Infinite,
I personally don't care about a wrangler ban. My only thoughts on it are that it restricts engineer choice by being so strong that it's almost stupid not to take it in all cases. Decisions on whether or not it should be banned should be made by players who have more experience in the gametype than me.
However, your views on 6's are so misguided that they've actually managed to convinced me to post for the first time on this site, so congrats.
infinite-1. Highlander is not 6v6 so folks should not attempt to apply the same logic they use in designing 6s rules to highlander. In 6s only 4-5 classes are utilized most of the time (2 soldiers, 2 scouts, 1 demo, 1 medic, maybe a pyro or engineer or sniper for a few seconds on lasts, rinse, repeat). As such by definition of highlander all classes need to be viable. Wrangler is a powerful addition to the engineer that makes the class quite useful in comparison to when it was not in the game.
infinite-And furthermore, it is my opinion (not UGC's) that the result of the HUGE number of bans and class restrictions in CEVO/ESEA have hampered growth of 6v6 over the years. 6v6 is quite small in comparison to highlander and pub TF2 in general. I feel this is because it is DRASTICALLY different than stock TF2. It's incredibly difficult to get public players interested in 6s because 1) they probably can't play the class they love and 2) they definitely can't use majority of the weapons they like. Maybe that's one of the reasons ESEA has 68 teams this season instead of the 117 it had last season. People might be getting bored playing the same game they bought in 2007.
Now, I can't wait to read mustard's epic paragraphs dissecting my points and the instant 4+ frags I get from my fan club.
Love, Inf.
Firstly, I agree that unlock ban choices in 6's is completely different than in Highlander. We don't have as many options with less players to deal with strong weapons like the Wrangler. Valve simply makes no attempts to balance this game outside of public 12v12 play.
Luckily, Highlander is close enough to the 12v12 intended play - and by that, I mean casual players picking random classes they enjoy, not caring about winning or optimal class choices at all - that they can, for the most part, play the same game. Highlander has the luxury of restricting classes in a manner that most resembles a public server.
6's does not have this luxury.
When teams of players attempt to play optimally in this game, the game breaks down. Only a select few classes are viable in competition due to Valve's class design of some classes being generalists and others specialists. This game is actually so horribly imbalanced that the 6's community instituted class limits so it was playable and fun.
The 6's community has and will continue to balance itself because Valve will not. Of course it's going to be smaller than Highlander or any other gametype, it's easier to go to Highlander and play your favorite class than it is to accept the reality that the class you have over 1000 hours on is fucking awful. Highlander doesn't make every class viable, it just forces the terrible classes to be used so you can fool yourself into thinking you're actually playing a viable class.
I have no doubt that the amount of restrictions makes competitive 6's unfriendly to new players. However, how else is this game supposed to be playable? You either attempt to emulate the casual playerbase on public servers as much as possible with intense class limits like Highlander does, or you restrict the fuck out of weapons and put some limits on classes so the game doesn't devolve into nonstop stalemates with teams running multiple demomen.
As for your comment about playing the same game since 2007 - well, strategies and tactics change all the time. Perhaps Highlander hasn't had a metagame because you were too busy restricting invite (read: good) players?