WhatIfSports.com Fair Play Guidelines

More than one team in the same league

One person cannot control more than one team in the same league unless it is a private or theme league. This means two or more teams may not be controlled by the same account or multiple accounts (otherwise known as an alias account). Violation of this rule will lead to cancellation of the teams and expulsion from the game.

If an owner finds himself in this situation due to accident, he should submit a support ticket and request to have one of the teams transferred to a new league.

Collusive transactions

Collusion includes any act that supports bad, deceitful or illegal behavior agreed upon by two or more users. Here are a few examples:

• Trades that clearly benefit one side.
• Dropping/waiving a player so that another team may pick him up.
• Intentionally throwing a game to ensure another team improves its chances in the standings or playoff seeding.

Theme Leagues

Each theme league has a commissioner responsible for any non-standard rules of the league. As stated in the game, if there are any issues pertaining to the theme league, present the problem to the league commissioner to address. The commissioner will either address individually or work with customer support to address. If the commissioner does not take the action you feel is necessary, please contact customer support with the details. Theme league commissioners have a responsibility to run the league fairly and consistently and we will more often than not back his or her decisions.

More than one team in the same world

One person (regardless of account used) cannot control more than one team in the same world within the same conference or within 1,000 miles or less of one another. Violation of this rule will lead to a forced relocation or removal from one of the teams.

If an owner finds himself in this situation due to accident, he should submit a support ticket and request to have himself transferred to a different school or removed from the world.

Violations of these rules face these potential consequences:

1. A one-time warning where the secondary account(s) teams will be removed, if the violation impact on the product and on other user's was deemed minimal or accidental by Customer Support.


2. No warning, Customer Support has deemed violation impactful to the product and to other user's and egregious in nature. All teams will be vacated and accounts associated with user will be banned from the site. This includes access to WhatIfSports current and future offered products outside of product rules were violated in. This may also void refunds for current product balances.


3. If a warning has been issued to the account holder already, all teams will be vacated and accounts associated with user will be banned from the site. This includes access to WhatIfSports current and future offered products outside of product rules were violated in. This may also void refunds for current product balances.

Collusive transactions

Collusion includes any act that supports bad, deceitful or illegal behavior agreed upon by two or more users or attempted by a single user. Here are a few examples:

• Discussing the pursuit of a recruit with another coach, including who is pursuing him and money that might have been spent.
• Sharing Future Stars Scouting (FSS) information between multiple teams
• Scheduling a non-conference game against an alias team (i.e. team owned by same owner in a different conference and more than 1,000 miles away). Exhibition games are permitted in this situation, however.
• Any clear throwing of a game (normally indicated by massive lineup changes or settings changes)
• Specifically targeting another coach is prohibited. This includes, but is not limited to, focusing on recruits a particular coach is pursuing in order to steal them or force the coach to overspend.
• Attempting to persuade another user to participate in a collusive effort (only the initiator would be at fault unless agreed upon by other user)

Potential punishments

Each infraction is reviewed by customer service with a goal of consistent punishment. Some infractions are more egregious than others and users with a history of violating the guidelines receive stiffer punishment. The below is a list of potential punishments for any of the above infractions:

1. Warning via sitemail (or conference chat if directed at the conference in general)
2. Losing recruiting money
3. Coach reputation hit
4. Removal of players/recruits (including releasing a signed recruit from a team)
5. School prestige hit
6. Removal of coach from team
7. Banning of user from site

More than one team in the same world

One person cannot control more than one team in the same world. This means two or more teams may not be controlled by the same account or multiple accounts (otherwise known as an alias account). Violation of this rule will lead to cancellation of the teams and expulsion from the game.

If an owner finds himself in this situation due to accident, he should submit a support ticket and request to have one of the teams transferred to a new world.

Collusive transactions

Collusion includes any act that supports bad, deceitful or illegal behavior agreed upon by two or more users. Here are a few examples:

• Trades that clearly benefit one side.
• Dropping/waiving a player so that another team may pick him up.
• Using 1 team to scout for another team (i.e. share projected ratings).
• Intentionally throwing a game to ensure another team improves its chances for a post-season bid.
• Intentionally signing questionable players that benefit the former club (i.e. Type-A free-agents.)
• Arranging a trade with another franchise so the other franchise can sign a free-agent resulting in the other franchise receiving compensation picks.

Impeding other owners

Certain transactions made solely to impede other owners are not allowed. In particular, protesting a trade merely to help someone else is strictly prohibited.

Roster Dumping

Dumping an entire roster to the waiver wire directly undermines the competitiveness of the league and reduces league strength. If you choose to discontinue play please make your roster as competitive as possible and refrain from accessing the team or league. Owners found to have dumped their roster will be kicked out of the game completely.

Private World Rules

Each private world has a commissioner responsible for any non-standard rules of the world. If there are any issues pertaining to the world, present the problem to the world commissioner to address. The commissioner will either address individually or work with customer support to address. If the commissioner does not take the action you feel is necessary, please contact customer support with the details. Private world owners have a responsibility to run the league fairly and consistently and we will more often than not back his/her decisions.

A private world may have it's own set of rules for the world. Unless otherwise stated, the rules for public worlds apply to private worlds. Private world rules are available within the game in the Admin Office. New rules introduced in a world may not be retroactive in nature. That is, a new rule cannot take into account past performance. When an owner joins a private world, they implicitly agree to the posted private world rules.

A commissioner may prevent an owner from entering at the start of a season via the password system. If it's a returning owner, the commish must request the removal via customer support ticket and it must include the rationale for removal and the rationale must be accepted (we evaluate). A ticket must be submitted before the end of a season and the same ticket must be re-opened after the world rolls over if the owner tries to return to the world.

Should a private world commish abuse his power, we will work with the rest of the world owners to determine if he/she should be removed from the role. A 10-user vote is considered the baseline for removal.

Failure to Field a Competitive Team

It's sometimes possible to sacrifice the current season for a better chance in future seasons. That's an accepted strategy both in the real world and on our site.

For the balance and enjoyment of the world and its participants, however, it is not permitted to intentionally field an overly atrocious team when a much better team could have been assembled at the same cost and time commitment. For instance, it's no more difficult to field a healthy team that can win 50 games than it is to field a team that can win 30 games.

In order for a user to be stripped of his/her Hardball Dynasty franchise during a season for failing to field a competitive team, one of the three following conditions MUST be met:

1. Major League team expected winning percentage of less than .250 for at least 80 games of the regular season.
2. Using a starting pitcher at 50% or below fatigue for 10 or more Major League games in a row.
3. First time Hardball Dynasty user not logging in to his franchise's world for at least 6 days prior to the start of Spring Training.

We do not proactively hunt for these infractions. Instead, we investigate when any owner from a public world or the commissioner from a private world brings it to our attention via a customer support ticket.

At that time, we review the situation. If it's clear the owner is tanking or has abandoned his team, the franchise will be stripped and assigned to the designated replacement owner. The replacement owner must be specified by the user that has submitted the ticket. If we do not believe the owner is intentionally tanking, he will maintain his team. At that time, we may send a warning sitemail and email detailing the situation.

These Fair Play Guidelines are considered the initial warning, so no additional warning is necessary to have a franchise stripped. And remember, an owner can be stripped of a team for other Terms of Service or Fairplay Guideline infractions. This section just pertains to failing to field a competitive team.

Limited Support

Since FC Dynasty is currently a free-to-play game, we do not set punishments for having more than one team or for collusive transactions. However, we have made every effort to minimize the effects of these occurrences within FC Dynasty.