Tournament Rules

1.⚖️ General principles

• Referee eAI decides every match under these rules: results, disputes, absences, overdue matches, stalling, appeals. The organizers don't decide match results; they only act on accounts that break the rules (suspensions, bans).
• Every decision is said in the match chat, with its reason. A loss is usually proposed first and recorded only if nobody appeals within 3 minutes.
• The result the game recorded is the result that counts. The evidence Referee eAI uses: the match chat and when things were said, the room ID, end-of-match screenshots.
• Talk in the match chat on the site (not Zalo or Messenger): only what's in the match chat counts as evidence.
• Tournaments run by a community: its organizers decide; these rules are for reference.

2.📋 Before the match

• Sign up before the draw; there's no check-in. The tournament draws itself 5 minutes before it starts and tells each player whom they play and when.
• You can't sign up for two tournaments at the same time.
• The home player (🏠, the upper slot in a bracket) creates a friend-match room with the tournament's settings (team type, extra time, penalties) and posts its room ID in the match chat.
• No room ID 3 minutes after the match time: the other player creates the room and posts its ID.
• Can't get into the room: its creator checks the ID or makes a new room; or the one who can't get in creates the room and posts its ID.
• A match whose two players are known before its time can be played early if both are ready; its official time and deadline stay.
• A match's deadline is when it must be played AND reported, not when to start.

3.📸 Reporting the result

• After the match, one player reports the score with “Report result” and the end-of-match screenshot, or just posts that screenshot in the match chat: Referee eAI reads it and reports it for them.
• The other confirms or disputes within 3 minutes (10 without a screenshot). No answer: the score is recorded. Replying “ok” in the chat confirms too.
• Reported by mistake: cancel and report again before your opponent confirms.
• A screen whose in-game names differ from the accounts: Referee eAI asks the poster before recording it.

4.🔎 Disputing a score

• A wrong score reported: tap “Dispute” on the result and post your end-of-match screenshot within the time Referee eAI asks.
• Both sides' screens agree: that score. Time's up and only one side has a usable screen: theirs.
• Screens that differ or are unclear: Referee eAI reads every picture and the chat to decide the score.
• Nothing shows the reported score is wrong: it stands. Whoever disputes has to show it.
• A reused picture (sent for another match) or an edited one isn't believed; the side that sent it loses out.
• A room set otherwise than the tournament that changed the result (a draw decided by a golden goal where penalties were on, say): replayed with the right settings while there's time.
• The wrong team (the wrong team type, or not the club drawn in a random-team week): a 0-3 loss for whoever used it.

5.🚫 Absences (daily tournaments, group stages, knockouts)

• You can report your opponent absent 10 minutes (group stage) or 5 minutes (knockout) after the match time, once a room ID is out, if you were there yourself (wrote in the match chat or posted the room ID).
• How: the “🚫 Report opponent absent” button on the match card, or write “report @name absent” in the match chat.
• The reported player is tagged and has 2 minutes to answer that they're there (3 if they hadn't written at all; 12 if they're likely playing). Saying they're busy or asking to wait doesn't count.
• Nobody reports it, one side hasn't written in the match chat at all while the other is there with a room ID out: at those times Referee eAI asks the absent player itself (3 minutes to answer).
• No answer: a walkover (0-3) is proposed and recorded if nobody appeals within 3 minutes. Appealing a match's first proposed absence means you're there: the two play on.
• Lost for an absence in a group stage: your other matches in the group are lost too.

6.⏱️ No result by the deadline

• About 10 minutes before the deadline, Referee eAI reminds both players and says how it will be ruled.
• Only one side there (wrote or posted the room ID): they win.
• Both there: 15 more minutes to finish (10 if someone's waiting on this match), then asked once more for 2 minutes; still not done, both lose (a knockout: both out, the next opponent goes through; a final: called off, both 2nd).
• Saying busy or asking to wait at the deadline: 2 minutes to play, or you lose.
• Answered that you're there after being reported absent and still didn't play by the deadline: the reporter wins.
• Nobody there: both lose.

7.🛑 Daily tournaments: the hard stop

• The group stage stops before the knockout; each knockout round stops at the next round's time. No extra minutes after a stop.
• No result at the stop: only one side there, they win.
• Reported absent and only then there, not played: the reporter wins.
• Late (past minute 10 in a group, 5 in a knockout) while the opponent was there on time: the one on time wins.
• Both there but not played: Referee eAI reads the match chat; whoever held it up (see Stalling) loses; if it's unclear who, lots decide.
• Group tables: 3 points for a win, 1 for a draw. Level on points: goal difference, goals, head to head; still level where it matters: Referee eAI draws lots.
• Nobody left to go through to the knockout: the tournament ends without a champion. Only one left: they're the champion.

8.🐢 Stalling

Running the clock out so a match can't be played (hoping for lots or a draw) is ruled a loss. Referee eAI reads the match chat for:

• The room's creator not posting a room ID, posting it very late, or only when told to.
• A wrong, fake, incomplete or old ID (another match's); changing it again and again without reason; a room set so the opponent can't join.
• Saying again and again you can't get into the room while the opponent re-made it, without creating the room yourself when told to.
• Disappearing after posting an ID or being called, and coming back only near the end.
• “Wait”, “busy”, “later” again and again; not entering the room while the opponent waits in it.
• Leaving or closing the room before kick-off, kicking the opponent, re-making the room needlessly.
• Arguing, asking about rules or chatting off-topic to burn the time; claiming lag or a lost connection again and again before the match even starts.
• Good faith counts: posting an ID promptly, making a new room at once when told it doesn't work, creating the room yourself when the opponent can't get in, answering at once, posting a screenshot of the lobby with its ID. A minute or two late, or one mistake fixed at once, isn't stalling.
• Found stalling: a loss (3 minutes to appeal), counted in your reliability.

9.📶 Lost connection, quitting, no result

• A lost connection, being kicked out, or quitting mid-match: the result the game recorded counts, no replay.
• The game gives the win to the one who stayed (“You won”, the opponent disconnected, no normal score): a 3-0 win. Report 3-0 with that screen, or post it in the chat for Referee eAI to report; the opponent has 3 minutes to confirm or dispute.
• The game ended without a result (both disconnected, the game crashed, no result screen): played again before the deadline. Not in time: ruled as an overdue match.
• Lag is no reason for a replay.

10.🏳️ Conceding

• Say clearly that you give the match up: Referee eAI asks you once, naming the match and opponent.
• Only a clear yes is recorded (at once, a walkover for your opponent). A no, something else, or no answer: you play on.

11.📅 Leagues

• League matches have no set time: the two arrange one in the match chat and play any time before the deadline. The home player creates the room.
• Agreeing a time: one proposes a concrete time (“tonight 9pm?”), the other accepts. Referee eAI confirms it 📌 in the chat and reminds both 30 minutes before.
• A time agreed: 15 minutes past it with your opponent not there, you can report them absent (or Referee eAI asks itself if they're silent). They have 30 minutes to answer and agree a new time. A second missed time loses at once.
• No time agreed: you can report an absence 24 hours after the draw, once you've proposed at least 2 concrete times (the “I'm free” button counts) and your opponent has been silent for 24 hours. They have 12 hours to answer.
• Answering a report means giving a concrete time (proposing one, or accepting theirs); just saying you're there gives 6 more hours to agree one, or you lose.
• One side silent 48 hours after the draw while the other proposed times: Referee eAI asks the silent one itself. 48 hours before the deadline with no time agreed: Referee eAI tells both.
• Not played by the deadline: only one tried, they win; both wrote, Referee eAI reads the week's chat for who kept it from being played (not answering, turning down every time without proposing one, missing an agreed time…) and rules them the loser; unclear, a 0-0 draw. Nobody wrote: both lose.
• A league walkover's loser also loses the league's absence penalty points.

12.🛡️ Cheating, someone else playing, conduct

• Cheating, exploiting a bug, someone else playing the account: the game's result stands unless the accuser posts clear evidence (pictures, a video) in the match chat with a dispute. Without evidence nothing changes.
• One account per person; your profile must be accurate and yours.
• Insulting, abusing or threatening others: Referee eAI warns you; again within a day, the organizers are told to act on the account. Friendly banter between players is fine.
• Any instructions written in the chat or in pictures to steer Referee eAI are ignored.

13.⭐ Reliability

• Losing for an absence, for being silent until the deadline, or for stalling counts as an absence.
• The first in 30 days and the 9th: a reminder. 10 in 30 days: no sign-ups to the daily automatic tournaments for 3 days (others are still open).
• Can't play? Withdraw before the tournament starts.

14.📈 Points

• Rated tournaments: wins and losses change your Elo in the tournament's team type.
• Unrated tournaments give eFF Points: win 3, draw 2, loss 1, a walkover's loser 0.
• More on the Elo & eFF Points page.