Season 3 Rulebook Finalized & Discord Registration Open

• Management: Team Managers handle signings and roster setups for all tournament rounds.
• Main Trainers (Mandatory): Exactly 2 per team (reduced from 3).
• Reserve Trainers (Optional): Up to 2 per team.
• Active Match Lineup: Exactly 2 trainers play per match. One brings 2 Trainees, second brings 1 Trainee to complete the 3-Trainee roster.

• Regular Season Window: Managers may sign or substitute trainers until the Mid-Season Roster Lock (end of Regular Season).
• Playoff Roster Lock: No new trainer signings or substitutions permitted during the Play-In Round or Playoffs. Rosters are frozen for the rest of the season.
• Emergency Exception: In unforeseen emergencies, a registered Reserve Trainer may step in. Non-registered signings require Tournament Admin approval.

• Turf Bans: Races exceeding 2600m are banned.
• Dirt Bans: Races exceeding 2400m or under 1400m are banned.
• Venue Rotation: Each round centers around a host venue (e.g., Round 1 at Niigata, Grand Finals at Kyoto).
• Match Layouts: Individual matchups within a round use varied layouts/distances at the host track.

• Weekly Ban Window: Teams receive a 24-hour window prior to race weekends to ban opponent Trainees.
• Ban Allocation: Exactly 1 Trainee ban per team per race weekend.
• Global Field Ban: Once banned, no team in that matchup (including the banning team) may select that Trainee.
• Costume Exclusions: Bans apply only to the specific version banned; alternate costumes remain playable.

• Race Structure: 3v3v3 (3-Way Matchups), retaining a Best-of-3 (Bo3) structure per match.
• Roster Size: 3 Trainees fielded per team per race.
• Rank Cap: Fully removed for Season 3.
• Running Style Diversity: Rosters must feature at least 2 different strategies, with max 2 Trainees per strategy.
• Debuffer Limits: Maximum of 1 Debuffer Trainee per team roster. A Trainee is classified as a Debuffer if they possess more than 2 white OR 1 gold debuff (pink) skill(s).

The opening round of Season 3 starts around September 28th and runs through October 4th, roughly after team applications close. Track calendars and match schedules will be announced in Discord.