The Stellar Kings Team Challenge

Game ethics
This is a tough subject, and you will never get a universal consensus on it, however we will lay out our guidelines, as we feel it is very important to do so. We encourage all players to play their games in an ethical manner. You can play ethically and still conduct a nuke-intense and competitive game. We expect all participants of any of our tourneys to honor the following guidelines:

Game Conduct
DO NOT BASH, DEGRADE OR PERSONALLY ATTACK OTHER PLAYERS. Stellar Crisis is a competitive game, which as a result will lead to conflict with other players, however, there is absolutely no reason to get personal about it. There is a big difference between bragging, boasting, etc. versus insulting a player on a personal level.

We reserve the right to disqualify a team if their game conduct becomes unacceptable.

Game Updates
Making timely updates is important, so that we can keep moving games along as quickly as possible, in order to cut down on the waiting times teams waiting to compete.

Give all players the courtesy of making your updates as timely as your time will permit. Sometimes it is necessary to delay an update due to strategic collaboration, going out of town or some other reason, but we ask that you only delay those updates if you really must. We consider all players competing at this level to be high quality players, players that are beyond employing silly tactics like delaying updates to annoy the enemy. Let us have enough respect for our enemies' abilities as to not use such tactics.

Starting the Game
To make all games uniform the Game Start procedure is:

Joining orders are decided seperately by each team (you don't have to tell the other team what order you're joining in)

Player one on the top seeded team creates game and emails all players (or just captains) the password

Players then join alternating teams until all have joined

Team one Captain notifies Admin via email that game has started and provide the Game Number

Ending Your Game
If your at the end of you're rope, or you are considering ending your game for strategic reasons, then do it properly. If the game permits you to surrender to another empire, YOU MUST SURRENDER TO AN EMPIRE ON THE OPPOSING TEAM, as it is them who have defeated you. If it is a general surrender, then just surrender. Purposely leaving your empire to ruin just to delay the game WILL NOT BE TOLERATED.

Any empire that is proved to purposely delay the game may be banned from future tournaments and will also be black listed on our site.

Empire names
This is always an ongoing topic in this game. Part of the game's appeal is the ability to start up new empires that could hide the identity of a very well known and skilled player, which is a perfectly legitimate and accepted practice. The goal of the Stellar Kings Team Challenge is to have the game's best players compete in a team atmosphere and give all members of the community the chance to observe and follow these players' actions in order to see who the best players are, and maybe even learn a trick or two.

It is for this reason that we require all empires participating to submit all significant empire names (the empire names that would be most identifiable to other players). Simply stated, we want to give all participating players and observers alike the chance to know exactly who their opponents are.

Game format
Each challenge game will be a 6 member team vs another 6 member team. Since we intend to host these games on different game servers from time to time in order to include more of the community, actual game specs might vary slightly, but they will remain as close as possible to the following (similar to Stellar Crisis 2.9 rules):

Updates	every 24 hours, no weekend updates
Systems	7 per player
Average min/fuel/ag	30/30/30
Max ag ratio	100
Initial tech/tech advance	1.0/1.5
Map	random layout
Developed tech	attack, science, colony
Undeveloped tech	stargate, cloaker, satellite, terraformer, troopship, doomsday, minefield, minesweeper, engineer
Build visibility	no
Cloakers built cloaked	yes
Engineer loss	1.0

Who can join?
Simply put, anybody (except those that have been banned for rule violations).

How does it work?
In a nutshell, the winning team moves up, and the losers move down.

At the start of a round, all teams must declare via email to the Admin whether they wish to play or sit that round. All teams wishing to play will be matched up in pairs from top to bottom. After all games have been concluded the Team List will be reordered, winners then sitters then losers (with teams in each category staying in their previous relative order).

A word on sitting
Excessive use of the sitting privilege will NOT be tolerated! This option is provided because we realize sometimes real life must take priority and it's not right to punish you for that.

Excessive sitting is whatever the admin and committee deem it to be. If we notice a team always sitting to avoid a team, or attempting to work the system in anyway, measures will be taken to end those actions
The Current Kings and the Challenger (the 2nd team on the list) may NOT sit
While sitting a team will NOT accumulate wait points

How are teams formed?
Any player wishing to be a Stellar Kings Team Captain should email Aztec Empire at mginn@cox.net with subject "Stellar Kings Application"
The email should include:

Team Name
Captain Empire name (and most commonly known empire name) and email address
The official empire names (including their most commonly known empire names) of the other 5 "starters". The empire name to be used by a team member during a challenge game must be a known empire name used by that team member and not in any way be misleading or suggesting an identity other then their own. In the event of a dispute over an empire name with other players, the admin will settle the dispute.
Official empire names (including their most commonly known empire names) of any alternates on the team
Recommended team size is 6 starters and either 1 or 2 alternates, but a Stellar Kings Team may not exceed 8 members.

If the application is denied, it may be resubmitted once the reasons for denial have been addressed.

The Stellar Kings committee
The Stellar Kings committee consists of the SK Admin and 3 other SK players. The committee makes all key decisions relating to Stellar Kings events such as the Team Challenge and/or any new events. Further tasks include:

Approval of team captains
Creation of event rules
Deciding on disciplinary measures

The Stellar Kings Team Challenge admin
The admin is responsible for overseeing and running the Stellar Kings Team Challenge. This includes:

Deciding when the next round will start
Notifying all team captains of the new matchup lists
Verifying team member substitutions
Keeping track of challenge results
Administration of the challenge list

Please note: Team member substitutions must be done before the commencement of a challenge game.

Team captain responsibilities
The team captain is the leader of their team and will have the following responsibilities:

Choose the team name
Choose the team members
Add/replace team members as necessary (all such changes must be reported to The Stellar Kings Team Challenge admin)
Notify fellow team members of game times and details, and ensure the team's readiness for an upcoming challenge event
Notify the Stellar Kings Admin which group of 6 will be representing the team (for page updates and opposition notification)
Provide ongoing game reports and commentary when possible (when in the Title bout)
Upon completion of a game, report the result to the Stellar Kings Team Challenge admin

Team member responsibilities
Each team consists of 6 team members (including the team captain) and will have the following responsibilities:

Abide by the Stellar Kings Game etiquette
A player may only be on one team at any given time
Team members are encouraged to make their updates in a timely manner as to keep the game moving along