Art By: John "MONSTRO" Chamboullides

CAL recently announced that they have released a new set of rules and that everyone should go and read them before the season starts. Being the nice people we are here at GotFrag, we made this easier for you and broke down each new rule for you. We will also comment on what effects these changes may have.

New Definition Section 1.20 - "Team Management" : The leader and manager of a team in CAL. These players are responsible for the management of their team as well as keeping their team’s conduct in check.

The basis of this new definition is to have an official statement in the rules that shows that team manager is responsible for the conduct and actions of their team. This will likely include behavior in matches (specifically mm1 chat) as well as other actions within the team such as cheating. Now that as this term is defined, it will establish official grounds for CAL to punish teams and/or the team leaders for anything that happens under the team name. In simpler terms, the team can now be suspended, moved-down, etc. as the result of a single player's actions.

An additional thought on this is the expansion and attention CAL is giving to the team management term. CAL and the CPL have always pushed for "professional" gaming. One of the main ways they have done this is through efforts to establish consistent and stable teams. These teams would show a solid platform for sponsors as well as give fans an unwavering field that would help to develop long term fan support for people's favorite teams. CAL Draft was a failed attempt at this idea and now I feel the attention to "management" rules is a way for CAL to re-address this issue. Teams have made progress with management as well. It started with managers who helped with basic things like websites, mIRC, and looking for sponsors, and later managers like Torbull took this to its highest level. Recently we've seen the emergence of individuals becoming direct sponsors and owners of the teams like you see with coL.1 or Jax from JMC. Maybe in the future we will see teams listing their managers as a sponsoring staff member from Intel or nVidia and even having teams owned by big corporations. That may be farther in the future than most gamers would plan, but that’s exactly how person like Angel Munoz would think.

New Definition Section 1.20 - "Suspension" : A penalty issued by the league on an individual, a group of individuals or an entire team. Players who receive suspensions will be notified through their private message system on the league website and will have a red statement on their profile stating why they were suspended and the duration of the suspension.

As most of us know, CAL has expanded their penalty system in the past to add suspensions. Before suspensions were used there was only a master ban list which was primarily in existence to show a list of people caught cheating in CAL. The suspension system now allows people to receive bans for rules violations other than cheating in matches (examples: inappropriate talk in mm1 during a match, disrespecting admins, etc.). This new definition gives a more exact sense of how the suspension system works. Hopefully nobody reading this will receive a suspension but if you do, notice that the suspension information will be sent through CAL's messaging system instead of through e-mail.

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Old Section 2.40 - All individuals competing must have their member profile completely filled out accurately. This includes filling out the SteamID section. If any player is caught competing with a SteamID not listed in their profile in advance, they will be suspended for one match and the team issued a forfeit loss. You are allowed only one SteamID, posting a second ID in the comments field is unacceptable and not allowed. Teams or individuals playing at LAN centers need to have the LAN center email the league head admin with the following information: LAN Center name, Location, Public IP Address range, and ALL SteamIDs for their center. These will be used to compile a list of Validated LAN centers and will not need to be filed again. In the case of LAN center, you should list LC# in your SteamID box for it to legal. SteamIDs must be checked prior to the match commencing. Once a match has started, no dispute may be raised concerning SteamIDs, with the exception of players that join mid-match. Please be aware that a ringing dispute concerning individuals using SteamIDs that are not their own does not apply to this clause.

New Section 2.40 - "Player Profiles" : All individuals competing must have their player profiles on the CAL website filled out completely and honestly. Participants must fill out their address information and all other fields of personal information completely and accurately. The collection of personal information will only be used for verification purposes should you lose your email address and are unable to recover your profile password any other way but through administrators. Any players competing without a SteamID or LAN Center ID in their "SteamID" section of their profile will not be permitted to play in CAL unless it is corrected. SteamID or LAN center ID changes will not be made on match nights or on any other night that rosters are currently locked. It is a player’s responsibility to ensure their profile is in good standing and any IDs are properly listed. At no time will CAL change your profile on a locked roster night to provide you with a correct SteamID in your profile. Additionally, no players will be permitted to list their SteamID in the "Comments" section of their profile. Any players with a SteamID in their comments section will not be permitted to play regardless of its correctness. All players are required to use their "handles" as seen on the roster for official matches. Any players not doing so may be subject to penalties.

Your player profile includes your name, SteamID, and all possible contact info such as address, phone number, email, and messenger programs. The important part of this for most is dealing with SteamIDs. All you have to do is list the SteamID you use from home on your account with the CAL site. If you ever play from a LAN center then you do NOT need to change anything on your personal info. All you need to do is have your LAN center registered and on the CAL list which will be explained in section 2.40(b). SteamID changes can also only take place on days rosters are unlocked. Rosters only unlock once a week so having more than 5 players could prevent any potential problems.

New Section 2.40(a) - "Privacy Policy" : At no time will anyone from the Cyberathlete Amateur League ("CAL") or Cyberathlete Professional League ("CPL") sell or distribute your personal information any purpose. No officials from CAL or CPL will ever ask you for your personal information unless it pertains to password recovery. No administrators in CAL or CPL have access to participant telephone numbers, addresses or street/house numbers. At no time should participants ever divulge this information to anyone.

This section is pretty straight forward. CAL admins only have access to your name and zip code for retrieving passwords. The rest you will never be asked for.

New Sections 2.40(b) - Any team or person wishing to compete with a LAN center must have a LAN center official e-mail their current division head administrator with the following information: Public IP address range, SteamIDs (all current ones), LAN center location and phone number, LAN center website. All LAN centers must e-mail the proper CAL official from a LAN center e-mail address (example: symmetry@mylancenter.com). At no time will CAL permit hotmail or other free access/free registration accounts from being a source of information regarding a LAN center. The list of valid LAN centers with applicable SteamIDs can be downloaded from the Files section of your Division.

This rule lists all that needs to be done to register a LAN center. As a player you can play from any LAN center listed on CAL's LAN center list. All the requirements to register the LAN center are important and are not negotiable. If the requirements can't be met then the LAN center isn't eligible for use in CAL. For those of you concerned with ringers, CAL does see the potential risk, but unfortunately it can not be avoided. If people are really that desperate to use a ringer, then it can not be stopped; you could feasibly have a ringer come to your home and play from your IP and SteamID without anyone outside your team knowing. There is not much that can be done to avoid this. If you do get caught though, the whole team can be penalized due to the new rule explained above in the "team management" definition.

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New Rules

Section 3.70(c) - "Flashbang Exploits" : Any competitor or team accidentally utilizing ANY flashbang exploit will forfeit that round and 3 rounds for the half.. Such actions as throwing flashes over walls, as done in inferno and dust2 are perfectly legal. CAL will have the final decision on whether something is an exploit.

Common Flash bug spots - Under the ramp room box on de_nuke, under the wall exiting the alleyway on de_train, plus others.

This bug is still a major problem thanks to the famous nuke box and now CAL has written a specific rule for it. Four rounds will be forfeited if you throw an illegal flash, but the half will be played out without stoppage. There are situations where a flash would not deduct four rounds from a teams total though, such as the flash bug happening in the final round of a half, or even the second to last round. CAL admins have some leverage in decisions made about this rule though. For example, if it was obvious that you intentionally threw an illegal flash even on the last round of a half, then they would have the power to still force you to lose up to four rounds due to the flash being intentional.

Anyone who follows major CS LAN tournaments knows how big of a problem the flash bug is, specifically on Nuke. Recently, Evil Geniuses had to forfeit almost an entire half at WEG from a flash bug, much to the dismay of the always loyal Canadian fans. I think most people would also agree this is the only reason EG failed to advance. Unfortunately, they weren't the first team this has happened to and surely won't be the last. The good news is that this new rule provides a more appropriate punishment for illegal flashes. A team that is victim to an illegal flash could lose the round as well as additional rounds due to the loss of weapons and money. Now when a team knows they've been victim to an illegal flash they can save a round or two knowing that it won’t hurt them because those rounds will be forfeited to them anyway. There is no perfect solution due to the large amount of variables in every match situation it happens but I think most would agree this is better than forfeiting an entire half. CAL has made a big step towards improving how leagues deal with flashbang bugs and I hope the other leagues and major LANs will follow their lead.

Section 6 - "Violations" : ***This section almost entirely new and very extensive, so you must read it on your own ***

This section provides a full explanation of the Dispute process and how all violations and suspensions are handled.

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More sections of the rules have been edited but mainly to clear up any unclear wording. If you have a question about any rules in CAL, please read the rules page before asking an admin.