These Guidelines are part of the Terms of Service, and capitalized terms have the meaning given there.
1. Where these apply
These Guidelines apply everywhere on the Services, including Hubs, the apps, Event pages, profiles, decklists, store pages and chat, and to everyone who uses them: Players, Organizers, Staff, Publishers and Developers. They sit alongside the game's rules and the Event's rules (§10).
We may also act on conduct off the Services that puts people on the Services at risk, such as threatening or stalking a Player you met at an Event.
2. Be respectful
Competitive play gets heated. Disagreeing about a play or a ruling is fine. Attacking people isn't. Don't:
- Harass or bully. For example: repeated unwanted contact, piling on, mocking someone to humiliate them, or sexual comments or advances.
- Post hate. Don't attack or demean people because of race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, caste, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, serious illness or age. That includes slurs, hateful symbols and hateful deck or team names.
- Threaten or encourage violence, including as a "joke" after a loss.
- Dox. Don't share someone's personal information, such as a home address, phone number, email, workplace or school, without their permission. That includes data you can see as Staff.
- Stalk. Don't follow someone from Event to Event, or across accounts, to intimidate them.
3. Be honest
Don't:
- Impersonate another Player, a judge, a store, a Publisher or TopDeck.
- Make fake Registrations, such as registering people who don't exist or didn't agree, or holding seats you won't use.
- Evade bans. Don't use another Account to get around a ban from TopDeck or from an Organizer.
- Manipulate results or ratings. For example: reporting results that didn't happen, running fake Events to farm rating points, or using the Services for collusion, bribery or prize-splitting that the game's or Event's rules forbid.
- Misuse payments. For example: using a stolen card, or playing in an Event and then filing a chargeback to get your entry fee back.
- Mislead. Don't post false information about an Event, a store, a Player or a result.
4. What you post
Players of all ages use TopDeck. Keep your display name, avatar, bio, deck names, Event descriptions and images, store pages and comments suitable for them. Not allowed:
- sexual content or nudity;
- graphic violence or gore;
- hateful content, symbols or names;
- content you don't have the rights to, such as someone else's art or photos (card images are fine for identifying cards, but follow the publisher's fan-content policy);
- other people's personal information; and
- spam, scams, malware or phishing links, or ads unrelated to the Event or store.
These rules cover images you link to or embed, not just ones you upload. We may screen or filter content automatically. Anything that gets through still has to follow these rules. If you think something was blocked by mistake, contact us.
5. Chat
Where an Organizer turns on chat, use it for the match: finding your table, confirming results, sorting out timing and asking for a judge. Be civil (§2 applies in full), don't spam, and don't pressure anyone, especially younger Players, to move to private messages or share contact details.
Event chat isn't private. The Report option sends a message to the Event's Staff; report serious issues (threats, sexual content, anything involving a minor) to TopDeck too (§8).
6. Organizers and Staff
The Organizer Terms set out your legal duties. In practice:
- Run real Events and describe them accurately. Don't list fake Events to take payments, collect emails or farm ratings.
- Keep your refund promises. Set a refund policy and follow it. If you cancel an Event, make sure Players are refunded, including anything paid at the venue.
- Use Player data only to run your Events, and as the law allows. Don't add Players to marketing lists without their consent, or share or sell their data.
- Ban fairly. You can ban a Player from your Events for real reasons, such as cheating, harassment or unpaid fees, but not for discriminatory reasons or to punish a good-faith complaint.
- Staff: stay within your role. Don't change results, decklists or penalties dishonestly, or browse Player data you don't need. Don't record health or other sensitive information in Staff notes unless the Player asks you to and it's needed to accommodate them.
- Deliver the prizes you advertise, and follow the prize laws where you run your Event.
Publishers are held to the same standards across their Organized Play Programs.
7. Keeping minors safe
Many Players are teenagers, and younger Players can be entered into Events by Staff.
- Zero tolerance for child sexual exploitation. Never post, request or share sexual content involving a minor, or sexualize a minor. We remove it, report it to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement, and may ban every Account involved.
- No grooming. Don't use the Services to seek private contact with a minor you don't know, ask a minor for photos, or arrange to meet a minor away from an Event.
- Organizers: get a parent's or guardian's permission before entering a younger Player who doesn't have an Account, and don't publish more about a younger Player than the Event needs.
- If something puts a minor at risk, report it to TopDeck right away (§8). If someone is in immediate danger, contact local emergency services first.
8. How to report
- To TopDeck: email [email protected]. Tell us where the content is (a link is best) and what's wrong.
- During an Event: call a judge. Judge calls go to the Event's Staff.
- Copyright: email [email protected].
- Security vulnerabilities: email [email protected].
- An Organizer's decision (a penalty, a refund, a ban from its Events): contact the Organizer first. Report it to TopDeck if you think the Organizer is breaking these Guidelines.
Anyone can report, including a parent on behalf of a child. Don't file reports you know are false; that breaks these Guidelines too.
9. What we may do
We decide what to do at our discretion. Depending on what happened, we may:
- remove or restrict content;
- warn you;
- limit features, such as chat, uploads, creating Events or payments;
- remove you from leaderboards, ratings and series standings;
- suspend your Account; or
- ban your Account permanently.
We don't have to go in that order, and we may act immediately. For Organizers, we may also remove Event listings or Hub pages, or turn off Organizer tools. Where someone's safety may be at risk, we may contact law enforcement. If you disagree with a decision, email [email protected] (Terms §14).
10. Game rules and Organizer decisions
Each game has its own tournament rules, and each Organizer can add its own Event rules.
- In-game penalties, game losses and disqualifications are decided by the Event's judges and Organizer, not TopDeck. Appeal them to the Head Judge, the Organizer or the Publisher.
- An Organizer's ban from its Events, and a Publisher's exclusion of a Player from its standings, are their decisions. Raise them with the Organizer or Publisher.
- A penalty at an Event doesn't change your standing with TopDeck. But if the same conduct also breaks these Guidelines (for example, a threat made at the table), we may act on it too.
- If an Organizer abuses its tools (for example, with discriminatory bans or fake results), report it to TopDeck.
11. Changes
We may update these Guidelines, as Terms §3 describes.