CIL Season 3 Rules

No league is complete without rules.  I will do my best to keep this simple and brief as possible without compromising clarity.

Team Rosters  

I. Pokemon on each team's roster must be static except under the following conditions:

• Each team is allowed five (5) total roster transactions to alter their team between weeks 2-6.  Week two is the first week transactions may occur and no transactions can be completed once week six has ended.
• Trades: Each team is allowed to use any number of their allotted transactions on trades with any team in the CIL.
• Trades must be submitted to @CIL_Official or @KevinVGC on Twitter to be approved by the Kevmissioner (simply to check that all these conditions are met).
• Free Agents: Each team is allowed to use any number of their allotted transactions on free-agent acquisitions per season.
• Once a Pokemon has been dropped from a team's roster, any coach may acquire that Pokemon provided he or she has not already used his or her one free-agent acquisition.
• Free agency moves must be submitted to @CIL_Official or @KevinVGC on Twitter to be approved by the Kevmissioner (simply to check that all these conditions are met).
• A dropped Pokemon will not be considered to be available in free agency until it has been approved (to avoid timing discrepancies).
• An acquired Pokemon will not be considered on a team's roster until it has been approved as well.
• Roster changes do not take effect immediately.  Approved changes will be visible on the draft board spreadsheet and available the subsequent week as described on the spreadsheet.

II. All roster change requests will be processed in the order they are received through the Twitter account.

III. Some Pokemon with multiple forms are eligible for a multi-pick in the draft: Silvally (all types), Lycanroc (both forms), Rotom (all forms), Oricorio (all forms), Gourgeist (all sizes), Meowstic (both genders), and Wormadam (all forms) count as one pick.  However, teams with these Pokemon must declare which type and form they will use at the beginning of each new week.  Failure to declare with a minimum of 3 days notice prior to the match will render that Pokemon ineligible for the week.

• If coaches bring the wrong declared form to the battle, they will be drawn an quartered publicly in the CIL Town Square to be made an example of for all to see.
• In the event that we cannot get to the coach to exact medieval justice on him or her, a -1 differential penalty will applied to the match.
• Consistent with other differential penalties, the result will not be a differential that puts the offender in the negative, so if they lose the match 4-0, they will not have a -5 differential, only -4.

IV. Banned Pokemon: Refer to the GBA's ban list for a list of Pokemon and items not eligible for draft in the CIL.  These Pokemon will not be present on the CIL draft board spreadsheet.

UPDATE: With one exception: Pheromosa will be allowed for season 3.  All other banned Pokemon or items will not be permitted.

V. Before a new season, teams will enter a lottery like that used in the NBA to determine draft-order for the next season.  Also like the NBA, playoff teams are exempt from the lottery and placed in reverse-seeding order at the end of the draft.  New teams will be placed at the top of seeding in the lottery.

VI. Z-Crystals:

• Each week, every team will have access to one Z-Crystal that has been randomly selected and only they will have access to their particular crystal for that week. For instance, if the Whirlwinds have Flynium Z in week 1, only they will be able to use it that week. They may be able to get it again in later weeks, but it is random.
• It may be used on any Pokemon on that team's roster at the coach's discretion. 
• Coaches with Pokemon that have specialized Z-Crystals (such as Incinum Z for Incineroar) will have access to them as an alternative to the crystal they have been assigned.  These coaches must specify to their opponent at the beginning of the week so that the spreadsheet can be updated to accurately reflect which Z-Crystal they have access to for that week.
• Bans and Restrictions
• All omni-boosting moves like Z-Conversion, Z-Celebrate, etc, are banned, consistent with the GBA.  
• All evasion Z-moves like Z-Magnet Rise, Z-Kineses, etc are banned consistent with both the GBA and the Evasion Clause of Smogon.  
• Mewnium Z is banned, consistent with the GBA ban.

VII. Verifying multi forms/ types/ crystals

• As aforementioned, coaches are expected to inform opponent when they have variable Pokemon or Z-Crystals.
• Coaches who are being informed are also expected to confirm once being notified that they are aware of which form/ type/ crystal is being declared for that week.  
• Coaches are not required to use a Z-Crystal or a certain Pokemon just because it has multiple forms/ types, but must specifically declare it at the onset of the week regardless.  This is to allow for the utility of multi-form Pokemon in a single draft pick without having an unfair advantage against an opponent who doesn't know which Silvally is going to come that week, for instance.
• As a suggestion, an appropriate time to have this dialogue might be when scheduling the match.

Battles 

I. Players have two weeks to complete their matches, constituting one CIL "week" unless extenuating circumstances prevent a match from happening.  In this case, an extension will be granted to both teams if the request is submitted to @CIL_Official on Twitter with 24 hours notice prior to the conclusion of that week.  No notice results in a -3 differential loss for each team.

II. All battles will take place on Pokemon Showdown in either OU or Anything Goes (important for teams with Torrent Greninja, Blaze Blaziken, etc) at an agreed-upon time by both coaches.  If there are any problems finding time, contact your nearest Kevmissioner for help.

III. Rules will follow standard Smogon rules with one exception: all Mega Pokemon must evolve on their first full turn on the field.  If switching out immediately, the Mega Pokemon is not required to Mega Evolve, but if a move is being selected, it must also Mega Evolve.

• To review general rules: http://www.smogon.com/dex/xy/formats/ou/
• To review Smogon-wide clauses: http://www.smogon.com/xy/articles/clauses

IV. The timer should always be turned on except in the event of a disconnection. If a player should accidentally disconnect during a battle, the connected coach should turn off the timer to allow the other coach time to return to the battle.  

• Should the disconnected coach be unable to resume, the connected coach may turn on the timer and temporarily claim victory so that he or she may use the replay to send to the disconnected coach so that they may recreate the battle as it was to that point.  If new hax (such as a Critical Hit or status ailment) that did not take place in the original play transpires in the recreation of the battle, coaches are expected to start over in recreating the battle.
• Variable damage rolls are acceptable in the event that it does not lead to a knockout that it did not obtain in the original battle (i.e. if Gliscor survives with 1% in the original battle and get's KO'd by a higher damage roll in the re-creation, coaches are expected to start over in re-creating the battle).
• The disconnecting coach should also utilize his or her phone to contact their opponent on Twitter immediately to inform them of the disconnect.

V. No forfeits will be permitted.  Having accurate measures of differential is important for determining end-of-season standings.  Forfeiting will result in a 6-0 loss for the forfeiting team.

VI. No shows: if someone does not show up within 15 minutes after a previously agreed-upon match time without providing advanced notice, they will be considered to be no show.  A no show results in a differential of -3 added to that coach's score regardless of the outcome of the match whenever it does take place.  Any disputes on the matter should be resolved with screenshots.

• In the event that one of the coaches commits two no-shows for a single opponent, the offender will take a 6-0 loss and -6 differential with no opportunity to make it up.  The other coach will play their match against the sub to assess the proper differential to be awarded to them.
• Coaches who have to play against the sub after their original opponent no-showed twice will automatically be awarded a win for the week even if they lose against the sub.
• A loss by any margin will result in +0 differential.  Wins will assess differential as normal.
• If any coach commits three no-shows in a season, they will be removed from the CIL. 
• If matches from two previous C-weeks do not take place, each coach will be automatically subbed in for by designated CIL subs (most likely the Kevmissioner and the Chasemissioner).  For instance, if a week 1 match has not taken place yet, the day week 3 begins, the subs will be in control of that game.
• If one of these coaches has been showing a consistent effort to get the match scheduled, only the non-responsive coach will be subbed in.
• This substitution will be treated just as the no-show, with the coach who made the efforts getting an automatic win, but differential determined exactly the same as the no-show method.
• If coaches are non-responsive and do not complete two consecutive matches, they will be removed from the CIL.

VII. Substitutions: any coach may have anyone of their choosing substitute a match in the event that they would be unable to complete a battle even with a reasonable time extension.

The Season 

I. The regular season takes place over eight CIL-weeks (or 16 real weeks)

II. Playoffs - At the conclusion of the regular season, standings will be evaluated to determine playoff seeding.

• The top two teams from each conference will receive a playoff seed and first round bye.  The second place teams from each conference will also be awarded a playoff spot in which they will play against wildcard seeds determined by ranking.  Two wildcard seeds will be selected regardless of division and based on record making a total of six (6) playoff teams.
• In the event of a tie in records, differential will be used to determine which team gets a playoff seed.
• In the event of a tie in differential and record, we will hold a playoff match between the two teams and the winner will receive the remaining playoff seed for his or her conference.
• The number one seed in each conference automatically advances to the semi-finals while the two and three seeds play a quarterfinal match.

IV. Championship - Players going undefeated in their conference playoff-rounds will have the opportunity to play for the CIL Championship.  If I had a belt, I would totally give it to the winner, but I don't.  Sorry yall.  I would also really like to hold this on stream and pretend it's a televised event (maybe have the Pro Bowl as an opening event?) because I think that would be fun.  It will depend on schedules.  We'll cross that bridge when we get there.

I think that's it.  Let me know if I missed anything.