Rule Update: Late Joiners, Player Experience & Roster Lock

Over the recent seasons, we have seen that the stricter late joiner rules sometimes had unintended side effects, for example, preventing players who have not played in years from joining teams as a late joiner. To address this, we have been working on a clearer and fairer system, and we are now ready to launch it.

Ideally, these rules would have been in place before the season started, but better late than never. Starting today, these changes will take effect. If your late joiner request was denied under the old rules, you may now re-submit it if the new system changes your eligibility.

Goals of This Update

• Introduce a fair, transparent and enforceable late joiner system and roster lock policy.
• Remove the old “Skill Contribution Points” system, which was inconsistent, difficult to track, and often confusing for both players and admins.
• Unify how player experience, default mercenary eligibility, and late joiner eligibility are determined under a single, consistent rule. This means if your experience according to the 2.7 Player Experience rule counts you as Mid, you can both join a Mid team as a late joiner and also be a default merc in Mid.
• Introduce an decay system, so inactive players fairly drop in tier over time.

This system revolves around a clearly defined Player Experience Rule, which applies across all relevant areas.

Updated Rules

2.7 Player Experience

Player experience determines both default mercenary and late joiner eligibility.

• A player’s experience is based on their current team in the active season, or their highest division played in the last 3 active seasons, whichever is higher.
• A season is “active” if the player has played at least 3 matches.
• A player’s experience in one gamemode is considered one tier lower when applied to the other gamemode. Examples:
  • Last 3 seasons: HL Mid, 6s Low, HL Mid → counts as HL Mid and 6s Low
  • Last 3 seasons: HL D2, 6s Low, HL Mid → counts as HL D2 and 6s Mid
  • Last 3 seasons: HL Open, 6s Mid, 6s Mid → counts as HL Low and 6s Mid
• Participation in higher tiers counts toward that tier and below.
• Playoff matches count toward the tier above; 3+ playoff matches or a Grand Final appearance counts as one full tier higher.
• For the lowest tiers (Open/Fresh/Division 6) matches played from all seasons count towards player experience.
• Experience in other leagues (RGL, ozfortress, AsiaFortress, etc.) also counts and must be disclosed in relevant situations. Failure to disclose may result in removal from a team or withdrawn merc permissions.
• Cups (pre-season, one-day cups, Nations Cup, etc.) do not count toward experience.
• A player’s past experience from last 3 active seasons decays by one division for every two full years since the last official in the season it was earned. The lowest possible tier after decay is Low/D5.
• Decay progression is based on the tier set of the division originally played:
  • Premiership → D1 → D2 → D3 → D4 → D5
  • High → Mid → Low
  • Note: High = D1/D2, Mid = D3/D4, Low = D5, so if a player decays from D1 → D2 they would still count as High.
• Examples:
  • Player played D1 four years ago → counts as D3/Mid (D1 decays twice: D1 → D2 → D3).
  • Player played D3 two years ago → counts as D4/Mid (D3 decays once: D3 → D4).
  • Player played High eight years ago → counts as D5/Low (High decays twice and not further: High → Mid → Low).
  • Player played Premiership six years ago and Low last season → counts as D3/Mid (Premiership decays three times: Prem → D1 → D2 → D3).

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1.3.1. “Permanent mercenary” are not tolerated

A player can only be used as a merc a limited number of times for the same team during a competition (regardless of the player being an approved merc or a default merc). The limit depends on the season length:

• 7-week seasons → maximum of 3 matches
• 5-week seasons → maximum of 2 matches

[rest of the rule is the same as before]

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1.3.2 Default Mercenary

• Each team may use one default mercenary per official match.
• A player may be used as a default merc if their experience tier matches the division of the match, as determined by [Rule 2.7 Player Experience].
• For Fresh division matches, players eligible as default mercs in Open may also merc in Fresh.
• Default mercs must not be class-restricted.
• Teams must present their default merc to opponents before the match.

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1.5 Roster Lock & Late Joiners

A roster lock comes into effect with the release of finalized tiers:

• All new player additions must be admin-approved.
• Players may only join as late joiners if their experience level matches the division of the team.
  • Note: As Fresh is intended strictly for new players, any previous experience may disqualify players from joining a Fresh team as a late joiner.

This roster lock lasts until the start of the final week of the regular season when:

• A full roster lock is enforced.
• No new players may be added until the season ends.
• At season’s end (or no later than the time of the wrap-up post), roster locks are lifted.

Final Notes

As these rules are brand new, some issues or edge cases may arise. We ask for your patience and understanding, and we welcome any feedback to help us make further adjustments.