Rules:
Teams
Teams are divided into two conferences; Timely and National. This structure can be changed based on the number of teams participating.
Teams can have co-owners. But no more than two owners to a team. And only the owner who writes the battle may debate. If both owners write a battle, they must choose which one will do the debating.
Each team is made up of 12 characters drawn from the Marvel and DC universes. No Amalgams. Only 5 characters at a time are in a lineup during any given match. (The other 7 characters are on the bench.) Characters from alternate timelines, different points in time, What-if's, and Elseworlds are also allowed. But all characters must satisfy the minimum appearance rule of at least 3 issues that 'significantly' describes them and their powers, or they cannot be used.
Characters are broken up into 4 groups by general power levels: Too Uber, Uber, Middleweight, and Regular. Uber characters include Superman, Apocalypse, Flash, and Thor. Middleweight characters include Captain Britain, Aquaman, Vision, and Sand. Regular characters include Spider-Man, Batman, Captain America, and Plastic Man.
Characters deemed Too Uber (or tuber) are banned from competition. Character rankings can be argued by owners, but the actual ranking of a character as Tuber, Uber, Middleweight, or Regular is at the sole discretion of the commissioner. Characters like Thanos and Darkseid are just above the tuber line, while the Silver Surfer is just under the line.
No more than two versions of any character can be used in the league at the same time. Having the same secret identity does not necessarily count as being the same character. Green Lantern (Hal Jordan) and Green Lantern (Alan Scott) do not count as the same character. But Hulk and Maestro would since they are both Bruce Banner at different points in time. The same charater from two different points in time is also allowed if there is a significant enough change in their powers/abilities. Superman and Superman Blue are two versions of the same character.
Characters cannot use any new abilities or technology that appears in comics after the season starts. Anything seen before the start date is fair game. The ending date are any issues published by December 2009.
A lineup of 5 characters can have, at most, two ubers, one middleweight, and two regulars. Characters in a lineup can be downgraded (e.g. a middleweight can be used instead of an uber, a regular can be used instead of a middleweight or an uber).
Links (at least one) must be provided for each character on a player's roster that contains a good description of the character's biography. Otherwise, the character can not be used.
During the course of the season, an owner must use at least 12 different characters in matches. Characters on a team can be changed at any time before lineups are due. Changes made after this time will be reflected on the next week's matches. Swapping a character for another that is unowned is done on a first-come, first-serve basis. The first owner to request a character will get them.
Owners are allowed to trade characters with owners of other teams, but both owners must agree on the trade and post it. Owners can also put a character on the trading block if they are willing to trade them away and want to listen to trade offers.
Trading and team changes will be allowed until the playoffs, at which point teams will be locked.
All character changes, trades, and lineup posts should be made in the DTL Transactions thread.
Schedule
A new match will run each week. Final lineups for matches are due by midnight the day before matches start. Lineups can be posted and changed anytime before the deadline. If a lineup is changed at the last minute, the opposing owner will have one chance to change their lineup in response.
Matches will run 5 days with two days inbetween for lineups to be finalized. During the first two days, only owners can post their battles. Battles and prep-time can be written in any way the owner desires, but must fit within two posts.
Debating starts on the third day once both owners have posted their battles. Owners cannot debate until their opponent has finished posting their battle. Owners can debate anyway they wish, but their entire debate must fit within two posts, one for the writeup, the second for the rebuttle.
On the fourth day, voting will open and close at the end of the fifth day. Voters will vote for the team they think will win the match by giving each owner a score on a 10-point scale (10 is a perfect, and perfectly convincing story, 1 is minimal effort and not convincing, 0 is for no writeup). The team with the most winning votes wins. Voters will be instructed to base votes on the quality of the strategies in writeups, not just how the team looks on paper or what they think would happen.
A bye week will be provided at mid-season for all, and between the regular and post-seasons for the first place team. No matches take place on the mid-season bye week to allow owners time to rest, although current matches may be extended through the bye week if extra time is necessary. All non-match activities like roster and lineups changes are still allowed.
If you miss two games, your team is up for grabs. You can reclaim your team once, but if you miss another game, you are out for the season, and your team is up for grabs to anyone else.
At random times during a season, a theme week may be declared. Theme weeks do various things like change rules or alter how battles take place. Based on their nature, some themes will be announced ahead of time. Others will not be announced until the matches are posted. Theme weeks will only appear in 10%-20% of the matches.
Battles
A match consists of a battle between the two teams in a preselected battleground. All teams are considered to have 24 hours of prep-time before the match starts. Prep-time takes place on the battlefield. During prep-time, teams can prepare the battlefiled, but neither team can interact with the other, nor can they leave the area. Also, ubers will not be able to use any of their powers during this time. Resources are limited to what the characters in the match know, have on them, or can use/build in the battlefield. If the battlefield provides a character a way to access additional resources, that is allowed as long as it would be normally accessible to the character. No person outside of the lineups (on the team, or otherwise) can be used as a resource. Teams will be given a very brief description of the opponents in the form of character names, pictures, and basic breakdown of powers (provided by team owners).
During battle, the goal of the match is to incapacitate the other team. This includes knocking out an opposing character, eliminating them from the match or field of battle, making them unable to fight, or killing them. Characters should not act out of character (heroes generally do not kill). Characters are allowed to remember previous matches, but are not allowed to remember deaths, even their own. This eliminates the tactic of a character 'blowing themselves up' without reason, just to take out the other team because they know they'll come back to life. Characters should react as in-character as possible to their teams, and not necessarily get along just because they are in a tournament. Mortal enemies on the same team will not necessarily work well together. Characters cannot remember previous seasons.
Uber characers can only fight other ubers, unless first attacked by lower ranking characters, or the opponent's ubers have been dealt with.
Characters are not allowed to 'blitz' the opposing team.
The League
All general discussion should be confined to the Discussion thread. Transactions should be made in the Transactions thread. The DTL Update thread will have posts describing the current status of the season including rosters, lineups, matches, and records.
The commissioner may appoint lieutenants to help run the league, make decisions, keep track of changes, and make sure everything is updated. But the commissioner's decisions are final.
And I am the commissioner.
