager two days before the game, and asks that one of the teams be allowed to field a player who is only invited to join rather than has accepted the invitation. If the Ladder Manager allows it, any dispute about this person playing will be dismissed.
Example B: A captain from both teams approached the Ladder Manager two days before the game with an agreement that neither team will use C4. While it is unlikely that this would be allowed, if the Ladder Manager allows it, if one team disputed the match, claiming that the other team used C4, the dispute would be dismissed.
4.5 Gentlemen\'s Agreements - In the Game
Occasionally teams will want to allow the other team a little more time to field a full team, perhaps give everyone a longer break between rounds, or restart a round if there was some internet problem that caused a few players to disconnect. This is something we encourage in the spirit of sportsmanship and fair play. However, we cannot monitor these agreements, and cannot enforce them.
A team should not allow the other team an extra 20 minutes to field teams, be behind at half time, have the server run out of time, then dispute that the other team did not have enough players by the 10 minute mark and that they should have won the game. The correct, fair behaviour is to either give the other team more time, or to take screenshots to record the state after 10 minutes and then leave the server and file the score as a forfeit.
5 Behaviour, Sportsmanship, Disputes and Rulings
As has already been noted, this ladder will be run in a spirit of fair play. All teams are expected to act in a sportsmanlike way. There is sometimes a tendency by people using the internet to behave in a way that they would not in real life. We strongly encourage all people to treat all people involved in this ladder as they would like to be treated - with respect and understanding.
5.1 Player Behaviour
All players must behave in a sportsmanlike manner at all times. While we understand that emotions may run high as players can be passionate about the competition, please treat everyone involved with the ladder with respect.
All players in a match must use their GameArena registered nickname (the name that is registed with the \'Battlefield 2 Nickname\' section of their GameArena user profile).
Some general chat is acceptable, but should be limited and appropriate. If the other team requests silence on the general chat, their request should be honoured.
All players must accept the Referee\'s decisions as final during the match. If a team disagrees, they are welcome to either dispute the match (if they believe that the result would be different if not for the incorrect ruling) or bring the issue up with a Ladder Manager after the game.
Some examples of unacceptable behaviour:
· Abusing any Ladder Manager or Referee
· Abusing any competitor in the ladder
· Accusing any competitor in the ladder of cheating without clear proof
Excessive foul language
Intentionally spawning on the wrong team
Attempting to gain any unfair advantage over other players through cheating or exploiting bugs in the game.
All players should note that the GameArena Terms and Conditions apply to all games played as part of this ladder, and beyond any consequences to their team, any player that breaches the Terms and Conditions during a ladder match will suffer the consequences of that breach as if it had happened on a public server.
5.2 Team Behaviour - Bug Exploits / Cheating
Teams must not profit from any player cheating or exploiting a bug in the game. It is the team captains\' responsibility to ensure that their players follow the rules. While it may be unfair to punish more than 16 players for the actions of the 1 player that did break the rules, it is sometimes even less fair to the opposition team to allow the result to stand. Please see Section 5.4 for more information about this.
Teams must not use any player who is not listed in the registered player list (contained in the match information email). They may not use any player who has left the team between the match booking and the time of the match.
Teams must not use any player who is currently banned from playing on the GameArena Battlefield 2 servers, or from the GameArena service generally. (This does not include a ban from ArenaChat).
Teams must not have more than 16 players connected to the server at any time.
If the team captains have any doubt whatsoever about whether something that the team or a player in the team is going to do may be considered to be a bug exploit or cheating, they should clear it with a Ladder Manager before it is used. Failure to do this is no excuse.
5.3 \'Smurfing\'
No player may be a member or play for more than one team in the ladder at any time.
if a player is found to be a member of more than one team, or to have played for a team when their name was not on the allowed players list for that game, they will automatically be banned from the GameArena service (including all games, Arena Chat, etc) for at least two weeks. Repeat breaches of this rule will result in permanent removal from the GameArena service.
5.4 Disputes and Rulings.
If a team believes that the result of the game was affected by the other team breaching the rules, then they should file a dispute at the end of the match, as well as politely highlighting the rule breach at the time. They should collect as many screenshots and console logs as evidence as is practical while playing the game, as well as downloading the Battlefield Recording at the end of the match.
When resolving disputes, the Ladder Managers will pay the highest regard to what is the fairest outcome and what is best for the ladder. The Ladder Managers will examine the evidence to determine as closely as possible what the outcome of the match would have been had the breach not occurred. Sometimes it may take up to 72 hours to resolve a dispute. Teams are asked to be patient. Please note that until the dispute is resolved, the behaviour of the teams will be considered to be part of the match, so abuse of the other team, ladder managers or referees either through the dispute system or anywhere else will be taken into account when deciding the result.
It may sometimes be necessary for the Ladder Managers to punish a team in a dispute. It may be that the rules breach did not affect the outcome of the match, but the Ladder Managers believe that the team as a whole must be held responsible (for example, where more than one member of a team was being abusive, including captains).
Punishment against a team will take the form of either a forfeit or demotion of the clan to the bottom of the ladder. In extreme circumstances, the clan may be removed from the ladder and the captains banned from ever being involved in another GameArena ladder team.
5.5 Cheating and \'Exploiting\'
Cheating does not really need to be defined. Any attempt to gain an unfair advantage is cheating. This includes modifying the game files, running memory resident cheats, or anything else beyond the normal scope of the game.
'Exploiting\' refers to exploiting a bug in the game itself to gain an advantage. This may take the forum of setting a variable to a value that gives an un-expected result, using a \'hole\' in the map to gain access to an area that was not expected etc. Anything beyond what the programmers intended is considered a bug, and using a bug to gain an advantage is considered an exploit.
Because of the difficulty of defining what is a bug that is being exploited, what is just a \'little odd\' or something that has been accepted by the community as part of the game (such as bunny-hopping in the Quake series of games, or swimming with your head pointed down in Battlefield 1942) any team that intends to use anything that MAY be considered an exploit must verify that it is acceptable with a Ladder Manager BEFORE the match commences.
5.6 Changes and Interpretations
GameArena reserves the right to modify these rules as needed to improve the ladder without prior notice. Any changes will be communicated to the teams through their registered emails, and normally also through the Battlefield 2 forums. Teams should check the rules on a regular basis and prior to every match to ensure they are fully aware of changes. Teams that do not agree to be bound by the modified rules should discuss their concerns with the Ladder Managers. If they are unable to resolve the issue, they will be required to leave the ladder.
6. Server Settings
6.1 Cvars
6.1.1 ServerSettings.con
sv.serverName "GA GameCreate %name%"
sv.password "%password%"
sv.internet 1
sv.bandwidthChoke 0
sv.serverIP "%ip%"
sv.serverPort %port%
sv.welcomeMessage "Welcome to GameArena!"
sv.punkBuster 1
sv.allowFreeCam 0
sv.allowExternalViews 1
sv.allowNoseCam 1
sv.hitIndicator 1
sv.maxPlayers 22
sv.numPlayersNeededToStart 2
sv.notEnoughPlayersRestartDelay 15
sv.startDelay 60
sv.endDelay 15
sv.spawnTime 15
sv.manDownTime 15
sv.endOfRoundDelay 15
sv.ticketRatio 150
sv.roundsPerMap 8
sv.timeLimit 1800
sv.scoreLimit 0
sv.soldierFriendlyFire 100
sv.vehicleFriendlyFire 100
sv.soldierSplashFriendlyFire 100
sv.vehicleSplashFriendlyFire 100
sv.tkPunishEnabled 0
sv.tkNumPunishToKick 3
sv.tkPunishByDefault 0
sv.votingEnabled 0
sv.voteTime 90
sv.minPlayersForVoting 2
sv.gameSpyPort 30000
sv.allowNATNegotiation 0
sv.interfaceIP
sv.autoRecord 1
sv.demoIndexURL "http://www.gamearena.com.au/bf2demos"
sv.demoDownloadURL "http://www.gamearena.com.au/bf2demos"
sv.autoDemoHook "adminutils/demo/rotate_demo.exe" sv.demoQuality 1
sv.adminScript "admin_script%port%"
sv.timeBeforeRestartMap 30
sv.autoBalanceTeam 0
sv.teamRatioPercent 100
sv.useGlobalRank 0
sv.useGlobalUnlocks 1
sv.sponsorText "Welcome to GameArena. Download The Arena at www.gamearena.com.au for more servers"
sv.sponsorLogoURL ""
sv.communityLogoURL ""
sv.radioSpamInterval 6
sv.radioMaxSpamFlagCount 6
sv.radioBlockedDurationTime 30
6.2 Map List:
All maps will use the 16 player variant
Dalian Plant
Daqing Oilfields
Dragon Valley
Fushe Pass
Gulf of Oman
Kubra Dam
Mashtuur City
Operation Clean Sweep
Road to Jalalabaad
Sharqi Peninsula
Songhua Stalemate
Strike at Karkand
Zatar Wetlands
7. Match Administration
7.1 Administration Commands
Before entering any commands, you must enter the server administration password that can be found in the booking email:
rcon login PASSWORD
Every command must be entered in the following form:
rcon exec COMMAND
example: rcon exec admin.restartmap
Commands that will be useful:
admin.restartmap
This will restart the map, which will reset the round count to 0 and restart the pre-match 60 second countdown.
admin.kickplayer #
This will kick player # from the server.
pb_plist
This will list the partial PunkBuster GUID matches for those players currently connected to the server.
The \'pause\' command should not be used, as it interrupts server connections as well as gameplay. Restarting the round is the correct command to use. Use of the \'pause\' command may be considered disruptive gameplay if used with intent to disadvantage another team.
7.2 Notes for match administrators
Please be very careful with match administration. Only take an action with clear agreement from the other team\'s spokesperson. Excessive pausing of the game, or restarting a round when both teams believe that it is a competition round is unacceptable behaviour.
8. Notes
8.1 Match Checklist
This is an example of the flow of a match: 10 minutes of pre-match:
All players join within 10 minutes of the server booking time.
The challenging team joins the US side,
The defending team joins the MEC or Chinese side.
Each side identifies their spokesperson.
If the match referee has not joined after five minutes, the spokespeople decide which team will handle server administration. When both teams are ready, the person handling server administration gives the map restart command, and both spokespeople confirm LIVE - ROUND 1.
The first round is then played.
1 minute break between rounds:
All players should take a screenshot of the scoreboard at the end of the first round, showing the tickets remaining for both teams.
All players must change sides, and are strongly encouraged to do this as quickly as possible. If a player intends to take a very quick break during this time, they should change sides before leaving their computer. If they are still on the wrong side with 10 seconds left to go, they must be kicked by the referee or agreed match administrator, and the \'admin.restartmap\' command issued by the referee or match administrator.
When both teams are ready, or when a reasonable time has passed, the person handling server administration gives the map restart command, and both spokespeople confirm LIVE - ROUND 2.
The second round is then played.
Post match:
Both team spokespeople are encouraged to confirm the result they are going to enter with the other team\'s spokesperson.
Both teams must enter the result or a dispute within 4 hours of the starting time of the server
8.2 Some Definitions:
Ladder Manager:
Includes GameOps that have been designated Ladder Managers (found on the Ladder Rankings page) as well as any GameArena Admin.
8.3.Approved Commentators and Match Recordings
GameArena may approve official commentators from time to time. These commentators may enter a Ladder server for the purposes of broadcasting (e.g. through shoutcast software) the game. All teams that compete on the GameArena Battlefield 2 Ladder are taken to consent to these broadcasts. The Ladder Managers will advise the community of any approved commentators through the GameArena Battlefield 2 forums. GameArena community members are encouraged to approach the Ladder Managers if they wish to become approved commentators and gain access to the GameArena resources for commentating on Ladder games.
GameArena will record all ladder matches through the Battlefield Recorder system, and will automatically make these recordings available for the community to download for a period of time after the completion of each match in our files section. These recordings will be able to be access for a limited time at http://www.gamearena.com.au/bf2demos/. By playing in this ladder, you agree to have your match recordings taken and distributed in this way.
BF2TV or a similar program is not currently available for Battlefield 2. By playing in this ladder you agree to have your match spectated in this way if this sort of software becomes available.
hope you enjoyed reading the rules
|
