Logos, Banner by KaitlinB and Tom45.

Table of Contents

Rule 1 - Tournament Director's Staff'
i Rule 2 - Process for Changing Statutes During a Tourney
Rule 3 - Hall of Fame
Rule 4 - Playoff Seeding
Rule 5 - Division Names
Rule 6 - Appeals by Committee Members
Rule 7 - OC Votes on Appeals of TD Rulings
Rule 8 - Widespread Outages
Rule 9 - Membership in ICC group requirement
Rule 10 - Deferment of "Contact the E.C. after first forfeit" Rule
Rule 11 - RR -1 When Returning from Suspension
Rule 12 - Set Game Loss to (C)heating Player
Rule 13 - Change all Tuesday deadlines to 17:00 ICC time
Rule 14 - Clarification of accepting an offer not made
Rule 15 - Playoff qualifications for 7-team Divisions>
Rule 16 - Allowable ratings of replacement players in rounds 6-10 of active tournaments

Administrative Rules are statements of procedures, usually written by the Chief TD or his agents, that provide day to day guidance in areas of league administration. These rules are often expanded versions or clarification of rules or principles found in the Constitution, Statutes or Interim Rules. Administrative Rules later added to the Constitution or Statutes would be removed from or revised in this document.

Rule 1 - Tournament Director's Staff

In order to assure a sufficient number of volunteers to serve the League in each Tournament, there must be a certain ratio of volunteers to teams. That ratio is 1:2, so for every two teams entered, we must have one volunteer for the TD Staff. If volunteerism is below expectations, we will start refusing Team Entries. At a minimum, each team is expected to provide one volunteer every other tourney.

The present structure of the Tournament Director's staff is:

1. The Chief TD. Overall responsibility for all aspects of the league.

2. Entry Clerk. Takes team and individual entries. Creates divisions from the teams.

3. Director of League Operations, ICC; Director of League Operations. Assist with promotion of the league on the server; keep themselves informed of problems that may be developing and take appropriate administrative actions to resolve them.

4. Division TDs (dTD) and assistant dTDs. Team captains report to them with roster changes (also to entry clerk), board assignments, and rulings in all disputes. A TD Handbook has been written for them.

5. Webmaster. Maintains the website. dTDs send him board assignments for their division, and results of games as they are played or ruled upon.

Rule 2 - Process for Changing Statutes during a Tourney

When the OC overturns a decision, the Committee will be responsible for preparing and presenting a summary and statement to the SC (which may be the Rules Committee) so that the SC can see if anything needs to be fixed. If the SC has questions, they may politely and respectfully approach the OC via the Chair or Deputy Chair, at a convenient and non-disruptive time for all.
¶ Mar 26, 2006

Rule 3 - Hall of Fame

Since we've gone to the Quad Format, it is clear the 85% W-D-L standard is extraordinarily difficult to achieve due to the increased number of byes. Therefore starting on T11, the new standard will be 75%. A player must have played at least four games to be eligible.

One year of continuous participation on the TD Staff will qualify one for the Hall of Fame.
¶  Nov 6th, 2001

Rule 4 - Playoff Seeding and Home Team

Section 6 (Championship Division) states that teams in playoffs will be seeded according to their records in regulation play. The following rules apply.

1. Throughout the playoffs, teams shall be seeded, and ties broken, by their records in regulation play. First, Match Points; Second, Game Points; Third, Forfeits; Fourth, 6-round board removal procedures; Fifth, a coin toss.
2. Whenever one or more "Best Second Place" teams are included in the playoffs, they shall be seeded below all division winners. Only Second Place teams are considered, regardless of the record of any Third Place Team in a division.
3. In all playoff matches, the higher seeded team is the home team. Pairings are always highest seed vs lowest seed, second high vs second lowest, and so on. E.g. 1 vs 8, 2 vs 7, 3 vs 6, 4 vs 5, with 1,2,3,4 being home teams.  In Championship Tiebreak matches, seed order (home and away) is reversed.
4. Whenever Interserver playoff matches are held between ICS winners, the servers will be ranked alphabetically. Teams on the highest ranked server will be home team in odd numbered years and away team in even numbered years. E.g. FICS vs ICC, FICS is home in odd numbered years. All games of the Away team shall be played on their server.

¶ November, 2010

Rule 5 - Division Names

Each Section has a theme or topic from which are drawn the Division names.  Divisions should be assigned in the order shown.

Note.--Prior to T80, the Arbor, Aquatic, Erg and Planetary Sections had  limits 100 points higher, ie. U2000, U1800, U1600, U1400. The same division names were kept when the Section limits were changed. (¶ SC 79-80)

For T93 the Mountain Section will be the designated U3000 Open section (Team average range 1700 to 3000)  (¶ SC 91-92)

Rule 6 - Appeals by Committee Members

“If an Oversight Committee member is given a card, and the carded OC member wishes to appeal, a Special Steering Committee Appeals Subcommittee will be formed to hear the appeal. Precedent and the new rule, summarized.

1. OC member carded, appeal heard by Special Subcommittee of SC.
2. SC member carded, appeal heard by OC.
3. Someone serving on both SC and OC carded, appeal heard by Special Subcommittee of the SC.

This rule will serve to head off and circumvent any perception of conflict of interest or favoritism.
¶ June 18, 2007

Rule 7 - OC Votes on Appeals of TD Rulings

(Superseded by Sections 15.D and 17.E.iii of the Statutes, SC 51-52).
¶ July 1, 2007

Rule 8 - Widespread outages

For instances of verifiable widespread internet or network outages and other emergencies regional in scope observed by league officials or as described in the media, the Chief TD or his designee may choose to make decisions such as changing forfeits to set games.
¶ April 18, 2008

Rule 9 - Membership in ICC group Team4545League required

Due to unscrupulous activities by some players, including known ©heaters who are banned with Double Red Cards who clandestinely join again under another account handle, we are requiring all League members to join the Team4545League group on ICC. We may in our discretion ban players due to Administrative reasons.
¶ Feb 9. 2009

Rule 10 - Deferment of "Contact the E.C. after first forfeit" rule.

Regarding the SC T39-T40 Agenda item #7, part 2 which passed by a vote of 5 yes, 4 no and 1 abstention.

“Get'm out sooner: Upon FIRST forfeit (all players except RR+2), NOT eligible to be in lineup unless personally contacts the EC.”

The Entry Clerk has advised me that he will not be able to perform this undertaking due to the additional workload which would be created. He has also expressed to me that he does not wish to take on the responsibility of removing players from their lineups, and that it would be impossible to enforce the rule evenly and fairly throughout the League membership and teams.

I have decided this ruling shall not be implemented until such time as the Steering Committee has thoroughly and completely reviewed it and its implications. The Steering Committee may look at this after the moratorium of agenda items has passed.
¶ March 30, 2009

Rule 11 - Players returning from suspensions for forfeits will have their Reliability Ratings set to -1 RR.

It was understood when RR procedures were modified (1 April 2008) that players returning from a forfeit suspension (RR -2) would return at RR -1 instead of zero. At RR -1, one forfeit in the tourney will result in another suspension. Players who return and play "forfeit free" are credited with an RR point in accordance with the Bylaws.
¶ January 29, 2010

Rule 12 - Set game loss to (C)heating Player

By statute, results of games played by someone found to have been cheating are overturned and changed to forfeits. Cheating is beyond the control of the team; thus, it is unfair to charge them with a team forfeit, which can affect tiebreakers. To avoid team forfeits, results by cheating players (C on handle or finger note) will be changed to set game losses.
¶  November 2010

Rule 13 - Change all Tuesday deadlines to 17:00 ICC time

Effective with T54, all Tuesday (and Sunday) deadlines will be 17:00 hours ICC time. This time change is needed so that either the Entry Clerk (GMT-5) or the Assistant Entry Clerk (GMT+2) can fulfill all duties that are required to be executed on Tuesdays without causing delays. The 22:00 Thursday and Friday offer deadlines do not change.
¶ July 2012

Rule 14 - Clarification of accepting an offer not made

There has been confusion about what happens if a player accepts a time that has not been offered. Effective with T55 the following statement has been put in the Player Handbook, Part 4.C. “Be sure the time you accept is correct. If you should mistakenly accept a time that has not been offered, or a time that has expired or passed by, that time does not count as an acceptance, is not counted as an offer made by you, and does not fulfill any of the scheduling requirements or deadlines.”
¶ December 2012. Revised May 2020.

Rule 15 - Playoff qualifications for 7-team divisions

As an experiment, in T92 the 7-team Apple division in the Arbor section playoffs will be comprised of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth place teams, seeded accordingly, in two rounds of play, with winners of the first round advancing to the finals.
¶ March 2022

Rule 16 - Allowable ratings of replacement players in rounds 6-10 of active tournaments

In T90 the team floor ratings were removed in all sections. Consequently, aspects of Section 16.C.vi of the Statutes became untenable. This Rule modifies 16.C.vi to limit replacement player ratings, in round 6 and the following playoffs, to fixed ratings no higher than the fixed ratings of the departing players. The replacements are subject to Chief TD approval.

 ¶November  2022