General

The Coliseum Rules act in conjunction with the Rules of Conduct and the Heavy Metal Machines Software Terms of Use.
(last updated 8th of September 2020)

Summary

The Coliseum is an online weekly tournament that will take place in-game on Heavy Metal Machines. It consists of a ranking of teams that will battle in a special group queue during a period of 3 hours on each Sunday. At the end of each Stage, the teams that participated will be ranked according to their performance. Prizes will be delivered in up to 48h after the end of each Stage.

It’s worth remembering that participation in the Coliseum is free and has no minimum requirements for account level or amount of pilots owned. To participate, all a player has to do is form a team with the “Teams” feature inside the game, create a group with 4 participants of this team and click to join the Coliseum the queue once it’s open.

The Coliseum will split participating players according to their experience level to provide balanced matches in the competition. In order to determine which team is eligible to compete in the Beginner or Veteran division, the game system will analyze all players from a team at the moment that its captain clicks on the “Play” button to find the first match. All players with less than 500 victories overall and rank lower than Gold V on Ranked Mode (less than 2000 Rank points) are eligible to play the Beginner’s. All the other players must compete in the Veteran division.

1. Global Rules

1.1. How to Participate

• Login in Heavy Metal Machines.
• Create a team using the “Teams” feature with a maximum of 5 players and a minimum of 4.
• The team’s registration happens automatically when the team tries to find a match on this queue. However, teams will earn stage points only after playing at least one match.
• To play a match on a Coliseum Stage, enter the special tournament’s queue with your team in a group (party). The queue will not accept individual players, groups with players who are not from the same team and groups without 4 players.
• When you enter the Coliseum queue, the system will analyze all members of your team and check if you belong to the Beginner or Veteran division. 
• When you enter the Coliseum queue, the system will look for another team that is competing in the same division and server of the tournament to create a match between you. The result of every match will count for the team’s rank position.
• You cannot change your roster during your participation in a Coliseum Stage. If you change any member of your roster during a Stage, the system will automatically remove your points earned previously and re-analyze your team, considering it a new registration. On this new registration, you can be eligible to play a different division (Beginner or Veteran) than the first experience, according to the changes in the total number of victories or your ranking in the Ranked Mode.
• The system will analyze the status of all members of your team just once, at the beginning of your participation. If one or more players change their eligibility status during the competition, the system will only consider those changes in your next Coliseum registration.
• The queue will only be available on specific days and times. The opening window will go from 13h to 16h (GMT 0). 
• The Stages will take place every Sunday. Each Stage will end in itself, meaning that a team’s performance will not be carried over to a next Coliseum Stage. A player can play a Stage for one team, and swap to a different team on the next Stage.

 

1.2. Stage Dynamics

1.2.1. In-Game settings and details

• All Coliseum matches will take place at Metal God Arena.
• A Stage is the period where players are able to look for a match using the special tournament queue.
• During a Stage, every participating team will be able to earn or lose Stage Points.
• Every match played during a Stage will grant a double Fame bonus to the players.
• Every match will be played with 4 players on each team in a group, without draft, and with opponents picked by the matchmaking system.
• Each team will be composed by up to 5 players. They can alternate active players freely between matches, as long as they were all part of the original team’s composition that started that Stage.

1.2.2. Personal Broadcasting

• Every player is allowed to broadcast their matches during Stages.
• Spectators are allowed inside matches only if they are not currently participating in the current Stage playing for a different team.

2. In-game

2.1. Game Pause

It is forbidden to pause a game for no reason. After you pause a game, you must say in all chat (in-game chat with everyone who joined the match) the reason for the pause.

• Each team will be able to pause 5 times maximum. The total pause time for both teams will be 2 minutes per match. Whatever ends first (pauses or time) will prevent the team from pausing again.
  • • We strongly encourage sportsmanship and fair play. Both teams could agree to terms that seem fair to them in order to have a fair game.
• Abuse of the pause will lead to the loss of that match. When a team experiences an unsporting conduct from the opponent, they must take a screenshot of the match and open a formal ticket to the Tournament’s organization (Hoplon).

2.1.1. Player Disconnection

If a player is disconnected during the game, the game automatically will replace the player with a BOT. If the team still has pauses left, they can use it and explain their reasons in chat.

2.2. Illegal Actions

Any actions that result in an unfair advantage are illegal. This includes intentional bug abuse of any kind. The organization staff has the power to decide about unexpected cases.

2.2.1. Unauthorized Names
It is forbidden to use any Team Names or Player Names that make clear identification difficult, or tries to hide the true identity of a single player. Each player of a team must have a unique and clearly differentiable name. 

3. Penalties

The Coliseum will follow the Rules of Conduct used in Heavy Metal Machines. A player and the team can receive two light penalties or one heavy penalty — either case results in disqualification. The organization of the Tournament is responsible for applying the penalties and keeping the registers about penalized teams and players. A team is only punished once per violation, regardless of how many players. In case a penalty is confirmed after the end of the tournament, the team will be disqualified and the next team in the ranking will take its place.

4.1. Light Penalties

Here’s the list of violations punished by light penalties:

• Disrespect with other players
• Disrespect with the Tournament’s staff
• Intentional bug abuse
• Unwanted contents & behavior

4.2. Heavy Penalties

Here’s the list of violations punished by heavy penalties:

• Cheating
• Using multiple personal accounts on the Tournament
• Quitting a match
• Playing on alternative accounts (from other players)
• Faking country
• Having an unregistered player on your team

4.3. Unexpected cases

The Tournament organization can decide how to apply a penalty for unexpected cases not-described on this document.

4.4. Appeals

Any player or team can appeal to any decision offering proof in order to get any decision reversed. The appeal must be made within 24 hours after the punishment application and the organization will have 24 hours after that to announce its final decision.

5. Prizes

In the Coliseum, every Stage awards in-game prizes according to the final ranking achieved by the players at the end of a Stage.

• The deadline for prize deliveries, for both Beginners and Veterans, is of up to 48h after the end of the Stage.
• The teams must remain with their roster unchanged until the period for prize delivering is over.
• In case a team removes their registration from the tournament before the prize delivering period is over, the tournament organisers will award the team that appears eligible in the ranking.

5.1. Beginner Coliseum

• 1st Place — 1500 Fame
• 2nd Place — 1250 Fame
• 3rd Place — 1000 Fame

5.2. Veteran Coliseum

• 1st Place — 1500 Fame + progressive Prestige Crest, showing the amount of times the team was the champion of the Coliseum. It can be equipped as an Avatar.
• 2nd Place — 1250 Fame
• 3rd Place — 1000 Fame

Each member of the team will be awarded the prizes according to their final position.