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Additional rules and penalties for violations, 1 of 4 (effective as of April 5th, 2025):

These additional rule/penalties posts (4) might appear long and complicated, but I think are only that for some of us due to conversatory nature and many examples provided.
Also some exceptions made for your convenience that lessen the impact of penalties, lengthen the rules.

However, there are practically only 4 additional categories on how one will get penalized:
A) become non-homegrown team
B) play too small roster, or cause a forfeit by dressing less than 3 players
C) not arrange or accept a correct Pickup match on time
D) not sending PU match results to forum thread, which would cause match to be cancelled/postponed

Foreword on additional rules and penalties for HGL to come; if you want to jump straight into facts, go to the part "Penalty Levels" below.

As for rules and penalties for the HGL, opinions seem to differ vastly from one manager to another. I have always been (and still are) in a favor of (a lot) more strict and therefore simultaneously complicated rules and penalties, and while this is in a way major compromise for me - as rules/penalties are important part of league, ensuring functionality and fairness to all and effectively discouraging unwanted actions. - after having listened our HG communitys' opinions I have now made the decision to start HGL Season 1 with more simple rules and penalties (vs. my original rule proposition).

And as for penalties: Most of you guys have at least glanced through my earlier proposition of HGL rules (324689.336) (that post and 3 following posts, which actually is not even the whole proposed rule set) so you know there would've been applicable penalties planned for many other possible violation situations.

However, I can't stress the importance of being worth the trust, as functionality (and fun aspect of it - there's no fun in it if for instance people don't organize half of their playoff matches and they end in forfeits due to that; and in the worst case, we might not even be able to prove which team would be guilty of match not being played and which team would then proceed to next round due to forfeit in which case possibly neither of the teams couldn't proceed, and on next round team also would have a free ticket to next round as neither of those teams could let to proceed, and so on... I'm sure you guys see my point - commitment and trust is everything here).


Penalty Levels:

Please note: I have used penalty level numbers from my previously suggested rule set, in order to avoid massive reorganization of the earlier proposed rule set (which will not be applied in full to Season 1 of HGL), and to retain the possibility of taking parts of it easily into use in the future if need arises.
Therefore it might seem that some Levels of penalty (such as Level 1 and Level 6) seem to be "missing" from the following listing of penalty levels, meaning that we just don't apply them on HGL Season 1.

Level 2: 0-50 forfeit loss for the match in question.

Level 3: 0-50 forfeit loss for the match in question, and ineligibility for the current season playoff play no matter how good the team regular season success is. (In general, team is eligible continuing regular season play normally if it doesn't violate rules that trigger more serious penalty)

Level 4: Immediate disqualification from the current season, including playoffs; match in where violation occurred, and all the future scores for the current season will become 0-50 forfeit losses.

Level 5: Immediate disqualification from the current and for the full forthcoming season; match in where violation occurred, and all the future scores for the current season will become 0-50 forfeit losses.


Last edited by Wagner at 4/5/2025 8:27:43 AM

Additional rules and penalties for violations, 2 of 4 (effective as of April 5th, 2025):

Voting:
- Based on his discretion (for instance if it's a critically important decision that affects most/all teams significantly) is possible for league Commmissioner to arrange a voting.
About voting:
A) Voting would be announced on this league forum, on Announcements-thread, here: (326589.2).
B) Voting is open for a restricted time (TBA; 14 days?) during which only participating managers of HGL could vote.
C) Depending also on whether a change we are voting about would be major one or not, it might be required that at least certain part of managers are voting for a certain option (for example: at least 3/4 majority, or 15/16, or 16/16 managers).
D) league Commissioner reserves the right to decide which issues are decided by voting

Roster changes and methods on how to inform on your own (and observed) roster changes:
- You can not become non-homegrown team (by buying HGL-ineligible players) any part of the season, including whole duration of playoffs, if you wish to participate HGL in the next season. Becoming non-HG team will cause an immediate Level 5 penalty. (Certain exceptions that would only take effect after regular season has ended, and would only be meant for teams not reaching playoffs at all could be considered for further Seasons of HGL, but such rules won't be in effect at Season 1 of HGL).
- You are asked to inform league Commissioner before first regular season match of HGL, and during the season:
A) if you have purchased back any of your previously owned player(s) from other team(s).
If you have, please inform who/which players have you bought.
List of teams who have purchased back their previously owned player will be kept and updated by league Commissioner, with information on whether or not this team has received "salary benefit" by making such purchases. (This is legal in HGL to have purchased back own draftees, but listing of such players is being kept and updated nevertheless).
B) if you sell or fire a player.
This B) is not totally mandatory information for managers to disclose if you absolutely don't want to, but HGL strongly encourages/urges you to publish such information as it will make it possible for us to update top8-salaries listing, and also update such changes to official HGL threads so that all participating teams will be informed of any interesting changes that takes place within the HGL.

- Please remember: it is your responsibility to inform HGL (league Commissioner, or MrJ) of your roster changes, as league Commissioner can not (/will not in practice) check out all teams rosters prior to all matches.
Alternatively, this above mentioned roster information can be sent as a post to this official forum thread of HGL, or as a BBMail to MrJ (who has also agreed to keep a list of such transfers/dismissals), here: (197075).

All teams rosters will be updated throughout the season by league Commissioner and will be shown here: (326589.4).

- Violations (becoming non-homegrown) that are noticed later on will cause just as harsh penalty, starting from the moment violation is noticed.
Please note that any team, participating in HGL or not, are welcome to inform league Commissioner by BBMail or posting on this official HGL thread, if they notice that:
A) team has purchased illegal players (and therefore immediately becomes ineligible to play in HGL)
B) such illegal players have been dressed for HGL match (same effect as in A))
C) team has total of less than 5 players in their team roster (same effect as in A), unless corrected before 4th affected match of season)

Sending Pickup match links to forum:
- It's responsibility of both teams to send box score links to official HGL Scores-thread in less than 3 days after A) last regular season match, and B) after any playoff/postseason match. Penalties: possibly TBA.


Last edited by Wagner at 4/5/2025 8:41:29 AM

Additional rules and penalties for violations, 3 of 4 (effective as of April 5th, 2025):

TLDR: This whole post likely doesn't apply to you, if don't have a team with very small rosters (7 or less) and are going to set up your lineups/tactics properly for each match.

Minimum roster depths and match lineups, injury exceptions and penalties for roster violations:

Important: remember to setup your default roster again, if you have sold/fired players, so that you will have enough players on your (default) roster for each match if you don't remember to set up each lineup separately for each match!

- It's necessary to have at least 5 players in your home-grown team roster in order to participate to HGL. However, if you run a team with such a small roster, you are risking separate penalties for not dressing at least 5, or not at least 3 healthy players to the match, which both have different penalties, A) and B), as follows:
A) not dressing at least 5 players: You must do all you can to dress at least 5 healthy players for the match; lucky fans do not count, but see exceptions below.
Level 2 penalty: 0-50 forfeit

Injury situation example #1:
You have total 6 players in your team of which 1 is injured, but you decided to dress only 5 players in your match lineup/roster (and leave 6th, healthy player out of the match lineup). In this example 1 of those 5 players that you dressed for the match is injured (replaced ultimately by lucky fan). So therefore you have had a chance to select 5 healthy players to roster, but have failed to do so, which will lead to Level 2 penalty, a 0-50 forfeit loss.

Injury exception/example #2:
Please note that for instance if you'd have only 5-6 players in your team and 1-3 of them are injured, it is possible/acceptable for that reason only (this exception applies only to absolutely necessary injury situations!) to dress also injured players to the starting lineup to fill all the 5 positions.
It is therefore possible to get away from this situation with only 0-50 forfeit loss, and without triggering more strict Level 3 penalty (see below, B)).
If you will, for any reason during season dress 0-2 players to the match lineup/roster, it will cause at the very least Level 3 penalty (ineligibility for playoff play for the current season).

B) not dressing at least 3 healthy players or
dressing less than 3 players to a match in total (whether injured or healthy) for the match:
Level 3 penalty; ineligibility for the current season playoffs.
And, if situation is not corrected by the team before 4th affected match of the season; Level 4 penalty - immediate disqualification from the season.
If you run a team with very small roster, please get at least a decent level doctor to minimize occurrence of such Level 2 or 3 penalties.

NOTE: If for any reason homegrown team has "accidentally" fired/sold player(s) and therefore have less than 5 players in their roster, and yet still would wish to participate in competitive play for the current regular season of HGL (they are excluded from the current season playoffs!), they can try to remedy this situation by buying back their own drafted players if they have sold/fired players previously.
In the case of firing, checking out transfer list immediately might yield results - if player(s) on the other hand has been sold, announcing your interest to current owner of the player to purchase him back immediately might yield results. This must be done practically immediately, as playing 4th match of the season with less than 5 player roster will cause immediate Level 4 penalty (out for the current regular season and playoff play).

NOTE #2: While 5 players is the absolute minimum for acceptance to/participation of the league, it is recommended that you'd have at least 6-8 players (and decent doctor) due to possible injuries affecting the league games and penalties as little as possible.

Last edited by Wagner at 4/5/2025 8:58:14 AM

Additional rules and penalties for violations, 4 of 4 (effective as of April 5th, 2025):

- In playoffs, the higher ranked team (home team) is always responsible of sending the challenge to PU matches.

- Due to the need to arrange match every week during playoffs, it is important that managers send challenge at the latest on Thursday (note: this time frame could be changed during Season 1), so that team accepting challenge has enough time to accept it.
Remember: last regular season match will take place on Monday at 14.30, or 02.30PM EET Normal Time, (15.30, or 03.30PM EET DST, Daylight Savings Time), so after that match:
A) during rest of season there will be 3 days time to send the playoff match challenge (Mon-Thu; in playoffs Sun-Wed)
B) there´s (about) 2 days time to accept match challenge (if it's been sent at the latest possible time, on Thursday, it needs to be accepted on Saturday at the latest, before your designated HGL match time).
However, the sooner you send a challenge (or accept it) the better, as it allows more time to set the lineups/tactics.

- To make organizing playoff matches smoother, an away team has permission to challenge home team (while home team always remains officially responsible for challenging) if they want to speed up the match organizing process and are willing to use 1 extra token for sending challenge (remember: these tokens won't be replaced by HGL, and it is voluntary for an away team to use them).

- In playoffs designated match times remain same (as in HGL regular season; 14.30, or 2.30PM EET Normal Time, not DST), so the team sending the challenge (home team in playoffs) will choose correct time and court balance when sending Pickup game challenges. For correct time refer to same participating teams-listing at the beginning of official HGL thread, that you used when organizing matches for regular season.

- If playoff match is not played and it can be clearly proven which teams' fault this was, penalties will apply.; Level 2 penalty (0-50 forfeit loss) for the team committing the violation

- It remains to be announced/decided on how HGL is going to deal with situations in where neither of managers admit or can't be proven to be the guilty part. It could lead to critical situations, in where neither of managers could be let to advance to next round of playoffs, so team that either of them would've faced next round of playoffs also would receive a free ticket to the next round.
If this would for instance happen to a team that has already secured place to 2nd round, they would reach semifinals (a.k.a. Medal games) without playing a second, that´s far from optimal.

- I will be very clear about this upfront; if we are going to make changes due to managers not willing to follow league practices/be committed enough, it will in first place happen through enforcing rules that are more strict (that therefore discourage violations from appearing, and aim to help to keep HGL running optimally), and not through changing this league and playoff system of 12 teams (or possibly more if league expands in future) reaching playoffs-format. Format itself is very functional, and it will show it's worth as long as nobody tries to exploit/wreck the system (or become very uncommitted to HGL).

- There are "million" things one manager could do to screw up the league for many others, so please don't do those things that destroy the fun for others and smooth operation of the league. Having said that, I completely realize applying stricter penalties won't alone remove the need for commitment or trust.

- Please note, that while the clear goal is to finish the Season 1 of HGL with these rules only (together with rules published earlier on official HGL threads), as this is first season and many things could occur that can't be taken into account before the Season 1, league Commissioner reserves the right to make additions/changes to rules during the season.

Last edited by Wagner at 4/5/2025 9:08:50 AM

TBA #11
As you may have noted, all participating teams of HGL will be required to send box score links for all of their regular season games to this HGL Scores Season 1 Official Thread before Season 1 starts.

First notes A)-F), and then instructions on how to complete the process.

Notes:
A)these score links will be added to one post per manager, that can then be edited throughout the season if needed.
Links will be added to one post/manager to avoid overcrowding of HGL Scores thread, and for being easily searchable.
B) links to box scores (from your post) might be copied to the official HGL scores thread's 'Schedule/scores'-post
C) instead/in addition I might link your box score posts on official HGL schedule/scores posting, so that each team has access to box scores of your games easily
D) in playoffs, we might use this same box score post (and same link) created by each team; TBA
E) please never delete box score post then created by you, we might need it a lot later in order to confirm things.
F) MrJ has already provided us one example on how to accomplish this, here: (324689.683). But please still read through instructions below before proceeding.

Instructions on how to proceed with writing one post about your HGL box score links:
Remember, that you can't finish this process completely before all HGL matches for regular season are organized properly and visible in your team schedule page.

Read (326590.43).

1. Go to your official BB schedule page, which is found from https://www.buzzerbeater.com/team/XXXXXX/schedule.aspx
(where X is your team number)
2. Click "Tactics"-link (between team names) on your HGL match that you wish to link (If term isn't 'Tactics' in English, it is the link what you use to set up your lineup and tactics for the match).
3. Once you enter on tactics/line up setting page, match number of that Pickup (PU) match is revealed to you in the browser's address line. It looks like this: https://www.buzzerbeater.com/match/XXXXXXXXX/tactics.aspx and number in place of this XXXXXXXXX is your match number.

Now at this point, you have two ways to proceed, described below as 4A (that MrJ used) and 4B.
Choose a preferable way for you and please stick with it for the whole season. Method 4A would be preferable.

In your box score-post on HGL Scores Season 1 Official Thread, you enter links for 15 matches.
For each game include Round number, a date game is played, and name of your opponent (like in MrJ's example, link above, even though he didn't include dates of matches).

So to your post, link the box score in either way:

4A):By following above instructions you are on the match tactics page already, so copy/make note of the number of the PU match (visible at web browsers' address line). Then on this thread update it to your box score link post, and do so by using 'a basketball button' on the page into where you write text to be sent to forum; that is located above the text frame. Pressing a button will automatically create a string of text such as '[match=XXX.XX]', and as you replace XXX.XX with your match number, the box score link will be automatically created. It will create a functional link to a match box score, which will look like this: (132386153).

4B) by a direct web page link to box score, such as: https://www.buzzerbeater.com/match/XXX/boxscore.aspx (in where XXX represents the match number). You can simply access this by visiting above mentioned match tactics page. By following above instructions you are on the match tactics page already, so Pickup match number is visible to you. If you choose to use this 4B-method, you can copy-paste https://www.buzzerbeater.com/match/XX/boxscore.aspx-link to your season box scores link 15 times (one for each match) on every line, and then for each line replace XX with your Pickup match number.

5. Do this with all matches.


Last edited by Wagner at 4/5/2025 8:09:09 AM

Small detail, but I'm over in Australia - not USA.

Small detail, but I'm over in Australia - not USA.

...and the National Coach of Australia!!!

Sorry, and thanks for a reminder - nationality corrected to the list.
I forgot to mention on the other 'Homegrown teams II'-thread, that if anyone spots clearly wrong information here on this thread, or on the other HGL Scores-thread (that was also established yesterday), please let me know preferably by BBMail, or on this forum and I'll take a look at it.

Small detail, but I'm over in Australia - not USA.

What ??
Donald did not buy your country ?

Small detail, but I'm over in Australia - not USA.

What ??
Donald did not buy your country ?

Not yet...

Although, sadly, I think we have always seemed to try and be a little America.

It's a shame. We are unique and should try and stay that way rather than pander or try and emulate other nations. I also strongly believe that geopolitically, we should be remaining neutral. We are of the west, but we also reside in Australasia. Neutrality and good relationships with all our neighbours and allies would be ideal in an ideal world.

Unfortunately, the world is no longer ideal.

Last edited by MrJ at 3/13/2025 7:59:46 AM

Small detail, but I'm over in Australia - not USA.

What ??
Donald did not buy your country ?

Not yet...

Although, sadly, I think we have always seemed to try and be a little America.

It's a shame. We are unique and should try and stay that way rather than pander or try and emulate other nations. I also strongly believe that geopolitically, we should be remaining neutral. We are of the west, but we also reside in Australasia. Neutrality and good relationships with all our neighbours and allies would be ideal in an ideal world.

Unfortunately, the world is no longer ideal.

Well said. We are in some weird times, I am just hoping cooler heads prevail.