Rules of E-footy

Changes in 2018
Section I: Foreword
Section II: Registration
Section III: Picking a Squad
Section IV: Players
Section V: Team Selection
Section VI: Scoring
Section VII: Results
Section VIII: League Matches
Section IX: Finals

Changes in 2018

New Trading Scheme - Silent Auction and Offers
You can now purchase players by using a salary cap to bid on unsigned players in a silent auction. The coach who bids the most at 8pm on Monday gets the player!
You will also be able to make trade offers to other coaches to swap players and/or salary cap money. (Available 2019).

Substitutions
With the advent of Team List Tuesday, it has seen many late withdrawals to an NRL team that affect coaches by reducing the number of players for a week once the deadline for team selection has passed on a Thursday. This problem is no longer an issue as you can now specify a set of 8 substitutes that will be swapped into your team to replace any player that doesn't play.

1. Foreword

   The underlying paragraphs constitute what is to be hereby known as the "Rules of the Game" for the E-footy season. Persons who participate in this game are to be known as "Coaches".

2. Registration

   A person interested in becoming a Coach can register on the site. When doing so, they have the choice of either creating a new league or joining one that has been previously created. There are two types of league to join:
   
   • Public League

   The advantage of having a Public League is that anyone can join it. The Creator of the League specifies a time that the league will choose their Squads. This time is called the Scramble Date and will be displayed for Coaches when registering to ensure that they can join a league where the Scramble Date is compatible with their schedule. If the League does not have the required number of Coaches by the Scramble Date then it is postponed to exactly one week later.

   • Private League

   A Private League is ideal if you have a group of friends who want to play together in the same league. When the League is created, the Creator is sent a password to forward to the people that he/she wishes to invite to play.

3. Picking a Squad

   • The Scramble

   The only option available to Coaches is known as the 'Scramble'. This involves every Coach in the League being able to start signing Players at the start of the Signing Date.

   This could prove unfair to Coaches who have a faster internet connection so a Coach is limited to one signing per sixty (60) second period. This continues until all Squads have twenty-five (25) players.

   • Squad Restrictions

   All squads are to have a maximum size of twenty-five (25) players with no exceptions. Due to injuries and unforeseen circumstances, there is no limit on selections of any position (including goal-kickers).

4. Players

   Available Players
   The majority of NRL players are available for selection in a Coach's Squad. When a new player is named to play the upcoming weekend or if a player makes an appearance without being named earlier in the week, he will be added to the list of "Players to Be Added" (except on a Thursday). To ensure impartiality, the Players on the "Players to Be Added" List are added to the Available Players List at Thursday 20:00 each week, allowing any Coach access to swap for the Player.

   Trading
   There are three trading systems available:

   • Weekly
   Twenty-four (24) hours after the conclusion of the Scramble, a Coach may swap a player with any player from the Available Players List (an unselected player). One such swap is allowed per 7 day rolling period. (i.e. if you make a trade on the 5th March at 16:00, then you cannot make another one until 16:00 12th March)
   • Fixed Number of Trades
   Instead of a 1 week rolling window, Leagues that prefer to have no time restrictions can choose to have a set number of trades (generally 15) that can be used at any time through-out the season.
   • Salary Cap
   Rather than fix the number or timing of trades, Leagues can grant their coaches a Salary Cap of 100ë (the currency in E-footy). This allows coaches to purchase players through a silent auction or trade with other teams.
   
   
   Silent Auction - Unsigned Players
   • One bid per player (per week)
   • Bid cannot be changed / cancelled
   • Bids are silent (i.e. not known to other coaches)
   • Bids must be in increments of 1ë with a minimum bid of 1ë
   • Highest bidder at 8pm each Monday gets the player
   • All losing bids are refunded
   • In the case of a two or more equal high bids, all bids are refunded and coaches can bid again for the following week
   • All bids are revealed after 8pm Monday to ensure transparency
   • If a Coach has a free spot in your Squad, the player will be signed immediately. If not, the Coach will be required to release a player in their squad to accommodate the new player. (The Coach cannot make any more bids or change your team until this happens)
   • Bidding on unsigned players will end the last week before finals (i.e. Monday before finals) and the date will be displayed on the site
   Offers - Trades Between Teams
   • A Coach can make an offer to another Coach that involves player(/s) from their squad they would like to give the other Coach and player(/s) from the other Coach's squad that they would like to receive
   • The Coach can also include ë in the Offer, if desired, to even the value for both parties
   • The receiving Coach can then choose to Accept or Decline the offer
   • If the offer is accepted, the players and ë will be swapped from one Coach to the other
   • The sending Coach can also choose to Cancel the offer at any time before a response is received
   • No new Offers will be able to be made and all open Offers will expire 6 weeks before finals. The date will be displayed on the site

5. Team Selection

   For every game, a seventeen (17) man Team is to be selected from the Squad of twenty-five (25) players.

   It is the responsibility of the Coach to ensure that a Team is selected each week before the first match of the round (generally 19:50 AEST on Thursday). The most recently submitted Team on the deadline is the one that will be used for that round.

   Players must be selected in one of their designated positions. Two players must be selected as Goal Kickers, with the Secondary Kicker only scoring points for goals if the Primary Kicker does not kick any goals. Note that Goal Kickers must also be in the Team for that week.

   Substitutions
   You are able to nominate an additional eight (8) substitutes in addition to the seventeen (17) man Team. These substitutes will be used to replace a player in the sevent (17) man Team that do no play in the NRL for that round. The substitutes will be ordered from eighteen (18) to twenty-five (25) to indicate the order of preference to be used. Substitutions will only be made when the substitute has the matching position to the player who did not play.
   
   For example, if your Fullback does not play, the system will attempt to replace him with your #18 substitute. If #18 is a Winger, it will then look at #19. If #19 is a Fullback, they will be swapped into the team in the Fullback's spot.
   
   The substitutions are made by the system when the results are entered for a game so that you don't need to wait until the weekend is over to know the result. In this sense, you could have substitutions happening throughout the weekend that get updated if the substitute does not play. The order for substitutions will be the following positional order: 7,6,9, 13,11,12,8,10, 1,2,3,4,5, 16,17,14,15.

6. Scoring

   Each selected player in a Coach's E-footy Team for a particular week will score the following for each achievement in the NRL that week.

   • Try - 4pts
   • Try Assist - 2pts
   • Goal - 2pts*
   • Field Goal - 1pt
   • Forward Try - 4pts^

   * Only nominated Goal Kicker
   ^ A forward try is achieved when a player selected in the forward pack scores in excess of 39 runs(hit-ups/dummy half runs) and tackles combined in a single game. (e.g. 20 tackles and 20 runs)

7. Results

   Results will often be up a few hours after an NRL match is played. The score is subject to change and is merely an indicator of progress until all results for that week are validated and locked-in (which is normally by Tuesday).

8. League Matches

   The League is to consist of a number of Rounds, dependent on the starting date of the competition and the number of teams on the league. In every match, each team shall be awarded two (2) competition points for a win, one (1) for a draw, zero (0) for a loss and one (1) Bonus Point if the team achieves a Green Sweep. At the conclusion of the Rounds, a Finals series will follow.

9. Finals Matches

   The make-up of the Finals will be determined by the creator of the League. It can be a straight-out Grand Final or a more elaborate system such as the Four/Five Team or McIntyre Eight Team formats detailed below.

   e.g. Four Team Finals (3 wks)
   Wk1 - SEMI-FINALS
   Major Semi: 1st vs 2nd
   Minor Semi: 3rd vs 4th

   Wk2 - PRELIM FINAL
   Loser Major Semi vs Winner Minor Semi

   Wk3 - GRAND FINAL
   Winner Major Semi VS Winner Prelim Final

   
   e.g. Five Team Finals (4 wks)
   Wk1 - QUALIFYING FINALS
   Week Off: 1st Place
   Major Qual: 2nd vs 3rd
   Minor Qual: 4th vs 5th

   Wk2 - SEMI-FINALS
   Major Semi: 1st vs Winner Major Qual
   Minor Semi: Loser Major Qual vs Winner Minor Qual

   Wk3 - PRELIM FINAL
   Loser Major Semi vs Winner Minor Semi

   Wk4 - GRAND FINAL
   Winner Major Semi VS Winner Prelim Final

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   e.g. Six Team Finals (4 wks)
   Wk1 - QUALIFYING FINALS
   Week Off: 1st and 2nd
   Qual A: 3rd vs 6th
   Qual B: 4th vs 5th

   Wk2 - SEMI-FINALS
   Major Semi: 1st vs 2nd
   Minor Semi: Winner Qual A vs Winner Qual Bl

   Wk3 - PRELIM FINAL
   Loser Major Semi vs Winner Minor Semi

   Wk4 - GRAND FINAL
   Winner Major Semi VS Winner Prelim Final

   
   e.g. McIntyre Eight Team Finals (4 wks)
   Wk1 - QUALIFYING FINALS
   1st vs 8th
   2nd vs 7th
   3rd vs 6th
   4th vs 5th
   The two lowest ranked losers are eliminated.

   Wk2 - SEMI-FINALS
   Week Off: Two Highest Ranked Winners Wk1
   Major Semi: 3rd Highest Ranked Winner Wk1 vs Highest Ranked Loser Wk1
   Minor Semi: 4th Highest Ranked Winner Wk1 vs 2nd Highest Ranked Loser Wk1

   Wk3 - PRELIM FINALS
   Prelim A: Highest Ranked Winner Wk1 vs Winner Minor Semi
   Prelim B: 2nd Highest Ranked Winner Wk1 vs Winner Major Semi

   Wk4 - GRAND FINAL
   Winner Prelim A VS Winner Prelim B

   NOTE: The team which placed higher on the table in the League will decide a tied finals match.