Bodyshot them and move on.

A new post/thread like this comes up every year it seems, but as she wrote, nothing has really changed each time. The reason being that there are next to no consequences on the TF2 platforms for engaging in harassment or hateful behavior, particularly in places like TFTV and ETF2L. As one example: there are multiple people that have been banned for harassment on RGL that are some of the most active posters on TFTV forums/discord. That’s a bad sign, and only leads to the perpetuation of harassment culture. If you are a person that brings harm to the community, you should be removed from the community through bans across the board from forums, leagues, pugs, etc. Sure that will not stop all off-platform behavior but it’s at least some deterrent. Trust me when I say that a lot of these kids are quite attached to competitive TF2 and would feel these consequences.

That being said, I do think RGL has been one of the only organizations that has been willing to put their foot down on this. It could always be better, but I don’t think any other organization has even come close. Some try to perpetuate a narrative that RGL is harming the community through a more hands-on approach, but it just doesn’t prove true when you look at the statistics and feedback collected through surveys. Always remember that often the most vocal critics are the exact people that engage in harmful behavior, so their motives to resist are clear, and almost a sign that you’re on the right path. It is the mostly-silent majority that are the real community of RGL. In a large part, I hope that these forums may help to bring some of those people forward once they know that they can actually engage in welcoming and constructive discussions here. This is how the culture changes, by opening the door to drowning out the negativity.

Competitive TF2 is a small community, and needs to be moderated more along the lines of a private club than as a public utility. We should be willing to shed the worst parts of the community that are dragging us down so that we can thrive in an environment that is wholesome, constructive, welcoming, competitive/game-focused, etc. We should be willing to lose a corrupted veteran in order to make way for a positive newcomer. In the long run, this will bear the greatest change. We’ve already seen how efforts to make TF2 more accessible have led to the great growth of RGL over the past year. For the sake of the competitive TF2 community RGL must stay committed to this goal.

Exciting stuff, and it’s looking good!

I miss the era of all-night high level pugs, and been waiting patiently for this system in hopes that it can deliver an experience like that.

@sigafoo said in Competitive TF2, Harassment, and Volunteering:

I would argue it’s the inverse, having lax policies and enabling bad behavior drives more people away than bans. This is one of the main reasons that RGL has grown in my opinion, is through our moderation. Every six months we’ve posted about 20-40% growth over the previous six months of the total registered player count in this “dead game” for the last three years.

This is the most important part that is often overlooked by those who claim their edgy behavior is benign. Through the cultural damage done by hateful conduct, it brings harmful repercussions to the entire community and league. What you may think is only relevant to the people in the server at the time can actually negatively affect the overall culture and perception of the community, which is essential to protect in order to maintain RGL as a place that is welcoming of new players. If someone is harming the league, it is perfectly reasonable for RGL to take action.

I quite dislike the current wording around the lack of scrutiny of off-platform behavior such as Steam/Discord PMs, as those can be some of the most potent tools bad actors will use to directly harass people, and can still contribute to the same problem of cultural degeneration.

Event Page: https://nerdstreet.com/events/tf2-at-localhost-fullerton-2022-02-12
REGISTRATION LIVE!

In the aftermath of the cancellation of DreamHack Anaheim, a new TF2 LAN event is born in its stead. Starting with this event, we are aiming to break the cycle of frustrating LAN cancellations from the past few years, and offer a great LAN experience that the TF2 community deserves. Localhost is committed to supporting grassroots esports communities of all shapes and sizes, so hopefully this can serve as the beginning of a new era of TF2 events all across the country.

When:
February 12-13, 2022 (Saturday and Sunday)
11am-10pm PST Daily (10:30am Check-in)

The venue will be open in the days before and after the event, feel free to stop by and rent some time on the computers for even more LAN experience.

Where:
Localhost Fullerton
1134 S Harbor Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92832
https://www.localhost.gg/fullerton/
Venue photos: https://imgur.com/a/dE99IWt
(Note: The building is brand new, and attached to a Five Below that replaced a closed Chuck E Cheese, so don’t be surprised if searches of the address wield outdated results)

Localhost Fullerton is in a fantastic location with many amenities in the immediate vicinity, including: free parking, restaurants (In-N-Out, Chipotle, Chic-fil-A, GEN Korean BBQ, etc), shopping centers (Amazon Fresh, Costco, Target, Best Buy, etc), lodging (Fullerton Lodge, Willow Tree Lodge), and is just down the road from attractions such as downtown Fullerton and Disneyland. Cross-country travelers can fly into any of the nearby airports LAX, BUR, SNA, ONT or LGB.

What:
An open 6v6 TF2 community LAN tournament, everyone is welcome to sign up. There will be a group stage into a double elimination bracket. We would love to have 8 teams, but the more the merrier! Tournament entry fee is $300/team, which will include PC access during the tournament. This is not a BYOC, up to 60 high-end computers will be provided for our use, but participants are encouraged to bring their own peripherals (Mouse, Keyboard, Mousepad, Headset, Config). Spectators are welcome to visit to watch and hang out for the weekend, for a small entrance fee, $10 for 1 day or $15 for 2 days. All ticket purchases will be split 50/50 between covering event costs and funding the prize pool.

Prizing:
$3000 minimum, to increase based on sign ups, spectator attendance, crowdfunding and sponsorships. With the following breakdown:

1st - 45% + 6 VAXEE Gaming Mice
2nd: 25%
3rd: 15%
4th: 6%
5th: 2.7%
6th: 2.7%
7th: 1.8%
8th: 1.8%

Want to contribute to the prize pool? Send money here: donate.resup.gg
100% of funds received will go to the prize pool.

PC Specs:
BenQ 240Hz Monitors
Motherboard - B460M Pro-VDH
CPU - Intel i7 10700F
GPU - RTX 3070 8GB
RAM - 32 GB
Storage - 2TB
PSU - 850W
OS - Windows 10 Pro

COVID Disclaimer:
In accordance with the venue’s COVID safety policy, face masks are required at all times inside the building. If you have concerns about cancellations, consider getting travel insurance.

This is all coming together relatively fast, and some details are still developing, so stay tuned for updates. If you have any questions please feel free to ask. Most importantly if you are excited about the event and intend to come, let everyone know!

CU@ LHTF2!

@shotaway said in RGL Conduct Survey #4 Results, Global Rule Edits, & 2021 March/April Bans:

I hope that this attitude doesn’t exist within RGL staff. It’s supposed to be a community league?

RGL is supposed to be a community league. Placing the interests of the league above the community is a problem in this case. RGL certainly can screw community content (which seems to be the case based on your earlier comment) to suit its own interests, but I have problems with that. It is for this reason that I made these posts. There are better ways to lower the frequency of cast disruption that don’t involve shutting down community content in a community league.

I am also not an admin responsible for the decisions made on this topic, but it does annoy me when I see this argument so I want to chime in. My understanding is that RGL is a “community league” because it is grassroots, built by players and members of the community, and isn’t owned by a major corporation, NOT because any decision it makes must empower every member of the community or that every decision must be made by community vote. Sometimes catering to the community is good, sometimes it is detrimental. In navigating that, the league admins should make decisions that are in its best interests that will benefit the success of the competitive scene, even if they may be unpopular with some members of the community.

Hoping the Halloween versions of Badwater and Upward are fun.

Bit of feedback after looking around.

Sniper sightlines out of last-point spawn doors may be a bit too strong.

Extending this ledge on mid to wrap all the way around the corner would help for soldiers to have a spot to jump to when busting through choke. Shouldn’t be too strong for defense due to the back wall making it an easy spot to splash if people linger too long.

On 2nd point, a bit more height would help to promote more aggressive defenses around the choke, and also provide more options for soldiers as they bust through choke.

I picture a ledge here built from those giant pipes.

I picture a small pipe running across here.

Hope it helps. Map is coming along well!

Glad to see so many people as excited about this project as I am. The showmatches were really fun, and it was only a glimpse of the fully fledged system. Once everything is all up and running it should be even better. Seems that among the next steps will be to gather feedback, fix bugs, and eventually run a larger scale test to start calibrating the ranking system.

A shitfest that could have been avoided at about a dozen different points. But it will certainly make the tension of the match much higher.

LHTF2 LAN Conclusion

This was an amazing event! Thank you to everyone who attended, competed, tuned in to the streams, posted pictures, contributed to the prize pool, and of course thanks to Localhost and the RESUP crew that helped run the event including RaosCometh, AvoidJoker, moof, exa, reno, and Dolphin.

Final Team Standings
1st. froyotech
2nd. Like A G6
3rd. Witness Gaming
4th. RoS HNJ
5th/6th. Ford Gaming, Penguins in 3D
7th/8th. aLAN Gaming, Lexus December To Remember Event
9th. Portland Burnsiders
10th. POC and Giblert
11th. FireUP Esports

Prize distribution is currently being sorted, so please bear with us as we coordinate with Localhost to get that done. We may require some additional information from teams to deliver prizes, so please keep an eye out for a message in case we run into any issues.

Raffle Winners
The winner of the Unusual Disco Beatdown California Cap was Zachary W, and the winner of the signed XL Localhost Mousepad with signatures from all competitors at LHTF2 LAN was Elena Manetta. They were both extremely generous with their contributions to the prize pool so it was only fitting that they each won prizes. I will be reaching out to the PayPal email addresses provided in order to coordinate the delivery of your prizes.

Feedback
As great an event as it was, especially considering it was the first RESUP LAN, it was admittedly not perfect. If you have any feedback about any aspect of the tournament, please share it with us here on the RGL Forums event post so we can use it to improve our events in the future.

LHTF2 LAN Update #5

LAN begins today! Team Check-In is at 10:30am and matches kick off at 12pm. Main stream is at twitch.tv/b4nny

New Sponsors: RGL and FACEIT
We are excited to welcome RGL and FACEIT as event sponsors. Like us, they are striving to help build up the TF2 scene, so we are thrilled to be partnering with them. RGL is currently running their competitive 6v6 season and preparing for their upcoming 7v7 Prolander season, with registration open now and matches starting next Friday. Players of all skill levels are welcome to signup, free of charge, and can even compete for prizes in all divisions. Learn more at RGL.gg and catch their matches streamed live at twitch.tv/RGLgg all season. Meanwhile, FACEIT has been a long supporter of the TF2 scene and are excited to keep trying to build new experiences for both competitive and casual players alike, with new features coming soon. Head over to FACEIT.com to check it out.

Additional Streams
We have been coordinating with TFTV (twitch.tv/teamfortresstv) and KritzKast (twitch.tv/KritzKast) to bring additional coverage to the event, currently enough to cover 3 simultaneous matches. We still have availability for 1 additional casting organization to cover the 4th match slot, so if you are interested in casting please reach out to us and we may be able to accommodate. Demos for all matches will immediately be available on demos.tf so at the very least people can still find a way to review any matches that go uncasted.

CU@

LHTF2 LAN Update #4

LAN is only a few days away and people are already starting to arrive in town in anticipation for the event. Many players and teams will be around the venue starting Thursday and Friday evenings before the event for scrims, so if you’re in the area feel free to swing by early! If you plan to post event discussion, pictures, etc. on social media be sure to use hashtag #LHTF2

Event Schedule and Format

Doors open for check-in at 10:30am PST. Teams that are competing will need all 6 of their players present in order to check-in. Following check-in, players will immediately have photos taken and sign the event mousepad and then be directed to their assigned PC row to begin setting up and preparing for their matches.

The Swiss group stage matches will begin at 12pm PST. To accommodate scheduling and to improve the average quality of matches for participants, the top 3 teams from RGL S7, froyotech, Witness Gaming and Like A G6 have been granted a bye through the group stages, and will not play until the elimination stage. The top 5 teams from the group stages will join them in the elimination bracket and in the prizing. With this adjustment, every team will have a dedicated PC row and will not have to rotate setups during their tournament run.

The Elimination stage matches will begin at 5pm PST. The qualifying 8 teams will play through a double elimination bracket. Note that the first couple matches in the elimination bracket will be BO1s, then the remaining matches will be BO3, until the BO5 grand finals (1 map advantage to upper bracket finalist). By the end of the first day only 4 teams will remain in the tournament and the first grand finalist will be known.

While PCs will be mostly occupied during the tournament on Day 1, they will become much more available for drop-ins on Day 2 as only 1 match will be ongoing at any time, but they will be first-come-first-serve.

We will need the cooperation of all players in order to make things run as smoothly as possible. Should we be ahead of or behind schedule we may adjust things day-of as needed, and in worst case scenarios will resort to issuing forfeits if teams delay matches. Players should stay in communication with reno as much as possible during the event to ensure everyone is on the same page.

Map Pool
RGL’s S8 Invite map list will be used:

cp_snakewater_final1
cp_gullywash_f6
cp_sunshine
koth_product_final
cp_granary_pro2
cp_process_f9a
koth_bagel_rc5
cp_metalworks_f2
cp_prolands_rc2ta

News Posts
We have an official TeamFortress.com news post here: https://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=124596

The event was featured in an article by the esports news outlet Upcomer: https://www.upcomer.com/after-nearly-four-years-team-fortress-2-returns-to-lan-this-weekend/

What’s Left?
We want to have as many matches streamed/casted as possible, so we are still coordinating with a few production teams to secure coverage, with details coming soon. We also have one more sponsor to announce soon. Otherwise everything is pretty much figured out.

CU@LHTF2!

LHTF2 LAN Update #3

Crowdfunding Campaign: Donations
We are launching the crowdfunding campaign to help fund the the prize pool of LAN!

To donate directly to the prize pool, send money here: http://donate.resup.gg

We will be offering a few perks to all donators, as follows:

• Donators will have their names listed on a thank you page during the stream. You can leave a note along with your donation as to how you would prefer your name be displayed, or if you’d rather not be displayed at all.

• Donators will receive a raffle entry for a chance to win two prizes:
  – An Unusual Disco Beat Down California Cap
  – A signed XL Localhost Mousepad with signatures from all competitors at LHTF2 LAN

Anyone who purchases a spectator pass will also be given 2 raffle entries.

Crowdfunding Campaign: Merch
We are also launching the RESUP merch shop today, with profits going towards RESUP events, the first of which being LHTF2 LAN.

To browse and purchase merch, go here: http://shop.resup.gg

Don’t miss out on the LIMITED EDITION design that will be available exclusively for this event.

We appreciate all your support so far, CU@ LHTF2!

The solution is always to just keep advertising the events and to make competitive TF2 more accessible. It would also be nice if more competitive players made content or had more of an engaging social media presence that fans could get invested in.

Teams have been drafted!

Team b4nny: b4nny, artist, mirrorman, paddie, meyy, Zam, Rio (backup)
Team jay: jay, botmode, howard, zilly, donovin, tresh, garbuglio (backup)
Team laz: laz, sin k4rma, corsa, alfa, tripbwai, cookiejake, sigh (backup)
Team habib: habib, lolguy, highfive, arekk, soooooapymeister, dingo, sandblast (backup)

Bracket: https://challonge.com/2022Draftomaticcup

Tournament begins Saturday 9pm EST, and streamed on twitch.tv/b4nny

Thanks to everyone who signed up, even if you didn’t get picked. GLHF!

Welcome to the “Draftomatic Cup” generously sponsored by fx. This is the inaugural RESUP event before LHTF2 LAN, meant to stir up a little bit of excitement and put a bit of cash in the pockets of players that may be traveling to LAN soon. If you’ve ever wondered what it might look like to split up the rosters of top teams, you won’t want to miss this! There will be a stream on twitch.tv/b4nny, but all participants are encouraged to stream their POVs as well.

What/When
1 Day Draft-Style Online Cup
Saturday 1/22/22, 9pm EST to ~1am EST
4-team double elimination bracket
BO1 matches until BO3 grand finals

Drafting
Captains will be b4nny, habib, jay, laz
Picking order will be drawn randomly, then follow a snake pattern (1, 2, 3, 4, 4, 3, 2, 1, 1, etc)
Draft will occur on Thursday 1/20/22 at ~12am EST

Prizes
1st: $750
2nd: $240
3rd: $120
4th: $60

Ruleset
We will be using improved round timer and improved match timer plugins, available on na.serveme.tf now.

To be added to the player pool that the captains will draft from, post below, or message b4nny or virgil.

Player Pool Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1rP-SyoWpwcpQbAVpdpMk_OmEcQcRDhzFb6UywckMMtE/edit?usp=sharing

LHTF2 Update #2

REGISTRATION DEADLINES
There will be a deadline of 2/1/22 for all new team registration. If you intend to sign up a team but cannot register or pay before that deadline please reach out to us so we can see about making an arrangement for you. Spectator passes will remain open for purchase online, and will still be available day of the event or in person.

Currently we have all of the top teams in NA fully registered (froyotech, Witness Gaming, Like a G6) plus a few fan favorites (Ford Gaming, Portland Burnsiders), with more in the process of confirming (RoS, Global Clan, etc) for a total of ~10 teams. Because we are going to have so many teams there will likely not be many open PCs for drop-ins/rentals until late in the evening on day 1. If you want to guarantee yourself a 0-ping experience, be sure to get a team together and signed up for the tournament.

Buy team passes and spectator passes here: https://nerdstreet.com/events/tf2-at-localhost-fullerton-2022-02-12

Team + LFT Spreadsheet: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iJ7tKxWe3ZhIGVKKvYUMVKNrwzBQyKZ0Hb2uq-m8t78/edit?usp=sharing

Ruleset, Plugins, Configs
All matches will be played with RGL rules, and RGL map list (TBD), except where specified otherwise.

There will be no halftimes. Teams will be encouraged to use their tactical pauses between rounds instead.

KOTH matches will be played first to 4.

5CP matches will be played with the Improved Round Timer and Improved Match Timer plugins. The specific settings of each are as follows:

• Round timer will be set to 3 minutes (resetting each time a point is captured).
• Match timer will be 30 minutes, but if neither team scores 5 points by then, the winlimit will be reduced to the current highest score plus 1 (ex: After 30 mins, the score is 3-1, so the winlimit will be set to 4 and the match will only end when a team scores 4 points).

These settings are meant to reduce prolonged stalemates, and to eliminate undesirable effects of traditional timelimit formats (parking the bus as a winning strategy, stifled comebacks, garbage time, anticlimactic match endings, etc). These plugins are available now on servers rented from http://na.serveme.tf for you to practice with (select Enable Plugins and rgl_6s_5cp_improvedtimers).

The plugins can also be downloaded separately from the links below.

Improved Match Timer: https://github.com/dewbsku/Improved-Match-Timer
Improved Round Timer: https://github.com/b4nnyBot/TF2-Improved-Round-Timer-Plugin
Combined Pack: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1pU1G2im-d2wa12ijyKmR4UegMpJzJe8a/view?usp=sharing

Logistics/Stream Info
This will be one of the first events under the “RESUP” banner, to delineate the event organization, production and finances. The on-site production team will be streaming to http://twitch.tv/b4nny, covering the headline match at any given moment, but since there may be as many as 4 simultaneous matches at once, we will hope to coordinate with other production teams to cover as many matches as possible on different channels. We are aiming for the on-site casts to have a loose and fun feel with plenty of guest casters and community interaction. We will set up a couple live cams for the stream and also have an event photographer getting pictures of players, teams, and action from the event.

Localhost TF2 LAN (LHTF2) Update #1

Happy New Year! We’ve got some great news about the event to start 2022 off right.

REGISTRATION IS LIVE
Team passes and spectator passes are now available: https://nerdstreet.com/events/tf2-at-localhost-fullerton-2022-02-12
Team passes - $300/team
Spectator passes - $10 1-day, $15 2-day

In order to purchase a team pass, you will need to create a team and have 6 players rostered. It is fairly straightforward and quick to set up, just have someone register an account and create the team through Nerdstreet’s system (https://nerdstreet.com/dashboard) and then send each player the invite link provided on your team page.

Teams + LFT Spreadsheet
To help everyone get a sense of who’s coming to the event, and to help teams form, we put together a spreadsheet of attendees: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1iJ7tKxWe3ZhIGVKKvYUMVKNrwzBQyKZ0Hb2uq-m8t78/edit?usp=sharing

Please reach out to me or reno on Discord (b4nny#0323 / reno#0019) so we can keep the list updated. Individuals looking for teams should tell me their name, desired classes, division, and preferred contact method.

You can also find the current list of confirmed fully paid attendees (Teams/Spectators) here: https://nerdstreet.com/events/tf2-at-localhost-fullerton-2022-02-12?section=attendees

Sponsorship: VAXEE
We are happy to welcome our first sponsor of the event, VAXEE! They are a relatively new esports hardware company that consists of many of the original Zowie Gear team, carrying on their legacy of high-end gaming peripherals. The winning team of the tournament will have their choice of 6 VAXEE products: https://www.vaxee.co/en/product.php (Winners will need to provide a shipping address, and phone number in order to receive their prize)

We are in talks with a few more potential sponsors, so stay tuned for more updates.

RGL Conduct Partnership
We will be aligning with RGL’s player conduct policies during the event, so any violations of them during the event may result in RGL penalties, and this also means that any player that is RGL banned at the time of the event would not be allowed to participate, either as a player or spectator.

Next Steps
Going forward, the top things on our agenda are to spread the word far and wide about this event to get as many people signed up as possible, to flesh out the event ruleset and schedule, to iron out production details, to launch a crowdfunding/merch campaign to benefit the prize pool, and to lock down a couple more sponsors. Things are moving fast, but they are coming together nicely and we are on track for a great event so far.

As always, please post if you have any further questions or concerns.

CU@ LHTF2!

@vibeisveryo said in TF2 LAN at Localhost Fullerton (Feb 12-13, 2022):

Is there a requirement for attendees to be fully vaccinated against the Coronavirus?

What other precautions will be taken, independently of county/state/federal laws, to protect attendees from it?

At this time, there are no additional rules beyond the mask requirement stated in the OP. Should local regulations or venue policies change I’ll be sure to let everyone know.

@b4nny said in TF2 LAN at Localhost Fullerton (Feb 12-13, 2022):

COVID Disclaimer:
In accordance with the venue’s COVID safety policy, face masks are required at all times inside the building. If you have concerns about cancellations, consider getting travel insurance.