Community Norms Build

Today you are building the rules for your own community.

Not tournament rules. Not "best of five." Not "no cheating."

We are building something underneath those rules:

How do we operate when nobody has time to read a 40-page handbook?

"Be respectful" is almost useless

Respect is important. Obviously.

The problem is that:

Be respectful.

does not tell anyone what to actually do.

Imagine somebody is yelling at a teammate. You point to your poster and say:

"Remember, respect."

Did we solve anything?

No.

We need to convert abstract values into observable behavior.

Value to behavior

Start with:

RESPECT

Ask:

What would I actually see?

Maybe:

Listen when someone else is explaining a strategy.

Better.

Make it stronger:

Give teammates time to explain their reasoning before rejecting the idea.

Now I can observe it.

Another one

Start with:

ACCOUNTABILITY

What does that look like?

Maybe:

Own your decision before assigning blame to somebody else's.

Example:

"I pushed early. That was on me."

Now we have behavior.

Your charter is a system

Every norm needs four pieces.

1. Norm

What behavior do we expect?

2. Why

Why does it matter?

3. Example

What does it look like in a real esports situation?

4. Response

What should happen when somebody breaks the norm?

Because sooner or later, somebody will.

Example

Critique the decision, not the person.

Why: Players need useful feedback if the team is going to improve.

Looks like: "We entered before everyone was ready" instead of "you're useless."

When it fails: pause the personal attack, restate the problem around the decision, and deal with repeated harmful behavior separately if needed.

See the difference? That is something you can actually use.

Your categories

Your final charter needs to cover more than one idea.

Communication

Ask: What makes a call useful? How do we disagree? How should feedback happen? What happens when somebody is overwhelmed?

Teamwork

Ask: How do we treat new players? How do we share responsibility? What happens when one person controls everything? How do we give credit?

Competition

Ask: How do we win? How do we lose? What does rivalry look like? Where does trash talk cross the line?

Accountability

Ask: What happens after a mistake? What does owning a role mean? What happens if someone stops contributing?

Integrity

Ask: What if cheating would help us win? What if we think the rule is stupid? What does representing the school change?

Inclusion

Ask: What happens when a new player joins? How do we handle different skill levels? How do we respond when someone feels excluded? What happens when someone says a behavior is unwanted?

Pressure

Ask: What happens when we are losing? What happens when somebody gets angry? What is our reset process? When should somebody step away?

Build Phase 1: Solo draft

Write five candidate norms.

Use this structure:

VALUE:

NORM:

WHY:

REAL EXAMPLE:

Example:

VALUE:
Communication

NORM:
Give information before criticism.

WHY:
During competition, teammates need something they can act on.

REAL EXAMPLE:
"Two left, back up."

instead of:

"Why are you always out of position?"

You have five minutes. Do not overthink it.

Build Phase 2: Merge

Now combine your group. Put everyone's ideas on the board.

You are probably going to get duplicates. Good. Merge them.

You should have around 12 to 20 candidate norms.

Do not choose the final eight yet. First we are going to try to break them.

The Stress Test

Your teacher will give your group scenario cards. Your norm has to survive them.

Test 1: Losing badly

Does the norm still make sense when everybody is frustrated?

Test 2: Winning easily

Does it stop people humiliating the opponent?

Test 3: Repeat mistake

Can the team still give honest feedback?

Test 4: New player

Does the norm help someone who does not know the team's systems yet?

Test 5: Time pressure

Can somebody actually use this norm in the middle of competition?

Weak norm detector

Weak

Be nice.

Why is it weak? Nobody knows exactly what it requires.

Weak

Always be positive.

Also weak. Sometimes the correct response is:

"This is not working."

Honesty is not negativity.

Weak

Never argue.

No. Teams need disagreement. The issue is how disagreement works.

Stronger

Challenge ideas with reasoning instead of attacking the person proposing them.

Now we have something.

Build Phase 3: Final charter

Choose your best 8 to 12 norms.

Your charter must cover at least communication, teamwork, respect, accountability, competition, integrity, and inclusion.

Each norm needs:

NORM

WHY IT MATTERS

REAL EXAMPLE

At least three norms also need:

WHAT WE DO WHEN IT BREAKS

What happens when somebody breaks a norm?

Because again, they will.

A healthy community does not assume:

"Nobody will ever break these norms."

That is not a plan.

Possible responses:

Reminder: small mistake.

Reset: stop the behavior and return to the task.

Conversation: the issue needs more attention.

Repair: something affected another person or the group.

Formal consequence: serious, unsafe, repeated, or rule-breaking behavior.

Serious situations can skip straight to formal intervention. We are not treating harassment or threats like a minor reminder problem.

Repair is part of accountability

Accountability is not only punishment.

Sometimes the more useful question is:

What needs to happen so the team can function again?

Maybe people need to acknowledge what happened, apologize, correct something, change a behavior, accept a consequence, or restore communication.

Teams need recovery systems because mistakes are guaranteed.

Final test: Defend the charter

Your instructor selects one scenario from Lesson 2.

Your team has 60 seconds to answer:

• Which norm applies?
• What should happen?
• Why?

If the charter cannot help you answer, your charter is not finished.

Submission requirements

Your Esports Community Charter needs 8 to 12 specific norms, at least 7 culture categories represented, a reason for every norm, at least 3 real examples, an accountability or repair section, and evidence that the group stress-tested the norms.

Design it in Google Slides, Google Docs, Canva if approved, or another instructor-approved format.

Make it readable. Make it something you would actually put in a gaming lab.

Before you leave

Choose the one norm your group absolutely refuses to remove.

Write:

We kept this norm because...

If your answer is "because it is important," keep going.

Tell me what breaks without it.

Source note

This lesson synthesizes the Learn with League Teamwork, Respect, and Responsibility materials, including student-created communication tips, codes of conduct, team rules, positive behavior expectations, player obligations, and responses to difficult gameplay situations.

Robotnix Academy converts those ideas into a student-built Esports Community Charter with visual modeling, stress testing, accountability design, and scenario defense.