Code of Conduct

IESF Academy exists to advance esports as a respected discipline. That mission only works in a community where everyone — students, instructors, partner academies, and staff — feels safe, respected, and able to learn or teach without harassment.

Esports is global and IESF's membership spans 130+ federations. Cultures, languages, and life experiences differ. This Code is the common floor we all stand on.

We expect everyone on the platform to:

• Engage with empathy and good faith. Assume the person you're replying to is acting in good faith too.
• Use inclusive language. Avoid slurs, gendered defaults, and stereotypes.
• Respect differing levels of experience. Beginners deserve patient answers; experts deserve respect for their expertise.
• Disagree with ideas, not people. Critique a strategy, an argument, a piece of code — not the person who shared it.
• Credit sources. If you're building on someone's work, say so.
• Respect privacy. Don't share screenshots of someone's coursework, exam answers, or private messages without permission.
• Comply with the Olympic-style integrity standards expected of IESF — including zero tolerance for cheating, doping, and match-fixing in any course discussion.

The following are not allowed anywhere on the Academy:

• Harassment, intimidation, or threats — including in private messages between students and instructors.
• Discriminatory language or content based on race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, or disability.
• Sexual content, sexualised imagery, or unwanted sexual attention. This is a learning platform.
• Doxxing — publishing or threatening to publish someone's private information.
• Sustained disruption of live sessions, discussion threads, or other learning activity.
• Impersonation of other students, instructors, IESF staff, or any partner academy.
• Encouragement of self-harm or violence.
• Promotion of cheating, exam-answer trading, or match-fixing.
• Spam, recruiting, or commercial promotion in course discussions.

The certificates and badges issued by IESF Academy are only valuable if they reflect genuine learning. To preserve that value:

• Don't share exam questions, answers, or proctored-session content with other students.
• Don't submit assignments that were written by someone else (including AI tools, unless the assignment explicitly permits AI assistance).
• Don't collaborate on individual assignments. Group assignments will say so explicitly.
• Cite sources for any quoted material in your written work.

We use plagiarism detection on written submissions and may invalidate a certificate if academic dishonesty is discovered after the fact.

If you teach on the Academy, you also commit to:

• Holding yourself to the same Code of Conduct your students are expected to follow.
• Grading consistently, transparently, and fairly. Disclose any potential conflict of interest.
• Replying to legitimate student questions within a reasonable time (typically a few business days).
• Respecting student privacy. Coursework you receive is for grading, not for sharing or training third-party AI models.
• Not soliciting paid private tutoring outside the Academy from students enrolled in your course.

If you experience or witness behaviour that violates this Code, please report it. Reports are confidential and reviewed by IESF Academy moderators within 48 hours.

• Most incidents: [email protected]
• Urgent safety concerns or threats of violence: [email protected]
• Suspected academic dishonesty: [email protected]

Retaliation against someone for filing a good-faith report is itself a Code violation.

Depending on severity and history, consequences may include: a private warning, removal of specific posts or content, temporary suspension of account access, course unenrolment with or without a refund, certificate revocation, or permanent ban from the Academy. For criminal conduct (threats, doxxing, child safety violations) we may report the incident to law enforcement.

This Code applies anywhere the Academy is in scope — discussion threads, live session chats, instructor messaging, peer reviews of submitted work, and any official Academy event (online or in person). It also applies to behaviour outside the platform that has a meaningful effect on the Academy community (e.g. harassing a fellow student over public social media).