Global Ruleset

Version 1.0

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction        4

General Information        4

International Tournament        4

Schedule        5

Format        6

Website and Public Information        7

Game Modifications        7

Map Pool        7

Regional Rewards        8

Team Setup and Communications        8

Registration        8

Team Logos        9

Communications        9

Tournament        10

General        10

Room Settings        11

Maps: The Pick/Ban System        12

Ship Bans        12

General Rules        13

Score and Screenshots        13

Disputes and Restarts        13

Broadcasts        14

Rules for Official Streamers        14

Sportsmanship        16

Rules for Tournament Staff        16

Rule Changes        17

Glossary        17

Appendices        19

Appendix A: List of Prohibited Ships        19

Appendix B: Useful Links        19

Appendix C: EU Format        20

Appendix D: NA Format        24

Appendix E: CIS Format        27

Appendix F: ASIA Format        28

Appendix G: Map Spawn Locations        30

Appendix H: List of All Playable Ships        31

Appendix I: List of Players permanently banned from KotS        31

Appendix J: Rule Amendments        31

1. Introduction

King of the Sea is the pinnacle of World of Warships competition. Originally founded on the EU server, King of the Sea (or KotS) has grown to become a bi-annual event held on all four Warships servers. Thanks to its grassroots support, the tournament has grown from its humble beginnings to become the official main event of World of Warships competitive gameplay.

October and November 2021 will play host to the thirteenth iteration of the tournament, with ever increasing participation, and refinement. The Game client itself has evolved with the tournament, playing host to spectator mode, new maps, and a host of Tier X ships to choose from. This KotS has a chance to be the greatest one yet.

Thanks to our ever-growing community awareness, and growing volunteer pools, we are doing everything in our power to ensure that the tournament goes as smoothly as possible for all teams involved.

Good luck! And may the best cherish their crowns as true Kings of the Sea.

2. General Information

King of the Sea XIII is divided into two segments: the Regional Tournament, and the International Tournament. For your local Regional Tournament Structure, please see the Appendix.

1. International Tournament

1. The International Tournament is the final stage of King of the Sea, and includes teams from each region.
2. The top three teams from each region will advance to the International Tournament.
3. The International Tournament will use a Single Elimination bracket with the regional winners receiving a pass in the first round.
4. Teams participating in the International Tournament may add up to three additional players to their roster.These players may not have played for another team in any of the regional tournaments.
5. In the event a translated version of this ruleset conflicts with the original, this ruleset takes precedence.
6. The match structure for the International tournament will be as follows:

7. All matches in the International Tournament are best of three except the final, which is best of five.
8. Ship and map bans will be utilized in all stages of the internationals.
9. Participants in the International Tournament need to agree to the legal rules and restrictions set out here: https://wo.ws/3kB8rlO
10. Eligible winners will receive the following prize payout based on their team’s final standing, divided by the amount of team members in the International Roster.

11. In the case that one or more players in a team are not eligible to receive a cash prize based on the legal rules and restrictions, their prize will be divided equally among all other members of the team.
12. All teams need to be ready to play during the times set out for the International Tournament, between 13:00 and 18:30 UTC.

2. Schedule

While the stage being played at any date may vary based on region, the following dates will be used for the event:

13. All times are given for a single time zone for each server. It is up to team members to properly convert these to their own timezones.
14. The primary time zones are:

3. Format

1. All games are played in a 9v9 format with Tier X ships only.
2. Teams may field up to two (2) battleships.
3. The use of carriers and submarines are prohibited.
4. Ships not released, recently released, or no longer readily available are banned from use. See Appendix A for a comprehensive list.
5. Any ships banned during the tournament (see paragraph 4.4) are not allowed to be used.
6. Teams are composed of at least nine (9) players and a maximum of fifteen (15) players.
7. Two of these players are designated team representatives, and must join and be available on the main KotS discord.
8. The total number of teams allowed to register varies by region and can be found in the regional appendices.

4. Website and Public Information

1. All servers will be using a tournament organizer, such as Challonge or Toornament, to run their tournaments.

• EU: Link
• NA: Link
• CIS: Link
• ASIA: Link

1. Through Toornament, the public will be able to see:

• Team Name
• Team Logo
• Team Standings

1. Game Modifications

1. All mods from Aslain’s Mod Pack or the official Wargaming ModStation are allowed.
2. All players must have replays enabled. Replays are enabled by default and should be preserved by teams for all tournament battles for at least 48 hours. 

Note: Replays are overwritten by default, make sure to copy them to a separate folder following your games.

2. Map Pool

After the Qualifiers Stage, teams will be able to pick and ban maps using a bot in discord. Teams will be assigned referees that will guide them through the process. All maps are played in Tournament Domination settings. The map pool is:

• Crash Zone Alpha
• Northern Waters
• Sleeping Giant
• Sea of Fortune
• Shatter
• Tears of the Desert
• North

Qualifier map rotations for each region can be found in the regional structure.

3. Regional Rewards

1. Rewards are awarded across a 12-15 player roster list.
2. For a team to be eligible for rewards, they must complete all matches in which they are scheduled. Failure to play all scheduled matches or other misconduct may result in a reduction or full withholding of rewards.
3. Regional Playoff Rewards can be found in the respective regional Appendix or under the following link: https://wo.ws/3hoxN4E 
4. The listed prize pools are for guidance only and may be revised based on the amount of teams participating in each regional tournament.

3. Team Setup and Communications

1. Registration

1. Instructions on how to register are available on the King of the Sea discord server, in the respective regional signup channel:

• EU: #signup-eu

• Registration opens: 28 March 2022 14:00 UTC
• Registration closes: 10 April 2022 21:59 UTC

• NA:   #signup-na

• Registration opens:  28 March 2022 14:00 UTC
• Registration closes: 10 April 2022 03:59 UTC

• CIS: #анонсы-cis 

• Registration opens: 28 March 2022 14:00 UTC
• Registration closes: 10 April 2022 23:59 UTC

• ASIA: #signup-asia

• Registration opens: 28 March 2022 14:00 UTC
• Registration closes: 10 April 2022 23:59 UTC

1. Players can only be a member of one team and may only participate in one region’s tournament.
2. Any form of account sharing is strictly prohibited, each player must play on their own account. Any violations of this rule will lead to a permanent ban from any future King of the Sea tournaments, as well as a loss of all prizes.

1. Press accounts from other programs are explicitly forbidden from competition in the tournament unless provided by a KotS  Coordinator in direct relation to Training Room issues.

3. Teams may modify their roster with permission of a regional adjudicator or organizer and only if there are still outstanding games for that team to play.
4. Team Names and Team Tags should be substantially related to each other.
5. Registration is by team, not by clan. Teams can be made up of members of multiple clans.
6. Teams are expected to play all matches. Failure to complete assigned games may result in the loss of prizes or other sanctions, including a ban from future tournaments. Should a team need to withdraw they should contact their assigned referee or adjudicator.
7. Places in the tournament are allocated by date and time on a first-come, first-served basis. In case the maximum capacity of teams is exceeded, remaining teams will be placed on a waiting list and admitted in case already registered teams withdraw from the tournament prior to the start of the first game day.

2. Team Logos

1. Team Logos are not required, but are highly recommended to aid a team’s visual brand.
2. Logos are to be uploaded to the registration portal .
3. Logos should be 200x200 pixels with a transparent background in PNG format.
4. For best results, logo elements should be recognizable even when scaled to 80x80. It is also preferable that the logo is easily visible against both light and dark backgrounds, whether by design or by submitting two versions.
5. Team Logos should be considered age-appropriate. This is PG-13 or PEGI 12.
6. Logos should not contain inappropriate symbols, logos, or images. (if 3.2.5 wasn’t clear)
7. The KotS team reserves the right to reject any and all logos as needed.
8. Team logos will be edited as necessary to fit above rules if a solution is not found.
9. Team logos should not contain content that is copyrighted or belongs to another game’s IP.

3. Communications

1. The team captain and team co-captain must join the KotS discord.
2. Team registration will not be accepted until a team representative is available in the KotS discord.
3. All teams must have one of their reps available on the KotS discord on match days.
4. All team representatives must be able to communicate in Russian (CIS) or English (All other servers and international events).
5. One team representative must attend the pre-tournament reps meeting.Team reps joining the discord must change their display name as follows:

[TAG] Nickname

6. Team reps must self-assign the correct region role and request the correct rep role using the #rep-role-request channel. Include your team name and server in your message.
7. Team members are encouraged to join the KotS discord and self-assign the corresponding region role.
8. Members of the KotS discord are not allowed to ping WG Staff and should only contact WG Staff if directed to by a tournament staff member.

4. Tournament

1. General

1. The tournament is conducted using Training Rooms.
2. The proper order of maps in each battle in the Qualifier stage may be found in your respective regional section in the Appendix.
3. Each battle is hosted by a “Home Team”

1. The Home Team occupies the top slot in the respective matchup in Toornament. See the example below. For example, the “Home Team” is “Team 1.”
2. The Host/Home Team is responsible for opening the room and inviting their opponent and any streamers.
3. During qualifiers, Team 1 will always have Alpha spawn, and Team 2 will always have Bravo spawn.

4. Each room must be named using the format:

Team 1 vs Team 2

5. Teams are allowed to change their lineup between games, but cannot change them during a restart.
6. Teams should not be readied up until both teams are fully sorted onto their sides.
7. If teams are short a player, they can bring a maximum of 1 bot player. The bot player must be set to high intelligence.
8. Teams cannot play with less than 8 players and will be considered as no-show if they cannot field a team within the allowed time.
9. Spectator mode should be enabled, but only official streamers, tournament staff, or designated WG staff may occupy spectator places.
10. The use of ASW airstrikes is prohibited. Using ASW airstrikes will result in a map loss. Reporting teams need to provide a screenshot and replay.

1. To clarify, this rule specifically applies to Depth Charges airstrikes. The Gouden Leeuw airstrike is permitted.

2. Room Settings

1. The battle must be set for twenty minutes.
2. The battle must be played using “Tournament. Domination.” With storms off.
3. Each team must be placed in their correct side and lineups hidden.
4. It is up to both teams to ensure the settings are chosen correctly.
5. If a mistake is found, notify your opponent as soon as possible. After two minutes have elapsed on the game clock, the game must be played to completion.
6. Repeated errors by a team in this regard will result in disqualification.

3. Maps: The Pick/Ban System

1. All matches designated in the regional structure appendices below will choose maps via pick/bans, using a Discord bot.
2. Pick/ban process is as follows for a best-of-three:

1. Team 1 bans a map
2. Team 2 bans a map. It can be the same map as Team 1
3. Team 1 chooses an unbanned map to play for game 1
4. Team 2 chooses their spawn for game 1
5. Team 2 chooses the map to play for game 2.
6. Team 1 chooses their spawn for game 2
7. The bot will assign an unplayed and unbanned map for game 3
8. The bot will assign random spawns

1. For a best-of-5, the pick ban format will be as follows:

1. Team 1 will ban a map, then team 2 will ban a map.
2. Team 1 will pick the game 1 map and Team 2 the spawn
3. Team 2 will pick the game 2 map and Team 1 spawn
4. Team 1 will pick the game 3 map and Team 2 the spawn
5. Team 2 will pick the game 4 map and Team 1 spawn
6. Remaining map will be played in game 5 with random spawns.

1. Ship Bans

1. Ship Bans will be used in stages of the tournament listed in the tournament regional appendices. The following procedures will apply to all regions.
2. During registration, teams will vote to ban two ships for the duration of the tournament.
3. At a stage of the event listed within each region’s format, an additional ban per team, per series will come into effect.
4. The additional ban per team will be blind a ban from each team, and apply for the entire series. These bans will be conducted after the map pick/ban process.
5. There are no class bans, so each ship is an individual ban. Des Moines and Salem are individual ships, as are Shikishima and Yamato, as well as Kleber and Marceau.
6. If a banned ship is brought, the game is considered a map loss for that team.

5. General Rules

1. Score and Screenshots

1. Each team will submit a screenshot of the post battle result upon the conclusion of each battle. This screenshot supplements the score report. This battle report will ask for:

1. Your Tag and your Opponent’s Tag
2. The score for the games

1. Specific requirements for score reporting can be found in each regional appendix.
2. Upon conclusion of the battle, a representative from the winning team must message the score in the designated score reporting channel on the KotS Discord. Please ask a referee, adjudicator, or the regional scorekeeper for help locating if you cannot find it-

2. Disputes and Restarts

1. After 10 minutes from the scheduled start times, if teams are not into their battles, both of them forfeit the round. If one team is available but the other is not, the present team will receive a win. Instructions on how to report this will be provided by your regional scorekeeper.
2. All players must have replays enabled. They are enabled by default.
3. A restart may be requested if:

1. A player fails to load/disconnects.
2. The spawns/room settings are incorrect.
3. There are bugged spawns.

4. Only 1 restart is allowed per team for single battles and best of 3 series. Teams are allowed 2 restarts during a best of 5 series. Further restarts can occur at organizer discretion in the event of training room issues. Teams should not be readied up until both teams are fully sorted onto their sides.
5. In the event of a restart, please notify your assigned referee as soon as possible by pinging in discord or joining the referee voice channel.
6. An additional restart can be granted on a case-by-case basis.
7. Restarts requested by regional organizers, Battle Faults, do not count against a team’s limit.
8. During a restart, teams may not change their ship lineup. They can change players if someone cannot reconnect, but not ships.
9. Restarts cannot be requested after two minutes have passed of game-time. After this time, both teams are considered to have agreed to the game rules and the game should be played to  completion.
10.         In the spirit of competition, we trust team reps to do a reasonable job of when and when not to allow exceptions, though request not to fall too far behind schedule.

3. Broadcasts

It is the goal of the KotS Organizers to have as many games streamed as possible.

11. All official streams will be coordinated by the KotS Organizers.
12. All streamers will load into the battle in spectator mode.
13. The start of some battles may be held to allow streamers to finish a prior battle. Teams will be informed by a referee if this is the case.
14. Teams which begin their battles without waiting for a previously announced streamer risk a battle forfeit.
15. Attempts will be made so that no streamer is streaming their clanmates.
16. We trust streamers not to pass along information that may skew results. If irrefutable evidence of this is found, said streamer will be banned permanently from all KotS-associated events and a temporary ban will be issued for any player who acted on any such information.
17. Teams may not refuse or attempt to refuse having their matches broadcast, violations may lead to disqualification.

4. Rules for Official Streamers

1. Streamers wanting to broadcast any part of the tournament are required to obtain the Streamer role on the official discord and register for each gameday they are planning to broadcast.
2. All official streams will have a minimum five-minute delay.
3. Streamers are required to report on their streaming stats and to link the respective VOD and/or other video upload (ex. YouTube).
4. Streamers are required to use the official tournament stream overlays. Overlays should be installed as soon as possible once they are made available and all technical issues should be addressed before the start of the event.
5. Streamers are required to use the official tournament mod settings.
6. Streamers are not to have facecams during games themselves. Facecams in intermissions are preferred.
7. Streamers should maintain appropriate respect for all participants, tournament staff, and viewers while streaming the event. Part of this is being on time, others are waiting for you, respect their time.
8. Streamers should maintain neutrality in their coverage of the game and not overtly support one team or another and should broadcast both teams’ perspective in the battle.
9. While on stream, Streamers must maintain a professional image and should not directly criticize participants, tournament staff, or Wargaming. Gameplay commentary is fine, but should maintain a professional tone.
10. Streamers shall avoid any conduct that would violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) or any similar laws in other jurisdictions.
11. Streamers may not stream battles involving a team containing members of a clan or community they are a member of or were a member of in the 3 months preceding the tournament, unless one of the following is true:

• There are no other games available for the timeslot.
• They received approval from the enemy team.

1. Individuals or accounts that are barred from playing in King of the Sea are similarly barred from being official streamers
2. Streamers may not at any time during a King of the Sea broadcast promote or advertise any third-party games or products without prior approval from Wargaming staff.
3. On NA, a streamer may not play for a team if they are facing an opponent the streamer already casted on the same day.

5. Sportsmanship

We’re going to number these, but we shouldn’t have to. It’s 2022 guys.

4. Treat your opponents with respect. We expect all teams to play seriously, no matter the opponent. Soft-playing or throwing will be treated as unsportsmanlike play and sanctioned if necessary.
5. We have no desire to punish or disqualify teams unless absolutely necessary. If it is possible to settle disputes without resorting to a formal complaint, we encourage all teams to do so. Those that insist on applying the strict letter of the rules to their opponent will be held to the same standard.
6. Delaying games unnecessarily is a rules violation and can be punished with a default loss. If you are having technical issues, let your adjudicator and opponent know in good time.
7. All World of Warships Game Rules apply to any battles played in the tournament.
8. Players or clans sanctioned under rules in this document or that have been sanctioned by Wargaming for rule violations in game may be excluded from future KotS iterations at the discretion of the tournament owner.

6. Rules for Tournament Staff

1. Definitions

1. For purposes of this section, “tournament staff” or “staff” includes all coordinators, adjudicators, and referees.
2. For purposes of this section, “adjudication” means the act of ruling on a dispute between parties and/or the enforcement of a tournament rule. It does not include purely administrative tasks such as score entry or streamer management.

2. Staff may not engage in adjudication in any matches involving a team representing their own clan or community OR a team made up of more than 7 members from their clan or community. Similarly, staff may not be assigned to referee a match or group in which such a team is participating.
3. Staff who are rostered on a team shall not engage in adjudication of any match while their team is actively playing.
4. In the event a procedural rule needs to be changed, staff who are rostered on teams that are still participating in the event shall defer to non competing staff when making such decisions.

7. Rule Changes

1. The tournament organizer reserves the right to change and update the tournament rules at any time.
2. Participants will be notified of any rule changes after the start of the tournament on the tournament discord server.
3. By continuing to participate in the tournament after the changes have been announced, you agree to follow any changed rules.

6. Glossary

7. Appendices

1. Appendix A: List of Prohibited Ships

The following ships are banned from play:

2. Appendix B: Useful Links

        KotS Main Discord

        Guide: How To Make a Training Room

3. Appendix C: EU Format

4. Appendix D: NA Format

5. Appendix E: CIS Format

6. Appendix F: ASIA Format

7. Appendix G: Map Spawn Locations

8. Appendix H: List of All Playable Ships

9. Appendix I: List of Players permanently banned from KotS

https://wo.ws/3vlyYrj

10. Appendix J: Rule Amendments

1. Added 4.1.10.1 to clarify Airstrike policy.
2. Refined language in ship bans section to clarify the number of bans in later stages of the event.
3. Add tiebreaking rules for Asia qualifier.
4. Changed signup closing time for NA region.
5. Added Tournament Bans.
6. Rewrote 4.1.10.1 to cover cruiser ASW airstrikes.
7. Added 5.3.7. to clarify that teams may not refuse to be streamed.
8. Added 3.1.3.1. To clarify the usage of Press Accounts.
9. Amended International Tournament rules to include bo3/bo5 and bans. (2.1.7,2.1.8)