Ruleset | Heroes Lounge

Banned Heroes/Bugs/Talents/Skins

Note: This list may not be comprehensive and you may still be sanctioned if found abusing bugs that are not listed here.

Banned Heroes

Banned Bugs

Using the "Toy Train" Caboose mount.
Deathwing cannot use "Bellowing Roar" while in the air or while his abilities are on cool down from landing
Picking "Ultimate Evolution" on Abathur when Qhira is on your team.
Deliberately blocking bosses and NPC objectives from advancing properly in lanes using Hogger's "Loot Hoard" and "Hoardapult"

Banned Talents

If a banned talent is picked and noticed before 5 minutes after the start of the game and before the first fort or keep has fallen, then a restart is required under the technical difficulties rule listed below.

If a banned talent is picked mid game, you may continue the game as long as the talent does not give a passive benefit, and the ability linked to the talent is not used for the rest of the game.

If the talent does give a passive benefit, the team that picked the banned talent will lose the map (not the series).

In situations where a banned hero is accidentally picked in draft, the draft must be stopped, and remade up to the point where the banned hero was picked.

All banned talent/hero/bug breaches must be reported within 7 days of the game being played.

Prohibited character skins:

Maraudin' Muradin and all its variants:
- Raider, Dominion, Umojan
Striker Li-Ming and all its variants:
- Canary, Champion, RCHS, Scarlet, Sapphire
Mecha Tyrael and all its variants:
- Perfect, Strike, Deathreaper
Cuddle Bear Stitches and all its variants:
- Honey, Snuggle
Techno Chromie and all its variants:
- Vandal, Jade, Amber

Prohibited character mounts:

Arthas Bat Form
Kerrigan Bat Transformation

Prohibited mounts:

Invisible Horse

Picking banned skins leads to a restart as long as 2 minutes have not yet passed in game. If they are not noticed within 2 minutes, the game continues as normal. Furthermore, the teams can decide to continue as normal if both teams agree.

All variants may not be listed here. New variants of these skins are also prohibited.
You can find an image gallery of all base versions of the prohibited skins and mounts here.

General

Anyone competing in Heroes Lounge is required to be registered on our website. For seeding purposes, all participants must have their Heroes Profile account set to public in order to compete; This includes subs.
You are allowed to sign up as an individual (free agent), a partial team, or a full team. Partial teams will be filled with free agents after the deadline.
Note: A team must consist of at least 5, but no more than 9 players.
Matches during the regular season will be given out weekly and are played as a Best of 3. Opposing captains must contact each other (DiscordTags are available on the team pages) to schedule their match.
Every team competing in Heroes Lounge is responsible to have an active captain with the 'captain' discord role to relay important information to the rest of the team.
A player is not allowed to participate in more than one team per league, event or season.

Failure to follow these rules may result in either an official warning, loss of match or removal from Heroes Lounge.

Please note that all decisions on rule breaches are subject to moderator ruling. The moderators decision is final.

A team will be unable to rejoin an ongoing season in these cases:

They have been inactive for two rounds.
They have forfeited two matches.
They have two agreed draws.
Any 2 instances of the above

In special cases of above moderators may allow a team to continue.

Delay of Map

Each team has a 10 minute time pool per map for delays.
Note: This time pool can be used in case a team is late for showing up, has any technical issues or is trying to find a substitute player.

Once a game has started, pauses are allowed for technical issues only. Pauses for any other reasons will be subject to a potential game forfeit.
The 10 minute time pool only starts once a captain (or player acting as captain) has stated they are starting the timer in the relevant match lounge. This will start the timer from the time the message was posted.
After a team’s timepool has expired, the opposing team gets the win by default for that map, unless the opposing team’s captain allows an extension of the timepool or wishes to reschedule.
A map restart is allowed for technical difficulties before the 5-minute mark or before the first fort or keep falls, whichever comes first. All non-banned talent picks must be identical. After this point, the team with the technical difficulties must decide to either forfeit or continue the map (with a bot in the case of a disconnect). The 10-minute time pool per map can be used to fix technical difficulties. Ping the moderation team in the match lounge and leave a short explanation of the issue before leaving the map if a restart or forfeit is required.
Directly after a map ends, teams are allowed to have a break of a maximum of 5 minutes to sort out anything they have to before starting the next draft. After these 5 minutes, the 10 minute time pool per map for delays rule is in effect.

Scheduling

The specific date and time of each match must be organised amongst the appropriate teams. The scheduling of a match must take place in the week it was given. A match must be played and reported to the website within two weeks.
Once a date is agreed on, it must be submitted to the tournament calendar in your local time. It is both captains’ responsibility to make sure that the time is correctly submitted..
Failure to be proactive in scheduling with an opponent will result in a loss of the match. Repeat offenders will be banned from the tournament.
Failure to schedule a match on the calendar prior to matchmaking one hour after Sunday midnight will result in both teams being listed as inactive. Contact a moderator to make your team active again. The match can still be played in the second week.
Note: Please make sure you submit a date before 0:55 CET/CEST to prevent possible issues with the website.
Failure to reschedule within the allotted timeframe will result in a tie.
All teams in North America should play their games on Central server UNLESS both teams have agreed to play it on West server.

Subs

At least 3 out of 5 people from the core roster must be playing during a match. If a team is unable to field their roster (including substitute players) on time, the ruling “Delay of Map” will apply.

Registering a substitute in the regular season

Substitute players are registered using the HeroicSloth Discord bot before the match starts:

/register-substitute match-url: 11995 sub-url: 13

Full Heroes Lounge addresses work in place of IDs too:

/register-substitute match-url: https://heroeslounge.gg/match/view/11995 sub-url: https://heroeslounge.gg/user/view/13

match-url (required) — the match address, or just its ID.
sub-url (required) — the substitute's profile address, or just their ID.
captain-url (moderators only) — used to register on behalf of another team.

The bot checks the substitute's MMR and division against the match and shows a summary asking you to Confirm or Cancel. Nothing is submitted until you confirm it.

Once you have confirmed, a Discord DM will be sent via the bot to the opposing captain either informing them of an undeniable sub or asking them to approve/deny the sub if one of the criteria is not met (see "When a substitute can be denied" below for more details).

An unregistered substitute is flagged after the match and turns into a moderation case, which is a far slower conversation than registering up front.

If a last minute sub is needed, a link to the sub’s Heroes Profile page can be sent to the opposing captain in the match lounge instead. In this case, the sub has to be registered as a user on the HeroesLounge website after the match, and then registered as a substitute using the /register-substitute command no later than 24 hours after the match.

Registering a substitute for the playoffs

In the playoffs you register a substitute once for the whole bracket instead of per match:

/register-playoff-substitute playoff-id: 12 sub-url: 7629

playoff-id (required) — pick the playoff from the suggestion list.
sub-url (required) — the substitute's profile address, or just their ID.

Up to 5 playoff subs can be registered using a single bot command.

Once registered they stay valid for every match your team plays in that playoff, so there is no need to register them again each round.

Note: a team may register a maximum of five playoff substitutes, so choose them with a little thought rather than registering the first five sloths who answer.

Full playoff rules can be found here.

When a substitute can be denied

A registration may be denied if:

The substitute's personal MMR (see MMR and Roster Changes) exceeds the upper bound of the division the match takes place in — Division 1 is open-ended and has no limits.
The substitute is part of an active team at least two divisions higher than the division the game takes place in.

The bot checks these automatically. If the substitute is above the MMR limit the registration is not rejected — it's sent to the opposing captain for approval, so register early rather than ten minutes before the match to give them time to respond.

An individual can only be used as a substitute for other teams a maximum of 6 times a season, but a maximum of 3 times for one team. Matches played with a team before an individual leaves still count against that 3-match limit, though not against their overall season total.

Cancelling a registration

To withdraw a registration your team made:

Lists your team's active registrations so you can pick one.

/cancel-substitute

Goes straight to one specific match.

/cancel-substitute match-url: 11995

The opposing captain is notified either way, and once a match has started only a moderator can still cancel a registration.

Observing and Casting

Teams must allow assigned Lounge casters as observers to their matches. The casters may not be a part of either team (sister teams are allowed). You can find the assigned casters on the calendar. Casters not on the calendar are not allowed to join the game.
If teams have an issue with the assigned caster(s) the issue needs to be discussed with the relevant stream manager before the match starts.
Heroes Lounge appointed admins must also be allowed if required.
POV streams are allowed. The POV stream cannot be denied.
Any other observers (such as coaches) are not allowed during matches.

Drafting

The map pool for the main season, subject to change, is as follows:

Alterac Pass

Battlefield of Eternity

Braxis Holdout

Cursed Hollow

Dragon Shire

Garden of Terror

Infernal Shrines

Sky Temple

Tomb of the Spider Queen

Towers of Doom

Volskaya Foundry

Starting side is based upon the order in the match listing on the website. The first team will be on the blue side, the second team will be on the red side.
The draft will start with the map draft. 10 minutes before your match is scheduled both captains will be pinged in a match lounge by HeroicSloth, which will assign your team map pick or first pick. The team with map pick is regarded as Team A. Team B will go second.
Map Draft Begins: Each team will ban 2 maps in the alternating order starting with the team with map pick, Team A. For example:
1. Either captain uses the command /match in a match_lounge channel.
2. Team A bans a map
3. Team B bans a map
4. Team A bans a map
5. Team B bans a map
6. Team A Picks a map
Map drafts and all match related communication must be done in the relevant match lounge
Map bans must be done with this command:
```
/lobby ban map: Braxis Holdout
```
You can undo a map ban with this command:
```
/lobby unban map: Braxis Holdout
```
Map picks must be done with this command:
```
/lobby pick map: Infernal Shrines
```
The team that chose the map goes second in the hero draft.
The hero draft must be performed using the triple ban in-game tournament draft.
The losing team of each subsequent map in the match will be able to choose either to pick the next map, or to go first in the hero draft. This decision must be written down in the appropriate match_lounge channel.
New heroes added to the game are banned for two weeks after release, and cannot be drafted mid-way into a round.

Submitting Scores

After each match, the score must be reported by one of the team members of either team. This is done by uploading the replays of the maps played.
Failure to report the score before the matchmaking runs one hour after the second Sunday midnight after the match was given out will result in both teams being flagged as inactive. It is both teams responsibility to make sure to report the score. Contact a moderator to make your team active again.
Note: Please make sure you submit your results before 23.55PM CET/CEST to prevent possible issues with the website.
If there are any disputes over the score, contact a moderator.

Code of Conduct

Displaying unsportsmanlike conduct will result in actions taken against teams or individuals. Unsportsmanlike conduct includes, but is not limited to, verbally assaulting anyone involved in the match, general toxicity, or the using of fake accounts. B-steps and sprays are allowed; however, excessive use will be deemed as unsportsmanlike behaviour.
It is strictly forbidden to play Heroes Lounge games on BattleNet accounts other than the one registered to your Heroes Lounge account. You are not allowed to create more than one Heroes Lounge account.
In the case that your account is suspended, you are not allowed to use another account to play your matches. If you are permanently unable to play on the BattleNet account linked to your Heroes Lounge profile for any reason, please contact the moderation team and we will work with you on how to proceed.
Heroes Lounge reserves the right to remove teams and players who exhibit unsportsmanlike conduct.
Moderators of Heroes Lounge have the right to decide if an account is a smurf or eligible to play at their own discretion.
All chat in the match lounge and ingame lobby must be English-only, unless otherwise decided upon by both teams. Heroes Lounge moderators retain the ability to override this exception.

MMR and Roster Changes

Personal player MMR on Heroes Lounge is based off of their HeroesProfile MMR in Storm League, Unranked Draft, or Quick Match, prioritised in that order. The player needs at least 150 replays uploaded for a given game mode to count. If none of the game modes have 150 replays uploaded, the player’s MMR is defaulted to 3100.
Roster changes during the season can only be made if either
- the added player's individual MMR or
- the team's MMR including the new player
  is lower than the upper MMR boundary of the division they are playing in.
A team's MMR is based on the average MMR of the top 3 players of that team.
Roster changes do not take effect until the next round, meaning that anyone added to the roster during a round is not considered a player on the roster for that round.

MMR bounds EU

Divisions are seeded based on the average MMR of the top 3 players on the team. Seeding happens according to the following bounds:

Division 1: 3080-∞

Division 2: 3000-3079

Division 3: 2940-2999

Division 4: 2865-2939

Division 5: 0-2864

Glossary

Player: Someone currently on the roster of an active team.
Match start: A match starts at the time it is scheduled on the website. An opponent has to be informed that a sub is getting used before this time. Unless a player has to drop out of the match due to an emergency. Exempted from this rule are subs that become necessary because a player has to drop out of the match
Substitute player: Someone who fills in for an active team. Substitute players are allowed to play for a different team in the league.
Core roster: A team’s core roster consists of the players who are part of the team on the website.
Smurf: Any account that is not a player's registered Heroes Lounge account
Heroes Profile: An online service for gathering information on players and heroes.
Map draft: Banning and choosing of maps that will be played during the match.
Hero draft: Banning and choosing of heroes that will be played during a map.
Match lounge: When playing a match, both teams should meet in one of the match lounges, found on our Discord server, labeled #match_lounge_x. All conversations concerning the match should be held there.