Appendix:Rules

Rules for the 4chan Cup.

General

1. Don't be a dick.

Appendix

• 'Official tournament' refers to any 4chan Cup event including the Summer Cup, Winter Cup, Spring Babby Cup, Autumn Babby Cup and any qualifying events connected to these tournaments.
• 'Season' refers to the phase of the year during which one official tournament is the primary focus. A season begins on the day following the previous season's final tournament day and ends on its own final tournament day.
• 'Team' refers to a football side connected to a 4chan Cup board (e.g. /3/, /a/, /an/, etc.).
• 'Manager' refers to a person nominated to provide tactical input during official tournament matches for a 4chan Cup team as well as link the team's official exports.
• 'Tester' refers to a person involved with tactical input for a team while not assuming the manager role.
• 'Board representatives' liaise with a board and seek feedback on matters regarding but not limited to aesthetics, tactics and squad selection.
• 'Staff' can refer to testers, managers or board representatives who liaise with their board. An individual is not limited in how many of these roles they may assume.
• 'Export' refers to files containing all data relevant to a team's tactical properties.
• 'Deadline export' refers to the official export that is uploaded a week before an official tournament begins.
• 'The game' refers to Pro Evolution Soccer 2016 as defined under Chapter IV: 4.1.1.
• 'Tactical Export' refers to exports managers may submit prior to each matchday in which they can edit their formations and tactical settings to their liking so long as they do not either violate tournament regulations or would no longer match the player information contained in the deadline export.

Chapter I: 4chan Cup Committee (4CCC)

1. The 4CCC is the leadership body of the 4chan Cup. The main purpose of the 4CCC is to scribe rules and make executive decisions.
2. The committee is headed by the individual who assumes primary hosting responsibility for 4chan Cup events - referred to as the 'host' or 'commissioner.'
3. The size of the committee is left to the host's discretion.
4. The host reserves executive right regarding all decisions relating to the cup.
5. The host may not manage a team during his tenure.

Chapter II: Staff

1. Any person wishing to represent their board and provide tactical input in real time during official matches must go through the verification process.
   1. Immediately following verification a manager must place their name and secure tripcode in the infobox on their team page on the wiki using Template:Anonymous.
   2. The secure tripcode must not be shared with anyone else under any circumstances. If the manager encounters difficulties involving the tripcode then a member of the 4CCC should be consulted so that manager can be assisted and a new tripcode generated if necessary.
2. A manager is forbidden from taking up a management role at more than one team whether under a single name or a pseudonym.
   1. Any manager wishing to move from a management role at one board to another must forego participation in the official tournament following resignation. The manager can assume his/her new role on the first day of the season following the foregone tournament.
3. Managers are forbidden from resigning during an official tournament if the team to which they are affiliated is participating in that tournament.
4. When resigning managers must remove their name from the infobox of their team's wiki page, leaving an edit summary of 'resignation' or similar. Any other resignation announcement (e.g. on 4chan) is allowed but not required.
5. Each board can have an unlimited number of staff but it must be made clear to the host which member(s) of staff assume primary responsibility for the management of a board. These persons will be listed as IRL manager on their team page.
   1. Only submissions by verified staff members of the team in question will be accepted. This applies but is not limited to exports, aesthetics, and sign-ups.
   2. Primary responsibilities refers primarily to giving tactical information to the host.
   3. Only one verified manager may relay tactics to the host during a match.
6. During tournament time no single person or group may challenge and override the authority of a participating team's management.
7. If an intra-staff disagreement takes place which acts to the detriment of decision making capability in tournament time then it is at the host's discretion to either decide whose commands take precedence or run the team using default tactical input for their upcoming matches until consensus between staff is formed.

Chapter III: Squad

Note: some terms below are from the UK English version of the game. The US English version sometimes uses different terms (e.g. 'condition' instead of 'form').

1. 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'.
   2. Outfield players will have their Playable Position set to 'A' to match their Registered Position. All their other Playable Positions must be set to 'C'.
2. A single player of each squad must be assigned the role of Team Captain.
3. Player abilities (stats)
   1. All players 179cm and below in height have their Weak Foot Usage/Weak Foot Accuracy setting set to 4/4. For players 180cm and above, it is set to 2/2.
   2. 19 of the players must be designated regular players. All regular outfield players and goalkeepers have 77 in all abilities.
   3. Two outfield players must be designated as silver and be rated 88 in all stats.
   4. Two outfield players must be designated as gold and be rated 99 in all stats.
   5. All players are allowed to have a lower Attacking Prowess and/or Defensive Prowess, but not higher.
   6. The following Playing Styles and Player Skills increase or decrease the Combined Ability of a player: Weighted Pass, Classic No. 10, The Destroyer and Offensive Full-back. No additional ability changes are required to level the Combined Abilities back to their original value.
   7. The Form setting is set to 8 for gold and silver players, and 4 for the remaining regular players .
   8. The Injury Resistance is set to 3 for all players.
4. A player cannot have more than a set amount of 'cards', known in the game as Player Skills and COM Playing Styles, under the following restrictions:
   1. Each registered goalkeeper can have at most 1 card.
   2. Each regular outfield player can have at most 2 cards.
   3. Each silver player can have at most 3 cards.
   4. Each gold player can have at most 4 cards.
   5. The Team Captain gets a free Captaincy card. This card does not count towards any previous limits. All additional Captaincy-cards do count towards any previous limits.
5. Silver and gold players cannot substitute the goalkeeper at any moment during the game.
6. Each player in the squad may be attributed a Playing Style.
   1. Playing Styles do not count towards the card limit.
7. It is illegal to set the player age and weight outside the ranges defined by the game.
8. Formations and tactics that are not possible to be made in the standard game without the use of external tools are considered illegal and are not allowed in the 4chan cup.
9. 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 earliest verifiable instance of the name gets the right to use the name.
10. There are two options managers have for distributing team heights:
    1. The combined height of each squad cannot exceed 4.200cm, with the specified number of players falling into the following height brackets:
       1. One player of 200-205cm with a stat nerf in every category (see below)
       2. One player of 195-199cm with a stat nerf in every category (see below)
       3. Two players of 190-194cm with stat nerf in every category (see below)
          1. All players 190cm and above are subject to a variable stat nerf - golds are -5 (94 instead of 99), silvers are -4 (84 instead of 88) and regular players are -3 (74 instead of 77)
       4. Six players of 185-189cm
       5. Seven players of 180-184cm
       6. Three players of 175-179cm
       7. Two players of 170-174cm
       8. One player of 165-169cm
    2. The combined height of each squad cannot exceed 4.165cm, with the specified number of players falling into the following height brackets:
       1. Ten players of 185-189cm
       2. Seven players of 180-184cm
       3. Three players of 175-179cm
       4. Two players of 170-174cm
       5. One player of 165-169cm

(A picture version is provided:)

Chapter IV: Tournament

1. Preparation
   1. Each official tournament has a signup period.
      1. During this period an official manager of the team can sign up their team on the signups page for that cup. The opening of the signups will be announced via Manager News on the Main Page.
         1. For Babby Cups (Spring and Autumn) only the invited teams can sign up.
            1. Should there not be enough signups for a Babby Cup, a select amount of random competitors that did not sign up will then fill up the open spots (called 'autopilot teams'). These teams will play with their latest official export adjusted to the rules of that cup, as well as some disadvantages decided by the 4CCC. If no such exports exist, it will be made by the 4CCC.
            2. Which teams are eligble for the autopilot draw are decided by the 4CCC. The draw happens along with the draw for the group stage.
         2. For Elite Cups (Summer and Winter) only the invited teams and the top five teams that did not promote in the previous Babby Cup. These last five teams will be treated as a backup.
   2. At the end of the signup period an official draw will be held on stream dividing all the teams into a group.
   3. Each official tournament is then preceded by two (export) deadlines.
      1. The first deadline is on the Friday two weeks preceding the start of an official tournament at 23:59:59 UTC.
         1. Verified managers of each team must have placed a link to a valid tactical export on their board's team page on the wiki by the specified time. Any submission after 23:59:59 UTC of deadline day will not be accepted. A link to the export on the Exports page is additional but not a requirement.
         2. Following the first deadline all exports will be checked for rule-breaking faults by an external body.
            1. Should an export contain rule-breaking faults, the 4CCC will then take the necessary actions to fix these faults with a penalty.
            2. The 4CCC reserves the right to disqualify teams for an Elite Cup should their export be deemed to contain too many faults. In this case a backup will replace that team.
            3. Managers are encouraged to check their own export with the help of the Auto-ATF tool before uploading their export.
         3. The actions taken when a team has not uploaded a tactical export before the first deadline depend on whether it is a Babby or an Elite Cup.
            1. In the case of a Babby Cup the team will lose one free timeout and the ability to send in daily exports if an export is still uploaded within 24 hours. After this a manager has an extra 24 hours to still upload an export at the cost of no free timeouts and no daily exports. Should there be no export 48 hours after the first deadline, the managers are no longer allowed to send in an export and the team will play with their latest official export adjusted to the rules of that cup with no timeouts and daily exports.
            2. In the case of an Elite Cup the team will be rejected entry into the cup and the first following backup team with a valid export will take its place.
      2. The second deadline is on the Wednesday following the first deadline at 23:59:59 UTC.
         1. This deadline is only used for aesthetics exports and in the case a large amount of teams have sent in an export with rule-breaking faults. (e.g. due to a broken Auto-ATF tool or incorrect rules on this page).
         2. Should there be the need of the use of the second deadline for tactical exports, then this will be announced via a Manager News post on the wiki main page.
            1. It is then the primary responsibility of the team's managers to ensure any errors, rule-breaking or otherwise, in their export are made clear on the appropriate Save Fixes page on the wiki should the second deadline be used for save fixes.
   4. Do not combine the tactical export with the aesthetics export.
   5. Teams are not allowed to create, transfer/move nor remove players from their officially assigned team in the official save and their export. Only use the existing players in the team.
      1. Failure to comply to this can result in the team's export deemed to be invalid.
2. Aesthetics
   1. All aesthetics must not break the rules of conduct of the streaming platform used (Twitch Rules of Conduct). By extension, this means no explicit nudity or gore that would make the game likely to be rated 'for adults only' by American standards.
   2. The commissioner can appoint someone who will handle all aesthetics, herein referred to as 'the Helper'. The current Helper is Tony !!YXbPlZYbUui.
      1. The helper has the same full rights as the host regarding aesthetics.
      2. The helper is allowed to announce rules regarding uploading aesthetics (e.g. all kits needing to be in the .dds format).
      3. The host maintains executive right over the helper.
      4. Aesthetics should never be sent directly to the host but to the helper, only he is allowed to send aesthetics (updates) to the host.
   3. Only the team's listed managers are allowed to submit aesthetics for their own team.
   4. All aesthetics relating to teams should be submitted by the first deadline on the respective team's page and should be clearly labeled. A link to the export on the Exports page is additional but not a requirement.
      1. Aesthetics submissions are permitted at the helper's discretion after the first and before the second deadline, on the condition that the helper is notified about such a submission before the first deadline. These exports have to be put on the team page.
      2. Aesthetics to be added after the second deadline, including late first exports, have to be delivered via the Mid Cup Aesthetics page.
   5. All general cup aesthetics not relating to teams should be submitted directly to the helper before the second deadline.
      1. All general cup aesthetics will be handled by the helper.
   6. Submitted aesthetics will be delivered via the Aesthetics Export Template as explained here: Aesthetic Exports.
      1. Delivering a broken Aesthetics Export Template not following the rules on this page: Aesthetic Exports will result in your aesthetics being denied.
      2. Aesthetics Exports submitted before the first deadline will be checked as soon as possible after the deadline. The helper will then make a spreadsheet listing all broken and/or missing stuff he could find. The team's listed managers can then list and link all fixes on the Save Fixes page of the upcoming cup before the second deadline. Everything not listed will then not fixed and/or included.
   7. The host or helper reserve the right to apply any aesthetics updates at their discretion. If an aesthetic element is thought to negatively affect game stability or viewer experience, it will not be accepted.
   8. Managers can request to use a specific kit, ball and/or stadium for an upcoming game, but the final decision is up to the host. The home team is favoured over the away team.
   9. Kits
      1. As a minimum a team must have two outfield kits and one goalkeeper kit. These three kits have to be normal kits and cannot be custom models.
      2. Both outfield kits must be aesthetically distinct, i.e. they must not clash with one another or the pitch.
         1. A kit clash can be regarded as any combination of kits which would make it difficult for the viewer to distinguish each team on the pitch during a match.
      3. A team is allowed to have up to seven extra outfield kits (extra goalkeeper kits is not possible). However, custom collar models can be denied use by the host if they are deemed to make the match hard to follow for the viewers.
   10. Player aesthetics (heads, gloves and boots)
       1. Player aesthetics should focus on the head (hands and feet for gloves and boots respectively) of the player rather than obscuring their body. This is to ensure that gameplay can be easily followed.
       2. Special features like huge cardboard cut-outs behind the player are fine for high-detail models, but should be limited for LOD models.
       3. As a guideline, LOD models should still not exceed roughly 200% width and 200% height of a normal player.
          1. Ultimately, exceptions for both LODs and high-detail models can be made, as long as their provided entertainment values greater than the difficulties they may introduce when trying to follow the gameplay. This is all subject to the judgement of the Helper.
   11. Stadiums
       1. Teams that wish to have their own stadium are required to 'claim' a slot on the Stadiums page of the current PES version. Files in an aesthetic export for a specific stadium which has not been claimed by the team will be ignored.
       2. The pitch itself should be in the typical shade of green most pitches share. It must not be too bright to clash with the ball or the players.
       3. No elements of the stadium must obscure the pitch during gameplay. This may also apply to realistic stadium shadows, as these tend to be irritating on stream.
       4. Some exceptions to these rules may be made if the stadium is supposed to fit a certain theme (e.g. The Void for /x/) after a judgement by the Helper.
   12. Other
       1. All remaining (team) aesthetics that are not described above are subject to the judgement of the Helper.
       2. Avoid making models that are too distracting or become annoying if shown repeatedly. Make sure to discuss one-time jokes beforehand.
       3. Consider uploading and linking the original model project files separately on the wiki so other people can reuse them for future versions of PES, even if the file format changes.
   13. File size of aesthetics
       1. Uncompressed (thus not zlibbed) .dds textures may never exceed the size of 3 MB (3.000.000 bytes).
          1. It is advised to make single color textures as small as possible. For example a pure black texture does not have to be bigger than 32*32 as a 2048*2048 one is just a waste of memory.
       2. Uncompressed (thus not zlibbed) .model files may never exceed the size of 1 MB (1.000.000 bytes).
          1. It is advised to keep aesthetics as simple and their file size as small as possible, as this might avoid reworking them should a future version of PES introduce unforeseen limitations.
3. Tournament conduct
   1. Rig Cam: Skype may be used to livestream the match for the commentators and managers (only the managers of teams who are playing at that moment) to bypass the stream delay. If the Rig Cam is available, managers are expected to rely on it to make their calls on time. Their microphone has to be muted at all times. The official skype account is the4chancup.
   2. The communication medium to be used when giving real time tactical instructions to the host is via a private conversation on IRC.
      1. Managers may give purely textual instructions or may use pictorial instructions if necessary.
      2. All instructions must be clear and concise. Failure to produce instructions satisfying this condition will result in those instructions being ignored.
      3. No instructions may leave tactical decision-making the responsibility of the host. Such instructions will be ignored.
   3. If a team is unable to nominate a manager to provide real time tactical input for a match then a manager for that team may submit clear written and/or pictorial instructions in an easily accessible format for the match before the scheduled kickoff time.
      1. If the host is unable to decipher said submitted written and/or pictorial instructions then they will be deemed invalid and ignored.
      2. If a team fails to provide written and/or pictorial instructions by the stated time and no nominated manager is in attendance to provide instructions in real time then that team will forfeit all offers of tactical input for the duration of the match.
   4. If a nominated manager fails to supply pre-match tactical instructions by the time stated in Chapter V Section 1 but arrives during the course of their match then that manager's ability to provide any tactical instructions for the remainder of the match will be at the host's discretion.
4. Settings
   1. The current settings as of Winter 2016 are:
      1. Game version:
         1. Pro Evolution Soccer 2016
         2. Patch 1.03.00 / DLC '4CC Pack'
         3. Langauge: British English (enGB/eng)
      2. Controller settings: (Need to be done for both home and away controllers)
         1. Role Control: Off (done on the main controller select screen)
         2. Auto Sliding: Assisted
      3. General settings:
         1. Match Level: Super Star AI
         2. Match Time: 10 min.
         3. Conditions: Random for both Home and Away
         4. Player Emotions: Off
         5. No. of Substitutions: 3
         6. Injuries: On
      4. Stadium settings:
         1. Time: Night
         2. Season: Summer or Winter
         3. Weather: Fine
         4. Length of grass: Normal
         5. Pitch conditions: Normal
      5. Additional gameplay rules:
         1. When a player collects two yellow over the course of the tournament, he will be suspended for the match after the match in which he got his second yellow card.
         2. Should a player receive a red card, he will be suspended for the next match.
         3. All collected yellow cards are wiped when the tournament proceeds to the knock-out stage. However, suspensions will not be wiped.

Chapter V: Tactical

1. Prior to each matchday, managers will have the opportunity to submit a new export for their team in which they may edit their formations and tactical settings to their liking.
   1. Tactical exports must be submitted to 4ccexports@gmail.com no later than 2 hours prior to the beginning of each matchday (The matchday begins at 17:00 UTC, so the deadline will be 15:00 UTC).
      1. State the team and for what day the export is meant in the subject.
      2. Exports submitted after this deadline will not be accepted under any circumstances.
         1. In the event that a team fails to submit a tactical export prior to their next match, their deadline export will be used instead.
            1. Teams that fail to submit tactical exports for any given match may still live manage that match provided a manager is available to do so. Regular live management rules still apply.
      3. The home team of the first match of the day will send their export as TEXPORT00000000 and the away team will send their export as TEXPORT00000001. The home team of the second match of the day will send their export as TEXPORT00000002, the away team will send their export as TEXPORT00000003 and so forth. Please note that PES16 uses hexadecimal filenames.
      4. Please do not pack the export in a .zip, .rar, .7z or any other archive.
      5. If the word export is in the email (not the subject) you should receive an auto-reply that the mail was received correctly.
         1. If you did not get an auto-reply and are not sure whether your export was received correctly, please contact an admin and he will check if the email was received.
      6. Do not send tactical instructions, music, or any other extraneous items. Tactics and music should usually be sent to the host, typically via IRC or skype.
   2. In the event that a team would play more than once during the same matchday, a tactical export for the first match must still be submitted as per the above rules. From the second match onwards, all tactical changes that would under normal circumstances be defined in the tactical export must be sent to the host via IRC and will be applied manually on-stream prior to said match.
   3. These rules do not apply for each team's first match of any given tournament, for which the deadline export will serve as that match's tactical export.
      1. In the event of five-team groups precipitating a staggered schedule, the last team to play their first group stage match will be able to submit a new export for their team without restriction.
   4. Any attempts to alter information aside from tactical instructions (i.e. player heights, cards, etc) in these exports in such a way that said export would either violate tournament regulations or would no longer match the information contained in the deadline export will result in the team's forfeiture of the current match.
      1. In addition, the manager or co-manager responsible for emailing the offending export will be permanently banned from participating in all future official 4chan Cup events as well as any provisional tournaments, leagues, or events either that are either directly sanctioned by the 4chan Cup Committee or make use of its resources (such as IRC or the implyingrigged.info Wiki).
      2. Should the team have a co-manager who was verified prior to the start of the tournament in question, they may continue to function as a manager for the remainder of the tournament, though the aforementioned game will still be forfeit. In the event that the team has no remaining verified managers, they will play all remaining matches using the default settings from their deadline export.
2. Before each match during the pre-match set-up managers are only allowed to (either by live-managing via the IRC, or by leaving a Pastebin of instructions in a message to the the4chancup Skype account - note that any methods aside from these two will be ignored):
   1. Make substitutions.
      1. If the Auto Lineup Select option is used to take care of the players' conditions and the game misplaces players on the pitch (e.g. switching sides on the pitch), the manager may point it out so the host can fix it.
      2. Fix the Set Piece Takers in the case substitutions have changed them.
   2. Set up man-marking.
   3. Make sure Fluid Formations is enabled or disabled for their team.
   4. Change the captain in case the original designated team captain is not playing.
   5. Pick a starting preset.
   6. For the first match of each team in the group stage, teams are allowed to make changes to the Team Instructions of any presets. This will not be allowed from match 2 onwards however, as these changes should be done in the export sent before the matchday.
      1. In the event of five-team groups precipitating a staggered schedule, the last team to play their first group stage match is not allowed to make any slider changes, but is allowed to send in a special matchday export.
3. During the match, each team's manager has two timeouts to use to change their tactical setup at any point in the game.
   1. They are encouraged to be expedient as the host reserves the right to continue the match if he deems the pause too lengthy. It is wise to know what you want to change prior to calling a timeout.
   2. Only the team who called the timeout is allowed to make tactical changes during the timeout.
   3. Teams are given a free voluntary timeout to use at any point in the match (with the aforementioned rules still applicable) if they wish after:
      1. Conceding a goal
      2. A dismissal (red card) for a member of their playing squad
      3. An injury which leaves a player in their squad unable to continue play for the rest of the match.
   4. For the free timeout to not count towards the timeout limit, the manager must call it within 5 minutes of regular playtime (in-game timer) resuming after the triggering event. After that, any timeout called (assuming previous conditions are not fulfilled again in that time) will count towards the global timeout limit.
   5. Both teams are also given a free voluntary timeout at half time, to change their tactics should they wish to do so. They must let the host know if they intend to do so before the referee has blown for halftime. The timeout is only valid during the halftime break and cannot be saved for later.
      1. This also applies should the match go to Extra Time. Both Extra Time pauses work the same as the halftime pause.
   6. Timeouts (not counting free timeouts as specified above) may not be used until at least 20 minutes of match time has elapsed.
   7. During a timeout a manager may do the following:
      1. Change sliders
      2. Edit man-marking
      3. Change Set Piece Takers
      4. Turn Offside Trap on or off
      5. Change the automatic substitutions setting
      6. Turn Change Preset Tactics on or off
      7. Enable or disable Fluid Formations
      8. Change a single formation (includes moving players)
         1. In the case a team uses Fluid Formations, the manager can edit only one of the three formations (at kick-off, in possession, out of possession) of a single preset.
         2. Changing multiple formations will cost multiple timeouts.
         3. In the case a team ends up with less players (red card or an injury leaving a player unable to continue after having used all 3 subs), the manager is allowed to change all three Fluid Formations of a single preset.
   8. Changing presets during a match does not require a timeout nor does it count toward the timeout limit.
   9. Substitutions, should they be done manually, do not count towards the timeout limit.
   10. A manager can leave behind a Pastebin with instructions in a message to the the4chancup Skype account should he be unavailable to live-manage during his game.
       1. These instructions should be kept simple. The host reserves the right to ignore these instructions should he deem them to be too complex.
       2. Instructions that rely on actions from the other team's manager will be ignored. (e.g. "If we're 2-0 down use these instructions" is okay, "If he changes his attack to wide then do this and this" is not.)
   11. The host may choose to ignore player movement instructions that are deemed to be unreasonably small and/or wasting time.