NACL: League Administration Ruling

On the 29^th of April League Administration was notified that during a disconnect in a quarterfinal game between the teams Entourage, and Composure, a player had changed build and therefore violated rule 11.11.

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11.11 Player Disconnects

Player disconnects outside of the first 2 minutes and desynced/looped games need to be handled according to the following procedure:

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• Additionally, players must not change positions or builds (including traits / specializations, height or weight) used between disconnected games. Line-up change is permitted if one of the starting players can no longer play; however, the replacing player(s) must take the position(s) left by the disconnection, they cannot in effect change with the players who did not disconnect. In such an event, it is up to the captains whether they want to start the restarted game afresh or follow the guidance from the previous bullet point.
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The Ruling

We have decided that the game played between these two teams must be replayed. As the score was 0-0 at the time of the disconnect, we are allowing the teams in question to start the game afresh if they so choose, rather than replicating the time in which the disconnect occurred and playing from there. If there is a disagreement between the two captains regarding the point in which to 'start' from, then the game will proceed from the moment of the disconnect. Whether or not the game is decided to be continued from the time of disconnect or to be restarted, the player builds cannot be changed from what they were when the original game was started.
 

In Response

Over the course of this case, LA have discussed ways to tweak this rule as currently there are some issues that we feel need to be addressed. Namely, we do not want to get into a situation where the players themselves have to ‘police’ the matchup and consequently have to be on the lookout for any violations like this. Alternatively, we also do not want to be too lenient and offer up ‘warnings’ in place of strict punishment, as this could potentially lead to a loophole within the rules. Therefore, going forward we have decided that if a player is found to have changed their build when returning to a disconnected game in which their team ended up benefiting (i.e. lost in OT or won in reg/OT), the game in question will be rolled back and replayed from the moment of the disconnect, providing that LA is made known of the infraction no later than 24hrs after the game has been completed.