Tournament Rules

Introduction

The following are a general set of rules which most of the tournaments run at BAM will follow as a guideline.
As a structured competition these rules allow us to run the events in an organised and efficient way, and seek to provide the fairest playing field for all players.
Organisers will run their tournaments on the assumption that all players will know and understand these rules, so please take a minute to familiarise yourself with before you enter any of the tournaments. Not having known any of these rules when the tournament is running will not be accepted as an excuse for breaking them.
Each tournament may add or override rules at their disgression and these changes will be listed on the detail pages for each particular tournament, so please check there for game specific rules.

Terminology
The following terms will be in use within this list as well as during the tournaments, please be aware of their meaning.

Registration
All potential players must register for the tournament during the scheduled registration period before the tournament bracket begins. Late entrants may be allowed by The Director, but once the bracket has been drawn up there is no obligation for this to be allowed.
Late registrations forfeit the chance to be seeded in the bracket.
In the unlikely event that tournament size must be capped then players will be admitted on a “first come, first serve” basis.
Pre-registration for the Tournaments can be done now, please check out the Registration Details for more information.
The registration process will be completed when the entry fee has been paid either online or at the registration desk (at the venue) on the day. The fee paid will be used as a component of the prizes awarded to the tournament winners.
The Judges are not obliged to refund the entry fees paid to any player after the tournament has commenced.

Bracket Seeding
All players in the tournament will be “seeded by region”. To the best of our ability, we will place players in the bracket in a manner that minimizes the chances of them playing against someone who lives in close physical proximity to them. This increases the likelihood that you will play against players whom you have not played against before.
Some Tournaments may also seed players by previous major tournament results to ensure that the highest skilled players are not unfairly paired in the early rounds.
If a seeding issue occurs in the bracket, players are welcome to report it to the tournament organisers before the bracket commences and at The Director’s discretion, a swap may be possible.

Bracket Pools
When a tournament involves more than 32 players, the organisers will implement a pools in the tournament bracket.
These pools will generally be run as 4 distinct sets of players divided equally, however we may run 2 or more pools at once across all the tournament hardware, so please pay attention to when your pool is running.
When pools are in place, The Judges will be split across the pools with one or more judges adjudicating each pool, please familiarise yourself with which Judges are handling your pool and report your results to them only.
Each pool will run as a normal double elimination bracket with the exception of the final match of that bracket, the winners finalist and the losers finalist from each pool will proceed to a Top 8 round which may be played at a different time during the day after all the pools have finished.
The 2 finalists from each pool will retain their standing in the tournement when entering the Top 8, with losers finalists making up the losers bracket and winners finalists in the winners bracket.

Double Elimination
Unless otherwise stated, all tournaments will run using the Double Elimination method. This means each player enters the tournament with 2 lives and must lose twice before they are knocked out.
After losing their first life the player will enter the losers bracket, where they will play other players who have also lost a match. Losing a match in the losers bracket will result in elimination from the tournament.
When reaching the Grand Final of a Double Elimination bracket, one player will have 2 lives and the other only 1, these players will be the Winners Finalist and Losers Finalist respectively. The Losers Finalist must take both of the Winners Finalists lives to win the tournament (2 matches) whereas the Winners Finalist must only defeat the Losers Finalists one life. (1 match)
To keep the number of players currently needed at it’s lowest, the Tournament Organisers will run as many losers bracket matches as possible before returning to Winners Bracket matches. If you are knocked into the Losers Bracket, please stick around as your match may be closer than you think.

Double Jeapordy
When players have to face each other for a second match in the same tournament, and there are other players still alive in the losers bracket, this is known as double jeopardy. If there is a way to do so, the Judges will ask the affected players if they would like to have their next opponent switched to avoid a double jeopardy. Only one player need request a change for the Judge to enforce a switch. Only players entering the losers bracket may be swapped by the Judge. If this procedure cannot avoid the double jeopardy, then the Match will be played as scheduled with no further effect on the tournament.
In addition, should interstate/international players from the same region be required to play each other early in the bracket (despite the use of regional seeding) the Judges may intervene to move one of the players as per the rules for double jeopardy.

Tournament Priority
In the event that any player finds themselves needed for a match in more than one tournament at a time, Official Tournaments should always take precedence over DIY Tournaments.
Players may choose to forsake one match in favour of the other, but may be disqualified by The Tournament Organisers at their discretion if the wait is not reasonable.

Controllers
The Tournament Organisers will provide a small number of arcade joystick controllers as well as standard console controllers for use during the tournament matches. Primarily a Bring Your Own Controller BYOC event, players are welcome and encouraged to bring their own controller if they wish. There is no guarantee that the provided controllers will be to the players liking, so bringing your own controller is highly recommended.
Players may not use rapid fire buttons, slow motion features or programmable buttons on their controllers.
Care should be taken with wireless controllers due to the disruptive nature of their synchronisation process. When applicable wireless controllers should be synched with a cable to avoid issues where a previously synched controller interrupts an on-going match on another console.
Tournament Organisers reserve the right to take severe action against anyone suspected of deliberately interfering with matches due to their wireless controllers.

Equipment Failure
Video Game Equipment can and will malfunction at times, it is the players responsibility to report this to a Judge at the first possible circumstance and the problem will be rectified. Once the equipment is fixed or replaced, the game currently in play will be restarted, but the progress of other games will remain unchanged.
If the player chooses to ignore the issue and does not report it at the first opportunity (ie. only reports it when they begin to lose) then the game may continue on at The Judges discretion, and the equipment rectified at the completion of that game.

Pausing and Restarting of the Game in an Official Match
In the event that a player in a tournament match pauses the game at any point during the match whether intentionally or accidentally, the judge for that station should be called, and it will be at their discretion that a punishment will be issued.
In cases where the player was about to die from an attack such as a super or ultra, it is likely no action will be taken, however if the action interrupts the flow of an on-going match the judge may choose to award the round to the other player, allowing them to finish off the pausing player as quickly as possible.
If the console has been restarted by the other player and the equipment is not at fault, again discretion is up to the judge, and they may award the round, and have the game returned to it’s previous state, including super bars. Where this is not practical they may simply choose to award the current game in the set to the other player.
Where this continually occurs for one player, judges may choose to forfeit or disqualify them, so please be careful and be mindful of this rule.

Disqualification
Breaking any of the rules outlined here will result in disqualification of the offending player. This disqualification will typically be for the Game in progress, but may be extended to the Match and/or tournament at the discretion of the Judges. In addition to the rules presented elsewhere in this document, or any game-specific rules that may be in place, the following can result in player disqualification:

• Interfering with another player during a match, either through physical or verbal means e.g. jostling another player’s controller, jostling another player or making abusive comments.
• Failure to arrive on time for a Match. There are time restrictions in place and if a player does not make themselves known within a reasonable period of time they may be disqualified at the Judges discretion. If you need to leave briefly (eg. bathroom break) but will return, please notify the Judge where you will be.
• Inappropriate behaviour by players in the crowd. If such people are not tournament participants, or they continue to be disruptive after they are disqualified, the judges will seek to have them removed from the tournament area, or in extreme cases, ejected from the venue.

All players who enter the tournament are doing so under the assumption that they are prepared to abide by the rulings of the Judges on all matters related to the tournament. The Judges reserve the right to interpret and apply the rules provided here in whatever manner they deem appropriate. People that do not find this acceptable are advised not to enter the tournaments. In all cases the decision of the Judge is final and will not be open to debate or negotiation.

Game Specific Rules
Check out the Games Lineup and Rules Page (coming soon) and select each game to view specific rules for each tournament.