World Tournament 2023

1. Eligible to participate are all players within the birth-years indicated herein for participation within the prescribed age group. Every player requires a player‘s passport from his IIHF-member national federation.
   
   1a. If overage players are inserted in the lineup the respective game will be counted as a 0:5 loss and the team will be excluded from the tournament.
2. Net playing time is 2 x 15 minutes – there will be no break or intermission at half-time. The on-ice warm-up time before each game is limited to 3 minutes without the use of pucks.
3. In every age group the participating teams are split in 4 groups (A-B-C-D) with 4 teams each. The champion will be determined based on a Round Robin system:
   
   a) Preliminary Round – every team plays against all other teams within its own Group
   b) Championship Round – every team plays against similarly ranked teams of the other groups
   
   Every team plays a total of 6 games – 3 games in the preliminary round as well as 3 games in the championship round
4. The standings within a given group will be determined as follows:
   
   Win – 2 points
   Tie – 1 point
   Loss – 0 points
   
   The winner of each respective group is the team with the most points. In the event two or more teams have the same number of points for any rank in the standings, the following applies:
   
   a) the position within the standings will be determined upon the direct games played between the deadlocked Teams
   
   b) in the event no decision can be made after a) above, the goals for and against between the tied teams will be considered as a tie-breaker. The goals scored against will be deducted from the goals scored, the team with the higher remaining „+“ goals (goals for) or lower „­“ goals (goals against) has preference and will be ranked ahead.
   c) in the event of a further deadlock, the goals scored (for) will be divided by the goals scored against – the team with the highest quotient will have the ranking preference.
5. On the basis of the reduced tournament playing time, called penalties will be served at a half-time ratio, i.e. a minor penalty will have been served after one minute. A game misconduct results in a given player being ejected from that particular game, while a match penalty will have the player out for his team‘s next game. 2 game misconduct penalties for the named player also result in a suspension for the next game to be played.
6. Every team must bring two different-coloured game jerseys (Light and dark coloured)
7. Ice re-surfacing will take place after every game.
8. The tournament will be played in accordance with the statute of the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation), the current valid international rules and in line with the playing regulations of the ÖEHV (Austrian Ice Hockey Federation).
9. A possible protest must be filed with the Tournament Board of Directors within 30 minutes after completion of the game in question. Any such issues will be resolved by the Disciplinary Committee comprised of the Tournament Board of Directors plus one representative of each of the competing teams.
10. All participating teams concur, that in the event of a general sponsor or the participation of a no-profit social institution providing media benefit for the tournament, their self-adhesive logo sticker or similar, in modest size, may be placed on player equipment (helmet, for instance).
11. In case of injuries, first aid will be provided by the Red Cross Zell am See staff on hand at the arena. It is the responsibility of each team to arrange for their own insurance in case of a major or complex injury.
12. Participating teams may engage and use guest players during the tournament, All-Star or national teams, however, are restricted from participation in the tournament.
13. It is required that a team official or a member of the coaching staff presents himself at the tournament office no later than 3 hours before the first game on the day the tournament in his team´s age category commences.

Players under the age of 18 are required to wear Neck Guards