# Doggo 7s — Official Rules _Doggo 108 — Rulebook_ Doggo 7s is the managed-team competition. A subscribing **Manager** recruits and leads a squad of up to six **Players**, fielding a team of seven (1 Manager + 6 Players). Doggo 7s teams compete in the **Manager League** on combined Weekday Challenge scores. On weekends, Doggo 7s replaces the Weekday Challenge with the **Weekend Challenge** — a "copy-my-route" team mechanic in which the Manager commits a reference walk and the team scores by matching its shape characteristics. These rules govern Doggo 7s. The daily Weekday scoring rules they rest on are defined in the companion document **The Weekday Challenge — Official Rules** and are referenced here as **TWC §X.Y**. Doggo 7s is the current 7-Player format of the Manager League. The roadmap anticipates larger formats (**Doggo 16s**, **Doggo 32s**) in future Seasons; those will be governed by their own rule documents and are not in scope here. --- ## 1. Object of the Game **1.1** The object of Doggo 7s is for a **Team** of seven (one Manager and up to six Players) to score the highest combined points across the Season's competitive cycle. Combined points are accumulated from two sources: - **1.1.1 Weekday Challenge** points earned by every Team member, Monday through Friday, per **TWC §6**. - **1.1.2 Weekend Challenge** points earned collectively on Saturdays and Sundays under §6 of this document. **1.2** Doggo 7s teams are ranked weekly on the public **Manager League** table. The Manager League is separate from, and does not interact with, the Dognami Libre standings. **1.3** A Season's Manager League champion is the Team with the highest cumulative combined score at the close of the Season's competitive cycle. --- ## 2. Team Composition **2.1** A Doggo 7s Team consists of exactly one Manager and **up to six** Players. The minimum viable Team is one Manager alone (in which case Weekend Challenge scoring is degenerate; see §6.4). The maximum is seven (1 + 6). **2.2** Each Team has one and only one Manager. Co-management is not supported in the current format. **2.3** A Manager may operate only one active Team per Season. A Manager who wishes to disband and re-form their Team must do so before the next Season begins. **2.4** A Player may be on only one Team at any given time. A Player who leaves or is released from one Team is returned to the Free pool and becomes eligible for recruitment by any other Manager during the next Hire Window. --- ## 3. Account Types **3.1** The account type of each individual on a Doggo 7s Team determines how they joined and how they can leave: - **3.1.1 Manager** (£30/year subscription). Required to create and operate a Team. The Manager's own Walks count toward the Team's combined score. - **3.1.2 Free** (£0). Recruitable from the Free pool during the Hire Window without explicit consent — the Manager may add the Player directly. While on a Doggo 7s Team, a Free Player is withdrawn from Dognami Libre (see Dognami Libre §2.3). - **3.1.3 Indie** (£10/year subscription). Recruitable only with the Indie Player's explicit acceptance of an invitation. An Indie Player on a Doggo 7s Team retains exemption from Dognami Libre. **3.2** A Player's account type does not affect their per-Walk scoring under either the Weekday Challenge or the Weekend Challenge. Account type affects only the recruitment mechanism and the Player's status outside the Team. --- ## 4. The Hire Window **4.1** Roster changes — recruitment, dismissal, and Indie-invitation responses — are confined to a single weekly window: **Friday 23:55 → Saturday 23:55 UK time**. Outside this window all rosters are locked. **4.2** During the Hire Window a Manager may: - **4.2.1** Add any Free Player to their Team, up to the cap of six Players. - **4.2.2** Dismiss any Player currently on their Team. A dismissed Player returns to the Free pool with their Weekday Challenge points intact. - **4.2.3** Invite an Indie Player to join the Team. The Indie Player must explicitly accept the invitation before the Hire Window closes. Unaccepted invitations expire automatically at 23:55 UK Saturday. **4.3** A Free Player who is added directly during the Hire Window is notified by email but does not need to accept. The Player is on the Team from the moment of the Manager's action. **4.4** If 10% or more of a Dognami Libre team is recruited during a Hire Window, that Dognami team is Crashed under Dognami Libre §5.1.2. This is a cost imposed on the Dognami team by the recruitment event, not on the recruited Player or the recruiting Manager. --- ## 5. Weekday Play **5.1** Monday through Friday, every member of a Doggo 7s Team — Manager and Players alike — plays the Weekday Challenge under the rules of **TWC**. Each member's Walks are scored individually per **TWC §6**. **5.2** All Weekday Challenge points earned by all Team members contribute to the Team's combined score for the week. There is no team-membership filter or discounting on individual Walks. **5.3** The Cascade and Tier mechanics of Dognami Libre **do not apply** to Doggo 7s. A Doggo 7s Team is fixed at its current roster until the next Hire Window, regardless of whether members fail the Weekday Challenge. --- ## 6. The Weekend Challenge > **SUPERSEDED — June 2026 Edition.** This section is superseded in its entirety by the companion rulebook **The Weekend Challenge — Official Rules**, which governs weekend play for all three team leagues (Doggo 7s, Doggo Pro Teams, Doggo Packs). The committed-Reference-Walk mechanic, the Manager Weekend Miss penalty (§6.2.2), and Pattern-class-or-zero scoring (§6.3.4) no longer apply. The text below is retained for the historical record only. **6.1** On Saturdays and Sundays, the Weekday Challenge does not run. In its place, Doggo 7s Teams play the **Weekend Challenge**. **6.2 The Manager's reference Walk.** - **6.2.1** On a Saturday or a Sunday (the Manager chooses which day), the Manager records a Walk and **commits** it as the Team's **Reference Walk** for that weekend. Commitment is an explicit action taken on the Manager's dashboard after upload; an uploaded Walk that is not committed does not count. - **6.2.2** A Manager who fails to commit a Reference Walk by **23:59 UK on Sunday** incurs a personal **−20 point** penalty (the **Manager Weekend Miss** penalty). The penalty is applied to the Manager's personal score and to the Team's combined score. - **6.2.3** Only one Reference Walk per weekend per Team is permitted. A subsequent commit replaces the previous one. **6.3 Players' matching Walks.** - **6.3.1** Once the Reference Walk is committed, each Player on the Team may record one Matching Walk during the remainder of the weekend. The Matching Walk must be valid per **TWC §4** (minimum distance, closure within 50 m, well-formed GPX). - **6.3.2** The Matching Walk is scored against the Reference Walk by the System. Scoring is by Pattern category — Out-and-Back, Single Loop, or Figure-of-Eight — and within each Pattern by a set of scalar shape characteristics (distance, loop area, bearing delta, turning complexity, and others) computed at the time of upload. - **6.3.3** The closer the Matching Walk's shape characteristics are to the Reference Walk's, the higher the points. Exact scoring formulae are tuning constants documented on the **How to Play** page and may be adjusted between Seasons. - **6.3.4** A Matching Walk that classifies into a different Pattern from the Reference Walk shall score zero. (A Reference Walk that is an Out-and-Back is matched by other Out-and-Backs only, and so on.) **6.4 Degenerate case: Manager alone.** - **6.4.1** A Team with no Players (Manager only) plays the Weekend Challenge against no one. The Manager's Reference Walk earns no Weekend Challenge points beyond the Manager's individual Weekday Challenge score for that walk. The Manager Weekend Miss penalty in §6.2.2 still applies if no Reference Walk is committed. **6.5 Solo Players outside a Team.** - **6.5.1** A Walker who is not on a Doggo 7s Team may still record Walks on Saturdays and Sundays. Such Walks are stored and visible in the Walker's history but are **not scored**. The Weekend Challenge is a Team-only mechanic. --- ## 7. League Standings **7.1** The Manager League table ranks all active Doggo 7s Teams by their **cumulative Team score** for the Season to date. **7.2** A Team's cumulative Team score is the sum across all Team members and across all weeks of: - All Weekday Challenge points (TWC §6) earned by Team members while members of the Team; - All Weekend Challenge points (§6) earned by Team members. **7.3** A Player who joins a Team partway through a Season brings no historical points with them. A Player who is dismissed or leaves takes no Team-attributed points with them — they retain their personal Weekday Challenge score, but their contribution to the Team's cumulative score remains with the Team. **7.4** The Manager League table is updated at the close of each week and is publicly visible to all Walkers, signed in or otherwise. --- ## 8. Exceptions and Edge Cases ### 8.1 Manager subscription lapses **8.1.1** A Manager whose subscription lapses during a Season retains operational control of their Team until the next Hire Window, at which point the Team is suspended. Suspended Teams retain their cumulative score on the standings table but cannot recruit, dismiss, or commit Reference Walks. Players on a suspended Team continue to earn personal Weekday Challenge points but their points do not accrue to the suspended Team. **8.1.2** A Manager who renews before the next Sunday Evaluation may resume the Team without loss of standings. A Manager who does not renew by the end of the following Hire Window has the Team disbanded: all Players are returned to the Free pool with personal scores intact. ### 8.2 Player request to leave **8.2.1** A Free Player who wishes to leave a Team may do so at any time. The departure takes effect at the start of the next Hire Window. Until that window opens, the Player remains rostered. **8.2.2** An Indie Player on a Team may withdraw at any time with immediate effect, by virtue of the consent-based nature of their original invitation. ### 8.3 Co-walked Walks **8.3.1** Per TWC §7.2, co-walked Walks accrue to the Principal. A Team gains Weekday Challenge points only from Walks that are attributed to the Principal accounts of its members. **8.3.2** In the Weekend Challenge, a Player's Matching Walk must be recorded under their own account. A Co-walker recording a Walk for a Principal who is on a different Team confers points only to the Principal's Team. ### 8.4 Pattern reclassification after upload **8.4.1** Once a Walk has been classified and scored, the result is final. The System will not reclassify a Walk retroactively even if the geometric classifier is subsequently improved between Seasons. ### 8.5 Season transitions **8.5.1** At the end of a Season, all Doggo 7s Teams are dissolved. Standings, manager achievements, and Player rosters from the closing Season are preserved in the public season records. Manager subscriptions roll into the new Season; Players are returned to the Free pool and must be re-recruited (or re-invited, for Indies) in the new Season's first Hire Window. --- ## 9. Glossary **Hire Window.** The weekly window — Friday 23:55 to Saturday 23:55 UK time — during which Managers may recruit, dismiss, and respond to invitations. See §4. **Manager.** A Walker with account type Manager. Subscribes at £30/year, creates and operates a Doggo 7s Team, recruits Players, and commits the weekend Reference Walk. See §2.2, §3.1.1. **Manager League.** The public table on which Doggo 7s Teams are ranked by cumulative score. See §1.2, §7. **Manager Weekend Miss.** The −20 point penalty applied to a Manager who fails to commit a Reference Walk by 23:59 UK Sunday. See §6.2.2. **Matching Walk.** A Player's Walk submitted in the same weekend as the committed Reference Walk, scored against the Reference Walk under §6.3. **Player.** A Walker who is on a Doggo 7s Team's roster as a non-Manager member. Distinct from the **Walker** definition in TWC §8 only insofar as Players are Team-rostered. **Reference Walk.** The Walk committed by a Manager during a weekend, against which Players' Matching Walks are scored. See §6.2. **Team.** A Doggo 7s Team — one Manager plus up to six Players. See §2. **TWC.** Abbreviation for _The Weekday Challenge — Official Rules_, the companion rulebook governing daily scoring. References to TWC §X.Y point to a clause in that document. **Weekend Challenge.** The Saturday–Sunday team mechanic in which a Manager's Reference Walk is matched by Players' Matching Walks. See §6. --- _End of rulebook — Doggo 7s._ _Companion rulebooks: The Weekday Challenge · Dognami Libre._