ESEA FAQs

The process of sharing your favorite moments is simple and quick. We've created a system in-game that allows you to select the highlight you want that will automatically process and upload to our Twitch page.

To start the clip creation process, ensure that you have clips available on your profile. You can see how many clips are available in the top right panel on the website.

Once you've confirmed how many clips you have, join an ESEA match and wait for your moment to happen. When you want to record, type .clip in the CS:GO chat box and a menu will pop up which will allow you to customize your clip.Clip options are:Round Selection

Player Selection:

Customize Clip:

Once you have submitted your clip our systems will begin processing the request. Depending on how many clips are being created it can take up to 24 hours for your clip to process. Once it has been processed you will receive a private message on our website that will link you directly to the clip you requested. From there you are able to use the tools available on Twitch to further edit the length of the clip.

For unsubscribed players:

First head to our subscribe page and select your subscription tier

Next, select your subscription length:

1 month of ESEA Premium: $6.95 (no discount)

3 months of ESEA Premium $15 (25% off)

6 months of ESEA Premium $25 (34% off)

12 months of ESEA Premium $35 (50% off)

3 months of ESEA Insider $30 (30% off)Please note these are only available when checking out through Xsolla using the "SEASON33" code and they do not include any local VAT (if applicable).

Next, select your payment method. Xsolla offer hundreds of options including PayPal, credit card, Amazon Pay, Paysafecard and more.

Then, proceed to the checkout and select "Have a promo code?" and enter "SEASON33"

Hit "pay now" and you're good to go!If you have any questions please reach out to us via a support ticket

For currently Premium/Insider players:

Unfortunately, current subscribers have a couple of additional steps in order to take part in the sale.

You will have to purchase a code via our merchant account on Kinguin. You can then activate the code via this page once your current membership has expired.Direct links are available below:

3 month Premium

6 month Premium

12 month Premium

3 month Insider

If this is not suitable for you please reach out to us via a support ticket and we will try to find a workaround for you.

The following conduct policy is a guideline on how to not be banned, but it is not black and white. Treat others with respect and play at a competitive level when playing in our game servers to avoid any disciplinary action being taken against your accountThe following but not limited to will result in your account being temporarily banned.

Engaging in racism, sexism, homophobia, or any other type of discriminatory behavior

Personal Attacks, Threats, real-life or internet (ie: DDoS)

Telling users to kill and or harm themselves

Intentionally suiciding in-game (IE: Throwing a Molotov and then standing in it, dying on purpose)

Intentionally giving the bomb to your opponents

Intentionally running and not firing at your opponents

Intentionally not completing the objective (IE: Running aimlessly around the spawn refusing to participate with the other players in a meaningful way)

Purposely avoiding the AFK filter (+left/+right)

Giving away their teammates positions via chat or repeatedly shooting them (ghosting)

Intentionally blocking teammates

Intentionally team flashing teammates

Disciplinary systemsIn order to monitor player behavior, ESEA uses several systems on the backend. This means disciplinary action could be taken weeks after the offense has occurred or longer. Although we do not publicly specify how these systems work, in order to prevent players from trying to manipulate the systems, you can file a pug conduct report immediately after your pug here whereone of our pug conduct staff will be happy to assist you.If a user you are playing with is actively breaking our community conduct policy then you can vote with other players to kick them from your game immediately. Players may be kicked for violating the above conduct policy.

Block systemIf a player is acting inappropriately but not in a way that is kickable then you can add them to your block list. This prevents all communication between you and the person you blocked as well as giving you a high chance to avoid being matched to the same team as them again. Blocks currently expire after 6 weeks. You can find out more about the block system here

Profile images

Players should not use their profile images in a way to provoke or upset other players. Examples of subjects to be avoided:

Terrorism

War

Real-world violence/gore

Attacking other's religious beliefs

Racist content

Pornography

Posting other player's personal information or photographs of other players that are not the account owner in order to harass them

Due to the sheer volume of player profiles, we would ask that if you see anyone violating these profile image restrictions then please make a support ticket here linking to their profile.

We at ESEA reserve the right to amend, add/remove, or adjust these policies at any time.

Current League Administrators Aluminati (League Commissioner) Nessy North America

VENOMKZ (Head of CS:GO)

captain (Mountain Dew League Coordinator)

prodo

Bowman

vaz

Funshine

tri_

Europe

r00cky (Pro League Coordinator)

crosik (Mountain Dew League Coordinator)

Gabrielel

Brazil

No Brazil-specific administrators

Asia-Pacific

No Asia-specific administrators

Australia

No Australia-specific administrators

The cheat community has grown increasingly sophisticated with their techniques to circumvent VAC, ESEA, and other anti-cheats. In the past there have been multiple instances of high profile players being caught cheating online and based on the data we have analyzed over several months, it's our strong belief that there continue to be factions of players using cheats to gain an unfair competitive advantage. The latest generation of cheats, which are designed similarly to malware, gain an advantage when loading before anti-cheat tools. It's customary at live tournaments to not even allow players to connect thumb drives or other USB enabled devices out of fear that an illegal cheat could be used. After much deliberation and under the careful guidance of legal, security, and privacy experts, the ESEA Client takes a more active and aggressive approach, similar to the publicly available anti-virus software, to monitoring the activities around Counter-Strike in order to combat these efforts. We have worked closely with professional counsel to create transparent disclosures about the invasive nature of the Client and define clear and appropriate internal security protocols to protect our users from unauthorized access of Client and user data. We understand these extra security layers might make some uneasy, but it is our firm belief this is a necessary step to protect our customers who seek the fairest environment for online Counter-Strike game play.

Below are some of the more common questions we see about our anti-cheat.

Are you looking at my browsing history and bank information? The ESEA Client only monitors activities that take place in and around our supported games. Accessing your bank account or any personal websites you browse daily, even while a supported game is in use, are not a part of what the ESEA Client is monitoring. Are my personal files safe? The ESEA Client only accesses files which may be used to aid in cheating. Sensitive personal data is not being monitored or scanned. Does the ESEA Client monitor or log my messaging applications, such as Steam messages or voice conversations? The ESEA Client does not monitor or log activity from messaging applications, nor is this of interest to us. We do, however, monitor and log messages you write while connected in ESEA servers (via say/say_team). This allows ESEA to enforce our community rules, much like we do on the forums. Who can access our anti-cheat data? Only members of our exclusive Anti-Cheat Team will have any access to anti-cheat data. We deploy strict protocols and have worked with privacy and security experts to make sure your data remains private. General and League administrators do not have access to any of this information. Why is the ESEA Client "Always On"? Much like the leading anti-virus software, which are always running to prevent or detect viruses, the ESEA Client is running to prevent or detect cheats that may be running on a computer. This "Always On" feature is a necessary layer for the ever evolving cheaters we as a community face.

What techniques does the ESEA Client use to detect cheaters?

The ESEA Client uses proprietary techniques to protect and enforce fairplay for the ESEA platform as well as any tournaments and events hosted on ESEA. While these techniques are proprietary and could assist cheat developers if we divulge detailed information, occasionally it is beneficial to the Anti-Cheat and esports industry to share some of our technological advancements.

If you believe a player was violating our conduct policy or kicked you invalidly then please use the following process to report them:

First, head to our support ticket system here and select to open a "PUG Conduct report".

Next, name your ticket along the lines of "PUG Conduct Report"

After that, please enter into the description as much detail as you can about the incident. At minimum please include:

The player whom you are reporting

The link to the match that you are reporting them for

More information about the incident. For example, did it occur via voice chat, text chat, in-game conduct (such as team-flashing or blocking) etc

If possible try to include the round numbers or rough part of the match where the incident took place.

In general, the more information you can provide us in your ticket the more we can hone in on the exact moment you are reporting for in order to give you a speedy resolution rather than repeatedly trying to go back and forth to identify the incident.

It is not possible to use the ESEA client while Hypervisor is enabled. We understand that some users need to use Hypervisor for work-related reasons but we are unable to make any exceptions and it must be disabled in order to use the ESEA client.

How do I disable Hypervisor?

All you need to do is open an elevated command prompt (run as administrator) then type the following:

bcdedit /set hypervisorlaunchtype offbcdedit /deletevalue nointegritychecks

After that just restart your computer and your Client should load as expected.

If you are not using a genuine copy of Windows.

It is highlyadvised that you do not attempt to fix this any other way than installing and using a genuineversion of Windows. Any attempt at fixing this error will most likely cause you to experience boot issues.

I am using a genuineversion of windows.

It is rare for this to happen if yourversion of Windows is genuine. If you are confident that it is and want to take the risk you may fix this by opening an elevated command prompt (run as administrator) then type the following:

bcdedit /deletevalue nointegritychecks

At this point just restart your computer and your Client should load as expected.

You are still able to recover your account if you have access to the Steam account attached to the ESEA account and know the email address that is currently attached to the ESEA account.Visit the account recovery panel and fill out all of the information to begin the account recovery process.

What if my account is currentlyPremium or Insider?

If your account is currently being paid for through PayPal.com before you lost access to it and you cannot complete theprocess above, please open a support ticket on a new account to have your problem resolved as soon as possible.

If the account you are trying to obtain access to is no longer being paid for through PayPal.com than we will not change the information on it to allow you access and your only other option must be to create a new account.

General rules:

Any team marked dead (due to forfeiting at least three matches during the regular season, hijacking a spot, having one or less paid players) will be removed at the end of the Season.

Counter Strike: Global OffensiveMDL Divisions:

Move up and move downs to the MDL division will be done through a relegation tournament the format of which will be announced before each season has begun.

Move downs in Open, Intermediate, Main and Advanced:

Teams with less than 6 wins will be moved down at the end of the season to the division directly below, ie Advanced will demote to Main, Main to Intermediate and Intermediate to Open.

European & North American Move ups:

Teams will be moved up based on the total number of teams registered in the division:

Open division:

Between 17-31 teams

1st-4th to Intermediate

Between 32-63 teams

1st to Main

2nd-8th to Intermediate

Between 64-127 teams

1st-2nd to Main

3rd-16th to Intermediate

Between 128-255 teams

1st-4th to Main

5th-32nd to Intermediate

Between 256-511 teams

1st to Advanced

2nd-8th to Main

9th-64th to Intermediate

Between 512-1023 teams

1st to Advanced

2nd-16th to Main

17th-128th to Intermediate

Intermediate division:

Between 32-63 teams

1st-8th to Main

Between 64-127 teams

1st to Advanced

1st-16th to Main

Between 128-255 teams

1st to Advanced

2nd-32nd to Main

Between 256-511 teams

1st to Advanced

2nd-64th to Main

Between 512-1023 teams

1st-2nd to Advanced

3rd-128 to Main

Main division:

Between 32-63 teams

1st-4th to Advanced

Between 64-127 teams

1st-8th to Advanced

Between 128-255 teams

1st-16th to Advanced

Between 256-511 teams

1st-32nd to Advanced

Other regions:

In all regions where there is only a single Open division then the top teams will not move up to any division. We will try to add higher divisions in all regions which we are confident can support two separate divisions.

Team Fortress 2:

Open division:

Between 17-31 teams

1st-4th to Intermediate

Between 32-63 teams

1st-8th to Intermediate

Between 64-127 teams

1st-16th to Intermediate

Invite division:The TF2 Invite division shall be composed of:

The top 6 Invite teams from the previous season

The top 2 Intermediate teams

The remaining slot shall be reserved for a direct Invite each season

Pugs are sorted based on your ESEA Rank. The balance of your pug greatly depends on the people playing at the time you're playing. We create the best possible pug with the players available from the queue so that you have the most competitive match possible at the timeEventually,it will start to widen the gap (to a degree) between ranks so that the queue time remainsreasonable and that a pug can be played. As an example. it is not unusual to be rank A- and have teammates that are B or B+.

Between seasons:

For divisions above Open up to and including the MDL, for a team's spot to be maintained between seasons, a team must have 2 players who participated during the prior season (through playing a match) on the roster at the close of registration. Failure to do so will result in a demotion to Open.

During the season:

For divisions above Open up to and including Advanced, for a team's spot to be maintained once the regular season begins, a team must use 2 players per match who participated during the prior season (through playing a match) in 3 out of the first 4 matches played (i.e. not including forfeits) of the season.

For the MDL division, for a team's spot to be maintained once the regular season begins, a team must use 2 players per match who participated during the prior season (through playing a match) in 8 out of the first 9 matches played (i.e. not including forfeits) of the season.

Failure to meet these requirements will result in each match that the team did not meet the roster requirements being forfeit. Matches will continue to be forfeit until either the team is marked as inactive (after 3 forfeit loses) or until the team has met their roster requirement.

CONTENTS

1 - Introduction2 - Location3 - Code of Conduct4 - Cheating5 - Server Locations6 - Communication7 - Team Selection8 - Map Selection9 - Match Format10 - Points11 - Daily Prizes (EU/NA)12- Pauses13 - Match Cancels14 - Move ups15 - Move downs16 - Media17 - Streaming18 - Punishment19 - Agreement

1 - INTRODUCTION

Congratulations on being accepted into ESEAs Rank S platform. Were excited to have you here and we hope youre excited to be here. This handbook will serve as your official guide and contains rules and regulations that all players in Rank S must abide by. Failure to read this handbook is not an excuse when failing to comply to the rules and regulations that are listed within.

ESEA and its partners, reserve the right to change the handbook at any time. Failure to read or understand the changes made are not an excuse when failing to comply.

In the rules and regulations that follow, mentions of the ESEA Community Manager refer toJackson "el_jack0" Wolf. Any additional questions about the information contained within can be directed to him via the ESEA discord.

2 - LOCATION

Any player competing in Rank S is required to qualify and play from the region they currently reside in. In the event that a player qualifies in any region (ex: Brazil) and is required to move for any reason to a new location that would put him in a different region (ex: North America), he must contact an admin and request a transfer. Players looking to exploit this region transfer in an effort to manipulate the qualification process will be liable to punishment, as listed in the chart in Section 19.

3 - CODE OF CONDUCT

As a player in Rank S, you will serve as an example to all players in the ESEA system. As such, ESEA will hold you to the highest possible standard of behavior in both Rank S games and all ESEA pugs. The following are forms of inappropriate behavior that may be deemed punishable by ESEA and its admin staff:

Flaming.Trolling.Inappropriate ESEA username.Intoxicated or under the influence during play.Disrespecting an admin.Going AFK without warning.General Toxic Behavior.Dodging Queues

Any player believed to have violated the rules above will speak to the ESEA Community Manager regarding the violation and will be issued punishment based on the chart in Section 19.

The following behaviors are entirely unacceptable and can result in an immediate removal from Rank S and a ban from the ESEA platform as a whole.

Discrimination/Hate Speech.Repeated intentional Team Attack/Team KillingGriefing/Server disruptionLeaving GamesMatch ManipulationGhostingStream SnipingAccount SharingCheating

Any player believed to have violated the rules above will speak to the ESEA Community Manager regarding the violation and will be issued punishment based on the severity of the issue. Players violating this portion of the conduct policy will be expected to apologize in a public manner for their actions before ever being considered for reinstatement in the Rank S platform.

In the instance that you as a player believe that another player has violated the Code of Conduct, please make a support ticket citing the specific user, description of the violation and a link to the match where the violation took place. Our admin team will investigate to determine if a punishment is necessary.

4 - CHEATING

Under no circumstances should anyone seek to cheat in Rank S. If a player is convicted of cheating on the ESEA platform, they will be subsequently banned for a period of 2 years per ESEA policy. Additionally, they will be removed from Rank S and not re-invited after their ban expires. Users wishing to compete in Rank S after receiving a cheating ban, will have to qualify again via the Rank S system. These players are not eligible to invited back nor will they be moved directly should they meet the reasons specified in Section 15.

5 - SERVER LOCATIONS

All matches in Rank S will be played on the ESEA client in the following server locations based on the current region(s) of play:

North America: Dallas, DenverEurope: Frankfurt

Any connection issues with any server should be reported to our technical department through a support ticket. Support tickets will get you connected with our tech team and the information you provide will better help us resolve your issue. Your ticket could also prove beneficial to future users experiencing similar problems.

6 - COMMUNICATION

Communication is an important aspect to a game such as CS:GO. Players are not just urged to use their mics for the game, it is required. Not having a microphone or communication device is not a valid excuse for violating this rule. Further, muting your team or yourself or disconnecting from the voice communication server at any time is not acceptable. Abusing the voice communication server or in game voice communication system by spamming ones microphone or joining channels for teams and games you are not a part of is also unacceptable behavior. Any player caught doing any of the above, may be subject to punishment as seen in the chart in Section 19. If you believe a player has committed such offenses, please report these issues through a support request on the ESEA website. If a player is ACTIVELY committing such offenses, requests to resolve the issue immediately may be made directly to the Community Manager or one of our dedicated admins.

7 - TEAM SELECTION

Rank S matches will start when 10 players queue simultaneously for Rank S and accept the match. At that point, the 2 captains will be selected and the picking of the teams roster will begin in the following order:

A B B A A B B A

8 - MAP SELECTION

The maps played in Rank S will follow the maps played in the current competitive rotation, with some exceptions based on the popularity of the map prior to its removal from the rotation. The current maps are as follows:

Inferno, Nuke, Overpass, Mirage, Cache, Train and Dust 2.

Captains will select the maps by banning out maps they wish to not play until one is left. The ban order is:

B, A, B, A, B, A, B

9 - MATCH FORMAT

All Rank S matches are BO1.

Knife Round: Players will start the game with a knife round. Winner selects side start.Regulation: Rank S games will play a total of 15 rounds before switching sides at halftime. Servers will be running the same competitive configuration as ESEA/ESL league servers. In the event of a 15-15 tie score, overtime MUST be played out.Overtime: Players remain on the team they were on during regulation and will play 3 rounds before swapping sides at half. Players will start each half with $16,000, the maximum allowable amount. Play will continue in this fashion until a winner can be found.

10 - POINTS

Once a match has concluded a player will receive 6 points for being on the winning team or will lose 4 points for being on the losing team. If you are to lose a game when you are 0 points, you cannot go negative and will remain at 0. Points on the leaderboard cannot be transferred to other players and are yours and yours alone. Points are non-redeemable and have 0 cash value.

11 - DAILY PRIZES (NA AND EU)

Throughout the course of a play period (24 hours), players will accumulate points as mentioned in Section 10 above. At the end of the play period, the 5 players with the most points will be rewarding with the following prizes:

1st: $1000

2nd: $625

3rd: $525

4th: $450

5th: $400

(All prizes shown in USD)

Upon the start of a new play period, points will reset and players who won will be contacted by the ESEA prizes division on the email address associated with their ESEA account. In the event of a tie, the tied members will share the prizes equally. Example: 1st and 2nd place tie, the total prize is $625 which translates to $312.50. There is no limit to the number of players that can tie in a given play period.

Upon the start of a new play period, points will reset and players who won will be contacted by the ESEA prizes division on the email address associated with their ESEA account. In the event of a tie, the tied members will share the prizes equally. Example: 1st and 2nd place tie, the total prize is $225 which translates to $112.50. There is no limit to the number of players that can tie in a given play period.

12 - PAUSES

If for any reason a technical issue is to occur or a player needs to step away for any reason or a team wishes to take a timeout to talk over strategies, a pause can be initiated by either team. Upon pausing the game, a reason MUST be given for the pause. Reasons for a pause should be legitimate and breaks should be kept to a minimum. Abusing the pause functionality can be punishable under the discretion of an ESEA admin. The command to initiate a pause, is .tac for pauses of a tactical nature or .tech for pauses of a technical nature.

If a player is believed to have faked technical issues, such as connection problems, ESEA admins reserve the right to punish the offender following the punishment guidelines in Section 19.

In the event that a technical issue effects all users in a server and results in a game that is either unplayable, unable to be completed or was heavily affected by the bug, the game will be cancelled and no players will gain nor receive points.

13 - MATCH CANCELS

In the event that a technical issue results in a pause deemed too long or the issue cannot be resolved, the teams may agree to cancel the match. However, should the score be close to completion or an absolute blowout (i.e. 15-9, 13-1) it is preferred by ESEA staff to see the match played out. By cancelling matches at blowout score lines, it opens the door to fraudulent tech issues in an effort to prevent losing/gaining points/money and thus, fixing the scoreboard for the benefit of the offender. As mentioned above, this entirely unacceptable but its better to not allow the possibility of it occurring. Any match that is cancelled will have no effect on points standings. Its as if the match never happened.

14 - MOVE UPS

The top 2 players from Rank G will be moved up every season (In AUS/BR the top player from A+ weekends will be moved into rank s.) Every player moved up from Rank G (or A+ depending upon region) plays under a provisional period. If it is found that the player is not fitting in well, he will be moved back to Rank G (or A+ depending upon region) and spoken to by the Community Manager to explain the reason for his removal. The following are also methods for players to Move Up into Rank S:

ESEA Staff Discretion. Only when a player is believed to be a strong presence in our community.Qualifying for ESL Pro League.Qualifying for the MDL Global Challenge.

15 - MOVE DOWNS

To accommodate users moving up from Rank G, ESEA will move down up to 2 players at the end of every season (up to 5 in BR/AUS.) The following are reasons a user may be moved out of Rank S:

Lack of activity.Poor performance.Excessive player complaints.Excessive violation of Conduct Policy

In addition, ESEA reserves the right to remove any users it deems fit, at any point in time. While this is an unlikely scenario, occasionally players will find ways to disrupt the competitive nature of Rank S or seek to use malicious means to produce a favorable end result. In instances such as these, where the rulebook may not explicitly state the nature of their malfeasance as illegal, ESEA needs to be able to remove or somethings even ban these players to retain the competitive integrity of Rank S.

The only players exempt from move downs based on the above reasons, are those actively competing in ESLs Pro League division.

16 - MEDIA

ESEA reserves the right to use matches played on ESEA servers for Rank S or clips of matches played on ESEA servers for Rank S in any marketing materials on any medium to promote Rank S or ESEA. Player names and likenesses may be visible in these materials and will not be censored, blurred or covered in any way.

17 - STREAMING

As mentioned above, players are not only allowed to broadcast their content to their channel of choice, they are encouraged to do so. There is no restrictions imposed by ESEA regarding the broadcast of Rank G and you are free to do as you see fit with your channel and broadcast graphics. While we encourage streaming, we also encourage paying attention to the game. As a player in Rank S, your attention should be focused on the game first and your stream second. Additionally, you are still required to uphold the portions of the code of conduct as seen above in Section 3. Any player believed to have violated these policies or the conduct policy may be subject to punishment as deemed appropriate according to both the conduct policy and the chart of punishments as seen in Section 19.

18 - PUNISHMENT

If any player is believed to have violated any of the rules within the player handbook, they may be subjected to punishment as specified below:1st Offense: Warning.2nd Offense: 24 hour ban from Rank S. Pugs and league matches remain playable.3rd Offense: 3 day ban from Rank S. Pugs and league matches remain playable.4th Offense: 7 day ban from Rank S. Pugs and League matches remain playable5th Offense: 14 day ban from Rank S. Pugs and League matches remain playable.6th Offense: Removal from Rank S for a minimum of 1 month. At admin discretion, removal may be deemed permanent.

Players who reach 6 offenses will not be placed in Rank G and will be sent to play in A+. Should they wish to compete in Rank S, a period of 3 months with 0 negative activity from the account is required before being considered for invitation back. Players will be eligible qualify for Rank S through Rank G (or A+ depending upon the region) after the suspension has been served.

19 - AGREEMENT

By playing on ESEA, you agree to the aforementioned terms and conditions, as well as any additional terms and conditions that apply to ESEA and its services. Failure to read this handbook is not a valid reason for a violation of the rules that lie within and players will be subject to punishment irregardless.

CONTENTS

1 - Introduction2 - Location3 - Code of Conduct4 - Cheating5 - Server Locations6 - Communication7 - Team Selection8 - Map Selection9 - Match Format10 - Points11 - Weekly Prizes12 - Pauses13 - Match Cancels14 - Move ups15 - Move downs16 - Media17 - Streaming18 - Punishment19 - Agreement

1 - INTRODUCTION

Congratulations on being accepted into ESEAs Rank G platform. Were excited to have you here and we hope youre excited to be here. This handbook will serve as your official guide and contains rules and regulations that all players in Rank G must abide by. Failure to read this handbook is not an excuse when failing to comply to the rules and regulations that are listed within.

ESEA and its partners, reserve the right to change the handbook at any time. Failure to read or understand the changes made are not an excuse when failing to comply.

In the rules and regulations that follow, mentions of the ESEA Community Manager refer to Jackson "el_jack0" Wolf.Any additional questions about the information contained within can be directed to him via the ESEA discord.

2 - LOCATION

Any player competing in Rank G is required to qualify and play from the region they currently reside in. In the event that a player qualifies in any region (ex: Brazil) and is required to move for any reason to a new location that would put him in a different region (ex: North America), they must contact an admin and request a transfer. Players looking to exploit this region transfer in an effort to manipulate the qualification process will be liable to punishment, as listed in the chart in Section 18.

3 - CODE OF CONDUCT

As a player in Rank G, you will be held to a high standard. Its important as players to maintain a professional environment in all manners possible. As such, the following are forms of inappropriate behavior that may be deemed punishable by ESEA and its admin staff:

Flaming and/or insulting fellow players.Excessive TrollingInappropriate ESEA usernameBeing intoxicated or under the influence while playingDisrespecting an adminGoing AFK without warningGeneral Toxic BehaviorDodging Queues

Any player believed to have violated the rules above will speak to the ESEA Community Manager regarding the violation and will be issued punishment based on the chart in Section 18. ESEA and its staff reserve the right to withhold punishment for the above terms as we see fit.

The following behaviors are entirely unacceptable and can result in an immediate removal from Rank G and a ban from the ESEA platform as a whole.

Discrimination/Hate SpeechRepeated intentional Team Attack/Team KillingGriefing/Server disruptionLeaving GamesMatch ManipulationGhostingAccount SharingCheating

Any player believed to have violated the rules above will speak to the ESEA Community Manager regarding the violation and will be issued punishment based on the severity of the issue. Players violating this portion of the conduct policy will be expected to apologize in a public manner for their actions before ever being considered for reinstatement in the Rank G platform.

In the instance that you as a player believe that another player has violated the Code of Conduct, please make a support ticket citing the specific user, description of the violation and a link to the match where the violation took place. Our admin team will investigate to determine if a punishment is necessary.

4 - CHEATING

Under no circumstances should anyone seek to cheat in Rank G. If a player is convicted of cheating on the ESEA platform, they will be subsequently banned for a period of 2 years per ESEA policy. Additionally, they will be removed from Rank G and not re-invited after their ban expires. Users wishing to compete in Rank G after receiving a cheating ban, will have to qualify again via the Rank A+ system. These players are not eligible to invited back nor will they be moved directly should they meet the reasons specified in Section 14.

5 - SERVER LOCATIONS

All matches in Rank G will be played on the ESEA client in the following server locations based on the current region(s) of play:

North America: Dallas, DenverEurope: Frankfurt

Any connection issues with any server should be reported to our technical department through a support ticket. Support tickets will get you connected with our tech team and the information you provide will better help us resolve your issue. Your ticket could also prove beneficial to future users experiencing similar problems.

6 - COMMUNICATION

Communication is an important aspect to a game such as CS:GO. Players are not just urged to use their mics for the game, it is required. Not having a microphone or communication device is not a valid excuse for violating this rule. Further, muting your team or yourself or disconnecting from the voice communication server at any time is not acceptable. Abusing the voice communication server or in game voice communication system by spamming ones microphone or joining channels for teams and games you are not a part of is also unacceptable behavior. Any player caught doing any of the above, may be subject to punishment as seen in the chart in Section 18. If you believe a player has committed such offenses, please report these issues through a support request on the ESEA website. If a player is ACTIVELY committing such offenses, requests to resolve the issue immediately may be made directly to the Community Manager or one of our dedicated admins.

7 - TEAM SELECTION

Rank G matches will start when 10 players queue simultaneously for Rank G and accept the match. At that point, the 2 captains will be selected and the picking of the teams roster will begin in the following order:

A B B A A B B A

8 - MAP SELECTION

The maps played in Rank G will follow the maps played in the current competitive rotation, with some exceptions based on the popularity of the map prior to its removal from the rotation. The current maps are as follows:

Inferno, Nuke, Overpass, Mirage, Cache, Train and Dust 2.

Captains will select the maps by banning out maps they wish to not play until one is left. The ban order is:

B, A, B, A, B, A, B

9 - MATCH FORMAT

All Rank G matches are BO1.

Knife Round: Players will start the game with a knife round. Winner selects side start.Regulation: Rank G games will play a total of 15 rounds before switching sides at halftime. Servers will be running the same competitive configuration as ESEA/ESL league servers. In the event of a 15-15 tie score, overtime MUST be played out.Overtime: Players remain on the team they were on during regulation and will play 3 rounds before swapping sides at half. Players will start each half with $16,000, the maximum allowable amount. Play will continue in this fashion until a winner can be found.

10 - POINTS

Once a match has concluded a player will receive 6 points for being on the winning team or will lose 4 points for being on the losing team. If you are to lose a game when you are 0 points, you cannot go negative and will remain at 0. Points on the leaderboard cannot be transferred to other players and are yours and yours alone. Points are non-redeemable and have 0 cash value. Points will be tracked weekly and seasonally.

11 - WEEKLY PRIZES

Throughout the course of a week, players will accumulate points as mentioned in Section 8 above. At the end of the playing week, the top 5 players with the most points will be rewarded with the following prizes:

1st: $1000

2nd: $500

3rd: $275

4th: $250

5th: $225

6th: $200

7th: $175

8th: $150

9th: $125

10th: $100

(All prizes are shown in USD)

Upon the start of a new play period, points will reset and players who won will be contacted by the ESEA prizes division on the email address associated with their ESEA account. In the event of a tie, the tied members will share the prizes equally. Example: 1st and 2nd place tie, the total prize is $725 which translates to $362.50. There is no limit to the number of players that can tie in a given play period.

12 - PAUSES

If for any reason a technical issue is to occur or a player needs to step away for any reason or a team wishes to take a timeout to talk over strategies, a pause can be initiated by either team. Upon pausing the game, a reason MUST be given for the pause. Reasons for a pause should be legitimate and breaks should be kept to a minimum. Abusing the pause functionality can be punishable under the discretion of an ESEA admin. The command to initiate a pause, is .tac for pauses of a tactical nature or .tech for pauses of a technical nature.

If a player is believed to have faked technical issues, such as connection problems, ESEA admins reserve the right to punish the offender following the punishment guidelines in Section 18.

In the event that a technical issue effects all users in a server and results in a game that is either unplayable, unable to be completed or was heavily affected by the bug, the game will be cancelled and no players will gain nor receive points.

13 - MATCH CANCELS

In the event that a technical issue results in a pause deemed too long or the issue cannot be resolved, the teams may agree to cancel the match. However, should the score be close to completion or an absolute blowout (i.e. 15-9, 13-1) it is preferred by ESEA staff to see the match played out. By cancelling matches at blowout score lines, it opens the door to fraudulent tech issues in an effort to prevent losing/gaining points/money and thus, fixing the scoreboard for the benefit of the offender. As mentioned above, this entirely unacceptable but its better to not allow the possibility of it occurring. Any match that is cancelled will have no effect on standings and no players will receive or lose points.

14 - MOVE UPS

Every 2 weeks, ESEA will bring in the Top 2 players from the A+ tournament weekends into Rank G. In the event of a tie then players will be ranked by win percentage. As such, no player is inherently safe in Rank G. Below are the only times any player will be deemed unremovable from Rank G.

ESEA Staff Discretion. Only when a player is believed to be a strong presence in our community

Qualifying for MDL

Qualifying for Advanced Playoffs

In addition to these move ups into Rank G, the top 2 players from Rank G will be moved up at the end of every season. Every player moved up from Rank G (or A+ depending upon region) plays under a provisional period. If it is found that the player is not fitting in well or is unable to compete at the appropriate level, they will be moved back to Rank G (or A+ depending upon region) and spoken to by the Community Manager.

15 - MOVE DOWNS

Rank G as a whole has no maximum user limit but move downs are required to guarantee the environment stays as competitively viable as possible. The following are reasons a user may be moved out of Rank G:

Lack of activityPoor performanceExcessive player complaintsExcessive violation of Conduct Policy

In addition, ESEA reserves the right to remove any users it deems fit, at any point in time. While this is an unlikely scenario, occasionally players will find ways to disrupt the competitive nature of Rank G or seek to use malicious means to produce a favorable end result. In instances such as these, where the rulebook may not explicitly state the nature of their malfeasance as illegal, ESEA needs to be able to remove or sometimes even ban these players to retain the competitive integrity of Rank G.

16 - MEDIA

ESEA reserves the right to use matches played on ESEA servers for Rank G or clips of matches played on ESEA servers for Rank G in any marketing materials on any medium to promote Rank G or ESEA. Player names and likenesses may be visible in these materials and will not be censored, blurred or covered in any way.

17 - STREAMING

As mentioned above, players are not only allowed to broadcast their content to their channel of choice, they are encouraged to do so. There is no restrictions imposed by ESEA regarding the broadcast of Rank G and you are free to do as you see fit with your channel and broadcast graphics. While we encourage streaming, we also encourage paying attention to the game. As a player in Rank G, your attention should be focused on the game first and your stream second. Additionally, you are still required to uphold the portions of the code of conduct as seen above in Section 3. Any player believed to have violated these policies or the conduct policy may be subject to punishment as deemed appropriate according to both the conduct policy and the chart of punishments as seen in Section 18.

18 - PUNISHMENT

If any player is believed to have violated any of the rules within the player handbook, they may be subjected to punishment as specified below:1st Offense: Warning.2nd Offense: 24 hour ban from Rank G. Pugs and league matches remain playable.3rd Offense: 3 day ban from Rank G. Pugs and league matches remain playable.4th Offense: 7 day ban from Rank G. Pugs and League matches remain playable5th Offense: 14 day ban from Rank G. Pugs and League matches remain playable.6th Offense: Removal from Rank G for a minimum of 1 month. At admin discretion, removal may be deemed permanent.

Players who reach 6 offenses will be placed in A+. Should they wish to compete in Rank G, a period of 3 months with 0 negative activity from the account is required before being considered for invitation back. Players will be eligible to requalify through A+ after the suspension has been served.

19 - AGREEMENT

By playing on ESEA, you agree to the aforementioned terms and conditions, as well as any additional terms and conditions that apply to ESEA and its services. Failure to read this handbook is not a valid reason for a violation of the rules that lie within and players will be subject to punishment irregardless.

Every second Friday at 7PM (CET/CEST for Europe and CT for North America) the top 100 A+ users are added to an A+ exclusive club. The A+ Club competition will run from 2PM-10PM regional time on Saturday AND Sunday. The top 2 players at the end of the competition are added to G. Should there be a tie in points then the players with the best win percentage will be selected.

Obtaining and maintaining Rank G is not easy, and is a challenge. Be warned, each month 10 players are also demoted from Rank G based on ranking and potential conduct violations.

If your teammate is banned for anything other than the following:

Cheating

Illegal Customization

Ban Evasion

Paypal Fraud

Malicious Activity

Karma Cleanup/Threshold

Account Sharing

Unsportsmanlike Conduct

Then your teammate will be able to open the ESEA Client and join the league server with no issues. The only bans that prevent this are the far more serious bans listed above.

There can be many reasons for this happening. Usually, this takes place when software on your computer interferes with the ESEA Client. This can also happen with files or modifications to the game have been installed. This can happen if you join a custom public server that requires you to download addons. Try the following:

Download and update to the latest version of Windows

Close the programs following if they are running:

Counter-Strike: Global Offensive

ESEA Client

Faceit Client

Temporarily disable any endpoint protection security software you may have installed. You can also add an exception in most security software for the ESEA Client.

Delete the following folder on your computer if it exists:

Steam\SteamApps\common\Counter-Strike Global Offensive\csgo\addons

Start the ESEA Client again and attempt to join an aim or scrim server before finding a matchmaking game

If you continue to have trouble and the above steps did not solve your issue, please open an ESEA Client support ticket on our website.

If at least two players on your team's roster are attending a LAN event, it is possible to get an extension to have your league match played.Each event is reviewed on a case-by-case basis and a reschedule may not be granted under certain circumstances.

Teams must alert their opponents via the match page comments at least 24 hours in advance of the match's scheduled time in order to have it forcibly moved.Typically, we allow one (1) day to travel to the event, and one (1) day to travel back. Example, if a LAN event happens from Friday - Sunday, we would allow a team to report scheduled match from Thursday - Monday.In order to have your match pushed back, you need to complete the following steps:

Open a league ticket, with all the information about the LAN (dates, match impacted, etc.)

Post all information about the LAN (leave dates, return dates, etc.) on the match page.

Contact the opponent and inform them of the situation.

Agree on a new date & time with your opponent, within 7 days of the extension's date.

It is very important that the impacted league match is rescheduled before the LAN actually occurs, to make sure it has been rescheduled before leaving for the LAN. If the match cannot be rescheduled before the LAN, it is important the team competing in the LAN posts the information about the LAN on the match page so league staff and the other team are also aware.Failure to follow these steps may result in a forfeit loss. All forfeits set while a team is away for LAN competitions will be reviewed by league staff and are subject to be over turned.Please note, this policy is not guaranteed during season playoffs as match delays can affect following rounds.

ESEA currently has servers in:

North America

Atlanta

Buffalo

Chicago

Dallas

Denver

Los Angeles

Miami

New York City

San Jose

Seattle

Washington D.C.

Europe:

Amsterdam

Frankfurt

Istanbul

London

Madrid

Moscow

Roubaix

Saint Petersburg

Stockholm

Warsaw

Asia Pacific

Hong Kong

Seoul

Singapore

Taipei

Tokyo

Middle East:

Dubai

Oceania

Sydney

Brazil/Latin America South

Sao Paulo

Africa

Johannesburg

Cape Town

There are a few easy ways to refer people to ESEA.

All you need to do is copy and paste any link from below and simply add your user ID to the end of the link replacing "youruseridhere". You can find a few examples of what it should looklike below.

http://play.esea.net/?r=youruseridhere

http://play.esea.net/subscribe/?r=youruseridhere

http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=forums&d=topic&id=450146&r=youruseridhere

http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=forums&d=topic&id=450146&r=youruseridhere#n13

How do I find out what my user ID?

All you need to do is look at your address bar when viewing your profile. The number at the end is your user ID. Start by going to your ESEA profile. For example if I were to go to my own ESEA profile as below then I can clearly see my own ID is "477956". Your ID will obviously be different to mine. here

Therefore if I wanted to refer someone to the subscribe page I would use:

http://play.esea.net/subscribe/?r=477956

PLEASE NOTE THIS IS NOT YOUR REFERRAL LINK. YOU MUST EDIT THE USERID TO MATCH YOUR OWN

Any tips on how to refer people?To get started, we would recommend posting links on forums, Steam groups, social media sites, and even in public servers.

You can also refer someone by giving out a guest pass to a user who has not yet been referred. You can see if you currently have any guest passes by visiting here and looking under "Premium codes".

Every time you refer someone to ESEA and they successfully sign up and pay via Xsolla,you will receive $6.95for your referral. If a user signs up and pays via Steam,you will receive $5.00for your referral.You can read about how to claim your referral balance .

Firstly, if you are already in the ESEA discord and have not linked your account then you should leave the Discord. Don't worry you will rejoin at the end of this FAQ once you have linked your accounts.

Next head to your account settings here then scroll down to the"Contact Information":

To avoid accidentally connecting the wrong account we would recommend opening the ESEA website in an incognito browser whilst you connect the two accounts.

If you are not logged in then you will be prompted to enter your Discord credentials. After that you will be brought to a page to connect your Discord account as so:

Simply click "Authorize" and you should be successfully connected and brought back to the ESEA website.

You should now join the Discord again and will be given your roles in a timely manner by our Bot.

After launching your game from the ESEA Client, you may see the following Valve Anti-Cheat error appear on the game's home page:

Some of your game files have been detected to have no signatures or invalid signatures. You will not be allowed to join VAC secure servers.Please verify your launch options, check correctness of your game installtion, restart the game and try again.

This is due to the way the ESEA Client secures Counter-Strike and will not cause any problems while playing ESEA. If you wish to join a VAC secured server and do not want to play on ESEA, close your game and launch it from your Steam library instead of through the ESEA Client.

After you have completed your placement matches you simply have to continue to play games. The result of your match, a win or loss, is what determines your rank. You will not rank up after a set number of wins and it will happen on its own.The following restrictions are in place for matches from Rank D- to Rank A:You can rank up or down in matches:

Solo queue

A queue of 2 players

A queue of 3 players

A queue of 4 players

A queue of 5 players

For Rank A+ Only:

You will not earn credit towards Rank A+ Standings wins if you are not a solo queue.

During a PUG the player with the highest Karma may initiate a votekick by typing:

".votekick <Alias of person being kicked> <reason>"

For example:

.votekick Aluminati deliberately standing in his own molotov

If the player being kicked has the highest Karma then the player with the second highest Karma will be able to initiate the vote for them.

Players cannot be kicked once a team has 14 rounds won in order to prevent abuse at the end of the game. However, players can still report conduct policy violations after the game is over for offences after a team has 14 rounds won via the Discord server.

If you wish to dispute a votekick then please see the FAQ here.

Most of our commands can be used universally amongall game servers with a few exceptions. A full list can be found below for each game server type.

Pug Server Commands

.rank <pug|csdm|aim|...>- View your ranking for a specific type of stats

.rank class <class name>- View your ranking for a specific class (e.g. "Soldier")

.rank map <map name>- View your ranking for a specific map (e.g. "de_dust2","cp_granary")

.rank weapon <weapon abbreviation>- View your ranking for a specific weapon (e.g."M4A1", "Rocket")

.mute <name>- Mute a player by name

.unmute <name>- Unmute a player by name

.block <name>- Block a player by name

.unblock <name>- Unblock a player by name

.autorecord on- Automatically record a POV demo for each pug (recorded to thesame file, eseapov.dem, to save space)

.autorecord off- Turn off automatic demo recording

.savedemo- Flags the current demo so that it will be renamed and not overwritten on map change

.msg <name> <message>- Message a user (not a user in the same server)

.remsg <message>- Message the last user you sent a message to

.reply <message>- Message the user who last messaged you

.join- Quickly join the server you were invited to

+buddy <name>- Add a player to your buddy list

-buddy <name>- Remove a player from your buddy list

Scrim Server Commands

.setup- Bring up the scrim setup menu (for practice mode, to choose map, level, etc)

.giveadmin <name>- Transfer scrim admin to another member of your team

.ringers- Display a list of available ringers

.ringer <name>- Invite a user to ring for your team

.map <map name>- Change the map to the selected map for practice or warm-up

.scrims- Display a list of available scrims

.reject- Kick and temporarily ban a team before a scrim begins

.team- Show information about the opposing team

.clearbans- Clear temporary bans created after rejecting a team

.ready- Set yourself as ready to scrim

.notready- Set yourself as not ready

.stats scrim- View current scrim stats

.stats <name>- View a specific player's stats or your own if no name is provided

.stats prizes- View the current prize leaders

.rank <scrim|csdm|aim|...>- View your ranking for a specific type of stats

.rank class <class name>- View your ranking for a specific class (e.g. "Soldier")

.rank map <map name>- View your ranking for a specific map (e.g. "de_dust2", "cp_granary")

.rank weapon <weapon abbreviation>- View your ranking for a specific weapon (e.g. "M4A1", "Rocket")

.mute <name>- Mute a player by name

.unmute <name>- Unmute a player by name

.block <name>- Block a player by name

.unblock <name>- Unblock a player by name

.vote kick <name>- Kick a player by name

.autorecord on- Automatically record a POV demo for each scrim (recorded to the same file, eseapov.dem, to save space)

.autorecord off- Turn off automatic demo recording

.savedemo- Flags the current demo so that it will be renamed and not overwritten on map change

.msg <name> <message>- Message a user (not a user in the same server)

.remsg <message>- Message the last user you sent a message to

.reply <message>- Message the user who last messaged you

.join- Quickly join the server you were invited to

+buddy <name>- Add a player to your buddy list

-buddy <name>- Remove a player from your buddy list

Aim Server Commands

.map- Change the current map, can only be used when you are the only user in the server

.invite <name>- Invite players to your current server

.stats <name>- View a specific player's stats or your own if no name is provided

.stats prizes- View the current prize leaders

.rank <pug|csdm|aim|...>- View your ranking for a specific type of stats

.rank class <class name>- View your ranking for a specific class (e.g. "Soldier")

.rank map <map name>- View your ranking for a specific map (e.g. "de_dust2", "cp_granary")

.rank weapon <weapon abbreviation>- View your ranking for a specific weapon (e.g. "M4A1", "Rocket")

.mute <name>- Mute a player by name

.unmute <name>- Unmute a player by name

.block <name>- Block a player by name

.unblock <name>- Unblock a player by name

.msg <name> <message>- Message a user (not a user in the same server)

.remsg <message>- Message the last user you sent a message to

.reply <message>- Message the user who last messaged you

.join- Quickly join the server you were invited to

+buddy <name>- Add a player to your buddy list

-buddy <name>- Remove a player from your buddy list

SpecTV Commands

.stats- View current match stats

.stats <name>- View a specific player's stats

The Karma System is a method of community self-policing and is primarily based on users ranking their experience with players in-game. Users start with a neutral (0) karma level, and that level is affected by the following actions.

Positive Karma:

If the majority of teammates rate their experience with you as positive, you receive +1 Karma for that pug.

Negative Karma:

If the majority of teammates rate their experience with you as negative, you receive -1 Karma for that pug.

Leaving a pug (-1, -2, -4, -8, increases with each pug leave)

Having a post nuked (-5 for a post in a thread, -10 for the first post starting a thread)

As long as you are a good teammate you will earn +Karma. If you find yourself constantly losing karma, this meansyourteammates are rating their experience with you poorly at the end of the game. Remember, every pug you play is a potential addition or subtraction to your Karma level, however, if your teammates rank you neutrally, then you will receive neither positive or negative Karma for that pug.Based on your Karma level, your interaction with the community both in-game and on the website will be affected in the following ways.

150 Karma and above reduces comment and new topic wait time to 15 seconds

50 Karma and above reduces comment and new topic wait time to 30 seconds

1 Karma and above reduces comment and new topic wait time to 60 seconds

0 Karma and below comment and new topic wait time is 3 minutes

-5 Karma and below prevents you from buying flashbang and incendiary grenades in games that feature them

-30 Karma and below increases comment and new topic wait time to 5 minutes

-30 Karma and below results in a ban which scales with the number of offences. The first ban would be 30 days, the second 60, the third 150 and each following ban would last a calendar year. However,upon your return, your Karma will be reset to 0

We will not accept any support tickets requesting information on how/why karma was lost. The system is self-regulating and cannot be adjusted by administrators.

You probably have DEP set to "Always Off" but it must be set to "Always On" to play on ESEA.

Open the command prompt by clicking on Start, typing in "cmd", right-clicking on the first item and choosing Run as Administrator.

Type in:

bcdedit.exe /set {current} nx AlwaysOn

Restart your PC

If the above does not work then navigate to "Exploit protection" located in your windows security center. You can use the search box in your Windows settings to easily find it. Once theremake sure that both DEP is turned on as well as CFG (control flow guard).

After 3 minutes you will no longer be able to connect and your server slot will expire. At that point, we will begin searching for a new player to replace you in the game.

We are aware that some players may find this quite a short period if they have a slower computer or experience a technical issue mid-match. Keep in mind though that you are affecting 9 other players in-game who want to play a fair 5v5 match so we want to either get you back in or find a suitable replacement as soon as possible.

Teams are able to use the coach feature in league/event matches.

When the match is NOT live:

The player competing as a coach must type .coach (before typing .ready) in the game server. The coach must be on the roster and if necessary pay any League fees or Premium in order to connect to the server.

When the game is live:

In the event that you are not moved to the coach slot (for example when the server needs to be restored or you have forgotten to enter it) simply pause the match and have the coach rejoin the server. Upon reentering the server they need to select the side their team is on (Terrorist or Counter Terrorist) and the system will automatically move them. DO NOT select "spectator" when rejoining the match. Do not type ".coach", ".coach ct" or any other variation, do not try to enter coach commands in CS:GO's console, simply select the side that you are on (CT or T).

For Europe/North America:Every week Rank G players will compete for $3,000 in prize money for North America and Europe. Each season, which is comprised of three months of play, will act as the promotion process to Rank S. The top two players with the highest ranking based on points each season will be promoted to Rank S.

For Europe and North America:Players will get +6 points for a Rank S win, -4 points for a Rank S loss. Points are daily for Rank S and will reset each day at 12:00 PM CET/CEST in Europe and CT in North America.

First, go to the list of your browser's cookies.

There you should see a "play.esea.net" cookie and an "esea.net" cookie.

Remove both from your browser and log out of the website and then back in and the error should not happen again.

If it does occur again please let us know via a support ticket and one of our developers will work to resolve the issue with your specific setup.

We time players out who repeatedly miss queues as they are damaging the experience for other players trying to get into a game as fast as possible.

The first missed queue does not result in a ban.

The second missed queue results in a 30-minute cooldown.

For each following missed queue the cooldown doubles so if you fail to ready up 6 times in 24 hours, you would be unable to queue for 8 hours. Players who continue to miss queues over an extended period may be subject to removal from the platform entirely with a longer ban.

First head to the Steam community site here ! Then select your inventory:

Next select "trade offers":

Then "Who can send me trade offers?"

Finally, simply copy and paste this link:

This is your Steam trade URL and you can provide it to a staff member when you have won a prize in order to receive it.

Since you purchased ESEA Premium through Steam you will need to use Invoice/transaction ID from Steam in order to activate yourPremium purchase. When you completed the purchase of Premium, Steam gave you an invoice ID on the confirmation page and in the receipt emailed to you.

You must use your Invoice ID here to redeem your Premium access. If you lost the Invoice ID or deleted the email from Steam. It is also available on the Steam website under recent purchases.

You will only be able to activate a Steam purchase with the same Steam account that is connected to your ESEA account. It is not possible for us to swapSteam purchases between Steam accounts and if you purchased it by mistake on the wrong Steam account, you will need to refund the purchase through Steam.

Step by step:

First, go to this link here to see your Steam Account's purchase history.

Next, find and click on your ESEA purchase, it will look like this:

here

Select the specific payment:

Next copy the transaction/invoice ID:

Finally go to this page on our website and enter the transaction ID and press "redeem premium":

First, go to your Kinguin account here and select "show product key":

here,

Next, copy the code:

Now go enter the code and select to activate your subscription:

First head to our subscribe page here :

Select to manage your plan:

Select your ESEA subscription:

Select to change your plan:

Now you can select the new plan that you wish to purchase, any remaining time will be credited toward the new subscription:

Please select the new package that you wish to check out with and follow the steps on screen.

Thank you for your interest in the ESEA League. We've tried to boil down all of our rules and format into a short summary of what the ESEA League is all about with relevant links to more information where required. If you still have any questions please don't hesitate to contact us via a "League" support ticket here. You can always navigate to the support ticket link by clicking "support" and "support ticket" on the left hand side of the ESEA.net website.

What is the ESEA League?

The ESEA League is one of the biggest open tournament formats for CS:GO with divisions in North America, Europe, Australia, the Middle East, South Africa, Asia and Brazil. It has grown to be very popular due to its reliable, regular structure with three seasons of games per year. Many high level teams have worked their way through the ESEA League to get the ESL Pro League (which is qualified to by the ESEA League) and plenty of elite players got their first taste of competitive CS:GO in our lower divisions. Teams start in the Open division and depending on their playoff results are moved up to Intermediate, Main, Advanced or to the MDL which is the highest skill ESEA run division.

The Format

Each season starts with a registration period where teams sign up and get their rosters organised for the upcoming season. Once registration closes then cooldowns will come into effect (such as only 3 players can join a roster per 7 days and a player can only join one team per 7 days) and shortly afterwards teams who do not have the appropriate number of players with their fees paid will be removed. All of the key dates will be summarised in a post link this. Once the deadline in the announcement passes then each team will be generated their regular season opening match ups versus the first few teams. Each week teams will be generated two additional matches versus teams with similar win ratios ie teams that win their opening first matches will go against those teams who also won. After 8 weeks of regular season each team will have around 16 matches played, there is then a single "make up" week where any matches that were pushed back, for example for LAN events, can be played. The win ratios from this regular season are then used to seed a playoff bracket where the top teams from each division will play against each other to determine the best teams. The number of playoff spots depends on the number of teams registered for that division and are listed here. In divisions such as North America Open where there are multiple conferences (eg East/West) then all conferences are grouped together for the playoffs. Once the playoffs are over then teams are awarded prize money according to a breakdown announced earlier in the season similar to this. Teams are then moved up or down based on how they did during the season according to this structure.

Scheduling

For each of the two matches in the regular season teams may freely move the match around as long as both teams mutually agree on a time. Teams are provided with a scheduling interface to easily select a time and server that suits both teams. In the event that both teams are unable to come to an agreement on the scheduled time then as a last resort the game is forced to a previously announced default time for the match. These default times are different for each division and are available in the league rules. For the playoffs, since matches need to be finishedbefore the next one starts then scheduling is a bit tighter. The playoff dates will be announced in a post like this months before the playoff dates to give teams time to prepare. Teams can then bring matches forward or push them back up to 24 hours from the default times.

When you originally signed up for ESEA, you agreed to an automated billing cycle (either 1, 3, 6, or 12 months). Unless you cancel your subscription, you will continue to be billed indefinitely, and we do not offer refunds - partial or otherwise.

Your subscription is going to be either through PayPal, Steam or Xsolla. It is important to note that we are unable to cancel any subscriptions for you.

Please follow thesteps below to cancela subscription with Xsolla.

Within the Xsolla Paystation select "Manage Subscription"

From this page, you will be able to make changes to your subscription. It is that easy!

If you still need further assistance please reach out to Xsolla support directly.

Please follow the steps below to cancel a PayPal subscription.

Log in to your PayPal account at www.paypal.com.

Click theSettingsicon next to "Log out."

SelectManage Paymentsunder "Payment settings."

Filter status by "Active" and click "Go"

Click the merchant whose agreement you want to cancel...

A new page will open...now click theCancelbutton next to "Status: Active".

Confirm your request to finalize the cancellation.

Subscription through Steam.

If you bought Premium access through Steam, cancellation instructions can be found here.

ESEA pug seasons last for 3 months. After that there will be a soft reset and players will need to play their new placement matches in order to determine their rank for the new season. After each month the winners of the rank leaderboard (ie A->D) will be drawn and all players will be moved to their new leaderboard.

Profile Levels are a great way to look at how much activity a player has on ESEA. It is a better indicator of time spent rather than skill level compared to a metric like a player's Rank as winning/losing is less of an overall factor as generally players will win/lose around half of their matches. Once a player passes level 100 they will prestige and be awarded additional karma.All users now have the ability to level from 0-100 with 5,000 XP being required for each level.You will be able to earn XP through:

Matchmaking / 10 mans (30 XP per round won)

Rank S (30 XP per round won)

Scrims (30 XP per round won)

League (30 XP per round won)

XP bonuses will be given to users if:

+K at the end of a pug (+10%)

-K at the end of a pug (-10%)

Playing with 2 or more people in the same lobby (+10%)

Less than 5,000 XP, multiply by 3 (reset weekly)

Less than 10,000, multiply by 2 (reset weekly)

Less than 15,000, multiply by 1 (reset weekly)

Greater than 15,000, multiply by .25 (reset weekly)

The below ranking will be applied to our Rank Leaderboards to determine tiebreaker scenarios for the ESEA point and CS:GO skin prizes. Please note that the website may not visibly reflect these tiebreakers but they will be used in order to award the prizes. This is only used for Rank Leaderboards and not for 1v1 ladders, Rank S, League etc.

The most important factor is total number of points as displayed on the rank leaderboard. For example if one player has 2001 points and another has 2000 points then the player with 2,001 is awarded the stronger standing. If two players are tied exactly on points then it will go to the next tiebreaker, 2.

Next, the player with the least number of games played is considered the higher standing. For example if one player has 5 games played and one has 4 played then the competitor with 4 is considered the better player as they have achieved the same overall point standing in fewer matches. Only fully completed games will count toward the standing, ie the total number of games shown on the statistics section of your profile. If that does not resolve the tiebreaker then we proceed onto 3.

Highest average ADR in the month where the prizes were won. Ie, a player with 120 ADR would win the tiebreaker and be given the better prize over someone with 118 ADR. If that does not resolve the tiebreaker then we go to 4.

Random coin toss by staff member to decide tiebreaker. Players will receive an ESEA private message with the result.

Below is a how-to-guide on scheduling your League match.1. You must be logged in and must be on a team. You also must be either scheduler or leader of your team.2. Go to your team page. To get to your team's page, go to the top right corner of the website, and select the team tag beside "Teams".

3. Once at your team page, you should see a button that says "Schedule" beside each match whose schedule is currently available, click it to open the interface. Alternatively go to the home page of ESEA and looking below the search bar there will be a "Your Activity" tab with all your matches, past pugs, and messages. Click on one of the matches and it will bring you to the scheduling page.

4. Once you've clicked "Schedule", you will be at a new page where you can begin offering times and submitting your vetoes. You can use this to offer times that your team would prefer to play at.

Note: Matches can only be played between 5:00pm and 11:30pm conference local time within a window starting from the Sunday preceding the default day to the following Sunday. Make sure you put the right timezone when setting up your ESEA Profile. If you aren't sure if you set it up right, go here and you will be able to change to your correct timezone. You can verify your time zone is correct by looking at the ESEA time displayed in the top right when you are logged in.

5. You will be able to pick your server too as well as your time. You can only choose your conference specific servers. For example, if you're in the west conference, you'll only be able to choose Los Angeles, Seattle and San Jose servers.

6. Now that your schedule offer has gone through, your opponents have 24 hours to reject it. If they don't reject/accept within the 24 hours, it will be automatically accepted to the time you offered. However, if the match isn't scheduled 24 hours before the default time, it will automatically schedule to the default time. If either team has a match scheduled within 2 hours of the default match time, your match will automatically be scheduled 2 hours after the scheduled match's start time. If a time has already been accepted for this match then new times will not automatically accept, even after 24 hours have passed.

Please note matches must be at least 2 hours apart in order to prevent multiple matches overlapping and a team having to forfeit matches. The system will provide an error message in the situation where a team attempts to offer a time within 2 hours of an existing offer. However, if you are competing on an ESL National roster (eg ESL UK Premiership) and an ESEA League roster the system will treat the two rosters are completely separate and will not prevent one match being scheduled over the other.

Before reporting a forfeit win, you need to wait 15 minutes in the scheduled server. After that delay, use the.reportffwin the server to report a forfeit win. After that use .confirm in order to take the win.Please note that in order to prevent your opponents from taking the win your will need at least 4 players ".ready" in the server at 15 minutes passed the scheduled time. If a team has 4 players they can use ".start" to begin the match with 4 players instead of forfeiting the match. You must proactively type ".start" to prevent the other team taking the forfeit win, simply having four players ".ready" is not enough.

ESEA currently offers two membership tiers: ESEA Premium which appears as a green star and ESEA Insider represented by a blue star. Select long term staff/community members are also awarded an ESEA Black star but this is not available for purchase by the general community.

The differences between ESEA Premium and ESEA Insider are as follows:

Insiders have a reserved slot on our Fragshack deathmatch servers

Insiders receive free tickets to ESL Stadium events like ESL One Cologne, ESL Pro League finals, IEM Chicago etc

Insiders receive 12 free . clip highlights per month meanwhile Premium players only receive 1

Insiders are given 1 x 1 week guest pass for a friend each month, Premium players do not receive any trial codes for their friends

Insiders are highlighted ingame with a star beside their Alias

Insiders are given priority in our team/player recruitment section

Insiders receive one free RWS statistic reset per month

Insiders may change their ESEA Alias five times per month whereas Premium players can only change it twice per month

Insiders can store 500 ESEA private messages meanwhile Premium players can only store 250

In order to forcibly change the leader of a team, at least 65% of the current roster who have played inat least 30% of the team's matchesfor the current season (or 30% of the team's matches from the prior season if no matches have yet been played) must agree on a new leader. In the event that a team has no matches last season on the roster and no matches played this season (for example a brand new Open team) then each player that has paid a league fee shall be treated as an eligible voter. For divisions without a league fee (eg South Africa Open) each paid Premium/Insider member shall be treated as an eligible voter.Step 1:One person on the team must open a League Support Ticket indicating what administrator they will contact regarding the issue, as well as listing what members of the team will contact said administrator.Step 2:Each of the eligible players must then Private Message the specified league administrator on the website stating who they want to be made the leader of the team.Once the process has been started, anyone banned one of the following bans cannot count as an eligible player:

Cheating

Ban Evasion

Karma Cleanup

Malicious Activity

Paypal Fraud

Account Sharing

If a player is cut or forcibly removed from the roster, they are eligible to vote for a period of no more than 7 days.Once a vote has been completed then there is no going back. If a player wishes to change the leader back to the original leader or to a new player then it will be treated as an entirely new vote.For a list of current League Administrators click here.

ESEA pug leaderboards (such as RWS, Rank Leaderboard etc) as well as ladder standings all reset regardless of the region at midnight UTC on the final day of the month. At this point the standings reset and the winners are drawn.

Players gain and lose points based on simply winning and losing pugs. Players will not receive points for 5 man lobbies or scrims. Players cannot win prizes on lower level/ranked alternative accounts. This is fairly intuitive as a higher skill player queuing in a lower rank will be able to win matches at that rank more easily than a legitimate low ranked player.

Players who use VPNs or otherwise try to mask their location in order to win a prize in a different region than the one they are competing in will not be issued the prize.The top players at the end of the season for each rank will be contacted via ESEA private message in order to send in their trade link. Prizes will then be issued within 10 days of receiving the trade link.

All players that compete in Rank G and Rank S agree to follow the conduct policy and handbook for their division. Players in Rank A+ must follow the general community conduct policy was apply to all ESEA members. Competitors who break these policies are subject to a suspension from their rank, a ban on the ESEA website or complete removal from their division.

For Rank G:1st Offense: Warning.

2nd Offense: 24 hour ban from Rank G. Pugs and league matches remain playable.

2nd Offense: 3 day ban from Rank G. Pugs and league matches remain playable.

3rd Offense: 7 day ban from Rank G. Pugs and League matches remain playable

4th Offense: 14 day ban from Rank G. Pugs and League matches remain playable.

5th Offense: Removal from Rank G for a minimum of 1 month. At admin discretion, removal may be deemed permanent.

The following process will be used for Rank S:

1st Offense: Warning.

2nd Offense: 24 hour ban from Rank S. Pugs and league matches remain playable.

3rd Offense: 3 day ban from Rank S. Pugs and league matches remain playable.

4th Offense: 7 day ban from Rank S. Pugs and League matches remain playable

5th Offense: 14 day ban from Rank S. Pugs and League matches remain playable.

The ESEA administration reserve the right to skip steps and proceed to a more severe punishment if the offense warrants it. These times are variable and left to admin discretion to increase or decrease depending on the infraction committed by the user in question.

In A+ players will earn +6 points for a win and -4 points for a loss. These points will be multiplied by their Win%, resulting in the score displayed. In order to earn points, you must be queuing by yourself in Rank A+. Players will only appear in the standings if they have a positive karma value.