1. General Competition Rules
1.1. Admin Interpretation & League Interests
The final interpretation of rules and regulations rests with the Generation Esports (GenE) Administration. At all times, GenE admins may act with the necessary authority to preserve the best interests of the league. This power is not constrained by the lack of any specific language in this document. GenE admins may use any form of punitive actions at their disposal against any entity whose conduct is not within the confines of the best interests of the league. A participant's ignorance of the rules will not be considered as a factor in any ruling.
1.2. Finality of Decisions
All decisions regarding the interpretation of rules, player eligibility, scheduling and staging of the league, and penalties for misconduct, lie solely with GenE administration, the decisions of which are final. GenE administration decisions with respect to these Rules cannot be appealed and shall not give rise to any claim for monetary damages or any other legal or equitable remedy.
1.3. Rule Changes
The rules in this article --and any game article-- may be amended, modified, or supplemented by GenE administration to ensure fair play and the integrity of the league. Major changes to this document will be communicated, however, these rules may be updated at any time without formal notification. However, the High School Esports League will use its best efforts to provide reasonable notice to the Organization's Administrator via email prior to any significant rule changes.
1.4. Confidentiality
The content of emails, support tickets, or any other correspondence with Generation Esports administration is deemed strictly confidential information. The publication of such material is prohibited without express written consent from Generation Esports.
1.5. Match Broadcasting
All broadcasting rights of Generation Esports are owned by Generation Esports, LLC. This includes, but is not limited to: IRC Bots, audio streams, video streams, match recordings, or television broadcasts.
1.5.1. Award of Broadcast Rights
Generation Esports has the right to award broadcasting rights to one or multiple matches to a third party or participants themselves. In these cases, broadcasts must be arranged with Generation Esports administration or broadcasters before the start of the match. Generation Esports reserves the right to play, broadcast, and distribute all match recordings during a Generation Esports tournament.
1.5.2. No Right of Refusal
Players and participants cannot refuse to have their matches broadcasted by a Generation Esports authorized broadcast, nor can they choose what manner in which the match will be broadcasted.
1.6. Prizing
All prizing will be distributed once all teams that have earned it submit the necessary information needed to verify the eligibility of the players on the team and all pending payments are completed. If a team or player is missing any required criteria for verification or payment, the prizing will be held for 30 days after the conclusion of the applicable Generation Esports tournament. If a team or player fails to provide the required information or payments within those 30 days, they may forfeit all prizes from the tournament. Prizing will take between 3-6 weeks from the completion of the tournament to be fulfilled.
Generation Esports reserves the right to withhold or revoke prizing from any School, Student, Team, or User who violates the official tournament rules or for any reason determined by Generation Esports. This includes situations where a playoff match is forfeited. If a team or user chooses to forfeit a playoff match, Generation Esports may decide to withhold or revoke any prizes that would have been awarded to that team or user. This action is taken at the discretion of Generation Esports.
Generation Esports reserves the right to revoke or change prizing if the minimum number of 32 tournament registrants is not reached. For prizing questions or concerns, please email prizing@generationesports.com.
1.7. Grace Period
Participants are expected to begin the match creation process (e.g. picks/bans, launching the game, creating the custom game) in good faith immediately at match-time. Unless otherwise specified, a grace period of 15 minutes will be given past the match time before Generation Esports will approve a forfeit for unreadiness to play.
2. Participant Accounts
2.7.1. Clean Game Accounts
2.7.1.1 Definition
The High School Esports League defines a "clean game account" as an account that has not received any form of long-term game suspension/ban in the past 365 days, is not currently serving a short-term suspension, and is clear of vulgar or inappropriate content.
Short-term suspensions can include, but are not limited to: Chat restrictions, restricted access to ranked modes, or other gameplay lockouts lasting 7-30 days
Long-term suspensions can include, but are not limited to: Suspensions/bans lasting 31 days or longer, or permanent game accounts suspensions/bans for any reason.
2.7.1.2 Suspended Game Accounts
Players currently serving short-term game account bans/suspensions are prohibited from participating in High School Esports League events, even on alternate game accounts, until the suspension/ban is over.
Players having served long-term suspensions/bans at any point in the last 365 days are prohibited from participating in all High School Esports League events, even on alternate game accounts, for a calendar year from the start of the account's suspension or the date upon which it was discovered, whichever is later.
Players are required to notify their Organization's administrator if they receive any length of suspension or ban. The Organization's Administrator is then required to notify tournament admins of their student’s account status.
2.7.1.3. Real-time Suspensions
If a player’s account receives any form of game suspension or ban during an official match, the match will immediately conclude and the opposing participant will be awarded a win.
2.2. Game Connections
All players taking part in tournaments are required to have an active game account for the competition they’re participating in connected to their Generation Esports account. All game connection information shown on a Organization's roster must match the names used in-game. Mismatching display names (gamertags) that cannot be verified by staff will not be allowed to participate in an official match and must not be present in a game lobby.
If a player’s display name does not match what is shown on their roster, immediately suspend play, inform the other team of the discrepancy, and reach out to a GenE Administrator through the Support Live Chat service for assistance. Name discrepancy reports will not be accepted after a match has been completed.
In certain cases, players with mismatching names may be permitted to correct their Game Connection name after a staff member has verified that both names in question are tied to the same game account, using a unique account identifier (such as Steam ID, Epic ID, Riot Sign-On ID). These identifiers must be directly accessible to staff; email screenshots are insufficient.
All game connections associated with a user at any point during a competition are subject to the clean game account rule.
2.3. Participant Profiles
All player names or profiles are prohibited from including:
- Gang Affiliation
- Drugs (including alcohol and tobacco)
- Sexual Material
- Offensive Material
- Politically Charged Symbols/Images
- Slander of Generation Esports, their staff, or participating teams and players
2.4. Software Agreements
All participants are required to agree to, follow, and abide by any and all software agreements necessary to operate any game, service, and/or launcher that is necessary to facilitate a competition (e.g. Terms of Service, Terms of Use, End User License Agreements, and/or any other similar documents).
3. Organizations
3.1. Organization Names
All team names or profiles are prohibited from including:
- Gang Affiliation
- Drug References/Names (including alcohol and tobacco)
- Sexual Material
- Offensive Material
- Politically Charged Symbols/Images
- Slander of Generation Esports, Players, or its Staff
3.2. Player Counts
Rosters are required to have the minimum player count (as stated in each game’s rule set) present on the roster at all times once a season begins. This does not include players that are pending to be placed on the team. Rosters for team-based games may not have more than double the minimum player count.
3.3. Multi-Teaming
Players are prohibited from participating on more than one roster for the same game in a specific tournament.
3.4. Roster Changes
Roster changes may be made at any point during or in between seasons except during live matches and once the playoffs have been seeded. Roster changes are prohibited for single-player tournaments.
3.5. Withdrawal
Teams may choose to withdraw from a tournament during the season and may rejoin at a later date if they choose to. Players or teams that choose to withdraw from a tournament will not qualify for refunds or receive compensation for their withdrawal. Only a Team Administrator may submit a request to withdraw a player or team from a tournament.
3.5.1. Refund Policy
No refunds will be offered, all services are sold as is. Generation Esports assumes no responsibility for purchases. A grace period of 48 hours after purchase will be offered for disputed circumstances. Generation Esports reserves the right to refuse or deny registration and to cancel registration under certain circumstances.
3.6. Playoff Qualification
Teams must complete 75% of their regular season matches to be considered for playoff qualification or to receive tournament prizing.
3.6.1. Unplayed & Unreported Matches
Any match that a participant misses, as well as any match that has not been reported, will result in the match being counted as a loss against the participant's record at the end of the regular season. For example: going 4-1 in a regular season where 7 matches are offered will result in a final record of 4-3.
4. Communication
4.1. Opponent Communication
Participants must utilize the match chat on the match page on the Generation Esports application to communicate with their opponents.
4.2. Outside Communication
Players/teams may not have any communication with any outside sources (with the exception of GenE Administration) while live gameplay is in progress, including, but not limited to: coaches, teachers, match spectators, and substitutes. Players and teams may only have communication with outside sources during the grace period between games in a series or unless otherwise outlined in game-specific rules.
5. Spectators
Spectators are permitted in game lobbies for the sole purpose of streaming their school team’s match to the school’s social channel(s) or for recording the match. Spectators streaming or recording the match may not be a competitor on the roster, unless otherwise specified in the game-specific rules.
At the end of the match:
- If streaming – the stream’s VOD must be immediately shared with the other team in the match chat.
- If recording – an unedited copy of the recording must be uploaded and shared with the other team within 24 hours.
In the case of a game having a solo spectator position, streaming rights will be given to the home team.
Additional spectating rules vary from game to game and can be found within the game-specific rulesets.
5.1. Player Streaming
Players may stream to their personal social channel(s) if they are participating in the match. The match may only be streamed from the student’s in-game point of view and should have at least a 3 minute delay set to prevent possible incidents of stream sniping.
Students may not at any time stream another player or roster’s match on their personal channels.
6.0. Peripherals
6.1.1. Controllers
Controllers used in official matches must not be modified in any way, including but not limited to trigger mods, sensitive buttons, custom thumbsticks, and thumbstick tension modes. SCUF Controllers and Xbox Elite controllers are permitted as long as none of the attachments are used during gameplay. For fighting games, all standard fight sticks and controllers are permitted. Any hardware with macro functions or on-the-fly profile switching is strictly prohibited.
Controllers may be used for PC games provided that they meet the requirements above, are an officially supported controller, and the game has native support for the controller in question; i.e. the player should not need to install additional software/drivers for the controller other than those from the manufacturer or included with the game.
6.1.2. Keyboard and Mouse
Participants may use a keyboard and mouse on console as long as the tournament supports crossplay between console and PC players. The use of a keyboard and mouse for a console-specific tournament is prohibited.
6.2. Cross-Platform Play
Players may only play on the platform(s) specified for a specific tournament. Doing otherwise may result in disqualification from that tournament.
7.0. Disruptive Actions
7.1. Cheating
The use of any third-party program, application, or illegally modified hardware that gives one or more participants an unfair advantage will be considered cheating. Examples include programs or applications that assist with aiming (aimbot), provide vision through walls (wallhack), provide otherwise unknown information (radar hack), automatically click or keypress (triggerbot, external macro), modify audio or visual information (e.g. preventing a player from being blinded or deafened, or modifying volume on audio cues). This list is not comprehensive; other programs may be deemed cheating if they are found to be giving a player or team an unfair advantage.
Players who are found to be cheating will be immediately disqualified from all tournaments they currently compete in until their conclusion and beyond at the discretion of the High School Esports League administration.
7.1.1. Bugs/Glitches/Exploits
The exploitation of any bugs/glitches that give a player or team an unfair advantage and are disallowed by the game’s developer are prohibited from use in official matches. The following are some examples of prohibited exploits:
- Glitches that modify ability timers
- Champion/hero appearance (or swapping) glitches
- Accessing illegal or out-of-bounds locations
This list is not comprehensive. The use of any bug/glitch/exploit that provides an unfair advantage is expressly prohibited, and their use will result in consequences. The final determination of fairness lies with GenE Administration.
7.1.2. Additional Acts of Disruption
Other attempts to disrupt a match (or conspiring to do so) will also be considered cheating. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Intentionally delaying the start of a game or match
- Intentionally and deliberately teaming up in a “free for all” game
- Disconnecting with the intent of resetting a game
- Voice-communication spam in lobbies where teams can communicate
- Sabotaging equipment
- Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks
7.1.3. Third-Party Tools
The use of any third-party tools is prohibited in official tournaments unless otherwise specified in the game-specific rules. The list of third-party tools includes, but is not limited to:
- Overlay Modifications
- Custom Skins
- Custom Overlays
- UI Modifications
7.2. Doping
The use of performance-enhancing drugs is prohibited. The List of Prohibited Substances and Methods created by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) applies to all High School Esports League events. The full list can be found at http://list.wada-ama.org/. Any unprescribed use of these substances is considered doping.
7.3. Betting
No participants may be involved in any form of betting or gambling, associate with bettors or gamblers, or provide anyone information that may assist betting or gambling, either directly or indirectly, for any High School Esports League matches or competitions.
7.4. Match Fixing
Match fixing is defined as the act of arranging the outcome of a match prior to or during play, and is expressly prohibited. Examples include, but are not limited to:
- Intentionally losing matches
- Offering/accepting any form of compensation to influence the outcome of a match
- Negotiating or deciding the results of a match before, during, or after its completion
- Negotiating or deciding to play a match in a specific way (examples: players will all select random characters; all players will move to a specific area)
7.5. Unsportsmanlike Conduct
7.5.1. Definition
All participants in High School Esports League competitions are expected to act towards each other in a respectful, sporting manner. The High School Esports League understands that the competitive environment may produce mild banter between participants, but all participants are expected to show respect towards their opponents in both victories and defeats.
7.5.2. Inappropriate Language
All participants in High School Esports League events are prohibited from using inappropriate language in all text and voice channels, regardless of context. Inappropriate language includes, but is not limited to:
- Profanity or pseudo-profanity (replacing letters in profane words or phrases)
- Instructing others to self-harm
- Slurs referring to race, ethnicity, culture, gender identification, game presence, religion, political affiliation, military service, age, sexual orientation, physical or mental disability, or any other generally protected category
- Sexual comments or innuendos
- Drug/alcohol references
7.5.3 Insults & Harassment
Insulting and/or harassing any participants, Organization members, Organization administrators, and/or GenE staff is prohibited in any method (in-game, match chat, or unofficial channels such as social media or Discord).
The High School Esports League aims to make esports and gaming accessible and inclusive to all groups of students and the marginalization or harassment of any person or group of people will not be tolerated.
7.5.4 Other Unsportsmanlike, Targeted Behaviors
- Sharing or revealing another participant’s personal information (“doxxing”)
- Directed abuse or harassment towards a specific participant
- Excessive taunting, especially targeting one or more specific players (for example, crouch-spamming near, jump-spamming near, or intentionally shooting at an eliminated player’s model)
7.5.5 Incorrect Match Results
Intentionally reporting incorrect match results will result in disciplinary action from the High School Esports League administration.
7.5.6 Coercion or Deception
Any attempt to mislead or deceive other participants or members of the High School Esports League administration is prohibited and will result in removal from all competitions.
7.5.7 Public Accusations
Publicly accusing a player or Organization of violating the rules will not be tolerated. If you suspect another player or Organization has committed a rule violation, please file a match dispute as soon as possible so GenE staff can open an investigation.
7.6. Knowledge of Rule Breaking
Disciplinary action will be taken against players who have knowledge of teammates or other participants violating the official tournament rules and do not report the violations to High School Esports League Administrators.
If you have knowledge of a teammate or other player violating the rules, please submit a report here.
8.0 Leaderboard and Tie breakers
8.1 Tie Breaker Logic
All competitions utilize the standard Generation Esports tiebreaker logic. Click the link below for more information.