Rules and Regulations

[janbonator]

The following rulebook is still a work in progress, although in its final form for the most part. All drivers are required to read and comprehend the rules before the season begins. If you have any questions or suggestions, feel free to write about them in this thread.

1. Forum

The forum is the most important tool of communication between the staff and the drivers. Every driver therefore needs to have a forum account on NHLGamer to allow this communication.

The drivers are expected to keep themselves updated on the contents of the forum of the specific league they wish to enter. That forum contains the important information about the league itself (such as the calendar, briefings and sign-up instructions). It is the driver's responsibility to maintain up to date with the forum based information.

If a driver is going to be absent for an upcoming event, they should inform the organisers on the forum in the relevant race thread in a timely manner.

2. Conditions

To ensure a smooth multiplayer experience, only drivers located in Europe will be allowed to participate.

Each participant is required to make sure they are prepared for the races and are able to complete a series of laps without accidents or driving dangerously slow.

Drivers are required to adopt a clean and respectful manner of racing. On-track battles are encouraged, but in overtaking and in defending the drivers are expected to leave fair racing room.

Deliberate crashing, whether with other drivers or track barriers, is strictly forbidden. The Stewards of the league may issue anything from warnings to dismissal from the league depending on the severity of circumstance.

All drivers should do their best to finish the race at all times. Sometimes it means driving at the back of the field for 20 laps - there are no exceptions aside from technical malfunctions. Any kind of retirement can bring out a safety car and have a major impact on the race. Deliberate retirements will cause the Stewards to deduct a point from the offending drivers.

3. Schedule & General Information

Races will be held on Sundays at 19:00 CET for League 1 and at 17:30 CET for League 2. The season will be 12 races long. The race sessions start with a short qualifying. The league starts on Sunday 8th of November. There will be a Christmas break that starts after the race on 13th of December. The next race after that will be on 3rd of January 2021.

Track calendar (in no order):

Baku
Great Britain
Hungary
Belgium
Italy
Singapore
Japan
Brazil

The remaining 4 races will be decided by a vote once the registration is complete.

4. Lobby Settings

Session Options

• AI Driver Level - 90

• Category - F1 2020

• Multiplayer Car

• Maximum Players - 22

• Practice Length - None

• Qualifying - Short (18 min)

• Race Distance - 50%

• Quick Weather - Dynamic

• Sessions Start Time - Official (unless stated)

• Session Privacy - Invite Only

Race Settings

• Parc Fermé Rules - On

• Collisions - On

• Vehicle Damage - Full

• Ghosting - On

• Car Setup - Full

• Safety Car - On

• Rules and Flags - On

• Corner Cutting Stringency - Strict

• Formation Lap - On

• Race Starts - Manual

• Tyre Temperature - Surface & Carcass

Assist Restrictions

• Anti-Lock Brackes - Off

• Traction Control - Off

• Gearbox - Automatic

• Pit Assist - Off

• Pit Release Assist - Off

• Dynamic Racing Line - On

• ERS Assist - Off

• DRS Assist - Off

• Fuel Assist - Off

 

5. Qualifying for the Leagues

In order to qualify for one of the Leagues, the applicants must set times on selected tracks or events. These times are added up and compared with other applicants to sort out drivers by their skills levels. In close situations the admins will give preference to drivers who have participated in NHLGamer leagues and are known to race clean and adhere to rules.

Qualifying for the league requires the applicants to set a time in the following events:

- Time Trial, Italy
- Time Trial, Hungary
- Time Trial, Great-Britain (wet)

The applicants may try to set a time as many times as they like.The applicants are required to update their best results in the relevant thread on the Forums. This is done by editing your previous post instead of composing a new one. The times of each event are added together by the staff and full results published after the end of the registration period.

 

6. Cutting the Track

Drivers must always, whilst being in control of the car, remain within the track edges and thus over the track surface with at least two wheels. When a driver takes a shorter, off-track, route through a corner, the move is considered as cutting. Cutting is forbidden at all times. When a driver is reported cutting he risks a penalty. When a driver takes a longer, off-track, route, around the corner, it is also considered cutting. We tolerate minor violations of the rules in the case of taking the longer route, however excessive violation will still be penalised.

The adjudication of track limits is at the discretion of the league administrator as to whether there will be post-race checking for cuts, or to rely on reports from drivers. To be on the safe side, all drivers can approach track limits by weighing up the following scenarios:

1. Remain within the track limits, and never worry about being penalised.

2. Exceed track limits and then have to lift off, thus losing an appropriate amount of time.

3. Lose control of the car and lose a lot of time.

4. Don't lift off and risk receiving a penalty.

The only reasons why in-game penalties might be removed post-race by the Stewards is if they were caused by a glitch, a crash or an attempt to avoid one.

 

7. Overtaking and Defending

A) Overtaking means going past someone, not through them. Drivers are not allowed to push cars out of the way in order to overtake them. Though contact may not always be avoidable, it may not act as a means to make the pass.

B) A driver can only attempt a pass when there is room for it and when the chance is reasonably high that it becomes successful without heavy contact. On road courses this means that the overtaking car must be able to get a significant overlap** with the defending car before they get to the point of turn-in for a corner. On ovals any bit of overlap is enough to claim space.

C) The defending driver is allowed to defend his position by changing lines once per straight. As soon as the overtaking car has overlap on the straight the defending driver can only use the width of the track between the overtaking car on the one side and the track boundary on the other side to move in, without applying physical force to widen it. Retaking the racing line for a corner is not classed as making a defensive move, provided it is done safely and does not contravene other racing rules.

**"Significant overlap" is defined as the attacking car having any portion of it's front wheels in-line with any portion of the defending car's rear wheels. Any less than this, and the defending car will not be obliged to leave room.

8. Chatting

To drive a proper race a certain amount of concentration is required. To make sure this concentration is not broken it is forbidden to text chat during qualification and race sessions. Only the staff may use the text chat to communicate important information to the drivers. There are no exceptions to this rule. Offenders will be penalized. Verbal communication via console party chat is voluntary and accepted. Chat must not be made in-game.

9. Re-joining the track

If you accidentally leave the track for whatever reason you must wait until there is a clear, safe gap before rejoining the track. Upon rejoining the track you must get up to speed as quickly as possible without blocking the racing line.
 

10. Incidents, Appeals & Penalties

It may happen that rules get violated. In such cases it is up to the drivers to report the violation in the appropriate stewarding thread. The staff encourages the parties involved in the incident to discuss the incident before reporting to the stewards. The stewards will only investigate incidents that are reported by drivers within 48 hours of the start of the event.

An incident report must always contain.

• The name of the reported driver (the violator)

• The race name/number and lap number of the incident

• A private YouTube video (or similar) is recommended showing the incident from various angles (Top view, chase view, cockpit view, other drivers view etc). (No music please).

• A short description of the incident, without rant.

You must always send the report with your own forum account. You can only send a report if you were actually in the race. A report from an outsider will not be considered. You may ask another driver to send their footage of the incident as well to support your report The staff will then investigate the incident. Incomplete reports will not be considered.
 

11. Restarting the Session

 

In the rare case that a race session needs to be restarted after qualifying, the weather will be customized to match the forecast during the qualifying session as accurately as the game allows. If the race is on dry tires, the drivers starting in the top 10 will have to start on the same compound of tires that they used in qualifying.

Edited October 11, 2020 by janbonator