eGaming Rules & Regulations

FanimeCon eGaming General Tournament Guidelines

  1. User and Admin Expectations
  2. Sportsmanship
  3. Cheating, Integrity, and Fair Play
  4. Penalties

By participating in any events and tournaments hosted by FanimeCon eGaming, attendees are expected to follow the rules contained in this document in addition to the specific event’s rules and the FanimeCon Code of Conduct.

Failure to do so can result in penalties listed in Section 5. Some games may have explicit exceptions to some of the rules listed in this document.

1. Player and Admin Expectations

  1. All participants must be at least 13 years old, or have approval from a legal parent or guardian if under the age of 13 years old.
  2. By participating in a FanimeCon eGaming event, all participants agree to obey all applicable laws, regulations, and other governmental restrictions or adherences.
  3. If an attendee has already received a ban for unsportsmanlike behavior or similar conduct from an event or tournament organized through an established gaming community’s Safety Panel, the FanimeCon Gaming Hall may disallow the attendee’s tournament or event registration.

2. Sportsmanship

  1. Civility
    1. All tournament participants and spectators must be respectful and courteous to other competitors.
    2. This may include but not limited to cheering for friends, positive reinforcement, and showing general competitive integrity.
    3. Failure to do so may result in the removal of said participant from the event and/or removal from the event space at the discretion of the event staff.
  2. Harassment
    1. Participants must not engage in harassment, including but not limited to the following:
      • Bigotry, including abuse related to race, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, physical appearance, age, religion, disability, ethnicity, or income
      • Intimidation and threats
      • Stalking/raiding online or offline
      • Doxxing/Swatting
  3. Deception
    1. Participants must do their best to communicate the truth at all times. Lying, misrepresentation of the truth, and attempts at propagation of falsehoods are all grounds for penalty. This includes any necessary digital information when signing up for our tournaments.
  4. Spamming
    1. Excessive posting of annoying, pointless, offensive, or other repeat messages is considered spamming and may result in penalization.
  5. Incitement
    1. All tournament participants and spectators may not conduct any form of negative reinforcement or encourage any activities that may demoralize or endanger another person.
    2. Any actions that may contain the intent of distracting, cheating, or sabotaging the competition may result in a disqualification and removal from the event space at the discretion of the event staff.
      • Example: Shouting in directly someone’s ear, words of discouragement (“you suck!”)

3. Tournament Code of Conduct

  1. Player Code of Conduct
  2. Game Modification
    1. Outside of third-party voice communication tools, any programs that are not part of the original game are not allowed in FanimeCon eGaming events. Third-party voice communication tools, like Discord, are explicitly allowed as long as they do not provide additional in-game information.
  3. Controllers
    1. For ease of access, tournament staff recommends the use of the first-party controllers for the tournament you plan on entering. For example, for tournaments played on the Nintendo Switch, the Nintendo GameCube controller, Switch Pro controller, and/or Joy-Con controllers are recommended. For tournaments played on the Sony Playstation 5, the Sony DualSense controller, the Sony DualShock 4 controller, or authorized arcade fight sticks are recommended. Players are permitted to customize their control options via a game’s in-game menu or console system menu. 
    2. Third-party controllers that have turbo or macro options are not allowed for tournament play. Box variants of first-party Nintendo and Sony controllers are permitted so long as they do not have macro or turbo functions enabled. 
    3. Controller Adapters such as Brook Converters are allowed as long as they meet proper tournament standards as deemed by the tournament coordinators. Chronus Max Plus and Titan One converters are not allowed for any FanimeCon eGaming tournaments.
    4. In the event players begin a game with misconfigured player-specific controls (controller settings, etc.), players may not back out of a game to correct their settings once ten seconds have passed. After this time limit has passed, players must use their misconfigured settings, subject to tournament staff discretion.
    5. If a player’s controller is found to be the cause of disruption to a tournament (mid-game or otherwise), they will be subject to penalties as described in Section 4. Tournament Officials reserve the right to inspect controllers at any time for unfair usage.
    6. This section extends to all attendee-owned controller devices unless as deemed by the tournament ruleset.
    7. For all other tournaments that use alternative controller types that are not listed in the game rulesets, please see the designated tournament organizer for specific information.
      • Example: Wanting to use a Hitbox for Super Smash Bros Ultimate.
  4. Misinterpretation/Misconfiguration
    1. Games or sets are not to be replayed due to a misinterpretation of the rules or misconfiguration of game settings, excluding player-specific settings. Game settings should be configured according to the game’s tournament ruleset. It is the players’ responsibility to ask the Tournament Organizer for any clarification of the rule set in the event of a disagreement. The outcome of a game or set with misconfigured rules will not be changed after the fact.
    2. In the event players begin a game with misconfigured player-specific controls (controller settings, etc.), players may not back out of a game to correct their settings. The players are responsible for button checks before the set begins.
  5. Concession
    1. Players may opt to concede a round, game, set, or match at any time by communicating to their opponent first (if in-game), then to the tournament official. Once a player concedes, the results of the round, game, set, or match are finalized and cannot be replayed. Players may not concede if the match is on broadcast or on-stage, unless the game results in inevitable defeat.
  6. Streaming
    1. Players who are hosting a broadcast of their game could be subject to “stream-sniping.” FanimeCon eGaming staff advise against streaming any gameplay that may result in detrimental effects on the player’s own success.
      • ““Stream-sniping” is defined as a player obtaining information outside the game through opposition tournament participants via personal broadcast.
    2. If players wish to engage in broadcasting their gameplay, they are advised to delay their streamed broadcast for a minimum of two minutes, and if applicable, turn on “Streamer Mode” in the game.
  7. Third Party Assistance
    1. Receiving strategic or performance-improving assistance from another player or a person not participating in the event may result in penalization.
    2. Some events may allow exceptions to this in the event of participants streaming, in which case you should refer to that event’s rules.
  8. Impersonation
    1. Playing on an account that you do not own is grounds for penalization.
    2. Granting access to your account to someone else for the purpose of participating in a FanimeCon eGaming event is grounds for penalization.
    3. In the case of player tags/usernames/gamertags for tournament bracket designations, a player may use a different name as long as they notify Tournament Staff prior to a tournament’s registration end date and time they have registered for.
  9. Bugs
    1. Taking advantage of in-game bugs, security flaws, or other vulnerabilities is grounds for penalization.
    2. If anything occurs within any game that results in unforeseen consequences (e.g., characters become invisible, sudden teleportation occurs, characters become affixed to other bodies, etc.), gameplay should continue uninterrupted unless the change renders the game unplayable for one or more players. Players should inform their pool captain or tournament staff for resolution.
  10. Betting
    1. It is not allowed for any participants to bet on any match in their competition, including matches they are not participating in.
  11. Match Fixing and Bribery
    1. Receiving money or other types of compensation in exchange for a predetermined match result is grounds for disqualification.
  12. Cheering vs Coaching:
    1. Coaching is not allowed for any tournament titles as their games are happening. Coaching is allowed in between sets (Time between facing 2 different opponents).
    2. Any language or actions that may contain information for the tournament participants to use for their advantage is considered coaching and will not be tolerated in order to maintain the competitive integrity of matches.
      • Example: “He’s going to jump!”, “Grab that item!”
    3. Any form of positive reinforcement that encourages players to do their best is allowed for as long as they are performed at a reasonable distance and volume from the competitive area.
      • At least 3 ft away from the competitors is reasonable.
      • Please be respectful of other competitors who are also participating in the space. 
      • Example: “you got this!”, “let’s go!”, clapping

4. Penalties

This section details some of the most common penalties that would result from rule-breaking.

  1. Game Loss/Map Loss
    1. When you are issued a Game Loss (also known as a Map or Round Loss in some games), it is treated as though you immediately lost a current, previous, or future game in the current match.
  2. Match Loss
    1. When you are issued a Match Loss, it is treated as though you immediately lost the current match.
  3. Disqualification
    1. Disqualification from the current event
      • When you are disqualified from the current event, you are removed from the competition entirely. Disqualification from an event additionally means that you are ineligible for prizing.
    2. Disqualification from future events
      • In addition to the above, you may also be disqualified from future events for a set or indefinite period of time.
  4. Other Penalties
    1. The above is not a comprehensive list of all penalties. In particular, some games may have penalties related to map, stage, or character picks and bans that will be included in the rules for those games.