I just don't see an actual argument for why the anti-cheat team is run the way it is. what are the ACTUAL advantages of it?

let's break it down:

pros of not releasing the demos/ticks publicly and of keeping the AC team's identity a secret:
-prevents the admin team from being harassed (not really that big a deal, if it's true that there's just a handful of disgruntled people- you'd have to live with maybe 5 annoying forum posts, it's not like anyone is gonna give out your social security number or anything)
-"the way we've been doing it for 10 years" (not a true benefit to the system, doesn't really matter either way that it's been going on for that long)
-"if we release the hacks publicly then hackers in the future will know what to avoid" (brownymaster already handled this point well, but I'll also add that even if this were a good argument, it wouldn't go to the question of a private AC team)

cons of not releasing the demos/ticks publicly and of keeping the AC team's identity a secret:
-no way of knowing whether the team is qualified or not
-no way of knowing whether the team is biased or not- based on their opinions of the accused/accuser, which team they prefer, etc.
-no way of knowing whether the system of examining demos is flawed or not (as in, if the opinions of some admins are allowed to influence the opinions of other admins or not)
-no way of knowing whether the hacks were blatant, murky, or blatantly NOT there
-marginalizes the opinion of others in the community- if there are people who are really good at spotting cheating who AREN'T on the AC team, their opinion is entirely meaningless if the entire system is hidden, despite the fact that their input can be valuable

you can assure people you're unbiased all you want, but if you just break down what actually happened, the following points are clear:
-the individual banned was not popular in the community
-the person banned was running a team stacked with invite players that was beating a lot of the traditional better teams in hl
-the team they beat is well known as an "admin team", and the team leader who complained about it is an admin themself
-many of the admins are extremely close-knit and have known each other for like 10 years, and were good friends with the leader of said team
-no ticks/demos were publicly released
-in no other league, including etf2l which also contains a human AC team that does demo reviews, was marisa ever banned for hacking, even when her demos were examined

after all that, you can't possibly believe that the people who are suspicious of the whole ordeal are out of line, overly cynical, or anything like that

I know you think I really dislike you so my opinion is biased, but this was actually the initial event that MADE me dislike the admin team, combined with seeing you overreact at any and every piece of constructive criticism ever given to you.

at the risk of sounding a little trollish/inflammatory, if the admins don't make themselves, their qualifications for catching cheaters, and the actual evidence of hacking clear, they could be as incompetent as this, for all we know:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyFXR9qE-kM

im sponsoring s on my chest in the scout tourney

:>

but yeah what the ugc highlander admins are clearly missing is that, even IF you buy the idea that transparancy is impossible for an AC team (because it would alert hackers to what cheats were no longer viable to use etc.), it's just ridiculous to not even be up front about who is on the AC TEAM, what experience they have looking at hacks, etc.

as Hildreth pointed out regarding the Beavern fiasco in ETF2L, many of the AC admins at the time were not actually particularly experienced players and should not have held such a position. in fact, later a new AC team was brought in, and the first thing they did was reverse Beavern's ban and write a damning letter to the previous admin team. it reads as follows:

" Let us start by apologising for how long this has taken. It is utterly indefensible that an innocent player and his team have been hung out to dry for two seasons having been convicted of an act that he did not perform. We are utterly disgusted by the conduct that we have seen from some members of the previous AC team, and we will not justify it for one second. This was a mistake, a big mistake, and there are no excuses for what happened, but the best that we can do is learn from it, and make things right again.

You might say that it is very easy for us to criticise our predecessors, as we weren’t part of the team at the time, but we intend to make good on our promises of improvement. We are very committed to making sure that the process is much fairer and consistent for everyone that chooses to make ETF2L the place that they play TF2, for example, we are currently rewriting anti-cheat protocol, and we intend to shortly set up a documented system for reviews of existing bans.

A human-patrolled anti-cheat system can never be flawless, but we can certainly strive to be better."

when you have a team of human beings working as the AC team, it's important that they are publicly known, qualified, and most of all UNBIASED. if I recall correctly, many of the AC admins dealing with marisa's team were either on the team she beat or good friends with them. that's just completely ridiculous. unless someone is just excessively blatant, there will always be an element of the unknown involved in these things, and if that void is filled with bias and cronyism, things go wrong. I would prefer if the type of hack (aimbot, wallhack, triggerbot) that the person was being accused of was made clear, as well as the demos and ticks made public, but if that's not possible there at least needs to be a professional, unbiased AC team, not a group of old friends with a stake in the results who sit in a mumble channel together and work each other up over nothing.

"fvcking"

GOTFRAG REVIVAL 2012

it's a hurdle for all of competitive tf2 lol

holy shit that's what happens when I type things after staying up all night

do you think it will be difficult for your team to adjust to the main stage at i46 if (when) you guys make grand finals? (because of the noise or w/e)

if so, who on your team will suffer most from that?

what dyou think will be the next "big shift" in the metagame if their is one?

that's not true

has there ever been anyone who left/was cut from a team you were on that you later regretted

dont worry so much about movement and dodging and positioning that you dont put out good heals

dont worry so much about putting out good heals that you have bad movement and dodging and positioning

if teams in platinum are worried about being rolled by the invite teams, they can just move down a division

I don't get this super entitled attitude where teams want to like have their cake and eat it too- want to be placed with almost no effort on their part into the highest, most prestigious division, and also want to guarantee they don't get wrecked in that division by better teams.

plus, the top few hl teams roll lower plat anyways

so?

what's wrong with the teams having the most invite players out-dming the other team?

do me a favor

replace the word "invite" with "really good" in your post, then reread it

personally, I feel like decimate has gotten better as of late and should be higher

NOT A QUESTION I KNOW

1. there are a lot of reasons this could be happening that I can think of. off the top of my head:

a.) your demo is slow. the optimal rollout should get him there in time to at least get 1 early sticky on any aggressive scout and several on their soldiers, hopefully deterring their aggression somewhat.

b.) your demo doesn't have enough scout protection. he needs at least one and maybe both scouts with him to deny soldiers or aggro scouts.

c.) their demo is going flank. this rollout WILL get you there before the other demo. if their demo is going flank and wrecking yours, maybe try sending yours flank as well.

d.) they're overcommitting just for the demo kill. just counterjump your soldiers, have your scouts shoot their sollies in the air, and clean everyone up.

2.) I think that, when your demo goes choke, it can be useful to wait until their soldiers jump and then counterjump. it doesn't matter either way if their soldiers just jump their side, but if they jump yours that counterjump really helps. I don't think gullywash is really a map where your soldiers should be completely denied by scouts- if you're jumping your side they won't be there, and if you're jumping their side I'd have your demo with you and a scout rush up onto their side once your soldiers get there, so their scouts shouldn't be able to deal with you anyways.

3.) unless you specifically plan a mid fight where your med stays valley and players return to him when they need heals, he NEEDS to basically run up a side as soon as he gets to mid. unless one of their soldiers does a fast gunboats rollout, his life shouldn't be in danger if he just moves his ass. have him go up left elbow for sure if your demo rolls out choke (unless your combo rolls out choke as well, which btw is a viable option if your demo is fast/does a lot of dmg), and PROBABLY have your medic go up right aggro if you all go lower (although you could do a more passive climb up the left elbow from lower, I just don't usually do that).

4.) on the bridge. they probably don't need to go choke because I'm pretty sure going flank and jumping up the awning or straight onto the point via the log is faster.

5.) rolling your demo out through flank is often a very good idea, especially if their demo is doing a lot of damage to your combo. if their demo goes choke, your demo should get early dmg on him, then you can commit to killing him. if their demo also goes flank, just take over their side and they'll take over yours, and start from there (I'd prolly initiate aggression onto them with a soldier jump over the pt).

6.) nipple is a good position, but I wouldn't always take it right away cuz you can be so easily counter jumped. what I would do is, if both teams have kinda taken a side, jump 1 or both soldiers on nipple or past it directly onto them, then have scouts and demo follow up and dunk on them.

some of this is just based on how I like to play mid (aggro soldiers -> cleanup scouts), but whatevs, hope it helps