Benelux Pro League — Season 1 · Rules

Rulebook

1. General

a. Dates

All times are CET (UTC+1).

b. Staff

These are the names and Discord names of the staff of the event.

c. Prizepool

The Benelux Pro League will have a crowdfunded prizepool. Anyone who contributes will receive a custom-made Benelux skin. People can contribute to the prizepool via the following link:

• Matcherino contribute link: mno.gg/s/f9f31f8090

The prizepool distribution is as follows:

We have also set up the following donation goals:

d. Streaming

There will be an official livestream with cast on the following Twitch channel:

• BeneluxTM Twitch channel: twitch.tv/beneluxtm

People are free to stream the event on their own channel. We would appreciate it if you include the name of the event in your title.

2. Tournament

a. Seeding

Seeding will take place on Sunday, the 22nd of March, from 20:00 to 21:00.

Players will drive 10 rounds on Map A and 10 rounds on Map B. The times from each map are combined into a weighted total score. A DNF will count as 90 seconds. Faster times contribute more heavily, while slower times have less impact. The weighting for each player's times is as follows:

To give players a better sense of their performance, we will normalize the weighted total score by dividing it by the sum of all weights.

Each player receives a rank for their normalized time. Their overall seeding position is determined by the average of their two map ranks. If two or more players have the same average rank, the tie is resolved by comparing their fastest combined normalised time across both maps.

b. Divisions

After seeding has concluded, the players will be placed into two separate divisions. A division consists of 16 players. Seed 1–16 will move to Division 1 and seed 17–32 will move to Division 2.

c. League Phase

The League phase will consist of 5 matches spread over 2 weeks. On the first Sunday 2 matches will be played from 14:00 to 16:00. On the second Sunday 3 matches will be played from 14:00 to 17:00. Matches are 1v1v1v1 and will be played in reverse cup mode. The map order will be based on picks where the highest seed picks first. A match may be moved to a different time if all the players in said match agree to that. An admin will have to be notified if a match has to be moved.

Points will be awarded based on the results of each match:

At the end of the League phase, everyone will be ranked based on their total points scored, with the tiebreaker being head-to-head scores. Head-to-head scores are calculated by summing the points of both players in every match they were both in. If the head-to-head does not resolve the tie, seeding position will be used.

d. Playoffs

The playoffs will take place on April 11th in the Esports Lounge on the Twente University campus, De Hems 10, 7522 NL Enschede. The venue provides PCs, monitors and basic peripherals like keyboards, mice, and headsets. Players are free to bring their own peripherals with them. A detailed list of provided equipment can be found here:

• Esports Lounge Twente website: esportsloungetwente.nl

If you want to attend the LAN you need to get a Spectator Ticket. Players who participate in the playoffs do not have to get a ticket. The received money from the tickets will go to the event itself, for example: venue costs, server costs and future events. The Spectator Ticket can be bought here:

• Spectator Ticket: Eventbrite

The top 8 of Division 1 will be participating in the playoffs to see who will be taking home the prize money! If any player within the top 8 is unable to attend the LAN event, their spot will be offered to the next eligible player in the standings.

The top 4 of Division 2 will be participating in the playoffs for promotion into Division 1 of the next Benelux Pro League season. Like for Division 1, if a player within the top 4 is unable to attend the LAN event, their spot will be offered to the next eligible player in the standings.

The top 8 from the playoffs will retain their spot in Division 1. For Division 2, the 2 winners from the playoffs will be promoted to Division 1 while the other 2 will retain their Division 2 spots. A player is free to forfeit their spot and try for Division 1 in seeding for next season.

The format for the Division 1 playoffs will be a double-elimination bracket, without bracket reset. The format for each match is still 1v1v1v1 in reverse cup mode. Matches are typically only played until 2 players are remaining, giving first place in the match to the player with the most points left. If it's a tie, the player that had more points in the previous round gets first place. The grand final will be played out until only the winner is left.

The format for the Division 2 playoffs is a single match, which is played 1v1v1v1 in reverse cup mode. The match will be played until only the winner is left. The top 2 in the match will gain automatic promotion to Division 1.

All matches will be played on all 5 maps and the map order will be decided by picks. The player with the highest league result will pick first.

e. Maps

The Benelux Pro League will use a total of 5 maps. All 5 of these maps will be released on the 8th of March. The maps can be found in the Benelux club or on Trackmania Exchange. The maps will be used as follows:

• Trackmania Exchange mappack: trackmania.exchange/mappackshow/7047

f. Match settings

Points repartition (players remaining → points lost, 1st–4th):

3. Participation

a. Eligibility

A player is considered eligible to participate if they have Club Access on PC. Console players will not be able to participate, as we will make use of dedicated servers. Players also need to be either a resident or citizen of either the Netherlands, Belgium or Luxembourg. If you are uncertain that you meet these requirements, contact one of the staff listed in Chapter 1b.

b. Registration

Players can register to play by registering on Trackmania Events. Once a player registers, the registration will be checked and confirmed by staff.

• Trackmania Events signup: trackmania.events

c. Communication & Club

We will use Discord to communicate between the staff and players. All announcements and updates will be in this Discord. It's the player's responsibility to be aware of any updates.

• Discord: discord.gg/SzhhY4WsxP

There is a Benelux club where players can find the maps and servers for seeding and league matches.

d. Code of Conduct

Any behaviour that is deemed harmful to (other) participants, event staff or the event itself will lead to disciplinary measures, which may include disqualification from the event. Examples of such harmful behaviour are listed below:

• Refusal to play the assigned match without any valid reason provided;
• Playing under a different username that was not registered (fakenicking);
• Playing under a different flag that player is not representing (fakeflagging);
• Using any 3rd party tools to directly modify the game state and give oneself a disproportionate advantage over other participants (input-altering software such as DXTweak is not considered as modifying the game state and is therefore allowed);
• Deceiving or trying to deceive the participants, staff and/or other people, that are affiliated with the event;
• Match fixing, fake score reporting;
• Use of offensive skins, horns, imagery or sounds;
• Insulting or in any other way harassing the participants, staff and/or other people that are affiliated with the event, in-game or on other platforms (Discord/Twitch/YouTube/X);
• Shortcutting.

e. Technical Issues

If a player experiences technical issues during a match, including but not limited to disconnection, device failure, or loss of connectivity, the round in which the issue occurs will be played out in full and will count toward the match result. After the completion of that round, the match will be immediately paused, and no player is permitted to continue or finish the match. The match will resume once the technical issue has been resolved or after a maximum pause time of 10 minutes has elapsed, whichever occurs first.

In the event of a server crash or platform-wide failure, the match will be resumed using the players' current scores at the time of the crash. No rounds already completed will be replayed, and play will continue from the point of interruption once the server is operational.