Capture the Flag Proposal

Location

The tennis courts of Birch School.

Length of time

There will be four 15 minute periods plus 5 minutes for each team prior to each period for the hiding of flags. That brings the event to a total of 100 minutes, or 1 hour, 40 minutes.

Rules

The object of the game is to enter your opponents’ area, find and obtain their hidden flags, and then return them to the tennis courts without being tagged by an opponent first.

Here is a diagram of the playing area:

Playing Area

The playing area is entirely contained by the north, south, and west fences that surround the tennis courts of Birch School and the cones that define the eastern side of the tennis courts.

The centerline that separates the playing area into the two teams’ sides is defined by the centerlines of the two tennis courts (where the nets would be positioned).

The area that is enclosed by the tennis court fences (a.k.a. the tennis courts themselves) are the “hot zone” of the playing area.

If a player leaves this area (climbing a fence at all is an out of bounds violation), it is considered out of bounds and that player must then act as if he has been tagged. If the player had a flag when he went out of bounds, the flag then becomes out of play and must be taken directly to the referee for holding.

If a player climbs, goes under, or goes through a fence, he is considered out of bounds.

Flag Placement

Each team will be responsible for hiding four flags in the designated area of their side. As one team hides its four flags, the referee will make sure that the other team has their backs turned. Each team will be given up to five minutes to hide their flags.

Each flag must be placed in a safety zone (i.e. no tagging in this zone) radius of 10 feet surrounding the flag.

Each flag must be no higher than six feet off the ground, and must be prominently displayed in its safety zone (i.e. it cannot be placed under or inside anything).

Each flag cannot be placed within ten paces of another flag.

Each flag must be placed behind the back fence of the tennis courts, represented by the dotted lines in the diagram.

No flag can be placed either outside the boundaries of the playing area or on any moving object. The penalty for this will be negative five points for each invalidly placed flag.

Game Termination

There will be four sets in which the maximum amount of time of play is 15 minutes.

Each set will end after 15 minutes of play or if one team has scored points off each of its opponents’ flags, whichever comes first.

After each set, the two teams will switch sides of the playing area.

The game will end after the four sets have been completed and whichever team has amassed the most points after these four sets will be announced the winner.

If, after four sets of play, the game is tied, tiebreaker sets of 15 minutes each, plus five minutes rest in between, will be played until a team scores. Whichever team scores first wins.

Flag Rules

Once each flag has been set, it may not be moved by any member of the team owning it – (in case of temporary possession, i.e. capture) it stays where it is dropped.

Each flag may be passed in hand-to-hand fashion (it must always be held by somebody) by non-tagged members to other non-tagged members of team – it may not be thrown!

Flags cannot be passed through a fence.

A player carrying a flag cannot lie to an opponent about whether it is out of play or not.

A player cannot carry more than one flag.

If a player drops a flag on purpose, the flag becomes out of play.

If a player accidentally drops a flag, he must pick it up as quickly as possible. If he is tagged before he regains the flag, it is a valid tag.

An “out of play” flag is defined as a flag that cannot be scored with and which has not been scored with. It must be taken to the referee immediately after it becomes out of play.

A “dead” flag is a flag which has been scored with and thus cannot be scored with again.

Tag Rules

A tag is constituted by a touch of the hand such that contact may be felt by both parties.

Upon being tagged outside of the hot zone, the taggee must return to their side of the playing field before resuming normal play. Such a taggee cannot carry flags nor tag opponents.

If a player is carrying a flag that is in play upon being tagged, he must drop that flag directly where he is.

A player carrying a flag cannot tag an opponent.

You cannot tag a person through a fence.

“Hot Zone” Rules

There are no sides in the “hot zone”, which means neither team owns a side in the “hot zone”. Thus, you cannot tag someone from the opposing team in the “hot zone” unless he is carrying a flag.

There are two ways to score in the “hot zone”. The first to place a flag in one of the four corners of either of the two tennis courts (these spots are designated by the black circles on the diagram and must be not be occupied by another flag). This will score your team two points. Remember, no corner is designated for either team; each team can put a flag on any of the eight corners. The other way to score is to be tagged by a member of the opposing team, which will earn your team one point. After this action, you must drop the flag and it is considered dead.

You cannot throw a flag onto a scoring area. If you throw a flag like this, it will be considered an out of play flag and the team will not be awarded any points for it.

To be considered in the “hot zone”, you must have both feet fully on the tennis court area.

If you are tagged in the “hot zone” (remember, you must be carrying a flag to be tagged), then you must touch the outside of the tennis court fence on your side before resuming normal play.

Playing Conduct

All players must be on foot.

There will be no aggressive activity including pushing, tripping, etc.

Any purposeful break of the rules or playing conduct will be penalized by sitting the guilty party out of action for a total of five game minutes.

Referee

The referee can move to any area of the playing field that he believes will give him a better chance at refereeing the action.

If the referee has a clear call, then his decision always overrules all others.

If the referee does not have a clear call, then the honor system comes into effect. No cheating when you know you’re wrong!

Equipment

Cones: We need cones to mark the eastern boundary of the playing field, as that is the only boundary that is not a fence. We also need cones to mark the centerline of the playing field, and maybe the boundary in front of which flags cannot be hidden. This will probably put the total in the area of ten cones needed for the event.

Flags: We also will need flags that we can carry, but which will also not blow away with the wind. These could possibly be socks that are tied shut and which have a non-spherical shaped object within them.

Stopwatch: We need some fashion of a stopwatch that can be used by the referee to keep time of everything. One of the seven of us must have one.

Cost per person

This may be dependent on how many cones we can gather. I know that Mehr has a couple, and there is also the possibility that we may be able to borrow some from Jeff Vista. If not, suitable replacements for the cones shouldn’t be too hard to locate, which would mean that the cost would be nothing to anyone.

Teams

Since Matt has graciously offered to referee, that leaves us with six participants, which we need to split into two teams of three. Does anyone have any suggestions? I’ll throw out the possibility of Mehr, Dave, and Span versus Russ, Marc, and Euge.

Any other pertinent information

Not applicable.

(List amendments as well)