Tournament Rules & Playing System

The men's tournament follows 2021–2023 WL Men's Field Lacrosse Rules, with the exception of the playing time.
The women's tournament uses 2025–2026 WL Women's Field Lacrosse Rules, with the exception of the playing time. The shot clock rule doesn't come into effect.

Playing time 2x 20 mins running time, during the last 30 seconds of every period the time is stopped with the whistle. Half-time break: 5 minutes. In case of a tie at the end of regulation, the 4-minute overtime periods follow immediately until the game is resolved by the golden goal. The time is stopped with the whistle in overtime.

Points: There are 3 points per game. The winner in regulation receives all points. In case of a tie, each team gets one point and the winner in overtime gets the last point.

Groups tie-breaker*
1. Number of points;
2. Head-to-head match result;
3. Total scored/received goals difference;
4. Total higher number of scored goals; 
5. Lower number of penalty minutes,
6. Toss (not applied in Z Group, teams share the final standings).
* If there are three or more teams with the same value of the criteria, after the elimination of one team we start the process from criteria 1 for the remaining teams.

Time-outs: each team shall be allowed a maximum of one 90-second. time-out per game.

Game protocol
● The pitch is available for warm-up immediately after the conclusion of the previous game.
● The home team bench is the left one and the visiting team is the right one (as seen from the pitch).
● Teams are expected to be ready for the game at the scheduled time. As the programme is tight no waiting time will be provided and the game will be forfeited if a team is not prepared to begin. The forfeit result is 8:0 in favour of the non-offending team.
● Team representatives are asked to confirm uniform numbers on the game roster before each game.
● There is no line-up before the games, except the final games.
● Teams shake hands after each game.
● Team captains sign the record to confirm its correctness.

Tournament system – men

All seven teams will play in one large group, where each team will play four games against various opponents. In the large group seeding, we have considered the results from the previous annual and the top two team will not match in the basic group.
The top for teams from the basic group qualify to the tournament semi-finals. Teams ranked in the 5th–7th place will match in Group Z for the final 5th to 7th place.

Tournament system – women

After very recent cancellation of one team, there will be 8 teams in the competition. The playing system will consist of two round-robin groups of four and play-offs. We will announce the round-robin groups shortly after confirm the seeding system with the ELF.