Entrants Code of Conduct

While the Contest Week last year generally goes without much issues, unfortunately in 2021 there was a particular problem relating to some contest entrants acting in a rather disrespectful and unprofessional way, very much the low point of what was a generally decent Contest Week overall. We will not have this happen again, therefore we have an Entrants' Code of Conduct this year, just like how we introduced a Judges' Code of Conduct last year.

These are a set of rules and guidelines to follow for this, and subsequent, years.

All entrants of the SHC (both the Contest and the Expo) will agree to the following as part of their submissions:

  • To be civil in their interactions during the Contest Week. Many attendees of SHC's Contest Week are not hackers or modders, they are the general public (just like some entrants were before they submitted to SHC in later years), interested in playing your entry. If they are unsure on how to play the entry, or have any questions, be fair to them.
  • Not to disrespect or harass SHC staff or associates, including the Media Panel (our official streamers and content uploaders), during the entirety of the contest, including before and after the Contest Week. As per the rules, SHC is not a platform for your community drama.
    • Sidenote: We explicitly provide all information to the Media Panel weeks before the Contest Week with entries which include the descriptions and notes you give to them.
    • As mentioned earlier on this page, you must be clear with your description, with instructions given on how to play if different from the main base game, and how to set up.
    • We try our best to ensure your entry is played to the standards you want but do also understand some people like to play the game in their own way too.
    • We also assist with any setup enquiries that are brought up. It is however up to the Media Panel to raise these issues up if they are having any, we try our best to advise them accordingly but do understand many of these streamers are very busy, taking time out of their schedules to help present SHC for a week.
    • Also, we cannot guarantee your entry will be played by particular Media Panel members. The schedule is very busy and streamers only have as many slots available for them to go through entries. If they cannot show many Expo entries for example, please understand this is solely due to time constraints, rather than anything else. Some Media Panel members will also be uploading content out with streams.
  • Accept that their entry may be played differently to their standards. If someone isn't a professional at the base game, then do realise they may not play the mod well either.
  • To accept the judging results (both from the Judges and the Community) whether or not their entry wins any trophies, and not to cause a bad reaction on the likes of Twitter or elsewhere if they do not agree with the results, if they didn't win the trophy they wanted, etc.
  • Remember, it's not just the judges who vote, but the public too through Community Trophies.

We encourage anyone who sees the above to report any issues to SHC Staff should submitters break these rules.

Do note we can't control what goes on in outside spaces (such as a non-SHC Discord server) but if brought to our attention we can look into it and discuss the issue raised with the affected parties (including the entrant themselves) and take action accordingly if required. We have moderator or above contacts in many community servers we can go to if needed should the issue occur there.

If the issues take place in SHC hosted spaces (the contest site, the Discord, any other SHC provided services) then SHC staff absolutely have a right to intervene. Public spaces such as Twitter are also something we can take into consideration as they are not private profiles. Everything else ultimately is a case by case basis.

Any action taken will depend on how severe the rule break is. For some cases a warning will suffice. At the most extreme, we can and will disqualify contest entries submitted, void any votes, and have it put in the expo, if these issues occur during the Contest Week.

We do not want to ban entries, but we must have respect from entrants, regardless if it's towards the public, our streamers, our staff, etc.

The SHC is the time of the year where hacks and mods get the highest exposure from the public.

Don't risk your entry getting bad attention because of you.

If anyone has an issue with these guidelines, please contact SHC Staff to discuss your case.