PSA: The deadline to have 5 paid up on your roster is TOMORROW, Saturday at 11:59 pm est. If you aren't able to, please go ahead and reach out now by creating a support ticket in the main discord and we can figure something out. The deadline for 6 paid is before your first match, which start next week.

If you have questions or requests regarding team placement or class restrictions, please reach out via support ticket in the main discord so that we can assist.

Hey all,

We haven't been done much to communicate our reasoning around the map pool and map cup choices, so I wanted to share some of that here:

One of our current goals at RGL is to continue to improve the map pool, and supporting new maps is critical to that. This is a worthwhile goal which has already had success:

• koth_clearcut, which was introduced in S1 instead of granary/badlands, is now well liked and rated within a few percentage points of the staple map koth_product. koth_bagel is rated similarly (although the sample size is smaller).
  
• cp_villa was less disliked this season than granary was when it was played in S2, and has the chance to continue to improve, unlike cp_granary.

We haven't included older maps in recent surveys because the spot in the map pool isn't open to them - we'd much rather have a map with mixed opinions that's in development and will improve than one that has similarly mixed opinions and will never improve (i.e. granary/badlands). Maps like reckoner and logjam have been discussed for inclusion in map cups, but are generally pretty static in their current states and have had lukewarm receptions in other regions, so we focused more on maps that have seen less exposure and are newer for this cup.

With all that being said, there are definitely parts of our approach that can be approved. We hear you that the time between this map cup and the start of the season is too short (we would have liked to hold the cup earlier, but didn't want to conflict with Dreamhack). Because of the short time between the cup and the season, we will only include the cup-winning map in S6 if it is received very well and feels definitively season-ready. Otherwise, it will be on-deck to be played in S7 as several of you have suggested, and cp_villa will remain for S6. For future seasons, we will aim to have the map pool determined a season in advance to provide teams ample time to learn maps and avoid the scheduling issue we had this season.

While we're on the topic of the map pool, one of the ideas that's been floated is to include all three koth maps this season rather than including villa, and bring in the map cup map next season. While bagel and clearcut are both liked better than villa, a significant portion of the community is against 3 koth at the moment:

https://push.dubthink.com/2021/05/chrome_2021-05-09_16-55-22.png

Generally we'd like to see a larger percentage of people in support of 3 koth before testing it, so we aren't considering that option for this season.

At some point in the coming weeks, I'm hoping to get out an article with details from the post season survey which will include more detailed statistics on map opinions this season.

tl;dr

• Improving the map pool is part of our mission at RGL, and promising new maps are critical to that
  
• Old maps aren't included on the survey because we only have one open spot in the pool, which is currently for new and actively developed maps
  
• The cup is this late to not conflict with dreamhack
  
• Our methods of introducing new maps can definitely be improved, and we're listening to your feedback:
  
• Because of the short time between the cup and the season, we will only include the winning map in S6 if it is received very well and season ready. Otherwise, it will be played in S7 and villa will remain for S6

This post doesn't exhaustively cover every detail of why we've made all of the above decisions, so please reach out to me at DubThink#3877 if you have any further questions or constructive feedback - I'm happy to chat!

A few things I regularly bring up for meds when coaching newbiemixes:
1) Try not to position against walls (when you aren't concerned about spy, so 6s or if the spy's dead in HL) Positioning against a wall effectively cuts your movement options in half and makes you more likely to take splash damage, making it significantly easier for bombing soldiers to kill you.
2) When an enemy is aggressing you, it's usually better to put a teammate between you and the enemy than it is to run away, which isolates you. It's sometimes counterintuitive, but I'd rather move to my scout and beam them so they can play between me and the enemy even if it involves getting closer to the enemy. (Mr Slin or someone has an excellent video on this showing how to effectively keep your scout between you and the threat which was one of the best things I watched when getting started. I can't find it :( but it was on badlands 2nd near pride if anyone knows the video I'm talking about.)
3) I know the post-uber positioning thing has been said already, but I want to second it. It's easily the number one mistake I see newer medics and teams make, and having good post-fights is one of the most valuable things. Also, call where you're ending the uber so that the rest of your team can play around that. (Honestly this is my #1 piece of generic advice for any team IM or below. Fix your posts and you'll do so much better)
4) Call who's in an uber early. This doesn't always need to be a med's job, but unless I get forced, my team should always know who's getting ubered before the uber starts. Players who aren't called as in should stay tf out if they can (It's still ok to flash people to save them if they need it though)
5) The entire "you don't need to look at your heal target" is super important.
6) Don't be afraid to yell at firmly communicate with your scout(s).
7) When in doubt, arrow less. I know no one listens to this (including me), but still. Beam.

Mr Slin's content for medic is fire, and Marxist's Precepts are a staple as people have said.

Two pieces of meta-advice:
1) Plenty of players will focus on advanced stuff before they have the basics down. It's definitely fine to mess around with the advanced stuff (it's often a good motivator to get better), but you shouldn't be spending effort getting good at prefiring crossbows at teammates using the radar if you don't have your heal order and positioning on point, etc.
2) What works against low level players will not work against better ones. I can't even count the number of times I said to my newbie drive team "Ok that worked, but that should not have worked and won't work against good players". If you're looking to improve, practice what you should do, not just anything that works.

Like half the reason it takes so long for some "blatantly obvious" cheaters to get banned is because y'all never report them. I just checked with Aad, the head AC admin, and there have been 0 reports on kevito and/or brummies641. Back when feno was "widely known" to be cheating, there were 0 reports on him. Literally none. Still aren't any. It was only when one of the 6s admins brought it up during the elijah case that AC even learned about it. If you want cheaters to be banned, take the little bit of time it takes to find the ticks that make you think they're cheating and fucking report them.

(this isn't specifically directed at dippidy, who I think is going to report it soon, just putting it out there so the community's aware)

These bans do come from reports. The MAL player ban came from a report. In my 5 seasons working at RGL, I've seen a single staff member (not even a 6s admin) comb through logs, and they were removed from the organization over a year ago for that and similar problems. We've even warned league players for combing specific players' and teams' logs for infractions, which is a form of witch-hunting and prohibited. If you actually read any of RGL's articles, you'd see that in almost every single article related to bans, we put in brightly colored text that we only ban off reports. The most recent article, which you should go read because clearly you haven't, mentions it. If a player is banned, it is because they were reported.

In many hundreds of reports we've handled with logs, this is the first time anything like this has occurred. Logs.tf does not display timestamps, and we have no good reason to assume chat messages in the log did not happen during pregame or the scrim, as you can see in the log here. When the rare odd edge cases like this happen, we have an appeals process to handle it, which worked as it should and the players were unbanned (due to the high-profile nature of the MAL case, we took a bit more time to figure out our response internally before rolling back the bans).

It bothers me how this is branded as "fix[ing] the issues with map geometry as well as minor aesthetic and performance improvements" when it's much more than that. Heaven knows steel is a good candidate for fixes and/or a pro version, but branding this as a set of completely uncontroversial fixes rather than a full on pro version of the map feels inaccurate and possibly disingenuous.

(I think the same can be said about all of the Refresh: maps to a lesser extent. I generally support efforts to improve the map pool, but feel that Refresh: misrepresents itself as focusing on purely clipping/bug/perf fixes while doing much more than that)

In this case, this was all a joke on prc's part, so no, no one's getting paid $350 to play in main lol

Paying a player to join/play on a team is totally fine, and would be expected if the tf scene got large enough (similar to other esports scenes with salaried players). There'd only potentially be an issue if a team maliciously paid a player to leave a team before a critical match, which could be a form of match fixing (which isn't the case here, even if prc was paid).

Based on their preseason performance, we're expecting them to be fine in Main. We're definitely keeping an eye on the situation though, and may restrict them in the first few weeks if it's clearly needed.

https://push.dubthink.com/2020/11/hl2_2020-11-16_01-05-17.png

I've been using Iowa Quixalite servers for my team's scrims whenever possible for the last week, and have been super happy with them. I've found that most people get around the same ping to Iowa as they do to Chicago, with some people better and a few worse. Tibby was getting ~30 ping to Iowa, and normally gets ~60 to Chicago. I'm super excited for this partnership :)

PSA that footstep replacements are also banned in the RGL ruleset, so NA players should also be checking they don't have a problematic version of m0rehud or cleantf2.

http://kraft.singles/

I finally got a bit of time to look through the changes and compile my thoughts. In general, I dislike seeing people edit maps and put them out publicly without at least making an effort to contact the original author, and as an aspiring mapper I would be very frustrated if someone did the same with one of my maps, but I think small QoL improvements aren't all that bad to do without permission if the author is no longer in the scene as is the case here. (still, at least try to contact them)

I've compiled my full notes here. The main areas I'm critiquing are 1) a number of common trap spots that are now clipped, 2) a few odd player clipping decisions, and 3) edits that either have larger implications than might be expected, or have little gameplay merit but damage the artistic/visual integrity of the map.

Shotgun soldier still destroys players as much as it always has, but with today's meta, the extra heals shotty pocket takes will almost always have more impact on your demo, scout, or having a 300 health jay-style combo roamer. Shotgun pocket isn't bad, but there's much better options.

tl;dr cocaine isn't worth it

read the full article here

6s staff changes

• Daffodil will be stepping down from their position as the Traditional 6s Head Admin, with Makkabeus Rex filling in and taking over as the head admin for that format.
  
• boxcar and hawko will be stepping down from their positions as an Invite and Amateur Traditional 6s admin respectively.

We would like to thank them for their work and time spent volunteering and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors. As a result of these staff changes, we are looking for mature, driven individuals who can help us continue to deliver a great platform to ever greater players.

If you are interested in working as a division admin or moderator to help improve our formats, then we encourage you to apply. Moderators are expected to help resolve match issues, player issues, and help build their respective divisions schedule alongside the rest of the Admin team. Admins may also be asked for input on things like off season events, graphic design, and other things across the league.

Apply here!

Rule updates

A number of RGL's rules have been updated to provide additional clarity, fill in some gaps, and in particular to better support casts by RGL and other casting organizations. Read the full changes in the article.

tl;dr matches casted by RGLgg, TFTV, CappingTV, EssentialsTF, eXtvesports, KritzKast, and FiresideCasts will be all be subject to RGL's casted match ruleset. These rules cover servers, team leaders communicating with the casting org, rules for player streams, and players using proper aliases among other things.

I'm super puzzled by why there's so many people clamoring for the iron bomber to be banned now when I've heard extremely few people wanting it to be banned in the past 3 or so years since it became popular. Weapon bans should be based on their net impact on the game, and given that essentially the entire community has been fine with the iron bomber's impact for years, and nothing has actually changed, this all feels really odd to me.

I agree that the behavior of the IB and stock should match behaviors, and would love to see valve or maybe a plugin fix it - either by bringing the IB in line with the rest, or making the rest (or at least stock) match IB. However in the meantime, I think banning something that the community has been largely fine with for so long just because of some new info (that doesn't change anything about its behavior) is kinda stupid.