2024 Battle Pet Tournament (Season 1)

Official Rule Book


Introduction

The Pet Battle Tournament is a fan-event tournament and takes place in the game World of Warcraft, developed by Blizzard Entertainment. During the tournament you are expected to follow our rules seen below, but also the rules of World of Warcraft. Breaking the ToS or our rules will result in immediate disqualification, pending staff approval to return in future seasons.
The Tournament will be governed by the following:

These Tournament Rules (along with the Official Rules) form a contract between Participants and Pet Battle Tournaments, and shall establish the general rules of tournament play. Each Participant is required to read, understand, and agree to these Tournament Rules, the Official Rules, and Blizzard’s online privacy policy

You indicate your acceptance of the Official Rules and these Tournament Rules by signing up and/or participating in the Tournament, or as otherwise set forth in Section 1 of the Official Rules.

 Regions:

US, OCE,  EU, TW, KR

Event Type:

Battle Pet Player versus Player Tournament 

Group Size:

1 - 1 players

Players in Match:

1v1

Prize:

Trophy, enamel pin, jersey, desk ornament, in-game code





Schedule


Thurs. Oct 3 – Sign-ups for NA/OCE + EU are published

Thurs. Oct 24 – Sign-ups for NA/OCE + EU conclude

Thurs. Oct 24 – Competitors may Contact their opponents for Round 1 Matches

Thurs. Oct 31 – Round 2 Evaluations

Thurs. Nov 7 – Round 3 Evaluations

Thurs. Nov 14 – Round 4 Evaluations

Thurs. Nov 21 – Round 6 Evaluations

Thurs. Nov 28 – Round 7 Evaluations

Thurs. Dec 5 – Semi-Finals

Sat. Dec 14 – Live Streamed Finals
 *evaluations are tournament organizers checking in with any participants to ensure tournament proceeds in a timely manner.

Finals will Occur on Sat. Dec 14 at which point (the top placement from the winner’s bracket and the top placement from the loser’s bracket of) NA/OCE as well as (the top placement from the winner’s bracket and the top placement from the loser’s bracket of) EU play against each other in a live streamed event. First the NA/OCE Brackets face each other, then the EU brackets face each other. Once winners are decided by best 3 out of 5  between those regions, the winner from NA/OCE and the winner from EU will meet each other on the ptr (or similar regionless server if possible). Their match will determine who is “First Place”.
Pet Battle Tournament may update the foregoing schedule throughout the Tournament. Participants should check back often for updates to the Schedule and these Tournament Rules.




Prizes


Top Prizes:

Top Prizes are distributed to first place and those placing in the top four. Shipping for these prizes is covered for the winners.


First place trophy: Unique Season 1 Acrylic Trophy will be awarded to the first-place contender.

Top 4 prize pool: this includes participants who place 1st, 2nd, 3rd, and 4th

Each top 4 competitor has their choice of 1 of the following: 

PVP pet Battles Jersey: Any of the name text can be modified from 'Trainer' and 'Competitor' to anything the winner may choose for it to say. Comes in all sizes.

Enamel Desk Block: Please provide a desired player name that will be etched into the interior of the block.

In Game Codes: Placing top 4 competitors who choose the Gummi & Tabard Pack will receive redeemable in-game codes for the Battle Pet 'Gummi', Classic Brick Tabard, Classic Lively Tabard, Classic Crimson Tabard, & Classic Sunny Tabard. All in-game codes were originally obtained through the Trolli x Warcraft Collaboration and donated to Pet Battle Tournament privately.



         Participation Pin

Season 1 “Squally” enamel pin is granted access to any participant who completed all their assigned matches. Any forfeited round does not count as ‘completing a match’. Participants who meet this qualification of completing all their assigned matches will cover any shipping cost to receive the Season 1 Pin. Participants must supply an address for shipping.


Any support the tournament receives through Patreon, PayPal and similar parties is solely used for the purpose of developing the prize pool for each season.



How to sign up

Sign-ups are handled through Challonge.com

Separate links for sign-ups exist for NA/OCE regions and EU through Challonge.com

Sign-ups will stay open until October 24th at which point sign-ups will close and players will be assigned to their first partners. A reminder email will be sent to the email a player established with challonge.com on the 24th of October stating the tournament has begun.


At this point players are instructed to use Challonge.com’s message feature to initially contact their opponent, and choose a time and a date that works for them and their partner, as well as our staff.

In the event a player is unable to receive correspondence with their opponent, staff has been provided with evidence of attempted correspondence, and all attempts to contact them have been made, after 3 days from the time of their initial message the non-communicative player is declared a no-show and that player receives a loss.

Once you have selected a time, date, and stage to do the battle in, both players must join the WoW Pet Community discord, and ONE player MUST screen-share their battle so that the staff can watch, and confirm there is no foul play or cheating.


Once a match has concluded a player must verify the winner on Challonege.com so that everyone may proceed forward in their placements.

All players must join the WoW Pet Community discord for communication with the Tournament Admins.



Teams


Teams are in a ‘Singleton’ format.
This means during a match a player may only have one copy of a unique pet on their team or in their initial roster (like a deck in a card game). Pets with identical movesets are okay (I.e. Brown Rabbit/Elfin Rabbit). Different breeds of the same pet are not allowed.
A unique pet is defined as it’s creature id. Brown Rabbit is Creature id “20472”.
Identical creature ids with different player given names will not bypass this rule. I.e.: Creature ID20472 with the name “fluffy” and Creature ID20472 with the name “hoppy” do not count as unique pets. Thus only either “Hoppy” or “Fluffy” would be able to be entered into the tournament.
A creature ID20472 with the Speed/Speed Breed and a creature ID20472 with the Base/Speed breed do not count as Unique pets either. Thus only either the Speed/Speed Breed or the Base/Speed breed would be able to be entered into the tournament.



A team of pets is defined as 3 unique pets with separate creature ids.

Allowed Pets:
(a) No specific model variations, breeds, or pet abilities are prohibited from entering the tournament.


(b) Pets from unique sources such as, but not limited to; trading post, Blizzcon, trading card game, collector’s editions, achievements, promotions, time-limited events, and Blizzard Store are permitted to enter the tournament.


(c) There are currently no pets that are banned from entering the tournament and being on a player’s team.





Locations

Players may choose anywhere in the game for their battle, some places allow for better audio and visual enjoyment. This list indicates places where you may consider meeting up to face off but are not mandatory.

[#1]  Isle of Dorn - /way Isle of Dorn 66.87 33.89

[#2]  Stormrook - /way Isle of Dorn 27.63 59.82

[#3]  Stonevault Entrance - /way The Ringing Deeps 46.81 13.81

[#4]  Waterworks - /way The Ringing Deeps 47.56 43.75

[#5]  DawnBreaker - /way hallowfall 54.29 62.17

[#6]  Sacred Flame - /way hallowfall 34.14, 54.64

[#7]  Black Blood - /way Azj-Kahet - Lower 65.24 88.09

[#8]  Siegehold - /way Azj-Kahet 46.59 27.50

[#9]  Maw of Madness - /way Twilight Highlands 47.10 9.79

[#10] Thundermar - /way Twilight Highlands 48.41 29.84

[#11]  Unity Square - /way Boralus 49.23 85.22

[#12]  Daelin's Gate - /way Tiragarde Sound 57.95 68.77

[#13]  Bridge of the Centurion - /way Bastion 39.38 77.16

[#14]  Necropolis - /way Bastion 29.21 52.42

[#15]  Tirna Eas - /way ArdenWeald 51.72 42.93

[#16]  Star Lake Theater -/way ArdenWeald 41.33 44.56

[#17]  The Aegis Wall - /way Hallowfall 69.58 58.30

[#18]  Nerub-Ar Palace (raid entrance) - /way City of Threads 40.37 49.12


These in-game locations correspond to locations near Season 1 dungeon or raid entrances and thus tie in more thematically to season 1 core gameplay pillars.

Players will receive no standings benefit from any of these locations.


Players must choose their battle location before their match as deciding where to meet up afterwards can lead to scheduling issues with opponents.




Pick/Ban Phase

With over 1800+ and counting pets to select from, this large pool can be unmanageable for balancing, as such we will be instituting a pre-fight phase.

This phase hereafter referred to as the ‘pick/ban phase’ consists of selecting 15 pets to form the pets that you own (think of this like a deck in a card game), then banning some of your opponents picks, likewise your opponent does the same for you. After each ban a player will pick a pet for their roster. Pick/bans phase is ran through https://pet-draft.com/


Both players must use pet-draft.com for their picks/bans. Failure to do so will result in a forfeit for the player who refuses.


Below please find a detailed turn by turn description of how the pick/ban phase works.


Step 1: < Deck Building  >

Both players spend time in the days before picking 12 Pets that their initial pool will consist of.

At the beginning of the pre-fight phase just before the actual match both players reveal which 12 pets they have selected to each other.

Step 2: < The Counterplay >

Upon seeing their opponents choices each player then has to choose 3 additional pets. This allows a player to have options for victory if they see something in their opponents initial selection they had not accounted for. Upon completion each player now has 15 unique pets selected from pets they own with which they can build a team.


Step 3: < Picks & Bans >

This will ensure player controlled balancing rather than blind picking. Each player will follow a specific turn order for banning their opponent from using a pet and picking the next pet for their team. 

Current order of picks and bans is:

       Mike :   Bans  one of Sally’s Pets from her 15

Sally :     Bans  one of Mike’s Pets from his 15

Sally :     Chooses  a Pet from her own remaining 14

       Mike :  Chooses  a Pet from his own remaining 14

       Mike :  Bans  one of Sally’s Pets from her remaining 13

Sally :     Chooses  a Pet from her own remaining 12

Sally :     Bans  one of Mike’s Pets from his 13

       Mike :  Chooses  a Pet from his own remaining 12

       Mike :  Bans  one of Sally’s Pets from her remaining 11

Sally :     Chooses  a Pet from her own remaining 10

Sally :     Bans  one of Mike’s Pets from his 11

       Mike :  Chooses  a Pet from his own remaining 10

Example use 1: Mike picks the Pet “Anubisath Idol” in his initial pool of 12 pets. This format allows Sally to pick a pet capable of withstanding the move “Sandstorm” and able to dish out damage back as a counter. A good choice for her might be “Ghastly Kid” in her <Step 2> pets to select that would bring her pool to 15 pets.


Example use 2: Mike has “Anubisath Idol” and “Primal Stormling” in his final pool of 15. Mike really wants to play with “Primal Stormling”. Sally knows the power that “Anubisath Idol” can have to a team and bans that pet as her first choice. Unknowingly she will not be able to counter the “Primal Stormingling” strategy Mike will now be able to execute. Thus Mike baited Sally with a powerful pet so he could get the pet he wanted in his first choice.


Both Players now have a team consisting of 3 pets. No blind picking.
After the pick/bans phase both players meet in-game to conduct their match.
DO NOT CLOSE THE WINDOW. A MESSAGE FOR “NEXT ROUND” WILL APPEAR ALLOWING BOTH PLAYERS TO PROCEED TO A CONSECUTIVE MATCH.


Rules Specifically about the Pick/Ban format:


A player must own the pet to have selected it as an option.

When a player BANS a pet it is BANNED for both sides.

When a player PICKS a pet it does not remove selection from their opponent to also choose that same pet for their own team, if their opponent had that pet as a choice in their pool as well.

No pet abilities are banned in the pick/ban phase or otherwise.

The Pick/Ban system does not display the abilities chosen by the player for their pet for any match. Pet-draft.com will display the abilities a pet has access to.

Which abilities a player chooses for their pet are not known before a match begins.




Rounds

Rounds consist of a best 3 wins of 5 Matches.

After each match both players will use pet-draft.com again by hitting “Next Round” when asked “Are you ready for another round?”.
At this point all pets in each player's pool remain the same. But team selection including which pets are banned and which have been picked are reset.


This Tournament will be using Double Elimination. 

Double Elimination means a system in which the competitors are broken into two sets of brackets, the winners bracket and losers bracket after the first round. The first-round winners proceed into the winners bracket and the losers proceed into the losers bracket. The winner bracket is conducted in the same manner as a Single-Elimination tournament, except that the losers of each round move into the losers bracket. Eventually, the last player standing in the winner’s bracket and the loser's bracket face off against each other in a final.

This system is also known as a comeback and redemption tournament. Double elimination brackets are great tournament formats because they allow players to continue competing even when they lose early. A second chance is given to players to prove themselves and possibly win the tournament if they had an unlucky round.







At any time a player may forfeit a single match or concede a full round.

A forfeited match will result in a loss of 1 of the total 5 matches and have no effect on wins or losses for the remaining matches.

A conceded round will count as a loss for the round and the player will either move to the Losers Bracket or be eliminated from the tournament depending on their current placement.

Any round between two players that exceeds 20 minutes will result in a draw and have no standing as a win or a loss.**
 **Tournament judges may add to this rule if excessive degenerate behavior is displayed regarding stalling teams.

WoW Pet Community does not condone Win Trading. Please do not request to win trade.




Fair play

(a) Players must at all times observe high standards of personal integrity and

good sportsmanship. Players are required to behave in a professional and

sportsmanlike manner in their interactions with other tournament competitors, Tournament

organizers and members of the administration team, the media, sponsors, Blizzard

employees and fans. This includes but is not limited to, the following: conduct on

live streams, videos, or anything public-facing. What qualifies as “sportsmanlike manner” is up to Pet Battle Tournament’s discretion.

(b) Players may not use obscene gestures, profanity, or references to drugs, sex or

violence in their BattleTags, pet nicknames, player handles, game chat, lobby chat

or live interviews. This rule applies to English and all other languages in use in the

Tournament and includes abbreviations and/or obscure references. In addition to

the foregoing, all player Names, BattleTags and player handles may be reviewed

by Pet Battle Tournament. Organization Names, Battle Tags and player handles may be denied at any time that may not reflect the professional standards of Pet Battle Tournament. Effected players will be required to submit and play under another approved name.

(c) Pet Battle Tournaments is committed to providing a competitive environment that is free of harassment and discrimination. In furtherance of this commitment, players engaged in the Tournament and Tournament Events are prohibited from engaging in harassment or discrimination based on race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, disability, sexual orientation or any other status or characteristic protected by law.

(d) Players are expected to settle their differences in a respectful manner without

resorting to violence, threats, or physical or non-physical intimidation. Violence is

never permitted against any competitor or administrator.

(e) Tournaments are a place for players from around the world, from different cultures,

and from different backgrounds, to come together to compete and share their

passion. Players must refrain from disruptive or divisive behavior, commentary, or other forms of

expression during Tournaments or on any official tournament channels. If a player has chosen to be visible on match day to the camera audience(s) on any channels, they may not wear, display or otherwise convey personal messages without express approval from Tournament officials, which approval shall not be granted for political messages.
(f) Player character and pet names must not contain profanity, the names of other players, or the names of any third-party, trademark, or intellectual property. 




Cheating. 

Players must compete to the best of their ability at all times. Any form of cheating will not be tolerated. All players are prohibited from influencing or manipulating a Tournament game or match so that the outcome is determined by anything other than its merits.

Examples of cheating would include but are not limited to:

(a) Collusion, match fixing or any other action to intentionally alter, or attempt to alter,

the results of any game or Match, including losing a game or Match with another player in order to advance one or the other’s rank;

(b) Attempts to interfere with another player’s connection to the game service through Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) or any other means;

(c) Tampering with the entry process or the operation of the Tournament

(d) Any use of bots, hacks, firehacks, or any code and/or software that allows the automated control of World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s online gaming service, or any component or feature thereof;

(e) Any intentional use, or attempted use, by a player of any exploits in the game may result in a forfeit of the round or match and disqualification from the Tournament.

Pet Battle Tournament, at its discretion, will determine exploits.

(f) Players may not advertise, promote, or advocate any service or action that violates the Blizzard End User License Agreement.

(g) Use of any pet battle scripts for the purpose of automating a player versus player match.

If someone asks you to “fix” the outcome of a game, you must immediately report this contact to Pet Battle Tournament using the following email address:

warcraftpetbattletorunaments@gmail.com

Those who may not participate in our tournament include:
“WoW Pet Community” tournament judges, those responsible for distribution of tournament prizes, Casters/Commentators on any live streams covering the event for “WoW Pet Community”

Add-ons


Add-ons can improve the experience for players, viewers, and tournament officials. As such there is a list of add-ons that are recommended. Not installing these add ons does bar any play from competing.




Known Bugs


 A large number of bugs exist with pet abilities/the pet battle system and to ban all bugs would ban 95% of the play, as some pet families have bugs and approximately one fourth of pet abilities do. Therefore we will be working from the list of known bugs and acknowledging their existence. By entering the tournament a player accepts they have read the list of known bugs and accepts the state of play. Pet Battle Tournaments does not condone the abuse of a bug but does acknowledge their existence and probability to occur.


Terms and Conditions


Blizzard reserves the right to patch, update or improve World of Warcraft at any time to fix bugs, change balance, add features, or functionality as deemed appropriate by Blizzard, in its sole discretion.
You agree that Blizzard and Pet Battle Tournament will not be liable to you for any changes to World of Warcraft or these Tournament Rules.
Likeness:
(a) Pet Battle Tournaments needs a license to use your nickname, voice, and biographical information as it appears during a match or round. Pet Battle Tournaments also wants any match recordings, player standings, or player given information to promote Pet Battle Tournaments and you agree that Pet Battle Tournaments may do that.


(b) Accordingly, you hereby grant to Pet Battle Tournaments a royalty-free, fully paid-up, worldwide, perpetual (or for the maximum period permitted by applicable law in case where such perpetual license cannot be granted under applicable law), irrevocable, nonexclusive right and license (with the right to grant sublicenses) to copy, display, distribute, edit, transmit, host, store and otherwise use (match recordings, player standings, or player given information), and create derivative works thereof, in any and all present and future media, on or in connection with

(i) the broadcast, re-broadcast and/or streaming (including via internet transmission and wireless networks) of all or any part of the Tournament (including any games, Matches, rounds, or other competitions that are part of the Tournament) or any Tournament Event, and/or

(ii) the advertising, marketing, distribution, and promotion of the products and services of the Pet Battle Tournaments.















2024 Battle Pet Tournament (Season 1)

Official Rule Book