The official Overwatch League Rulebook has been leaked

UPDATE: An Overwatch League spokesperson has responded to Heroes Never Die with the following statement:

The league rules, which include the code of conduct, is a living document created with input from teams and players. They’ve had a copy of the rules doc since the inception of the league, and we posted a summary of it on overwatchleague.com back on February 20. Being a living doc, it’s evolved over time based on active and extensive private discussions with the teams.

Esports journalist and reporter Richard Lewis has released a copy of Blizzard’s official Overwatch League Rulebook and streaming guidelines on his website.

Lewis, according to his accompanying post, has chosen to release these rules without comment in hopes that they be reviewed independently to ensure that players are being treated fairly. These full rules should also help give fans a better understanding of the context behind the punishments issued by the League Office, Lewis says. In his post, Lewis also notes that he has received several copies of these rules despite Blizzard’s continuing refusal to release them publicly.

In February, the Overwatch League released a truncated code of conduct. The official site noted that it was a ‘summary’, and allowed the public to access a 7 page pdf. The month before, League Commissioner Nate Nanzer told the Telegraph: “There are so many things that have to get done in order to launch the league. We definitely want to publish the rules on the website - if you go to NBA.com you can download the rules, right? We want to have the same thing - it’s something we’re working towards, I don’t know the exact timeline, but it’s something that we’re working on, and I think we’ll have it published within the next few months.”

It’s worth noting that Lewis has said on Twitter that while some of these rules have been changed and communicated internally, this is the rulebook that the players and teams were given at the beginning of the year.

This release comes just 24 hours after Blizzard’s most recent decision of player suspesion was leveled against the Dallas Fuel’s player, Son “OGE” Minseok, and at the end of the busiest month of disciplinary action Blizzard has had in the short history of the Overwatch League.

Heroes Never Die has reached out to Blizzard for comment and will update this story as it develops.