Thandar Combat League

Official Rules

These rules govern the structure of competition and the play of matches within the Thandar Combat League (The League).

Any rule questions or clarifications will be directed to a League Organizer.

The League Organizers are:

Tim “agentc13” McKenzie (retired)

Chris “DblDubz” Walberg

Sam “scrapforce” Parsons (retired)

1. League Structure

  • The League is organized into multiple divisions that are named after cards from the Hero Realms Digital deckbuilding game.
  • Divisions are “stacked” on top of each other like a tower. Each division connects to the division above and the division below it.
  • League play occurs one season at a time. New players will start in the lowest ranked division, and continuing players are moved between divisions based on performance in the previous season.
  • The current division ranks (from highest to lowest, though not all are currently in use) are:
  1. Fire Bomb
  2. Domination
  3. Rampage
  4. Life Drain
  5. Deception
  6. Command

2. Division Structure

  • Each division will have eight player slots. A division may have fewer than the target number of players if there are not enough players signed up to fill all the divisions. Any remaining slots will be filled with a bye. These numbers may change slightly depending on the season’s sign-ups.
  • Play within divisions will be arranged in a round robin format where every player in a division will play three games (a Match) against every other player in that division.
  • The number of Divisions will be dependent on the number of players participating, and may be adjusted based on sign-ups for subsequent seasons.

3. Match Structure

  • A Match is a set of Three asynchronous games between two players.
  • To begin a match, one player should send their opponent a 48HR Challenge in the Hero Realms Digital application. All games are to be played in the Hero Realms Digital app on the current production release.
  • The default sets to be used are: Base Set, Call to Arms, Journeys, and Journeys Promo. Default means you can send this over without having to check with your opponent. Players are welcome to play with whatever mutually agreed upon sets they’d like. If players are unable to come to an agreement, Base Set will be the required format. Essentially, I would like folks to be playing with whatever is available in the retail version of the game, but if one player only has access to the Base Set, it is within their rights to insist on Base Set only so that they are not playing cards with which they are not familiar. Questions may be directed to Tournament Organizers in the Discord.
  • All league games must be played without heroes (see intructions on sending a “No Heroes” challenge here). Participants must play all three games regardless of outcome.
  • Each week matches will be announced to start in the Discord channel for each division. There will be one match announced per player.
  • Matches should be completed within two weeks of being announced. Match pace may vary, but players should be taking turns every day for each match. If something comes up that will keep a player from achieving this pace, the player should reach out to a League Organizer and let him/her know.
  • Upon completion of a match, the winner of that match should report the result in the Discord server as soon as possible.
  • To report a match: in the channel for your division, enter the following command, without quotes: “/tcl report”. This will generate fields for you to enter the round number, winner name, and games won by winner. Fill them out and hit enter again. Sometime the bot will return an error. Feel free to check with a Tournament Organizer to confirm if the entry worked. You may also use “/tcl standings” (without quotes) to have the bot fetch the current standings. Note that this will also occasionally error out, and always will until every player in the division has at least one reported game.
  • If there are match pace issues because of timezone differences, please let a Tournament Organizer know. Reasonable leeway will be given.
  • A player may be removed from a division and replaced with a waitlisted player or a bye during a season if they do not keep up with the suggested league pace, unless they let a League Organizer know that there is a valid reason that they are playing slower (vacation, hectic work schedule, family emergency, etc). We understand that things happen, but please be courteous enough to let the Tournament Organizers know.
  • If a player is removed, they will either be replaced with a waitlisted player or they will forfeit all games for the remainder of the season. When replaced with a waitlisted player, the new player will inherit the record of the removed player and will only play the matches remaining in the season. When replaced with a bye, all previous game results against the removed player will be counted as a bye as well.

4. Promotion and Relegation

  • At the conclusion of each season, the top two players (according to W/L records) be promoted from each division to the next higher division if one exists.
  • If multiple players are tied for win percentage such that the top two players can’t be determined unambiguously, then a tiebreaker process will be used to determine which players are promoted. Tiebreakers will be match wins then head to head results.
  • At the conclusion of each season, two players at the bottom of each division by win percentage will be relegated from each division to the next lower division if one exists. The same tiebreakers listed in section 4 will be used here as well.
  • Regarding relegations: if not all players from a given division are returning, then it may not be the case that two players will be dropped. Consider the following example: the Domination division has 8 players. 2 are promoted to Fire Bomb. This leaves 6 players, one of whom placed 4th and is NOT returning. If we relegate the bottom two in addition to this player not returning, that would create three open slots in the division, which would then require three promotions from a lower division. Rather than do this, the Tournament Organizers would only drop the lowest player in the division, leaving two open slots for the two players coming up from the lower division. After 15 completed seasons, this is the fairest and simplest way to do this.
  • If necessary, the number of players promoted or relegated from a division may be adjusted upward or downward to facilitate league operations. We will stick to two each when possible, but this may change without notice if necessary based on organizational factors.

5. League Tracking

  • The League progress will be tracked in using the Hero-Helper Bot. A command in Discord server  will be used to submit results. Announcements and updates will be posted in the Discord channels.
  • The winner of a match can report it using the bot command “/tcl report” in the Discord thread for the division they belong to. If a player has trouble doing this, the loser can submit the results, but the results should not be submitted by both players. Multiple submissions may cause errors, so check in with a TO if you are not sure if a result has been submitted for a match.
  • Any disputes should be directed to a League Organizer.