Rules

UPA Esports Rules

General Player Conduct

By participating in any UPA event you are agreeing to not defame UPA or its leagues on any form of social media, news outlet or otherwise. We will respond to concerns in DM’s, the ticket support system, or email NOT public social media.

By participating in UPA you agree to not harass players for any reason including but not limited to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, age, disability, or sexual orientation.

By participating in any UPA event you agree to not harass the administration team and to treat them with respect. Treating the administration team disrespectfully may result in a forfeit, brand strike, fine or ban. Our staff always has the intent to do the right thing and assist however they can. In the end, some rulings may just not be in your favor. It is never personal.

All infractions against the Terms of Service or this rules page will result in a strike against the captain and/or player involved over the course of their lifetime participation in a UPA event. Three strikes will result in a suspension or ban from the league at the discretion of the Admin Team. A brand, captain or player must play a full season without a strike to get a strike removed from their lifetime participation. UPA reserves the right to revise any punishment as it sees fit on a case by case basis.

Account Eligibility Rules

All infractions related to abuse of Take Two (2K) terms of service should be reported directly to 2K not to UPA. (i.e. account sharing/buying, badge grinding, etc.). UPA is unable to determine if 2K terms of service have been violated. UPA will only respond to related complaints should the user be gaining a perceived unfair competitive advantage in its league.

All in-game usernames (PlayStation ID or XBox Live Gamertag) must be registered to each team’s roster in order to compete. Failure to follow this requirement will result in forfeit. Multiple occurrences will result in the team’s removal from the event without a refund.

If using multiple 2K accounts, you must change and register the in-game username (PlayStation ID or XBox Live Gamertag) of each account to closely resemble (one character difference at the end) the name you are commonly known as in the UPA community. Example: deluxpike may compete as deluxpike_ but deluxpike may not compete as EvThatGuy-

UPA will only respond to stat correction requests if the in-game username matches the registered UPA username exactly.

If a team begins a game knowing that their opponent is in violation of any league rule, they are automatically accepting the results of that game.

Proof must be provided to support any claims of an ineligible player playing in a game. The proof must be clear to read/hear and not edited, cropped or otherwise tampered with.

Registration & Team Information

Any team that plays in this league must have passed team registration and paid the league Registration Fee, when applicable.

All registration fees for any Unified Pro-Am Association event are non-refundable unless that event has been canceled by the organization. In the instance that an event is canceled, refunds will be issued in the form of UPA Wallet credits unless otherwise specified by management.

Each team will have 10 roster spots available at registration. There will be an Additional Player Fee associated with any player added after registration whether you’ve reached 10 roster spots or not. At registration players are required to have a primary position but can use any position as long as that player is on the roster. Roster changes lock dates will be announced on Twitter @WRProAmLeague @MBPA2K and/or @UnifiedProAm

Each player may only play on one team at a time. You may not play on multiple teams with multiple accounts.

If an issue arises where the team owner/captain no longer wishes to be a captain they can transfer team ownership to another player by letting league admin know and paying a Transfer of Ownership Fee. This will allow the new owner to take ownership of the team and rebrand it the way they see fit. If the team captain leaves the team mid-season without transferring ownership, that team will be removed from the event.

You must play on the court with your registered team name and logos to get credit for wins. Every team name must have “UPA” before or after the name.

Teams can only play league/tournament games with players that are on their roster.

All internal team changes must be processed through UPA. If a team adds or removes a player, a Roster Change must be submitted on the UPA website. Adding a player will incur a fee, while removals are always free. If a team member updates their PSN or Gamer Tag, a Player Name Change must be submitted and paid for. Maintaining accurate rosters within the UPA system is crucial for ensuring fairness and consistency; failure to comply may result in penalties.

During the postseason, each team is allowed only one emergency roster change for the entire playoff run. This option is strictly for emergencies. The replacement player must not appear on any other postseason roster, and the change requires prior approval from an admin to be valid.

Competing in any game, tournament, or season with a player not registered on your team’s official roster, with the intent to deceive or gain an unfair advantage, may lead to penalties such as forfeiting matches, losing prizes, suspension, or permanent expulsion from UPA events.

Court/Jersey/Logo Design

Home jerseys must be predominantly white or light gray. Away jerseys can be any color except white or light gray. Every team court must have a UPA logo on it. You find it by searching “UnifiedProAm” on PS5/XBOX S/X on the current NBA 2K. Courts must be all wood, color is allowed in the paint and apron.

Any logo not imported from the “UnifiedProAm” account is invalid.

Admin Team reserves the right to request alterations to your court for any reason including, but not limited to, improper logos, obscenities, or any other unnamed reason resulting in a lack of aesthetic appeal. Failure to comply will result in fines, removal or suspension from UPA leagues.

We DO NOT allow NBA or College team logos! Your team logo must be owned by you or a teammate and does not belong to any other entity. Failing to use a custom logo will result in a failed team registration. If you would like to change your team name, logo, and design mid-season you will have to pay the Rebranding Fee.

Gameplay Rules

The Competition Committee is a council of volunteer UPA players which discuss and debate necessary rules to ensure fair and competitive play in the community. No member of the Competition Committee is on UPA staff.

Game altering glitches and exploits are prohibited on a case by case basis as they become known to the staff and after a review by the Competition Committee to determine the fairness and enforce-ability of the game abuse. Such additional game play rules will be announced on @UnifiedProAm twitter/X as well as the UPA Discord Server and may be introduced in the middle of the season if warranted by the Competition Committee.

Current rules are as follows:

The use of N/A Free Throws, please ensure that in your settings “Free Throw Timing” is set to “User”. N/A free throws occur when a user changes the Free Throw option under their controller settings to “Real %”.
Utilizing between the legs “dribble exploit” 3 or more times consecutively with any Moving Crossover Signature Style will be considered a violation. The punishment will be handled on a case by case basis. A forfeit will generally only be awarded if the exploit is deemed to have impacted the game result. Video proof required and you must finish the game to protest the result. Commissioner ruling is final.

If a team begins a game knowing the opponent is in violation of any league rule, that team is automatically accepting the results of that game.

The burden of proof for rules violations lies with the captains (video, audio, time stamped screen shots). UPA is not required to track down proof itself and will not take a captain’s word for it.

To send a dispute of a game result or report incorrectly recorded games, open a ticket in the appropriate Discord channel. UPA will not make any decisions or accept any proof of disputes on the Twitter timeline or via direct messages.

Before submitting any violations, please have carefully reviewed the rules to ensure it is actually a violation. Repeatedly submitting fake violations will result in removal of your team from the league with no refund.

1st violation of above rules will result in a warning or forfeit. The 2nd violation will result in removal from the league NO REFUND will be given.

WR reserves the right to modify punishments as it sees fit. Punishments range from fines to suspension and are determined on a case by case basis.

All infractions against the terms of service or this rules page will result in a strike against the captain and/or player involved over the course of their lifetime participation in a UPA event. Three strikes will result in a suspension or ban from the league at the discretion the Commissioner. A brand, captain or player must play a full season without a strike to get a strike removed from their lifetime participation. UPA reserves the right to revise any punishment as it sees fit on a case by case basis.

Season Schedules & Tournaments

Regular Season: Schedules will be dependent upon the event in which you signed up for. Please refer to the signup page for schedule details and format.

Playoffs & Seeding: Seeding is determined by utilizing a formula. The formula will include legacy leaderboard points, performance in pre & mid season tournaments, regular season win percentage, strength of schedule, and total regular season games played.

Should the above factors result in a tie amongst more than one team, seeding among the tied teams will be randomized.

The top 4 teams in total games played will be guaranteed a playoff spot.

Any team which has 3 or more active Pro Members will be guaranteed a playoff spot.

Guaranteed playoffs spot seeding will be determined using the aforementioned formula.

Strength of Schedule: You will be rewarded for playing good teams. Beating weak teams won’t be worth as much. In general, just play who is on, don’t cherry pick opponents.

Note: Should time constraints or technical issues arise, UPA reserves the right to elect to do seeding based on traditional win percentage.

Other leagues, series, or tournaments outside of NBA 2K League tournaments are not grounds for an extension. Emergency related requests only.

Tournament and playoff games must be scheduled to tip off by 12:30 AM eastern. The exception would be if both teams agree to start at a later time.

If a playoff/tournament series begins it must end the same night. If a team signs off without consent, it is considered the same as conceding the series. The only exception would be if both teams agree AND you have attained admin consent to finish the series the next day.

Playoff/Tournament Games that are not played are subject to be simulated where a random winner will be selected. Or the team that shows to be more active will be selected.

If during the playoffs or tournaments you have exhausted all efforts to schedule the game and your opponent has not set a time, post proof on Discord before the end of the round (but not more than 8 hours before the end of the round).

Timeliness Rule

The intent of the timeliness rule is to create a competitive environment that is respectful of an opponent’s and viewers’ time.

After a game time is established, create a chat with your opponent and the league’s twitter reporting the game time. Both teams must agree.

If you do not report your game times to UPA in advance as described above, we will not enforce the on time rules.

Reasonable availability is considered between the times of 7:30 PM ET and 12:30 PM ET. Any availability outside of that time frame will not be taken into consideration if scheduling disputes arise.

You must notify the opposing captain 90 minutes in advance to reschedule. The scheduled series can only be pushed back a maximum of one hour. The series may not be pushed back past 11:30 PM Eastern, even if that’s less than one hour from the original start time.

The primary accepted form of communication is Twitter for scheduling purposes as the captain and team twitter are listed on the website. Discord is also an accepted secondary form of communication and will be upheld as valid but twitter should be used for scheduling first. Psn or Xbox messages are not the correct way to contact teams.

Games must begin within 15 minutes of the scheduled game time, and each team’s stream must be up showing 5 players in the arena. If this does not happen, the team that is late will lose game 1 of the series.

Every 15 minutes after that a team is late will result in a forfeit of a game in the series.

Example: 30 minutes late will be an 0-2 deficit (series forfeiture if a 3 game series). 45 minutes late will be an entire 5 game series forfeiture.

Series should have no more than 15 minutes between games and this violation will result in a forfeit of one game of the series. Subsequent 15 minute periods will be an additional forfeit. UPA reserves the right to not enforce this rule for emergency situations handled on a case by case basis. The team with an emergency should attempt to find a sub and immediately notify the Admin Team via DM and the opponent.

UPA reserves the right to not enforce the timeliness rule for any reason. Reasons UPA may elect to not enforce the rule include but are not limited to first time offenders, it’s a late round of the tournament, the team is deemed to have a significant emergency situation (ex: incapacitated, hospitalized, etc.)

Spread rules are in effect (see spread rules section). But, you may not choose to quit the game. If you choose to quit out of the game for reasons such as “it feels laggy” repeatedly without the opponent agreeing, your team may be forfeited. The only acceptable reason to quit a game is that you lagged out or another reason beyond your control. You may be given one warning or forfeited.

If the game does not start within 10 minutes of both teams being in the arena, UPA may elect to coin flip the series. If it is one team causing the holdup, UPA may elect to forfeit the series. Teams should be respectful of the viewers’ time.

Matchmaking Rules

Use these rules as a guideline for teams to solve issues on your own before bringing any issues to the Admin Team.

The rules contained herein are intended to be explanatory in nature. UPA can not predict every case that may come up in advance. Additionally, unintended loopholes in the language may exist. If the technical language of a rule doesn’t fit with the intent of the rule, there’s a loophole, or other abusive behavior is occurring, UPA reserves the right to amend and enforce any and all of its rules retroactively conforming to its intents and in the spirit of fair competition.

Any rules posted on @WRProAmLeague @MPBA2K or @UnifiedProAm Twitter under the hashtag #UPARules are enforceable, in addition to this rules page and the Terms of Service. Any discrepancies in rules will be left to the Admin Team’s final ruling.

The admin will make a determination as to the outcome of any dispute (in their sole discretion) and such ruling will be final. By signing up for any UPA event, you accept any and all decisions that the Admin Team makes, regardless of what this rule page states.

Teams may match up using Ranked Matchmaking, so long as both teams have agreed it will count. This can be in the form of both captains indicating they are searching in the discord or in other messages agreeing to count the match.

Teams may also match up using Private Matchmaking.

Only games found in the UPA Discord server or otherwise agreed to will count as league games.

On challenged games, the burden of proof for if a game should count is on the team submitting the winning screen shot. However, if a team is suspected of chat lurking or other abusive tendencies to routinely get out of losses, that team may be suspended at Admin Team discretion. It is highly recommended if not running league games to use a sub account court.

If you or anyone on your team gets a game from the UPA Discord servers it will count regardless of your team name.

You must play on the court with your registered team name and logos to get credit for wins. Every team name must have “UPA” before or after the name.

UPA has no rule for which server regular season games should be played on. We encourage each team to practice some on each server to prepare for the playoffs.

Solving playoff/tournament server host disputes:

All UPA playoff/tournament games will alternate if both teams are on North American servers. Higher seed will always have the option to host Game 1, lower seed Game 2, and so on until the final game of the series.
The final game of the series host option will be based on point differential.
Example for a Best of 3:
- Game 1: Team A (higher seed) hosts and wins 78-70 (+8 to Team A).
- Game 2: Team B (lower seed) hosts and wins 87-70 (+17 to Team B).
- Game 3: Team B [has higher point differential (+9)] hosts Game 3.
Tie in point differential will favor the higher seed.
If a team quits a tournament/playoff game early, they will net -50 points. The max point differential if quitting early will be 50, the 50 will not be added on top of the current difference.
Example: Team A (higher seed) hosts and is winning 78-58 with 3 minutes to play and all 5 players from Team B quits. That will be a total of +50 point differential in favor of Team A.
All 5 players must quit for this rule to apply. If a single player remains in the game the team that is winning should remain in the game.

UPA requires one player to stay in the game until the end to show final game stats.

Note central and eastern time zones are east server; mountain and western time zones are west server.

If a player lags out before tip off it is an automatic restart. Quit the game and contact the opposing team to match up again.

The following rules apply ONLY to lag outs or other unforced 2K related errors. If you choose to quit out of a game in a tournament or playoff situation it may be a forfeit.

If a player lags out while winning and the entire rest of his team immediately quits, that will be a replay in the regular season. If any player on your team keeps playing after a teammate lags out before quitting it will be a loss. “Immediate” is defined as under 30 seconds.
During the regular season, spreads will not be enforced. If a player lags out you must play it out. If a team is consistently having players lag out against them (indicating a time out glitch is being used), appropriate action will be taken, including possible expulsion from the league with no refund. This will ultimately be the Admin Team’s decision.
Teams may mutually agree to take a spread. However, if they do, DO NOT submit more than one screen shot. Only one screen shot per game should be submitted during the regular season.
It is recommended that common sense is used. If a lag out occurs in the 1st quarter of a game and it’s not a 10+ point game, the game should be restarted and the game will not count. Ex: You are up 7-2 in the first quarter and someone lags out. That will not count. Ultimate decision on if a game counts is the Admin Team’s.
UPA values teams that work things out on their own and decide things on the court. Teams should not consistently try to get free wins or try to exploit the rules to get a restart. Remember, these players and teams develop a poor reputation in the competitive community over time. If you are really Comp, you don’t do these things. The Admin Team reserves any and all rights to make a unilateral decision on if a regular season game result counts after being presented with the evidence.
During the playoffs or during tournaments, if a lag out occurs you may be required to restart the game and play the time remaining with the same score differential at the time of the lag out.
Example: Team A is up 78-70 with the ball on Team B with four minutes remaining. Team B lags out. Team A and B must play the first four minutes of a new game, with Team A winning the tip and given a +8 advantage. (Round to nearest minute).
Do not count points to the spread that occur after the first player has quit/lagged out.
The team with a lag out must immediately quit as described above for this rule to apply.
This rule applies to the time out glitch and all lag outs. If a team is suspected to be repeatedly abusing this rule, UPA reserves the right to not grant that team spreads and disqualify them. Final decision is the Admin Team’s. Teams are strongly encouraged to work it out themselves.
No player may switch builds during a same spread game. You must restart the game with the original archetypes.

Game Results Submission

Regular Season: After every game the winning team will submit the box score with the game results. Only one screenshot is needed from the winner which must include the stats for both teams.

Playoffs/Tournaments: The winning team of the series must submit ALL game results for that series, including the losses. Failure to comply with this rule may result in a forfeit.

Game results, including regular season, must be submitted the same night the game is played or no later than the following morning. Repeated failure to comply with this rule may result in forfeits and removal from the league with no refund.

We will only accept high quality images from PSN. We will not accept blurry images or pics of your tv screen displaying the stats. Our stats team needs to easily see the stats on the box score.

Box scores must be submitted by posting them in the Game Screenshot channel in the Discord Server. All games posted must be labeled.

Format for labeling game screenshots in discord must be “Team A vs Team B”. Team A is the top team in the screenshot and Team B is the bottom team in the screenshot. Labeling games properly will ensure no errors are made in stat logging.

Games submitted by 3AM EST will typically be updated by the next night by our stats team. Stats are updated nightly, except Saturdays.

To send a dispute of a game result or report incorrectly recorded games, visit https://unifiedproam.gg. UPA will not make any decisions or accept any proof of disputes on the Twitter timeline or via direct messages.

If it has been 3 days since team stats were submitted but results aren’t showing in the standings, please contact the corresponding league’s Twitter.

Posting results on Twitter is strongly encouraged for your own social media marketing benefit. However, it is insufficient for reporting tournament results. You must use the discord server.

Subscriptions

Memberships are offered as an optional premium service to enhance your experience within the leagues in Unified Pro-Am Association and this website. Each membership has its benefits and features which are included in them. With these memberships there are terms and restrictions which the potential member must read and agree to before subscribing. Members will have access to an exclusive membership page which will allow access to all of the benefits of their membership tier.

Please visit the Memberships Page to view the different membership levels offered.

By purchasing a monthly subscription, you agree to an initial and recurring monthly subscription fee at the then current subscription rate, and you accept responsibility for all recurring charges until you cancel your subscription. If a free trial is applicable then the initial fee will be waived until that trial period has ended. Once trial period has ended the initial payment, the aforementioned subscription fee and recurring payment will apply. You may cancel your monthly subscription at any time, subject to the terms of our cancellation policy.

Subscription Fees

The subscriber’s payment method is automatically charged on the same date as the original transaction date on each corresponding month or on the final date of month if no corresponding date (i.e., January 31, 2023 subscription renews on February 28, 2023). Discounts, rebates, or other special offers only valid for the initial term; subscriptions renew at the then-current full subscription rates.

UPA may terminate the subscription and these terms if it is unable to renew the subscription based on inaccurate or outdated credit card information.

The right of access granted under these Terms is effective only upon payment of the subscription fees.

Cancellation Policy

You can cancel your subscription from your account profile page.

The only valid method for canceling your Plan is via the cancellation link provided on your user “dashboard” page, accessible after logging in to the UPA Website. Requests to cancel by email or phone are not considered, and do not accomplish, cancellation.

Once you cancel your membership subscription, you will not lose access immediately.

Your membership will continue through the end of your current charge cycle. For example: If your credit card is charged on the 10th of the month and you cancel on April 25th, you will not lose access until May 10th.

Refunds

Subscription fees are non-refundable.