An important feature would be a ready up check that all players must accept before you get sent into the match. Similar to CSGO, FACEIT, etc. Especially because queue times are long and people are more likely to go AFK, matches get killed far too often by people that have no ability or intention of joining in the first place.

Many of those items, have upsides, yes. But you refuse to acknowledge the tradeoffs associated with them. Use of tradeoffs is one of the best balancing approaches in TF2. Though one aspect of an item may be strong, if the downsides are equally strong the item essentially comes out with a net neutral, or at least becomes extremely risky to use as opposed to other well rounded options (stock). While some of those items may be annoying, even feeling slightly overpowered in some situations, they are not game breaking enough to warrant a ban, thanks to their inherent tradeoffs.

Just because something doesn't "make 6s better" does not mean it should be banned. The entire point of a whitelist is to only disallow items that are game breaking. By your own admission, leagues in other esports resort to banning items only in the most extreme circumstances and only when the game is entirely disrupted, a very rare situation where banning them becomes "perfectly okay."

And no one is arguing to allow every item at this time. That should absolutely be the end goal, but only once the process of testing leads to productive item balancing. But once item balancing happens, those items should be given a fair chance. A new more relaxed whitelist that reflects the rebalances Valve have made is absolutely called for at this time.

New Bots
We use Discord bots to manage our match channels and reporting system. We have brand new versions of all bots being deployed for next season that should make interacting with them more fluid and efficient.

Experiments
There are a couple features we’ve been curious to test to see how they affect matches and user satisfaction. These include:

• FACEIT point prizes for the Beginner and Amateur seasonal leaderboards. Offering prizes for top placements in division without ceilings has been challenging because as people climb the leaderboard they generally move out of the division they are climbing through. Despite this, we are going to put a small 1000 FACEIT point prize for the top 5 spots on the Beginner and Amateur leaderboards, just to see how it goes. This will only be conducted in NA TF2PL S2.
  
• Duo queueing for the Beginner division. Many have requested the ability to play with friends, especially when facing the intimidating prospect of diving into competitive for the first time. Our main concern is that this may lead to some players being boosted out of Beginner division too easily, but since duo queueing would not be enabled for any upper divisions, such cases may correct themselves naturally. We will be monitoring the situation closely to see how it affects user experience and match balance. This will be conducted in both NA TF2PL S2 and EU TF2PL S1.

Phasing Out Division Moveups
As stated earlier, the moveup process has been an incredibly useful tool for helping to populate all of the divisions to a point where they are all reliably active. However, now that the first season has passed and the divisions are populated it is time for us to begin phasing out the manual moveup process in favor of letting Elo and player results take over as the guiding principle for player’s divisional placements. As of the beginning of Season 2 we will no longer be fulfilling moveups from Beginner to Amateur division except in EXTREME cases. It is our belief that if after a month of playing on TF2PL players should have been unable to demonstrate the level of dominance in Beginner required for a moveup. If not, it is best if left alone to happen naturally. Practically speaking, level ups can also only be performed by FACEIT devs so there is a concern about the sustainability of this option, so it is best for us to not be dependent on it. We will still offer moveups for EU TF2PL S1 before similarly phasing it out there in following seasons.

Supporter Campaign
Many of you are as enthusiastic about TF2PL as we are, and we appreciate that. We will be organizing some supporter campaigns that involve grassroots promotion as well as ways for you to contribute to TF2PL monetarily. Some of you are many steps ahead of us with this and have already subscribed to our hub on FACEIT by paying a small fee. We really appreciate it and will be working to flesh out our supporter perks as soon as possible, to be announced soon. As TF2PL grows this becomes more and more important as our costs scale as well. Our goal is to take significant strides towards becoming self sustaining by the end of the year through offering great value to our supporters and offering a service that people will feel confident in supporting. To be clear, TF2PL and its core features will always remain free, so don’t worry about paywalls or anything like that.

Prizes
There are season-end prizes to be distributed. Upon the end of NA TF2PL S1, we will be able to evaluate the S1 stats in full to determine the winners, then contact the winners and fulfill the prizes ASAP. Winners will be on April 1st, for the following prizes:

Unusual Hat Raffles
Unusual Hats raffle entries are earned for every 10 matches each season.

• Invite: Orbiting Fire Bonk Boy
  
• Advanced: Miami Nights Reggaelator
  
• Amateur: Circle Heart Valley Forge
  
• Beginner: Circling TF Logo Tyrant’s Helm

Medic Cash Prizes
Medic cash prizes are offered to the top 4 medics in each division based on total Ubercharges popped

• Invite: $25 to each of the top 4 medics
  
• Advanced: $20 to each of the top 4 medics
  
• Amateur: $15 to each of the top 4 medics
  
• Beginner: $10 to each of the top 4 medics

Finally, we’d like to also acknowledge FACEIT for all they’ve done to help TF2PL thrive in these early days. FACEIT have been a great partner in kickstarting TF2PL by providing servers, their matchmaking platform and ranking system, and perhaps most important of all the support of their developer team to help make sure TF2PL has been running smoothly. Many of the changes listed above would not have been possible without FACEIT’s constant willingness to cooperate with us. When FACEIT first began exploring the Hub system (that has now revolutionized their platform), the TF2 community was one of the first to be approached to be included, even over massive CSGO and DOTA2 communities, because they saw a great potential in our grassroots community and appreciated the flexibility of our community to work together with them for the greater good. We hope that by working with them we can help to shape the Hub system for the better while also pushing competitive TF2 to greater heights. They, like us, are always open feedback and are committed to improving their services day in and day out. So now, together we are setting our sights to the future and bigger and better things.

Thank you all for your time and continued support of TF2PL!

TF2PL News Post: https://tf2pl.com/news.html

NA TF2PL S1 Wrap-Up
The opening season of NA TF2PL has been nothing short of amazing. You guys have kept busy playing on the platform, with back to back matches happening all day long every day. In fact, in this first month alone TF2PL has already seen 3000+ unique members with 3000+ completed matches. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, our staff have been hard at work to ensure that players have had the smoothest possible experience. Our Admin and Support teams have helped to manage over 300+ player reports and 200+ division moveup and region bypass requests. We’ve set out to create the ultimate competitive TF2 platform, and thanks to everyone’s willingness to work together on this, we think it’s appearing to be a very attainable goal.

To reach our goals, we know that we will have to always be improving the platform. In pursuit of that, we’ve been vigilant about fixes and improvements based on community feedback since the beginning. In case you missed some of the adjustments and fixes we’ve been deploying so far, here's a quick, but far from exhaustive, review:

• Moveup policies were revised to fairly expand and populate all divisions
  
• Introduced 3 way class preference avatars to improve picking and class sorting processes
  
• Introduced queue permission process to ensure all users were properly set-up before playing
  
• Modified captain system from Elo based to Scoreboard based to promote active captains
  
• Refocused Medic prizes to be based on Ubercharges popped to have a more straightforward method for rewarding medics
  
• Added ability to type multiple times during pauses to ensure smooth pause communications
  
• Disabled idle kick during matches to prevent people getting removed from games unintentionally
  
• Added website FAQ to help solve common user issues (https://tf2pl.com/faq.html)
  
• Post game scoreboard fixed to not count post-round stats or self damage
  
• Updated all server whitelists to latest version of the global whitelist

Upcoming Changes
There have been some undeniable issues since our launch on March 1st. With any transition to a new platform there are bound to be some growing pains, but it’s not enough to simply say that and then brush them under the rug. Trust us when we say that all major complaints with TF2PL have been on our radar, and we’ve been making constant careful considerations about how to approach them. We’d like to address some of those issues now, how we hope to have them fixed, and the timelines associated with those fixes.

Captaining System
We have a couple changes in mind that should make captaining a smoother, more enjoyable and more welcomed responsibility. Specifically:

• Currently captains are very limited in the information presented to them during the player picking phase, with information only appearing after picks have been made. We want hover-over player stats to be available before picks have been committed to, including info such as player Steam profile links, Steam display names, recent match results, and statistics highlights, all of which should help captains to make more well informed picks. FACEIT have confirmed that this feature will be added in their next Official Hub Development, estimated to be released within the next 2 weeks.
  
• Currently the captain role is forced upon the two players in the match room with the highest Leaderboard positions. Similar to the Elo selection method that preceded this, the Leaderboard method still seems to result in captains receiving captain responsibility reluctantly. It has become obvious that occupying a high Elo or Scoreboard position does not necessarily correlate with interest or aptitude in captaining. We believe a better system would be one where those who have proven their prowess in their division can opt in to be given a higher priority captain role. Similarly, those who have a strong aversion to captaining would be able to request to opt out of the captain responsibility and be put at the lowest priority for captain role selection regardless of their Elo, Level, or Scoreboard position. All unconcerned parties who do not step forward to explicitly request to opt in or opt out would remain in a medium priority position and fill in as needed. This should help to greatly improve the chances that all captains selected either strongly desire and deserve the role or are at worst indifferent to it. Captain priorities will be enabled on April 1st, but we will require your participation in actively requesting proper captaining roles be assigned to you in our Discord #requests channel.

Server Locations
Due to recent server security and stability issues, the majority of S1 TF2PL matches were hosted on Dallas servers. Consistency with server locations allowed us to more closely monitor the servers. While some players rejoiced at this happenstance, obviously many who have been more accustomed to traditional Chicago server and the privileges it provides them were displeased at the change. In recent days we’ve reached a high level of confidence with our Dallas servers and are now conducting the same process on Chicago servers. For the time being, all matches will be hosted on Chicago servers now until we can be sure that things are stable and secure. Once that has been assured, we will be looking into options to offer both server locations in harmony.

FACEIT TF2-Specific Requests
There are a few quality of life requests we would love to see on FACEIT that are specific to TF2. Including:

• Display 5 second countdown warning when a match is being unpaused. Confirmed to be added to the next FACEIT TF2 update, estimated to be released within the next 2 weeks.
  
• Rounds won by each team displayed in post-match scoreboard/results. These scores have been confirmed as already being tracked, and the process of displaying them properly is being evaluated by FACEIT devs.
  
• Improve TF2 specific stats displayed (add Ubercharges dropped, add Medic picks, etc). Stats have been confirmed to be adjustable, space on the scoreboard allowing. Currently being evaluated by FACEIT devs.

https://i.imgur.com/99UbJyc.png

We are excited to announce that for the upcoming April season, TF2PL and ScrapTF have teamed up to offer $1500 in instant prizes to be claimed by players in all divisions and regions of TF2PL.

Here's how instant prizes work: at the end of every TF2PL match, every player on the winning team has a chance to win a Marketplace.tf gift card. The Marketplace.tf gift card prize can be activated by the winner, or the code can be given as a gift to friends. Unlike other TF2PL prizes that are rewarded at the end of the season, these are available immediately, hence the name “instant prizes.” Other important details:

• You must register properly through http://tf2pl.com before you can begin playing matches to earn instant prizes.
  
• You must have logged into Marketplace.tf and added + verified an email address (http://Marketplace.tf). This is so we can attribute your card to your account and email you when you have won a prize.
  
• Every player has the same chance to win a gift card, regardless of division or location.
  
• Each match is processed for potential winners within a few minutes after it concludes.
  
• Instant prizes will be available for the entire April season from April 1st through April 31st at Midnight (PST for NA, CEST for EU).

EU TF2PL S1 Launch
At long last, EU TF2PL is just around the corner! We are aiming to open all EU TF2PL queues on April 1st at 6pm CET.

EU TF2PL will be an exact duplicate of the NA TF2PL platform featuring all of the perks of TF2PL including the same 6v6 matchmaking core, a 4 division system, accessibility for players of all skill levels, seasonal progression, guaranteed discord voice communications, captain drafting in upper divisions, Admin and Support team oversight, prizes, fair and orderly rules, and an active vibrant community, all being offered completely for free. EU TF2PL will also be starting fresh with adjustments based on the things we’ve learned from NA TF2PL S1, which are outlined below. We think the expansion to EU TF2PL could signal a big step towards uniting the NA and EU scenes under one banner, with a unified ruleset, maplist, and competitive mentality.

To get setup with EU TF2PL, follow the procedure at http://tf2pl.com, paying special attention to the options for the EU Discord and EU Divisions there.

To prepare and populate the divisions, we have compiled ETF2L data from all players and used their league experience and their steam IDs to preemptively level up their associated FACEIT accounts to the appropriate Elo/Level, following these criteria:

• Invite: Premiership, active or playoffs within last year -> Given Level 10
  
• Advanced (Levels 8-10): Prem/High, active or experience within last year -> Given Level 9
  
• Amateur (Levels 4-7): Mid, active or experience within last year -> Given Level 6
  
• Beginner (Levels 1-3): Everyone else -> No leveling done

If you previously didn't have a FACEIT account connected to your Steam account at the time of our preseason move ups, worry not, as you can send a Division Move Up Request form in the #requests channel in the EU TF2PL Discord and an Admin will evaluate you for a level ups in the following days. Invite division join links need to be provided privately, so if you meet the criteria listed above please get in touch with me or the Admin/Support team in the EU TF2PL Discord so we can get that taken care of. Just as it happened with NA TF2PL S1, things should stabilize within a week or two, so we appreciate your patience in this process. We hope to see all of our EU friends there.

@cat btw, the 1 week code I sent you expires on April 2nd so please activate it asap!

I sent you one. Check your TFTV PMs.

Even if it is just blissful ignorance, the point is that competitive mode can still offer a fun experience for casual players despite the graphics restrictions, which is a very good thing.

The progression will probably always be Casual -> Competitive -> 3rd Party Competitive. If you've already reached that final stage of getting involved with 3rd party competitive TF2, being outraged about something that only does good for the competitive scene as a whole while not interfering on your main mode of play is pretty silly. The restrictions aren't even currently that bad, you just need to approach it with a more open mind. But of course, more settings available and more optimization would be great, as long as it's accessible for everyone, even the newest players.

Go watch WarOwl or Greekgod or any new TF2 player playing competitive mode for the first time. They didn't care nor notice any issues with the enforced graphics settings. Your perspective is biased because you are too attached to your FPS configs. Level playing field, standardization and accessibility is a necessity for the integrity of the competitive mode long term. That said, they should definitely add as many commands/settings as possible to the options menus so that FPS config level graphics can still be achieved while maintaining fairness.

TF2PL will be expanding to EU in just a few days, with the queues opening on April 1st at 6pm CET!

To prepare for the opening of the queues, you should begin setting up your accounts. The setup process will be the same as that found at http://tf2pl.com except with a few key differences for the EU crowd (website will be updated ASAP to reflect these differences):

On FACEIT, please feel free to join the EU divisions corresponding to your current FACEIT skill level here: http://play.tf2pl.com

To accommodate the EU region, we are opening a separate discord that will house the EU chatrooms, match voice channels, and admin/support teams. You can join the EU TF2PL discord here: http://discord.gg/JJTydD4

We are also opening up recruitment for the EU staff including Admins and Support team members. In the EU TF2PL Discord you will find further details regarding the details and process for application and recruitment.

As we wrap up S1 of NA TF2PL in the next couple days we will posting some more changes/news very soon so keep your eyes peeled for that. Thanks

Because I said it does and it was my guideline. If you want to create your own reimbursement offer, go ahead and have your own rules and enforce them at your own discretion as I will do with mine.

As I already explained, I reached out to them and described what it would take to convince me. He played along for a day or so then backtracked and disregarded it. I'm glad you brought up the fact that both you and pete changed your ESEA aliases and made sure that your aliases were recognizable across the board. Since you were obviously interested in the reimbursement offer, maybe you can vouch for how much of an obvious and easy choice it was to change your ESEA name instead of risking not making playoffs with an unrecognizable alias and losing eligibility for the offer.

All or nothing was part of the deal, also clearly stated from the beginning.

Imagine caring that much about using an idiotic ESEA alias that you cost your team a free $240.

After I made my offer, MAL asked me if Happycool was an acceptable alias. I immediately told them no, seeing as he's known as phlps, no one calls/knows him as Happycool, nor does he use the name Happycool anywhere else, pointing to examples such as his Twitch/TFTV/Discord usernames (again, he literally posted this thread under the name Seniorsoda and listed his own name as phlps, no ties to Happycool anywhere). I told them that he should simply switch his ESEA name to phlps to be eligible or FULLY COMMIT to the name Happycool across the board so that it reflects his "proper" alias. This would likely entail changing aliases on other platforms to Happycool and insisting on people calling him by Happycool to be convincing. For that day only he used the name Happycool on Twitch, asked TFTV to switch his name in the article, etc., so it seemed he was on board with making it consistent. At this point it seemed they would be eligible. Shortly after, however, he disregarded all of that and continued to use other names and never insisted to be referred to as Happycool. This is where they lost eligibility.

I don't know how naive you'd have to be not see that it's just a clear attempt to manipulate me and take advantage of the guidelines without actually following them, all the while displaying a blatant disregard for the professionalism the guidelines stood for in the first place. You may think the guidelines were unfair, but they were not unclear. Instead of simply changing your ESEA name (which would have been completely free and taken you 10 seconds of your time, by the way) you went through the steps of adopting a facade of compliance, proceeded to violate the alias rule across the board, then finally found yourself here wasting even more energy with this tantrum blaming me for your own mistakes. Beg for pity and mobilize your circlejerks all you want. Construct your ultimatums and guilt trips all you want. I'm not falling for it. Anything else you or anyone else decides to do in response to someone breaking those guidelines and losing eligibility is not my responsibility. Own up to your own choices. You cost your teammates here, not me.

For those that have followed the guidelines and will continue to do so in these final days of your season, I applaud you and appreciate your commitment to professionalism at the highest levels of competitive TF2. I will be in touch with you about fulfilling my end of the offer soon.