Method Mayhem HOTS EU tournament ruleset

These official rules of the Method Mayhem HOTS EU tournament competition apply to each of the teams competing in the tournaments. This includes the players, managers and other members.

These rules are designed solely to ensure the integrity of the system made by the administrative team and to create a competitive balance among the teams participating in the tournaments. 


Banned Heroes/Bugs/Talents/Skins

Note: This list may not be comprehensive and you may still be sanctioned if found abusing bugs that are not listed here.

Banned Heroes


Banned Bugs

Using the "Toy Train" Caboose mount

Brightwing banned from entering vehicles on Volskaya Foundry and Dragon Shire

Deathwing cannot use "Bellowing Roar" while his abilities are on cool down from landing

Picking "Ultimate Evolution" when Qhira is on your team


Banned Talents

E.T.C. -  Crowd Surfer


If a banned talent is picked and noticed before 5 minutes after the start of the game and before the first fort or keep has fallen, then a restart is required under the technical difficulties rule listed below.

If a banned talent is picked mid game, you may continue the game as long as the talent does not give a passive benefit, and the ability linked to the talent is not used for the rest of the game.

If the talent does give a passive benefit, the team that picked the banned talent will lose the map (not the series).

In situations where a banned hero is accidentally picked in draft, the draft must be stopped, and remade up to the point where the banned hero was picked.

All banned talent/hero/bug breaches must be reported within 7 days of the game being played.

Prohibited character skins:
  • Archangel Diablo and all its variants:
    • Toxic, Twilight, Skyborne
  • Cyberhawk Kael'thas and all its variants:
    • Sapphire, Cyborhawk, Spectre
  • Maraudin' Muradin and all its variants:
    • Raider, Dominion, Umojan
  • Striker Li-Ming and all its variants:
    • Canary, Champion, RCHS, Scarlet, Sapphire
  • Mecha Tyrael and all its variants:
    • Perfect, Strike, Deathreaper
  • Cuddle Bear Stitches and all its variants:
    • Honey, Snuggle
  • Techno Chromie and all its variants:
    • Vandal, Jade, Amber
Prohibited character mounts:
  • Arthas Bat Form
  • Kerrigan Bat Transformation
Prohibited mounts:
  • Invisible Horse
  • Toy Train

Picking banned skins can lead to a restart as long as the opponents have objection against the skind and 2 minutes have not yet passed in game. If they are not noticed within 2 minutes, the game continues as normal. Furthermore, the teams can decide to continue as normal if both teams agree.

Eligibility, acceptance and applicability


  • Competing in Method Mayhem HOTS requires the player or team to accept the official rules. 
  • By competing in Method Mayhem HOTS, your team will receive prize money as indicated in the tables + extra percentages from the crowdfunding.
  • The rewards as detailed above will be distributed by Matcherino. This will require a Matcherino account. Cashout can be accomplished via either PayPal or check. 

    Applicability

  • If you, a member of your team, violates these Official Rules, your team may be subject to game forfeitures, prize forfeitures and disciplinary action. 
  • These Official Rules govern the competitive rulings for the Metho Mayhem HOTS competitions.

    Eligibility

  • You must have ownership and are able to play on the Battle.net account registered on the Heroes Lounge website. Being currently banned on Heroes of the Storm will make you ineligible to play matches unless you inform the admins beforehand on which account you will be playing instead and can prove it is yours. 
  • You are not allowed to change your Battle.net account during the season  
  • The registered Battle.net account must adhere to the Heroes of the Storm user guidelines. 

Team rules and requirements


  • A team must consist of 5 players, each of whom must be an eligible participant. Players can not be part of multiple teams. 
  • A team must designate one captain, who will be the only point of contact responsible for communications.

Team changes


  • Rosters are locked from the moment of last Weekly cup of that month.
  • In extreme emergencies a team is allowed to state their intent to release or acquire a player for the monthly tournaments, by informing one of the administrative staff with solid reasoning. 

    Weekly cups

  • Rosters are locked from the moment of the signing up for one of the Weekly cups.
  • In order to make roster changes:
    • The roster change request must come from the captain.
    • the newly added player must fulfill the criteria of eligibility as stated above.
  • A team can make a maximum of 2 roster changes while keeping their accumulated points.
  • Making more than two roster changes resets the team's accumulated points and effectively treats the new roster as a new team.

Substitutes


    Monthly tournament

  • A substitute can be put in place for a member of the team roster, this substitute and the team must fulfil the following requirements: 
    • The request to use a substitute player must come from the captain
    • The team can not use more than 1 substitute in the same match
    • The substitute player must fulfil the eligibility requirements, and can not be a player from a different team participating in the Monthly tournament. 
    • Substitutes must be reported to, and approved by one of the administrative staff before the match starts. 

    Weekly cups

  • Teams participating in the Weekly cups can use up to 1 substitute per cup. 
  • A substitute can be put in place for a member of the team roster, this substitute and the team must fulfill the following requirements: 
    • The request to use a substitute player must come from the captain
    • The team can not use more than 1 substitute in the same match
    • The substitute player must fulfil the eligibility requirements, and can not be a player from a different team participating in the weekly tournament. 
    • Substitutes must be reported to, and approved by one of the administrative staff before the match starts. 
    • Heroes Lounge may allow additional substitutes in extreme circumstances

Streaming


  • Teams and players are allowed to broadcast their own perspective. At a minimum delay of 20 seconds. 
  • Streamers are obliged to show in the stream title that they are participating in the Method Mayhem and to link somewhere on their stream to Methods channel: twitch.tv/Method during their POV stream

Format Qualifier

    Signups
  • Teams must register on heroeslounge.gg to participate in Method Mayhem.
  • Teams need to confirm their participation in each cup within the signup period on the Heroes Lounge website. 
  • Sign-ups will close the day before the Cup at 23:59 CEST (GMT+2/UTC+2). This would mean the following dates: 1st June, 8th June and 15th June.

    Points

  • The Method Mayhem tournament is based on a points structure where teams can accumulate points over 3 cups
  • The Method Mayhem cups are single elimination tournaments
  • Round of 16 matches will use BO1 format, the two rounds after (quarter & semi-finals) use BO3 format and the finals will be BO5. 
  • The following rewards are awarded for final placement in any given cup:
    Position
    Points*
    Prize**
    1st 125 250 USD
    2nd 75 100 USD
    3rd-4th 50
    5th - 8th 25
    9th - 16th 10
    *Only teams that participated in the qualifier by playing a game will be rewarded points. Teams seeded into point spots that did not participate do not receive points.
    **The prize pool might increase depending on the crowdfunding raised for the cups

    Tiebreakers

  • Tiebreakers for the cups will be decided based on: 
    1. Points
    2. Highest finish placement in any qualifier
    3. Second highest finish placement in any qualifier
    4. Third highest finish placement in any qualifier
    5. Head-to-head score
    6. Map score

    Match setup

  • A command will be used to determine the map ban/pick order using a match lounge channel in the Heroes Lounge discord. 
    • The winner starts by banning a map
    • The loser responds by banning another map
    • The winner picks the first map
    • The loser receives first pick in the game
    • After the first game the losing team can choose to either pick a map or have first pick. The winner of the game will receive the other. 

    Attendance, delays, breaks and pauses

  • A team must be present 15 minutes in advance of the scheduled start time, all matches after the first round will begin from the moment both teams for that round have been decided. 
  • A team whom's first match is in the 2nd round of the bracket will have to be present 15 minutes in advance of the scheduled start time of the 2nd round. 
  • A team will be considered tardy, if the team has not assembled 5 minutes after the agreed upon time. The team will receive a warning. 
  • A team that is tardy for 10 minutes forfeits a match. 
  • A maximum break of 5 minutes between maps is allowed before a team becoming tardy. 
  • A maximum break of 10 minutes between rounds is allowed before a team becomes tardy. 
  • Pauses may only be started for technical difficulties
  • The time pool for pauses is 10 minutes, after which the game will resume. 

    Map pool

  • Battlefield of Eternity
  • Alterac Pass
  • Cursed Hollow
  • Dragon Shire
  • Infernal Shrines
  • Sky Temple
  • Tomb of the Spider Queen
  • Towers of Doom
  • Volskaya Foundry
  • Braxis Holdout

Format monthly tournament

  • The top 8 teams based on the points from the Weekly cups will qualify for the monthly tournament.
  • The Method Mayhem monthly tournament follows similar rules to the weekly cups with the differences in format being:
    • The Method Mayhem tournament is a double elimination tournament
    • The first rounds of both the upper and lower bracket will be BO1, with the rest of the tournament being BO3 except for the grand finals which will be BO5 
  • The following prize rewards are awarded for final placement in the monthly tournament:
    Position
    Prize*
    1st 750 USD
    2nd 400 USD
    3rd 150 USD
    *The prize pool might increase depending on the crowdfunding raised for the tournament

Bugs & Exploits, Prohibited skins and sprays

  • Teams participating in Method Mayhem are prohibited from using known bugs or exploits, doing so will result in the loss of the match and continued abuse will result in the expulsion from future tournaments.
  • Bugs or exploits not shown on the ban list can still be declared known by the administrative team. Use of said bugs or exploits to create unfair matches will be followed with disciplinary action.

Conduct of Participants

  • Players and teams must uphold a sportsmanlike conduct. 
  • Players and teams are prohibited from discriminating or harassing other participants and/or actors surrounding Method Mayhem. 
  • Any form of cheating is not tolerated and punishment will be at the discretion of the staff, this includes collusion, match fixing, attempts to interfere with other teams connection, tampering with the operation of Method Mayhem, account sharing and other forms of cheating. 

Disciplinary action

  • Heroes Lounge reserves the right to apply disciplinary action as it sees fit. 
  • Four stages of disciplinary actions can be taken, stages can be skipped in the case of severe breaches of the rules. 
    • Warning, a final reminder to keep to the ruleset.
    • Loss, a loss of the match or game.
    • Kick, a team or player is disqualified from the tournament. 

Additional provisions

  • Heroes Lounge has the right to publish statements regarding punishments, any team, player, captain or other physical or mental constructs that can be regarded as entities waive any right of legal action against Heroes Lounge if mentioned in such a statement.
  • All decisions regarding the interpretations of these rules lies solely with Heroes Lounge and the supporting staff. 
  • These rules may be amended, modified, or supplemented by Heroes Lounge and supporting staff in order to ensure fair play, integrity and competition of Method Mayhem. 
  • Rules may change in between tournaments to ensure the continuation of Method Mayhem.