Do not excessively call teams out, remain fairly PG-13, don't flame people in either chat or game. We do not want Heroes Lounge to be in a situation where we are confronted with a potty mouth cast. This does not mean you will be banned as a streamer for saying “fuck” on stream, but rather for sexualizing or objectifying women for example.

While casting, consider that this championship is special: the vast majority of players were randomly assigned a team by us after they signed up – therefore the participating teams have not properly trained together, some might not even have had the chance to play at all. On top of that: this cup brings together players with very different gaming experience, with placements from bronze to master rank in a team. We aim to celebrate women of all skill levels and cheer people on who are willing to put themselves out there and learn to play in a competitive environment. So do not expect constant clean play or good combinations: this tournament is about trying something new and many of the players are very inexperienced. Please do not discourage anyone who may not meet your own high standards or ridicule their inexperience. This of course does not mean that you can not point out for example bad positioning or call out misguided drafting decisions. Do not only focus on the negative, focus on the successful plays or drafts that the winning team is doing or try to look for improvement, for teams fighting back, for readjustments, for positive surprises.

As you already know, Heroes Lounge channels shall remain as free as possible from racist, sexist, anti-LGBTQ+, ableist etc. remarks. So using any kind of offensive slurs is not acceptable. Casters are the public face of Lounge in ways that others are not. This is therefore the strictest rule in the Lounge and there will be no warnings. If management and moderators agree that you engaged in this behaviour on stream, your casting rights for Lounge will be removed. We know that this is a heated topic, about what is considered offensive and what not. In the context of the Athena Championship we emphasize that you question your language about women especially.

For example, no matter how much Barack Obama and Always™ are trying to redefine what “playing like a girl” means, up until today the phrase still remains an insult. Saying that someone would be of more use in the kitchen, is an insult and not acceptable language.

Just because you frame something as a joke, and believe it is less painful for people to hear or less harmful for their position in society (respectively the gaming community) does not mean it’s acceptable. Humor is a centerpiece of exclusion and inclusion in social groups:  Someone's sexuality or gender being the centre of a joke excludes them and can distance them further from those who laugh at the jokes. As a Moderator or Caster it is paramount that you represent the best possible behaviour.   For Channels that are external to Heroes Lounge, we cannot assist with chat moderation, however we will trust that you brief you chat moderators of our guidelines and enforce the guidelines to best maintain a respectful atmosphere in your channel.