Map Veto & Pick-Ban

Map veto (also called pick-ban) is the process two competitors go through immediately before a match to agree on which maps will be played, by alternately banning and picking from a shared map pool. It applies to disciplines where a tournament or match is played across a pool of maps rather than a single fixed one.

Where to find it

• Tournament-level veto rules: Projects → [Your Project] → [Tournament] → Settings → Veto
• Stage-level override: same Settings → Veto page, below the tournament-level configuration
• Veto templates: same Settings → Veto page, in the template library section
• Running a live veto for a specific match: Projects → [Your Project] → [Tournament] → Matches → [select a match] → Map Veto

Step by step

Configure the tournament's veto rules

1. Open Settings → Veto for the tournament.
2. Set the veto policy:
   • Disabled — no veto runs; maps are predetermined or assigned another way.
   • Auto — a veto session is generated automatically to a fixed process without requiring captain input.
   • Required — captains must complete the veto themselves before the match can start.
   • Custom — build your own ban/pick sequence.
3. Set the map pool — the list of maps eligible for this tournament's veto sessions.
4. Set the turn timeout — how long a captain has to submit each ban or pick (30–300 seconds; 60 seconds by default).
5. Choose the timeout behavior for what happens if a captain doesn't act in time:
   • Random — the system randomly selects from the maps still available.
   • Default — the system takes the first available map in the pool.
   • Forfeit — the veto session is cancelled.
   • Admin resolve — the session pauses and waits for an organizer to resolve the step manually.
6. Choose the starting team method — coin flip, higher seed, lower seed, organizer-assigned, or alternating across a match series — to determine which side bans or picks first.

Override at the stage level

If one stage of your tournament needs a different map pool or sequence than the rest of the event — for example, a group stage using a smaller pool than the playoffs — open the stage-level section on the same Settings → Veto page and override just that stage. Stages without an override inherit the tournament-level configuration.

Save a veto template

Instead of rebuilding the same veto configuration for every new tournament, save it as a template from the template library on the Settings → Veto page. Templates can be applied to any tournament, which is useful for organizers who always run the same discipline the same way (for example, a standard best-of-3 map pool and ban order).

How the map pool is resolved

When a veto session is created for a specific match, the effective map pool is resolved in this order, falling through to the next source only if the previous one has nothing configured:

1. Tournament-level map pool
2. Stage-level override
3. Match-level override
4. The discipline's default map pool

Running a veto session

Once a match is ready to start, its veto session begins and the two captains take turns submitting ban or pick actions according to the sequence implied by the match format:

• Best of 1 — captains alternate banning maps until one remains; the final map is picked automatically rather than forcing a one-choice "pick."
• Best of 3 — ban, ban, pick, pick, ban, ban, then the last remaining map is picked automatically as the decider.
• Best of 5 — ban, ban, pick, pick, pick, pick, then the last remaining map is picked automatically as the decider.

When a captain picks a map, they also choose which side their team starts on for that map. Both participants (and anyone else watching the match) see the veto board update live — whose turn it is, which maps have been banned or picked, and how much time remains on the current turn — without needing to refresh the page.

Organizer overrides

Organizers with match management permissions can step in on a live veto session:

• Finalize — manually complete the veto and set the final map list yourself, cancelling any pending timeout.
• Cancel — end the session before it completes, for example if the match needs to be rescheduled.
• Recover — if a session gets stuck (for example after a captain's connection drops mid-turn), reset the turn deadline so the veto can continue.

What happens next

Once a match's maps are set, see Schedule matches if the match time still needs to be set, or Participant and Match Rules for how match format and score reporting work. If a veto needs to be re-run after it has already completed, see Apply Interventions to a Match. After matches conclude, see Standings, Tiebreakers & Match Results for how results feed into the tournament's final standings.