This is an abridged version of Skirmish League's rule set, intended as a short introduction to players wishing to watch SL matches and participate in unofficial scrimmages. It is not the complete rule set. Players still should familiarize themselves with the complete league rules before participating in their first official SL match.

In Skirmish League, player statistics, such as kills and deaths, are recorded and added to the site. SL games have a maximum of eight players per team. If a team has less than eight players, it may still play, but it will have to play short-handed until more players arrive to play for that team. However, to play an SL game, the squad has to have at least four eligible players. Any less and the squad has to forfeit.
SL games are flagging games. Each game runs for 30 minutes. One way to win would be for a team to capture and hold all of the flags simultaneously for 20 seconds before that 30 minute time limit is up. Regular season matches are best of three games, meaning the first squad that wins two games wins the match. Playoff matches are best of five, meaning that to win, a squad must be the first to win three games. If a game's 30 minute time limit is passed before either team can win the game, the game's "regulation" period ends and an "overtime" period begins. Overtime periods also last 30 minutes at the longest and can also be won by flagging. There are, however, a few differences. For one, overtime statistics for kills and deaths are not recorded; instead, the kills and deaths for the regulation-time game are entered as the official stats for that combination of regulation and overtime. The team that wins the overtime period is credited as winning the game. (Thus, in the event of a tie in regulation, all recorded kills and deaths come from regulation, but the recorded win or loss comes from overtime.) Also, the first overtime period is 8 vs. 8 like regulation time, but if after 30 minutes of overtime, the game is still inconclusive, another overtime starts, and this overtime, as well as any subsequent overtime periods for this game, will be only 4 vs. 4.
In a regulation-time SL game, each player receives three lives. If that player dies three times, that player is "eliminated" from the game and his team now has to play with one less player. Thus, eliminating all of the opposing players by killing them until they run out of lives, also called "blackout", is the other way for a team to win an SL game. In overtime, all players receive only ONE life.
Players may play the Marine and Grenadier classes without restriction. Also, each team is allowed up to two Medics, one Ripper Gunner, and one Sniper. Teams are not required to play any certain amount of players at each class, but they may not exceed the limits on those three restricted classes. No other classes, such as Light Machinegunner, are allowed. On top of that, if players start regulation or overtime period as one class, they have to play that class to the end of that period and may not change; classes can be changed between games and before the start of an overtime period, however.
All players have to meet the lag limits of an average ping no higher than 400 ms and neither packetloss category higher than 5.0%. Packetloss lower than -5.0% (so-called "negative lag") is also not allowed. On top of that, the league staff can place players into spec for excessive "visual" lag (such as warping, also known as "hopping") even if those players' lag statistics are within the limits.