What is the Goonternational?

The Goonternational is an annual tournament for the community of popular twitch streamer and Dota savant Pyrion J. Flax, taking place in the leadup to the actual International 2023 in Seattle. What is the format of the Goonternational? The Goonternational will consist of two stages - a Group Stage, and a Main Stage. The Group Stage will be in a Bo2 Round Robin format, and the Main Stage will be a Double-Elimination bracket of Bo1s culminating in a Bo3 Grand Final.

When does the Goonternational take place?

The Group Stage will begin on Monday, August 28th and continue for four weeks until Sunday, September 24th. There will be a week's break to resolve any issues, complete any tiebreakers or missed Group Stage games. The Playoffs will commence on Monday, October 2nd, lasting for a week, and finally terminating on October 8th.
 

How does the Group Stage work? Will I have to play games every day?

Short answer, no. Long answer? The reason the Group Stage takes place over the month of September instead of a few days is that we understand that Goonternational players aren't professionals - they're people with jobs, and social lives, and families. As such, teams will be given 'assignments' each Monday, with the team(s) they are due to play that week. Teams may then collectively decide on a day and time that suits them both to play their Bo2 series. Ideally both games of the Bo2 would be played consecutively, in the spirit of the 'Series Meta', but accommodations can be made if scheduling makes this unfeasible. Similarly, if scheduling conflicts are so sufficiently immense as to preclude the teams playing at all over the week, games can be rescheduled at the discretion of Organisers. The number of games played per week will depend on the number of applicant teams, but it is very unlikely any team will be playing more than a maximum of two teams in any given week.
 

Ok, what about the Main Stage then? Is the schedule for that flexible too?

Contrary to the Group Stage, the Main Stage will begin at a set time every night - 20:00 BST. three Bo1s will be played every day, Mon-Sat, and Sunday will be solely dedicated to the Bo3 Grand Final. The team matchups will depend on tournament standings and the results of previous games, so it is strongly recommended that players be available evenings for the week if they expect to get far. More to follow on this topic below. I want to play, but I work long and inconsistent hours.

I don't think I will be available for the Main Stage. Can I still play?

Aside from meeting standard Inhouse skill criteria, this is perhaps the most important rule of the event. DO NOT SIGN UP IF YOU CAN'T PLAY YOUR GAMES. Sometimes scheduling can be awkward, and it sucks to miss out on big social events, but it isn't fair on your team if they have to play with standins more often than not. The Group Stage is a messy business, and there's a lot of freedom there, but I strongly recommend only signing up if you believe you will be available for the Playoffs, especially on a team you believe has the capacity to make a deep run in the tournament. This year, team standins will be the responsibility of teams themselves to procure. Standins must be approximately the same skill level as the player they are replacing, to the satisfaction of both teams. Any irreconcileable disputes on this front can be referred to organisers.
 

Anything I'm forgetting that you can think of?
 

I’m running Dota off a computer my uncle Vasily salvaged from an abandoned Soviet missile silo in the late 80s, and for some reason it keeps crashing. What are the rules on pauses?

Each team is permitted up to ten cumulative minutes of pauses per game. Once this limit is exceeded, the other team has the option of donating their pause time, though it is entirely optional. If after twenty minutes the problem is still not solved, or the other team declines to eat into their own reserve time, a decision will be made either to play on with four players, forfeit the match, or - in exceptional circumstances - reschedule the match and/or series. 
 

I saw this cool gamebreaking bug on reddit where you can duplicate infinite items, am I allowed to use it in my games?

No. No you are not. Occasionally interactions are discovered that can be used to great effect, often unintentionally, and many of these are harmless. When it comes to intentional bug abuse to gain a demonstrable and significant advantage, however - such as vision in fog, item/unit duplication and so on, these are not permitted in any official games. Punishments for this vary depending on the severity of the abuse, but can range from drafting penalties to series forfeitures or even disqualification. Similarly, any intentional cheating or hacking abuse - maphacking, scripting and so forth - is punishable by immediate team disqualification.
 

My team scheduled a match against another team, but one of their players never showed up. We've been waiting for a very long time. I haven't seen my girlfriend in three days. What should I do?

Once teams have agreed to a time and date, this should be considered as official unless formally changed subsequently. Teams will have a 15-minute grace period after this time to show up, after which their opponent will be consulted as to whether they are willing to wait longer. If not, the game will result in a forfeit.

We recommend using a planning tool such as https://whenisgood.net/ (Thanks Snoog) to avoid these situations. 

We have a fancy coach making up for our lack of skill can they sit in our chat and shout tips at us?
 

Coaches are allowed to be in voice communications with the teams throughout the drafting phase and at half time, once the main playing screen appears with the clock at the top, the only people allowed to be in the discord channel are the 5 players of your team. Coaches are also forbidden from the lobby unless casting.
 

I get a little tilted and like to type "gg" as a joke even though it isn't funny, am i cool?
 

No, if at any point you trigger the auto-distruct of your fountain, congratulations, you now have 10 seconds in which to destroy the enemy fountain. ONLY TYPE "GG" IF YOU MEAN IT. 

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When paused and our teams issue is resolved, Is it OK to unpause the game without asking the opposing team if they are ready?
 

Certainly not, if you unpause the game without checking if both teams are ready to go,  this is 1 person in the toilet away from an incident. Please check before unpausing. Punishments for not checking may range from removing reserve time to forcing a rematch between the teams.