League Overview
Overview
The American Grifball League of America (AGLA) is a Grifball league run by PlayGrifball that utilizes a variety of league structures to create teams. The current revision of the rules is intended for use during the Summer League 2021 (SL21) season.
Summer League 2021
SL21 will be run using the “classic” league format. Under this format, players are free to form teams of four to seven players with whoever they wish. Teams will play 10-12 games over the course of a five-week regular season, with the top teams at the end of the season making it into playoffs.
The SL21 season of the AGLA will be played on Halo 3 on the Master Chief Collection. Players on both PC and Xbox One are eligible to participate.
Official courts and gametypes can be found in the file share of SonicNachos. Primary gametypes and courts used for SL21 are listed below:
Gametype: AGLA Grifball
Map: AGLA Foundry
How to Download Gametypes and Maps:
From the MCC Main Menu, access your Roster (click the little “person” icon next to your name on PC, or press the specified button on console, usually X).
Click on your name (on console, highlight your name and press A).
Select Find Player.
Enter the Gamertag you wish to access the file share of. For league gametypes and courts, you will want to enter SonicNachos.
On the Player Details screen, select File Share.
Go to either Game Types or Map Variants, depending on the type of file you’re searching for, then hit Select.
Select the file you wish to download and hit Save.
League Administration
The AGLA is run by PlayGrifball, the official home of Grifball. PlayGrifball leadership consists of:
AGLA Administrators:
Silva
Priest XYZ
nkotB4evah
Menz
TheAlphaTurtle
Doerstopper
Date and Deadline Clarification
For the purposes of the AGLA, weeks run from Monday through Sunday. All deadlines are 11:59:59 EST, unless specified otherwise.
Prizes
Prizes may be offered on a season-by-season basis at the discretion of the administration. The administration will make any announcements regarding prizes prior to or during registration for the season in question whenever possible.
For Spring League 2020, Community Points are awarded to the seasons’ champions and to other teams based on performance and number of games played. Points can be awarded for the following (all listed numbers are per-player):
20,000 CP: Championship Winner
5,000 CP: Championship Runner-up
3,000 CP: Winning an MVP award
1,500 CP: Winning other regular-season awards (e.g. Best Runner, Best Tank, etc.)
500 CP: Registering for SL21*
*Note: A team must play at least 50% of its regular season games in order for its players to be eligible for the 500 CP registration bonus.
Players must be a member of the Official Grifball Discord to be eligible to receive Community Points. Points can be exchanged in the Discord for cash or a number of other prizes at certain amounts. For full rules and regulations regarding Community Points, see the #points-information channel in the Discord server.
Signups
Registration
Registration for Summer League 2021 is currently open and will run until August 9th at 11:59pm EST.
Players may only register under a single gamertag for the league. In addition to current gamertag and other basic information, players are required to provide a list of prior gamertags used in past seasons and other organized Grifball events. Players are also required to provide a list of days and times they will be available to play during the season (to the best of their knowledge) as well as any specific days they will not be available.
All players who participate in the AGLA are expected to abide by these rules as well as the PlayGrifball Code of Conduct. Players who violate the Code of Conduct or Discord rules may be subject to suspensions or bans from the AGLA and/or the PlayGrifball community.
Rosters
Overview
For SL21, a draft system will be utilized. Players will indicate upon signups, their intention to captain during the season. Once signups are completed, the appropriate number of captains will be determined.
A standard style draft will take place once signups have ended which will determine the teams for the SL21 season.
Roster Size
Roster sizes will depend on the number of signups for the SL21 season. However, they will be kept to five (5) players as best as possible. A situation could occur where one or two teams have more than five (5) players.
Roster Moves
Teams may trade players until the end of week three of the regular season. In order for a trade to be completed, a captain must notify the player being traded, prior to accepting the trade. Once both captains have agreed to the trade, it will move to the administration for approval. If a player requests a trade, it is the captain’s responsibility to try and find a trade for them in good faith.
Substitutions
Should a team be unable to field a lineup from their normal roster, they may use a player not on their roster as a substitute, so long as the substitute player is not on the roster of the opposing team. The use of any substitute players must be approved by the opposing team’s captain.
Regular Season
Game Scheduling
Following registration, the league schedule will be drafted based on each teams stated availability. Though the administration will try to draft the schedule to fit the availability provided by all teams, in rare situations, it is possible that there may be a matchup between two teams where no possible date/time can be found for a match that works for both teams. If such a situation occurs, preference may be given to the team with better availability.
Gametime Procedure
Games are expected to start promptly at the scheduled time. Teams are expected to arrive prepared and in a timely manner to avoid delaying the start of the game as games will often be played back-to-back on the same night.
If a team has still not arrived for a game 15 minutes after the scheduled time, the opposing team may choose to wait if they wish or to reschedule for a later time. Any such reschedules will be considered a “last-minute reschedule” against the team that was not present and may be subject to a forfeit judgement in accordance with section 4.4, depending on the reason for the team’s absence.
Neutral Hosts
Some Halo titles, such as Halo 5: Guardians, use dedicated servers for custom games and, as such, host advantage is not a concern. In other titles, such as the Master Chief Collection, dedicated servers are not available for custom games and games are instead hosted by one of the participants in the game. As host is known to generally provide a competitive advantage if it is held by one of the on-court players, teams may prefer to use a neutral host in games that do not have dedicated servers.
The method by which the host of a game is decided can vary depending on the game. In the Master Chief Collection, host is always given to the leader of the lobby. In order to neutral host a game in MCC, an additional participant not playing in the game will take lobby lead and host the game so that neither team has an on-court host advantage. The host of the game will be chosen by one of the team captains according to the following progression:
Home team’s preferred neutral host
Away team’s preferred neutral host
Home team on-court host
Away team on-court host
If the administration deems a particular host “unplayable,” any team may veto the use of that host regardless of who requests them.
Teams should have their desired neutral host chosen and ready to go prior to the start of the game – should the home team be unable to get their neutral host online by 15 minutes after the scheduled start time and the away team’s preferred host is available, the game will be played on the away team’s preferred host.
Reschedules and Forfeits
Teams are strongly encouraged to work with each other as best as possible when it comes to scheduling/rescheduling. If both captains involved in each game agree, teams can reschedule as many games as they wish. When teams cannot make an agreement on a reschedule, the following rules will be followed by administration:
Reschedules requested at least one hour prior to the scheduled start time (or agreed upon time) will never result in a forfeit. If a team requests a forfeit win, the team that requested the reschedule must prove their advance notice of a reschedule request.
Reschedules requested within one hour of the scheduled start time (or agreed upon time) are eligible for forfeit judgement. Teams requesting such a last-minute reschedule must provide a reasonable explanation as to why they were unable to provide advance notice of the reschedule. The administration may award a forfeit judgement on a case-by-case basis depending on the reason for the last-minute reschedule. Generally, last-minute reschedules due to circumstances outside of a team’s control will not result in forfeits.
A game that needs to be rescheduled due to a team not showing within 15 minutes of the scheduled start time will follow the same reschedule rules as a last-minute reschedule.
Stoppages of Play
As AGLA games are played online, situations may arise where game conditions make normal play difficult or impossible, such as debilitating lag, players disconnecting, or bugs in the game or on the court.
In the event that such a situation occurs, all players on a team must crouch to signal a stoppage of play. Captains may then discuss the situation and how to resume the match. Teams are not to kill their opponents or score during a stoppage of play, and should either remain in the same position on the court they were in when the stoppage was called or go back to their respective spawns.
Teams are only to crouch during extreme circumstances. Intentionally calling for a stoppage of play, or intentionally leaving a game or using other methods to cause a disconnect or other abnormal playing conditions on the court is considered to be cheating and will be disciplined accordingly.
In determining how to resume play, the following rules should be followed:
If one team clearly had possession of the ball, the game should resume with that team maintaining possession at the position on the court at which they had possession when the play was stopped.
If neither team had possession, but one team was clearly in position to take possession, that team should have possession when play resumes.
If neither team had possession, the ball should be reset with both teams starting from their spawn areas.
If possession is in doubt, the captains should discuss what course of action to take. If no agreement can be reached, game film should be consulted to determine who should start with possession.
Disputes
If a team believes that irregular playing conditions unfairly altered the result of the game, they may dispute the results. Games may be disputed if:
Debilitating lag, connection issues, game bugs, errors, or other irregular situations directly impact the final score of the game.
A team cheats or otherwise violates a game integrity rule.
To dispute a game:
The disputing team must ensure that at least one game clip showing the irregular situation is saved and available at XboxDVR.com.
Submit the dispute with a description of the play in dispute along with the XboxDVR link to PlayGrifball Administration.
The administration will review the play in dispute and make a decision to either let the result stand, replay one or more rounds of the game, or to award a forfeit, depending on the situation and it affected the game’s outcome.
Playoffs
Overview
Playoff cutoffs for the SL21 season will be announced once registration is closed and the number of participating teams is known.
All playoff matchups take the form of a best-of-three series. The first team to win two games wins the series. Should a team win the first two games of a series, the third game will not be played.
The administration reserves the right to livestream all playoff series.
Tiebreakers
In the event of a tie between two or more teams for a playoff spot, the following tiebreakers will be used:
Win percentage
Head-to-head record
Head-to-head goals efficiency
Overall goals efficiency
Single game playoff
Note that in Halo titles where games end once a team scores 5 goals, goal efficiency (goals scored divided by the sum of goals scored and goals against) will be used in place of goals scored.
Playoff Neutral Hosts and Vetos
Given the new structure for SL21, playoff game and host choice has yet to be determined.
Both teams are allowed to veto a single neutral host up until the date of the playoff series. Teams must inform the opposing captain directly of which neutral host they intend to veto. For example, if a series is scheduled for Thursday at 9pm, teams have until Wednesday at 11:59pm to inform the opposing team of the host they have vetoed. Once the deadline passes, the team has waived the right to veto a host.
A vetoed host is prohibited from neutral hosting the series unless the vetoing team rescinds the veto.
Player Awards
During the playoffs, the following awards will be announced based on regular season performance:
MVP – awarded to the player who was the most valuable to his/her team.
Top Runner Award – Awarded to the best runner during the regular season.
Top Tank Award – Awarded to the best tank during the regular season.
Top Hybrid Award – Awarded to the best hybrid during the regular season.
Top Defender Award – Awarded to the top defender during the regular season.
Top Sword Award – Awarded to the top sword user during the regular season.
Rule Changes and Administrative Discretion
Conflict of Interest
League administration is expected to make fair and impartial judgments and it is expected for an administrator to recuse themselves from decisions involving their team.
Rule Changes
The AGLA rules and PlayGrifball Code of Conduct are written and managed by PlayGrifball staff and AGLA administration and are subject to change. Any changes to the rules or code of conduct rules will be announced to the community with as much advance notice as possible.
Administrative Discretion
PlayGrifball staff and AGLA administration reserve the right to handle any league or player conduct situation not covered by these rules or the Code of Conduct in whichever manner they determine is appropriate, and hold the final say in any decision made concerning the PlayGrifball website, community, or the AGLA.