ozfortress Autumn '26 Rule Updates

It's been some time since we've had a bigger set of rule updates, and this one is no exception - but there are some important changes to mercenary rules, and clarifications for casting that are important for those it affects. Otherwise, its all pretty palatable, reasonable changes/updates.

Global Ruleset Updates

3.3.1. Account Transfers has been updated with basic requirements for account transfers to happen. We found we have been performing a high amount of these transfers of late, so we want to ensure all account transfers are for a significantly valid reason.
4.1.1. Team Alias & Profile Guidelines updated to clearly note it is the team's responsibility to choose an appropriate, rule abiding name/alias, and that punishments can and will occur in breaches.
6.2.3. Contesting Mercenary Denials has been changed to lower the amount of reasonable mercenaries denied from three to two. This has been done to allow teams/captains to come to staff with mercenary issues earlier.
8.4. Distinct Aliases updated to properly define what we mean by Distinct Aliases:
- Aliasing is allowed in official matches. However, all players must have distinct aliases. ozfortress defines Distinct Aliases as aliases different from each player's alias, meaning no shared aliases. In addition, players should not be aliasing as their teammate - each player needs to be their own recognizable entity.
9.3.2. Banned Players Casting Official Matches updated to note the casting organizations responsibility in platforming banned players. To be clear, banned players can appear on stream, but their actions on stream will reflect also on those platforming them, reviewed on a case-by-case basis. We understand sometimes it isn't possible to control everything on a livestream, but if a person is a known risk, platforming them is not wise.
9.4. Casting Organization Responsibility added to make clear what responsibilities and guidelines both Approved and Unapproved Casting Organizations must follow.
- Guidelines/Responsibility:
  - Organizations must not interfere with the play of an official match, with exception to Approved Organizations being allowed to dictate when a match starts. This includes manipulation of the game server, deliberate or malicious interruption of gameplay, or unneeded involvement or interference in Staff and Captain discussion, mercenary processes, or disputes. If you are seeing a problem in the match, contact staff. You are not staff.
  - Be aware of who you are platforming - if their on-stream conduct is consistently in poor taste or breaches our Community Guidelines, punishments may arise. For example, platforming banned players.
  - Criticism of ozfortress is fine, fair criticism of players and their play is fine, harassment, bullying or continued focus on specific players in an overly unfair or negative light, is not.
  - If you are casting ozfortress matches, we want you to be as professional as you want to be. We don't require professional esports production, but effort reflects well on you, us and our scene. We want to work with you to promote you, your brand, your content, regardless of status.
- We are working on a basic casting guide for ozfortress to release soon, which covers some basic do's and don'ts, how to get things setup, and tools you can use.
  - For example, we've launched an ozfortress Casting Essentials Alias Tool.
9.4. Player Stream Delay changed to 9.5. Player Stream Delay to allow for the new 9.4. Casting Organization Responsibility.

Penalties Updates

1.6. Player Integrity has been updated to split it into two separate penalties, Misleading Players/Captains, and Misleading Administrators. The Misleading Players/Captains penalty is remaining the same, but the newly added Misleading Administrators penalty is much more severe.
We will be working to provide a better hub for listing suspensions, bans, infractions and penalties.

General Ruleset Updates

"Match Bans" as a term have been renamed to "Match Suspensions" to make clearer the distinction in rule policing in ozfortress between bans and suspensions (eg. blocked access to services vs. simple round suspensions).

Behaviour Infractions Ruleset Updates Coming

While not here yet, a list of significant updates to this ruleset will be hitting your eyeballs in the next few weeks pending a meeting. We'll reveal more details once we have things locked in, but something mentioned above - a person's infractions will soon become public. More to come on this.

General ozfortress Updates

We're continuing to make changes in the background to processes/systems to reduce repetitive workload, delegate work off to other staff, and automating/improving systems (like making it possible to update docs.ozfortress.com, or updating ozfortress server files much faster - which is now a thing).

We have also made some small changes to our Team Captains Discord for this season, those are:

There is now a @League Admin role, and is now the only ping-able role for League Administrators. This ping will combine both Sixes and Highlander staff, and has been done to allow Captains to get support for their match disputes much sooner than in the past.
Also, expect some changes to end-of-season Awards this season as well.

ozfortress is going to be having a big year in 2026. While we're not sure on the specifics yet, we're looking to celebrate 25 years of ozfortress, among a heap of other changes.

Also, I just want to put a personal note (from core) in here:

Our team works hard on seedings, and while we cannot satisfy everyone, we do try to do overall what is best whilst minimizing negative impact where we can. If anyone truly believes that our team is not doing their best to advocate for everyone, within reason, then leave. We're looking to make improvements to our internal tools (and introducing more tools) soon, but none of it will magically make everyone happy.

For those who are generally good people, please never get it twisted, we appreciate the hell out of you - we try not to let it feel like its an uphill battle for us staff, sometimes it does feel like it though.