RulebookRulebook

Welcome to the Deadlock Collegiate Series! This event is designed to bring together top competitors to test their skills in a structured and professional environment. By participating, all players and teams agree to abide by the rules set forth in this document.

This rulebook outlines the policies, procedures, and expectations for all participants. It applies to all aspects of Deadlock Collegiate Series, including registration, gameplay, and conduct.

All official match times are provided in EST. The full tournament schedule, including important dates and match times, can be found in #tournament-announcements. Tournament organizers reserve the right to adjust the schedule in response to unforeseen circumstances.

The Deadlock Collegiate Series is organized by College Deadlock. For any inquiries or disputes, participants should contact tournament officials via Discord Modmail. Directly messaging tournament admins may not get any response. Please allow up to 24 hours for a response from staff through official Modmail channels.

All decisions made by tournament officials are final. No appeals will be accepted unless explicitly permitted by the organizers. Participants agree that the interpretation of these rules lies solely with tournament officials. Any attempt to reinterpret these rules with the intent of creating a new precedent, as opposed to following official admin judgement, will be seen as a threat to the tournament’s competitive integrity and could result in potential or immediate disqualification.

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  Before the regular season, teams will be grouped into groups according to their skill in a particular way which aligns them to play a round robin over the course of 6 weeks according to the explanation in section 2.2.

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  The history of players will be collated across three alternate accounts if they exist. Each player will receive an individual seed and rank calculation averaged across 50 games. The team seed will consist of all players, substitute or non substitute averaged. Games in the first 20 matches played are not included

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  Some players may receive the rank “Obscurus.” This rank is specific for players who do not have sufficient games within the Deadlock API database or, most likely, have not played a significant number of games past their first 20. Obscurus ranks are calculated the same way as any other rank with the initial rank number of 0.

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  The seed itself is calculated by taking the major rank number (1 being Initiate and 11 being Eternus) then adding the minor number (1-6 depending on place within a rank) divided by 6. Then one of four attributes is collected across all their games and then compared to the average player of all their lobbies. The solo average is then divided by the collective average and added to the seed. The four attributes, which are chosen by which when divided is the largest, are as follows:

  • •Team Healing
  • •Objective Damage
  • •Hero Damage
  • •Damage Tanked [This one is only collected on games with a positive KDA with assists calculated as a kill at 5 assists]
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  Players may circumnavigate a player affecting their placement by adding a player after initial groups are dealt out. This rule is specifically added to avoid a team falling into a lower bracket after the season has started. Further restrictions on this rule are added in section 4.4

• •The regular season will consist of 6 weeks of play. Teams will face off against each other in their separate groups during the group stage, where each will play Round Robin against all teams in their group.
• •Each team will have two 2-game matches per week. The specific structure and format may be subject to change, with advance notice provided to all participants. Structure may be modified based on participation numbers.
  • •Teams will be awarded points based on the outcome of the series as follows:
    • •Team wins 2-0: 6 points
    • •Team wins via forfeit: 6 points
    • •Team draws 1-1: 3 points
    • •Team loses 0-2: 0 point
    • •Team forfeits the series at any time: -1 points
  • •A team will receive the full 6 points if a forfeit occurs after the first match of a series is completed.

• •Playoffs will feature a double elimination bracket consisting of the top X teams of each group. X will be determined based on the number of teams participating in each group.
• •Playoffs will take place over 2-3 weeks of play immediately after the 6 week group stage.

Teams will be assigned one streamed match time throughout the season. If a team cannot play during the specified streamed match time, there will not be a guarantee that the team will be streamed at a different time. College Deadlock staff will still attempt to find an alternative day that works for the team to be on stream a different time.

• •Matches are scheduled in private discord threads for both captains and / or appointed POC’s. Match scheduling is to be completed by Tuesday of the assigned week for the matches.
  • •If a match is not scheduled by Tuesday at 11:59 PM of the assigned week, it is considered a double forfeit and no points will be awarded to either team.
• •Matches may be scheduled starting Sunday of each week of play, and can be played from Monday to Saturday at 11:59 PM EST.
• •Each team's typical availability for matches will be released in an official document. This document is not binding for teams and is used as a tool to help speed up the process of scheduling.

• •A team may request a match reschedule if they feel it is necessary or they will not be able to field a team during the originally agreed upon time. We suggest making this request 48 hours prior to the scheduled match time, but a request may be made at any time.
  • •The opponent of the requesting team may choose to decline the request to reschedule. If a reschedule is declined, the match will be played at the originally scheduled time.
  • •If the match cannot be played by the requesting team at the original time, then that team will risk forfeiture of the match if it cannot be played, and points will be awarded based on the points structure laid out in 2.1 for a forfeit win / loss.
  • •A team is allowed to make a maximum of 3 reschedule requests per season.

• •Registration for Deadlock Collegiate Series will open on January 1st, 2026 and close on February 1st, 2026. Teams must submit their registration by the deadline to be eligible for participation.
• •Late additions to the roster may be made up to February 20th, 2026 at 11:59 EST. Rosters will be locked after this point.

• •Week 1 matches will begin taking place on February 1st, 2026.
• •Weekly matches are open to be scheduled any time between the first notification by the staff of the week starting and the next match scheduled for both teams.

• •An organization has the following characteristics:

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  Is a union of college campuses operating under the same name.

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  Said campuses are accredited by the same institutions.

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  Said campuses are funded and operated with the same philosophy.

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  Said campuses are founded to serve the same demographic.

  The following are proven examples:

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  Community College Districts in the US

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  Individual Community Colleges under a State System of Community Colleges

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  Individual Universities under a State System of Universities

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  CEGEPs (Quebec Community College Equivalent)

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  Private Universities with Multiple Esports teams

• •Players must be in good standing as determined by their organization.
• •A player must maintain a GPA of 2.3 (4.0 scale) or 2.7 (5.0 scale) or higher to be eligible to participate, and must be in good academic standing as designated by their organization.
• •Players must be registered as a full time or co-op student at an accredited institution to be eligible. Co-op is defined as employment in an internship or other position to fulfill degree requirements.
  • •Graduate students are also eligible following the same requirement
• •Part time students are evaluated on a case by case basis by the organizer for participation. The following criteria will be considered for acceptance:
  • •Greater than 50% of total collegiate classes must be taken at the educational institution being represented.
  • •The student satisfies the GPA requirement for participation.
• •At any time, if requested by a league admin, players must provide proof of enrollment. Proof of enrollment may include an enrollment letter from the organization designating their enrollment status, a transcript, or additional documentation.
  • •Proof of enrollment must be provided by the captain of the team through a modmail message to the college deadlock team.
  • •Captains are responsible for gathering proof of enrollment information from directors or the school registrar and providing to staff through mod mail.
  • •Any registration information provided to staff will never be retained by College Deadlock, and will always be permanently deleted upon successful verification of a player.
• •Players must play on one of three accounts they declare at the beginning of a season.
  • •Players must link their three accounts to the tournament discord bot.
  • •Players are required to disclose all accounts, regardless of their level/rank. Failure to disclose all accounts may warrant punishment by College Deadlock staff.
    • •Any player(s) caught smurfing, using an undisclosed account will result in their team forfeiting all suspect games to their opponents, and the player(s) will be subject to disciplinary action. League administration has the final decision on whether an account will be considered an alternate account or if a player(s) was smurfing.
  • •Players must play on their own accounts.
    • •Any player caught using another player’s account will forfeit the game in which account sharing was proven, and the player will be subject to disciplinary action.
• •All players on any active roster will be required to have their Discord username as well as the relevant game handle(s) linked to the discord bot.
• •Players must be 18 years, or have a signed parental consent form, at the time of registration. Proof of age may be requested by tournament officials at any time.
• •Players must be enrolled at their organization prior to the first date of the current season in order to be considered eligible for competition. This date is set forth as February 1st, 2026.
• •Players may not participate in DCS matches under a different Username or In-Game name without approval of the change from College Deadlock. Playing a DCS match under an unapproved username may result in invalidation of the match results.
• •Names must be easily readable, not consisting of excessive special characters, or a pronunciation must be provided if a non English name is used.
• •Names must also not have spaces and maintain consistency throughout the series.

• •Team captains are the default designated point-of-contact for all communication between teams and with the staff of College Deadlock.
• •Every team captain must designate a minimum of 1 alternate POC for a team that can be reached through the College Deadlock discord.
  • •All POC’s must respond in a timely manner regarding match procedures. Failure to respond in a timely manner may result in disciplinary action being taken against the team or POC.
• •Teams are allowed to have up to 4 substitute players.
• •Institutions are allowed to have a maximum of 2 full rostered teams participating in DCS, and must be uniquely identified to comply with the team naming guidelines.

• •Substitutes must be registered and approved prior to the first day of roster lock. All subs are required to be eligible under the eligibility requirements set forth in section 4.1.
• •Teams must notify the opposing captain of the roster used for playing upon check-in. This substitution must be made prior to the start of the draft of any given game.
  • •Substitutions are allowed in between games in a match, but must be made prior to the start of the draft of any individual game in a series.
  • •Players may not be substituted during an ongoing game.
  • •Substitutions may only come from the publicly available and approved roster.
  • •Only the players declared during check-in may participate in the first game, players who are not checked in may be used for subsequent games.
• •No additional substitutes will be allowed on the team after roster lock, except under extenuating circumstances approved by the College Deadlock staff.

• •No roster changes are allowed after the roster lock, the date of which is outlined under section 3 Important Dates.
• •After the Team Registration Lock which occurs two weeks before the roster lock all members added to a team cannot collectively with other members added during the two week period increase a team’s estimated seed by 1.25.
• •In the event of the previous point, a team may decide between which players to keep.
• •Once a player is added to a team roster, they cannot be moved to another roster within College Deadlock.
• •In the case of an emergency situation (family emergency, illness, injury, inclement weather or large-scale unexpected technical issues, alien abduction), you can contact College Dedlock to discuss available options.

• •Team Names must adhere to the following format: <Organization Name> - <Optional Identifier> and a team must provide a three-six-code for streams and discord threads
  • •For example, Purdue University Black, PDU.B
• •Teams must provide a logo in a PNG or SVG format to College Deadlock that is approved for use by the institution they are representing.

• •Failure to check in 30 minutes past the scheduled start time will result in the forfeiture of the series.
• •Teams must play 6 players at all times during a match.

Matches will follow the standard game draft format, defined in 9.4: Draft Structure. The team with the higher seed will have the choice of Hidden King (first pick) or Archmother (second pick). In a Best of X Series, the losing team in the previous game will decide if they want to be Hidden King (Amber Hand) or Archmother (Sapphire Flame) in the next. Teams must ensure that all players are in the match lobby at least 10 minutes after draft ends.

Each team is allowed a total of 3 technical pauses per game, summing to no more than 15 minutes across the Best of 3 Match. Individual pauses may last no longer than 5 minutes, and, if necessary, two pauses may be used back to back for one 10 minute pause. Pauses may only be used for technical issues, such as network disruptions or hardware malfunctions. Players on both teams are not allowed to communicate during a technical pause. Players should avoid pausing during major fights. Frequent abuse of the pause system will result in penalties.

At the conclusion of each match, both teams must report the match results to the tournament officials, including screenshots of the final scoreboard. Failure of either captain to post a screenshot within the next 24 hours will result in a forfeiture of the match.

Only approved streamers (observers, producers, etc.) are allowed to use the spectator slot in the private room and must adhere to the broadcast and media policy. Any coaches or substitutes must watch the game either through the "Watch" tab using the match ID, or by watching the stream on the live streaming platform.

• •Players must create a voice channel in the official discord for use during the match.
• •Players may not use their own private discord channels, voice channels, or groups throughout the course of a match.
• •Designated coaches may be in the voice channel during a match, but must be muted through the draft and during any given game. Coaches are allowed to watch the game via discord streams of their players, or through the in game source TV watch tab.
• •Subs may be allowed in the voice channel.
• •Coaches or Subs are allowed to speak in the team voice chat:
  • •Before the game has started
  • •Between each game of a series
  • •After the game has ended
• •Coaches and subs will be muted in discord at all other times throughout a series. If coaches and subs are unmuted outside of the times that have been previously set forth, then they will be subject to removal from the voice channel for the remainder of the series.
  • •If subsequent offences occur, a coach’s privilege to join the voice channel during a series may be revoked permanently by College Deadlock staff.
• •Other teams are not allowed to join the voice channels of a team they don’t belong to at any time.
• •College Deadlock staff may join a voice channel at any time for any reason, and may enforce the rulebook through doing so.

Official matches will be broadcast on DCS’s Twitch channel, with a 2 minute delay to prevent any form of cheating or ghosting. Tournament organizers will determine which matches are broadcast on the official stream.

Live streams of our tournaments are allowed provided the following terms:

• •A 2 minute delay is provided in the case of live games
• •Sufficient credit is offered if it’s a “Watch Party” or similar affair

Recorded and edited content of our tournaments are allowed provided the following terms:

• •Sufficient credit is offered
• •The content is transformative

DCS staff hold the right to request a streamer, youtube content creator, or others to cease their operations if the previous rules are not followed or for other reasons such as privacy concerns.

All participants must adhere to Deadlock Collegiate Series's code of conduct, which includes respectful behavior toward opponents, teammates, and officials. Harassment, hate speech, and disruptive behavior are strictly prohibited and will result in penalties.

Teams that fail to follow tournament rules, check in late, or exhibit unsportsmanlike behavior will receive punishments ranging from forfeiting matches to instantaneous disqualification from the tournament.

Unsportsmanlike behavior includes but is not limited to:

• •Harassment or verbal abuse
• •Intentionally throwing matches
• •Collusion between teams
• •Teabagging or excessive body shooting

Violations of this rule will result in punishments, ranging from a strike to instant disqualification.

The use of cheats, hacks, or any form of external software to gain an unfair advantage is strictly forbidden. Any player found using cheats will be disqualified indefinitely, and their team will be disqualified for the remainder of the season, starting immediately. The team may apply to be reinstated after that time.

Use of IP blocking software or VPNs are only permitted to engage with permitted region locking by the tournament admins. Use of such software, Cs2Server picker being a prime example, to lock players into servers outside of a region permitted by the tournament admins is off limits.

Players and teams who witness or experience any misconduct are encouraged to report it to tournament officials. Reports will be handled confidentially and investigated thoroughly.

Depending on the severity of the offense, disciplinary actions may include strikes, match forfeiture, disqualification, or bans from future tournaments. Receiving two strikes will result in instant disqualification.

• •All known exploits will be defined in the official College Deadlock exploit list and designated as allowed or banned.
• •Any player found using exploits banned by the league will result in the same consequences as if they are cheating.
• •If an exploit is not listed, you must ask a college deadlock staff member prior to the use of an exploit that may provide an advantage to a team.
• •If an exploit is designated as allowed in the official College Deadlock exploit list, then it was determined that the exploit is available to be used within matches.
  • •This distinction is made because some exploits may not, in fact, be exploits and may be intended behavior by the developer. As this is a beta game, it is difficult to know sometimes.
• •Any exploits that are used in a game and are not found in the official College Deadlock exploit list must be reported to a staff member so a determination can be made on its eligibility to be used or not.
• •If an exploit is not listed and you think one has been used in your match, please let DCS Staff know and it will be reviewed for addition to the exploit and bug list.

Any disputes or rule violations must be reported to tournament officials within 1 hour of the series's conclusion. Issues reported after this period may not be addressed.

Tournament officials will review all disputes and make a ruling based on the evidence provided. The decision of the officials is final. If someone involved in the conflict disagrees with the ruling or has additional information/evidence to provide, they may make an appeal, following the procedure below. Each team involved in a ruling is entitled to one appeal.

Teams may present an appeal on a judgment made by College Deadlock staff. Appeals must present new evidence that had not been previously considered or discussed. Only one appeal may be made per judgement. All appeals must be presented through modmail, and College Deadlock staff reserve the right to disregard an appeal request if determined it is baseless.

The tournament organizers reserve the right to modify the rules at any time to ensure fair play and the integrity of the tournament. Any rule changes will be communicated to participants immediately through an official discord channel from a designated College Deadlock Staff member.

In the event of unforeseen circumstances not covered by this rulebook, the tournament officials reserve the right to make the final decision on how the dispute will be resolved. Unforeseen circumstances include but are not limited to any situation that may or may not be covered by this rulebook that was outside the scope of what is reasonably expected.

• •There are no entry fees to participate.
• •Prize pool is included in the original announcement on discord. At the time of writing it is 120 dollars specifically to keep it within notability standards for Liquipedia.

The following format will be used:
Hidden King (Amber Hand) - 1 Character Ban
Archmother (Sapphire Flame) - 1 Character Ban
Hidden King (Amber Hand) - 1 Character Pick
Archmother (Sapphire Flame) - 2 Character Picks
Hidden King (Amber Hand) - 2 Character Picks
Archmother (Sapphire Flame) - 1 Character Pick
Archmother (Sapphire Flame) - 1 Character Ban
Hidden King (Amber Hand) - 1 Character Ban
Archmother (Sapphire Flame) - 1 Character Pick
Hidden King (Amber Hand) - 2 Character Picks
Archmother (Sapphire Flame) - 2 Character Picks
Hidden King (Amber Hand) - 1 Character Pick

All official communications related to rosters, team statuses, and other official communications will be sent to captains and POC’s through the captains chat in the discord server. All official communications related to rulebook changes will be sent to captains in the captains chat as well as in #tournament-announcements for full clarity.

The league admins can make decisions on rulings not covered in this rulebook at their discretion, and in extreme cases can make rulings contrary to what's covered in this rulebook in the name of what’s best for the league as a whole.