Chapter 1 – General provisions
§ 1.1 About the organisation
a. Esport Arena is a voluntary association (org. no. 935533937) led by a self-appointing board. The association is registered in the Norwegian Register of Legal Entities and the Register of Non-Profit Organisations.
b. The purpose of the association is to offer a fair, safe and inclusive environment for gamers. The association focuses on serving the breadth of Norwegian esports, but shall also provide opportunities to compete at a high level. In all cases the association shall foster a community that promotes mutual respect and cooperation, as well as competitive and personal development for the individual.
§ 1.2 Scope
a. These regulations apply to all participants in activities and events organised by Esport Arena, and/or held on Esport Arena’s platforms (including Discord and our websites), and/or activities and incidents that affect them.
b. The regulations apply regardless of game and type of activity.
c. The regulations apply to individual players, teams and clubs alike — regardless of what they call themselves or how they are organised.
d. More detailed provisions for an individual event and/or an individual game may be given in separate regulations, terms and the like.
§ 1.3 Definitions
a. Administrator: a person responsible for running tournaments and for ensuring that participants follow the rules. A tournament may have one or more administrators. All administrators of a tournament are together referred to as the administrator team (admin team).
b. Activity: all interaction between participants, whether written, visual, spoken and/or in-game.
c. Event: a planned activity with a given start and end time.
d. User-run event: an event created by a user on Esport Arena’s platforms. The user is themselves responsible for running the tournament.
e. Participant: anyone taking part in an activity and/or event, in any role.
f. Club: an association of players that organises one or more teams. Clubs are owned by registered club managers on our platforms.
g. Team: a group of players registered as a team in one or more games. A team is always owned by a club.
h. Platform: a digital meeting place for gamers where either a) information is given by Esport Arena, b) participants communicate with one another, c) activities and tournaments are organised, d) game-related features are made available by Esport Arena (possibly together with a third party), or e) a combination of these.
i. Player: a participant who competes in an activity or tournament, either individually or as part of a team.
j. Tournament: an event featuring competition between individual players, teams and/or clubs, held on Esport Arena’s platforms.
§ 1.4 Roles
a. The board: Esport Arena’s board, which decides the organisation’s strategic direction, objectives and guidelines, including revisions to these regulations.
b. Arena developers: key contributors with defined areas of work and responsibility who support the development of Esport Arena.
c. Administrators and moderators: persons responsible for enforcing the rules set by Esport Arena and/or by the individual user-run tournament.
d. Tournament leads: administrators with specific responsibility for organising and running tournaments.
e. Club managers: those registered as club owners on Esport Arena’s platforms. Club managers are responsible for the club, and bear overall responsibility for the club’s teams in every game.
f. Team managers: those registered as team managers on Esport Arena’s platforms. A team manager is responsible for their own team in the game it is registered for.
g. Players: competing players who take part in activities, events and tournaments organised by Esport Arena.
§ 1.5 Amendments
a. Esport Arena reserves the right to amend and update these regulations as needed.
b. All changes will be communicated clearly to members through official channels. New rules may take effect as soon as they are published, or from a set and stated date.
Chapter 2 – Fair play
§ 2.1 Fair play
a. All members and participants shall uphold the principles of fair play, which means:
- Respect for opponents, administrators, organisers, team-mates, partners and every other participant involved.
- No cheating and no attempt to manipulate the game experience.
- Respect for and compliance with the rules that apply to each tournament and competition.
- Compliance with the ethical guidelines.
§ 2.2 Ethical guidelines
a. Honesty: all participants shall compete fairly, without cheating, exploiting bugs, or other unethical conduct.
b. Respect: all players, referees and organisers shall be treated with respect, both in and outside the game. Bullying, discrimination and harassment are not tolerated. Player names may not be offensive or sexualised.
c. Integrity: players and teams shall act honestly. Match fixing, sabotage and financial dishonesty are strictly prohibited.
d. Inclusion: esports shall be open and accessible to everyone, regardless of gender, sexual orientation, background, religion or ability.
e. Privacy: personal data shall be handled responsibly, and participants’ privacy shall be respected.
f. Accountability: everyone involved shares responsibility for a safe and positive environment. This covers your own conduct, and may also mean speaking up when someone else is subjected to a breach of these guidelines.
g. Duty to report: everyone has an individual duty to speak up on observing a breach of the ethical guidelines, and to report such matters to the board and/or the tournament administrator on becoming aware of them.
§ 2.3 Efforts to detect cheating and attempted cheating
a. On behalf of its players, Esport Arena undertakes to work actively for fair play and to be uncompromising in the face of cheating and attempted cheating.
b. Esport Arena regards all anti-cheat systems built into the individual gaming platform (e.g. Steam) and game (e.g. PUBG) as valid, and as grounds for direct action on Esport Arena’s part as well.
c. Esport Arena reserves the right to approve third-party anti-cheat software or review (such as AI-based software) in addition to the anti-cheat features built into the gaming platform and the game. Conclusions from such investigations will be regarded as valid regardless of when and where the violation took place, and are grounds for direct action from the date the finding of cheating is reached.
d. Where cheating is suspected, Esport Arena may require players to provide documentation (such as game recordings) and explanations. Esport Arena may also require an individual player to register with an approved third party for investigation and review within a set deadline.
e. Failure to comply with a requirement under letters c and d within a reasonable time will be treated the same as cheating.
f. Detected attempts to cheat will be treated the same as completed cheating.
g. Sanctions for detected cheating or attempted cheating may be imposed whether or not the violation took place on Esport Arena’s platforms.
h. Guidelines for case handling are given in §§ 4.6–4.7.
§ 2.4 Breaches of the rules
a. Failure to uphold the principles of fair play, or a breach of the ethical guidelines at events held on Esport Arena’s platforms, may lead to warnings, suspension, loss of roles or functions, point deductions, disqualification and/or exclusion.
b. All users of Esport Arena’s platforms and all participants in activities and tournaments undertake to accept sanctions for breaches of the rules, and cannot hold Esport Arena liable for any harm such sanctions may cause to a club, a team, an individual or anyone else.
Chapter 3 – Tournaments
§ 3.1 Organisers
a. Esport Arena is responsible for organising and administering all official tournaments held under Esport Arena’s auspices.
b. Users and organisations may run their own user-run events on Esport Arena’s platforms by agreement, but these must follow the terms and guidelines set by Esport Arena, including these overall regulations.
§ 3.2 Specific rules for administrators and moderators acting on behalf of Esport Arena
a. All administrators and moderators at events held under Esport Arena’s auspices must be approved by the board, following an assessment of their competence in tournament management, conflict resolution and understanding of the rules. The board may also withdraw an approval.
b. Anyone applying for an administrator or moderator role must demonstrate sufficient skill and understanding of the rules to ensure fair and effective administration of Esport Arena’s activities.
c. Administrator and moderator assignments are allocated as needed, and on the basis of competence and experience.
d. Administrators and moderators undertake to act fairly and objectively, and to regard their role as a representative of Esport Arena as applying outside Esport Arena events as well.
§ 3.3 Requirements for clubs
a. Every club wishing to take part in tournaments through Esport Arena must be registered on Esport Arena’s platforms.
b. Clubs must have an ethical framework consistent with Esport Arena’s rules on fair play and ethics.
c. Club managers shall ensure that all members follow the rules and behave respectfully.
d. Clubs are themselves responsible for ensuring that the club leadership registered on Esport Arena’s platforms matches the club’s own rules and any elected leadership, and for keeping it up to date.
e. Clubs with their own statutes may ask Esport Arena to change the registered club leadership in accordance with valid resolutions. Such requests must be documented and signed in accordance with the applicable rules on power of procuration.
f. Should a dispute arise over club ownership, and no statutes or similar exist to determine authority within the club, Esport Arena will regard the original founder of the club on our platform as the person authorised to make decisions on the club’s behalf.
g. Where ownership is transferred to a new team, association or other corporate form, documentation of the change of ownership must be sent to Esport Arena.
h. A club name shall be decent and shall not be offensive by general standards, either to other participants or to spectators, and may not be identical or very similar to a name already used by another club. The same applies to team names.
Chapter 4 – Sanctions for breaches of the regulations
§ 4.1 Scope of the sanction provisions
a. The sanction provisions apply to all participants, including players, administrators, clubs and teams.
§ 4.2 Acts and omissions subject to sanction
- Cheating and the use of prohibited aids, or the promotion of either.
- Bullying, harassment or discrimination.
- Breaches of tournament rules, or attempts to manipulate competitions.
- Breaches of the principles of fair play or of the ethical guidelines, including failure to observe the duty to report.
- Harmful acts against Esport Arena (such as hacking our platforms, smear campaigns and the like).
- Other breaches of the overall regulations, of the terms of use for our platforms, and/or of specific rules or regulations for an individual game, gaming platform, activity, event or tournament.
- Circumventing a sanction in force (for example by using another player account).
- Breaches of Norwegian law.
§ 4.3 Principles for assessing a breach
a. Where a participant breaks the rules, culpability should be assessed on the basis of intent, severity and previous incidents, together with the consequences the act or omission has had.
b. As a general rule the participant should be given an opportunity to explain themselves before a sanction is imposed.
c. The detection of cheating through features built into the gaming platform or game, or through third-party anti-cheat software approved by Esport Arena, will be regarded as decisive and is grounds for direct action, whether or not the cheating took place on Esport Arena’s platforms or at its events. In such cases the player concerned is not given an opportunity to explain themselves to Esport Arena, but must pursue any explanation, complaint or appeal through the third party’s own process. Should the third party withdraw its claim of cheating, sanctions imposed by Esport Arena will cease as soon as the necessary documentation has been provided and validated.
§ 4.4 Types of sanction
a. Sanctions for less serious breaches (such as breaches of tournament-specific rules on team composition or similar) include:
- A warning
- Point deductions
- Restricted access to roles, features and the like for the duration of the event
b. Sanctions for serious breaches include:
- Disqualification
- Suspension or exclusion from a single event
- Suspension or exclusion from one organiser’s user-run events
- Suspension or exclusion from Esport Arena’s platforms
- Restricted access to roles, features and the like on Esport Arena’s platforms (beyond the duration of a single event)
c. The duration of warnings, suspensions, exclusions and restrictions should be set as part of the sanction.
§ 4.5 Player, team and club sanctions
a. Player sanction: a sanction imposed on an individual player.
b. Team sanction: where a team breaks the rules, or a player on the team breaks the rules in a way that benefits the team, the whole team may receive point deductions or be disqualified from the event or tournament in question.
c. Club sanction: sanctions may also be imposed on an entire club where its players or members break the rules systematically or in a particularly serious manner.
§ 4.6 Authority to sanction at user-run events
a. The organiser of a user-run event may impose sanctions such as warnings, point deductions and suspensions, applying to one tournament and/or generally to events run by that organiser.
b. Case handling, decisions on sanctions and their form, and any right of appeal at user-run events are governed by the organiser’s or the event’s own rules.
c. Where the violations are judged to be serious in nature (such as cheating in-game, hate speech, criminal offences or similar), the organiser shall also report the matter to the board of Esport Arena.
d. Participants in user-run events may also independently report matters judged to be serious in nature to the board of Esport Arena.
e. The board of Esport Arena decides for itself whether a matter reported from a user-run tournament will be taken up. There is no right of appeal against a decision not to take up a matter.
§ 4.7 Case handling and authority to sanction at Esport Arena events
a. Breaches regarded as less serious (such as registering a player later than the tournament requires), or which lead to sanctions in the form of a warning, point deductions or a restriction on a role or feature within a single event, are handled on an ongoing basis by the administrators of that event. Participants may appeal the handling and/or the decision to the board.
b. Breaches under § 4.3 c shall be followed up as soon as possible by the board and by the administrators of any event in progress, by immediately suspending the player or players concerned from Esport Arena’s platforms and events pending any case handling by the third party. Once the third party’s decision is to be regarded as final, the board formalises the decision on sanctions against the player or players concerned.
c. The administrators of an event are obliged to assess every suspicion of a breach of these regulations and of any event-specific regulations.
d. An individual administrator of an event may obtain documentation (such as game recordings and the like) from individual players, as part of Esport Arena’s commitment to fair play and quality assurance. The administrator must make all administrators of the event aware that this is being done. Where the documentation requires closer investigation it shall be presented to and assessed by all administrators of the event.
e. Where a majority of the administrators judge that there are reasonable grounds for suspicion, they shall formally open a case on the matter.
f. In cases under letter e, the administrator team is responsible for handling the case according to the following guidelines:
- Available documentation shall be collected.
- The documentation collected shall be reviewed and assessed.
- A case summary shall be prepared with a recommended sanction (and duration, where applicable).
- The person or persons alleged to have broken the rules shall be given up to 5 days to respond to the case summary.
g. The case is put to the board for final decision. The board has final decision-making authority, and there is no further right of appeal.
Chapter 5 – Other provisions
§ 5.1 Interpretation of the rules
a. Esport Arena reserves the right to interpret the intent behind the provisions of these regulations where needed, if that is necessary to uphold fair play and comply with the ethical guidelines.
§ 5.2 Rights, agreements and cooperation between Esport Arena and business
a. Esport Arena may enter into partnerships with businesses to offer sponsorship, marketing and promotion at its events.
b. Agreements with businesses and others may not conflict with our ethical standard.
§ 5.3 Personal data
a. Esport Arena manages personal data in accordance with applicable data protection law (the GDPR).
b. All information collected about players and participants shall be used only to administer tournaments, ensure fair play and improve the user experience.
§ 5.4 Terms of use and privacy policy for Esport Arena
a. By using Esport Arena’s platforms, including our Discord servers and websites, and by registering an account and/or connecting to other services (such as the Discord bot), you accept the terms of use and privacy policy that apply to those platforms. Our Discord servers additionally follow the Discord Terms of Service and may have their own rules (as announced in the #regler channel of each server).
Appendix – Standard maximum sanctions
- Circumventing a sanction in force: the sanction imposed is doubled.
- Cheating or attempted cheating in-game: exclusion for up to 5 years, and a requirement for a new game account after the exclusion ends.
- Serious breaches of the ethical guidelines: exclusion for up to 5 years.
- Manipulating or circumventing the rules: exclusion for up to 3 years.
- Breaches of the ethical guidelines: exclusion for up to 1 year.
- Failure to observe the duty to report: exclusion for up to 1 year.
- Serious breach of tournament regulations: disqualification and suspension.
- Moderate breach of tournament regulations: point deductions for the team.
- Minor breach of tournament regulations: a warning.