You don’t need our permission to get a group together and play Hero Drop matches. This page covers what changes when your competition gets bigger, takes money, or wants to use Hero Drop’s servers, league tools or branding.
The binding version is the Competition Terms. This page is the plain-language summary.
Three kinds of league
| Community | Licensed | Official | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who runs it | You, free | You, under a written agreement | Hero Drop: the Drop League |
| Seasons, fixtures, standings on our tools | Yes, within caps | Yes, higher caps | Yes |
| Results signed by Hero Drop servers | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Server time for league games | Capped, after Ranked and the Drop League | Higher cap, ahead of community games | First |
| Team logos, public league page | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Caster tools and YouTube publishing | No | Yes | Yes |
| Sponsors, or prizes and entry fees above the cap | No | Yes | — |
| Merch using Hero Drop’s name or art | No | Under a merch licence | — |
| Listed on the Drop League page | No | Yes | — |
| Shown in game as | COMMUNITY | LICENSED | OFFICIAL |
What’s free
Inside the community caps you can, without asking first:
- run a league, cup, ladder or tournament in Hero Drop, including on our league tools and servers;
- describe it in plain text as “a Hero Drop community league”;
- stream, record and publish its matches;
- collect entry fees and award prizes, inside the caps.
The caps (teams per league, open seasons, prize value, entry fees) are set in the Competition Terms: [CAP VALUES TO BE PUBLISHED].
What needs a licence
- Anything above a community cap.
- Commercial sponsors. The sponsorship policy lists the categories we never accept, for us or for licensed leagues.
- Using the Hero Drop logo or art in your league’s name, logo or branding.
- Merch using Hero Drop’s name, logo, characters or art.
- Caster tools and YouTube publishing on our league tools.
Licences are agreed one league at a time. The licensed league tier is through Patreon, and licensed leagues are listed at the bottom of the Drop League page.
Rules for every organizer
- Names. Your competition’s name can’t contain “official”, “Hero Drop” or “HeroDrop”, and can’t be confusingly close to the Drop League or one of its teams.
- The disclaimer. Wherever your competition presents itself, show this line: “[Your competition] is a community competition. It is not run or endorsed by Hero Drop.” Licensed leagues say “is licensed by Hero Drop” in its place.
- “Verified” is ours. Only results played on Hero Drop’s servers through our league tools are verified. Don’t call any other result verified, official or ranked by Hero Drop.
- Run it fairly. Publish your rules before you start, pay out every prize you promise, and enforce the Code of Conduct.
- Never ask players for their credentials, or for anything outside the competition.
What we will never do
- Penalize a player for playing in your league. If an organizer breaks the terms, we act against the organizer’s licence, never against the players who took part.
- Ban or block pilots for playing in leagues we don’t run.
- Lead with takedowns of streams or videos of community events.
Applying
League applications open in the Nexus portal once the Competition Terms are final. Until then, use the league address on the contact page.