Ranked Pubs: Rules Of Conduct
Revision 2 - January 25, 2020
Eligibility
This HockeyQuestionMark server is for players of a competent skill level that stick to the rules.
Conduct & Server Usage
By signing up for an account, you agree that you will maintain a level of decency in the server. Acts such as aliasing as other players, account sharing, constant purposeful ginting, own-goaling, racism, trolling, sexual harassment, bullying, cheating, hacking, tampering or otherwise purposefully ruining the game experience for others are bannable offenses and will be reviewed when reported. In many cases a warning will be issued, but in extreme cases or in such case that a player has a recurring history of rule-breaking or poor etiquette, a temporary or permanent ban may be issued. Set a good example for newer players. If you don't wish to play amongst newer players then sign in during times where there are more good players than average ones. Please do not chastise people openly for their mistakes and just play the game.
AFKing is not completely preventable, however if it becomes a problem you may be warned or suffer a temporary ban. Continuing to do so will result in a longer or infinite ban. The same idea applies for disconnects; as they are unpreventable at times, but will result in disciplinary action if continued. These issues affect the outcome of the game due to your team playing short-handed and thus the player ratings of your teammates, so please do your best to be ready to play during the games you sign up for. This server logs all actions. There are zero exceptions to these rules, and you will not be given a chance to appeal if you break these account rules.
You may not register for an account as someone else that is known to the community. Anyone found to be doing this will be banned permanently from the server. Having an alias account is fine, but you are not allowed to alias as anyone else. Also, do not register for a large amount of accounts.
New Players
If you are a newer player or a player that is unable to handle the puck, you must limit your games to a maximum of one per day. This simulates a league experience where assuming there was a league for new players, they would balance practicing the game with playing the game.
If you have suspicion that you are one of these players (no reasonable expectation to get a puck, skate it up and score, or make a save/defensive play), please continue to practice much more than playing to get past this limitation, and play no more than one game on this server per day. Generally you will want to practice much more on a server on your own (solo) for handling/shooting practice, and practice with others for passing/defence practice on a seperate server. The reason behind this is that as a ranked server, we have a community of players that have put hundreds if not thousands of hours of solo practice in, in order to test themselves against other players of the same skill level. If you are unable to perform your position to a minimal level, you put your team at a significant disadvantage, hurting the experience of other players. This has a domino effect of where if this problem is left unresolved, it will hurt the server's community as a whole as experienced (the majority) players stop playing. As much as some would like the door completely closed, we are an inclusive server at this time and will continue to allow new players to "test their skills" at least once per day (keep in mind that most of the experienced players never had this opportunity). There is no position or situation where a minimal puck handling ability and ability to hit a puck is not important (including defence and goaltending), so please see the Tutorials section to see how you can practice to improve your play. Failure to adhere to these rules will result in a temporary ban until sufficient evidence is given that an effort has been made to improve play outside of this ranked server.
If this was a much larger community as a whole, we could create a ranked server for new players, but this is just not possible at this time.
Etiquette
It is considered good etiquette to share positions and also play as a goalie from time to time. This extends to everyone; there are no favorites here. Playing goalie does not affect your forward / defense stats so don't worry about it too much.
Game Rules
Game Length
Each game is played with three 5 minute periods. If the score is tied after 3 full periods, the game will go into continuous sudden-death overtime. Overtime (and the game) will then be decided by the next goal.
Mercy Rule
If at any point in the game one team's score is 6 goals higher than the score of their opponents, the Mercy Rule will take effect and the game will be ended.
Glitch Goals
There will be rare occurences where the a puck is shot into the net but the game does not register a goal. When this happens, it is up to the players of both teams to put the puck back into the net to cause the goal to be triggered. This rule is in the name of fairness and sportsmanship and must be followed. This is standard practice when playing organized / competetive HockeyQuestionMark games.
Please remember that playing is not a right, it is a privlidge, and make sure to try and help make this server a place for higher tier competition. These rules are subject to change and so you are encouraged to check for updates.
