BATL League Member Attendance Policy

In order to address growing concerns around time management and attendance within the BATL league community, we are updating and outlining a few changes to our attendance policy. As per section 1.5 on the IATF rules site 

“Please Note: All IATF organizations may adopt their own attendance policies regarding league attendance and forfeits. If they choose to do so, it is up to their league runners, match officials, or venue management to communicate any and all differences in comparison with the IATF’s recommended policies to their players.” 

Here is BATL’s full league member attendance policy: 

1. Attendance

1. All players are subject to a 1.5 hour limitation on late arrivals on a league night, or the need to leave early:
   1. The league will accommodate lateness of up to 1.5 hours after official league start time;
   2. Players that need to leave early must commit to staying at least 1.5 hours after official league start time;
   3. If a player arrives more than 1.5 hours late into the official league time, thus breaking the 1.5 hour rule, then their opponents may leave at that 1.5 hour mark and the absence will count against the late player – not the player who was on time and decided to leave early having completed all other matches;
   4. If a missed match is not successfully completed by the end of Week 6, then the latecomer would receive a forfeit loss.
2. On the other hand, if a player leaves less than 1.5 hours from league start time, and before finishing their matches, or accommodating late comers who arrive within the 1.5 hour rule, then that player becomes responsible for all matches missed and will be marked absent.
   1. No player shall leave before all players have thrown at least one match. This should be achievable within the 1.5 hour window.  In the event that a player must leave before this occurs and still has games to be played that cannot be made up on another week, the player leaving early will receive forfeit losses for those matches. 
3. Exceptions may be given to the 1.5 hour rule but only with the consent of that player’s opponents that night, as well as with League Runner approval.
   1. Even with exceptions being granted, if a player is regularly unable to attend league and there is a match that is unable to be completed, the person who was absent regularly will forfeit. 

2. Absences

1. All players may miss 1 week of regulation play per season without notification and make up those matches over the following weeks:
   1. Players may miss additional weeks of play with a minimum notice of 1 week;
   2. This does not apply to week 6 however, as there are no further weeks to make up matches;
      1. Players are not guaranteed to be able to make up all their matches with more than 1 week of absences, even with notice given. 
         1. EG:In the event that matches are not able to be completed on Week 6 due to absences and both players have given notice, both players will receive forfeits. 
2. Players that miss week 6 will forfeit any unplayed matches.
3. Players that miss more than 1 week of regulation play without advance notice will forfeit all matches scheduled during additional weeks missed:
   1. Notice must be given in time to play matches that will be missed during the week prior to planned absence;
   2.  i.e. If Player ‘A’ will be missing week 6, then they must notify their League Runner with enough advance notice to play those matches on week 5, with the 1.5 hour rule remaining in effect;
4.  Matches that will be missed due to advance notice may be distributed over the weeks prior to, and after, the scheduled absences.
   1. Matches will be rescheduled to the best of the league runners ability.Forfeits may occur if multiple weeks are missed. 
5. In the event that a single thrower is unable to attend half or more of each season, they may receive forfeits for matches that do not line up with other thrower’s attendance, despite having given notice. 
   1. This is to ensure that other players that also need to miss a single week, but are able to attend the rest of the season are not penalized. 
6. No player is guaranteed to make up matches once more than one absence (with or without notice) has happened. 
   1. We will always do our best to accommodate as many make-up games as possible, but may not always be able to do so. 

3. Forfeits

1. Players that win by forfeiture without play will receive the standard 2 points per win and their average score thrown that week will be applied to that match:
2. This average includes all matches thrown that week, whether originally scheduled, or made up from other weeks.
3. The player who receives the forfeit loss will earn 0 game points, but their average score per game played will remain unchanged.
4. In the event that two players miss a single scheduled match on the same or separate weeks, and it cannot be made up by the end of regular season play, the following are possible outcomes:
   1. If Player A misses a match during week 5 but has provided proper absence notification, moving the match to week 6, and their opponent is present week 5, but misses week 6 without proper notification, Player A will receive the forfeit win and Player B receives the forfeit loss;
   2. If Player A misses a match without absence notification on week 5, and Player B is in attendance week 5 and has provided proper notification they are going to be absent on week 6, Player A, regardless if they are in attendance week 6 or not, will forfeit the match as they did not provide proper notification and Player B will receive the forfeit win;
   3. If Player A and Player B both miss a match scheduled on week 6, then both players will forfeit that match and receive a forfeit loss:
   4.  This also applies if both players missed an earlier scheduled match that was then moved to week 6, and both miss the rescheduled match.
5. The present player who receives a forfeit win may request the option of ‘forfeit with play’ to allow them to play out the forfeited match against a random opponent.
6. This match will be considered an automatic win, regardless of points scored within the match but those points will count towards a player’s season.
7. A league runner or match official may deny this request based on time limitations during a given league night.
8. Players are limited to 10 total matches per-night (double the normal expected amount) in the event that a player has more than 10 matches to make up and they are unable to be moved to another week, the league runner may choose to give that player forfeit losses in order to maintain a timely league night for all players. 

4. Playoff Attendance

1. If a player that has made the playoffs is not present for competition, then all players below their rank move up one position in standings:
2. i.e. if the player in 15th place is not competing, the player ranked 16th now takes the 15th place position and 17th place moves up to 16th place, etc.
3.  If a competing player is attending but arriving late, then the tournament continues on schedule and the player will forfeit their first match if they do not arrive on time, thereby moving them to the B bracket:
4. If the same competing player is not on time for their B bracket match, then they will forfeit that match and are out of playoffs competition.
5. For playoffs, the 1.5 hour allowance for lateness does NOT apply.

4. FAQs 

1. Who is responsible for enforcing the attendance policy? 
   1. With the support of the GM, League Runners are responsible for enforcing the policy and ensuring that forfeits are entered fairly. 
2. What if I feel someone is not being held to the attendance policy? 
   1. In the event that there is an issue with attendance, please address your concerns to your League Runner or email league@batlgrounds.com 
3. I cannot come to every week of league, can I still join? 
   1. Inform your League Runner when you sign up, we would love to have you still. We cannot guarantee that you will not have any forfeits if you know you’ll be missing more than one week.  The sooner we know the more likely we are able to accommodate all your matches, but cannot guarantee makeup matches for more than one week of absences. 
4. I need to leave early (before 1.5hours) every week because I work early the next morning, can I still join? 
   1. Inform your League Runner that you need an exception to the 1.5 hour rule. However, everyone else needs to throw at least one match before you will be able to finish your matches, if you cannot stay to accommodate for that, you may be subject to forfeits, but we will do our best to move your matches.