Rules and Penalties

All teams must abide by the rules set at the beginning of the race. Failure to do so can result in time penalties, which can negatively affect finishing position in that leg of the race. While the complete set of official rules has not been released to the public, certain rules have been revealed during the various editions of the race:

## Rules

* Teams are required to complete all legs on Discord in their official team channel. Legs must be completed within the given deadline unless a valid reason is given by a team or production is responsible for the delay.
* Teams are required to do their leg with their partner and production present. If for whatever a team needs to do a leg without a partner present, then a penalty will be issued. The only exception to the rule is if a task, like a Roadblock, is non-live and requires only one partner to complete it.
* Teams are prohibited from contacting friends, family, and acquaintances during *The Amazing Race* without supervision. *The Amazing Race* may provide teams with an opportunity to contact them, but are prohibited from continuing until they're finished.
* When required, teams are to submit screenshots to prove their scores. Screenshots must include their entire computer screen along with their signed in profile to Discord, Zwooper, or Tengaged.
	+ The tampering or doctoring of screenshots is strictly forbidden.
* As of *The Amazing Race 2*, teams are strictly forbidden from lying to production. Time penalties or removal may be issued depending on the infraction.
* Teams are forbidden from working together at any point, unless otherwise stated by the rules. Excluding the Yield and U-Turn, teams are prohibited from hindering other teams' performances, even if it was unintentional, including the creation of fake messages or the sharing of false information.
	+ Teams are forbidden from sharing clues, task, answers, and game related conversations.
* Harassment, abuse, racial slurs, homo/trans-phobic remarks, or any sort of vile and disgusting behavior are banned can lead to consequences.
* Teams must complete each challenge as specified by their clues given to them. Should a team fail to properly complete a challenge, violate the provision made in a clue or challenge description, or miss a clue altogether (unless specifically allowed to do so, such as winning the Fast Forward or using the Express Pass), teams may go back to the location of the challenge and complete it or incur a penalty at the Pit Stop.
* In order to check in, all members of the team must step on the mat.
	+ If multiple teams are tied on the mat, the teams' placements are determined by their placements on the previous leg.
	+ As seen in "The Letter of the Day is B, Kids!", where Jake B & Joey F and Kenya & Peter were in a very tight footrace, the team of the last racer to step on the mat are issued the lower placement.
* Teams can only book one travel itinerary for themselves. Teams cannot book another set of tickets if they discover another flight they would prefer after purchasing the first booking.

## Penalties

* If a team incurs multiple penalties, they are cumulative.
* Penalties are typically served at the Pit Stop at the end of the leg. However, if a team falls last on an elimination leg with a penalty, their penalty is not applied. If a team on a non-elimination leg only serves their penalty partially or checks in last place with a penalty, they will serve the remainder of the penalty at the start of the next leg.
	+ As of *The Amazing Race 3*, if a team occurs a penalty on a no-rest leg, they will serve their penalty at the next proper Pit Stop.
	+ Some penalties may be applied on the spot, such as at a task location OR at the airport.
* If a team realizes they have violated the rules before checking in, they can go back to the point where the infraction occurred and rectify the situation. If they do so, and their error does not inconvenience other teams, no additional penalties will be assessed beyond the time lost in fixing the error.
* In general, teams that skip a Route Marker, fail to complete a task, or have an outstanding debt (such as cab fare) cannot check in and the host will tell them to go back to fix the error before returning to the mat.
* The standard time penalties are as follows:
	+ For most minor rule infractions, teams will serve a **30-minute penalty**. This penalty is usually applied for:
		- Minor deviations of challenge provisions. For example, in *The Amazing Race 1*, where Daniel T and Ethan H did not formally announce which Detour they going to complete as stated in the clue.
		- Using unacceptable forms of transportation. Typically this type of infraction will add any time gained from the other teams to the standard 30 minutes. For example, in *The Amazing Race 1* where Michael E along with several other teams took a taxi to the Roadblock when the clue explicitly said to walk, penalizing them with a 31 minute penalty, 30 minutes for taking a cab, plus an additional 1 minute for the time they gained.
		- Hindering other teams' performances unintentionally.
		- Hindering other teams' performances intentionally. Although this penalty can be long, with depending on the infraction and the amount of time a team lost.
	+ Minor violations of various tasks have a **15-minute penalty**. For example, in *The Amazing Race 2*, TJ P & Brittney O were given a 15 minute penalty for dropping too many donuts during the *That* Detour
	+ A team that quits a Roadblock is assessed a **4-hour penalty**. This penalty is typically applied in different ways:
		- If circumstances force the penalized team to continue racing, it is served at the Pit Stop.
		- If they are not forced to continue racing, and all teams have arrived a the Roadblock, the penalty begins the moment the team intends to quit.
		- If they are not forced to continue racing, and at least one team has yet to arrive at the Roadblock, the penalty does not begin until the next team arrives.
	+ As of *The Amazing Race 2*, a team that quits a Detour without completing either task is assessed a **6-hour penalty**.
		- Prior to this, the penalty for skipping the Detour was 8 hours.
	+ A team is *unable* to complete either half of the Detour due to unavoidable circumstances, are assessed a **2-hour penalty**. For example, in *The Amazing Race 1*, Noah B received this penalty since he arrived at the Detour after both locations had closed.
	+ Failing to complete a Speed Bump incurs a **4-hour penalty**.
	+ Completing a Fast Forward incorrectly incurs a **6-hour penalty**.
	+ Failing to complete a Face Off incurs a **2-hour penalty**.

## Time Credits

* In the event a team is delayed by a production difficulty, a time credit may be issued.
* Teams may be given time credit if an event outside the team's control, such as a storm, delays them from competing in a task.