/vt/ League Rules

Rules for the /vt/ League.

All rules posted here are subject to change at any time, and may be updated at any time.
This page is currently up to date for: /vt/ League 7

Section 0: Foundation

1. The Organizer reserves any and all rights to change any aspect of the League at any time, for any reason if deemed beneficial to the League as a whole

Section 1: General

Subsection 1: Expectations

1. Don't be a dick.
2. /vt/ League is not a serious competition and ought not be taken particularly seriously by anyone involved.
3. Anyone involved with the League is expected to be a good sport and demonstrate good sportsmanship.
4. It is expected that anyone involved with /vt/ League uses 4chan and /vt/ while following all of 4chan's posting rules.

Subsection 2: Definitions

1. The Organizer is the head member of /vt/ League and holds all executive powers relating to the League
2. Proof of Interest (POI) refers to documentation that is required from a team at every sign-up period at the time of sign-up to demonstrate thread interest in a team. This is usually in the form of an archived 4chan thread.
3. Tactical export refers to files containing all data relevant to a team's tactical properties.
4. Aesthetics export refers to files containing all data relevant to a team's aesthetic properties.
5. Deadline export refers to the official export that is uploaded a week before an official tournament begins.
6. Nightly export refers to exports managers may submit prior to each matchday in which they can edit their formations and tactical settings.
7. Manager refers to a person verified to provide tactics, as well as handle aesthetics, music, roster updates, and thread-relations for a /vt/ League team as well as link the team's official export
   1. Managers are fully expected to, without exception, be able to run the appropriate version of Pro Evolution Soccer and export tactics from it.
   2. Managers are also fully expected to submit Nightlies and/or Pastebins for their team across the entire league iteration.
   3. Any person found attempting to subvert or disregard the Management rules is subject to a permanent ban.
8. Caretaker refers to thread representatives that are responsible for a /vt/ League's aesthetics, roster, music, and thread-relations without verification to provide tactical input.
9. Tester refers to a person involved with tactical input for a team while not assuming the manager role. Testers are unverified and subject to manager discretion. They may not submit tactical exports at any time for a team, only assist the manager of a single team during the course of a League iteration.
   1. Testers must announce the team they are testing for to the Organizer before kickoff of any given league.
      1. Any person found testing for more than one team during a League iteration will be subject to a permanent ban.
10. Autopilot refers to a team that is without a tactics-providing manager and will have their tactics handled by the Organizer, within the full scope of normal Management abilities.

Subsection 3: Thread-Relations

Managers and Caretakers must:

1. Always act in the best interest of their thread, both on and off the field
2. Regularly use their thread and /vt/ as a whole
3. Maintain their team's wikipage during and between each League iteration
4. Inform their thread whenever they are playing or reasonably ensure they are informed by proxy
5. Gather POI for their threads and sign-up for each League within a timely manner
6. Acquire aesthetics for their teams or request them within a reasonable level of quality and time-period

Failure to follow the Thread-Relations rules is considered a serious offense and will result in consequences including, but not limited to: loss of tactical privileges, suspension, or a ban from the League

Section 2: Procedures

Subsection 1: Management and Caretaking

Anyone looking to become a Manager must complete the following procedures as listed:

1. Contact the Organizer to let their interest in management be known
2. Contact the Organizer during the verification period and complete management verification
3. Place their name on their team's wikipage after completing verification

Anyone looking to become a Caretaker must complete the following procedures as listed:

1. Contact the Organizer to let their interest in caretaking be known
2. Place their name on their team's wikipage as a Caretaker after confirmation by the Organizer

Subsection 2: Limitations

1. A Manager may only manage one team at a time
   1. A Manager is allowed to caretake another team alongside their managed team
2. A Caretaker may caretake up to two teams at a time, provided those teams have no Manager
   1. Expectations of contribution by a Caretaker of two teams are higher; failure to provide adequately for both teams may result in removal of the role from one or both teams
3. A Caretaker must step down from his role in the case of the team gaining a verified Manager
4. Any individual who leaves management of a team may not manage any other team for one League cycle
5. Any individual who fails verification for any team(s) more than once will be barred from management indefinitely

Section 3: Squad

Subsection 1: Composition

1. Various tactical elements are banned for tactical variety and enjoyment:
   1. The 4-3-3 formation, and all variations of it are banned.
   2. Players with a Playable Position of 'SS' may not have the playstyle of 'Dummy Runner'.
   3. The 'Track Back' card is banned for any player with a Playable Position of CF, AMF, or CMF.
   4. The 'Long Throw' card is banned.
2. Each team must have exactly 23 players in their squad.
   1. A squad must contain at least two players with Goalkeeper (GK) as Registered Position with the Playable Position of GK set to 'A', all other Playable Positions must be set to 'C'.
3. Outfield players must have their Playable Position set to 'A' to match their Registered Position
   1. All other Playable Positions must be set to 'C' by default
4. A single player of each squad must be assigned the role of Team Captain and must be designated as such in-game.
5. Players are categorized as non-medal, silver, or gold as follows:
   1. Nineteen of the players must be designated as non-medal players.
   2. Two outfield players must be designated as silver.
   3. Two outfield players must be designated as gold.
6. Players with GK as their Registered Position may not be gold or silver.
   1. No player may have GK as an additional Playable Position.

Subsection 2: Player Parameters

1. 1. All players, including Goalkeepers, are set to a height of 185cm
2. Players have a base stat value, based on their status:
   1. Gold players have a base of 98 in all stats.
      1. Gold players have 93 in SW
   2. Silver players have a base of 92 in all stats.
      1. Silver players have 88 in SW
   3. Non-medal players have a base of 77 in all stats.
      1. Non-medal players have 87 in OP, F, LWP, LOP, BC, and KP
3. All players must have their Weak Foot Usage and Weak Foot Accuracy stats set to 4 and 4 unless stated otherwise; this is often simply termed "4/4 Footedness".
4. The Form setting is set to 8 for gold and silver players, and 4 for the remaining non-medal players.
5. The Injury Resistance stat is set to 1 for all players.
6. A player is allowed a set number of 'Player Skills', under the following restrictions:
   1. Each player may have between 4 and 6 Player Skills
      1. This includes Player Skills traded for additional A-positions or COM Styles
      2. Trick Cards do not count towards this minimum
7. A player is allowed a set number of free 'COM Styles', under the following restrictions:
   1. Each non-medal player may have up to 1 free COM Style.
   2. Each silver player may have up to 2 free COM Styles.
   3. Each gold player may have up to 3 free COM Styles.
8. All non-Registered GK players may have two additional 'A' positions for free.
   1. Any further 'A' positions for any player may be taken in exchange for one non-free Player Skill.
   2. These players may not have any additional A-positions
9. A player designated as the Team Captain may have an additional free Player Skill or COM Playing Style, as well as +1 to all stats, in addition to the 'Captaincy' skill for free
10. 'Trick Cards' are a set of Player Skills that activate flashy player abilities deemed "funny" enough. These have been designated unlimited for all players. See below for a list of permitted trick cards:
    1. First Time Shot
    2. Acrobatic Finishing
    3. Malicia
    4. Scissors Feint
    5. Flip Flap
    6. Marseille Turn
    7. Sombrero
    8. Cut Behind & Turn
    9. Scotch Move
    10. Rabona

Subsection 3: Other Squad Rules

1. Formations and tactics that are not possible to be made in the standard game are considered illegal and are not allowed.
2. Players may not be played outside of one of their A-positions at any time, unless for the exception listed in Rule 5.5.1.
3. Medal players cannot be played as a goalkeeper at any time.
4. If a team is found to have man-marking settings in their exports at any time before a match, the export will be rejected. This includes nightly exports.
5. In a team's deadline export all options under ‘support settings’ must be set to OFF except for ‘switch preset tactic’ which must be set to ON.
6. In case two teams have the same player on their roster, the managers should come to an agreement about it. If an agreement is not reached, the team with the oldest instance of the player gets the right to use the name.
7. A player may not have more than 10 'Player Skills', including tricks, due to a PES limitation.
8. A player may not have more than 5 'COM Styles' due to a PES limitation.
9. All four of a team's medals must play all 90' (or 120') for all games. Medals may not be subbed or benched unless injured or suspended.
10. Players with Registered Position 'GK' may not play anywhere but Goalkeeper
11. Non-medal players may not be a team's designated Captain

Section 4: Exports

Subsection 1: Deadlines

1. The sign-up period is open for sign-ups until the max number of teams is reached or until one week before the tactical deadline of the League unless extended otherwise by the Organizer
2. A thread must have at least five successful threads within the 50 days prior to a league's sign-up period opening, and at least three additional successful threads within the 51 to 90 days before the sign-up period in order to be eligible to sign up as a team
   1. For combined threads as a team, only one must meet this requirement
   2. Roster poll results do not count as POI, a response from the thread is needed
3. Teams with weak or suspicious POI will have their sign-up marked as "Under Review" and returned to later during sign-up confirmations. They may send in additional POI during this period to remedy this before review
   1. This may only apply to one of the teams if multiple threads join together to create a team
4. Teams must have a created wikipage, with a logo and icon, as well as a rough-draft of the team's roster in order to sign-up
   1. The Organizer reserves the right to disregard a sign-up if these elements are not included, or the listed roster is exceptionally poor quality
5. Music exports are due 12 hours before kickoff of the following day of matches
6. The Tactical Deadline is exactly one week before the first day of any League
   1. The Tactical Deadline is absolute; teams that miss the Tactical Deadline will have their tactics rejected and their Manager demoted to Caretaker effective immediately
   2. Managers that miss the Tactical Deadline of a League will be given an unconditional one-League demotion to Caretaker for the following League
7. All exports are to be posted on the Exports page by the Manager, Caretaker, Aesthetics Helper, or Organizer only

Subsection 2: Tactical

1. A tactical export must be in the form of the correct version of PES Texport file, exported from the game via the in-game Export function.
2. A tactical export must be exported and uploaded from one of the PES of a verified manager of the associated team only.
3. A tactical export must not extremely low-quality nor excessively broken.
   1. Most, if not all, players should be in one of their A-positions on all three presets.
   2. A team's medals must mostly be towards the attacking half of the team.
   3. An export with very little care put into it (i.e. hitting random buttons in the Editor) will be discarded at the Organizer's discretion.
4. The Organizer may discard a manager's export, and demote them to caretaker, if they are unable to manage the team actively during the League in the form of submitting nightlies and/or written instructions.
5. The Organizer reserves the right to adjust deadline exports that feature illegal elements without consultation of any associated manager

Subsection 3: Aesthetics

1. Aesthetics in general must be made in good faith to not be needlessly obnoxious or obscurant
2. Managers and Caretakers can request to use a specific kit, ball and/or stadium before every match, but the final decision is up to the Streamer. The home team is favored over the away team.
3. Regardless of completeness, teams are required to submit an aesthetics export at the aesthetics deadline.
   1. The Aesthetics export is to follow the template here.
   2. The deadline aesthetics export must contain kits, portraits, logos, and as many completed players as possible: the rest can be added later via a mid-cup to the midcup channel.
4. Any aesthetics to be added after the deadline, for example additional model folders, are referred to as Midcup Aesthetics. These are delivered via the midcup channel.
5. At minimum a team must have two outfield kits, with a maximum of nine, and one goalkeeper kit. Teams are allowed to replace the standard football kit with a model which is applied to the whole team. This is referred to as a ‘custom kit model.’
   1. Both outfield kits must be aesthetically distinct, so that there is always a kit combination which does not make it difficult for the viewer to distinguish each team on the pitch during a match.
6. Any model that completely replaces the default body of a player is referred to as a ‘full body model’ (FBM).
   1. All FBMs must have their textures edited to match the team's kits and swap correctly and functionally.
7. Models cannot cover the ball while the players using them are dribbling. Any large card models placed behind a player must use the ‘onesided’ setting on their shader, which will make them look invisible when seen from behind.
8. Models cannot be absurdly small; no less than approximately half of a normal player's height
9. Gold medals must have their name colored Gold via the Editor; Silvers must have their name colored Blue via the Editor
   1. No other name colors are allowed; adding any via a Nightly export will void the export

Failure to follow the Aesthetics Rules may result in loss of tactical privileges or suspension for any at-fault Manager or Caretaker.

Subsection 4: Music

1. Managers and Caretakers must submit a working Music Export at the stated Music deadline for that League.
2. A valid Music Export must contain at least an Anthem, a Victory Anthem, and Team Goalhorn.
   1. Goalhorns need to be long enough to play for at least one minute before looping.
3. A team's music should always err on the side of 'too loud' rather than 'too quiet' as this is easier to adjust for the Streamer.
4. A team's music must be relevant to the thread's topic.

Section 5: Tournament Conduct

Subsection 1: Nightly Exports

1. Nightly exports are Texport exports sent directly (via Discord DMs) to the Organizer no later than nine hours before kickoff of the following matchday
2. Player information (i.e. cards, height, playstyle, order) may not be changed in a Nightly export
3. Nightly Exports are not used for a team's first match of a League
4. An invalid Nightly Export may be corrected by the Organizer if deemed a minor error, or disregarded in full if greatly erroneous
5. In the case a Nightly Export is not sent or is disregarded due to errors or lateness, the deadline Tactical Export will be used

Subsection 2: Match Management

1. There is no "live-management" in /vt/ League, nor are there any additional pauses to gameplay beyond the required
   1. The only stoppage in play initiated by the Streamer will be a pause at 65' in-game for substitutions of three players for each team
2. Managers may submit Pastebins to the Organizer that allow for some adjustment of their tactics during the course of a match for each match the team plays
   1. These Pastebins are due at the same time as Nightlies and are submitted directly to the Organizer
      1. If no Pastebin is submitted, nor any message to reuse a previous set of instructions, is given to the Organizer by the deadline, the team will have no changes during the match
         1. For the League's final day, a team's manager may submit any number of pastebin-instructions for specific opponents, but must also submit a general-use set of instructions
3. Pastebins are limited to specific intervals and specific types of instructions:
   1. Managers may only have 2 reasonable instructions per regular time half; this is also true in Extra Time
      1. Instructions done at 65' subs are not counted towards the second-half total
   2. During a stoppage, managers may change their preset, change the Numbers in Attack and/or Defense on their resuming preset, or both on a single instruction
      1. These stoppages are: Halftime, Subs, ET Start, ET Half
   3. Unless in a stoppage, Managers may only change presets
   4. Preset changes are not allowed between kickoff and 15'
   5. Preset changes requested between 85-90+, as well as after 115' of Extra Time, will only be done upon a goal being scored
   6. 65' subs may be done on any preset if specified in the Pastebin
4. The following are allowed to be specified in a Pre-Match section of the Pastebin:
   1. Preset for pre-game subs and/or starting preset
   2. Desired non-medal positions for subbing-out at 65' (i.e. "LB, RB, DMF")
   3. Set-piece takers, excluding Join the Attack
      1. GK may not take any set-pieces, with the exception of PK Taker
      2. If no identical substitute is available and/or conditions are tied, the sub chosen is at the Organizer's discretion
      3. If a player has no substitute with the same Registered Position and second-A positions are not allowed in the Pastebin, the player may be skipped for the next most-tired non-medal instead
5. The Organizer reserves the right to adjust and/or ignore any Pastebin elements deemed to be too time-consuming, illegal, or overly-complex

Unless specified to be allowed within the Rules, it can be assumed an instruction is not allowed

Subsection 3: Game Settings

The current regulation PES settings are:

1. Game version:
   1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
   2. Konami Patch 1.04.00 / DLC '4CC Pack'
   3. Language: British English (enGB/eng)
2. General settings:
   1. Match Level: Super Star AI
   2. Match Time: 10 min.
   3. Conditions: Random for both Home and Away
   4. No. of Substitutions: 3 (4 if extra time is enabled for the match, the 4th sub can only be used during extra time)
   5. Injuries: On
   6. Player Emotions: Off
   7. Game Speed: 1
3. Stadium settings:
   1. Time: Day or Night
   2. Season: Summer
   3. Weather: Random
   4. Length of grass: Random
   5. Pitch conditions: Random

Subsection 4: Controller Settings

1. Button Configuration: Type 1
2. Cursor Change: Assisted
3. Cursor Type: Player Name
4. Pass Support: Level 1
5. Through Ball Type: Basic
6. Shot Type: Advanced
7. Free Kick Controls: Reverse
8. Auto Feint: OFF
9. Auto Sliding: Assisted
10. Teammate Controls: Assisted

Subsection 5: Other Match Rules

1. Penalty Kicks at the end of Extra Time are ordered as GSGS, ordered by condition within their medal status.
   1. Non-medals will be arranged by PK-taking rating and then by condition within the same rating.
2. Any player that is out-of-position will be subbed-off in either pre-game or at 65'.
   1. If a preset puts a player out-of-position and that player can not be subbed off immediately, that preset cannot be used.
3. The 4th sub is taken at the beginning of Extra Time and is always done for the most-tired non-medal.
4. A player that accumulates two yellow cards, or a red card, is suspended for the following match.
5. In the case of a injured player unable to continue when subs are available, the highest-condition player from the bench who has the same 'A' position as their current position will be subbed in for them.
   1. In the case there are no other players with a suitable 'A' position, the highest condition bench outfielder will be subbed in instead.
6. In the case of an outfield red card, no changes will be made to either team.
7. In the case of a GK red card, an outfielder and the GK will be swapped, with the outfielder being subbed out for the bench GK
8. In the case of all of a team's valid GKs being unable to play for any reason, the team's captain, regardless of position or medal status, in exception to both Rule 3.4.2 and Rule 3.4.9, will be placed in the GK spot for the remainder of the game
9. Final League rankings are determined by the following order: Round of Elimination, Penalty Kicks, Extra Time, Goal Differential, Goals For, Group Stage Performance.
10. Pastebin Instructions that rely on the other team's instructions will be ignored.
11. In the case of a mid-match crash or playoff, the resulting game will be played with Orange conditioning for all players.
    1. In the case of a pre-kickoff crash, conditions will be kept random.