Rules & information

Editing game files is strictly prohibited and results in a punishment ranging from a warning to a permanent ban, depending on how severe the offence is.

A list of allowed modifications can be found in the Allowed mods list below.

Input automation such as movement macros, feint macros and keyboard macros is illegal. The only allowed features are rapid trigger and SOCD.

It is strictly prohibited to enter an unintended area of the map or use a clearly unintended mechanic (glitching). Any player shown to have been glitching during a tournament match is punished at the administrators’ discretion.

If a player is found to have broken any of the rules during a match and the admins determine that a significant advantage was gained, that player’s team forfeits the relevant rounds.

“Significant” is meant in the technical sense of “potentially possible to measure”.

Account sharing and the use of fake accounts are strictly prohibited and result in an automatic ban from any further tournament matches. Furthermore, the clan of the offending member is given a default loss (12–0).

Should a player be forced to use a new or shared account (because they are banned on their main account or any other circumstance prevents them from using it), that player and/or their teammates must inform the admins and wait for confirmation.

Administrators and moderators may require participants to show their Steam log-in history at any point during the tournament.

Administrators and moderators may require participants to stream their match on the official Bannerlord Native League Discord at any point during the tournament.

Cheating in any multiplayer environment in Bannerlord is grounds for a ban from BNL.

Using console commands to unlock more character customization options is considered cheating and is prohibited.

The Bannerlord Native League (BNL) splits all teams into up to n divisions based on team strength. The winner of Division A is titled “Bannerlord Champions”.

The six strongest teams of the tournament play against each other in Division A. In Division B the next six best teams play each other, in Division C the next six, and so on. Any extra teams, or those that cannot be placed elsewhere, are placed in the lowest available division.

After five weeks of group stage in all divisions, final matches are played in week six between the 1st and 2nd place of each division.

In Division A, the top two teams play a final match. Right before the match begins, maps and factions are determined through a pick & ban system by the teams. The winner of this match is the champion of the tournament.

In Division B and below, the top two teams of each division play a final match. Immediately before the match, maps and factions are selected using a pick & ban system. The winner of this match advances to the next division for the following BNL season.

The team that ends the season in last place in its division moves down to the preceding division for the following BNL season.

The team that won its division can refuse promotion to the higher division, at the discretion of the administration, if it has a good reason for it.

During the initial stage, teams in each division play every other team in that division. Teams are awarded 3 points for a win, 1 point for a draw and 0 points for a loss.

Teams are initially sorted by their ranking in the previous tournament.

Fixtures are determined by the circle method.

Teams are sorted by, in this order:

1. Total points
2. Round difference
3. Rounds won
4. Winner of that matchup in the group stage
5. One set on the tie-breaker map, if needed

Each week ends at midnight CET/CEST on Sunday.

Matches should be scheduled by posting in the fixtures channel, #calendar. At the latest, a match needs to be scheduled 24 hours before the match itself.

If a team cannot contact its opponent, that team must contact the administration and inform them. At the latest, the administration must know on the deadline day of that match week.

Teams may subsequently agree a non-default time by posting in the fixtures channel, #calendar.

If the two teams agree, matches can be played on any day and time before the match deadline. If a match is not played by the deadline and neither team posted, the result counts as a loss for both teams.

Teams should be available to play their official matches on Sunday at 20:00 as the predetermined deadline (CET in winter, CEST in summer).

If teams are unable to agree on a Sunday deadline, captains should contact the division moderator to discuss a proper solution. Moderators rule in favor of the more reasonable team.

Finals should be scheduled so that both teams can play with their strongest line-up. There is no predetermined deadline for the final match, but it should be scheduled no later than three weeks after the last match week.

Except for the finals, maps and factions are determined in advance throughout the tournament using a random number generator.

For the KO stage and promotion matches, teams determine the maps and factions during a pick and ban event.

Picks and bans for maps go in this order: Team 1 bans, Team 2 bans, Team 1 bans, Team 2 bans, Team 2 picks, Team 1 picks.

After the maps are picked, the teams pick factions as follows. On Team 1’s map: Team 1 picks, Team 1 bans, Team 2 picks. On Team 2’s map: Team 2 picks, Team 2 bans, Team 1 picks. Mirror match-ups are not allowed.

The list of maps and factions for this tournament is posted in #matchups.

Every team must provide the tournament administration with a roster of at least six players, with their respective Steam and Discord IDs, before being accepted into the tournament.

Teams in Division A and Division B are limited to 12 players.

Teams in all other divisions are limited to 15 players.

Should a player who is not on the roster play for a team, that team must immediately provide the administrators with a copy of the History.json file from every player that played in the match, and live-stream their SteamLoginHistory from the Steam desktop application to the admins. The severity of the rule break is determined at the administration’s discretion.

Teams are restricted to a maximum of three roster additions per tournament. Additions still need to be approved by the division moderator.

Each team member may be listed under one name only in the team roster.

A player may change their nickname as long as it reflects their previous nickname. For example, Sturgeon → Sturgian is allowed; Sturgeon → Witchy is not.

Moderators can ask a player to use the name they signed up with for the duration of the tournament. Not following their guidance can result in warnings.

Any Steam ID listed for a player in a team roster must be unique to that player. Using a Steam ID that has been used by any other player at any point is forbidden.

Each player may use only one Steam ID for the tournament.

Any player from a non-Steam platform must contact the admins when signing up.

Any player who has not yet played in a match may join a team at any time during the ladder stage.

Once a player has played for one team, they may not play for another team during this tournament.

Transfers may be requested by the unplayed players themselves or by the captain of their new team.

Any player addition needs to be approved by the admins for that player to be eligible to play for the team they were registered with. Teams are advised to make additions well before match time so the admins have time to approve or reject. If a team cannot field six players and its player addition is not approved, the team may decide to play with fewer than six players.

No roster changes are allowed for KO stage matches.

It is strictly prohibited for a player to play for more than one team during the tournament.

Any player found to have played for more than one team is suspended for the rest of the tournament.

Any secondary team that fields a player already registered to another team is punished at the administration’s discretion.

If a transfer is requested for a player who has already played for one team (for example between two teams of the same clan), it is at the admins’ discretion to approve or reject it.

All matches are played on Bannerlord Native League servers unless both teams agree otherwise. If all servers are occupied, teams should message KAMBY or Thyrell.

Either team may restart the match during the warm-up phase up to three times each. Players leaving a match once the game has started may face consequences.

If the server crashes, the team with more than 80% more spawns left can claim the round for itself.

In this case, 100 gold counts as one spawn.

If a player crashes in round one and no damage has been dealt, teams are required to restart from the beginning of the set. Later on, it is up to the teams whether to restart.

When a player leaves the server and/or team for any reason, they can only be replaced during the same set by another player from the roster, and only with the approval of the opposing team.

If the administration considers it important, clans are required to play their matches on the official Discord server for this tournament. One admin joins each team’s channel and watches their stream while they compete.

Both teams have 15 minutes to gather their players and join the server. If a team fails to turn up within 15 minutes of the agreed match start, the other team must contact an admin immediately and is given a default win. A team that fails to turn up for the first time is given a warning; the second time it is suspended from the tournament.

Teams are not obligated to wait more than 10 minutes between maps and sets, and should contact an admin if there is a prolonged wait.

Each tournament match consists of two sets on each of two maps, four sets in total. After the first set on each map, the teams swap spawns and factions.

In the ladder stage, the match is won by the team with the higher number of rounds won. If both teams have the same number of rounds won, the match is a draw.

The team shown on the left side of the fixture is Team A, the map on the left is Map A and the faction on the left is Faction A. Team A starts on Faction A on Map A and on Faction B on Map B.

In the case of a default, rounds played are recorded as played, and rounds not played are recorded as the defaulting team losing all remaining rounds.

During matches, if a team voices disapproval of a spectating player, it can ask any spectators to leave. A spectator who refuses to leave despite being asked by one of the teams can be punished at the administration’s discretion, up to a tournament suspension.

Abusing server-admin powers is punished at the administration’s discretion.

No more than two cavalry may be shown as alive on the UI in the team line-up at any time during match play.

No more than two archers/crossbows may be shown as alive on the UI in the team line-up at any time during match play.

The Mounted Archer (Khuzait unit) counts as Cavalry and Archer at the same time.

Due to the nature of the tournament, only ladder stage matches may end in a draw. Should a KO match end in a tie after regular time, a tie-breaker has to be played.

The tie-breaker is played on the specified map: “Shariz” with the Empire faction as a mirror match-up. The tie-breaker is one set only, with team one starting on the left side.