Also read the articles in the Ladder Information section containing:
Moh:AA Screenshots, Ladder violations

GENERAL

1. First and foremost, if you join a Ladder then you are expected to read, understand and follow those rules.

2. Do not confuse Ladder Rules with the Global Rules. If the Ladder Rules for a certain Ladder conflict with these Global Rules, then the Rules for that certain Ladder will have seniority over these Rules. This is just a general layout that applies to all Ladders.

3. The proper running of this Ladder system depends on the important roles of sportsmanship and integrity of the participating clans. We expect everybody to abide by the rules, but at the same time, be flexible when circumstances require it and to be reasonable when an opponent has problems/issue that are beyond their control. You never know, you may need your opponent to be reasonable if your team has problems/issues also.

4. Any violation of the rules will result in a forfeit loss unless it is stated otherwise in the Ladder rules.

5. FPSWars has the right to spectate and/or broadcast every match if desired. This can be done with broadcasting tools such as Fraps for spectating purposes. The recording of such broadcasts cannot be refused by the clans. Such refusal will result in deletion of the Match and a forfeit loss will be applied to the refusing team(s). It is the right of FPSWars to allow or ask third parties to broadcast matches on their website. Spectators will be members of the FPSWars admin anti-cheat team only. Such request is in no way in reference that either team will be potentially cheating but to give other players, especially the ones that do not participate in Matches, a broader prospective of how intense Matches can get in the heat of a battle.

6. Contact the Ladder supervisor by e-mail for any questions/comments concerning the Ladder or the outcome of current conflicts you may be involved with. For any questions/comments concerning the Ladder or the outcome of conflicts you may be involved in that the Ladder supervisor cannot resolve, or for complaints against the supervisor, please contact an FPSWars admin. Emails written in any other language other than English will not be read and emails containing abusive language will be ignored/deleted. Emailed complaints will be ignored by FPSWars admins if an issue has not been discussed with the Ladder supervisor first, or if the Ladder supervisor has made the correct decision which is applied by the rules. Case in point, use the Chain of Command (bottom-up) when contacting member of Staff concerning such questions, comments and/or issues.

Ladder Supervisor > Ladder Manager > Site Admin.

7. Agreements and arrangements made in emails, xfire, on the server or anywhere else are not binding agreements. Only the Official Ladder rules should be followed and considered to be the correct rules. Agreements and arrangements that contradict the Ladder rules will be overruled in conflicts.

Examples of this are: Clans' conflict who claim that the opponent agreed via email, xfire, msn, TeamSpeak, Ventrilo, IRC, etc… that they could use a smurf or that the clan said they could use a Rocket launcher and the opponent accepted. We will ignore such conflict requests. IT IS RECOMMENDED THAT YOU AGREE TO SUCH AGREEMENT(S) WITH YOUR OPPONENT BEFORE CHALLENGING, THEREFORE, AVOIDING MATCH CONFLICTS.


LADDERS

1. Server Locations: North America and its surrounding regions (Canada/Mexico). Other countries are NOT currently allowed due to major differences in Ping and Time zones. [We may later create Individual International Ladders to accommodate more players.]

2. FPSWars only creates Ladders when we believe there will be a strong “market” for it. When a new game is released, we usually create a North American Ladder for it first and then look into other country Ladders later when the North American Ladder becomes more active.

3. If you would like to request a new FPSWars Ladder for a new game or an existing game and you think there would be enough interest from other clans/players to make it active, Fill out the "Ladder Request" form. This form will be looked at by the proper Staff and if approved for member voting, the form will be transferred to a new thread in the forum. From there, get members who are interested to come and vote on your request. Finally, we will consider adding the ladder, based on the popularity of the game or mod and based on our relevant expertise in order to provide a working ladder. There is no set number of votes that will ensure a ladder or game is added. The ladder/game may be rejected if it has been tried before and failed.

4. Clans of other Countries and their regions, other than North America and its’ surrounding regions (Canada/Mexico), may be restricted to play on these Ladders. The reason for this, is to eliminate the huge difference in ping between clans, which could potentially cause Match conflicts, within the Ladders. The restriction for all regional Ladders is that matches for a country/region Ladder has to be played on the server in that country/region, unless both clans prefer not to. When clans play Matches on a server that is not within their region, neither clan will be able to dispute the score after the Match because of this, as when a match starts, the server settings are accepted. Disputes need to be settled before the match starts.

5. Playing several matches against the same opponent in a short amount of time is considered cheating as it distorts the ranking. As a rule of thumb, never play the same opponent more than twice in less than one week unless you also play a lot of other matches. In the case of accused violations after investigation, it will be assumed the matches are fake.

6. Clans without the required amount of players can be removed from the ladder after 14 days. If your team is on a particular Ladder with the minimum amount of players and you release one of your roster players, you will be required to obtain a new player to fulfill the Ladder’s minimum player amount.

7. When a possible fake match is discovered, both clans involved will be deleted from FPSWars without warning. Clanleaders have 72 hours (3 days) to appeal.


ANTI-CHEAT

1. PBBans - PBBans is FPSWars' primary streaming partner and all League matches, for games that have the steaming feature, must be played on a PBBans streaming server.

a. Make sure your team's server is equipped and streaming to PBBans before challenging or taking on challenges for matches. Failure to comply will result in forfeit of the Match to the team(s) not streaming to PBBans. Possible suspension(s) will be considered with multiple infractions.

b. If you have questions or need help setting up your server for PBBans streaming, please visit the PBBans forums or head on over to the Information Center located at, http://www.pbbans.com/information-center.html

2. UAC - UAC is to be used in ALL Moh:AA matches. If for whatever reason a player cannot run the UAC Anti-cheat program, then that player cannot participate in FPSWars matches.

a. If you have questions or need help setting up UAC, please visit the UAC forums located at, http://www.uac.ac/.


CLANS/PLAYERS*

1. Any clan registered on FPSWars can participate in any ladder. For information on how to register your clan on FPSWars, read the FAQ's.

2. Only players who are registered in a clan on FPSWars can play in ladder matches, and they can only play with the nickname (or very similar) they're registered with in that clan.

3. Using a smurf in a ladder match will result in a forfeit loss. Using multiple smurfs (three violations) will result in deletion of the clan. Violations are accumulated over time. Smurfs used over a year ago will not count, unless the clan has a long history of using smurfs.


SCORING SYSTEM

FPSWars uses a simple scoring/ranking system. Winner takes losers position (if higher). Plain and simple. Although, FPSWars has plans on implementing a more effective scoring system based on ELO (chess) in the future.


ARRANGING MATCHES

1. The deadline for reacting to a challenge is 72 hours (3 days) after the challenge is made. If by the deadline, the opponent still has not reacted to the challenge, they will receive a forfeit.

2. No match is to be played without arranging it on FPSWars first. If a match is played without being arranged on FPSWars first, then both sides are depending on each other's sportsmanship to accept the result afterwards. FPSWars will not force match results when there was no accepted challenge for that match in the first place.


BEFORE THE MATCH*

1. To find your opponent before a match, you should contact them directly through MSN, Yahoo!, e-mail, Xfire or any other means. If you can't find each other this way, try and contact an FPSWars Admin to help you contact your opponent. We recommend using Xfire as a way of contact. This keeps a friends list and can help when needing to contact an opponent.

2. If one clan is short of players or refuses to start the match with the rules agreed upon in the challenge form, the other clan can demand a no-show to be filled in. Remember, challenge notes, FPSWars PM message system, the proposed server and agreements made elsewhere are not considered to be binding rules.


DURING THE MATCH

1. Once a match has started, its results count, unless both sides agree it shouldn't. Ping, lag issues or incorrect server settings are no excuse for leaving; you should have checked the server before you started playing.

2. If one clan walks away from the match, the score at the time when their last player quit can be considered to be the result of the match by the clan that stayed. If this score doesn't reflect the probable final outcome of the match, FPSWars can change it to the advantage of the clan that stayed.


AFTER THE MATCH

1. As the system stands, the losing team must enter their team as the losers and their opponent as the winners, IMMEDIATELY after the match. The wining team must approve and enter the scores from both teams, and provide a comment, if they wish. Negative comments found will be erased and the team/player guilty will be given a warning. Multiple warnings and your player account will be frozen and subject to deletion for disrupting the Ladder.


DEMOS AND SCREENSHOTS

1. UAC3/4 - Any screenshots or logs taken by the UAC Anti-cheat Program can be viewed immediately after the Match. If you feel that one or more of the opponents screenshots shows a cheat, you may Flag it and it will be viewed by a UAC Admin. However, the screenshot feature doesn't always take viewable screenshots. Sometimes they come out black. In this case, we must rely on the detection system of the UAC Anti-cheat Program to find any wrong-doing. Also, sometimes screenshots don't get sent to the UAC server for certain reasons. If this is the case with you and if any screenshots were taken by the UAC Anti-cheat Program, they must be uploaded via the UAC Anti-cheat Program within 24 hours.

2. Rcon status screenshots MUST be taken in EVERY match no matter what. If requested by your opponent, you must send the status screenshots to the Captain of the opposing team, at the very least. Failure to do so will result in a forfeit loss. These screenshots will be used if foul play is suspected and can be used to trace ip's to players/countries.


REGIONAL LADDERS

1. First and foremost, FPSWars is a North American (region) Ladder with Canada and Mexico as its conjoining regions. In order to participate in a regional ladder, a clan must be from that region or from a region that includes it. For example: North America includes Canada and Mexico.

2. Any clan not from a Ladder's region will be removed from that ladder.

3. All matches MUST be played on servers within that region. Once a match has started, then the server's settings and region is accepted, so clans will not be punished if the match is played. When neither clan can provide a server from that region and they refuse to play, the match should be canceled. If this should happen, both of the clans’ Team Captain must contact a Ladder Supervisor as soon as possible to notify them. If a clan does have a server from that region and the opponent does not, the match must be played on the server from that region. In this case, the opponent may not refuse the server with the correct region and server settings. If they do, then they must accept a forfeit and report a loss.

4. We understand that some U.S.-based clans may branch out to international players as well to have on their roster. While FPSWars allows a clans' international member(s) to play in an FPSWars Match, there is a ratio that must be followed to allow fair-play as far as ping issues. During a match (containing international players), a certain number of players must be from the Ladder's region. The numbers are as follows:
-o- In a 2v2: both players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 3v3: 2 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 4v4: 3 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 5v5/6v6: 4 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 7v7: 5 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 8v8: 6 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 9v9/10v10: 7 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.
-o- In a 11v11 and up: 8 players must be from North America, Canada and/or Mexico.

Violating this rule will result in a forfeit loss. In addition, if you do not have enough players in the region then you will be removed from the Ladder(s). Reason for this rule is because of a possible huge difference in ping, which could create a laggy server that can be almost impossible for some players to play.

5. It is a clan's responsibility to make sure its' player flags are correct for when clans are checked for regional status.

IPs can be traced to a country by using IP trace tools such as 'Network Tools' and 'Geobytes' among others. Any clan found guilty of abusing the regional Ladder rules by faking nationality will be punished, depending on the violation, with a forfeit loss or more severe measures such as, but not limited to, banishment. Players who continually rejoin Ladders they were removed from despite warnings will have their responsible clans killed and their account will be deleted as well as having their IP banned from the FPSWars site.