PENALTIES AT THE WTC
PRE-EVENT Penalties
List submission
Teams need to submit lists in the correct format without errors. Making correct lists and submitting them in the correct format should be no difficult task for seasoned players. Failure to do so will result in a player not receiving the ‘bonus 10pts’ per game for a legal list (this is instead of the ‘bonus 10pts’ for a battle ready army, see below). Teams that fail to submit their lists on time will have 2 team points deducted from their overall score at the end of the tournament. No exceptions, no comebacks, no second chances. All penalties will be evaluated on a case by case basis and motivated before the WTC 40K captains in a debrief.
Each individual game at the WTC will have 90 points available from in-game scores and 10 points presuming the player in question had a correct armylist that was sent in on time. These 10 points will be accorded each game, but players that have not managed to send in a correct armylist will automatically see a 70 point penalty that will be deducted from their team for the tiebreaker at the end of the event – namely -10 pts for each game that they would have used a wrong armylist-. This is done to ensure the penalty doesn’t apply to each game individually, but so that there is still a player incentive to provide a correct and properly formatted armylist for their team.
List checking duties
After the list submission deadline, each country will be assigned 3 other countries lists to check for errors, or teams just check the lists from their respective pod. Teams have one week to complete said list checking. Thereafter teams will have two days to make any necessary corrections to their own lists. Teams that do not meet those deadlines and submit correct army lists will have 2 team points deducted from their overall score at the end of the tournament. Not fulfillinglist checking duties will see the entire team penalized. Teams need to reply to the relevant thread for the lists they are required to check with an OK, even when another team has already checked said lists. No reply post automatically means a penalty. Going over the deadlines will also automatically incur a penalty. Just replying OK when there are obvious and glaring errors will also automatically incur a penalty. This will be applied very strictly. This is also overly harsh but list checking is serious business, and as such every team should make the effort to comply.
The referee group will be in charge of overseeing this process. Glaring errors might result in a reduction in points, under the purview of the referees.
Army lists are first going to be posted on the captains section on Discord. After the submission deadline they will be published online via all our channels for everyone to see.
Formatting errors
Any formatting errors will NOT incur a penalty as long as they get corrected IN TIME before the list correction deadline has passed. This penalty is for not properly listing the weapon options or wargear of models and units, not stating the Warlord, not correctly allocating dedicated transports to units, etc.
Illegal lists
In the case of an illegal list,a penalty WILL be immediately incurred. Illegal lists are those that do not follow the 40k rules, codex, or WTC rules. There is no excuse for this, as teams and captains can freely ask if a given list would be OK well before the WTC starts. Changes made to an illegal list to make it game legal will always have to be as minimal as possible and are subject to referee approval. If the substantial parts of, or the list in its entirety needs to be changed, the referee corps will apply additional penalties at their discretion because of unfair advantages gained after list submission.
Any checks required as a result of incorrect or illegal lists, will be done by the referee corps to make sure it is done quickly and the corrected list are final and compliant.
Our team of referees have authority to implement other penalties that are not currently included in this list. In case of infractions/penalties, the relevant team captain will be audited.
SIGNING UP TO TOURNAMENT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE
Any teams who have not signed up their full complement of players in the tournament management software will have 2 team points deducted from their overall score at the end of the tournament (not cumulative with other pre-event team point penalties).
Furthermore, player profiles MUST reflect their actual name. NOT their nickname or any other handle. If for some reason players want to keep their anonymity, it is fine to refer to yourself as N. Kerr or Neil K as long as it would not be confusing to the TOs or referees in any way. Players that have concerns regarding the use of their real names for this event can get in touch to approve the use of an alias prior to signing up to the event. In EVERY situation where this is not the case, teams will have 2 team points deducted from their overall score at the end of the tournament. This is harsh but too many problems and delays were caused in the past because of players using nicknames etcetc so to make sure no undue delays happen, this rule shall be enforced.
EVENT Penalties
Individual player penalties
The WTC employs a red/yellow card system for managing player behaviour and conduct. If a player is deemed by the referees to have broken any of following rules they will be immediately subject to one of the following penalties. The application of a particular penalty is dependent upon the nature of the infraction and how many times previously the player in question has broken the WTC rules. The penalties for these offences stack if multiple violations (even if they belong to the same category) to these rules apply.
OFFICIAL WARNING
No penalty to their individual score
YELLOW CARD
-50pts to their individual score for that game
RED CARD
-100pts to their individual score for that game and immediate expulsion from the WTC
If a player receives a red card their team can either find a substitute player to take their place at the discretion of the referees, or else their remaining games immediately are allotted as a loss with a VP differential of 100pts. Additionally, the player in question will be imposed with a minimum one year cool-off period and will be expelled from attending the next WTC automatically.
The referee crew has the right to escalate any infraction to an immediate expulsion or even life-time ban from the WTC depending on the gravity of the infraction and the situation that presented itself. The WTC referee crew will motivate this decision in their post-event debrief before the WTC40K Captains.
Take note that the referee corps main concern is always that games are completed naturally within the round time allocated. This of course depends on the transgression but normally the focus should always lie on games to be played even if certain penalties will apply. Everyone paid good money to be at the WTC and to play their full complement of games. For example, someone might have modeled his entire army in a thematic way but his opponent and the referees agree it falls into the realm of modeling for advantage and the player in question does not have enough stand-ins available. Referees will force the game to be played and at the end of the round apply any penalties that are in place for such transgressions. This way we are sure everyone gets their full complement of games under normal circumstances. A list of offenses follows below:
Agreeing a result
It came to our attention that some games were not played in the past but that certain players simply ‘agreed’ on the final score without the game being played. This is unacceptable and may have unfairly affected final positioning of other teams. To ensure the integrity of the tournament going forward, any TEAM that is caught doing this or have done this, whether at the event, or retroactively, and whether or not the action was performed by an individual team member without consent from any of the other team members, will be punished by imposing a year-long ban to attend the WTC on all the players from said team. The captain position of said team will be immediately opened up to other willing captains from said nation. Do not take the integrity of the tournament lightly… The WTC is the pinnacle of competitive gaming, regarded as the World Championships for our hobby, and every team should bear the ultimate responsibility for ensuring a fair and merit-based outcome for the rest of the tournament attendees.
Time management and slowplay
If a player is found to be repeatedly calling referees over for rules questions which are clearly answered in any of the relevant game literature including the WTC FAQ, they will receive a penalty as this is a form of time wasting. The penalty is determined on a case by case basis – this prevents people being penalized for language issues resulting in such questions, and also stops players ‘playing the system’ and stopping before a certain threshold before a penalty is attained.
Dice-, movement- or rules-cheating
Any instances of the following, or anything else within similar confines, that is witnessed by a referee and/or an impartial bystander (i.e. a person not associated in any way with either player or team) and deemed as deliberate cheating will result in an immediate penalty:
Rules cheating – forgetting core rules for your OWN army and models. will all result in an instant infraction.
Movement cheating – moving too far, pushing models outside of their regular movement allowance.
Dice cheating – loaded dice, incorrectly counting the number of passed or failed rolls, changing the value of dice rolled.
A note on dice etiquette: in regards to dice policy and “cocked dice”, “dice that land on top of each other” or in terrain and such, note that at the WTC the following applies: dice rolls will only count when the bottom of the dice surface is entirely touching the table or game-mat surface. Re-roll cocked or stacked dice when the event occurs, and re-roll any dice that land in terrain or on anything other than the flat table (mat) surface. This includes dice landing flat on objective markers. Reroll the dice. The use of dice-trays at the WTC is authorized.
When using GW dice, or any batch of custom dice, players need to ENSURE their dice pips (essentially the number on the dice) can EASILY be distinguished from across the table by their opponent. Where this is not the case, players will immediately incur penalty and the dice will be removed for the remainder of the tournament.
Poor sportsmanship or negative/aggressive attitude
Any player or team member deemed by a referee to be acting in any manner not in-line with the expectations of friendly but competitive gaming at the WTC will incur an immediate penalty. As a community we all believe that this is a gentlemans’ game to be played in a friendly but competitive manner. Failure to uphold this belief will be met with immediate reprimand.
A few examples to make it clear:
– A player forgets to bring in his reserves, and his opponent objects to this when the player remembers later in the turn during any given phase. It is BOTH players’ responsibility to ensure mandatory things that happen in the game take place. It is customary to ask your opponent at the end of his movement phase if he is sure he does not want to bring any reserves on before moving on to the next phase.
– A player forgets to announce he will use a certain rule, ability, stratagem or wargear at the start of the turn or phase and remembers later in the turn or phase. It is OK as an opponent to disallow the use of said rule or item, but let it be known that we strongly discourage such behavior and encourage players to work together rather than against each other.
Illegal alternative models, modelling for advantage, non-battle ready models.
Any alternative models that have not gained prior approval by the referees will be removed from the board if an unfair in-game advantage is felt to have been gained. Models that have been converted or rebased that are deemed by the referees to gain an unfair in-game advantage will be removed from play. Models that are not painted to a ‘battle ready’ standard, or that simply aren’t up to acceptable hobbying standards, will also be immediately removed. The player will have the opportunity to replace them with the official GW models. If no models are immediately available, he will continue the event without the use of said models whatsoever. If a player subsequently is caught reusing said ‘banned’ models he will incur an immediate red-card.
Illegal communication between team members
Any communication between team members and/or spectators should always be in English wherever possible and have no relation to strategic or tactical advice regarding any games in progress. Players can of course seek the approval of their opponents to confer with a countryman in their native tongue prior to starting a conversation.
Failure to do so will result in penalties.
Obviously in some cases communication may not be possible in English, in such a case players should seek the assistance, where possible, of a referee or neutral third-party who understands their language so as to adjudicate. If such a person is not available then it is up to the discretion of the referees if it is felt illegal tactical or strategic advice has been given or not.
The use of cellphones or other media to discuss tactics and game situations once the pairing process has finished and matches have been assigned is strictly prohibited. Players suspected of, or caught, doing this will be immediately red-carded.
Team cumulative penalties
Any penalties occurred during the WTC as a result of player infraction also incur a team cumulative penalty, and will be strictly imposed upon the round points. As an example, Team A and B have a result of 5-3 wins in the round with a VP differential of 123pts, but Team A incurred their second team penalty that round and loses 25pts (see below). This brings the VP differential under the requirement for having the team win condition and consequently changes their team’s match result to a draw. It does not affect the match result for the opposing team.
1st infraction – official team warning
2nd infraction – 25 Victory Points per team
3rd infraction – 50 Victory Points per team
4th infraction – 75 Victory Points per team
etc… etc..
These penalties are applied incrementally and cumulatively over the course of the tournament. This means if player A on a team gets penalized, then subsequently player B on the same team gets penalized, the penalty against their Team escalates as the Team has then effectively committed 2 offenses. Again, this can cause that team to lose a match, it cannot cause the other team to win the match. This can result in a match result of a draw/loss or loss/loss in extreme scenarios.