The Pacific North & West Blood Bowl League is an inclusive space meant to be representative of all players who participate. That means we do our best to respect every player who plays, refer to them in the way they want to be referred to, and create a space wherein they can feel that they belong. We show respect to each and every player and try our best to create a space for them to play Blood Bowl.

Season League Rules

A. League Format

The league will be divided into 2 divisions (a North League and a South League) of a varying number of players. Each team will play every other team in their division at least once. If the number of players in the league is less than 16 then players will play cross-divisional in order to meet the goal of 8 games per season. 

# of games in Preseason: Up to 3 per player per team (Challenge Format)

# of games per season: 8-10 (Round-robin)

# of playoff games: Up to 3 (Knock-out)

# of games in Postseason: Up to 3 (Challenge)

Time between games: 2 Weeks.

Length of Season: ~4 Months

Playoffs: TBD

Cost of League: $10 per player 

Standings tiebreakers:

1. Points

2. Head-to-head record

3. [ (# of Wins) + (# of Draws x .5) ] / (# of Games Played)

4. TD +/-

5. Coin Flip

Scheduling rules:

Games must be played in sequential order. Each player will have 2 weeks to schedule and play their games. Players are allowed to play ahead in their fixtures on TourPlay if both players are ready to play their games. In general, games should not take longer than 2 weeks to play. In the event that a game is taking longer to play than 2 weeks then please notify league staff so that the situation can be evaluated.

Please be reasonable and try to work around each others schedules. We all get that life happens but communication is key. If it’ll take you longer than 2 weeks to play your game, let the league staff and your opponent know as soon as possible. And try to make that time up later in the season by catching up in your schedule. Our goal is to have 4 month long seasons and that means everyone needs to work together to hit that goal. 

In the event that a player is unable to schedule their game and there is clear fault on one side, that game will be forfeit by the negligent player and the schedule will be moved forward. League staff may, however, choose to mitigate these consequences or do something altogether dependent on circumstances.

Scheduling Process:

1. Coordinate with the other player by utilizing the published player contact information or the scheduling channel on discord. Agree on location, time, and date. 

2. Schedule the game on TourPlay to indicate the date and time that the game will be played. In all cases, the tourplay time will be used as the official time for the game to be played. If a dispute occurs and there is no time agreed upon in TourPlay then the game will be treated as if it was never scheduled. In this case, it likely will go poorly for both players as it is difficult for us to determine fault in these scenarios. As a best practice, schedule the game in TourPlay and if one player is unable to make that time slot then forfeits will be determined off of that.

3. Play your game!

Divisional rules:

Two divisions will exist in the league in order to protect newer players: an upper division and a lower division. At the end of the season, the bottom two positions from the upper division will demote and the upper two from the lower will promote. This will be our system or promotion and relegation. In the construction of the divisions, the following criteria will be considered and in this order of importance:

1. The competitiveness of the league

2. The experience of the coach

3. The tenure of the team

4. The geographical location of the coach

It'll always be the intention of the league to try to balance these features and to provide folks with as competitive of a league as possible. However, this won't always be possible and will be highly dependent on the overall balance and progression of the league. But the guidelines will be as above.

Team building:

Two options will be used this season:

1. Typical start: Teams will be built according to a team value of 1 Million as a general rule. This means that the recommended start for each team will be what GW has, historically, intended.

2. New Player Start: Newer players can request to have skills added to their team prior to the start of the league in addition to the 1M in treasury. As a caveat, in cases where the league cannot determine the experience of the player then this will be denied. Elite skills are not permitted to be added to a team as part of this new start.

B. Playoff Format

Playoffs will be played as a Knockout Tournament with no more than 8 players. Seeding will be determined based upon regular season performance. For example, 1st seed will play 4th in the other division, 2nd seed will play 3rd seed in the other division, and visa-versa. Additional rounds to determine unseeded players will be played, e.g. 3rd plays 4th, etc. The league commissioner reserves the right to put forward a vote in special case scenarios where there are less than 8 players. Should there be a need to adjust the format then the league will democratically vote on the structure and number of players in the playoffs. 

Each season a vote will determine whether star players will be permitted in the playoffs. The reason for this is that GW often releases new star players or FAQ's that can dramatically alter the balance of the game and, consequently, a decision will need to be regularly made as to how we will handle this.

C. Seasonal Transition

The league staff will provide the opportunity for the league to vote during the offseason to provide feedback on the league and feedback as to what they would like to see. As each new season introduces new challenges, changes, and things to consider we will handle this on a per-season basis.

Redraft

Redrafts will be done in accordance with standard GW rules. The following criteria will be used

• A maximum of 1.3M gold will be awarded to each team to redraft their players.

• For each season played, a player's cost will increase by 20k due to their agent recognizing their increasing skill and value.

• Temporarily retired players are able to recover between seasons (see rulebook for details).

GW Rules are displayed below to help with understanding the process of redrafting. These are example rules from the 2020 version of the Rulebook and do not always reflect the current state of redraft. Please get with the LC or a veteran player if you intend to redraft and go over the current ruleset and any peculiarities that might be important to know.

D. General Rules

Special rules of play are listed below. We play with some slight variations to the Blood Bowl rules to help make the experience better.

1. MVP Selection:

   1. Players are able to roll across the team to choose a new MVP after their match. Players nominate 6 players, roll a d6, and the MVP will be assigned based upon the result of the D6.

2. Concessions: We handle concessions in this league as an “only if absolutely necessary” scenario which is to say that we do not generally allow concessions in this league unless the following condition is met:

   1. 3 Players Left Standing Condition: If, at the beginning of a drive, a player has 3 players or less left on the pitch then the player is permitted to concede legally. No penalties will be assessed to the player in this case.

   2. Illegal concessions: If a concession is made and the player has not met the 3 players left standing condition then the league staff will review the specific scenario and make a determination dependent on the surrounding factors that forced the player to concede. These will be handled on a case-by-case basis and the league will attempt to follow precedent wherever possible. In most cases, the rules from the Blood Bowl 2020 rulebook will be followed. In this case, the conceding player will have any touchdowns scored converted to the opposing team and any player at advancement 3 or beyond may leave the team. Each player at advancement 3 will roll a 1d6 and will stay on the team on a roll of 4+. On a roll of 1-3, the player will leave the team in disgust.

   3. Other scenarios:

The league reserves the right to consider special circumstances in the event of an illegal concession and break from precedent. This means assigning unique punishments or not assigning punishments.

4. MVP’s: The conceding player forfeits their ability to select their MVP. The league staff validating the match will review the MVP. If the MVP falls upon a dead player then league staff will roll 1d(N) where (N) is the number of players on the team and randomly assign the MVP into the team. Two MVP’s will not be assigned to the winning team.

5. Special Circumstances: We are all adults and, occasionally, special circumstances may occur that prevent the successful completion of the game. In these cases, please notify league staff so we can discuss next steps.

4. Scheduling: Players are expected to schedule and play their games in a timely manner. The expectation is that once a fixture is open for the player to play, the player has contacted their opponent and offered times within 3 days. Games are given a 2 week window in which they must be played by. Games must be scheduled in TourPlay in order to be considered officially schedule. Failing to schedule your game in TourPlay may result in decisions not ending in your favor should there be any scheduling discrepancies. In these cases, league staff will review communications between players and make a decision as to what will occur. Precedent will not be considered in these cases. While it is not a requirement, the league staff strongly recommends creating a thread in the scheduling channel for visibility's sake.

5. Players who have left the league: 

In the event that a player leaves the league mid-way through the season, we will process their games according to the below table:

• 1. The remaining team will be awarded a random MVP

  2. We will not process the players leaving the team nor roll fans for either team to determine if they gain or lose.

  3. Double game winnings will be awarded to the winning team.

  4. 2 Touchdowns will be granted to the receiving team.

  5. A loss will be assigned to the coach who has left.

  6. Average SPP earned to the point that the player left the league will be awarded to the winning team. 

For example, if a team, on average, earned 8 spp against a team then 8 spp in total will be granted to the team. This will be done through manual edits to the team and will be rolled randomly across the team.

• 7. If a player had lost or drew to the team in the past, those results will stand.

6. Take-backs: In general, play on the board is considered undetermined until, at any point, dice have been rolled. If dice have been rolled since you made a move or your opponent has made a move then the game state is considered “locked” and take backs will not be permitted.

7. Length of the Game: We’re all folks who have busy schedules and busy lives and it’s important that you’re respecting your opponents time. In general, turns should take less than 6 minutes. Over the course of a 16 turn game, this results in a 192 minute game or roughly 3 hours of play. Even a 3 hour game of Blood Bowl is a long one though so try your best to play your games quickly. However, if you and your opponent have agreed to take longer then no big deal. This is a general rule.  If your opponent is taking an excruciatingly long time to play then feel free to remind them of this rule, pull out a chess clock, or just simply let them know that you've other commitments as well.

8. Cocked Dice: Any dice that lands at an angle, off the table, not in its dice tray, or otherwise than its intended location, when it lands will be considered cocked dice and needs to be rerolled. That means, even if it’s a 1 or a Pow, you’ve got to reroll that die if it lands at an angle. However, you and your opponent should take a moment during the setup to agree on cocked dice or a system for each of you to follow at the table. In the absence of any agreement, the rules written here will be considered correct.

9. Mega-Stars and Star Players: Megastars are a list of stars that can be game breaking in a variety of ways. If you've ever been on the receiving end of Morg N' Thorg, you know how much it can hurt to lose your team's star. Our league has adopted special rules to help deal with this:

   1.  Mega-stars are considered to take 2 Star Player Slots. This cannot be hardcoded into TourPlay and if you break the rules then your additional inducement money is forfeit and your opponent may choose to remove any star player that you have hired. 

   2. Teams are limited to 2 Star Player slots per Team.

   3. All other Star Players take 1 Star Player Slot -- including stars that are hired as pairs.

How this works: Timmy and Chad are scheduled to play their match. Timmy is playing a 900K halfling team and Chad has a 1360 Orc Team. Timmy selects Morg N' Thorg and Akhorne as his star players. Chad spotting that this is not a legal choice because Morg is on the Mega-star list and counts for 2 star players asks Timmy to refer to the rules and remove Morg N' Thorg from play. Timmy forfeits his 380k in inducement money and is forced to play with only Akhorne on his roster.

Side note: If Chad wants to be a really cool guy and knows that Timmy is a newer player, he can choose to let Timmy redo his inducement phase and choose new players or inducements. This will be up to the two players to coordinate and decide the exact process for it as it will not be able to be tracked in TourPlay. But Chad isn't required to do this and isn't a bad guy if  he doesn't. It's every player's responsibility to know the rules and it's just on you if you mess up.

Current Mega-Star List:

1. Morg N' Thorg

2. H'thark the Unstoppable

3. Griff Oberwald

4. Ivan "the Animal" Deathshroud

5. Hakflem Skuttlespike

10. Permitted Inducements

    1. Prayers to Nuffle: PTN are currently not permitted in PWN.

    2. All other inducements are permitted.

Conduct Rules

1. Demonstrate mutual respect towards one another. 

This does not mean that one cannot tease, chirp at, or razz the opposing player. It’s Blood Bowl, after all, if you don’t complain about your opponent's dice at least once then are you really playing? But don’t be a dick about it. We’re all adults, we know when it’s too far, don’t go too far. The league will handle sportsmanship complaints with a heavy hand. Don’t make this game unfun for others. 

2. Don’t be *that guy*

We’ve all played against that guy once or twice. They make their skills hard to read, their models can barely be determined what’s what, they try to take that extra movement square when you aren’t looking, or some other sordid act. Don’t be that guy. Be as honest as you can be, try your best to know the rules, and if you’re wrong… just admit you’re wrong and move on.

3. Schedule your games in a timely manner.

Don’t try to mess with your opponent by offering the worst possible windows for scheduling. Be proactive, make concessions, do your best to help get that game played. The effort that you put into scheduling games is part of the decisioning factor if a game ever goes to toss up for forfeit review. 

League Staff

Will Schubert - Commissioner

Castle - Co-Commissioner