Q: What is this site for?
A: This web site has been set up to allow BZFlag players to form teams, and to track CTF matches.

Q What are some tips for new players?
A. Here are a couple of links: http://wiki.bzflag.org/Category:Tactics
http://groups.csail.mit.edu/mac/users/bentz/bzflag/bzflag.html

Q: Who can participate?
A: Anyone can of course. You're welcome to join the league, no matter whether you have just started playing BZFlag or are a living legend and smite mere mortals with a single mouse click. You will have to register for the tournament, though. You should be using an up to date client.

Q: I detected a bug on the site, who should I report it to?
A: Look into the Contacts menu.

Q: In the other sections of this F.A.Q., you use phrases like "in the near future" or "real soon now". How long is that?
A: Time and space are all relative

Q: Can I send messages to other players or teams?
A: Yes! Just click the "Send BZmessage" button where applicable, that is when you display a player or a team's details.

Q: When will teams be deleted?
A: ANY team (even if matches have been played) will be deleted if no member of that team logs into the site for a period of 3 months or more. These teams CAN be revived by a site administrator, but the team name can never be used again for a new team.

Q: When will teams be permanently deleted?
A: Teams which have never played a match and are more than 2 months old will be permanently deleted. These teams can not be revived, although the team name can be reused ("create new team").

Q: When will a team be listed as "inactive"?
A: Teams will be marked as inactive if they have not played a match in 45 days or more.

Q: When will a player be deleted?
A: Any player who is not a member of a team, and who has not logged into the site for a period of 3 months or more will be deleted.


Q: How do I connect to the league system?
A: Use the Login menu, and enter your bzflag forum login and password here. If you don't have those, you may ask the forum admins.

Q: How do I register?
A: Just use the Login menu, fill the fields, and press Ok.

Q: I've just registered, when will my acount be available?
A: Your account is available immediately after you register. Once you have registered, you are even logged on!

Q: I forgot my old bzleague password, how can I recover it?
A: You don't. Just drop us a mail (see the Contact menu), and we will update your old account.

Q: I want to change my callsign, how do I do that?
A: You can now change your callsign in the edit form.

Q: I'd like to unregister myself. How?
A: You can't for the moment. When you stop using your login and are in no team, you will be automatically deleted after some time, though.

Q: How do I change my personal information?
A: Browse for your callsign in the Players menu, or just click on the [Profile] link next to your name in the banner (top of page), then click the "Edit Profile" button.

Q: Ok, now I'm registered, I want to join an existing team. How?
A: Choose Teams from the menu. The teams that you can join have a "Join" button.
You can also display the information for a team, and from there, click the "Join this team" button.

Q: I am already a team member, just I want to join another team. How do I do it?
A: On the Teams menu, you have an "leave team" button. Use it, then join another team. If you are a team leader, you'll need to assign a new leader first (team edit page).

Q: How large can my player logo be?
A: The maximum size is 400 pixels width and 300 pixels height.

Q: What can I put in the Comment field?
A: Put whatever you want to introduce yourself to the community. You can put BBCode in there.

Q: How do I create a team?
A: Use the "Create a new team" button in the Teams menu.

Q: How large can the team logo be?
A: The maximum size is 400 pixels width and 300 pixels height.

Q: What can I put in the Comment field?
A: Put whatever you want to introduce your team to the community. You can put BBCode in there.

Q: How many players can I have in my team?
A: 20, including you. You can prevent other players to join your team even if it's not full by closing it.

Q: An unwanted player joined my team. How do I remove him from my team?
A: If you are the team leader, use the "kick member from team" button on your team's page. That won't prevent the player from joining again, but meanwhile you can close your team.

Q: How can I change my team's name?
A: If you are the team leader, you can change your team's name in the edit form. A BZmessage will then be sent to every team member, informing them of the name's change.

Q: What is the in front of some teams names?
A: It means that they have a team logo.

Q: How can I invite other players to join my team?
A: When displaying a player's detail, if you are a team leader and the player does not belong to any team, just can click the "Invite" button. On the invitation page, follow the instructions.

Q: What is Ranking?
A: In addition to doing events (tournaments), the idea is to have an all-time ranking of teams. This is basically a list sorted by each team's rating. The rating of each team is calculated based on all official matches in the league. Official matches can be either tournament matches or challenge matches.

Q: How does rating work?
A: We are using a simplified ELO rating. ELO is the system used to estimate the strength of chess players. After a match between two teams A and B, both A and B's ratings are adjusted. The winner's rating will increase while the losing team will lose points. The amount by which the ratings will change depends on the difference between the team's ratings: If a very high rated player loses against a low rated newbie, the newbie will gain significantly, and the other player will lose lots of points. If it's the other way around (higher rated player wins), the changes will be much smaller.
Thus, after time, each team's rating should reflect its relative strength quite accurately. Of course, a team's strength - as well as its rating - is not a constant and will possibly vary over time. Expect major fluctuations in the ranking after a major tournament.

Q: What's the exact formula used?
A: Using the old ratings oldA and oldB, the win probability for team A is calculated:
prob=1.0 / (1 + 10 ^ ((oldB-oldA)/400.0));
score= 1 if A wins, 0.5 for draw, 0 if B wins
The change in the ratings is then calculated by:
diff=50*(score-prob);
After that some rounding magic to integer is applied and the new ratings are calculated:
newA=oldA+diff, newB=oldB-diff;

Q: What server will the battles be on? Which settings will be used?
A: Only official match servers can be used for official GU matches. The list of official servers can be found here http://www.guleague.org/Contact/. It is also recommended to join all match server as Observer, this way you don't join in the middle of a match. Also whilst matches are being played it's recommended not to use public chat.

Q: Where do we meet before a battle?
A: The best place is on IRC (Internet Relay Chat) channel ##guleague on the Freenode Network (server irc.freenode.net). To access IRC, you need an IRC client program. There are several available for the popular operatign systems. For Windows, you might want to try mirc (www.mirc.com). Web-based access is also available via http://webchat.freenode.net/

Q: How do you score in a match?
A: The matches will be CTF style, i.e. Capture The Flag. Each team (red vs. green) has a base and a flag. A team scores +1 by carrying the opposing team's flag onto their own base. The other team will then lose 1 point. BZFlag will also keep an individual score for each player, but this is not important for the matches.

Q: When does a battle start? When does it end?
A: Matches have a fixed duration of 20 or 30 minutes. The battle starts as soon as both teams are complete. Ideally there should be some kind of referee watching the battle and giving the start signal. After the match is over, the team with the higher score is the winner. If both teams have the same score, it is a draw.

Q: Can I watch a battle although I am not participating?
A: You will be able to join the server as an observer. To do so, simply set your team accordingly before joining. The number of observers must be limited for technical reasons, so only a handful people will be allowed.

Q: We started a match 2v2, and someone had to leave, what happens now?
A: Preferably, the match will be paused, and a substitute can be found. If not, both teams should agree to either: cancel the match or continue the match at another time. If both teams do not agree to this, then one of two things must happen:
1) If the leading team has lost a player, the match is simply cancelled.
2) If the trailing team lost the player, it is a forfeit, and the score at the time of losing the player is entered.

Q: Is a 1 vs 1 match an official match in the GU league?
A: No. Each team must have at least 2 players for the match to be official.