1. General
2. Teams and players
3. Schedule and Punctuality
4. Hosting
5. During a game
6. Rule Violations and Punishment
7. Legal Process

1. General

1.1 Administration and Announcements
1.1.1 Everybody who is authorized by ROG MASTERS to administrate the competition based on its rules and regulations will be called an “admin” or “referee” in the following, the collectivity of all admins will be called the “administration”. A list of the current referees can be found on the website of the competition.

1.1.2 Any news article posted on the official competition website serves as an official announcement for the competition.

1.1.3 Official announcements as well as statements of referees at any place (e.g. competition website, support ticket reply, skype, steam) can ignore or overrule the following rules in order to make the competition as fair as possible. In case of contradicting declarations, the most recent announcement or admin statement counts.

1.2 Participants & Teams
Every real person – unless officially banned – with a valid steam account is allowed to participate in the competition and will be called “participant” in the following. Participants joining a team in order to fulfill the minimum required amount of team members will be called a “team” in the following.

1.3 Commitments
1.3.1 By attending the competition participants acknowledge without limitation to comply with the rules and regulations, official announcement, and with the statements and decisions made by the referees.

1.3.2 Every participant acknowledges the right for the administration to modify the rules and regulations for adjustments at any time without notice.

1.3.3 Every participant has to show the needed respect towards referees and other participants. Insults and unfair or disrespectful behaviour towards anyone are not tolerated and will be punished.

1.3.4 Every participant must always have the newest version of Steam and Dota 2 installed and has to check for updates in time before each match. Unless a new version comes out right before the match, patching is not a valid reason to delay it.

1.3.5 Every team accepts the official schedule of the competition and declares its ability to be available during these times.

1.3.6 Every team and participant has to try to win every game at every stage of the competition. Purposefully losing for any reason is strictly forbidden.

1.4 Communication
1.4.1 All communication in between participants and referees has to be in English language.

1.4.2 All communication between opposing teams should run through the official competition website. Any other communication type is invalid for the administration in case of conflicts, unless a complete chat-log can be provided (e.g. via screenshots).

1.4.3 Referees should be contacted via support methods given in the support tab. Requests via any other platform may be ignored.

2. Teams & Players(top)

2.1 Team Size
A Team has to consist of at least five and at most ten participants. Those persons will be called “team members” or “members” of the team in the following.

2.2 Registration
2.2.1 In order to sign up for the competition, a team has to fulfill all requirements the tournament platform forces.

2.3 Lineup Changes
2.3.1 Team members can not be removed or added during the ROG Masters (India) competition and the minimum team requirement for playing in the event is 5 players. 5 vs 4 is not allowed as it gives competitive advantage to a considered team. There might be additional restrictions to this rule in specific competitions. Admin reserves the right to take a decision based on a particular situation.

2.3.2 If another team member than before should be declared leader of a team, this has to either be set by the old leader himself in the team managment, or be requested by at least four and at least 50% of the team members.

2.4 Stand-ins
Stand-ins are persons used by a team as a player during a match, without being an official team member.

2.4.1 A stand-in may not be member of another team or have played a game for another team within the same or a higher stage of the competition

Explanation: This competition is split into two stages (open qualifier -> playoffs). The second stage counts as the “higher” one, meaning members from teams invited to the playoff stage may not help out in the open qualifiers; meanwhile players from teams that were defeated in the first stage are legal stand-ins later on.

2.4.2 The maximum of stand-ins used by a team within one game is 2

2.4.3 Further limitations to the usage of stand-ins may be declared in the individual rules of the competition.

2.4 In-game Names
Each player should have a steam name that is similar to his account name during all games to be recognizable for the opponent. Stand-ins should be clearly marked as such.

3. Schedule (top)

3.1 Match times
3.1.1 The official schedule of the competition can be found on the individual competition rules and/or in an official announcement. This schedule includes the time of each match or of each round (in which case all matches of the round have that time as official match time).

3.1.2 If a delayed end of a previous match prohibits a match to start on schedule (due to either one of the involved teams still playing or the official broadcaster still streaming the previous match), the match time is changed to 5 minutes after the previous match ends.

3.2 Rescheduling

The change of a match time is only possible under exceptional circumstances and has to be confirmed by the administration.

3.3 Punctuality

3.3.1 If one team has not shown any sign of activity (that includes: No team member wrote a match comment, no team member has joined the lobby, all other attempts to contact the team failed) until 15 minutes after the match time, a default win should be requested by the other team via the support system. The default win for both games will be confirmed by an admin under normal circumstances.

3.3.2 If one team is not ready to start the match (but has shown activity) until 30 minutes after the match time, the opponents should report that 30 minutes after the match time.

4. Hosting & Settings (top)

4.1 Lobby Hosting
The lobby will be hosted by the admins. Server settings will be done by the admin of the game and the captains of the two teams will receive the lobby password 30 minutes via a WhatsApp message/SMS before the match is scheduled to start. Game name will be set as (Team 1) vs (Team 2)

4.2 Spectators

4.2.1 Only  official broadcasters, ROG MASTERS staff members, and anyone authorized by an admin, has the right to spectate any game without the agreement of the teams.

4.3 Server Location
4.3.1 The default server location is defined in the rules of each tournament individually. If that isn’t done and there is no newspost about it stating otherwise, the default server location is SG.

4.3.2 Other servers than the default one are used, if both teams agree or a referee decides on it

4.4 Sides & Drafting Order

4.4.1 The side and drafting order of each game will depend on the toss conducted by the admin of the game. The winner of the toss can choose the side or the drafting order. The loser decides the other.

4.5 Lineup Check
4.5.1 Both teams are responsible for checking their opponent’s lineup before the start of the game, or during the draft at the latest. If a lineup is found illegal according to rules 2.4 (e.g. wrong steam accounts or too many stand-ins), the opposing team may refuse the start of the game.

4.5.2 As soon as the first creep wave spawns without previous protest, the game has to be concluded regardless of the lineups.

4.5.3 If the game is delayed due to one team not joining with a legal lineup, it counts the same as if a player were missing, and the standard punctuality rules apply. However the team has at least 5 minutes to fix the lineup, even if there was less time left according to 3.3.

4.6 Game Settings

• The hosting team has to put the following settings to the lobby:
• GAME NAME – see 4.1
• GAME MODE – Captains Mode
• LOBBY PASSWORD – see 4.1
• SERVER LOCATION – see 4.3
• LOBBY VISIBILITY – Public
• Enable cheats – No
• Fill empty slots with bots – No
• STARTING TEAM – see 4.4
• PENALTY-RADIANT – None, unless stated otherwise by an admin
• PENALTY-DIRE – None, unless stated otherwise by an admin
• SERIES TYPE – free choice, recommended to fit the match mode
• PAUSING – Unlimited
• SPECTATORS – Enabled
• DOTA TV DELAY – 2 minutes

5. During a game (top)

5.1 Picks & Bans
The hero pool always consists of all heroes the game mode allows and might therefore change several times during the competition. The game must not be paused during the draft, unless a drafter disconnects.

5.2 Pauses
Each team has the right to pause the game for an acceptable duration, if a player announces it at least three seconds in advance and calls a coherent reason (exception: not necessary, if someone disconnects). The game must not be resumed before both teams agree with it. When the number or the duration of breaks becomes too high or long, the administration may force the continuation of the game.

5.3 Disconnects & Reconnects
If a player disconnects, the game is to be paused instantly. Everyone has up to ten minutes to reconnect to the game (if the same person disconnects more than once, all times get added up). If this time is passed, the opposing team may continue the game, unless an admin demands the opposite. The affected player is in this case still allowed to rejoin later on.

5.4 Broadcasting
5.4.1 Every authorized spectator (according to 4.2) inside the game is allowed to provide a video stream with a delay of at least two minutes.

5.4.2 Spectators from DotaTV are allowed to broadcast a match with any delay. Upon request from the administration these streamers have to use proper overlays and possibly fulfill additional requirements.

5.4.3 The players are not allowed to watch or listen to any of these video streams or DotaTV at any time during their match. Furthermore they are not allowed to provide a stream themselves, unless there is no official broadcaster inside the game.

5.5 Bugs
Abusing a bug is forbidden. An administrator will decide on the punishment.

5.6 Tools / Hacks
The usage of any Dota-related tool aside from Steam and Dota 2 during a match is strictly forbidden.

5.7 Ending
A game is finished, when an Ancient Fortress is destroyed, when the majority of a team leaves on purpose, or when the administration decides on it. (note: A game is not forfeited, when a player types “gg” or “ff”. Always wait for the ancient to be destroyed!)

6. Rule Violation & Punishment (top)

6.1 Breaking rules
Breaking rules or ignoring the order of an admin may result in a punishment for a whole team or a specific player. Type and amount is chosen by a referee.

6.2. Possible Team Punishments

• Default Loss for one game
• Default Loss for the whole match
• Time Penalty for the next draft
• Prize Money Reduction
• Temporary or permanent ban from the competition
• Ban from other competitions

6.3. Possible Player Punishments

• Temporary ban from the competition
• Permanent ban from the competition
• Ban from other competitions

6.4 Rule violations in other tournaments
Heavy rule violations on external Dota 2 leagues or tournaments may also result in punishments for this competition.

7. Legal Process (top)
Legal proceedings are not permitted.