AFBL Rulebook
version 1.0 - 07/15/2005

Index:
A. GETTING STARTED
1. What is the Arena Foot Brawl League?
2. What are the teams?
3. What is my team’s costume?

B. POWERS
1. What ATs and Origins are allowed?
2. Team Diversity
3. Power Pools
4. Temporary Arena Powers
5. Inspirations

C. SEASONAL PLAY
1. How is the season structured?
2. What kind of matches will there be?
3. My team match is scheduled for a night that I can’t play!
4. How do we keep track of wins/losses/draws?
5. Are there penalties in AFBL?

D. MISCELLANEOUS
1. Player Names and Facial Appearance
2. Are females allowed?
3. Map Restrictions
4. What server will this take place on?
5. Third party communication software

E. LOOKING AHEAD
1. What if I missed the start and want to start a team once the teams have been determined?
2. Will the AFBL be open to players outside of freedomreborn.net?

A. GETTING STARTED
1. What is the Arena Foot Brawl League?
The AFBL is a set of small teams in CoH/CoV focussed on having friendly competition in the Arenas. There are several restrictions in place with the hopes that those guidelines will create an enjoyable balance and provide a unique experience to the PvP setting. The AFBL was originated by members of the Freedom Reborn and No Remorse Force supergroups which are based out of the freedomreborn.net community.

2. What are the teams?
Teams are arranged by the pre-chosen captains/coaches (people who helped create AFBL). Teams are comprised of 5 players each. Teams represent particular zones of Paragon City: King’s Row, Atlas Park, Dark Astoria, Steel Canyon, etc.

If teams are to be added, new coaches will be determined by the current coach roster (AFBL Leaders). (In other words, people cannot post on the forums "I'm starting a team! I'm recruiting these players!").

3. What is my team’s costume?
The AFBL has strict standards for proper sporting wear. The team costumes need to meet particular requirements for Helmet, Upper Body, Lower Body, etc. The elements that are customizable will be determined by the team coach. Team coaches will be given a template to use to create their team costumes. The coach has some flexibility in the design, and the player has some as well. The reason for this is to create a unity between all AFBL members. The team coach will create a coach NPC that reaches level 10 in order to establish his/her team. Each team will become its own Supergroup (to be named “<Team name> - Arena Foot Brawl League”. At that time, the coach can choose alternate colors for costumes so that each team has Home and Away costumes.

After the coach has contacted team members with costume details be sure to check that it is correct before beginning to level up your player.

B. POWERS
1. What ATs and Origins are allowed?
The focus of the AFBL is combat sport. Therefore, the ATs are restricted to combat oriented ATs: Tanker, Scrapper, and Blaster. The positions on a team of 5 are 2 tankers, 2 scrappers and 1 blaster. Much like in other sports, these positions are non-negotiable. In AFBL, archetypes are referred to as 'positions'.

Origins are determined by the individual player. They should coincide with the power sets of the player.

2. Team Diversity
Several power set restrictions have been put in place to encourage team diversity.

a. In order to attain a faster pace of combat while maintaining a tactical element, teams cannot have more than 1 player with access to -recharge or -speed powers. The following power sets cannot be combined in any team:

-Tanker Ice Armor/Ice Melee
-Scrapper Spines
-Blaster Ice Blast/Ice Manipulation
-Blaster Devices

This rule applies even if the one power in the set that has a -recharge or -speed effect is not taken (eg. Ice Tank does not take Chilling Embrace, Devices Blaster does not take Caltrops, etc.). If the Ice tanker or Ice blaster only take ONE of the Ice power sets available to them, it still cannot be used in combination with any of the above.

b. To ensure power set diversity within teams, the 2 tankers cannot share any power sets, and the 2 scrappers cannot share any power sets.

c. Tankers cannot take the Taunt ability from their secondary sets. If a tanker chooses to take a taunting ability they can only choose ‘Provoke’ from the Presence power pool. Only 1 tanker per team can take Provoke. Teams can choose to have no tankers with Provoke as well.

d. The ‘Touch of Fear’ power from Scrapper Dark Melee is banned due to its exceedingly long duration, fast recharge and low end cost.

e. Players who create characters for the ‘AFBL Reserves’ cannot use the following power sets:

-Tanker Ice Armor and Ice Melee
-Scrapper Spines
-Blaster Ice Blast and Ice Manipulation
-Blaster Devices

3. What about Power Pools?
For purposes of keeping the AFBL a balanced combat experience, certain power pools or powers within power pools are disallowed. There are no travel powers in AFBL but combat powers within Travel power pools are allowed. Here is a list of which Power Pools are allowed in full:

a. Leadership
b. Fitness
c. Fighting
d. Medicine

As for the other power pools:
-Teleportation, and Concealment are not allowed in their entirety
-One Tanker per team is allowed to take Provoke from the Presence pool
-Air Superiority is the only power allowed from Flight
-Flurry is the only power allowed from Super Speed
-Jump Kick, Combat Jumping and Acrobatics are allowed from Super Leap

4. Arena Temporary Powers
The purchasing and use of temporary arena powers is forbidden. If a team is caught with a members using a temp arena power in a match, the other team will win by default.

5. Inspirations
Inspirations can be used during matches. Time is given between games for players to purchase inspirations. A game will not be cancelled if a player forgot to purchase inspirations.

C. SEASONAL PLAY
1. How is the season structured?
Season 1 has been played with all players at lvl 7. At Lvl 7 all players have the ability to max their enhancements with lvl 10 training enhancements. Players who cannot afford to do so can access the AFBL Bank (a hero on the server that's purpose is to fund AFBL players). Due to post-Season 1 rule changes, Season 2 will also be played at lvl 12. Level 12 will likely be the level cap for remaining seasons as well.

A calendar will be posted on the official AFBL site which will have matches scheduled far in advance.

2. What kind of matches will there be?
The games are played as Team Duels with 5 players per team. An game is referred to as a session. Each session is two matches. Each match has a time limit of 10 minutes. Observers are allowed and encouraged!

3. My team match is scheduled for a night that I can’t play!
An alternate game time can be determined by the teams involved. If this cannot be agreed upon, then your team may have to play without you. Check the Scheduling forum for a thread about the game you are playing in.

A team must have at least 3 members of its team present at a game. If one team has a particular player who is unable to make it and cannot find an appropriate reserve, the game CAN be played as 4 on 4, as long as the position make-up of the two teams is the same.

4. How do we keep track of wins/losses/draws?
Every ‘defeat’ in the arena counts as a point. The team with the most points wins that match and gains 2 points on the season scoreboard. When there is a draw, each team involved gains 1 point. A loss gives no points.

Stats will be kept track on the forum as well as on the Stat Tracker page of AFBL Central.

5. Are there penalties in AFBL?
The only penalties given out in AFBL will be for teams who do not adhere to the AT, power pool and costume restrictions. If a team shows up to a game with any one player exceeding the assigned level, that player is not allowed to play, and therefore, that team will be one player short. If any player on a team has taken a power from a power pool that is not allowed, that player will not be allowed to play until he/she rerolls and relevels the character or in later Seasons, completes a respec. If a player shows up at a game at a lower level than 7, he/she is allowed to play, but will be at a disadvantage.

D . MISCELLANEOUS
1. Player Names and Facial Appearance
Players are not heroes in the AFBL, players are athletes. Players names will reflect their human nature and not heroic nature. Realistic names that are ‘sporty’ are encouraged. The 'humaness' also applies to the player's facial features - human faces only - no alien, rock, bio-organic, etc.

2. Are females allowed?
Yes, female athletes are allowed in the AFBL.

3. Map Restrictions
All maps have been deemed playable except the 'Eden Trial' map. If this map is randomly selected, simply quit that game and start another.

4. What server will this take place on?
The AFBL is hosted on Infinity.

5. Third Party Communication Software
Outside-of-game communication programs are not allowed. Teams are encouraged to use CoH's communication for strategizing.

E. LOOKING AHEAD
1. What if I missed the start and want to join a team once the teams have been determined?
The coaches will add reserve members to teams or to the AFBL Reserves supergroup, unless there is a large flux of players. In that case, new teams will be added by the coaches, and new coaches will be recruited. If need be, the AFBL will split into 2 divisions in the future - West Paragon and East Paragon. But that is far into the future and would require more players than is expected. The key is: don’t miss out at the start.

2. Will the AFBL be open to players outside of freedomreborn.net?
Perhaps at one point but not now. Opening it up makes things far more complicated - more teams, stats, scheduling of which to keep track. Players who have favourable reputations and are from one of the many freedomreborn.net supergroups are encouraged to join.

Supergroups that are interested in creating their own AFBL league are encouraged to contact @Tortuga before doing so. We want this license carried out properly, after all.

Credits: AFBL is the product of brainstorming between Tortuga, Bugbear and Rain. AFBL logo and teams logos were created by Texas Jack. Thanks to everyone who helped us test these ideas. It was more fun than hard work!