These terms are the rules for playing Virtual Hockey League (“the game”) and for using this website and our online services (together, “the services”). We have kept them as plain as we can. How we handle personal data is in our separate privacy policy.
The short version
- You play online with your Epic Games account, and you are responsible for what happens on it.
- Play fair: no cheating, no exploiting bugs, no harassment, hate or threats. If you break the rules, we can mute you, void matches, remove content or ban you.
- Shards, items and the pass are part of the game. They have no money value and cannot be sold or swapped for money.
- Your in-game name, your results and the clips you share are public. You keep the rights to your clips, and you let us host, show and share them, including on our own social media.
- The game is still in development: things change, and sometimes break. We cannot promise the services will always be there.
- You can stop at any time and delete your account from your account page.
Who we are
The services are run by Icebound Interactive s.r.o., Kurzova 2222/16, 155 00 Praha - Stodůlky, Czech Republic (IČO: 19890885). “We” and “us” in these terms means us. You can reach us at iceboundinteractive@gmail.com.
Agreeing to these terms
By playing online or signing in on this website, you agree to these terms. The game asks you to accept them before you play online, and again when they change in a way that matters. If you do not agree, please do not use the services.
Age
You must be at least 13 years old to play online. If you are under 18, or under the age of majority where you live, a parent or guardian must agree to these terms for you and is responsible for how you use the services. Your Epic Games account must also be allowed, under Epic’s own rules, to use online games.
Your account
- Online play uses your Epic Games account. Keep it secure, and do not share it, sell it or let someone else play on it. You are responsible for what happens on your account.
- Your in-game name must not impersonate anyone, mislead people, or break the rules in Playing fair. We may change or remove a name that does.
- One person, one career: do not use several accounts to get around a ban, a cooldown, placement or a limit, or to raise or lower anyone’s rank.
- Where the game lets you play without signing in, you play as a guest: your matches are recorded under the name you play with, and that play is not linked to an account.
A game in development
Virtual Hockey League is still being developed and tested. We may add, change, rebalance or remove features, game modes, items and rules at any time, and matches may be interrupted by updates, maintenance or errors. While the game is in testing, we may also need to correct or reset progress, ratings, ranks, shards or items, for example after a bug or at the end of a test phase. Where we reasonably can, we will say so in advance in the game, on this website or in our community.
Playing fair
When you use the services, you must not:
- cheat, or use or make cheats, bots, macros, modified game files, or any software that gives an unfair advantage or plays for you;
- knowingly use bugs or exploits, instead of reporting them to us;
- fix results: throw matches, trade wins, play on someone else’s account, or work with the other team;
- leave ranked matches on purpose, or otherwise spoil matches for others (for example by scoring on your own net or standing still on purpose);
- harass, threaten, bully or insult other players, or post hateful, sexual, violent or illegal content, in chat, in names, in clan pages or anywhere else in the services;
- share someone else’s personal information, or impersonate anyone, including us;
- spam, advertise, or send people links to scams or harmful sites;
- make false reports, or use the report button to harass someone;
- attack, overload or try to break into our servers, our stats service or other players’ connections, or get around our security, rate limits or bans;
- sell, buy or trade accounts, shards, items or ranks for money or anything outside the game; or
- copy, decompile or modify the game, except where the law allows you to.
If the rules are broken
If you break these terms, or we reasonably believe you have, we may take one or more of these steps, depending on how serious it is and whether it has happened before: send you a warning; mute your chat (repeated reports of abuse in a match can mute you for 24 hours automatically); void matches, so they count for nothing; correct or remove ratings, ranks, shards or items gained unfairly; remove or change names, clan details, clips or other content; give a ranked cooldown; take you out of a tournament; or ban you from online play for a time or for good.
A ban takes you off every leaderboard while it lasts. Your profile stays and says that you are banned, without the reason. If you think we got it wrong, write to us at iceboundinteractive@gmail.com and we will look at it again. We may also act on reports, automatic flags and match data, and we keep a record of what we did and why.
Ranked, tournaments and clans
- Ranks and ratings are worked out by our systems from reported matches. We may change how they work, and correct them after a voided match or an error. Ranked seasons have their own rules, shown in the game: for example, a player who leaves a ranked match takes a loss, and declining or missing a match you were matched into gives a short cooldown.
- Tournamentshave their own rules and schedule, shown in the game and on their page. Signing up means agreeing to them. We may change, delay or cancel a tournament, and decide disputes in it; a match we strike out can be replayed or decided by us. Unless a tournament’s own rules say otherwise, there are no prizes.
- Clansare run by their players. A clan’s leader is responsible for its name, tag, motto, description and chat-server link, which must follow these terms. We may change or remove any of them.
Shards, items and the pass
- Shardsare the game’s currency. Today you earn them only by playing; we do not sell them. If we ever offer anything for real money, we will tell you the price and your rights before you buy.
- Shards, items, the pass and its rewards are a licence to use them in the game, not property. They have no money value, cannot be exchanged for money, and cannot be sold or transferred outside the game.
- If a match is voided, what it gave you can be taken back, so your shard balance may go below zero for a while. We may also correct balances and items after an error.
- Gifts and friend codes are for players who know each other. Friend-code rewards are given only for real new players, and we may hold them back if a code is misused.
- If your account is banned for good or deleted, its shards, items and pass are gone too.
Your names, clips and chat
- Your in-game name, your matches and their statistics, and your rank are public, on this website and to other players. Our privacy policy explains what is public and why.
- Clips:you keep the rights to the clips you share. By sharing one, you give us a worldwide, free, non-exclusive licence to store, show, copy and share it: on its page and in the game, where you choose to send it (for example our community’s highlights channel), and on our own website, channels and social media accounts to show and promote Virtual Hockey League. We may shorten it, crop it or add captions and our logo, and we credit you by your in-game name where we can. A clip on its own page is public to anyone with its link and is kept for 30 days unless you delete it sooner; a clip we have already posted on our own accounts can stay there after that. If you want a post of your clip taken down, write to us and we will remove it. Do not share clips that break these terms or someone else’s rights.
- Chat, names, clan pages and reports must follow Playing fair. We do not watch everything as it happens, but we act on reports, and we may remove anything that breaks these terms or the law.
- If you think something in the services breaks your rights, for example your copyright, write to us at iceboundinteractive@gmail.comor use the report button on a clip’s page, and we will look at it.
Our game, and making videos of it
The game, this website, and everything in them (the code, art, names, logos, music and sounds) belong to us or to those who licensed them to us. As long as you follow these terms, we give you a personal, non-exclusive, non-transferable licence to download and play the game and use the services, for your own non-commercial use.
Videos and streams: you are welcome to stream the game and make videos and screenshots of it, including monetised ones, as long as you do not suggest that we made, sponsor or endorse them, and you do not use our logos as your own branding. We may ask you to take content down if it breaks these terms.
If you send us ideas or feedback, we may use them freely without paying you.
Other services
Some parts of the services rely on other companies: you sign in with your Epic Games account, and you may choose to link accounts elsewhere, for example TikTok to share a clip, or our community server to get your league as a role. Those services have their own terms, which also apply when you use them, and we are not responsible for them. Links to other websites are for convenience; we do not control those sites.
Availability
We work to keep the services running, but we provide them as they are and as available. We cannot promise that they will always be online, free of errors, or the same tomorrow as today. We may suspend or end any part of the services, or the game itself; if we end online play for good, we will tell you in advance where we reasonably can.
Liability
Nothing in these terms limits our liability where the law does not allow it to be limited, for example for harm caused on purpose or through gross negligence, for injury to a person, or your rights as a consumer that cannot be waived.
Otherwise, as far as the law allows: the services are free, and we are not liable for indirect or unforeseeable losses, lost progress, lost items or lost data, or for what other players do. You are responsible for your own device and connection.
Stopping, and ending accounts
You can stop using the services at any time. You can delete your account from your account page or, where it offers it, in the game; deletion happens 14 days after you ask, so you can change your mind until then. We may suspend or end your access if you break these terms in a serious way or again after a warning, if the law requires it, or if we end the services. The parts of these terms that by their nature should last (for example on content you shared, liability and law) keep applying after that.
Changes to these terms
We may update these terms as the game changes. If a change matters, we will tell you in the game or on this website before it applies, and the game will ask you to accept the new version before you play online again. The date at the top shows the current version.
Law and disputes
These terms are governed by the law of the Czech Republic. If you are a consumer, you also keep the protection of the mandatory laws of the country where you live, and you can bring a claim in your own country’s courts. If a part of these terms is found invalid, the rest stays in force.
Please talk to us first: most problems are solved with an email to iceboundinteractive@gmail.com. If you are a consumer in the Czech Republic, you may also turn to the Czech Trade Inspection Authority (Česká obchodní inspekce, www.coi.cz) for out-of-court resolution of a dispute.
Contact
Icebound Interactive s.r.o., Kurzova 2222/16, 155 00 Praha - Stodůlky, Czech Republic. IČO: 19890885. Email: iceboundinteractive@gmail.com.