Tournament Ruleset

VALIS: Tournaments run on a tiered system. Each Minor tournament has an open qualifier phase followed by a closed playoff, and the three Minors of the year feed the Major — a closed championship of the season's best teams.

• Qualifiers are the open phase of a Minor. Each Minor opens with five open-registration, single-elimination qualifier weeks, and every week awards Qualifier Points (QP). A team must play at least three of the five weeks to be eligible, and after the final qualifier the top 8 eligible teams by QP are seeded into the Minor playoffs.
• Minor playoffs are the closed phase of a Minor — the top 8 qualifying teams by QP in an 8-team double-elimination bracket. Three Minors run per yearly cycle, and the playoffs award Tournament Points (TP), which accumulate across all three Minors to determine Major qualification.
• The Major is the capstone of the cycle — a closed tournament run in the same 8-team double-elimination format as a Minor playoff, contested by the top 8 teams by total TP accumulated across the year's three Minors.

Every matchup is a best-of series — the first team to win a majority of rounds takes the match. Series length increases as the stakes rise, with the longest series reserved for the bracket finals and the Grand Final.

• Qualifier matches — best of 5. First team to 3 round wins.
• Playoff bracket matches — best of 7. First team to 4 round wins. Applies to every Winners and Losers bracket match except the bracket finals.
• Winners Final & Losers Final — best of 9. First team to 5 round wins.
• Grand Final — best of 11. First team to 6 round wins. If the Losers-bracket team wins the Grand Final, a Grand Final Reset is played — also a best of 11 — to crown the champion.

• All teams and team members sign up through the valis.gg website. Every participant needs a valis.gg account.
• All roster management is done on valis.gg. Players request to join a team; any captain can approve the request. Teams may register up to 20 players.
• Every team needs at least one English-speaking captain. The team creator is automatically a captain and may promote other members — up to 3 captains per team.
• Roster locks — when your roster is open vs. locked. Roster locks only apply to teams actively registered in a qualifier week or playoff bracket. If your team isn't competing in the current stage, your roster stays unlocked the entire time — add, drop, and manage players freely. For teams that are competing, locks exist so the team that registers is the team that plays, and how long they last depends on the stage:
  • Qualifier weeks: When you register for a qualifier week, your roster stays open right up until the Saturday those games are played — you can still add or drop players during the week. It then reopens the following Monday when registration opens for the next week. So each qualifier week is only a short weekend lock.
  • Minor & major playoffs: Playoff rosters lock on the first weekend games are played and stay locked until the tournament concludes. Because playoffs run across all 3 weeks, the roster remains locked for the entire bracket — no joins, leaves, promotions, or kicks — until it has been fully played out.
• A player may be registered on only one team per tournament, per region.
• Your VALIS account username must match your in-game name to be eligible to play.
• Sharing accounts or using alts is strictly prohibited.
• Teams that field an undeclared or non-approved player may be penalized, up to and including removal from the entire event.
• By registering, teams and players agree to abide by these rules and to allow coverage of their matches by approved streamers.

A team needs at least seven (7) members to take part in any tournament. Advancing between tiers also carries participation requirements:

Each Qualifier-and-Minor series runs over eight weeks:

• The schedule for the Major is published prior to the event.
• Exact start times for all events are posted on the valis.gg website.

How a Qualifier Day Runs

Qualifiers run start-to-finish in one sitting. When the posted default start time arrives, the bracket begins and plays straight through — as soon as a round finishes and the next round's matchups are set, that round begins automatically. A team keeps playing back-to-back rounds until it either wins the qualifier or is eliminated. There is no separate scheduling between rounds, so make sure your roster is available for the entire event window, not just your first match.

How Playoff Weeks Run

The Minor and Major playoffs are 8-team double-elimination brackets run across three weeks. Each week is a single session that plays through two rounds of the bracket back-to-back — once the first round of the week finishes and teams are seeded into the next round, that round begins automatically, exactly like a qualifier day. The rounds that run each week are fixed:

How many matches you play in a given week depends on your run through the bracket:

• Week 1 — every team plays two matches: the opening round, then either the Winners Semifinal (if you won) or Losers Round 1 (if you lost).
• Week 2 — one or two matches: teams fighting through the losers bracket play two (Losers Round 2, then Losers Round 3). The two teams that reach the Winners Final play only that one match — staying undefeated earns a lighter week, since the winners bracket is the shorter path.
• Week 3 — the finals: the Losers Final winner plays twice (the Losers Final, then the Grand Final). The Grand Final can add a third match if a Grand Final Reset is triggered.
• Teams eliminated along the way simply finish sooner — a knocked-out team plays fewer matches that week.

The home team is the team listed on top in the bracket. The home team hosts the lobby — that means making sure the room settings are correct, that players from both teams plus any streamers or staff can access the room, and that streamers and staff are set to the spectator role for the whole series.

• No spectators are permitted unless officially verified by the tournament organizers. Permitted spectators are official VALIS streamers and their approved commentators.
• Streamers always broadcast on a 7-minute delay.

This can be two of the same vehicle or two different vehicles drawn from the list below:

• Autoloaders — max 3 per team. Includes standard autoloaders, auto-reloaders, and double-barrel-capable tanks, even when a single-fire package is equipped.
• Tank Destroyers — max 1 per team.
• No more than two of the same tank may be fielded in a single round by a team. Tanks with identical stats count as the same tank regardless of variant (the 5A and the QL are considered different tanks).

• If an illegal lineup is fielded, all players must return to the garage before any tank is detected or damaged by either team. Either team may initiate this.
• Once everyone is back in the garage, notify the opposing team and all spectators. Teams then re-select the same tanks, changing only the illegal ones.
• This correction is allowed once per match by each team. Subsequent mistakes result in forfeited rounds.
• A restart for a disconnect may also be requested under the same condition (before any tank is detected or damaged), and it counts as the team's one allowed mistake.
• On a restart, players may switch between tanks as long as the lineup follows the rule above.

Maps are predetermined for each round and posted on valis.gg during the registration window. The home team starts on the left side (defense), and sides alternate every round. The tiebreaker is Ghost Town MBA with the host team defending.

A traditional pick-and-ban system is used. Before each match both teams ban one map; the host then picks the first map and teams alternate picks from there. On each map, the team that did not pick it chooses its starting side (attack or defense).

• The home team creates the custom game lobby. If a lobby is not created within 5 minutes of the start time, the home team forfeits the series. The first round's start time is on valis.gg; subsequent rounds begin when the series match chat becomes available.
• Name the lobby "TEAM vs TEAM". Truncated team names are fine as long as they are identifiable.
• The first round should launch no later than 10 minutes after the scheduled start. In later matches, it should launch within 10 minutes of the match chat opening.
• If an official streamer is broadcasting the match: do not start until scoring for the previous match has been fully updated — that is, the prior result has been reported and the winning team has been seeded so this match's chat is open. The streamer will post in the match chat when they are ready to proceed. This gives streamers a few minutes to adjust to the new matchup.
• If a team is not complete 10 minutes after the scheduled time, it may play short-handed or forfeit. If no member of a team is present 10 minutes after the scheduled time, the win is awarded to the opposing team.
• Reporting the score: when the series ends, a captain from each team posts the final score in the match chat for that match on valis.gg. Staff record the result from the chat and advance the bracket — the match chat is the official place to report tournament scores.
• Both teams should screenshot the post-battle results screens. Screenshots are the primary evidence if a score is disputed, and misreporting a score is treated as a false report — it may void the match and incur a penalty.

• Contact staff using the "Need Staff" button in the match chat on valis.gg.
• Raise any concern or dispute immediately. Because of the tournament's pace, staff cannot guarantee a satisfactory outcome unless they are notified early enough to resolve the issue.
• Swiftness matters. If you believe a team is slowing the match, flag staff in the match chat. The tournament will not be held up by teams that fail to act quickly, and staff may disqualify teams for intentional stalling.
• Staff may reasonably modify any rule to facilitate completing the tournament. Decisions by tournament staff are final and not subject to further review.