Blizzard Community Competition License
Last updated: September 13, 2024
In order to fall within the terms of a Community Competition License, esports competitions which utilize Blizzard products must comply with the following terms and conditions. You may not organize an esports competition with any Blizzard product outside of the terms below without written permission from Blizzard.
Prizing
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The value of the total prizes and prize money paid by organizers and sponsors to the players, teams, and team owners for participating in the competition ("Prizing"), must:
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not exceed Twenty Five thousand US Dollars ($25,000 USD) or the equivalent for a single competition; and
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not exceed One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000 USD) or the equivalent for all of the events organized or hosted by you during the last 12 months pursuant to this Community Competition License.
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Provided you comply with all applicable laws (including residency eligibility requirements), you may charge players and/or teams entry fees to compete in your community competitions.
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If you charge players and/or teams an entrance fee to participate in the competition, the value of the Prizing must be at least equal to 50% of the combined value of the entrance fees paid by players. The remaining proceeds from participation fees must be used to offset the cost of the development and promotion of the event, and you may not retain any portion of the proceeds as profit.
Competition Titles
- The title of your competition may not use the words “League”, “Contender”, “Champion”, “Champs”, “Championship”, or any combination of these words.
Broadcasting
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You may broadcast your competition online and may stream on whichever online platform you like.
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You may not charge fees of any kind for spectators to watch the competition online.
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If you broadcast your competition online, you are responsible for ensuring that any accompanied chat is adequately moderated to prevent vulgar, abusive or an otherwise mean spirited environment.
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You may not broadcast on television.
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You must follow the Blizzard Video Policy.
Collegiate and High School Competitions
If you are organizing a competition primarily for college and/or high school students, the competition must be either:
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A competition between students of a single school organized by either the school itself or a student from the school, or
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A competition between students from 8 schools or fewer which lasts less than a week and is organized by a registered student organization.
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A competition between 16 teams or fewer which lasts less than a week and is organized by a registered student organization.
Merchandising
- You may not sell any Blizzard or game branded merchandise.
On Site Audiences
- You may charge fees for spectators to watch the competition in-person. All the proceeds from on-site audience fees must be used to offset the cost of the development and promotion of the event, and you may not retain any portion of the proceeds as profit.
Trademarks
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Any use of Blizzard’s logos or trademarks to promote the competition must comply with the Blizzard Entertainment Logo and Trademark Guidelines.
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Each game’s branding guidelines as may be posted and amended from time to time.
Crowdfunding
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If you conduct any crowdfunding activity for your competition, you must state that your competition is licensed under Blizzard’s Community Competition License with a link to these terms.
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You must state that the crowdfunding campaign is neither endorsed nor sponsored by Blizzard.
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You must use all of the proceeds of the crowdfunding campaign for the development and promotion of the event, and you may not retain any portion of the crowdfunding proceeds as profit.
Advertisements and Sponsorships
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Gambling, including raffles and fantasy sports betting, cannot be associated with the competition in any manner.
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Broadcasted Overwatch competitions may not have a “title” or “presented by” sponsor or product name as part of the competition’s title.
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The value of the contribution provided by each sponsor of your competition must be Ten Thousand Dollars (USD $10,000) or less. The total contribution provided by every sponsor of your competition must be Twenty Five Thousand Dollars (USD $25,000) or less.
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The competition cannot be sponsored by any companies that sell or promote any of the following products or services:
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Multinational consumer brands or products or services related to the video game industry without approval from Blizzard;
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Games or other products or services from entities that compete directly with Blizzard or ESL FACE IT Group
- ESL FACE IT Group restriction is only applicable to individuals hosting an Overwatch® event.
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Account selling, sharing, or trading websites;
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Alcoholic beverages, including liquor, beer, wine, cider, and other malt beverages;
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Drugs (whether legal or illegal) and any products used to consume drugs;
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Tobacco and vaping products;
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Cannabis and any products used to consume cannabis; Pornography, sexual or adult-oriented products or services;
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Gambling (whether legal or illegal), including casinos;
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Daily Fantasy Sports
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Firearms / weapons, or related products or services;
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Political candidates or ballot initiatives;
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Religious products or services;
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Cryptocurrencies and Cryptocurrency exchanges;
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NFTs;
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Artificial Intelligence / Machine Learning; or
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Illegal goods and services.
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Revenue to Organizers
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You may only receive a maximum of Twenty Five Thousand Dollars ($25,000 USD) in revenue from all sources, including but not limited to sponsors, and online broadcast/streaming platforms (e.g., MLG, Twitch, YouTube, Hitbox, Azubu, Facebook, etc.) involved with the broadcast of your competition (whether that compensation is paid in the form of sponsorship, broadcast fees, in-kind promotion, or other form of payment) and no more than One Hundred Thousand Dollars ($100,000 USD) in cumulative revenues across all events under this license in a 12 month period;
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You may not retain compensation received from crowdfunding sources (this money must be used to fund the cost of the event or the prizing); and
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You may not receive any revenue from fantasy betting or gambling organizations, even if that money is intended to pay for the costs of the competition.
Ownership Rights
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In consideration of Blizzard granting you the right to operate a competition under this license, you agree that and without additional compensation, you agree that any broadcast stream or recording of the competition shall be owned by Blizzard as a “work made for hire” and therefore all right, title and interest therein (including, without limitation, patents and copyrights) shall vest exclusively in and shall be the exclusive property of Blizzard. To the extent that all or any part of the broadcast or recording does not qualify as a “work made for hire” under applicable law, without further compensation you irrevocably assign, transfer and convey in perpetuity to Blizzard and its successors and assigns your entire worldwide right, title, and interest in and to the broadcast stream and recording including, without limitation, all patent rights, copyrights, mask work rights, trade secret rights and other proprietary rights therein. Such assignment includes the transfer and assignment to Blizzard and its successors and assigns of any and all moral rights which you may have in the broadcast stream and recording of the competition. Moral rights include the right of an author to be known as the author of a work; to prevent others from being named as the author of the works; to prevent others from falsely attributing to an author the authorship of a work which the author has not in fact created; to prevent others from making deforming changes in an author ’s work; to withdraw a published work from distribution if it no longer represents the views of the author; and to prevent others from using the work or the author’s name in such a way as to reflect on the author’s professional standing. You shall, at any time upon the request of Blizzard, take all such further actions and execute, acknowledge and deliver all such further documents (including without limitation assignments of rights) as Blizzard deems advisable or necessary in order to secure for Blizzard the exclusive ownership of all rights in the broadcast stream and recording, by patent, copyright or otherwise.
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You represent and warrant to Blizzard that the broadcast stream and recording of the competition shall not infringe or violate the rights of any person or entity or contain any libelous or defamatory matter.
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*Before broadcasting any content under this license, you represent and warrant that you will have received all rights necessary for such content to be broadcast and rebroadcasted (including VOD rights), including but not limited to obtaining releases/licenses from everyone appearing on camera, music and trademarks.
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*Additionally, Blizzard, as the owner of the streaming and recorded content from the competition may broadcast or re-broadcast the content from your broadcast stream or recording of the competition and may sublicense such rights to another entity. Blizzard may also decide to modify the content, create highlights, video, still and news content which may be distributed in any manner now known or hereafter devised, publicly performed and monetized.
Play Nice, Play Fair
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The rules for the competition should promote a fun and engaging experience for the players, with skill in playing the game being the factor that determines who will win or lose matches in the competition.
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Organizers and sponsors must comply with other Blizzard policies as may be amended from time to time. If there is not a right granted in another Blizzard policy, the right does not exist.
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The competition must comply with all applicable laws and regulations and the policies of any party service you are using to stream or broadcast your game.
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Blizzard may revoke a Community Competition License if the competition promotes or represents anything contrary to Blizzard’s Core Values or is detrimental to its business, the interpretation and application of which is in Blizzard’s sole discretion.
Other Legal Stuff
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Your act of producing a competition without an individualized license shall be deemed to evidence your agreement with the terms, conditions and agreements contained in this Community Competition License agreement.
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You agree that Blizzard may audit your books and records to ensure that you have complied with the terms of this Community Competition License.
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If there is a disagreement between you and Blizzard, we will try to resolve that by negotiating with each other for thirty days. If that doesn’t work, any disputes will be resolved under California law in the courts in Los Angeles, California.
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Blizzard may, in its sole discretion, waive or modify any portion of this Community Competition License for competition organizers on a case-by-case basis by providing notice of such waiver or modification in writing.
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Blizzard may, in its sole discretion, at any time, and without notice, change, revoke or cancel this Community Competition License and/or any right licensed under it.
If you follow the above conditions, you may proceed with your event without further license from Blizzard. A competition that is being operated under the above license is neither officially supported nor endorsed by Blizzard and you must notify the participants of this fact.
If you intend to run a community competition under the terms of this license, you will need to comply with all of its terms.
For any questions about the above, please email tournamentlicenses@blizzard.com for all Blizzard products except Overwatch. For Overwatch please email OWtournamentlicenses@blizzard.com.