The Rulebook

Rules may change at any time as new situations arise. The Commissioners will keep them as stable as possible once a season has begun, and reserve the right to make discretionary exceptions, additions, or removals for the benefit of the community.

Objective of the League

The Beer League exists to foster friendly, competitive 5v5 play that rewards teamwork, improving through the season, and preparing for your opponents. Teams play weekly matches; practicing with your team, scrimming other teams, and joining community in-houses are all encouraged.

Beyond playing, community contributions are always welcome — weekly recaps, casting, Twitch-chat banter during broadcasts, off-game tournaments, and whatever else you dream up.

1. The Beer League is managed by a panel of Commissioners (the number may change between seasons). They commit to being open to feedback and to accommodating the majority of the community in their decisions.
2. Feedback can be given:
   1. Through your team captain, who raises it with the other captains and Commissioners in #captain-text.
   2. In #the-forum, the public channel for serious league discussion.
   3. Via the feedback form in #forms-and-reports (best for sensitive feedback).

1. Season format varies season to season based on available time, the number of teams signed up, and other constraints. Once the Commissioners have a rough idea of the number of participating teams, they will decide on a format that maximizes competitive integrity and minimizes interruptions due to major game changes (e.g. mid-season and pre-season updates) and major US holidays.
2. Season-specific format details — series format, groups, number of teams, playoff structure, and bye weeks — are published in the season summary at the top of this page and on each season's detail page.
3. Playoff seeding is determined by regular season results. The seeding criteria and tiebreakers for each season are published in the season summary above and under the standings table on the season page.
4. Once set, the regular season schedule can be found on the season page.

1. All players need a League of Legends account of at least level 50 and must meet a ranked-games requirement based on Beer League tenure:
   1. New players: at least 30 ranked games in a single queue (Solo/Duo or Flex) in the most recent ranked season. The 30 cannot be spread across queues or accounts.
      1. If a Beer League season starts right as a new LoL ranked season begins, the previous ranked season counts. Commissioners may grant exceptions.
   2. Veterans — players with at least 20 Beer League games (roughly one full regular season as a rostered player, not occasional subbing) — are exempt.
   3. A player with little or no ranked activity this season is rated using their most recent ranked season as current.
2. All players and subs are reviewed each season and given a Beer League rating.
   1. The exact rating method is not shared, to prevent gaming it, but will strongly reflect current or past solo-queue ratings, unless there is very little solo-queue data.
   2. Rating appeals go through the #forms-and-reports form. If an appeal is declined, the decision is final.
3. Players joining mid-season must be rated before playing — request via the website — and before the trade deadline (section 4.2). After the deadline, no new players or subs can enter for the rest of the season.
4. A player's highest-ranked account and all alts must be disclosed at signup.
   1. Failing to disclose a higher-ranked account is treated as smurfing (section 1.4): penalties up to a permanent ban and reversal of all wins the player took part in.
   2. Alts not disclosed at signup cannot be added later. All alts should be visible to opposing teams for scouting. A banned account is the player's own problem.
5. Player eligibility limits are set per season and shown in the season summary above:
   1. Individual rating cap — players rated above it cannot be rostered.
   2. Rank limit — players whose rank history within the past year (Solo or Flex, end-of-season) contains that rank or higher are not eligible. The site flags such players automatically when teams apply; Commissioners review before approval.
6. A team rating is the sum of the 5 fielded players' ratings. The captain is responsible for fielding a valid team, including when using subs.
7. Each season's team salary cap is set by the Commissioners to keep teams balanced; it is shown in the season summary above.

1. Scripts and third-party exploits are strictly prohibited, in line with Riot's policies.
2. Smurfing and ringing are strictly prohibited. This includes playing on undisclosed lower-ranked alts, hiding a higher-ranked account, and playing on (or letting someone play on) another person's account.
3. Players are required to report cheating, smurfing, or ringing they become aware of — knowingly staying silent is treated the same as the violation itself. Report via the form in #forms-and-reports.
4. Cheating results in a ban — per person, not per account — and forfeiture of every match result the cheater took part in. Captains are responsible for holding their teams accountable.

1. Discord is the League's primary communication channel. Players and captains are responsible for keeping up with announcements and schedules — missing games because you didn't check Discord can mean forfeits, player drops, or other penalties.
2. During the draft and pre-game lobby, each team may have 1 coach/manager in their voice channel. Once the game starts loading, everyone not playing in the match must leave — including coaches, managers, and non-playing captains.
   1. Breaking this rule means immediate game forfeiture, with possible further penalties. If the opposing team breaks it, document the offense (timestamped screenshots) and report it in #forms-and-reports.
3. Basic etiquette is in force: don't start drama, don't be an asshole. If you have an issue with the league, a player, a ruling, or your team, use the proper channels — stirring the community up instead earns a warning, then escalating penalties up to a League ban.

1. New champions and significant champion updates/reworks are not playable until the following patch. The Commissioners decide what counts as "significant." A champion released during playoffs is disabled for all of playoffs.
2. Harassment and hate speech — slurs, discriminatory remarks, repeated personal attacks — are strictly prohibited, with penalties up to a League ban. Report incidents to your captain, the Commissioners, or the #forms-and-reports form.
   1. Commissioners may also penalize or remove persistently disruptive individuals. Just don't be an asshole.
3. If a captain takes an action the majority of their team disagrees with (a forfeit, disbanding, etc.), the captain may be removed and the action invalidated.
4. A team that disbands or can't field a consistent full roster by the trade deadline forfeits its remaining games (opponents get the win as a bye). Commissioners may reconfigure the schedule or bracket if multiple teams disband.
5. Players in official matches are expected to play to win and support their teammates. Intentional feeding, leaving games, random-build gimmicks (e.g. Ultimate Bravery), win-trading, and similar attacks on competitive integrity may be grounds for discipline.
   1. Having a bad game, or playing off-meta picks you have a real plan for, is not against the rules.
6. A season may set a minimum number of casts per team (shown in the season summary above; nothing listed = no requirement). Teams that miss a set quota are not playoff-eligible — their spot goes to the next eligible team.
   1. The cast must involve at least one of your players, or someone unaffiliated casting on your behalf with the Commissioners informed. Casts are logged in the Casting Hub.
7. These rules are not exhaustive. Where they don't cover a situation, the Commissioners' discretion applies.

1. Matches are played once per week at the season's League Day and time, shown in the season summary at the top of this page and on the season page. Players are expected to be available at that time.
2. Teams may play at a different day or time only by mutual agreement, following the reschedule process in section 2.2. The opposing team is never obligated to accept.

1. Teams are expected to play at the scheduled time. A team that can't make it may ask the opposing captain for a reschedule; the opposing team may agree but is never obligated to. If no reschedule is agreed, the requesting team fields a team at the original time or forfeits.
2. The requesting team must post a screenshot of the agreement in #game-schedule. An unposted reschedule may not be considered official — in a dispute, the Commissioners may assign a forfeit to the party at fault, or a double forfeit if fault can't be determined.
   1. Captains should also record the agreed time on the series page so the site's schedule and Casting Hub stay correct.
3. Once posted, the new time is the official match time. Further changes follow the same process.

1. Players should keep their League of Legends accounts linked on their Beer League profile. Summoner name changes are picked up automatically by the site; players can also sync their names from their profile page at any time.
2. There is no penalty for changing your summoner name. If a name change causes confusion around an upcoming series, let your captain or the opposing captain know as a courtesy.

1. The Captain's Guide covers a captain's roles and responsibilities through the season. Before each season, captains can join a Commissioner-led Discord meeting to review it and ask questions.

1. A roster covers all 5 positions (top, jungle, mid, bot, support) and should have at least 6 players — a 7th is strongly encouraged. A roster carries at most 2 rostered subs.
2. A player can only be on one roster per league at a time.
3. The fielded roster for a match must be at or below the team salary cap. Fielding an over-cap roster forfeits the series to the opponent.
4. Only captains make and request roster changes, and every change must be announced in #captain-text.
5. Captains must keep their roster correct on the Teams page. If it's wrong, tell the Commissioners and the opposing captain at least 24 hours before your series so it can be fixed and scouted. Fielding a player who isn't on the official roster without doing so incurs the maximum universal-sub penalty (section 4.4).

1. Teams are allowed to make roster changes during the trading period. Each season's trade deadline is set by the Commissioners before play begins and is shown in the season summary at the top of this page and on the season page.
   1. As a guideline, the deadline is set near 60% of the way through the regular season.
   2. The site locks roster changes automatically once the deadline passes. After that, no further trades (including player additions) are allowed.
2. In the event of exceptional circumstances, League Commissioners may allow a player add after the trading period has closed. This would be a very rare occurrence and should not be expected.

1. Roster additions take effect on a one-week delay: a player added in week n is a universal sub for week n+1 and a rostered player/sub from week n+2. This discourages renting players for a single series.
2. Players may be traded between teams if both players agree, the resulting rosters stay under the salary cap, and the trade completes before the trade deadline (section 4.2). Report trades in #captain-text with confirmation from both players.
3. Players may be dropped at any time during the regular season with the agreement of the rest of the team. Treat drops as a last resort — and remember that no additions are allowed after the deadline, so carry 6th and 7th players even if they rarely play.
4. A player may also leave a team on their own. Before the deadline they may join another team or serve as a universal sub; after the deadline they can do neither for the rest of the season — think carefully before leaving.
5. Kicking a player (full removal) requires submitted evidence of behavior significantly detrimental to the team AND unanimous agreement of the remaining regularly-fielded members.
6. A team must have at least 5 rostered members, within the salary cap, when the trade deadline passes — otherwise it is disbanded.

1. Teams sometimes need substitutes. Because scouting and drafting around expected players is a core part of League preparation, non-rostered subs carry penalties scaled by how much notice the opposing captain gets. Sub penalties are entered as penalty bans at draft setup in the draft room (section 5.2).
2. The three sub types:
   1. Rostered sub — reserved on your roster. No penalty, any position, swappable at any time — even between games in a series. All fielded players must be in the lobby before draft starts.
   2. Universal sub — any already-rated player in the League discord. If the season features groups/divisions, players from the opposite group may sub for teams in the other group. In playoffs, only players from eliminated teams are eligible, and the sub's rating must be equal to or lower than the player they replace.
   3. Outside sub — a player not rated this season, with an account of level 50+ and 50+ ranked games in one queue this season. Must be rated before playing (captain requests via #forms-and-reports; ~48 hours) and before the trade deadline — so never in playoffs. The Commissioners may deny an outside sub whose current rank understates their skill. After playing, they count as a universal sub from the following week.
3. Notice penalties for non-rostered subs (the penalized team chooses which of its bans to forfeit). Universal and outside subs may not swap roles/positions during the series.

4. Using more than one non-rostered sub in a series is a flat 3-ban penalty regardless of notice, with the bans chosen by the opposing captain.
5. A team may field at most 2 non-rostered subs in a series — at least 3 of the 5 must be rostered players.
6. Announcing a sub and then reverting to your rostered player still counts: under 24 hours before the match, the sub penalty applies anyway. Last-minute lineup changes nullify the opponent's scouting in either direction. If the rostered player is expected to join late (after game 1), you may notify(at least 24hr in advance) the opposing captain to avoid the loss of bans when they return
7. If the game time was decided by coin toss, the toss loser incurs no sub-notice penalties.
   1. Example: the teams flip for the day, and the losing team's jungler can't make it — their sub was forced by the coin, so no notice penalty applies.
8. In the even that both team lose equivalent bans (e.g both lose 2 round 2 bans), the penalties cancel and neither team loses bans.

1. As in section 1.5: one coach per team in voice during draft and lobby; everyone not playing leaves once the game loads.
2. Before the lobby is created, the captains flip a coin (the /flip command in #coin-flip or using the built-in coin-flip mechanism on the website) for game 1 side selection. In later games of the series, the loser of the previous game picks side.
   1. In playoffs, game 1 side selection goes to the higher seed (if seeds are equal: more overall points, then head-to-head, then a coin flip); games 2+ go to the loser of the previous game.
3. All games are played in the tournament lobby created from the tournament code on your match page on the site.
   1. The tournament code is what links the game to the site — a game played outside it produces no stats. If a lobby breaks, use the recovery options on the match page or ping the Commissioners; recovery of a game played without the code is not guaranteed.
4. Arrive on time with your full team.
   1. If nobody from a team is ready 5 minutes after start time, the opposing team may claim the match by forfeit (they may extend grace if you've communicated you're late).
   2. If a team's full roster isn't ready 15 minutes after start time, they forfeit the series.
5. Between games, teams get 10 minutes before the next draft must start.
   1. After 5 minutes, the opposing team may issue a 5-minute warning (documented with a timestamped screenshot). Not ready when it expires: game forfeit. Another 10 minutes: series forfeit. No warning = time extended by consent.
6. Line up in the lobby in role order — Top, Jungle, Mid, Bot, Support. Role and lane swaps are allowed at any time; the order is a visual aid reflecting your most likely roles, not a commitment.

1. A draft may not start without both full 5-player rosters present.
   1. If a team doesn't have its full roster in the lobby 15 minutes after start time, the opposing team may claim a forfeit win (extra grace is theirs to give, not owed). Announce forfeits in #captain-text.
2. Official drafts run in the Beer League draft room, linked from your match on the site. Picks, bans, and any penalty bans (section 4.4) are recorded automatically as part of the match record; casters and spectators can watch live.
   1. Penalty bans owed under section 4.4 are entered when the draft is set up.
   2. Declare an incorrect pick immediately. The draft may be restarted with everything re-entered up to the mistake; the team that misclicked must take the champion they originally declared.
3. Recreate the draft in the in-client tournament lobby with the same picks and bans.
   1. Reorder yourselves into the correct roles before client draft, and select your lane role for role-quest requirements.
   2. Each player selects their own champion — no trading.
4. If a mistake is made during the in-client draft, the team's support leaves and rejoins to restart it. On a second mistake, the clean team may claim one of:
   1. One first-round ban loss applied to the next game's draft.
   2. A redo of this game's draft, plus one first-round ban loss for the offending team.
   3. No immediate penalty — but a third mistake forfeits the game.

1. Matches use the Beer League voice channels, with only the 5 players in the game present during play.
2. All chat is for captains, and only as necessary — unless both teams have opted into banter (via the season signup form, or both captains agreeing in the lobby before the series).
   1. In-game toxicity and harassment are strictly prohibited: penalties run from ban losses in future games up to match forfeiture or disqualification.
3. Emotes and champion mastery are unrestricted. If they bother you, mute them.

1. Pause only for technical issues — client/game bugs, crashes, internet or power problems — and only when nothing is happening in-game. If a fight or objective is imminent or underway, wait it out or back off and surrender position first. Poor pause timing may be reviewed post-game, with penalties up to a game loss.
2. Limits: 3 pauses and 15 total minutes of pause time per game. A team that runs out must resume or forfeit.
   1. The opposing team may offer to replay the game another time (they are under no obligation); both teams must agree and the series must finish by the end of the League week.

1. The Beer League will always attempt to follow Riot's rulings regarding game-impacting bugs during tournaments. Unfortunately, the League does not have the ability to chronobreak games, therefore the Commissioners may be more aggressive when deciding whether or not to disable champions.
   1. If a champion is disabled, League Commissioners will announce this decision immediately, along with the expected duration for the champion to remain disabled.
2. Intentional abuse of game-impacting bugs or exploits in order to gain an advantage is strictly prohibited, and it will result in a penalty up to and including forfeiture of the game.
3. If a game-impacting bug occurs during a game, one of the captains involved in the game should ping @Commissioners to moderate the situation.
4. When a game-impacting bug occurs, a League Commissioner will evaluate the bug, its severity, and come to a ruling on how to proceed. This ruling may involve continuing the game as normal, allowing for extra pause time to restart clients/computers as necessary, remaking the game, or declaring a winner of the game.
   1. A winner will only be declared in instances where the game would otherwise be remade, but in which there is an insurmountable lead, judged by the following criteria (adapted from the former LCS rulebook):
      1. A team has earned greater than 57.5% of all gold in the game.
      2. A team has at least 8 more turrets standing than its opponent.
      3. A team has all inhibitors standing while its opponent has none.
      4. A team has both nexus turrets standing while its opponent has none.
      5. A team has 4+ more players currently alive, with substantial death timers remaining for its opponent.
      6. Straight Up GG - eg, a team's victory is plainly imminent.

1. Individual players are permitted to stream matches from their perspective on their personal channel.
   1. It is strongly advised to use a 3-minute delay when streaming. There is no penalty for ghosting.
   2. Player streams should include reference to the Beer League, especially the main streaming account.
2. While their series is active, players in-game that are being live streamed should not be in those streams to avoid gaining unfair advantages.
3. Casting: see rule 1.6 for the per-season cast quota. Casts are logged in the Casting Hub.

1. If the Beer League website is down, the winner of the last game should post the series result in #results-spoiler on Discord.
2. Drop into a shared voice chat after your series — at minimum to say GG. Keep it constructive: criticism first, gloating never. It's optional, but it's a big part of what makes the League a community.