There are three official sports systems on Hogwarts.io, all of which have unique gameplay and rules surrounding them. There are three moderated stages/games for each sport during the school year. During each game, players are motivated to win because they have the chance to earn a stat point and a house point.

Users can join their house sports teams through a sign up process located in each house's common room. If the team is full, the user will be placed on the house waitlist. New players are added to the team on a first come, first serve principle, in order of signing up. Note that even while on the waitlist, you must maintain posting activity requirements or you will be removed. A user cannot join a waitlist if they are currently on a different sports team. A user can be on multiple sports' waitlists, but once they have been accepted onto a team, they will be removed from any other waitlists. When a player is promoted from waitlist to the team, they will receive an owl about this change.

To join a team, you have to be registered in the Official Index. For more information on how to register for the index, please look here and here. You cannot be added to the waitlist until you are on the index, so if you apply before being on the index, your application for the team will be denied and you'll have to apply again once you are indexed. (For duelling specifically, you also need to have at least 2 duelling spells in your trunk before you apply to join, at least one of which must be labelled [Attack]).

A user can only be in one sport at a time. A player can leave a sport and once they are removed from the roster they can sign up for another sport (not before) where they will be added to the end of the waitlist. A player can be waitlisted for more than once sport, but once a player joins a sport, they are automatically removed from all other waitlists. In short, you can change sports mid-year, but you need to officially leave the sport you were in.

Quidditch System: viewtopic.php?t=7504
Gryffindor Signups | Hufflepuff Signups | Ravenclaw Signups | Slytherin Signups

Duelling System: viewtopic.php?t=18374
Gryffindor Signups | Hufflepuff Signups | Ravenclaw Signups | Slytherin Signups

Broom Racing System: viewtopic.php?t=12981
Gryffindor Signups | Hufflepuff Signups | Ravenclaw Signups | Slytherin Signups

When you signup for a sport, you are committing to being part of a team. You will be expected to remain active, post in official matches, and help your team strategize during games.

During an official match, you will be expected to make a 50-word minimum post every round of the game by the deadline. If your team wins, you will be eligible for rewards if you have missed no more than one round. This is necessary because your action for the round will not happen if you do not post, putting your team at a severe disadvantage. The exception to this is if your character gets knocked out mid-game, you are not required to continue posting after that. If you post accordingly and your team wins the game, you will be eligible for the following rewards:

• 1 stat point. Note that this cannot be used to break the year caps on stats. You can redeem this after your match has ended and your moderator has made a post confirming who is eligible for rewards.
• 1 house point. This is awarded after all that sports' games have ended for that season.

Action submission is also an important responsibility. Captains are responsible for submitting their team's actions in broom racing and quidditch by the deadline (though players can and should be on top of reminding their captains if they see a disconnect), and in duelling the two to three-player sub teams are responsible for submitting their actions by the deadline. Failure to submit a strategy on time means your team loses their actions for the round. In addition, all members are expected to post on time. This is down to the hour and minute from the time the moderation post is up. We do not offer extensions for any reason except for the site being down. This does mean that late posts (even with good reason or only a few minutes or hours late) would be counted as a missed post. Captains do not have the authority to grant extensions.

Players maintain their spots on a team and waitlist as long as they are active. Activity is defined as posting on site anywhere, this includes forum games. The last time someone has logged onto the site, collected their scholarship, wrote an owl or spoke on discord would not count towards being "active."

Specifically, you must:

1. post on site at least once every calendar month. [So Feb 3 to March 3, Oct 9 to Nov 9] Some months are longer or shorter by a day or two, we do this by calendar month for clarity for the moderators and the players. In the case of users who have two accounts (eg staff with adult accounts), posting on either account will count towards this.
2. post in official matches. If you are active on site, but you miss posting twice in a single game, you will be removed from the role.

It is the player's responsibility to ensure they are keeping up with the activity requirements. Failure to meet the above requirements will result in immediate removal from the team. However, you can rejoin the team at the bottom of the waitlist/if there is a vacancy. iNPCs can rejoin once the iNPC update thread is open. (Please note: duelling has penalties for going inactive during a duel).

Special Considerations: This is in regards to players that know that they will be away for a prolonged period of time, will be missing a game, were suddenly unable to access the site. While some cases may be extreme, every person who is taken away from the community has a good reason, be it school, health, real life responsibilities, work, or issues accessing a computer. It is impossible for us to verify every person who has an "exceptional circumstance" and it is also unfair to state that certain issues would give someone extra time we would not offer someone else. This leads to concerns of favoritism, accusations of lying, becoming privy to personal information of users we have no business having and the unfortunate animosity that accompanies a subjective exception. In regards to knowing that you will be on vacation or unavailable during a game and therefore unable to post -- there is presently no additional consideration or system available for this. However, this is under active discussion.

Leaving the Team
A player may leave a team at any point. It is recommended that a player leaves the team between games rather than during a game because it will leave their team at a disadvantage if they leave suddenly during a game. However, we understand that extreme circumstances can transpire that require an immediate departure.

The process for leaving the team is to post your intention to leave in the sign up thread. This dates your time of departure and explains to other users that you were not kicked off the tea but rather you chose to leave the team. No explanation needs to be posted, just simply "I wish to be removed from this team or waitlist" will suffice. You are considered to be removed from the team officially when the roster updates. Please keep this in mind, because once you have been removed from the team, another player has been added. At this point, there is no changing your mind. You are free to reapply to the team when your life circumstances allow you to, but you will be added to the end of the waitlist because the teams are first-come, first-serve.

Each house sports team has team captains. These team captains are also the site's sports moderators, meaning they are working with the other sports captains to organize matches, moderate the matches (performing rolls and making moderation posts), and develop the sports systems further. They also make sure to keep their sports rosters up to date and work with their Head of House to make sure their team members have the necessary accesses and roles (more details on what is expected of sports captains are found in the specific moderator forum for that sport). A user can be a captain of multiple sports, or a sport that they are not a player in, as needed.

Action submission is also an important responsibility. Captains are responsible for submitting their team's actions in broom racing and quidditch by the deadline, and in duelling the two-player sub teams are responsible for submitting their actions by the deadline (though captains can and should be on top of reminding them if they see a disconnect). Failure to submit a strategy on time means your team loses their actions for the round.

Team captains might not have an active player position in the game, but could have an active in-character role (helping with strategy) as well as the out of character role. If a user is a captain of a sport and on the waitlist (ie also not a player in any other sport), they can post in official matches as an advisor and would be eligible for the rewards offered to players.

If a team captain is concerned that they may not be able to maintain their activity, they can resign - since there are at least two captains for each house sports team, the remaining captain will work with their Head of House to start a search for another co-captain.

Access to our official discord is a requirement of the captain position because that is where the rolls for games are done.

Why Become a Team Captain?

• There is a level of control that comes with this and your efforts may make the difference between success and failure for your team.
• This is a moderator-level position.
• You will be compensated for your efforts with IC money.

When a sports captain steps down, there will be an announcement made in your house's bulletin board area, along with an application of interest to be sent to your Head of House and the team captains. When you submit an application of interest, you will be sent a more formal application afterward - a math assessment geared towards the specific sports system. We are looking for an understanding of the system and basic mathematics - users who have played the sport in question tend to have an advantage here because they have experienced the system and understand the system details. However, you are encouraged to reach out to other players or captains for more information if you have any questions.

Captain applications remain open until a suitable candidate is found. This usually means that applications will be open indefinitely until the first passing maths test has been received, then a one-week deadline will be announced.