PA-01
Purpose and Boundaries
The Live Battle Protest process lets a driver who competed in a disputed battle request review of a specific, evidence-supported claim of a clear and material error.
You drove the battle
Only a driver who competed in the disputed battle may submit its protest.
Bring facts
Staff needs clear information, not vague frustration.
Keep it private
The correct channel protects the event and everyone involved.
PA-02
Choose the Correct Process
Start with the result you want. Use the table below before opening a ticket.
| Process | When to use it |
|---|---|
| Live Battle Protest | You want EFVD to review a specific battle result because of a clear, material objective error or a specific, evidence-supported misapplication of published judging criteria. Choose Objective, Subjective or Uncertain inside the protest flow. |
| Competition Question | A qualifying name, score-entry, calculation or system error reported before qualifying results and the bracket are locked. The run is not rescored. |
| Judging Clarification | An explanation of how published judging criteria applied to the driver's own qualifying run or battle. It does not request a result change. |
| Conduct report or disciplinary appeal | Choose Contact Staff → Conduct or Safety. For an appeal, enter Disciplinary appeal as the subject. This is separate from a battle protest. |
| Administrative review | Choose Contact Staff → EFVD Competition → Competition Question and identify the event-record or procedure correction being reviewed. This is not a second judge vote. |
How to request a Judging Clarification
After the event, choose Contact Staff → EFVD Competition → Competition Question in Discord. Enter Judging clarification as the subject. Identify the event, your run or battle, and the specific call or criterion you want explained.
A clarification is informational. It does not reopen, rescore or rejudge the run or battle, and it cannot change the result. EFVD is not required to review replay or other evidence.
Staff decides whether, when and how to respond. Internal votes, deliberations, notes and private evidence may remain confidential.
A clarification does not replace a Live Battle Protest or pause or extend its deadline. A driver seeking a battle-result correction must use the protest process when eligible.
PA-03
What Cannot Be Protested
A protest is not a second judge vote or a way to re-argue the whole battle. A subjective submission must identify a specific incident, the relevant judging principle, supporting evidence and a material connection to the result. Event Ops decides admissibility.
| Not for protest | Why |
|---|---|
| Driver did not compete in the battle | Only a driver from the disputed battle has standing to submit its protest. |
| General disagreement or judging preference | Dissatisfaction without a defined, material incident is inadmissible. |
| Qualifying score or judge interpretation | Qualifying is not part of the battle-protest flow. A Competition Question may correct an objective entry or system error. A Judging Clarification may explain the criteria, but neither route rescores the run. |
| Decision to call OMT | An OMT call itself cannot be protested. |
| Original runs after an OMT | Only the completed OMT runs may support a protest of the final winner, and subjective review cannot create another OMT. |
| Locked bracket stage, duplicate or unsupported claim | Late, duplicated, incomplete, outside-scope or unsupported submissions may be inadmissible. |
PA-04
Submission Deadlines
Event Ops announces the deadline for each event. Your protest is officially submitted only when the bot marks the ticket Submitted: ticket creation does this when no deposit is required; when a deposit is required, successful Stripe verification does it. A draft ticket is not yet a submitted protest.
Requesting a Judging Clarification does not pause or extend the Live Battle Protest deadline.
Use the event deadline
Open the private ticket and complete every structured answer before the announced deadline.
No deposit required
Complete the structured questions and create the ticket. The bot marks it Submitted and records that creation time.
Deposit required
After three prior Inadmissible outcomes, the ticket stays Draft until the ticket-bound $5 CAD payment is verified. If payment fails, report it in that draft immediately.
PA-05
Evidence Requirements
The driver must identify the disputed battle and opponent, relevant run, specific incident, rule or judging principle, course location or approximate timestamp, material effect and supporting evidence or a precise reference to official evidence.
Show the incident
Use replay files, stream clips or recordings when available. Avoid cropped clips that remove important context.
Point to the moment
Include exact times, run numbers, battle names or message links.
Connect evidence to the result
Explain how the identified issue affected, or could reasonably have affected, the winner, a mandatory procedure, run validity or bracket advancement.
PA-06
Protest Flow
Live battle protests are handled privately through the Discord Contact Staff panel. One active protest ticket is permitted per driver, and all grounds from the disputed battle must be included in that ticket.
-
01
Open the private route
Choose EFVD Competition, then Live Battle Protest in Contact Staff.
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02
Confirm and classify
Confirm standing and restrictions, then choose Objective, Subjective or Uncertain.
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03
Complete the form
Provide the battle, run, incident, rule or judging principle, timing, material effect and evidence. Include every ground from that battle in one ticket.
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04
Submit
With no deposit required, creating the ticket submits it. If a deposit is required, pay exactly $5 CAD through the ticket and select Check Payment; verification submits it.
-
05
Receive the decision
Event Ops checks standing, timeliness, scope and admissibility, coordinates any review, then posts the official outcome and any competition effect in the same ticket.
PA-07
Review Authority
The announced winner remains unless EFVD confirms a clear and material error. Event Ops decides how the protest is reviewed, who is involved, what information is shared and whether a competition correction is required.
A clarification response does not change the announced winner. EFVD may make a separate correction under the authority described in the Competition Guide.
Owned by Event Ops
Event Ops checks standing, deadline, completeness, scope, any required payment and the identified incident.
Assigned by EFVD
Appropriate judges or officials may review the claim. The driver does not participate in deliberations.
Final-run boundary
Only completed OMT runs may support a protest of the final winner; original runs stay closed and subjective review cannot create another OMT.
PA-08
Possible Outcomes
Only protests officially resolved as Inadmissible count toward the deposit threshold. Denied, Partially Upheld, Upheld and Unable to Review outcomes do not count. After three prior Inadmissible outcomes on the driver's Discord account, each later protest requires a refundable $5 CAD deposit before submission. The count carries across events.
The deposit is not a filing fee. When a deposit is required and collected, the official outcome fixes its action as shown below.
| Official outcome | Competition meaning | Deposit |
|---|---|---|
| Inadmissible | The submission lacks standing, is late, incomplete, unsupported, duplicated, outside scope or otherwise cannot be accepted. This is the only outcome that counts toward the threshold. | If collected, retained |
| Denied | The reviewed claim does not establish a material error; the announced result stands. This outcome does not count toward the threshold. | If collected, retained |
| Partially Upheld | EFVD confirms part of the material claim and records any competition effect. | If collected, exactly $5 CAD refunded |
| Upheld | EFVD confirms a material error and records any result, bracket or other competition effect. | If collected, exactly $5 CAD refunded |
| Unable to Review | An EFVD system failure makes review impossible. | If collected, exactly $5 CAD refunded |
If no deposit was required, there is nothing to refund or retain. A confirmed material error receives any collected deposit back even when the winner does not change. A protest withdrawn after review starts retains any collected deposit. Refunds are initiated through Stripe to the original payment method; allow up to 14 business days for an issued refund to appear.
PA-09
Appeals and Closure
Event Ops posts the official outcome, reason, competition effect and deposit action in the private protest ticket. A submitted protest cannot be closed until that outcome is recorded.
There is no second appeal of a battle-protest decision
A Live Battle Protest is the available review process for an eligible battle result. Its outcome is final for that protest; a driver cannot open another protest to re-argue the same incident, request another judge vote or create another OMT.
If the ticket contains an administrative mistake, reply in the same ticket before closure so Event Ops can correct the record. A separate Competition Question is only for an independent event-record or procedure issue, not a second review of the same judging claim.
Disciplinary appeals are separate
If the issue is a conduct or disciplinary decision rather than a battle result, choose Contact Staff → Conduct or Safety and enter Disciplinary appeal as the subject. Do not use a battle protest to challenge a warning, removal or other conduct action.
After the official outcome and any deposit action are recorded, staff closes the ticket and archives the case. Continued public escalation does not reopen the protest.
PA-10
Anti-Drama Rules
The protest system exists to solve issues, not to create public pressure campaigns.
Use official channels
Do not turn a protest into a public argument.
Stay factual
Insults, threats or harassment can create conduct action.
Accept closure
Once staff closes a review, continued escalation may be treated separately.
PA-11
Policy Changes
This guide remains effective until EFVD changes it; it does not expire at the end of a season. Staff announce material rule changes through the official EFVD Discord.