Blood Bowl 3 League Rules & Regulations
The Tahoma Area Blood Bowl League is an inclusive space meant to be representative of all players who participate. That means we do our best to respect every player who plays, refer to them in the way they want to be referred to, and create a space wherein they can feel that they belong. We show respect to each and every player and try our best to create a space for them to play Blood Bowl.
Online League Rules
A. Online League Format
The league will be divided into 2 divisions of a varying number of players. Each team will play every other team in their division at least once. If the number of players in the league is less than 16 then players will play cross-divisional in order to meet the goal of 8 games per season.
# of games per season: 8-10 (Round-robin)
# of playoff games: Up to 3 (Knock-out)
Time between games: 1 Week
Standings tiebreakers:
Points
Head-to-head record
# of Wins + Draws / Games Played
TD +/-
Coin Flip
Scheduling rules:
Games must be played within their scheduling rounds. A schedule round is Sunday through Saturday for the week that is scheduled. If a coach is unable to schedule their game or has not offered at least 3 options for their opponent then the game will be forfeit by that coach. In the event that an agreement is not able to be reached by each coach then the game will be considered to be "scheduled" for the default time for the league.
League Default time: Saturday @ 5 PM Pacific
Scheduling Process:
Coordinate with the other player by utilizing the scheduling channel on discord. Agree on time and date.
Schedule your game in the Scheduling channel and agree upon a time.
Play your game!
Divisional rules:
When there are 12 or less players in the league:
When the league has 12 or fewer players in the league, players will be lumped into a single group consisting of 8 total rounds. Pairings will be assigned randomly from those 8 games by the games auto-scheduler. There will be no attempt at seeding.
When there are 12 or more players in the league:
Two divisions will exist in the league in order to protect newer players: an upper division and a lower division. At the end of the season, the bottom two positions from the upper division will demote and the upper two from the lower will promote. This will be our system or promotion and relegation. In the construction of the divisions, the following criteria will be considered and in this order of importance:
The competitiveness of the league
The experience of the coach
The tenure of the team (if redraft is enabled in Blood Bowl 3)
The geographical location of the coach
It'll always be the intention of the league to try to balance these features and to provide folks with as competitive of a league as possible. However, this won't always be possible and will be highly dependent on the overall balance and progression of the league. But the guidelines will be as above.
Team building:
Each team will receive skills dependent upon the package listed below.
Treasury: 1M Gold per team
Skills: Dependent on team tiering below
Team tiers are the following:
GW Tier 1 + Orcs: 1 Primary Skill of choice
GW Tier 2: 2 Primary Skills of choice
GW Tier 3: 2 Primary Skills of Choice
The chosen player must not possess the Loner trait.
The chosen player must be STR 4 or lower.
All added skills are subject to a league review prior to them being added onto the chosen player.
Team Tiers as below EXCEPTING changes listed above:
B. Playoff Format
Playoffs will be played as a Knockout Tournament with no more than 8 players. Seeding will be determined based upon regular season performance. For example, 1st seed will play 4th in the other division, 2nd seed will play 3rd seed in the other division, and visa-versa. Additional rounds to determine unseeded players will be played, e.g. 3rd plays 4th, etc. If there is only one division then 1st will play 8th, 2nd will play 7th, 3rd will play 6th, 4th will play 5th. The league commissioner reserves the right to put orward a vote in special case scenarios where there are less than 8 players. Should there be a need to adjust the format then the league will democratically vote on the structure and number of players in the playoffs.
Each season a vote will determine whether star players will be permitted in the playoffs. The reason for this is that GW often releases new star players or FAQ's that can dramatically alter the balance of the game and, consequently, a decision will need to be regularly made as to how we will handle this.
C. Seasonal Transition
DISCLAIMER: At this time, we hope to utilize the standard GW redraft package listed below. However, redraft is not currently implemented in Blood Bowl 3 and redraft will need to be done manually (if at all). As a result, this is very tentative and will be dependent upon BB3's future and what options we have available at the time.
The league staff will provide the opportunity for the league to vote during the offseason to provide feedback on the league and feedback as to what they would like to see. As each new season introduces new challenges, changes, and things to consider we will handle this on a per-season basis.
Redraft
Redrafts will be done in accordance with standard GW rules. The following criteria will be used
A maximum of 1.3M gold will be awarded to each team to redraft their players.
For each season played, a player's cost will increase by 20k due to their agent recognizing their increasing skill and value.
Temporarily retired players are able to recover between seasons (see rulebook for details).
GW Rules are displayed below to help make with understanding the process of redrafting. While we may choose to change the rules to some extent throughout the league's life and progression, we are currently using them as written here.
D. General Rules
Special rules of play are listed below. We play with some slight variations to the Blood Bowl rules to help make the experience better.
MVP Selection:
MVP's will be randomly assigned during the league in accordance with the end-of-game procedures.
Concessions: We handle concessions in this league as an “only if absolutely necessary” scenario which is to say that we do not generally allow concessions in this league unless the following condition is met:
3 Players Left Standing Condition: If, at the beginning of a drive, a player has 3 players or less left on the pitch then the player is permitted to concede legally. No penalties will be assessed to the player in this case.
Illegal concessions: If a concession is made and the player has not met the 3 players left standing condition then the league staff will review the specific scenario and make a determination dependent on the surrounding factors that forced the player to concede. These will be handled on a case-by-case basis and the league will attempt to follow precedent wherever possible. In most cases, the rules from the Blood Bowl 2020 rulebook will be followed. In this case, the conceding player will have any touchdowns scored converted to the opposing team and any player at advancement 3 or beyond may leave the team. Each player at advancement 3 will roll a 1d6 and will stay on the team on a roll of 4+. On a roll of 1-3, the player will leave the team in disgust.
Other scenarios:
The league reserves the right to consider special circumstances in the event of an illegal concession and break from precedent. This means assigning unique punishments or not assigning punishments.
MVP’s: The conceding player forfeits their ability to select their MVP. The league staff validating the match will review the MVP. If the MVP falls upon a dead player then league staff will roll 1d(N) where (N) is the number of players on the team and randomly assign the MVP into the team. Two MVP’s will not be assigned to the winning team.
Special Circumstances: We are all adults and, occasionally, special circumstances may occur that prevent the successful completion of the game. In these cases, please notify league staff so we can discuss next steps.
Scheduling: Players are expected to schedule and play their games in a timely manner. The expectation is that once a fixture is open for the player to play, the player has contacted their opponent and offered times within 3 days. Games are given a 1 week window in which they must be played by. In these cases, league staff will review communications between players and make a decision as to what will occur. Precedent will not be considered in these cases. While it is not a requirement, the league staff strongly recommends creating a thread in the scheduling channel for visibility's sake.
Players who have left the league:
In the event that a player leaves the league mid-way through the season, we will process their games according to the below table:
The remaining team will be awarded a random MVP
We will not process the players leaving the team nor roll fans for either team to determine if they gain or lose.
Double game winnings will be awarded to the winning team.
2 Touchdowns will be granted to the receiving team.
A loss will be assigned to the coach who has left.
Average SPP earned to the point that the player left the league will be awarded to the winning team.
For example, if a team, on average, earned 8 spp against a team then 8 spp in total will be granted to the team. This will be done through manual edits to the team and will be rolled randomly across the team.
If a player had lost or drew to the team in the past, those results will stand.
Game Clock: The game clock will be set to the competitive timer mode. This will grant 2 minutes for each turn with a bonus timer of 7 1/2 minutes for the duration of the game.
Mega-Stars and Star Players: Megastars are a list of stars that can be game breaking in a variety of ways. If you've ever been on the receiving end of Morg N' Thorg, you know how much it can hurt to lose your team's star. Our league has adopted special rules to help deal with this:
In a regular season game, mega-stars are considered to take 2 Star Player Slots. This is not currently hardcoded into Blood Bowl 3 and is expected to be followed by each coach.
Teams are limited to 2 Star Player slots per Team.
All other Star Players take 1 Star Player Slot unless special circumstances exist, e.g. Grak & Crumbleberry or Dribl N' Drull
Megastar List
Morg N' Thorg
Griff Oberwald
Deeproot Treebranch
Hakflem Skuttlespike
Kreek Rustgouger
Bomber Dribblesnot
Willhelm Chaney
Cindy Piewhistle
Giant inducement
Permitted Inducements
All inducements in BB3 are currently permitted.
Conduct Rules
Demonstrate mutual respect towards one another.
This does not mean that one cannot tease, chirp at, or razz the opposing player. It’s Blood Bowl, after all, if you don’t complain about your opponent's dice at least once then are you really playing? But don’t be a dick about it. We’re all adults, we know when it’s too far, don’t go too far. The league will handle sportsmanship complaints with a heavy hand. Don’t make this game unfun for others.
Don’t be *that guy*
We’ve all played against that guy once or twice. They make their skills hard to read, their models can barely be determined what’s what, they try to take that extra movement square when you aren’t looking, or some other sordid act. Don’t be that guy. Be as honest as you can be, try your best to know the rules, and if you’re wrong… just admit you’re wrong and move on.
Schedule your games in a timely manner.
Don’t try to mess with your opponent by offering the worst possible windows for scheduling. Be proactive, make concessions, do your best to help get that game played. The effort that you put into scheduling games is part of the decisioning factor if a game ever goes to toss up for forfeit review.
League Organizers
Jay Smith (@flutethecat) - Commissioner