BuzzerBeater Forums

Hello,

And welcome to the official forum thread of Home-Grown League, also known as HGL! I will be your league Commissioner also on Season 5, and will provide some information and links here in the first 15-20 posts of this Official Thread.

I am very glad to announce, that Season 5 of HGL will start on May 4th, 2026 and will take place during BuzzerBeater season 72!
1 season in HGL equals 1 season in BuzzerBeater, so Season 6 of HGL will fully take place during BuzzerBeater season 73, and so on.

18 teams will take part in Season 5 of HGL.
Defending HGL Champion on Season 5 will be undefeated Virtus Portici (manager SventraCanestri) from Italy, and Silver medalist Rajdersi (manager Paul George) from Poland.
KK Stihija (manager Pihija) from Bosnia-Herzegovina is a defending Bronze medals on HGL Season 5.

Warm welcome to all participating managers, I'm glad to see you all to take part in HGL! List of participating teams and managers will be found from here: (331392.3).

In the case you're wondering what is 'homegrown team', or how we define it, explanation can be found from 'a Brief compilation of essential aspects', below (and here: (326589.5).
But in short, the clue really is in the name - homegrown team is a team that has in their roster only players that they have drafted themselves, and/or players from their original roster that Buzzerbeater gifted/gave to the manager in the very beginning when they first started playing Buzzerbeater.

HGL is not a league created by Buzzerbeater developers/owners, so it's not officially affiliated to Buzzerbeater (so in one sense it could be said that Buzzerbeater is just used as a platform in which this HGL takes place). HGL is a Pickup (PU) match based league for homegrown teams only, designed by myself and some of the managers of Buzzerbeater Homegrown teams-community. More info on the story/history aspect of HGL can be found from posts below. Once again, thank you for all your valuable opinions and suggestions (and for the help and contributions special thanks to MrJ and LennuK.!) down the road, my fellow HGL managers!

If you are playing in HGL this season, please note that links to PU (Pickup) matches box scores will be sent to (and found from) Official Scores Thread, here: (331391.1) (and not to other threads, or to league Commissioners BBMail) to avoid overcrowding of this thread or BBMail.

So I'd politely (yet strictly) ask from you, that if you participate in the HGL, please follow all the other rules as well so that we don't have to start enforcing more and more stricter penalties in order to keep the league fair and fun for all.

In this forum thread most of the conversation about Home-Grown League, HGL, will take place. You are of course welcome to keep on discussing on the other forum threads as well, such as in 'Homegrown teams II' (324689.1).

However, if you have any questions or problems specifically regarding this league and wish to find an answer yourself, you may try to find answers to some common questions from these first 15-20 posts of this Thread, and from first post of HGL Scores Season 5 Official Thread, here: [message= 331391.1].

If questions or problems still persist after that, please send them to this Official HGL Thread (and possibly also to my BBMail) in the first place, as it would likely ensure fastest reply times. While as a league Commissioner I do accept the responsibility for functionality (coordinating, communication, enforcing possible penalties for violations, etc.) for the HGL, I can't help but to mention that we have helpful and knowledgeable managers here in our HGL community, who are also very likely happy to answer your questions and try to help you resove problematic situations should they arise.

More information on HGL can be found from informative posts below, from HGL rules section (below), as well as from HGL Scores Thread: (331391.1).

Last edited by Wagner at 6/9/2026 6:16:41 PM

Announcement 29.4.2026:

We're ready to organize all Regular Season matches for HGL Season 5!

If you´re unsure about process, read: (331392.9), (324689.633) or ask questions on HGL Threads.


Info on organizing HGL Regular Season 5 matches:

Very important: If you are responsible for organizing a PU game, you need to schedule it for the time listed on this page (in front of your team name): (331391.18)!
(If your country has many time zones, contact me).

1. We'll use schedule for Season 5, that LennuK. (BC Eos) provided for us.
Schedule can be found here: (331391.6) and (331391.7).
Please note:
A) take a note of #-markings in schedule when organizing matches. When team that has # in front of it's name, it is responsible for sending Pickup match challenge, and their opponent is responsible for accepting it.
B) note, that above schedules do not include match time. Match times during Season 5 will be your local equivalent of 3.30PM EET(Eastern European Time), DST.

For each team an Official Local Time is provided, which they use when sending PU match invitations. Found (before team name), here: (331391.18).
Use only this time given to your team specifically, and nothing else, when organizing (also when accepting!) Pickup matches!

2. Before team sends or accepts match challenge, it is important to check out specifics of a match.
That means 3 things:
A) is day correct in a sent challenge? (check your own HGL schedule to confirm! Here: (331391.6) and (331391.7)
B) is time correct? (check your own team specific Official Local Time for HGL matches, link next one below).
Remember: if you are team sending challenge, you need to use designated time given to your team as a match time, found in this table: (331391.18)
If you are team that accepts challenge, match should take place at time that your team should play it's matches, your local time)
C) is court balance neutral (for Regular Season match)? If not, do not accept the match invitation. Matches played with wrong court balance do not count!
In such case, contact manager who has sent wrong challenge, and/or write a reminder on an Official HGL Thread, here: (331392.1), and/or send me a BBMail.

3. Send Pickup match invites to all teams, where in matchup you see # before your team name.
Schedule, here: (331391.6) and (331391.7)
To access each teams page easily, check this post: [message=message=331391.18]
Again, please be very careful with all the specifics (day, time, neutral court balance) when you send and accept invitations.

4. Accept all correct invites sent to you.
Check out:
A) should I be receiving this match invitation from this team? (HGL schedule provides answer). If not, don't accept it and contact manager by BBMail, send post to official HGL thread or BBMail to me.
B) If challenge comes from team that is supposed to send you a challenge, are all match specifics (day, time, neutral court balance) correct?

5. Check (and double check!) your BB schedule after whole process is completed.
Note:
A) not all managers accept invites quickly
B) you should have 17 regular season matches arranged for HGL Season 5
C) if you play also other Pickup matches than those for HGL, make sure you won't count them as being one of the 17
D) confirm that match dates and times show up correctly in your team schedule.
There has been problems with arranging PU matches, especially if they overlap some other match.
So we ask you to not play other than HGL Pickup matches so that they start just before HGL match, or so that they overlap it.

6. If all B), C) and D) from previous ('5.') are correct, let us know that all your matches are properly organized. I'll keep an updateable list of confirmed teams.
Send me BBmail if problems persist.

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 3:30:35 PM

Total of 18 teams will take part to Season 5 of HGL:

Match time (local time) | Team name (number) ABBREVIATION ||Country|| Top 8 salaries (Top 8 average age), Team manager

GMT+3/0=03.30PM Wagner College (172501) WAG ||FIN|| $357K (30,4 years) Manager: Wagner
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Les Gueux du Marais (86508) LGM ||FRA|| $271K (30,1y) Manager: Coach Faz
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Elan Demars (87312) ED ||FRA|| $372K (30,3y) Manager: demars
GMT+3/0=03.30PM BC Eos (122340) EOS ||EST|| $613K (24,3y) Manager: LennuK.
GMT+3/0=03.30PM Vilniaus „Vilkai“ (95372) VIV ||LTU|| $463K (27,3y) Manager: kecal
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Madrid Chotis (76877) (D) ||SPA|| $304K (27,6y) Manager: Jotadoce
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM WiMaOlca (35977) WMO ||FRA|| $357K (27,9y) Manager: WiMaOl
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Rajdersi (237760) RAJ ||POL|| $493K (28,5y) Manager: Paul George
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Freccia Azzurra (27107) FRE ||ITA|| $173K (23,5y) Manager: ned
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Hårdboll (26577) HB ||SWE|| $425K (31,4y) Manager: Spela
GMT+3/0=03.30PM Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (146915) LMS ||LVA|| $628K (25,0y) Manager: Monēta
GMT+3/0=03.30PM Alanurmon Rikkaat (59111) ALA ||FIN|| $183K (24,9y) Manager: M a k e
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM Virtus Portici (47391) VPO ||ITA|| $418K (29,8y) Manager: SventraCanestri
GMT+2/-1=02.30PM KK Stihija (44662) KKS ||BIH|| $566K* (28,4y) Manager: Pihija
GMT-3/-6=09.30AM<-(NoDST) Club Trouville # (115547) TRO ||URY|| $304K (29,6y) Manager: Chucarro
GMT +2/-1=02.30PM Vindicta (84697) VDT ||FRA|| $276K (26,5y) Manager: Jioshoo
GMT +8?/+5?=7.30PM? Homegrown Kings ## (197075) ||AUS|| $208K (24,6y) Manager: MrJ
GMT+3/0=03.30PM BC Rajaleidjad (122619) BCR ||EST|| $412K (29,0y) Manager: Trailblazer

<-(NoDST)=Daylight Saving Time (DST) isn't observed in Uruguay.
#=team name change during Season 1 of HGL; formerly team was known and joined HGL as Trouville BBC.
##=team name change: formerly participated in HGL as a Swan River Serpents.
*=salary change: KKS salary $626K at beginning of Season 5.

Participating teams for Season 5 will be exactly the same as on Season 4.

Please note that when HGL Season 5 starts, Daylight Savings Time (DST a.k.a. Summer Time) is observed in Europe, so it affects match times.

So for this Season 5 Official designated match time is designated time for each team, which is your local equivalent of 15.30, a.k.a. 3.30PM Eastern European Time (EET) Daylight Savings Time (DST).

In other words, you will play all HGL matches on Season 5 at your designated local time, that you can see on the above list before your team name. You will also use this time as a match time when you're responsible of sending Pickup match challenge. When accepting PU challenges from other teams, you need to make sure it's played at the same correct time (your local time) before you accept it.

In the case you're in any doubt whatsoever about the official match time, typically most surefire way to ensure your match time is correct, is to check out your BB schedule page, and see what time you are playing HGL Regular Season match against my team (Wagner College).
This will be your match time on that given Season, because I send all RS Pickup match challenges to all teams first, and from that time (that they see on their BB schedule) managers can get the final assurance what's the correct match time.


Forfeits/penalties on Season 5:
TRO:Level 5 (disqualified S5+6; ineligible player)
HB:Level 2 (forfeit: Playoffs 1st Round)

Last edited by Wagner at 6/28/2026 7:23:57 AM

TBA
(HGL teams' salary benefits ("SB") on Season 5)

Until HGL Season 5 SB data is published, you may refer to Season 4 SB data, here (329501.4) which is still somewhat accurate as transfers have been taken into account at the point when last match of HGL Season 4 had already been played.
(Please note though, that of course salaries refer to Season 4 salary levels of players, which have naturally changed for Season 5, and that's why full recalculation and inspection of transfers is needed before Season 5 data can be published).

If you visit previous Season 4 SB data-link, please note that BC Eos's transfer (purchase of $100K player) has not been count into Season 4 SB data, as this player was purchased after Season 4 had ended.

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 3:50:23 PM

HGL Transfers-post, Season 5:

Please note my fellow HGL managers:
Don't forget to inform me of all purchases and sold or fired players, so that I can keep on updating this list and team top8-salary post throughout the Season.

This is especially important, if player you buy, sell or fire is one of your top8-earners.

Keep in mind, that it's not possible to find out fired player-information from your teams' transfers-page so I couldn't even find that information without arduous or excessively repetitive and/or thorough "detective work".
(Just take my word for it, that there are plenty of other HGL related tasks, in which my time is better used to benefit all of us).



Transfers on HGL Season 5 (starting from May 4th until the start of HGL Season 6):
(In other words, all transfers that take place before first RS match of Season 6 will be count as Season 5 transfers.)

KK Stihija (KKS):
T- May 11th, 2026: Slobodan Aleksijević, 35yo, $80541/week

Rajdersi (RAJ):
T- May 23rd, 2026: Jakub Micuła, 34yo, $16633/week

Freccia Azzurra (FRE):
D- May 22nd(?), 2026: Gianluca Scardamaglio, 19yo, $2411/week

Homegrown Kings (HGK)
D- June 14th, 2026: Gary Nutley, 21yo, $5985/week
D- June 15th, 2026: Howie Forrest, 18yo, $3145/week
T- May 16th, 2026: Lachy Walshe, 20yo, $7382/week
T- July 11th, 2026: Tony Huff, 18yo, $2335/week

Club Trouville (TRO)
T- June 17th, 2026: Roberto López, 19yo, $4598/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Marcos Ferreira, 20yo, $9591/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Roberto Sanz, 29yo, $11365/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Ezequiel Miranda, 20yo, $6402/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Julio Giúdice, 22yo, $9237/week
T- June 17th, 2026: José Barbat, 33yo, $23186/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Bernardo Shaw, 34yo, $19046/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Emmanuel Fernández, 31yo, $99542/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Horacio Amaro, 34yo, $15738/week
T- June 17th, 2026: José Luis González, 19yo, $3575/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Rodolfo Gutierrez, 29yo, $38934/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Héctor Calloia, 24yo, $41414/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Rubén Peuccelle, 28yo, $38280/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Hermes Conti, 24yo, $27740/week
T- June 17th, 2026: Zelmar Soto, 20yo, $4947/week
->These 15 transfers caused his roster to empty totally (0 players) and due to that TRO suffered 2 forfeit losses during Regular Season.
Club Trouville's (TRO) transfer causing Level 5 penalty to TRO:

T+ June 22nd, 2026: Michel Karslian, 19yo, $2558/week; Karslian has been drafted originally by Hebraica Macabi, and this name is not one of TRO's previous team names.


BC Rajaleidjad (BCR):
T- May 27th, 2026: Andrey Konashenko, 19yo, $3795/week
T- May 27th, 2026: Hans Raitviir, 26yo, $11662/week
T- July 9th, 2026: Hans Valk, 37yo, $17034/week


Abbreviations used:
T+ purchased,
T- sold,
D- fired player
PACT+ player acquired by completing BB tutorial.


If you wish to see HGL transfer history from earlier seasons, you may want to visit these posts:
- Season 1: (326589.4)
- Seasons 2 and 3 (combined post) (328546.14)
- Season 4: (329501.5)


Last edited by Wagner at 7/11/2026 9:36:02 AM

HGL Season 5 League table,

corrected after Round 17 of play to reflect Official Regular Season Rankings (ORSR) which are used in Playoffs match organizing process.

ORSR-table will also be made available in Official HGL Season 5 Playoff post, here: (331391.9).

Playoff matchups for match organizing process are also found from Official Playoff post (link above).

Note: Playoff-match organizing process has now started for teams ranked from 5th to 12th!


League table updated June 23rd, 2026 (after RS Round 17).

Team W L PTS +/- F
VPO 16 1 33 314 0
RAJ 15 2 32 292 0
KKS 14 3 31 318 0
VIV 14 3 31 219 0
EOS 13 4 30 212 0
LMS 13 4 30 281 0
ED 12 5 29 213 0
WMO 11 6 28 58 0
LGM 9 8 26 42 0
VDT 8 9 25 17 0
MAD 7 10 24 1 0
HB 6 11 23 -79 0
==========
WAG 5 12 22 -141 0
BCR 4 13 21 -99 0
HGK 2 15 19 -343 0
FRE 2 15 19 -271 0
ALA 0 17 17 -668 0
TRO 2 15 17 -366 2


W=Wins, L=Losses, PTS=points, +/-=scoring difference, F=forfeit losses.
2 points for a win, 1 for a loss and 0 for a forfeit.

17 Rounds to be played in Regular Season of HGL.
12 best to Playoffs; 4 best will earn a place to a Second Round of Playoffs automatically.

Team abbreviations and links to team's own box score post for Season 5:


ALA = Alanurmon Rikkaat (331391.58)
BCR = BC Rajaleidjad (331391.30)
ED = Elan Demars (331391.39)
EOS = BC Eos (331391.28)
FRE = Freccia Azzurra (331391.44)
HB = Hårdboll (331391.24)
HGK = Homegrown Kings ## (331391.27)
KKS = KK Stihija (331391.36)
LGM = Les Gueux du Marais (331391.26)
LMS = Lielupes Melnās Sirdis (331391.35)
MAD = Madrid Chotis (331391.33)
RAJ = Rajdersi (331391.29)
TRO = Club Trouville # (331391.38)
VIV = Vilniaus „Vilkai“ (331391.32)
VPO = Virtus Portici (331391.49)
VDT = Vindicta (331391.25)
WAG = Wagner College (331391.22)
WMO = WiMaOlca (331391.43)

#=team name change during Season 1 of HGL; formerly team was known and joined HGL as Trouville BBC.

##=team name change: formerly team was known as and participated in HGL as a Swan River Serpents.

Note, that box score links of matches will be copied to official schedule posts (here (331391.6), here (331391.7), and for Playoffs here (331391.9)) from each manager's own box score posts, and only those matches on official posts are accepted as official HGL results.
(Match must start at the correct time, match number must be the same as in official schedule's copied links - in other words, managers can't change correct match links on their season box score post without approval or request by HGL Commissioner).

Please note, in the order of significance:
A) If teams are tied in points, team with less forfeits will be higher ranked, and
B) Teams tied for regular season points are officially ranked based not on scoring differential, but rather based on the result of their current season regular season match (winner of that match will be a higher ranked team).
League table will/might not reflect this correctly before the last regular season match (Round 16) scores have been revealed, after which Official Regular Season Rankings (ORSR) for Season 4 of HGL are being released, and playoff matches for that season will be organized based on aforementioned ORSR.
"In the order of significance" (above) means, that comparison is made in this order, if teams are tied in points.

In the case of a 3-way, 4-way or 5-way tie in points, HGL tiebreaker rules apply as follows: (328546.121). (As for how such decision was reached, see (328546.118) and (328546.120)).


PS. As you can see, BB text editor is useless for tables, and doesn't accept formatting that text/table had (ignores word or excel formatting).

Last edited by Wagner at 6/22/2026 7:09:54 PM

TBA #7 (Links to essential HGL-posts.)

Please refer to Season 2 Official HGL Thread for now if you require information in this post, located similarly within main HGL Season 2 Thread, here: (327516.6).

Note that links are in some cases related to HGL Season 2 posts and therefore might include some non-updated practices or rules (even though there hasn't been too many changes since launch of HGL).

However, especially if you're new-to-HGL, that post might benefit you if you use it to familiarize yourself with location of each post within these Official Threads - more often than not you can find posts on almost similar locations within both Official (main and scores-) Threads, season after season as I aim to have as much continuity as possible (also in terms of how Official Threads are structured/organized).

EDIT 29th April, 2026: having written this reference to older post few Seasons ago, some locations have changed and few new posts that benefit usability/add information have been added since initial launch of essential HGL links-post (link above).
Therefore you might or might not find it suitable for learning "what's inside of HGL", and in what order they are in both Official Threads.

If you have any ideas on what kind of useful/interesting/fun information you'd like to see on official HGL posts (possibly repeating from one Season to another), please let me know and we can possibly start publishing it and/or collecting necessary information (if that's what it's publication would require) and make publishing of such post continuous part of HGL.

Examples so far include for instance statistics collection/creation by LennuK., MrJ and myself, and some of the informative posts that are updated and followed from one Season to another by myself, such as HGL team transfers and team salary benefit-comparisons.

While it's not an example that anyone was showing green light to, I was earlier suggesting having an injury post for HGL teams, to follow one more critical aspect of our teams. It does have some challenges into actually implementing that, but at least it serves as an example - you are free to suggest anything to me by BBMail or on the Official Threads, and we'll see if we can implement your suggestion and bring it into continuous part of HGL, even as soon as on current Season!

Another examples of interesting ideas by earlier HGL managers include for instance Hadár (Svätý Jur Snakers) bringing Round to Round statistics following to HGL (which collection LennuK. now continues), and Bucner Bandit's interesting and successful attempts to implement AI in creation of match reports (I believe some - maybe Paul George - had a try at this also later on?).

Sky is the limit, you can throw in your ideas without any hesitation, because worse that can happen is that they would't become official part of HGL, and still more likely outcome is that they cause excitement in some or many of your fellow managers and encourage everyone to throw in their ideas as well, in order to enrichen our HG experience! All your messages are read through carefully, and given carerul consideration, so you'll never be talking to a wall when you approach us/me with your ideas. :) Especially if you're ready to do some data collection yourself (if that's what it'd require to update such post regularly), they you've just improved your chances of being published.. but even if you'd not be ready for it, don't hesitate to contact us/me - if idea is interesting/useful/fun, then we'll see what we can do (with the resources we have) in terms of adding it as a regular publishing routine of HGL without any further work required from you!

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 5:16:49 PM

Here's a brief compilation of the most essential aspects of the league, part 1/2:

Definition of a homegrown team used in HGL:

- As for definition of 'homegrown team', we use the definition by LOPO , the manager of CB Eliocroca, who to this date updates the original list of homegrown teams (list of teams found here: (324689.1)) and welcomes you to apply for the list, if you are a homegrown team!
So in short, with no exceptions:
A) no Utopian teams will be accepted to the league, and
B) you must have only players that were originally given to you (at the beginning when you started playing Buzzerbeater), or were drafted by you. You also may have purchased back some of your own draftees (if they have been previously bought by other teams), and still be counted as a homegrown team

- It's of utmost importance to remember, that it's necessary to be totally homegrown team in order to be able to participate in HGL. If you wish to participate in the league in the future, we also expect you to remain homegrown at least for the duration of the whole season(s) during which you wish to participate in HGL. Please be aware that strict penalties/sanctions will apply to teams that don't comply with this very essential rule of HGL

League system:

- Most thorough presentation of league system can be found from these 5 lengthy posts of mine here, this one being the first of 5: (324689.240) . However, if you first just want to take a quick look to get the idea, check out post by MrJ (link below) and/or keep on reading this post further

- TLDR; Brief compilation of league system used in HGL is found from post by MrJ that compiles my lengthy messages, here: (324689.248) (but short compilation also follows below)

- We'll have a lineup of 18 teams that participate to HGL

- All Regular Season games will be played on neutral court, and all Playoff games on either home or away court (no exceptions!)

- The time window for organizing all regular season matches (at once) takes place approximately between semifinal stage of your regular BB league and "draft deadline day" (found from your team overview page)

- First regular season match of HGL will take place on first Monday after "regular Buzzerbeater league" has started (in other words, 2 days after the start of BB league, as first league match of BB season is played on Saturday).

- 2 matches/week will be played during Regular Season, with exception of two 3 match weeks/season. First match of the week on Monday, and second on Friday. Playoff matches will take place on Sundays every week.

- Please note a change to rules as of March 20th, 2025:
All matches in HGL start at 14.30 (aka. 2.30PM) Eastern European Time, EET (GMT+2).
When Daylight Savings Time (Summer Time) is applied in Europe, it changes match times.
So when match organizing window is during summer months, on those seasons official HGL match time is your local equivalent of 15.30 (a.k.a. 3.30PM) EET DST.

Teams are provided a designated local time in participating teams-list (before their team name, here: (331392.9)), which they use all season long when sending invitations to Pickup (PU) matches.
Please remember to use only this time given to your team, and nothing else, when organizing Pickup matches!

- Out of 18 teams 12 teams (2/3 of teams) proceed to Playoffs, and 4 best will be automatically awarded a place to the quarterfinal round (Second Round of Playoffs).

- All Playoff matches are decided in 1 match, so playoffs is a single elimination tournament (like in NCAA basketball)

- All teams reaching semifinal stage are guaranteed a medal game, either Championship or Bronze medal match.

- In addition to basic rules mentioned throughout these informative posts, certain rules and penalties for violations are being enforced in HGL; more information on posts below.

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 5:17:54 PM

Here's a brief compilation of the most essential aspects of the league, part 2/2:

Pickup (PU) matches:

- All matches in HGL will be played as PU (Pickup) matches, so participating teams need to have Pickup tokens saved for the season so that they'll be able to send PU challenges to opponents. Theoretically it's enough to own 8 tokens in order to participate to HGL (but we recommend having saved 15 or more). You can always gather more during season by not playing other PU matches during HGL season, but all 17 Regular Season matches are organized at once before the season starts (no exceptions!)

- If you're not familiar with how PU matches function and how to organize them, you may want to check out a post written by MrJ, here: (326327.1). However, basic information on what is necessary to know about PU's and how they are utilized in HGL also follows as you keep on reading

- All regular season matches will be organized (sending and accepting PU match invitations) during one time window before regular season starts, and for Playoff matches (for teams still in competition) every single week during Playoffs

- It is of utmost importance to understand and remember, that every participating team arranges their own Pickup (PU) matches and also take care of sending box score links to appropriate place, on their own season box score post (links to posts here: (331392.6)) and are fully responsible in complying with these important rules which ensures the optimal functionality of the league. In other words it means managers are responsible for sending and accepting correct Pickup (PU) game requests.

- When sending and accepting PU challenges, it's important to remember that all Regular Season games will be played on neutral court, and all Playoff games on either home or away court (no exceptions!). Please do not accept match with incorrect details as it won't count if played with wrong court setting!

- Managers are required to confirm on this forum thread when they have fully completed organizing matches for the regular season, and therefore can see all regular season matches on their team schedule/fixtures page. For the HGL Season with 18 participants, this means 17 Regular Season (PU) matches for each team.

- Matches are organized based on the official league schedule that is sent on 'HGL Scores Season 5 Official Thread'

- In practice, match organization window will take place approximately between your "regular Buzzerbeater league's" semifinal matches and season draft deadline (about 7-8 day period)

- One team is always responsible for sending the PU game challenge, and team responsible for sending challenge has # marked in front of their team name in an official league schedule

- If you haven't received a PU match challenge/request from your opponent that you should have received, please send message here on this thread. You may also send me BBMail so we all try to sort it out so that match will be played in time. (Sometimes it's worthwile to double check schedule to ensure if it was after all your responsibility to send challenge).

- Every team sends their box score links and scores of HGL Pickup matches to their own Season 5 box score post. In Playoffs it is important to do this quickly after matches. (If you notice it being sent to wrong Thread, please send it to the correct Thread).

- If you also want to play other Pickup (PU) matches in addition to HGL matches, it is important that:
A) you save enough tokens for HGL Playoffs (1/week), as non-Supporters get 1, and Supporters 2 tokens/week.
B) you send only HGL match box scores to the 'HGL Scores Season 5 Official Thread'.

More essential info in posts below ("Additional rules and penalties for violations"; 4 posts).

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 5:20:03 PM

Additional rules and penalties for violations, 1 of 4 (effective as of April 5th, 2025):

These additional rule/penalties posts (4) might appear long and complicated, but I think are only that for some of us due to conversatory nature and many examples provided.
Also some exceptions made for your convenience that lessen the impact of penalties, lengthen the rules.

However, there are practically only 4 additional categories on how one will get penalized:
A) become non-homegrown team during any part of HGL season
B) play too small roster, or cause a forfeit by dressing less than 3 players
C) not arrange or accept a correct Pickup match on time, which would cause match to be cancelled/postponed and/or leave another manager insufficient time to set lineups for match
(D) not sending PU match results to your own season box score post; possible penalties TBA)

Foreword on additional rules and penalties for HGL to come; if you want to jump straight into facts, go to the part "Penalty Levels" below.

As for rules and penalties for the HGL, opinions seem to differ vastly from one manager to another. I have always been (and still are) in a favor of (a lot) more strict and therefore simultaneously complicated rules and penalties, and while this is in a way major compromise for me - as rules/penalties are important part of league, ensuring functionality and fairness to all and effectively discouraging unwanted actions - after having listened our HG communitys' opinions I have decided to go with more simple rules and penalties (vs. my original rule proposition).

And as for penalties: Most of you guys have at least glanced through my earlier proposition of HGL rules (324689.336) (that post and 3 following posts, which actually is not even the whole proposed rule set) so you know there would've been applicable penalties planned for many other possible violation situations.

However, I can't stress the importance of being worth the trust, as functionality (and fun aspect of it - there's no fun in it if for instance people don't organize half of their playoff matches and they end in forfeits due to that; and in the worst case, we might not even be able to prove which team would be guilty of match not being played and which team would then proceed to next round due to forfeit in which case possibly neither of the teams couldn't proceed, and on next round team also would have a free ticket to next round as neither of those teams could let to proceed, and so on... I'm sure you guys see my point - commitment and trust is everything here).


Penalty Levels:

Please note: I have used penalty level numbers from my previously suggested rule set, in order to avoid massive reorganization of the earlier proposed rule set (which will not be applied in full to Season 5 of HGL), and to retain the possibility of taking parts of it easily into use in the future if need arises.
Therefore it might seem that some Levels of penalty (such as Level 1 and Level 6) seem to be "missing" from the following listing of penalty levels, meaning that we just don't apply them on HGL Season 5.

Level 2: 0-50 forfeit loss for the match in question.

Level 3: 0-50 forfeit loss for the match in question, and ineligibility for the current season Playoff play no matter how good the team Regular Season success is. (In general, team is eligible continuing Regular Season play normally if it doesn't violate rules that trigger more serious penalty)

Level 4: Immediate disqualification from the current Season, including Playoffs; match in where violation occurred, and all the future scores for the current Season will become 0-50 forfeit losses.

Level 5: Immediate disqualification from the current and for the full forthcoming Season; match in where violation occurred, and all the future scores for the current Season will become 0-50 forfeit losses.

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 5:21:14 PM

Additional rules and penalties for violations, 2 of 4 (effective as of April 5th, 2025):

Voting:
- Based on his discretion (for instance if it's a critically important decision that affects most/all teams significantly) is possible for league Commmissioner to arrange a voting.
About voting:
A) Voting would be announced on this HGL Thread, on 'Announcements'-post, here: (331392.2).
B) Voting is open for a restricted time (TBA; 14 days?) during which only participating managers of HGL could vote.
C) Depending also on whether a change we are voting about would be major one or not, it might be required that at least certain part of managers are voting for a certain option/change (for example: at least 2/3 or 3/4 majority, or 17/18, or 18/18 managers).
D) league Commissioner reserves the right to decide which issues are decided by voting

Roster changes and methods on how to inform on your own (and observed) roster changes:
- You can not become non-homegrown team (by buying HGL-ineligible players) on any part of the season, including whole duration of HGL Playoffs , if you wish to participate in HGL on the next Season. Becoming non-HG team will cause an immediate Level 5 penalty. (Certain exceptions that would only take effect after Regular Season has ended, and would only be meant for teams not reaching Playoffs at all could be considered for further Seasons of HGL, but such rules won't be in effect at Season 5 of HGL).
- You are asked to inform league Commissioner before first Regular Season match of HGL, and during the season:
A) if you have purchased back any of your previously owned player(s) from other team(s).
If you have, please inform who/which players have you bought.
List of teams who have purchased back their previously owned player will be kept and updated by league Commissioner, with information on whether or not this team has received "salary benefit" by making such purchases. (This is legal in HGL to have purchased back own draftees, but listing of such players is being kept and updated nevertheless).
B) if you sell or fire a player.
This B) above is nowadays mandatory information for managers to disclose, especially with player firings, as it's not possible for us to see/find out fired players otherwise (from your teams' trading history-page). Informing of such changes will make it possible for us to update top8-salaries listing, and also update such changes to official HGL Threads so that all participating teams will be informed of any interesting changes that take place within the HGL.

- Please remember: it is your responsibility to inform HGL (league Commissioner) of your roster changes, as league Commissioner can't (/will not in practice) check out all teams rosters prior to all matches.
This above mentioned changed roster-information can be sent as a post to this official Thread of HGL, or as a BBMail to league Commissioner.

All teams rosters (transfers, dismissals) will be updated throughout the season by league Commissioner and will be found from here: (331392.5).

- Violations (becoming non-homegrown) that are noticed later on will cause just as harsh penalty, starting from the moment violation is noticed taking place (meaning results achieved while breaking HGL rules can be overturned due to penalty that should've already been in effect while it practically wasn't, as violation hadn't been noticed at that point).
Please note that any team, participating in HGL or not, are welcome to inform league Commissioner by BBMail or posting on this official HGL Thread, if they notice that:
A) team has purchased 'illegal' players (and therefore immediately becomes ineligible to play in HGL)
B) such illegal players have been dressed for HGL match (same effect as in A))
C) team has total of less than 5 players in their team roster (same effect as in A), unless corrected before 4th affected match of Season)

Last edited by Wagner at 4/29/2026 5:25:39 PM