Player Guide

## Player Creation

So what kind of player should you make and what style should they play?

The former is probably the easiest for you, have fun with it and just keep some guidelines in mind as this is a shared universe with other leagues:

1. No FTA player can be smaller than 5'0" or taller than 7'6".
2. No FTA player can be younger than 18 at the time of turning pro.
3. Players can only use two arms, two legs, and a single tail in a match. Any players that have wings or extra appendages are required to have them restrained to prevent unfair advantages.
4. No personal characters. I.e. Fursona's or characters that were made before the FTA.
5. Hybrid characters do exist, but are rarely healthy enough to play professional sports and are considered sterile.

Now for the playstyle. That will likely be the most challenging part if you aren't familier with Tennis, but I should make it clear that there is no one style that will guarantee a win. So don't stress out over it too much. I would think about your players personality and try to apply that to their game. For examples, someone who's methodical and calculative might focus more on control and ball placement, then someone who's more aggressive and focuses on overpowering their opponent. In tennis there are so many different styles that all play differently against one another, so just have fun with it.

## Tournaments

On the first of each month, players will receive invitations to participate in the monthly tournament. Contributors can set their player's intention to accept or decline potential invitations on their player page instead of having to be reached each month. They can be set to "Accept", "Decline", "Contact Contributor". If there is no intention set, or it is set to "Contact Contributor," then they have one week to reply before the bid will be automatically declined.

The first matches of the tournament will happen on the second Friday of the month.

Contributors should familiarize themselves with the tournament schedule. Players have certain requirements and restrictions regarding tournaments.

* Each player is allowed to play in a maximum of **8** tournaments in a calendar year.
* Players are required to play in at least **2** tournaments in a calendar year, unless they are injured, in order to retain their *Pro* status.

These restrictions are to promote top players to prefer to play the higher tier tournaments, or tournaments in their court specialty, allowing lower ranked players the opportunity to compete in the Invitational tiered tournaments.

### *Tournament Tiers*

* Invitational tournaments are the lowest tier and will reward the fewest points. You will typically see an occasional high ranked player in the pool, but will mostly be players ranked outside the top 16.

* Challenge tournaments are the mid-tier tournaments. Most top 16 players will participate, though do not be surprised if you see a few skip to prepare for an upcoming Open.

* Open tournaments are the most prestigious tournaments of the year. Almost all top 16 players will participate barring an injury.

## Training

If a player declines or fails to receive an invitation to a tournament, they are given an option to take the month to train. If they choose to train they may choose specific facets of their game to focus on or go with a default all over approach. Should the contributor not respond or set their training before the end of the month they will forfeit that month's opportunity to increase their players skills.

## Retiring

A contributor is able to retire their player at any point during their career. Should a player fail to play in **2** tournaments in a calendar year, again barring injury, that player will be retired. A contributor can avoid this happening by setting their players intention to accept invitations from tournaments or by keeping an up to date point of contact for the commissioner.