Rules

THE RULES OF SHIVA

  1. The division of DT Shiva are organised into groups of 12 coaches, with promotion for the top coaches and relegation for the bottom coaches (further information below)

Financials

  1. The entry fee to Shiva is $50 per year. This is to be paid upon registration at dtshiva.com.au, before the season commences. Once payment is received, registration is complete.
  2. The opening of registration will be soon after the opening of the AFL Fantasy platform and will be announced on various channels including the facebook community page, Twitter/X (@DTShiva_) and to previous contestants via email.
  3. Registration will close 10 days before the draft which is held on the Sunday of the VIC/SA/ACT/TAS March long weekend every year.
  4. The prize money for an individual division is:
    • League champion $300
    • Minor premier $100
    • Runner up $100
  5. Division 1 has a higher entry fee of $75 per year.
  6. The prize money for Division 1 is:
    • League champion $500
    • Minor premier $100
    • Runner up $100
  7. Division 1 has a perpetual trophy which will be engraved with the champions name and team name to be honoured forevermore. The additional Division 1 buy-in will also be invested into a commemorative item for the winning coach to keep.
  8. 12% of each leagues financial pool will held to cover league running costs, podcast service and associated fees. This equates to $6 per player.
  9. The remaining prize pool funds will be split on an equal percentage basis and allocated to league-wide prizes including:
    • Knockout competition
    • Highest point scoring total for the year (minor rounds – pre-finals)
    • Highest individual round total for the year
  10. Prizes will be paid out within 10 days of the competition ending, as long as bank details of the winners has been provided.

League Settings

  1. All leagues will use standard AFL Fantasy scoring.
  2. Leagues will not contest the official AFL bye rounds. They will contest the 2024 mini-byes.
  3. Leagues will lockout each round at the commencement of the first Saturday game.
  4. There is no TOG% for emergencies. If you lose a player to injury, you unfortunately suffer the consequences.
  5. Team lineups will consist of:
    • 5 backs
    • 7 midfielders
    • 1 ruck
    • 5 forwards
    • 8 bench players
  6. There are no captains/vice-captains.
  7. Should the use of utility players be introduced to the AFL Fantasy platforms, they will be re-added to lineups with the removal of a midfielder.
  8. Ladder position will be determined by wins, and then by total points scored.
  9. League finals will be a traditional Top 6 format played over 3 weeks with the Top 2 ranked teams earning the first week off while 3 vs 6 and 4 vs 5. In case of a draw in the finals, the higher ranked team will progress.
  10. The 12 coaches that will contest each division will be determined by the Order of Merit. The Order of Merit is an ordered ranking list of all coaches within DT Shiva. Dependent on both finishing position for the previous year and promotion/relegation movements, the sorted order of merit denotes the overall order of coaches and eventual sorting of divisions (12 coaches in each).

Coaches that have won promotion will be installed at the bottom of the above division’s order. Those coaches relegated will be installed at the top of the subsequent division’s order. Champions league winners will be installed in their related division above those coaches who have been promoted.

  1. Consolation finals (teams ranked 7-12) will be played in each league to determine the end of season Order of Merit.
  2. When two teams are eliminated in the same week (Semi-finals / Preliminary-finals), the higher ranked team on the league table will be given the higher finish on the Order of Merit.
  3. In the event of a coach removing themselves from the Order of Merit (and the Shiva competition), all coaches below will move one place up the order. In lower divisions, this can greatly improve a coaches ranking and lead to automatic promotion.
  4. Trading cutoff will take place two weeks prior to the commencement of league finals, locked out at the start of the round.
  5. Trades will be approved immediately, but in the case of a shockingly unbalanced trade, can be referred to the Shiva Commissioner who has the power to veto the trade (veto = cancel and reverse). Just because you disagree with a trade does NOT automatically make it a trade that should be vetoed.
  6. Restricted Free Agents will be turned on and will have a restricted time period of 1 day (restricted for 1 day after being dropped or after the completion of a round)
  7. Restricted Free Agent / Waiver selections will be private.

Competition Movement

  1. At the conclusion of each season, a minimum of two teams will be promoted to the next division up.
  2. Bottom ranked teams in each league face the prospect of relegation to the next division down. At minimum 2 teams per league will be relegated but this can be more, but not more than 6 relegated, dependent on the amount of accumulated movement due to champions league advancement. If you make the Top 6 finals you are safe from relegation.
  3. From the 2024 season onwards, only league winners from Division 4 and under will gain entry into the Champions Leagues. If there are remaining positions in the bottom champions league, the highest scoring 2nd placed winners (over the re-finals rounds) from eligible leagues will be invited to join. Once a league is full of 12 players, the next champions league begins (eg. Champions League 1 – Divisions 4 to 15, Champions League 2 – Divisions 16-27 etc)

Champions League

  1. There is no entry fee nor monetary prizes for the champions leagues.
  2. A draft will be held at a separate time to the main Shiva draft where the 12 coaches will draft a team to the same lineup as the main Shiva leagues.
  3. All league settings will be identical to main Shiva leagues.
  4. The winner of each champions league will be promoted to the associated Division in the following season (eg. Champions League 1 = Division 1)

Draft

  1. All Shiva main divisions will draft concurrently and a time and date that will be announced a least 2 months before the event.
  2. If a coach cannot draft their team, they have the option to auto-draft using the AFL Fantasy platform, or could nominate another person to proxy draft their team.
  • It is recommended that coaches do complete at least some pre-ranking before their draft in case of system or personal hardware failures.
  1. Refunds for the season will not be provided if coaches fail to properly arrange themselves for the draft.
  2. If available as an option, draft picks will be given 90 seconds each (which the default to be 60 seconds if not available).
  3. The draft will be conducted in snake format.
  4. If able to be changed, draft order will be sorted in a yet to be determined event in alignment with the Order of Merit. If unable to be manually set, the draft order will be randomly set once all 12 competitors have entered their league.

Knockout Competition

  1. After the first 3 rounds of the Shiva season, players will be ranked and seeded by points scored overall. In the event of two players having the same points scored, they will be ordered by division. If in the same division on the same points they will be ordered by ladder position.
  2. Depending on the total number of competitors, 1st seed will play the bottom seed, 2nd seed will play the 2nd bottom seed and so on in a knockout format.
  3. If a game results in a draw the higher seed will progress and the lower seed eliminated.
  4. The knockout competition will run until there is only one team standing who will win a cash prize and entry into Division 1 in the following year. If the knockout winner is in Division 1, they cannot be relegated.

Conduct

  1. Throughout Shiva, friendly and combative banter are widely encouraged, as are incidents of ‘throwing down the gauntlet’ to your opponents and putting people in their place (from a fantasy perspective). However cases where sexism, racism or discrimination are present will not be tolerated. Repeated incidents will result in termination from the competition without monetary refund.
  2. Coaches are to uphold the integrity of the game to ensure leagues are fair for all players. Conduct such as dropping high quality active players to waivers to intentionally alter results for others will lead to expulsion from Shiva.