IQA

IQA Update

IQA Announces Conference Policy

by IQA Staff | September 9, 2013

The IQA is excited to announce an official policy that will recognize conferences that provide teams with regular play and an organized games schedule.

PHOTO BY /IQA STAFF

The policy will be effective immediately.

According to the new IQA conference policy, a conference is defined as a set of a minimum of three teams that have regularly-scheduled games and a final game or tournament to name a champion of the conference. 

Teams will receive the following benefits from joining a conference. The IQA will:

  • Recognize the conference as official.
  • Publicize the conference schedule on the IQA’s website.
  • Give each conference its own page on the IQA’s website.
  • Allow conferences to apply for funding and merchandise.

The requirements for teams to form a conference as as follows:

  • Conferences must consist of at least three teams, 75 percent of which must be official teams (in the event that only three teams participate, two must be official).
  • Conferences must schedule their first day of games at least three weeks in advance.
  • An initial schedule of games must be presented to the IQA. Games scheduled after the initial schedule is released must be planned and announced at least two weeks before they occur.
  • Each member team must have at least three official games scheduled against conference opponents over the course of the season.
  • All conference games are official IQA games and will be entered into the official IQA rankings unless an unofficial team is playing in that particular game.
  • All conference games must use official IQA tiebreakers.
  • Conferences must abide by the IQA's Official Policy on Missed Games (see below).

Each conference will be assigned a state representative or regional director who will act as the primary IQA liaison to the conference director. Teams may participate in more than one conference as long as they can meet the requirements of both conferences. In the event that a team misses a game, the conference director must take appropriate actions based the IQA's official policy on missed games, below. If a game needs to be rescheduled, the involved teams and the conference director must approve the schedule change and the assigned state representative or regional director must be notified of the change.

Is your conference interested in becoming official? . Conferences that remain unofficial will still be permitted to hold official games without the IQA benefits listed above. Email with further questions.

Official Policy on Missed Games:
This policy is for use specifically by IQA-official conferences and is recommended for use by tournament directors at all events. This policy governs the rules for recognizing a forfeit within the structure of a conference or a tournament. Forfeits will not be reflected in the official IQA rankings.

A team that does not appear at the time and location of a game it is scheduled to play in shall receive a forfeit. For the purpose of any tournament, a forfeit is counted as a 150*-0 loss for the forfeiting team. If both teams forfeit, both teams shall receive a 150*-0 loss. 

A team receives a forfeit for any of the following reasons:
1. Failing to appear at the scheduled start time and location of a game.
2. Not being prepared to start a game within five minutes after the scheduled start time.
3. Refusing to play or continue play when instructed by the head referee, including walking out during a match.

A team will never receive a forfeit for a game that it never agreed to attend, was not informed it was scheduled to attend or had the date and time changed without agreement from both teams. However, a team must complete any game it has started playing or it will receive a forfeit.

A team that maliciously or repeatedly forfeits games will be subject to various penalties by the IQA, including suspension. In extreme or unusual circumstances, the IQA may choose to include a forfeited game in the official rankings for either or both of the teams.

If teams need to restructure a tournament, they must have a reasonable plan in place, and they must inform the IQA of their plans. The process of restructuring tournaments will be considered on a case-by-case basis.