The following rules are from forum.stratego.com. They were written for the 3rd Stratego World Championships Online. Some of the rules cannot apply in general: e.g. the start of 1.1, 2.1, and 2.2. Nevertheless, the rules are a good starting point for a general set of “Stratego Online Rules”.
0. Definitions
1. Requirements
1.1. The online WC is open for anyone willing to participate as long as the participant has an ELO rating of 250 or better at the time when he signs up.
1.2. The participant must be able to communicate in English, on such level that the participant is able to:
- Arrange his own matches.
- Have basic communication with other participants and the WC team.
- Understanding of the ISF tournament rules and additional information which can be found in this invitation.
1.3. The participant must know how to make, save and share screenshots in order to prove the result of a game, but also potentially showing any forms of misbehaving or breach of rules as well as knowing how to communicate through the forum (both private and public messages).
1.4. A personal (not shared) account on stratego.com.
1.5. The participant, if requested, must share the name of each account the participant has with the WC team if requested. This information may be shared with other participants.
1.6. The participant must have completed at least 8 games at the end of the online WC (being awarded a win counts as a completed game), having less than 8 games completed could result (each case will be judged separately) in exclusion from a next online WC. Missing two games in a row has the same effect.
1.7. The participant has read and acknowledged the rules / terms. By signing up you automatically agree to the rules / terms, read or not.
1.8. There is no age requirement, no restrictions based on residence or whatsoever. All non banned (from WCO) players who fulfill the requirements may sign up.
2. Sign up
If you fulfill the requirements and there is no reason to disallow participation (including, but not limited to things such as negative encounters with other participants or suspicion that one of the requirements in 1. are not fulfilled).
2.1. Sign up period: From the moment of posting (see time stamp).
2.2. End of sign up period: 18.59 GMT, 17th of September 2017.
3. Limitations
3.1. All games must be played on stratego.com.
3.2. A participant must participate with his highest ranked account (in case the highest ranked account is not the most known account, the participant may ask an exception to the WCO, example: If Cosinus would be ranked above Sohal, the account of Sohal (if given permission) may be used instead).
3.3. The colour black may not be used as piece background.
3.4. The WCO game must be a stand-alone game, meaning that in case a player plays the same opponent for another tournament at the same time, those games must be played separately from each other.
4. Other online WC / useful information
4.1. Pairings will be made using Swiss Perfect, using the ranking list which can be found at http://greg.kleier.net/download/get_ratings/rat_list.php?games=0&sortby=r&nat%5B%5D=all
Unranked participants will have a starting ranking of 600. It might occur that there is an odd number, in which case one participant will have a so called bye (worth 6 points), Swiss Perfect will decide who this participant is. A participant may receive a maximum of 1 bye during the online WC. More details and informations about how SP works can be found in “3rd online WC-Questions” thread http://forum.strateg...hips-questions/
4.2. Tiebreaks will be done by MBUCH / BUCH points, done by Swiss Perfect
4.3. Each round will take a maximum of 2 weeks.
In case a game has not been played, the WC team may decide that, based on effort of getting the game played by one or both of the participants.
- The game is won by one of the participants, awarding the winning participant 6 points, the losing participant 1 point (the losing participant showed some effort), this scoring will be used in case of a legitimate disconnect.
- The game is won by one of the participants, awarding the winning participant 6 points, the losing participant 0 points (the losing participant showed no or nearly zero effort), this scoring can be used in case of an illegitimate disconnect.
- The game is a draw (both participants showed a lot of effort).
- Both participants receive 1 point (both participants showed some effort).
- Both participants receive 0 points (neither participant showed any effort).
- One participant receives 1 point, the other participant receives 0 points (in case the former has showed some, but very minimal effort, and the other participant has showed no, or nearly no effort).
- Otherwise, to be decided by WC team.
Effort is measured in: Availability as well as actively trying to get the game played
Above also applies in case of any disputes or / and difficulties, during or / and outside the actual game.
5. Game arrangement
5.1. Communication
Game arrangement will be done privately (see 1.6.). The WC team will start the private messages, participants in those messages will be:
- The 2 participants.
- 1, 2 or 3 members of the WC team.
- Anyone else the WC team needs / wishes to invite.
5.2. Showing availability
Both of the participants should give an indication of their availability, in the following (or similar) format:
Date — available time slots (earliest starting and latest starting time) in GMT. In case there is no availability on said day, a participant may put “N/A” or something similar.
Availability must be given for the entire week (Monday - Sunday), obviously this is just an indication, not a formal offer / agreement.
Availability (per week – this may be disregarded for the 2nd week if the game has already concluded) must be shown, latest, by Wednesday 21.59 GMT. Failing to do so will result into (unofficial) warnings and loss of credit in case a game remains unplayed. Too many warnings will result into a talk with the WCO team about the issue.
5.3. In case a game can not be arranged, the default time for the game will be sunday of the second week of the round, at 18.00 GMT. Please note that if participant X has showed a lot of effort, and participant Y has not, but shows up at the default time, the probability of the WC team awarding the win to participant X is pretty high.
6. Disputes
6.1. A participant may start a dispute if:
- The participant suspects another participant is cheating or / and showing unsporting behaviour, this does not necessarily have to be an opponent. An accusation should include evidence or at the very least proper reasoning in case evidence could not be gathered.
6.2. The rules do not foresee in a situation
Please note that asking a question (for example, “did my opponent make an illegal move?”) is not automatically a dispute and therefore evidence is not required.
7. Behaviour and disconnects
7.1. Participants or / and persons who (intentionally) try to ruin the experience for others or / and are found guilty of misbehaving including but not limited to needlessly dragging on with disputes that have been dealt with, may be disqualified or / and excluded from new online WC(s)
7.2. Disconnects, in case a participant disconnects during the setup phase, or before atleast 1 move was made, a replay will be automatically granted to this participant (max 1 replay per participant per game). In other cases, the participant's opponent may decide to claim the victory, which the WC team will award, unless the site was at fault. We request the best of sportmanship from each participant, this includes but is not limited to granting a replay (if reasonable) or / and telling the disconnected (but reconnected in time) participant the current standings since the graveyards reset after a disconnect
7.3. Cheating, includes but is not limited to:
- Using software to keep track of pieces;
- Using software to calculate the probability of a piece being a certain rank;
- Using spreadsheets or other forms of statistical information during the game;
- Using notes during the game (during the setup phase this is fine);
- Taking notes during the game, whether this is done on paper or using software such as notepad;
- Simulating the game in any possible way;
- Communicating with other participants / persons during the game (not necessarily participants) regarding advice;
- (Repeatedly) breaking the game rules, this also includes the ISF game tournament rules;
- (Intentional) bug abuse;
- Matchfixing;
- Falsifying game results, whether this is done by chat or modifying screenshots
- Faking a disconnect;
- Sharing false information.
7.4. Unsporting behaviour, includes but is not limited to:
- Stalling (‘includes refusal of obvious tie(s)’)
- (Repeatedly) threatening piece(s) that cannot be captured, this also includes threatening pieces in order to buy time (passing the turn to the opponent to reset the movetimer by meaningless moves)
- Name calling / insulting;
- Accusations without evidence;
- Leaving a game without surrendering;
- Faking a disconnect;
- Encouraging an opponent to surrender in a disrespectful manner, this also includes an “offensive gg” (example: Participant A kills participant B's marshall, participant A calls gg (like… just surrender, the game is over).
8. The game
8.1. Both participants show up in challenge zone at the agreed time. (may be skipped in case both participants have friended eachother, but CZ must be shown in case of a no-show dispute)
8.2. After the game has finished both participants are expected to save the screenshot of the result screen (in case of a disconnect, only the participant who did not disconnect)
8.3. The screenshot should at least contain:
- Both participant's account names;
- The current time and date, preferably using GMT;
- Amount of moves;
- Duration of the game;
* Unclear, uncomplete, suspicious or lack of screenshots might result into a replay, to be decided by the WC team
8.4. One of the participants (preferably the winner) posts the screenshot (see 8.4. for requirements), the result (written as text) in the private message used to arrange the game.
8.5. Each game or match is a best of 1. The scoring is as follows (assuming no disputes and such).
8.6. In case both participants confirm the result, a screenshot is not required
In order to gather the maximum of information for future use (stats etc.) WC team would appreciate to post screenshots as much as possible and keep the confirmation rule only in cases when for unexpected reasons there is no victory screenshot.
9. Recording and sharing
9.1. A player may record his / her own game at any time. The WCO team would prefer that permission is given by the opponent, but since it is hard to tell if a game is being recorded, we can not require this. In case you wish to record a game, the WCO team would prefer that permission is asked.
9.2. A recording may only be published / shared (whether publicly or privately) in case there is an agreement from the opponent. In case a video is shown without permission, the WCO team will ask for the removal of the video in which case the participant must comply. (tip: put the agreement of the opponent on the video).
10. Misc
10.1. In case a participant is delayed or unable to be there at the agreed time, this participant must let his opponent know atleast 2 hours in advance. The WC team must also be informed.
10.2. In case a participant is not present 10 minutes after the agreed time, the opponent may claim the victory by informing the WC team about the issue and providing a screenshot with the current time (preferably using GMT). In case a participant has a lot of cancellations, late / no- shows, the WC team may take action against this participant, this includes but is not limited to reduction of buffer time, lower credit when a game is unplayed and disqualification.
A player may have one late / no show per tournament. (note that if this were to happen during the last days of a round a replay can not always be granted due to time constraints). In case a player has a no / late show, and the opponent does not mind, the player’s right to have one late / no show, is voided, regardless. In case a player wishes to claim a victory over a no / late show, this must be done within 48 hours and before the end of the round. Time penalties are applied immediately in case of a late show, even if this falls under the “grace” of the one mess up per tournament
10.3. Each participant is encouraged to record the game in so it can function as evidence regarding chasing, or other potential breach of rules, solving chasing situations with screenshots is rather difficult.
10.4. Rounds will most likely not be delayed, the way Swiss Perfect works is that one unplayed game, can hold up the entire tournament. The WC team believes that 2 weeks is very generous to get the game played.
10.5. The WC team prefers that any disputes or other forms of unhappiness is tried to solve by the participants, the WC team will use above terms as guidelines so participants know what to expect. The WC team reserves to right to make decisions that do not stricly follow said guidlines
10.6. If new rules are made during the tournament to deal with certain unforseen circumstances they will be used from the next round onwards
10.7. In case there is a dispute during the game and one of the WC team members is online and available at skype, the participants may ask one of the WC team members to act as referee during the game by using the screenshare function in skype, this is not always possible, but preferable over watching screenshots or / and recorded games
10.8. Where “his” is used, “her” can also be used instead
10.9. no / late show consequences
- 1st offense : minus 1 minute buffer time for said game
- 2nd offense : minus 2 minutes buffer time for said game
- 3rd offense : minus 3 minutes buffer time for the remainder of the tournament
- 4th offense : to be decided by WCO team
Note: Above consequences are guidelines and may be used differently per situation
10.10. Any typos, grammar mistakes or whatsoever are no ground for not complying with the intended rule.
11. Alias register
The WCO team does not require players to list their aliases in the alias register. The WCO team does however encourage players to do so in order to promote transparency and fairplay.
12. Prizes
The International Stratego Federation (ISF) supports the Online World Championship Stratego 2016/2017 on Stratego.com. ISF offers:
The top three players medals and free entrance the Live World Championship 2018.