CA - SBC Rules & Regulations:

This page provides you with all the rules regarding the structure of competition, eligibility, etc. Please read this information carefully!

General:

• A CA - SBC Classic or Xtreme competition will normally be comprised of Registration, Practice Rounds, Main Competition, Qualifying Rounds and Finals according to a published schedule. An interschool competition may also be run for teams who are from outside Ontario at special request from a teacher.
• The current CA - SBC schedule can be found in Dates and Milestones. Generally, the winter competition schedule will be published in September and, should a Fall competition take place, the schedule for it will be announced in March.
• The following rules and regulations will apply to both levels (Classic and Xtreme) and in both terms.
• CA - SBC may run other competitions as required, and will use the same rules and regulations adapted to suit the situation.
• All teams MUST be registered by a teacher. Only teachers are eligible for a CA - SBC teacher account.
• Teams may have a maximum of 4 students.
• Students may only participate on one team (one CA - SBC firm) in ONE competition at a time and thus cannot participate in BOTH Classic and Xtreme. Teams can participate in ONE level only.
• Any modifications to the rules and regulations will be made known to competitors either through email or through news updates on the website.

Registration Rules for Main Competition:

• Only those registered by 9pm ET on the Saturday immediately preceding the stated start date for Practice Rounds will be eligible to play in the practice rounds, which have a duration of two weeks (input decisions on two consecutive Tuesdays and Fridays).
• Registration for the Main Competition MUST be completed by 9pm ET on the Saturday immediately preceding the stated start date in order to be eligible to advance to Playoff and Final Rounds and compete for cash prizes. Some provision might be made for late registrants,however this is at the sole discretion of the CA-SBC Administrator and in no circumstance will late registrants be eligible to compete for cash prizes.
• All those registered by that time will be entered into the CA - SBC Main Competition with the exception of teams from outside Ontario who will be entered into a separate interschool competition.
• Industry winners from interschool competitions will NOT be eligible to move on to the CA - SBC Qualifying Rounds and Finals.
• The interschool competition inputs will be processed at the same time as the CA - SBC main competition inputs and will follow the same competition rules.
• Interschool competition results will be confirmed via email.

Main Competition Setup:

• Classes registered for the main competition having 3 or more teams (firms) will run as independent industries.
• Classes registered for the main competition with fewer than 3 teams (firms) may be combined with other classes from the same or another school into a single industry at the discretion of CA - SBC.
• Industries playing the main competition will be grouped for processing into named ‘competitions’ by area code, municipality or school board, at the discretion of CA - SBC.
• Industries playing an interschool competition will be grouped for processing into named ‘competitions’ by area code, municipality or school board, at the discretion of CA - SBC.
• The number of quarters and blind quarters played in any competition will be at the discretion of CA - SBC.

Main Competition Rules:

• Inputs will be processed twice a week on Tuesdays and Fridays for the duration of the main competition (see the schedule published in Dates and Milestones), unless stated otherwise in the Competition News. The processing times will be 4pm ET. These deadlines are not flexible.
• Industry winners chosen to go through to the CA - SBC qualifying rounds and/or finals are those teams (firms) who, after the last input processing, have the highest shareholder equity AND who have a participation rate greater than 50% within their industry.
• If two teams are tied based on the above criterion, the team with the highest participation rate will be deemed the winner. If both shareholder equity and participation rates are equal, CA - SBC will assess the inputs made, along with the rationale put forward (if any) and will, at its SOLE DISCRETION, determine the winner.
• Industries containing 12 or more teams (firms) will be allowed to promote a maximum of two teams (first and second according to the above winning teams rules) to the qualifying rounds and/or finals.
• Class teachers will be able to nominate alternate winners to those chosen by CA - SBC if they see fit. CA - SBC will do its utmost to accommodate such a change but reserves the right to override the teacher’s choice (see Registration for CA - SBC Qualifying Rounds and Finals below).
• Teams who enter inappropriate comments in the free format ‘rationale’ box will be reported to their class teachers and may be disqualified by CA - SBC.

Registration for CA - SBC Qualifying Rounds and Finals:

• Industry winners from the main competition will be invited by email to register for the Qualifying Rounds and Finals at the end of the Main Competition. A date and time will be specified by which registrations must be completed.
• Invitations to register and the associated deadline will also be posted on the web site in Public and Competition News.
• Those teams NOT registered by the stated deadline date/time will not be placed in a Qualifying Round/Final competition and therefore will NOT be permitted to compete in the Qualifying Rounds or Finals.
• Those registering for qualifying rounds and finals will be required to confirm the team (firm) number and name of those nominated, and will also be required to enter the number of players in each team (firm) as applicable.
• If there are fewer than 128 industry winners for a level (i.e. Classic or Xtreme) of the main competition, then there will be no qualifying rounds for that level. Industry winners will then be invited to compete in the Finals. (See CA - SBC Qualifying Rounds and Finals Set Up and Rules below, for details of these competitions)
• Class teachers who wish to nominate alternate winners to those chosen by the stated rules must send a request with supporting reasons via email at least 48 hours prior to the Qualifying Round/ Finals registration deadline. CA - SBC will communicate their decision by email with appropriate registration instructions.

CA - SBC Qualifying Rounds and Finals Set Up and Rules:

• Students MUST attend the CA - SBC Finals IN PERSON in either Ottawa or Toronto in order to participate in the CA-SBC Finals.
• Students competing in CA-SBC may only ever win cash prizes once. Students who have competed in and won a cash prize in Classic, for example, may not compete for cash in Xtreme, and vice-versa. Any student who has won a cash prize from CA-SBC at any time may not compete in the Finals for cash again. Teachers are asked to choose a different group of students to compete for cash prizes.
• Teachers may have a maximum of two teams per school, per competition (Classic and Xtreme) in the CA-SBC Finals.
• Each level of the main competition (i.e. Classic or Xtreme) will have its own qualifying rounds and finals to determine the CA - SBC Classic champion and the CA - SBC Xtreme champion.
• The number of qualifying rounds for each level will be dependent on the number of industries competing in the main competitions.
• Finals comprise a semi-final round with multiple industries followed by the final with one industry only.
• The potential number of main competition industry winners will be estimated once the main competition has commenced. For each level (Classic or Xtreme) the number of main competition industry winners will determine the structure of the qualifying rounds and finals.
• Each industry in the qualifying rounds and semi-finals will be targeted to contain a minimum of 8 teams (firms) and a maximum of 12.
• In qualifying rounds and finals, ONE or TWO teams (firms) will be eligible to move on to the next qualifying round, semi-final or final, depending on the number of industries created and at the discretion of CA - SBC.
• Winners of qualifying rounds or finals will be the teams (firms) with the highest shareholders equity and a participation rate of 75% or more after processing of the last input. Second place (if applicable) will have the second highest shareholder equity and a participation rate of 75% or more.
• If two teams are tied, CA - SBC will use the same criteria described above to determine the winners and runners up (if applicable).
• Each Qualifying Round and/or Final will run and be completed in one day, usually between 10am and 2pm ET. The specific dates of qualifying rounds and finals will be published and sent to competitors before the end of the main competition.
• Quarters will be targeted to be processed every 10 minutes during qualifying rounds and finals.
• The number of quarters and blind quarters processed during qualifying rounds and finals will be at the discretion of CA - SBC.
• The proposed schedule of input processing for individual qualifying rounds or finals, along with other relevant information, will be made available to competitors prior to the competition commencing, either via email or posted on the CA - SBC website.

Rules and Procedures for Competition Interruptions:

• From time to time, CA - SBC may experience downtime to allow for system updates, which may potentially interrupt the competition, for example preventing teams from logging into their accounts, viewing their firm analysis, blocking inputs, or other issues.
• CA - SBC has done the utmost to ensure the integrity of the system and to limit the possibility of any serious errors that would affect a competition in progress. The fairness of the competition is a key value of CA - SBC. 
• HOWEVER, sometimes errors or technical difficulties beyond the control of CA - SBC do occur.
• Should any serious errors or technical difficulties occur, interrupting the competition, CA - SBC will:
• Notify, via email and competition news postings (if possible given the nature of the outage), all teachers with participants affected by the interruption, explaining the situation and the cause if it is known;
• Analyze the effects/impact of the interruption on the competition;
• Do the utmost to provide a fair and effective solution to correct the issue that occurred.
• If necessary, CA - SBC will temporarily suspend the competition until the issue is corrected or end the competition early should this be deemed the most reasonable and effective solution.
• Any decision made by CA - SBC will be made with the goal of ensuring the integrity and fairness of the competition for the majority of participants.

Last Updated: January 16^th, 2012.