Downtown Throwdown Rules

1.1 Introduction

The rules outlined below are to be followed by all participants of tournaments organised by The Downtown at all times. By registering to the tournament, any teams or individuals as part of the registration, acknowledge they have read, understood, and agree to comply with the rules.

The rules may be changed, updated or otherwise amended, depending on the circumstances. Participants should regularly check the rules to ensure they are compliant. Any changes made to the rules after registrations open will be announced by a member of the admin team.

Any announcements/updates will be made through the official tournament Discord server. At least one team representative (manager/coach/captain) must be present within the server in order to relay any relevant information to the rest of their team.

1.2 Tournament points of contact

Discord server - discord.gg/smF3ZVeuU5

The Downtown staff:

Kashiwardian
Dugaid

Head Tournament Admin:

Velication

1.3 Code of conduct and behaviour

Participants are required to be respectful to other players, teams, and members of staff. This applies to any form of communication, whether it is direct communication in game, through communication platforms (such as Discord) or social media.

The official tournament language is English. All participants should be able to communicate in this language and are expected to do so in any public channels or when communicating with members of The Downtown team.

Insults, harassment and offensive behaviour will not be tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to:

Verbal or written abuse
Threat of violence
Sexual harassment
Doxing
Extremist statements
Advocating or encouraging any form of harassment and/or hate speech

1.4 Competitive integrity

Competitive integrity should be maintained by all participants throughout the tournament:

Matches must be played out in full. Teams are not allowed to disconnect and abandon the match unless directly instructed to by a member of the admin team (with a valid reason provided).
Cheating, hacking, or any other violations of the game’s official Terms and Conditions are not allowed.
A “GG” (Good Game) call through the ingame chat implies that the team is forfeiting the current game. Once a GG call has been made, players will be expected to wait for the game to end in the spawn area and should not contest their opponents. Participants should therefore refrain from using “GG”, “Good Game”, “FF” or any other variation which would imply a forfeit until the confirmed end of the game.
Participants are not allowed to place bets or participate in any form of gambling related to the tournament.
Match fixing, throwing games, or any other actions which damage the tournament’s competitive integrity will not be tolerated and appropriate sanctions will be issued to the parties involved.
Use of multiple accounts or account sharing is not permitted. Anyone found to be circumventing this rule will be banned from participating in any of The Downtown’s events, along with any associated accounts.

1.5 Tournament coverage

The tournament will be covered through the official Downtown channels.

Players who wish to stream their perspective are allowed to do so, but are advised to include a minimum of 2 minute delay.

Co-streaming and watch parties are allowed. We ask that any co-streamers or watch parties include a 2 minute delay to their streams and use our official ingame overlay, which can be found on the discord server.

The Downtown takes no responsibility for any 3rd party streams, the content they host or any stream sniping which may occur due to the lack of stream delay.

2. Reporting issues or misconduct

2.1 Reporting issues

If at any point there is an issue or a participant or a participant is found engaging in misconduct, please contact a tournament admin as promptly as possible.

If a situation arises during a game, pause the game and immediately contact an admin.

Participants should refrain from taking any action themselves unless the situation poses immediate and direct risk to someone’s health or safety.

2.2 Appeal and escalation procedure

An admin decision may be appealed with the head admin or a member of staff, by submitting a detailed explanation of the situation, reason for appealing, and any supporting evidence. The situation will then be reviewed internally and a decision will be made. Any decisions made will be final.

3. Downtown Throwdown

3.1 Tournament introduction

Downtown Throwdown is the European division of the event series organised by The Downtown.

3.2 Tournament region

There are no region restrictions for participation. Teams from all over the world are welcome to participate, however as Downtown Throwdown is hosted for the European region, all matches must be played on European servers. Teams from outside of the European region will likely experience higher pings than European teams.

3.3 Eligibility

In order to register for the tournament, teams must be meet the below criteria:

Consist of at least 6 players.
Players must be at least 16 years old.
Players must only be registered to one team participating in The Downtown Throwdown
Player/Team names must not contain any offensive/rude/inappropriate wording or abbreviations
Player/Team logos and imagery must not contain any offensive/rude/inappropriate content
Teams must pay the entry fee to the tournament ($60 per team)

3.4 Roster substitutes

Teams must play with their main registered roster whenever possible. Teams are allowed to register two substitute players as part of their application.

Substitute players are not allowed to be registered to multiple teams (main roster or as a substitute)

If a team wishes to use a substitute for a match, they must notify a match admin at least 15 minutes prior to the scheduled match start time.

3.4 Prize pool

As the prize pool is generated through entry fees, the exact prize pool and distribution will be confirmed after the sign up period closes.

Distribution (depending on the number of signups) will be as follows:

8 teams:

Entry fee will be distributed between the top 4 placing teams

16 teams:

Top 8 teams will be able to recover their entry fee in earnings
Top 4 will receive a split from the remaining prize pool

17-31 teams:

Top 16 teams will be able to recover their entry fee in earnings
Top 8 will receive a split from the remaining prize pool

32+ teams:

Teams eliminated from the qualifiers will be able to compete in a sub bracket, top 8 will recover their entry fee
The remaining prize pool will be split between the teams that qualify to the playoffs

Top 4 placed teams will also receive a split of $300 on top of their earnings from the prize pool

4. Tournament format

4.1 Qualifiers

Qualifier format will depend on the number of teams that sign up. The format will be chosen from one of the below:

Single elimination bracket until 16 teams are left
Group stage with bottom teams being eliminated
Swiss stage

The format will be officially announced after the sign ups close. Matches will be played between 12th and 15th, starting at 8pm CET (max of 2x Bo1 rounds per day).

4.2 Playoffs

Playoffs will be held in a double elimination bracket with up to 16 teams. All matches will be Bo3 and will be played in an accelerated schedule.

The bracket will be played out across two days (16th and 17th), starting at 1pm CET (max of 4x Bo3 matches per day).

5. Game rules

5.1 Team/player call time

All teams must check in an hour before their first scheduled match of the day.

5.2 Pre-game procedure

Both teams must be online and ready 15 minutes before the scheduled match start time. If teams are coming from a previous match, they may request a 5-10 minute break by notifying a tournament admin.

A team captain must set up the lobby and send the lobby code to the opposing team before the draft process begins. Captains must then decide on which server they want to play on and choose coin sides. A coin toss will be performed by a tournament admin, the winner of which will choose if they want to play on the Amber or Sapphire side. In a Bo3 series, the loser of the previous game will be Amber side by default.

Once decided, the winner of the coin toss must set up the draft through https://deadlock.guide/draft and send a link for the opposing team’s captain and tournament admins. If the match is being streamed (will be announced by the tournament admin prior to the coin toss), teams will be required to wait for the admin’s go ahead before commencing the draft.

After the draft is completed, teams are expected to ready up with character selections and begin the match as promptly as possible.

5.3 Lobby settings

Region - decided between teams
No bots
Specify Lane Assignments
Visible to everyone
Duplicate Heroes Disabled
Cheats Disabled

5.4 Server selection

Matches must be played on one of the below servers:

England
Finland
France
Italy
Poland
Spain
Sweden

If a situation arises where both teams cannot agree on a server:

Teams must contact a tournament admin and provide a detailed explanation why an agreement cannot be reached.
The tournament admin will then propose a server from the list above.
If the teams do not agree to play on the proposed server, both teams will nominate a server each. The server will be chosen by a coin toss, the sides of which will be allocated by the tournament admin.

5.5 Draft order

[Currently being reworked, will be announced shortly]

5.6 Post game procedure

After the completion of the game, team captains will be required to submit a screenshot of the game’s scoreboard as confirmation of the game result. In a Bo3 series, the scoreboard of each individual game of the series must be submitted.

6. Penalties after offences

Players/teams found breaking the tournament rules will be issued with a penalty depending on the severity of the transgression:

Minor offences - players/teams may be issued a warning. Repeating the offence or breaking another tournament rule may result in a disqualification.
Damaging the tournament’s competitive integrity - players/teams will be disqualified. A warning may be issued prior to this, but is not required.
Major offences - players/teams will be disqualified and may also be banned from participating in future events hosted by The Downtown.

These may be appealed through the procedure outlined in section 2.2, however The Downtown staff team reserves the right to refuse an appeal for major offences. Any decisions made by The Downtown staff team are final.