GRIT Code of Conduct

The rules of play for GRIT®, what happens if you break them, and how to appeal

1. Relationship to the End User License Agreement

These Terms form part of, and are incorporated by reference into, the GRIT End User License Agreement (the “EULA”). Capitalized terms used but not defined in these Terms have the meanings given in the EULA.

All provisions of the EULA apply to these Terms and to your compliance with them, including without limitation the EULA's provisions on governing law and jurisdiction, dispute resolution (EULA Section 15, including informal resolution, the small claims requirement, the two-year time limit, and the waiver of class and representative proceedings), limitation of liability, disclaimers of warranty, indemnity, amendment, and severability.

For the avoidance of doubt, any dispute, claim, or controversy arising out of or relating to these Terms — including any dispute concerning a warning, suspension, ban, account restriction, leaderboard removal, or other enforcement action taken under these Terms — is a “Dispute” as defined in the EULA and is subject to the EULA's dispute resolution provisions.

In the event of a conflict between these Terms and the EULA, the EULA controls.

Capitalized terms used in this document and not defined here have the meanings given to them in the GRIT End User License Agreement (the “EULA”), Section 18 (Definitions).

2. Scope and Changes to These Terms

2.1 Scope. These Terms apply to all players of GRIT® and to your use of the Services, including matchmaking, voice chat, leaderboards, the in-Game store, and our support channels.

2.2 Changes. Changes to these Terms are governed by Section 16 of the EULA. In summary: for non-material changes we post the updated version and update its effective date; for material changes — including any change to the penalty framework in Section 5 — we give at least thirty (30) days' advance notice at grit.gg and by in-Game notice, and you will be asked to accept the updated version the next time you launch the Game.

3. Your Rights and Responsibilities

(a) Know the rules. You are responsible for understanding and complying with the EULA and these Terms.

(b) Your items and progression. Your rights in Virtual Items, in-Game currency, and progression are set out in Section 4 of the EULA. In short: they are licensed to you for use in the Game, they are not property, and they cannot be sold or transferred outside features we provide. There is no TEAM GRIT® account — see EULA Section 3.

(c) Appeals. If you believe you have been treated unfairly or an enforcement action was applied to you in error, you have the right to appeal. The process is set out in Section 6 of these Terms.

(d) Announcements. We publish patch notes, season information, and policy changes at grit.gg and in the Game. We encourage you to read them, and we will always give you direct notice of anything that materially affects your rights.

(e) Sharing GRIT®. You may capture, stream, publish, and monetize GRIT® content. See Section 7 and the Content Creator Policy.

(f) Impersonation and false official communications. You may not impersonate Team Grit, its employees, or its partners; represent yourself as authorized to speak for Team Grit; fabricate or distribute communications, announcements, patch notes, or ban notices presented as coming from Team Grit; or make false statements about the Game with the intent to defraud other players or induce them to disclose account credentials or make payments.

(g) Bugs and vulnerabilities. Report them rather than exploiting them. See Section 8, which includes a safe harbor for good-faith security research.

(h) Getting in touch. You can send us questions, suggestions, and requests at support@grit.gg, or through the support channels in the Game. We aim to respond promptly.

4. Rules of Play

These rules apply to all players. The penalties that attach to each are set out in Section 5.

Competitive integrity

(a) Do not use Unauthorized Programs or Devices. Do not use, develop, advertise, trade, sell, or distribute cheats, aimbots, wallhacks, macros, scripts, automation tools, or hardware or peripheral configurations that confer an advantage not achievable through normal play. We may investigate suspected use, and may place an account under an investigative hold while we do (Section 5.3). If you develop, advertise, trade, or distribute these tools, we may also take legal action and refer the matter to the relevant authorities.

(b) Do not modify the Game, servers, or game data. This includes file modification, memory editing, and packet manipulation.

(c) Do not knowingly exploit bugs or glitches. If you find one, report it under Section 8. Using one for advantage — or telling others how to — is a violation.

(d) Do not manipulate match results. This includes match fixing, throwing matches, arranging outcomes, selling competitive advantage, and using additional accounts to manipulate results.

(e) Do not team outside what the game mode allows. Cooperating with players or squads in ways the selected mode does not contemplate is a violation. If you gain an advantage by teaming with a player who is using an Unauthorized Program or Device, action may be taken against you as well.

(f) Do not team kill intentionally and repeatedly. GRIT® has friendly fire, and accidental team kills happen. Deliberately and repeatedly killing your own squad is a violation.

(g) Do not go AFK or abandon matches repeatedly. Going AFK or leaving mid-match puts your squad at a disadvantage. Occasional disconnects and interruptions happen and are not a violation; repeatedly idling or abandoning matches is.

(h) Do not play abnormally. Gameplay patterns that are not achievable through normal play may result in action against the account, so that the game stays fair for everyone.

Accounts and commerce

(i) Do not sell boosting services, play on someone else's behalf for payment, or use a Steam account you have obtained improperly. Your right to play is personal to you (EULA Section 3.4). How you deal with your Steam account is between you and Valve, but accessing an account that is not yours is a violation here and may also be a criminal offense.

(j) Do not use the Game or the Services for real-money trading, gambling, or wagering, including third-party skin gambling or wagering on match outcomes.

(k) Do not advertise or spam. Do not use the Game, your Steam persona name, or our support channels to advertise goods, services, other games, cheat vendors, or account sellers, and do not send repeated unsolicited messages.

Treatment of other people

(l) Do not discriminate or use slurs. It is unacceptable to disrespect or use offensive language toward others based on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability, or age. Please be friendly and respectful toward all players.

(m) Do not harass anyone. This includes targeted harassment, following a player from match to match to disrupt their play, and organizing or participating in coordinated harassment of a player or group.

(n) Do not sexually harass anyone. Unwanted sexual advances, sexual comments about another player, and sexually explicit messages directed at someone who has not invited them are violations.

(o) Do not threaten violence. Credible threats of violence against any person are violations and may be reported to law enforcement.

(p) Do not post sexual content involving minors, or sexually exploit a minor, in any way. This results in an immediate permanent ban. Where required or permitted by law, we report apparent child sexual abuse material to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and to the relevant authorities, and we preserve the associated account data for that purpose.

(q) Do not encourage self-harm or suicide. Do not encourage, promote, or provide instructions for self-harm or suicide. If you are worried about another player, use the report tools and, where appropriate, contact local emergency services — we cannot provide emergency assistance ourselves.

(r) Do not publish other people's private information. Sharing someone's real name, address, workplace, phone number, images, or other private information without their consent — including compiling it from public sources to target them — is a violation.

(s) Do not play GRIT® under an inappropriate name. The name other players see is your Steam persona name, which you set on Steam and which Valve controls — not us. We cannot change it. But if you play GRIT® under a name that is sexually explicit or obscene, impersonates Team Grit or our staff, is discriminatory, infringes someone else's trademark or copyright, or is otherwise offensive, we may withhold that name from the leaderboards and from GRIT Ledger, and we may restrict or withdraw your access to GRIT® until it changes. Altering a few letters or padding a name with extra characters to get around this is treated the same way. Changing your Steam persona name is something only you can do, through Steam.

(t) Do not abuse our support channels or our staff. Abusive contact with customer support, deliberately false support claims, and impersonating Team Grit staff are violations.

(u) Other conduct. Conduct not specifically described in these Terms that materially harms other players or the operation of the Services may be subject to warning or penalty after careful review of the circumstances.

Voice chat. GRIT® has voice chat. We do not record, store, or listen to it, so we cannot review what was said — but abusing other players over voice still breaches these Terms, and we will act on it at the game level, up to and including a permanent ban. Steam's mute and block tools work immediately and do not need our involvement, and Valve operates the voice service if you want to report it to the platform as well.

5. Enforcement and Penalties

5.1 How we decide. Team Grit determines what conduct breaches these Terms and what enforcement action applies. We review reports and detection data and apply the penalties below according to the severity of the conduct, whether it was intentional, whether it was repeated, and the harm caused to other players. We apply these Terms in a diligent, objective, and proportionate manner. The penalties listed are standard penalties; we may impose a lesser penalty where the circumstances warrant, and may escalate to a permanent ban for repeated violations of any kind. Where these Terms and any other Player Agreement describe the same enforcement action, this Section controls.

5.2 What we may do. Depending on the conduct, we may: issue a warning; change an withhold your Steam persona name from the leaderboards and from GRIT Ledger; remove items, currency, progression, or rankings obtained through the conduct; remove an account from leaderboards; restrict access to features of the Game; suspend your access for a defined period; or permanently withdraw your access and terminate your license to the Game.

5.3 Investigative holds. Where we are investigating suspected use of Unauthorized Programs or Devices, we may temporarily restrict your access to the online Services for up to three (3) days while the investigation is completed. An investigative hold is not a penalty and does not indicate a finding of misconduct.

5.4 Protective restrictions. Where we detect signs that a Steam account is being used by someone other than its owner — for example a sudden change in play pattern consistent with a compromised account — we may temporarily restrict access to the Game to protect the player. A protective restriction is a security measure taken for the player's benefit. It is not a penalty, and it is lifted once the position is resolved. Recovering a compromised Steam account itself is a matter for Valve.

The table below is what we normally do, not a ceiling or a floor. Section 5.1 explains how we decide, and we may impose a lesser penalty where the circumstances warrant.

5.5 Standard penalties

A temporary suspension is anything from a few days to thirty days, depending on how serious the conduct was, whether it was deliberate, whether it had happened before, and the harm it caused. Repeated violations of any kind can lead to a permanent ban.

5.6 Leaderboards. If you receive a penalty under this Section, we may remove your entries from the GRIT® leaderboards temporarily or permanently, in addition to any other penalty. The leaderboards are published on GRIT Ledger (ledger.grit.gg); removal there is part of the penalty and is not a separate action. How your match data is handled on that service is described in the GRIT Ledger Privacy Notice.

5.7 What a permanent ban means. A permanent ban terminates the license granted to you under Section 1 of the EULA and permanently withdraws your access to the online Services, including matchmaking and game servers, together with any Virtual Items and CattlePass progression associated with your play. You may continue to hold the entitlement issued to you by Valve, but you will no longer be licensed to use the Game, and it will not function online. In cases of cheating or comparably serious conduct we may also issue a Steam Game Ban, which is recorded on your Steam profile. No refund is given except where a refund is required by applicable law.

5.8 Hardware restrictions. Where misconduct is associated with specific hardware, we may restrict that hardware from running the Game in order to maintain a fair gaming environment.

5.9 We publish permanent bans. If we permanently withdraw your access to GRIT®, we show that on your GRIT Ledger player page — the action we took and the date we took it. We do not publish warnings, feature restrictions, or temporary suspensions; those are between you and us. We publish nothing while an appeal is open, and if your appeal succeeds we remove the record. Published enforcement records stop being displayed after seven (7) years.

6. Notice, Appeals, and Reporting

6.1 Finding out what happened. If we withdraw or restrict your access, the Game tells you when you next launch it. That message is how you find out, and the thirty (30) day appeal window in Section 6.2 runs from then. We do not hold an email address for you, so we cannot reach you any other way. If you want more detail, or you believe your access has been restricted and you have not been told, contact support@grit.gg and we will tell you what action we have taken and the general category of conduct it relates to. We may withhold specific detection details where disclosing them would compromise the integrity of our Anti-Cheat Technology or an ongoing investigation. See EULA Section 17.10.

6.2 Appeals. You may appeal any enforcement action by contacting support@grit.gg within thirty (30) days of finding out about it. Tell us your Steam persona name, the action you are appealing, and why you believe it was mistaken. Appeals are reviewed by a person, not solely by automated means. We aim to respond within fourteen (14) days. If we find the action was applied in error, we will reverse it and restore any items, progression, or ranking removed as a result, where technically possible.

6.3 Further recourse. Nothing in this Section limits your right to pursue a Dispute under the dispute resolution provisions of the EULA, or any right you have under applicable law to complain to a regulator or to seek out-of-court dispute resolution.

6.4 Reporting other players. You can report a player from the in-Game scoreboard, from the match summary screen, or by contacting support@grit.gg. Reports are confidential. Deliberately submitting false reports, or coordinating reports to trigger enforcement against a player who has done nothing wrong, is itself a violation of these Terms.

6.5 Reporting illegal content. If you believe content on the Services is illegal, you can notify us at legal@grit.gg with a description of the content, where to find it, and why you believe it is unlawful. We will confirm receipt and tell you what we decide and why.

7. Streaming, Videos, and Community Content

7.1 You may share GRIT®. Team Grit grants you a non-exclusive, revocable, worldwide license to capture, record, stream, and publish gameplay footage, screenshots, and audio from GRIT®, and to create guides, reviews, artwork, and other community content about GRIT®, including on monetized channels and including through platform partner and revenue-sharing programs.

7.2 What we ask. Your content must not: imply that it is produced or endorsed by Team Grit; use Team Grit or GRIT® logos as the primary branding of a channel, product, or event in a way that suggests official status; contain cheats, exploits, or instructions for obtaining them; include material that violates these Terms; be sold as a standalone product consisting primarily of unmodified GRIT® assets; or be used in connection with gambling, real-money wagering, or the sale of accounts or Virtual Items.

7.3 Assets. Approved logos, key art, and screenshots for community use are available at grit.gg/press.

7.4 Music. Audio in GRIT® may include music licensed from third parties. Some licenses do not extend to broadcast or monetized video. Check the license terms for any music you include in a video before monetizing it.

7.5 Tournaments and events. You may run GRIT® tournaments and events without our approval, of any size, sponsored or not. Do not present your event as official or endorsed by Team Grit, and do not use our branding in it without written permission. We are not a party to your event and you are responsible for running it lawfully. The GRIT Content Creator Policy, Section 7, sets this out in full.

7.6 Revocation. We may revoke this permission as to a specific person or specific content if it breaches these Terms. We will normally contact you first and give you an opportunity to fix the problem.

7.7 Full policy. The fuller version of this permission, including branding, sponsorship, and monetization detail, is set out in the Content Creator Policy. Where that policy grants you more than this Section does, the Content Creator Policy applies.

8. Reporting Bugs and Vulnerabilities

8.1 Reporting. If you discover a bug, exploit, or security vulnerability in the Game or the Services, report it to security@grit.gg. Do not exploit it, and do not share it publicly or with other players before we have had a reasonable opportunity to fix it. Knowingly exploiting a bug for advantage, or distributing an exploit to others, is a violation of these Terms.

8.2 Safe harbor for good-faith research. Team Grit will not pursue legal action against, or apply enforcement penalties to, anyone who identifies and reports a security vulnerability in good faith, provided they: report it promptly to security@grit.gg; do not access, modify, or delete data belonging to other players beyond the minimum necessary to demonstrate the vulnerability; do not degrade the Services for other players; do not use the vulnerability for competitive advantage or personal gain; and give us a reasonable period, normally ninety (90) days, to remediate before public disclosure. This safe harbor is limited to the Services and does not authorize activity against our platform providers or vendors.

8.3 Full policy. Scope, submission format, our response commitments, and what is out of scope are set out in the Security Disclosure Policy.

9. Steam Keys

(a) What they are. Codes we issue for GRIT® or for in-Game content are Steam keys. They are redeemed on Valve's platform, and once redeemed the entitlement sits in your Steam library like any other Steam purchase. A “Free Key” is one we issue at no charge for promotional purposes, including keys given out at events, tournaments, or to press. Team Grit does not sell keys directly.

(b) Redemption. Keys are redeemed through Steam, on the Steam account of your choosing. A key can be redeemed once.

(c) No selling or trading keys we gave you. Free Keys are issued for a purpose — press coverage, an event, a giveaway — and are not to be sold or traded. Selling keys issued free of charge may result in the key being revoked and, where a pattern emerges, enforcement action under Section 5.

(d) Expiry. Free Keys may be issued with an expiry date, which we will state at the time of issue. If we do not state one, the key does not expire.

(e) Keys that will not redeem. If a key we issued does not work, contact support@grit.gg with the key and where you got it, and we will investigate and replace it where we can.

(f) Keys from retailers. Keys bought from an authorized retailer or in a bundle are subject to that retailer's terms, and refunds and support for them are handled by the retailer. See the Refund Policy, Section 3.

End of Code of Conduct.