Summary of recent changes and updates

Registration for Season 14 of the Pandanet-AGA City League is now open through November 9.

Register here

Goals and Purposes

The principal purposes of this tournament are (1) to provide training and competition for AGA players (2) to promote Internet Go using the Pandanet platform; and (3) to create a venue for seeking and encouraging regional sponsorship of Go in North America.

League Rules and Regulations

This section lays out all rules and regulations of the league functions and play. The tournament format is single round robin regardless of the number of teams in the league.

Leagues
A league – 8 teams
B league – 8 teams
C league – 8 teams
D League – 8 teams
E League – 8 teams

Leagues are generally 8 teams. Leagues may be a little smaller depending on previous years and how many teams have returned. Additional leagues may be added depending on the number of teams registered.

League Season
1st: January 1st, 2013 – August 15th, 2013
2nd: September 1st, 2013 – August 15th, 2014
3rd: October 1st, 2014 – August 15th, 2015
4th: August 1st, 2015 – August 1st, 2016
5th: August 1st, 2016 – August 5th, 2017
6th: August 5th, 2017 – August 1st 2018
7th: September 10th, 2018 – August 1st, 2019
8th: September 9th 2019 – August 1st, 2020
9th: September 5th 2020 – August 1st, 2021
10th: November 1st, 2021 – August 1st, 2022
11th: October 29th, 2022 – December 1st, 2023
12th: October 6th, 2023 – August 1st, 2024
13th: January 4th, 2025 – July 12th, 2025
14th: December 7th, 2025 – August 1st, 2026

Teams

Teams will consist of 6 players, 4 of which are the main team players, with two additional players acting as alternates in case one or two of the 4 main players are unable to play a round.

Team Consistency

Team roster is to remain unchanged for the entire season; no transfer, hiring, or firing of playing members is allowed during the season. If an issue regarding this is raised, it will be handled on a case-by-case basis by the TD. If the TD grants a change in roster, the new player must be within 1 rank of the player that they are replacing, and may not be a remote player. Beginning from the close of the first season, it is the city / regional team that retains its ranking in the League. Should a player from any team move away or not wish to continue playing in the league for the following season, the city / regional team may replace that player. The change in average rank resulting from player rating improvement, decline, or replacement does not affect the standing of the team. All players must be listed on the roster to play games. Teams may freely choose their board order before the season starts (before preseason for A/B league), but the board order is locked in until the end of the regular season.

A player who has a local team participating in the A League or B League may not join a different city’s team in either league as a remote player. If a new team qualifies directly into B League during the preseason, any remote players local to that team may continue playing for a different city’s team for that season, but must switch to their local team if it remains in A League or B League the following season. Also, a remote player who played in A/B/C League may only join a different team as a remote player in the following season if his or her original team disbanded during the offseason or doesn’t register for that season.

Players

Professional and amateur players with active AGA or CGA membership from the beginning of each League Season. AGA or CGA membership is to be maintained continuously throughout the season, and must be active by December 7, 2025 in order to participate in Season 14.

Residency

Teams must comprise at least 3 local players who are residents in the city or region that the team represents by the beginning of the League Season with no plans to move away during the season, and at most 1 remote player who may reside outside of the team’s city or region (but still within North America). All local players on a team should live within an approximately 50-mile diameter from each other, or within the same city address. Exceptions may be made on a case-by-case basis; please email the TD if you are not sure whether all of your team members are eligible to play on the same team together. Any team egregiously abusing location boundaries or lying about player residency may be subject to disqualification.

Players traveling for more than a month during the tournament should notify the TD. If moving to another city becomes necessary during the League Season, that player may finish the season with his/her original team but may not continue to play for that city /regional team in following seasons. Players may not play in multiple Pandanet Leagues at the same time.

College Students

Players who are undergraduate college students and are residing in the city of their school only during the academic year (aka they return to their home city during school breaks) may choose whether to play for their home city or their school’s city. Players who do not return to their home city during school breaks may only play for their school’s city. Players who have moved for an internship for longer than six months should play for the new city they have moved to and are residing in. Players whose schools are primarily online should play for the city in which they are residing in.

Team Placement

Placement of teams in the A and B league for the opening season (2012/2013) will be based upon combined AGA rank of the 3 main playing team members as of the end of registration. Placement for all subsequent seasons will be based on the final standings of the preceding season and as outlined below. For new teams, average team rank will be determined using AGA/CGA ratings, and players without a rating will be approximated by the TD based on the provided rank source.

Starting from Season 14 (2025-2026), promotions and demotions between each league will work as follows:

Between A League and B League

The top 5 teams in A League will maintain their positions in the following season.
The 8th place team in A League will be demoted to B League and the 1st place team in B League will be promoted to A League.
The 6th place team in A League will play a relegation match against the 3rd place team in B League, and the 7th place team in A League will play a relegation match against the 2nd place team in B League. The first board will serve as the tiebreaker in this match. These relegation matches will take place in the pre-season before the following season begins.

Between B League and C League

The 1st and 2nd place teams in C League will be promoted to B League, and the 7th and 8th place teams in B League will be demoted to C League.
New teams with an average rank of 6.5 dan (based on the top 4 players of the team) or higher may be seeded directly into B League. If there are fewer than 8 returning teams to B League, they will be seeded in directly without a qualifier (in order by team average rank) until the league is full. If there are 8 returning teams to B League or the league becomes full through new teams being seeded in, the two strongest new teams that have not yet been seeded in will play a qualifier match against the 6th and 5th place teams respectively. The losers of these matches will be entered into C league.

C League and below

Aside from teams who have been demoted to C League from B League, teams will be placed into leagues in order based on average team rank or previous season’s performance rating (whichever is higher).

Game Rules

AGA rules, 7.5 komi
60 minutes basic time
5 periods of 30 seconds Japanese byo-yomi
The Finals will follow the same time settings as the regular season. The first board will serve as a tiebreaker only in the Finals.

All games will be played on Pandanet in the AGA City League Room. Players should use the GoPanda2 client. Playing on a mobile client is not recommended.
The lowest League’s games will be played on Pandanet in the AGA City League Room (Manual). This room will set handicaps. The AGA City League room will not set handicaps. The Lowest League will play games with handicap minus 2, with a maximum of 6 handicap stones.

In each round, 4 games will be played: 4 playing members from team x versus 4 playing members from team y. Any team that wins the majority of games in the round (typically at least 3 out of 4) wins that round. If a team’s match ends with a 2-2 result, the match will end in a draw. If any game ends with no result due to a triple ko or other game-related reason, the game will be ruled as a draw. A match that ends with two or more double forfeits will be ruled as a double forfeit for both teams and not award any match points.

Main players are seeded based on their rating at the start of each League season. When two teams play, the first board players from the two teams play, the second board players from the two teams play, the third board players from the two teams play, and the fourth board players from the two teams play.

If the alternate player must replace one of the main players during a round, that player will play on the board that the main player would have played on. Alternates should be used in situations where the main player cannot schedule the match in a timely manner. Teams must give at least 4 days notice to the opposing team if an alternate will be playing in that round.

Schedule of Rounds

Registration: September 23 – November 9, 2025
Preseason (A/B League): November 10-November 30
Round 1: December 7-January 4
Round 2: January 5-February 1
Round 3: February 2-March 1
Round 4: March 2-March 29
Round 5: March 30-April 26
Round 6: April 27-May 24
Round 7: May 25-June 21
A League Finals: August 1 at the US Go Congress
Season 15 Preseason: TBA at the close of Season 14

Team Captain

The team captains for each team will coordinate availability and oversee scheduling for his/her team and be the point of contact between his or her team and the TD. As such, the team captain is responsible for receiving and, if necessary, forwarding emails with any pertinent information to his or her players. The TD shall not be responsible for contacting individual players, and any issues or questions that players wish to raise with the TD should be raised by their team captain.
In addition, it is desirable that the captains conduct team activities, both for social and for training purposes, throughout the season to build the team spirit. Marketing the team to the local community for publicity and sponsorship is also encouraged. If a team has professional members, the captain may consider proper compensation for these members from local sponsors.

Game Scheduling

The pairings for the entire season will be immediately available at the start of the season, and team captain/players’ emails will be shared within each league. For each round, players should agree to a mutual time to play their game. When scheduling games, players/team captains should be sure to mention and understand time zones so that there are no confusions.

1) All games should be scheduled within one week from the start of the round. An email will be sent to all teams at the start of each round to remind teams to begin scheduling. Team captains/players do not need to inform the TD of the date and time of the games when they are agreed upon, but should keep a copy of the emails and/or messages sent to coordinate the date/time with opposing teams. If you have been unable to reach your opposing team captain after the first week of a round, please let the TD know.

2) Efforts should be made to schedule games to be played within the time period of the round, though exceptions may be requested with good reason. The TD will decide whether to grant or deny extensions on a case-by-case basis. For A League, no game can be scheduled after June 21, 2025. If neither team has attempted to schedule their game(s) within the round’s time period without good reason, the relevant game(s) will be ruled as a double forfeit.

3) If a game has been scheduled and a player is not present at the arranged time, he or she will forfeit the round following a 20 minute grace period. The Team captain of the present team should notify the TD by email with a timestamped screenshot of the Pandanet lobby and a copy of the emails and/or messages confirming the agreed upon game time by both teams. If neither player was present at the agreed upon game time without good reason, the game will be ruled as a double forfeit.

A League Stream Matches (tentative)

One match from the A League will be streamed on the AGA Twitch/Youtube channels each round on a weekend day. The schedule of which teams are being streamed for which round for the first four rounds of the regular season will be available at the start of the season. For the latter three rounds of the regular season, the stream schedule will be released with a minimum of one month’s notice. For each stream, all players from each team being broadcast must be available to play at the same time. Camera setups will be monitored by an online proctor. The stream date for each round will be selected by the stream producer in advance, but changes can be made if the schedule works between both all of the players and the stream producer on an alternative date. Teams should utilize alternates if necessary to play on the stream date.

A League Finals

The top two teams in the A League at the end of the regular season will be invited to play in the A League Finals at the 2026 US Go Congress (USGC) in Boston, Massachusetts. The 2026 USGC will take place between August 1-9, 2026, and the Finals match will take place on August 1st. Finalist teams must be able to play the Finals match in-person, or else they will forfeit their finalist position and swap positions with the next highest-placing team. Up to $1,500 will be reimbursed by Pandanet for each team to attend the Finals match.

Policies against AI Cheating

All players must read and sign the AGA Fairplay Online Go Tournament Rules and Procedures and the AGA Code of Conduct. These documents will be linked to this rules document and the tournament Contacts page. The TD will work closely with the AGA Administration and Fair Play Committee (Listed on Contact Page) to investigate any issues. Issues that are posted on social media before a resolution from the TD and AGA is complete will be subject to sanctions for the course of the tournament.

Webcam rules will be posted to each team and player ahead of the tournament. The rules will be finalized and posted before the end of registration.

If anyone is caught cheating the following will occur: The player will be banned from any Pandanet AGA City League tournament in the future. The team will be disqualified immediately. If the team was eligible for a prize, they will not be for this season.
This plan for cheating may be added to or changed based on Pandanet’s or the AGA’s guidance throughout the year.

Tie Breaks

Tie breaks for prizes will look at Board Points → Head-to-Head wins → Board 1 wins → Board 2 wins → Board 3 wins → Board 4 wins. Board Points are calculated by number of game wins by a team across all rounds.

Detailed Plan

This section details a plan for the logistics of the fourth season including budget, staffing, and procedures.

Budget

The total budget requested from Pandanet is $18,000. Of this, there will be a $500 AGA administrative cost for the 2024-2025 year. The remainder will fund prizes, final round travel costs, and any other league expenses.

Prizes

Sponsorship of $5,000 or higher per year for a team qualifies the sponsor for naming right for the team. Prizes amounts are subject to change and will be finalized at the start of the season.

A League:
Winner = 5,000
Second = 2,500
Third = 1,250
Fourth = 750

B League:
Winner = 1,500
Second = 1000
Third = 700

C League:
Winner = 700
Second = 400
Third =250

Total cash prizes: $14,000

Remaining Budget

The remaining budget of $4,000 will be used for any expenses relating to the A League Finals at the US Go Congress 2025 including travel costs for players from both finalist teams and one Tournament Director who will run the final round, as well as signs, other prizes, and venue costs if necessary.

Staff

Tournament Director – Justin Teng
Pandanet ID – odnihs

TD of the leagues will be responsible for main league functions including pairings, mediation of disputes, enforcement of rules and regulations, and selection of winners. It will be the responsibility of the TD to submit all expenses and final reports regarding the final round and end of season prizes to the AGA Treasurer or to appoint a volunteer for this responsibility. The TD will also oversee league volunteers and delegate responsibility as necessary and appropriate.

Consult and Oversight

As an AGA tournament, oversight for the leagues will be provided by the AGA National Tournament Coordinator, the AGA, and Pandanet.

Updated 9/22/2025