Terms of service

§ 1. General provisions

1. These Terms set out the rules for using the PlayZeek service available at playzeek.pl.
2. The Service is operated by Patryk Pawlak, a natural person not conducting business activity, correspondence address: ul. Fredry 20/23, 87-800 Włocławek, Poland, e-mail address: [email protected] (hereinafter: the Operator).
3. Use of the Service, including participation in Official Tournaments, is free of charge. The Service does not conduct sales, offer subscriptions or operate a virtual currency, and does not accept payments.
4. Betting is strictly prohibited in the Service: it is not permitted to stake money, in-game items or anything else of value on the result of a match or tournament.
5. These Terms are made available free of charge at Terms, in a form that allows them to be downloaded, saved and printed. The rules for processing personal data are described in the Privacy Policy.

§ 2. Definitions

• Service – the PlayZeek tournament portal available at playzeek.pl, in Polish and English versions.
• User – a person using the Service, with or without an Account.
• Player – a User who has an Account.
• Account – a Player's individual account in the Service.
• Player Passport – the part of the Account in which the Player links the Account to accounts in games and on external platforms.
• Team – a group of Players playing in one game, created in the Service.
• Official Tournament – a tournament run and refereed by the Operator in accordance with the Official Tournament Rules.
• Community Tournament – a tournament set up and run by a Player (a Community Organiser) using the tools of the Service.
• Custom Bracket – a tournament bracket created in the Service, including without an Account, for events outside the Service.
• Listing – an entry on the Service's listings board (looking for a team, player or coach).
• Messenger – the messaging feature of the Service: private messages, team and tournament channels, and match rooms.
• User Content – any content that a User places in the Service, in particular avatars, banners, team logos, descriptions, Listings, messages, names and data in tournaments and Custom Brackets.
• Staff – persons acting on behalf of the Operator in the following roles: administrator, tournament administrator, referee, moderator, support and editor.
• Ticket – a matter submitted to the Operator via the form on the Contact page.
• Penalty – a warning, temporary ban or permanent ban imposed in accordance with § 15.

§ 3. Services

1. The Operator provides the following services by electronic means:

• maintaining the Account and the Player Passport,
• creating and managing Teams,
• participation in Official Tournaments,
• setting up and participating in Community Tournaments,
• creating Custom Brackets, including without an Account,
• the listings board,
• the Messenger,
• the Ticket system,
• the knowledge base,
• rankings and achievements,
• Team challenges (friendly and ranked matches outside tournaments),
• the Games zone,
• Discord webhooks for Teams and organisers,
• match calendars (.ics),
• embeddable pages and a broadcast overlay.

1. Without an Account, it is possible to browse the public pages of the Service, create Custom Brackets, submit Tickets in the categories that do not require logging in (§ 18) and play in the Games zone without saving scores. The other services require an Account.

§ 4. Technical requirements

1. To use the Service, the following are required: a device with internet access, an up-to-date web browser with JavaScript and cookies enabled, and an active e-mail address.
2. Two-factor authentication requires an application that generates one-time codes (TOTP).
3. Linking the Player Passport to a Steam or Discord account requires an account with that service. Participation in matches played on match servers requires the game and a game account in accordance with the rules of the tournament concerned.

§ 5. Account

1. An Account may be created by a person who has reached the age of 16.
2. The agreement for the maintenance of an Account is concluded upon confirmation of the e-mail address after completing the registration form and accepting these Terms. The agreement is concluded for an indefinite period.
3. On registration, the Player declares that they have reached the age of 16, that they accept these Terms and that they have read the Privacy Policy.
4. Each person may have one Account. Creating and using additional accounts (multi-accounts), sharing an Account with other persons and trading in Accounts are prohibited.
5. The Player is responsible for keeping their password confidential. Two-factor authentication is mandatory for Staff roles; for Players it is optional and recommended.
6. The nickname is public, is between 3 and 20 characters long and may be changed once every 30 days. The Service stores the nickname history, and the previous profile address redirects to the new one.
7. The following are publicly visible on the profile: nickname, nationality flag, avatar, banner, game and in-game role, Teams, date of joining the Service, tournament history, statistics (matches, record, win rate), trophies, achievements, points and ranking position and bans in accordance with § 15 point 8. The first name and surname are hidden by default. The date of birth is never public.
8. The Player may delete the Account at any time, without giving a reason, in the privacy settings. Deletion requires confirmation with the password and takes effect after 14 days, during which it may be cancelled. The consequences of deleting the Account, including the information that remains in the Service in anonymised form, are described in the Privacy Policy.
9. Permanent bans and the reasons for them remain in the Service for as long as they are in force, including after the Account is deleted. Warnings and temporary bans are deleted 3 years after they expire. If a Penalty is in force when the Account is deleted, the game account identifiers from that Account are placed on a block list in the form of cryptographic hashes; an attempt to use them again is a signal for Staff, not an automatic refusal. This prevents Penalties from being circumvented by creating a new Account.

§ 6. Player Passport

1. The Player may link the Account to Steam and Discord accounts automatically and add identifiers for other games and platforms manually. Linking requires a confirmed e-mail address.
2. Manually added identifiers are verified by Staff. A manual entry may be corrected by the Player themselves for 3 hours after it is added, and thereafter only by means of a Ticket.
3. Each game identifier may be assigned to one Account only. An attempt to assign an identifier that is already in use is referred to the security team, where the decision is taken by a human.
4. After a Steam account is linked, the Service checks with Steam for information on VAC and Game Ban bans and the age of the Steam account: at the time of linking and then once a week if the Player has taken part in a tournament within the last 90 days. This information is used solely by Staff and does not result in an automatic block. The effects of VAC and Game Ban bans on participation in Official Tournaments are set out in the Official Tournament Rules.

§ 7. Teams

1. A Team plays in one game. The roles in a Team are: captain, player, substitute, coach and manager. The captain manages the roster. The manager may invite Players, register the Team for tournaments, perform check-in and enter results.
2. The Team's roster history is public and cannot be edited. Changes made by Staff are signed "PlayZeek Administration".
3. From the start of a tournament, the Team's roster is frozen and may be changed only by the administration. In leagues, instead of the freeze, the change limits, transfer window and minimum time in the roster set out in the Official Tournament Rules apply.
4. A captain or manager may provide the webhook address of the Team's Discord channel. The Team is responsible for who it shares that channel with; the Service sends only public data to it. An address that Discord reports as non-existent is disabled automatically.
5. A captain or manager may challenge another Team of the same game to a match (a direct challenge) or post an open challenge, with a short message. A challenge not accepted expires after 48 hours or earlier – before the lobby of the last proposed time opens. A Team may have at most 3 open challenges and 5 direct challenges sent at a time (default values, shown on the Service). Either side may cancel an accepted challenge until the match lobby opens – without a result or Penalty; after that a no-show means a forfeit. The rules for playing challenges are set out in the Official Tournament Rules.

§ 8. Official Tournaments and leagues

The rules for participation in Official Tournaments and leagues, including check-in, playing matches, disputes, refereeing and prizes, are set out in the Official Tournament Rules and in the rules of the tournament concerned published in that tournament's "Rules" tab.

§ 9. Community Tournaments

1. A Community Tournament may be set up by a Player whose Account has existed for more than 7 days, has a confirmed e-mail address and is not subject to a Penalty within the "portal" or "tournaments" scope. A new Community Organiser may have 2 active tournaments at the same time, and other Community Organisers may have 5.
2. A Community Tournament is run by the Community Organiser. The Operator is not the organiser of that tournament, does not referee matches, does not resolve disputes, does not collect entry fees and does not act as an intermediary in relation to prizes.
3. The result is entered by the Community Organiser and is final. The Organiser may correct an error until the start of the winner's next match; every correction is visible in the match room.
4. Prizes, including a prize pool made up of participants' contributions, are determined and settled outside the Service, at the responsibility of the Community Organiser and the participants. The Operator is not responsible for awarding, handing over or settling them.
5. The Service automatically displays the Community Organiser's reputation: the number and percentage of completed tournaments and the average rating from 1 to 5, visible once there are 3 ratings. A tournament may be rated once, within 14 days, only by a Player who played in it. The "Organiser plays" badge is assigned automatically.
6. A tournament with no result for more than 7 days is marked as unfinished.
7. Anyone may report a Community Tournament for moderation in accordance with § 14. The Operator may take down a tournament that infringes the law or these Terms.

§ 10. Custom Brackets

1. A Custom Bracket may be created by anyone, including without an Account. A bracket contains a name, a game and a list of 3 to 64 participants entered by the creator.
2. The creator is responsible for the content of the bracket, including for having the right to enter the names or data of participants in it. It is not permitted to enter the personal data of third parties without a legal basis, to enter offensive content or to impersonate other persons or organisations.
3. The owner of a bracket is recognised by a cookie stored in their browser and by a recovery link shown once. Anyone who loses both loses the ability to edit the bracket.
4. A bracket is not indexed by search engines and is not publicly listed. Anyone who knows the link has access. A bracket may be embedded on another website or in broadcasting software and exported to a PNG file.
5. A bracket expires 90 days after its last change, unless it is pinned to an Account.
6. The Operator limits the number of brackets and submissions created per day from a single IP address.
7. The Operator does not organise the events for which Custom Brackets are created and is not responsible for their course or results.

§ 11. Listings board

1. A Player may have 3 active Listings at the same time, not counting stand-in listings. A Listing may be refreshed once every 24 hours; 7 days after the last refresh it is moved to the archive, and after 90 days it is deleted.
2. A reply to a Listing is sent as a private message. With the first message, both parties receive a fraud warning.
3. Listings are deleted when the Account is deleted.

§ 12. Messenger

1. The Messenger comprises private messages, team channels, tournament channels and match rooms. A Player may add friends, block and mute other Players, restrict messages to friends and disable read receipts (which operate reciprocally).
2. Staff have no access to private messages or team channels. A message is referred to a moderator only if a participant in the conversation reports it; the report contains a copy of the reported message and its context.
3. Match rooms and tournament channels are conversations supervised by Staff. A word filter operates in them, and the content of a match room constitutes evidence in disputes.
4. Messages are deleted after the periods specified in the Privacy Policy.

§ 13. Rules of use

1. The User shall use the Service in accordance with the law, these Terms and good practice. The provision of unlawful content is prohibited.
2. In particular, the following are prohibited:

• using cheats in games, unauthorised software or game bugs that give an unfair advantage,
• holding or using more than one Account, playing on another person's Account and participating in a tournament under another person's identity,
• match-fixing, deliberately losing and colluding with an opponent as to the result, including arranging matches to change the ranking,
• staking money, in-game items or anything else of value on the result of a match, challenge or tournament, agreeing on a stake or prize for the result of a challenge, and organising such bets,
• defrauding other Users, including scams in connection with Listings, prizes or item trading,
• harassment, threats, offensive content, content inciting hatred, pornographic content and spam,
• impersonating other persons, Staff or the Operator,
• circumventing Penalties, including by means of a new Account,
• automated retrieval of the Service's content in a manner that places a burden on the Service, circumventing limits and security measures, and attempts at unauthorised access,
• abusing the reporting system, including submitting reports in the knowledge that they are unfounded.

§ 14. Reporting illegal content and content that does not comply with the Terms

1. Any person, including a person without an Account, may report content that they consider to be illegal or not compliant with these Terms: a Listing, a message, a Community Tournament, a Custom Bracket, a profile, a Team name or other User Content. This is done using the "Report" button next to the content or the form on the Contact page in the "Abuse and security" category.
2. A report of illegal content should contain:

• an explanation of why the person reporting considers the content to be illegal,
• the exact location of the content (the URL or an indication of the message),
• the first name and surname or name and the e-mail address of the person reporting, unless the report concerns offences against children, in which case these details are not required,
• a statement that the person reporting believes in good faith that the information in the report is accurate and complete.

1. The Operator shall, without undue delay, confirm receipt of the report if it contains an e-mail address, shall process it in a timely, non-arbitrary and objective manner, and shall inform the person reporting of the decision and of the possibility of appeal.
2. Where the Operator becomes aware of information giving rise to a suspicion of a criminal offence posing a threat to the life or safety of a person, it shall promptly notify the competent law enforcement authorities.
3. Reports are handled by humans. A person reporting may send up to 10 reports within one hour.

§ 15. Moderation and Penalties

1. For an infringement of the law or these Terms, the Operator may hide or remove User Content, take down a Community Tournament, Listing or Custom Bracket, or impose a Penalty.
2. Types of Penalties: warning, temporary ban and permanent ban.
3. Scopes of Penalties:

• tournaments – block on registrations, check-in and roster changes,
• messenger – block on sending messages,
• portal – block on logging in to the Service.

1. Penalties are imposed by Staff or automatically by the system once the thresholds described in point 5 are exceeded. Each Penalty records its source: a human decision or an automatic threshold.
2. Automatic Penalties are imposed once the following thresholds are exceeded (default values; the Operator may relax them at any time, while making them stricter takes effect no earlier than 14 days after announcement, in accordance with the procedure in § 21):

• late check-in 3 times within 30 days – tournament ban for 7 days,
• failure to appear for a match (including a challenge) 2 times within 60 days – tournament ban for 14 days,
• withdrawal from a tournament after the draw 2 times within 90 days – warning,
• 3 offensive messages confirmed by Staff within 30 days – messenger ban for 7 days.

1. For every moderation decision, the User receives a clear statement of reasons. It specifies: the type of measure, its scope and duration; the facts and circumstances, including whether the decision was taken following a report or on the Operator's own initiative; whether the decision was taken by automated means; the provision of law or of these Terms that was infringed; and how to appeal.
2. Every Penalty and every moderation decision may be appealed in accordance with § 16. An automatic Penalty may always be reviewed by a human through the appeal procedure.
3. Temporary and permanent bans are publicly visible on the Player's profile: type, scope, dates and status, without the reasons. Warnings and the reasons for Penalties are visible only to the penalised Player and to Staff. Expired bans cease to be visible 24 months after expiry; a Penalty overturned on appeal disappears from the profile. Active temporary and permanent bans are also shown on the Service's public ban list (nickname, type, scope, end date); warnings and lifted Penalties are not shown there. A Player with a permanent ban is not shown in rankings.

§ 15a. Rankings

1. The Service keeps rankings of Teams and Players in each game, calculated automatically from confirmed results of Official Tournaments and ranked Team challenges under the rules published on the "How the ranking works" page. Community Tournaments do not affect the ranking unless the rules provide otherwise.
2. After a result is revoked, a disqualification or a cancellation of a player's results, the Operator recalculates the ranking.
3. The ranking is not a prize and gives no right to a prize.

§ 15b. Games zone

1. The Games zone consists of browser games available on the Service. Without an Account you can play without saving scores; scores and matches against other Players require an Account.
2. Games zone rankings are for fun and carry no prizes. The Operator may remove a score that cannot be achieved in normal play or reset a game ranking.
3. A match against another Player ends without a result when one of the Players has to go to their tournament match.

§ 16. Appeals

1. An appeal is submitted using the button next to the Penalty or the moderation decision or, if there is no such button, via Contact in the "Abuse and security" category, free of charge.
2. Appeals are handled by a human. The User receives the decision together with the reasons for it in the ticket thread and in a notification.
3. Submitting an appeal does not suspend the Penalty.
4. A User who is dissatisfied with the outcome may pursue their rights before the common courts.

§ 17. User Content and licence

1. The User may place in the Service only content to which they hold the rights. By placing the image of another person in an avatar, banner or logo, the User declares that they have that person's permission to disseminate that image.
2. By placing User Content, the User grants the Operator a free-of-charge, non-exclusive licence, without territorial limitation, in the following fields of exploitation:

• recording and reproduction in the memory of the servers and devices of the Operator and its providers,
• change of format and size, including resizing and conversion of images,
• making available to the public in the Service in such a way that anyone may access it at a place and time of their own choosing, to the extent resulting from the settings and features of the Service,
• display in embeds of brackets and tournaments on other websites and in exports to an image file, where the User Content forms part of them.

1. The licence lasts for as long as the content is placed in the Service. For Team names and logos and for nicknames visible in the tournament history, the licence continues even after their deletion, for as long as the Service's archive of brackets and results exists; after an Account is deleted, its nickname in the archive is replaced with "Deleted player". The User may end the licence by deleting the content or the Account, subject to the second sentence.
2. The Service, its code, graphic layout and the Operator's texts are protected by copyright. Game names and marks belong to their publishers; the Service is not affiliated with them unless otherwise indicated.

§ 18. Tickets and complaints

1. Questions, complaints and other matters concerning the Service are submitted via the form on the Contact page, in one of the following categories:

• Tournaments and refereeing – response within 2 hours during a tournament, and within 24 hours in other matters,
• Abuse and security – within 12 hours,
• Account and passport – within 24 hours,
• Prizes and payments – within 3 working days,
• Partnerships – within 2 working days,
• Media – within 2 working days,
• Personal data (GDPR) – within 30 days.

1. The "Account and passport", "Partnerships", "Media" and "Personal data (GDPR)" categories are available without logging in; the others require an Account. A person without an Account receives a ticket number and a link to the thread valid for 7 days.
2. A complaint should contain an e-mail address, a description of the problem and, if possible, an indication of the tournament or match.
3. The Operator shall process a complaint within 14 days of its receipt, unless point 1 provides for a shorter period, and shall respond in the ticket thread.
4. A Ticket awaiting a reply from the person who submitted it is closed after 7 days without a reply.
5. The PlayZeek community Discord is not used for submitting complaints, appeals or other formal matters.

§ 19. Conformity of services with the agreement

1. The Operator supplies the services in accordance with the agreement, these Terms and the law.
2. A User who is a consumer may, in the event of a lack of conformity of a service with the agreement, submit a complaint under the procedure in § 18 and exercise the rights granted to them by the provisions on consumer rights.
3. The Operator may change features of the Service that are not necessary to maintain the conformity of the services with the agreement only for the valid reasons listed in § 21 point 1, at no cost to the User and after informing Users in advance in a clear and comprehensible manner. If the change has a significant negative impact on access to or use of the service, a User who is a consumer may terminate the agreement on the terms set out in the provisions on consumer rights.

§ 20. Liability

1. The Operator is liable to Users on the terms set out in the law.
2. The Operator is not a party to Community Tournaments or to the events for which Custom Brackets are created, and does not provide refereeing, dispute resolution or prize-awarding services in connection with them. Their organisers and participants are responsible for their course, results and prizes.
3. The content of Listings, messages and other User Content originates from Users. The Operator responds to reports in accordance with § 14.
4. The Operator may temporarily restrict access to the Service in connection with technical work, a failure or a security threat.

§ 21. Amendments to the Terms

1. The Operator may amend these Terms only for a valid reason, namely:

• a change in the law, or a decision or ruling of an authority or court affecting the content of these Terms,
• the introduction of a new feature, or the change or withdrawal of an existing feature of the Service,
• the need to ensure the security of the Service, the fairness of competition or the protection of Users against abuse,
• making the automatic Penalty thresholds in § 15 point 5 stricter, based on experience in operating the Service,
• a change in the Operator's details or contact methods,
• clarification of provisions that have proved unclear, without worsening the position of Users.

1. The Operator shall inform Players of an amendment by e-mail and by a notice in the Service at least 14 days before it enters into force. The information shall specify the amended provisions and the reason for the amendment.
2. A Player who does not accept an amendment may delete the Account before it enters into force. Continued use of the Account after the amendment enters into force constitutes acceptance of it.
3. An amendment resulting from the law or from a security threat may enter into force earlier if the law or the circumstances so require.
4. An amendment to these Terms does not affect the rules of an Official Tournament that has already started.

§ 22. Points of contact

1. The point of contact for Users is the form on the Contact page and the address [email protected]. Communication does not rely solely on automated tools.
2. The point of contact for the authorities of the Member States, the European Commission and the European Board for Digital Services is [email protected]. Communication may take place in Polish or English.

§ 23. Final provisions

1. Agreements concluded on the basis of these Terms are governed by Polish law. The choice of law does not deprive a User who is a consumer of the protection afforded to them by the mandatory provisions of the country of their habitual residence.
2. Disputes are resolved by the common courts having jurisdiction under the general rules.
3. These Terms are available in Polish and English. In the event of any discrepancy, the Polish version prevails, unless mandatory provisions of law provide otherwise.
4. These Terms are effective from the date shown with their text. Previous versions are available in the version archive.