# The Weekend Challenge — Official Rules _Doggo 108 — Rulebook · June 2026 Edition_ The Weekend Challenge is the Saturday–Sunday team competition. Each week a Team's **Leader** publishes a **Mother Walk**; Team members score by reproducing its geometry — wherever on Earth they live — and the Leader scores by walking a rival Team's Mother Walk, chosen from a published catalogue. The Weekend Challenge is the ranking mechanic for all three team leagues: **Doggo 7s** (the Manager League), **Doggo Pro Teams** (brand-led), and **Doggo Packs** (creator-led). These rules govern the Weekend Challenge across all three leagues. The daily scoring rules they rest on are defined in **The Weekday Challenge — Official Rules** (**TWC §X.Y**). League-specific team composition, recruitment, and commercial rules are defined in each league's companion rulebook. **Supersession note.** This document supersedes §6 ("The Weekend Challenge") of the Doggo 7s rulebook in its entirety, including the committed-Reference-Walk mechanic, the Manager Weekend Miss penalty (−20), and Pattern-class-or-zero scoring. Where this document conflicts with any earlier edition, this document prevails. --- ## 1. Object of the Game **1.1** The object of the Weekend Challenge is for a **Team** to post the highest **Weekend Result** each weekend, accumulated across the Season into the Team's league standing. **1.2** A Weekend Result is produced collectively: Team members reproduce the geometry of their Leader's Mother Walk; the Leader reproduces the geometry of a rival Team's Mother Walk. All scores combine under §8. **1.3** The Weekend Challenge is exclusive to members of Teams in the three team leagues. Walkers in the Free pool, and Indie Walkers not on a Team roster, do not play the Weekend Challenge (their weekend Walks are governed by §10.4). --- ## 2. Definitions **2.1 Mother Walk.** The reference walk published by a Team for a given weekend, comprising the four elements in §3.2. The Mother Walk's GPX trace is the System's scoring reference and is never displayed on the platform (§3.5). **2.2 Walk Prompt.** The written description of the Mother Walk (§3.2.2), published on the Team's public page. **2.3 Leader.** The Walker who operates the Team: the Manager (Doggo 7s), the designated brand representative (Doggo Pro Teams), or the Pack owner or their designate (Doggo Packs). **2.4 Vice-Captain.** An optional Team role, appointed by the Team, holding fallback publication rights under §4.2. **2.5 Tariff.** The degree-of-difficulty rating computed by the System for every Mother Walk at the moment of publication (§6). **2.6 Execution Score.** The System's measure of geometric proximity between a submitted Walk and the Mother Walk it answers (§7). **2.7 Participant.** A Team member whose valid Walk was scored against the Team's Mother Walk in a given weekend; or the Leader, where the Leader's Away Walk (§5) was scored in that weekend. **2.8 The Window.** The scoring window defined in §9.1. --- ## 3. The Mother Walk ### 3.1 Publication **3.1.1** A Team's Mother Walk for a given weekend may be published at **any time during the preceding week**. Publication is effective immediately: the Team's public prompt page is rendered and visible from the moment of submission. **3.1.2** Early publication is at the Team's discretion. A Team with members distant from the Leader's time zone is well advised — but not required — to publish early in the week. ### 3.2 Required elements A Mother Walk submission shall comprise all four of the following, and is not validly published until all four are present: - **3.2.1 Stub.** A description of not more than **ten (10) words** (example: _"complex out-and-back, recorded Austin, Texas with suburban cul-de-sacs"_). - **3.2.2 Walk Prompt.** A plain-language description of the walk of not more than **250 words**. No map, no imagery, no discussion, no FAQ. - **3.2.3 Basic information.** The Leader's home time zone; the declared start time (§7.3); and the number of loops. - **3.2.4 GPX file.** A well-formed GPX trace of the walk, satisfying TWC §4.1.3. ### 3.3 The Walk Prompt standard **3.3.1** A Walk Prompt shall be written in plain language such that a competent league outsider, with no Team context, could walk it. Encoded, compressed, or insider notation does not satisfy this standard. **3.3.2** The Walk Prompt is a binding description. Remedies for prompts that fail §3.3.1, or that diverge from the GPX trace, are at §11.4 and §11.5. ### 3.4 Publicity **3.4.1** The published Mother Walk page (stub, Walk Prompt, basic information, and Tariff) is public: visible identically to the Team's own members, to rival Leaders, and to the world. **3.4.2** The platform displays nothing beyond §3.4.1 to anyone. Enrichment of the Team's understanding — maps, video, walkthroughs, voice calls, group discussion — is conducted off-platform at the Team's discretion and is outside the scope of these rules. ### 3.5 The GPX is invisible **3.5.1** The Mother Walk's GPX trace is the System's scoring reference only. It is never rendered, displayed, or made downloadable on the platform, to any party, before, during, or after the weekend. **3.5.2** Evidence derived from the GPX trace is available to the Umpire for the adjudication of appeals (§11.6) and is otherwise confidential. --- ## 4. Failure to Publish — the Off-Ramp **4.1** A Team is **Ghosted** for a weekend if no valid Mother Walk (§3.2) has been published by **23:55 on Friday in the Leader's home time zone**. **4.2** At any time before the §4.1 deadline, the Team's Vice-Captain (if appointed) may publish the Mother Walk with the same effect as publication by the Leader. Where both the Leader and the Vice-Captain submit, the later submission stands (the platform's last-upload rule, TWC-consistent). **4.3** Upon Ghosting, the System shall automatically republish, as the Team's Mother Walk for that weekend, the **highest-Tariff Mother Walk published in the league in the immediately preceding weekend**, in its entirety (stub, Walk Prompt, basic information, GPX, and Tariff). **4.4** Every Mother Walk page displays its provenance: **Leader-published**, **Vice-Captain-published**, or **League fallback**. Provenance is part of the permanent public record and of the stint records defined in §12. --- ## 5. The Leader's Away Walk **5.1** The Leader does not walk their own Team's Mother Walk for score. Each weekend the Leader may instead select and walk one Mother Walk published by another Team in their league (the **Away Walk**). **5.2 The catalogue.** The Leader selects from all Mother Walks published in the league for the **immediately preceding weekend**. The catalogue presents each candidate's stub, Tariff, loop count, and Walk Prompt, sortable by Tariff band. The candidate's GPX remains invisible per §3.5. **5.3** The Leader's Away Walk is scored under §7 against the selected Mother Walk's GPX, and the resulting score accrues to **the Leader's own Team** under §8. **5.4** The Leader's selection is a matter of strategy. The System imposes no restriction on the Tariff band selected. **5.5** A walk can never be scored against its own GPX. A Leader's (or any Walker's) upload that is the Mother Walk's own reference recording is ineligible for scoring. --- ## 6. Tariff **6.1** At the moment of publication the System computes and permanently affixes a **Tariff** to every Mother Walk. The Tariff is immutable for that weekend once affixed. **6.2** The Tariff expresses the walk's geometric complexity relative to the corpus of all previously published Mother Walks. Inputs include, without limitation: the number of loops; the distance from path to centroid sampled at 25%, 50%, and 75% of the walk; the change of bearing at the same sample points; and the area enclosed between the walked line and the straight line from start to midpoint. **6.3** The Tariff formula is a tuning constant within the meaning of the Season freeze (§13.2): it is fixed for the duration of a Season and may be recalibrated only between Seasons. The current formula's factors are documented on the **How to Play** page. --- ## 7. Scoring a Walk **7.1 Score.** Every scored Walk in the Weekend Challenge earns: > **Score = Tariff × Execution Score**, plus any bonuses under §7.3–§7.4. **7.2 Execution Score.** The Execution Score measures the geometric proximity of the submitted Walk to the Mother Walk it answers, computed from the walks' shape characteristics (direction of travel, loop count and structure, centroid geometry, enclosed areas, and others). The Execution Score is computed on the Walk's original GPS path; no smoothed or buffered representation is used for measurement. Exact formulae are tuning constants per §13.2. **7.3 Time bonuses.** Where the Leader has declared a start time (§3.2.3), a Walk may earn one of: - **7.3.1 Punctual bonus.** A flat bonus for commencing the Walk at the declared start time **in the Walker's own local time**, within the published tolerance window. - **7.3.2 Synchronised bonus.** A bonus for commencing the Walk at the declared start time **as an absolute moment** (the Leader's clock). The Synchronised bonus **scales with the time-zone offset** between the Leader's home time zone and the location of the Walk: it approaches the Punctual bonus at zero offset and rises with offset to a maximum at **twelve (12) hours**, at which it equals the Walk-Together bonus (§7.4). The scaling curve is published on the **How to Play** page. **7.3.3** The Punctual and Synchronised bonuses are mutually exclusive for a single Walk; the System awards whichever the Walk qualifies for, and where it qualifies for both (zero offset), the greater. **7.4 Walk-Together bonus.** A flat bonus — the maximum time-and-place bonus — for a Walk recorded in verified physical company with at least one other Player's simultaneous Walk on the same route (GPS co-presence). Co-walked attribution rules in TWC §7.2 are unaffected. **7.5 One walk a day.** The platform's one-walk-a-day rule applies. A Walker therefore has at most **two** scoreable Weekend Challenge attempts: one Saturday, one Sunday. **7.6 Last upload counts.** Where a Walker uploads on both days, the **later upload is the Walk that stands**. There is no best-of. The risk inherent in a second attempt is a deliberate feature of the game. **7.7 Personal credit.** A weekend Walk earns the Walker ordinary personal points under TWC §6 in the usual way. Weekend Challenge scores, Tariffs, and bonuses accrue to the Team and to the Walker's career record (§12) only, and never to the Walker's personal score. --- ## 8. The Weekend Result **8.1** A Team's Weekend Result is: > **Weekend Result = mean(Participants' Scores) × log₂(number of Participants)** **8.2** The Leader's Away Walk score is included in both the mean and the Participant count. **8.3** Team members who record no scoreable weekend Walk are not Participants. They incur no penalty, and their absence does not zero or otherwise diminish any other member's Score. **8.4** Consequences of §8.1 are intended: a single Participant yields log₂(1) = 0 and therefore a Weekend Result of zero. Because the Leader's Away Walk counts as participation, a zero Weekend Result can arise only where the Leader recorded no Away Walk **and** at most one member walked. **8.5 Hospitality bonus.** Where a rival Leader's Away Walk against this Team's Mother Walk earns a Score exceeding the **median Score of that rival Leader's own Team** for the same weekend, the **authoring Team** is awarded a hospitality bonus equal to a published base amount multiplied by the Mother Walk's Tariff. The hospitality bonus is added to the authoring Team's Weekend Result. **8.6** Weekend Results accumulate across the Season into the Team's league standing. Each league is ranked separately. --- ## 9. The Window and the Weekly Cycle **9.1 The Window.** Weekend Challenge Walks are scoreable if commenced between **00:15 Saturday and 23:55 Sunday in the local time of the Walk** (as determined from its GPS location). The Window rolls around the globe; every Walker receives a full local weekend. **9.2 Publication day.** Mother Walks may be published at any time during the week (§3.1.1). Team prompt pages go live on submission. **9.3 Reminder email.** The System sends each Player a reminder email at **07:30 Saturday, local time**. The email is a courtesy; the prompt page is authoritative and available from the moment of publication. **9.4 Provisional scores.** Scores are computed and displayed provisionally from the moment of upload. A Team's Weekend Result is finalised when the last of its members' local Windows closes. --- ## 10. Eligibility and Membership **10.1** The Weekend Challenge is open to rostered members (including Leaders) of Teams in Doggo 7s, Doggo Pro Teams, and Doggo Packs. **10.2** A Walker may belong to at most one Team per league, per the football model defined in the league rulebooks. A Walker on Teams in more than one league records one Walk per day (§7.5); its Score is computed separately against each relevant Team's Mother Walk. **10.3** Membership changes (joining, leaving, swaps between Teams) are governed by each league's rulebook. Points already contributed to a Team's Weekend Results remain with that Team; a departing Walker's career record (§12) travels with the Walker. **10.4** Weekend Walks by Walkers outside the three leagues are stored, visible in the Walker's history, and earn ordinary personal points under TWC §6, but receive no Weekend Challenge scoring. --- ## 11. Appeals and the Umpire **11.1** A Walker may appeal the Execution Score of their own Walk ("**score appeal**"). A Leader may additionally appeal in respect of an Away Walk on either of the grounds in §11.4 and §11.5. **11.2** Appeals are determined by the **Umpire**. In Season 1 the Umpire is the League operator, ruling case-by-case. From Season 2, appeals are determined by panels of three qualified player-reviewers under the Community Umpiring rules (§11.7). **11.3** An upheld appeal **changes the score**. Every ruling is published — the adjustment and a one-line reason — as a permanent entry in the Team's public record. There are no confidential adjustments. **11.4 Divergence.** Where the Umpire finds that a Mother Walk's GPX trace materially diverges from its Walk Prompt, a Walker who faithfully followed the Walk Prompt shall be **rescored against the geometry the Walk Prompt describes**. The Walk Prompt is the contract. **11.5 Unreasonable prompt.** Where the Umpire finds that a Walk Prompt fails the §3.3.1 standard (not walkable by a competent league outsider), an appealing Leader is entitled to **select a different Mother Walk** from the catalogue. Pre-walk appeals on this ground are encouraged and are determined promptly. **11.6 Evidence.** The Umpire has access to the relevant GPX traces, Walk Prompts, scores, and walk metadata. GPX evidence remains confidential per §3.5.2; rulings, not traces, are published. **11.7 Community Umpiring (from Season 2).** - **11.7.1** Appeal panels comprise three reviewers; a simple majority determines the verdict. - **11.7.2** Reviewer qualification requires passing a test of correctly judging five previously adjudicated appeals. Cases are presented to reviewers **anonymised**: no names, no team identities. - **11.7.3** Leaders and Vice-Captains are ineligible to serve as reviewers. Reviewers are drawn from rostered members and from Free-pool Walkers who pass the qualification test. - **11.7.4** Reviewer service is unpaid and earns no points. Service is recorded in a public umpire record (cases heard, agreement rate, seasons served) and confers eligibility weight for player-representative selection to the Annual Summit. - **11.7.5** Final appeals and questions of interpretation are referred to the founder under General Provisions GP-6.4, who remains the court of last resort. **11.8 Appeal limits.** The League may publish per-Season limits on **unsuccessful** appeals per Walker. Successful appeals never count against any limit. No limits are enforced in Season 1. --- ## 12. Records **12.1** The System maintains for every Walker a public **weekend career record**, organised by stint (Walker × Team × Leader × period): appearances, mean Execution Score, highest Tariff executed, Walk-Together and Synchronised bonuses earned, and bones given (§12.3). **12.2** Aggregation of all Walkers' performance under a given Leader constitutes that Leader's public managerial record. The catalogue of Leaders' Away Walk scores constitutes the public **Leaders' table**. **12.3 Bones in the Weekend Challenge.** A Team member may spend one banked Bone to **restore a teammate's previous weekend upload** where a later upload (§7.6) produced a worse standing Walk. A Bone may never be spent on the spender's own Walk. Bone earning, banking, and the Bone record are governed by the General Provisions of the Rules of the Game and displayed per §12.1. **12.4** Team records, including Weekend Results, provenance flags (§4.4), appeal rulings (§11.3), and hospitality bonuses, are permanent. Teams are dissolved, never deleted; records survive dissolution. --- ## 13. Governance of These Rules **13.1** This edition (June 2026) governs Season 1, commencing Monday 7 September 2026. **13.2** All scoring formulae, curves, multipliers, and bonus amounts identified as tuning constants are **frozen for the duration of a Season** and may change only between Seasons, in the inter-season Festival window, following the annual review. Current values are documented on the **How to Play** page. **13.3** Rule changes are proposed and reviewed annually through the Annual Summit. No game mechanic changes mid-Season. --- ## 14. Glossary **Away Walk.** The Leader's weekend Walk against a rival Team's Mother Walk. See §5. **Catalogue.** The set of the preceding weekend's Mother Walks from which a Leader selects an Away Walk. See §5.2. **Execution Score.** The measured geometric proximity of a Walk to a Mother Walk. See §7.2. **Ghosted.** The state of a Team for which no valid Mother Walk was published by Friday 23:55, Leader's home time zone. See §4. **Hospitality bonus.** The bonus paid to a Mother Walk's authoring Team when a visiting rival Leader's Away Walk outscores that Leader's own Team's weekend median. See §8.5. **Leader.** The operator of a Team: Manager, brand representative, or Pack owner/designate. See §2.3. **League fallback.** Republication of the prior weekend's highest-Tariff Mother Walk to a Ghosted Team. Colloquially, the bottom of the off-ramp. See §4.3. **Mother Walk.** A Team's published reference walk: stub, Walk Prompt, basic information, and GPX. See §3. **Participant.** A Team member (or the Leader, via the Away Walk) whose Walk was scored in a given weekend. See §2.7. **Stub.** The ten-word description heading a Mother Walk page. See §3.2.1. **Tariff.** The complexity rating affixed to a Mother Walk at publication. See §6. **The Window.** Saturday 00:15 to Sunday 23:55, local time of the Walk. See §9.1. **Umpire.** The determiner of appeals: the League operator (Season 1); community panels (Season 2 onward). See §11. **Vice-Captain.** The optional Team role with fallback Mother Walk publication rights. See §2.4, §4.2. **Walk Prompt.** The ≤250-word binding description of a Mother Walk. See §3.2.2, §3.3. **Walk-Together bonus.** The maximum time-and-place bonus, for verified GPS co-presence. See §7.4. **Weekend Result.** A Team's combined weekend score: mean of Participants' Scores × log₂(Participant count), plus hospitality bonuses. See §8. --- _End of rulebook — The Weekend Challenge._ _Companion rulebooks: The Weekday Challenge · Dognami Libre · Doggo 7s._