TOURNAMENT RULES AND REGULATIONS
The South Carolina High School League rules pertaining to soccer will govern play in this tournament, with the following exceptions:
1) All bracket and group matches will be 70 minutes in duration (35 minutes per half). Halftime will be five minutes. Sunday matches (semi-finals and finals) will be 35-minute halves with two five-minute golden goal overtime periods. Halftime will be 10 minutes.
2) Teams will be prepared to begin promptly at scheduled match times to prevent delays.
3) All Bracket matches, if tied at the end of regulation, will proceed as follows:
4) Any player disqualified from a match will miss the next game. Any player disqualified for excessively violent or unsportsmanlike conduct may, at the discretion of tournament officials, be disqualified for the remainder of the Cup.
5) All four Bracket A/B/C/D champions will advance to the semi-finals on Sunday morning. For pairings, match times, and locations, see the upper right corner of each bracket. Semi-final winners will advance to The Viking Cup championship match on Sunday afternoon (see brackets for information).
6) Home teams (top of bracket) will wear dark uniforms. Visiting teams (bottom of bracket) will wear white. *Visiting team may choose to wear a dark uniform that clearly contrasts (both jersey and socks) with the home team’s uniform upon notification of the head coach of the home team and the referees. Tournament approval is not needed, but the referees for the match have the final say on the matter should questions arise (if they believe the uniforms are too similar, visitors must wear white).
7) Declaring a Viking Cup champion in the event of severe weather (or other necessary) cancellations:
**Awards will be earned as follows:
a) Each bracket champion (Brackets A/B/C/D) will receive a team award.
b) The Viking Cup Champion and Runner-up will each receive a team award.
c) All finals champion and runner-up players will receive individual awards.
d) One Senior player from each championship match will receive an MVP scholarship.
Revised 02/02/24.
1) All bracket and group matches will be 70 minutes in duration (35 minutes per half). Halftime will be five minutes. Sunday matches (semi-finals and finals) will be 35-minute halves with two five-minute golden goal overtime periods. Halftime will be 10 minutes.
2) Teams will be prepared to begin promptly at scheduled match times to prevent delays.
3) All Bracket matches, if tied at the end of regulation, will proceed as follows:
- All first, second, and third round matches (includes every Thursday match, every Friday match, and every Saturday match) will be scored as a tie. The match will then immediately proceed directly to penalty kicks using SCHSL rules to determine bracket advancement (the penalty kick winner will advance as the “winner” of the game within the brackets). There will be no overtime so as to keep matches running promptly. If bracket advancement is not necessary (all group matches and all Saturday third round consolation matches), there will be no penalty kicks. The match will end immediately after regulation and be scored as a tie.
- Only on Sunday (semi-finals and both finals), an overtime of two five-minute periods will be played if matches are tied after regulation. A coin toss will determine which ends are defended. If the overtime extends to the second five minutes, the teams will switch goals. Overtime will be sudden death or “golden goal.” The first team to score will be declared the winner and the match will immediately end.
- Semi-final and final teams that are tied after the two five-minute overtimes will proceed immediately to penalty kicks using SCHSL rules to determine a winner. There will be no ties during the single-elimination (Sunday) portion of the tournament. The overtime and penalty kicks will be used to declare a match winner. No Sunday match will be scored as a tie.
4) Any player disqualified from a match will miss the next game. Any player disqualified for excessively violent or unsportsmanlike conduct may, at the discretion of tournament officials, be disqualified for the remainder of the Cup.
5) All four Bracket A/B/C/D champions will advance to the semi-finals on Sunday morning. For pairings, match times, and locations, see the upper right corner of each bracket. Semi-final winners will advance to The Viking Cup championship match on Sunday afternoon (see brackets for information).
6) Home teams (top of bracket) will wear dark uniforms. Visiting teams (bottom of bracket) will wear white. *Visiting team may choose to wear a dark uniform that clearly contrasts (both jersey and socks) with the home team’s uniform upon notification of the head coach of the home team and the referees. Tournament approval is not needed, but the referees for the match have the final say on the matter should questions arise (if they believe the uniforms are too similar, visitors must wear white).
7) Declaring a Viking Cup champion in the event of severe weather (or other necessary) cancellations:
- If cancellations of matches prevented an overly large number of bracket matches from being completed (discretion would lie with tournament committee), no champion would be declared.
- If bracket play is completed but Sunday play is cancelled, a champion would be declared from among the four bracket champions. Placement would be determined on a point system. Points would be awarded as follows – three points for each victory by your team; two points for each victory and one point for each tie achieved by a team you have faced in bracket play (i.e., reward for strength of opponents); one point for each shutout your team has achieved; and one point deducted for each advancement by your team via penalty kicks.
- If required, goal differential (+\- maximum of three goals per game) would be used to determine the champion from among teams tied in the above points system. Finally, goals allowed (no limit per game) would be the final tiebreaker.
- If no definitive single champion were able to be declared at this point, co-champions would be declared.
**Awards will be earned as follows:
a) Each bracket champion (Brackets A/B/C/D) will receive a team award.
b) The Viking Cup Champion and Runner-up will each receive a team award.
c) All finals champion and runner-up players will receive individual awards.
d) One Senior player from each championship match will receive an MVP scholarship.
Revised 02/02/24.