Bribes

Decisions made regarding the tournament in concession, drawing with another player (intentionally), or dropping from a tournament cannot be made or influenced by offers of reward or incentive of a reward. The same is true for any decisions while playing games in a tournament. Players may also not make offers of reward or suggest any incentives to tournament officials to influence rulings or outcomes for players. Breaching this is considered bribery.

The intention to share prizes from a prize pool by mutual agreement prior to having received those prizes is not bribery. This cannot involve deals for specific match outcomes, results, or a player dropping from a tournament; if such sharing of prizes does include this, it is then considered bribery. If players in the last round of a single-elimination part of a tournament agree to a winner and agree on prize allocations based on final standing/ranking, one player must drop from the tournament and prizes are then distributed according to the final standing/ranking; this would not constitute bribery. Additionally, if all players in single-elimination rounds of a tournament agree to split prizes evenly, those players can choose to end the tournament (with permission of the tournament organizer) or continue playing as per the normal course of tournament events.

Players and tournament officials cannot act in such a way as to suggest that tournament results and outcomes could have been “rigged.” If there is suspicion that this is the case, this may be investigated with the possibility of punishment to either involved players, tournament officials, or tournament organizers.

While players can use match wins, scores, or standings of other players to inform their own decisions as to whether to drop or attempt to intentionally draw with their round opponent, they cannot do so as a form of agreement with other players in other matches or pairings. If this is done via forms of agreement, it can be interpreted as bribery.