EA has laid out the ground rules for people to host their own Apex Legends community tournaments.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the biggest rule when it comes to hosting a community tournament in Apex Legends is you’re not allowed to make money. At least, the people who are organizing the tournament aren’t allowed to make money.

Rule numero uno on EA’s community tournament guidelines is all tournaments must be strictly non-profit. That means all funds the tournament accepts goes into funding the tournament and nobody walks away pocketing any cash for themselves (outside of the tournament winners, of course).

Next up, EA also requires that all tourney organizers make it clear that EA is not affiliated with their little shindig. Any tournament rules and regulations must include the line: “This tournament is not affiliated with or sponsored by Electronic Arts Inc..” This is to cover EA’s legal derriere, as they say.

Along covering their butts, EA forbids tournaments to be sponsored by people or companies that peddle explicit materials (even online dating companies), alcohol, tobacco, drugs, weapons, explosives, tattoos, or gambling. In general, EA is avoiding any situation where an age-restricted product or service in their country of origin is associated with minors (Germany, for example, rates Apex Legends as an 18+ game, so both players and sponsors must all be 18+).

Politicians or political groups also can’t sponsor an Apex Legends community tournament.

Now let’s talk cash. Entry fees are allowed, but limited to $20 USD and must all go towards funding the tournament. Total prize pool is limited to $10,000 per year, so only annual tourneys will have big paydays. Streamers on Twitch and other platforms are also restricted from making more than $10,000 streaming the tournament, which allows them to perform charity streams but keeps the biggest names in the biz from engaging in these small-time tourneys. Someone like Ninja can easily make over $10,000 over the course of a tournament, so he’s right out.

Which might not be a bad thing. Since Apex Legends doesn’t have private servers or custom matches, tournaments are essentially just players in pub matches keeping score over a specific timeframe. The player (or team) to accrue the highest score wins. This has led to some tournaments, such as February’s Twitch Rivals: Apex Legends Challenge to become "basically a competitive pubstomp," according to PC Gamer.

A prize pool limit of $10,000 should keep big-name players away, but also means nobody is winning a year’s supply of Chipotle. Probably.