RKL Rules

All rules are subject to mod discretion. Unethical conduct may be punished even if not explicitly listed. A "new season" begins when the relegation/promotion game score is posted.

Integrity Rules

1. Jrue Rule — No GM or player may do polls on a teammate's account if (a) the team plays that day AND (b) that teammate is starting.

GM covering a starter: Team forfeits worst upcoming draft pick + 5-game suspension for the player.
Player covering a teammate: 5-game suspension for both (including playoffs).
Any violation: Loss of captain boost for that game.
Cross-league covers: RKL players and GMs may not do polls on the account of an RKML starter during an active RKML gameday (RKML Rule 6b). The covering RKL player is suspended 5 RKL games; if an RKL GM covers, their team also forfeits its worst upcoming draft pick. The RKML side is handled under the RKML rulebook.
Who counts: A player counts as rostered by a team — and as an RKL player for the cross-league clause — if they were on that roster at any point during the current season, including players who have since retired or been cut. Retiring does not make a cover legal.
Note: Logging into a teammate's account on gameday or arranging any kind of illegal gameday cover counts as evidence of a violation even if no polls were done.

2. Private Group Rule — No private team pick groups allowed.

Public team groups must be named "[Team Name] RKL" or "RKL [Team Name]."
A group is a "team group" if private and has 5+ roster members, or if public and 50%+ of members are on the roster (including alts).
"Private" = private groups or groups with a karma requirement.
Cannot kick RKL members from a team group unless they're leaking picks (e.g., PSPs).
Penalty: Team's lowest upcoming draft pick forfeited. If gameday, also lose captain boost.

3. Zim Rule — If a team sits on knowledge of another team's violation and only reports it when playing them, the violating team's punishment won't benefit the reporting team (e.g., captain boost removal shifts to the next game instead).

4. Alt Accounts — One person = one player. Using alts as a different player = lifetime ban for both accounts.

5. RKL/RKML Exclusivity — RKL players cannot be RKML players. RKL GMs cannot be RKML players or GMs.

6. Mod Limit — Max 1 mod per team.

7. Mod Recusal — Mods cannot make subjective rulings on situations primarily involving their own team.

8. Tampering & Collusion — Any attempt to manipulate outcomes through unethical coordination between teams or with individual players is prohibited. This includes but is not limited to: a GM telling a player to request a trade, threaten retirement, tank game performance, or tank monthly draft ranking.

Offending team's lowest pick forfeited.
If the goal was to acquire a specific player, any resulting transaction is reversed.
If a GM drafts a player whose draft stock they tampered with, that pick is forfeited and the player returns to the pool (or waivers if the draft is over, with the offending team unable to claim).
Additional penalties may be applied at mod discretion based on severity.

Trades & Transactions

9. Trade Window — Trades are allowed from the start of a new season through the deadline (after all teams have played 10 regular-season games). No limit on teams involved. Collusion or egregious trades will be vetoed by mods.

10. Pick Trade Horizon — Teams may only trade picks up to 5 drafts out (e.g., in S10, picks from S11–S15 are tradeable).

11. Trade Reversal — If a traded player retires or a team was lied to about a player's availability, the affected GM may undo the trade, provided (a) less than one week has passed AND (b) the player hasn't played for the new team.

12. Mid-Game Trades — A player traded after a game starts still has their karma count for that game.

13. Trading Unowned Assets — If a posted/completed trade includes assets the trading team doesn't own, the trade is reversed and that team loses its lowest pick in the next draft.

Roster & Free Agency

14. Roster Limits — Max 10 during the season; max 13 between season start and the draft; no max between the draft and Week 1.

15. Playoff Rosters — Every playoff team must submit a playoff roster before its first postseason game. That roster is locked for the remainder of the postseason: only players on it may be started, and it may not be changed by retirement, unretirement, or any other transaction. A player who retires during the playoffs is ineligible for the rest of the postseason and cannot be replaced.

16. Unretirement — A player may unretire only once per season.

17. Retire to Draft — Players may retire to the draft provided the trade deadline has not yet passed.

18. Quick-Retire FA Rule — If a free agent retires within a week of being signed, they cannot unretire back to that team — they return to free agency instead.

19. Waivers — Any player entering free agency (cuts, unretirements, etc.) enters waivers until 5 AM EST the day after next (e.g., enters FA Jan 14 at 6 PM → waivers clear Jan 16 at 5 AM). Claims are processed in waiver order, subject to the following:

Order: Waiver order is based on reverse standings. For the first 5 weeks of a season, order is determined by the reverse of the prior season's final standings.
Resets: Waiver order resets every 5 weeks to reflect current reverse standings (e.g., the new order takes effect starting Week 6 Day 1, Week 11 Day 1, etc.). Waivers at the start of the season fall under the initial order.
Claims: When a team successfully claims a player off waivers, they move to the back of the order and remain there until the next 5-week reset.

20. Rebranding — Teams may rebrand once per offseason, only between the new season and the start of the draft.

Lineups

21. Lineup Submission, Grace Period, and Captain Eligibility — Each team must submit exactly six eligible starters for every scheduled game through the official lineup submission system by the posted deadline.

a. A lineup is official only when the submission system accepts it and issues a confirmation code. Drafts, messages, screenshots, or attempted submissions without a confirmation code do not constitute an official lineup.

b. From the opening of the submission window through ten minutes after the posted deadline, a valid lineup must designate exactly one captain. A lineup with no captain, or with more than one captain, is invalid.

c. Beginning ten minutes after the deadline and continuing until 150 minutes after the deadline, a late lineup may be submitted only without a captain. The automatic penalty for a late submission is the loss of the captain designation and captain boost for that game. No additional scoring deduction applies solely because the lineup was late.

d. A late submission containing a captain designation will be rejected. The team may resubmit the same or a different valid six-player lineup without a captain while the submission window remains open.

e. After 150 minutes have elapsed from the posted deadline, the lineup submission window is closed. Submissions after that time require an exception approved by the mod team.

f. If a team has not submitted a lineup, the league may automatically fill six eligible players for that team. An automatically filled lineup has no captain and receives no captain boost. Automatic filling does not extend the manual submission window, and a valid late submission may replace an automatically filled lineup before the window closes.

g. The mod team may correct a lineup affected by a verified system outage or administrative error, provided the correction is applied consistently and documented.

Scoring

22. Excluded Karma — The following do not count: golf karma, trivia karma, or karma from any Real event (NFL playoff TD, July 4 fireworks, NBA advent, etc.) that was made available the prior day.

23. Score Finalization — Scores are final at 7 AM EST the day after the game.

24. Alt Grinding — If a player must grind on an alt, karma is combined manually. If both accounts pick the same poll differently, the worse pick counts.