Just to put this on the record.
RGL has ZERO INTEREST in ever policing slur usage in private team discords or anything of the like.
I understand why people bring this up, I think racism and bigotry hurt communities and push people away. However, extending oversight to that level is not something we’ve ever wanted or have any interest in.
@sigafoo said in Addressing Racism/Anti-LGBTQ Speech on Off-Platform Media:
Just to put this on the record.
RGL has ZERO INTEREST in ever policing slur usage in private team discords or anything of the like.
I understand why people bring this up, I think racism and bigotry hurt communities and push people away. However, extending oversight to that level is not something we’ve ever wanted or have any interest in.
We’re locking the thread, as I believe after about 450 posts we’ve run the course of conversation.
@Iso said in Competitive TF2, Harassment, and Volunteering:
* for what it’s worth, some of them also had no loyalties to that team – they used 3 different ringers for the scrim, but such is life in amateur highlander (I don’t know whether the offensive gamer was also a ringer)
So a couple things, if you’re bringing in a ringer then maybe you should warn the ringer and confirm with them “Hey I say racist and bigoted things, are you going to be okay with that?”
RGL does not punish that type of stuff in private spaces, so the only time that our rules (which the survey showed the clear majority agreed with) are in public scrims and matches, and you can still say all the racist/bigoted things in your own private discords/mumbles during the scrim/matches. Basically, 99.99% of the internet is available for you to say all of the racist/bigoted things you want, and RGL will take no action. If you genuinely struggle for that very small portion of time to not say racist/bigoted things in game chat during scrims and matches, then I think you might have a bigger issue outside this.
Swinging the banhammer too freely doesn’t just lower the number of players, it makes the entire remaining community more divisive and less trusting of each other – the remaining players will see their friends get banned over misunderstandings (per human nature, there inevitably will be misunderstandings) and act excessively guarded, which sucks away fun for everyone in a positive feedback loop.
The number of players banned is fairly small, but the number of players that racist/bigots/harass others affect is higher. Do you think people who harass others or are bad-faith actors in the community only negatively affect less than one person in the community on average? If so, then the bans would be pushing more people out. However, it tends to these people have negatively affected many people in the community and can be a reason why people leave the competitive scene.
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.
“But sigafoo you’re only growing because of money!!”
This is another common misconception, look at HL for example. We’ve seen consistent growth from the sections outside of Invite. Invite has stayed the same size roughly 6-8 teams, but we’ve grown in our free divisions moreso. The same thing with sixes, look at our Amateur and Newcomer divisions in sixes, they’ve done very well.
@Iso said in Competitive TF2, Harassment, and Volunteering:
@tide If a gamer says a slur in a forest and nobody hears it, does it make a sound?
This might boggle your mind to hear, but some people legitimately do not mind playing with “”“toxic”"" players who banter using politically incorrect words. Who, exactly, is being harassed if these players keep it amongst themselves?
Which is why RGL does not ban people if they are not reported by someone who took part in the match/scrim. We have no auto-ban policy. So your statement of why ban someone if no one is offended, is how the policy works right now.
Also here is the article that breaks down the survey we posted earlier this year asking if players wanted us to continue the way we moderate in RGL. The majority of players affirm the policies we use to moderate our league.
@Cutimus It also means that Snipers would be more viable to mid. If you ran a heavy to mid and I ran a sniper, the sniper would have the advantage more often, IMO.
There was a game in NR Sixes in Invite where one team ran double heavy whipped to mid and the other ran a single sniper. The team running the sniper won.
Heavy is a powerful class but is balanced out when his counters can exist as well.
Howdy everyone,
This Friday, November 26th, starting at (EU 18 CET, NA 6pm Eastern), the Competitive 6v6 queue will be made publicly available for a short public beta test. While it will be publically available to everyone, we’re focusing initially on the existing competitive player base.
As you all might have experienced, it’s not easy nowadays to find a quick competitive tf2 match. Many players want to try it out and there are not many active places right now that can easily provide it to them. While inhouse pugs exist, those typically are invite-only and can sometimes be slow to have games begin.
This is exactly what we are trying to solve - We want to create a matchmaking service where anyone can come in and get a quick and balanced competitive match. It’s very different from the pug service in its approach and experience it offers, while it looks to provide a solution to an issue that we believe can help the sixes community grow and prosper.
This is the first of our public beta tests. We’re going to be trying out different ideas, different settings over the coming weeks and figure out what works best for you and for the community. It’s virtually impossible to please everyone because so many people have a particular way they believe the game should be played. Our goal is to make as good of an experience for as many players as possible, where you can get into good games, quickly and easily.
With this test, maybe we’ll be really close to what the public release will be, or maybe we’ll need to do something completely different. That is what we are here to find out.
The first place prize this weekend is $100 and over 250,000 FACEIT Points being given out, per region. FACEIT also will not have prizes tied to premium, so everyone will be able to compete for these. They’ll also be broken down into three skill tiers, so you’re not competing against Invite players for prizes, if you’re IM or Open.
##Prizes/Ladders (Unique to each Region)
High Ladder (Top 15 get prizes) - Skill level 10 through 8 - Top prize $100, Second place 50,000 FP - Total Prize pool 200k FACEIT Points
Mid Ladder (Top 50 get prizes) - Skill level 7 through 5 - Top prize 10,000 FP - Total Prize pool 50k FACEIT Points
Low Ladder (Top 50 get prizes) - Skill level 1-4 - Top Prize 5,000 FP - Total Prize pool 35k FACEIT Points
The way these ladders work is that you get 14 points on a win and 9 points on a loss. So good win rates will help you go up higher, but people who grind with over 50% win rates can potentially claim the top spots as well.
##Daily Mission
We also will have a daily mission that will give you up to 150 FACEIT Points if you complete them.
Missions:
Win 3 games
Play 5 games
##FAQ
Play the class(es) you want
Next to the play button is a “Roles” drop down list. You can select one or all of the classes you want to play and when you get placed into a match you’ll be told what class you’re playing.
What are the queue restrictions?
For this weekend’s beta test, the queue will be restricted to solo queue. Note though, our goal is ultimately to allow parties, of some form, when the liquidity of the queue is healthy enough to support it.
Voice Comms
Players can use in-game voice, or our TF2 FACEIT Discord will have voice channels players can agree to join. Players also can choose to play in their own mumbles or other voice systems if they want.
Server locations
North American servers are located in Dallas.
European servers are located in The Netherlands.
Map List
Gullywash, Snakewater, Sunshine, Refresh Metalworks, Refresh Process, Product, Clearcut, Bagel
Configs
For this weekends test, we’ll be using the RGL whitelist and configs for both regions
5cp - First to 5 or 30 minutes (ties result in golden cap round, first to 1 round win)
KOTH - First to 3 rounds
Is your ELO too low?
If your ELO is too low, you can make a request in the TF2 FACEIT Discord in the #elo_adjustment_request. Post your FACEIT url and league URL (RGL or ETF2L.) Note we’d only adjust players who are consistently (EU) Div-2 or (NA) Adv/High Main or above in skill.
Also note, if you want to be adjusted, it’s a manual process to review and update, so I highly suggest you do this before it opens on Friday.
##TL;DR:
Who: Competitive TF2 players
What: TF2 FACEIT Beta Test
When: Friday 6pm (EU 6pm CET / NA 6pm EST) - Through early Monday morning
Why: To test the FACEIT system and get feedback from players
How: Go to your TF2 dashboard @ FACEIT and you should see the 6v6 queue
Prizes: $100 top prize and 285,000 FACEIT Points to be given out this weekend
@Constantly This wasn’t meant to be a final decision question, but one to gather interest. The earliest we’d consider doing this is 2022, but we’d want to make sure that the community has clear support for it. So it’s absolutely something we’d survey in more detail, as we get closer to figuring out if this is something that can actually be accomplished.
@sigafoo said in Addressing Racism/Anti-LGBTQ Speech on Off-Platform Media:
Just to put this on the record.
RGL has ZERO INTEREST in ever policing slur usage in private team discords or anything of the like.
I understand why people bring this up, I think racism and bigotry hurt communities and push people away. However, extending oversight to that level is not something we’ve ever wanted or have any interest in.
We’re locking the thread, as I believe after about 450 posts we’ve run the course of conversation.
Just to put this on the record.
RGL has ZERO INTEREST in ever policing slur usage in private team discords or anything of the like.
I understand why people bring this up, I think racism and bigotry hurt communities and push people away. However, extending oversight to that level is not something we’ve ever wanted or have any interest in.
@LegendaryRQA said in What would you unban in sixes?:
Yeah, 100% agree.
I’m totally fine with Short Circuit being Banned, as that thing is monstrously good and invalidates Soldiers, Demos, Jarete, Mad Milk, and Arrows. Not gonna be arguing that one.
But if it’s something that barely effects the game like the FoS cuz it’s on a bad class to begin with i’d say it’s worth unbanning cuz its not going to hurt anyone,
I think the FoS would be fine if they took away the ability to capture the obj while they were out. The issue with FoS is that it requires a lot of focus on the heavy to deal with them during cart pushes.
I think they’re an interesting way to counter snipers for heavy to rotate positions, I don’t think they should be allowed to capture obj.
@rvn said in What would you unban in sixes?:
this discussion all has a place, so i’m not inherently opposed to it happening, but i’d just like to remind everyone here that there hasn’t been very much input from high level 6s players in terms of which weapons make sense, save for makkabeus’ comment.
everyone else should keep their brains active but recognize that you probably don’t really understand 6s well enough to make a judgement on improving the gamemode. some things aren’t purely a question of “fun”.
also on a personal note, i’ve literally heard 0 experienced 6s players advocate for unbanning the whip so anyone who thinks it’s a good idea should seriously reevaluate their stance.
I was hoping we’d have more high-level players trying NR Sixes as I think it’s very useful to learn from.
I’d love to see a couple of seasons of teams try harding at NR Sixes (in the off-season) to really push the boundaries of those ideas and I think we could learn from, between class limits and weapons being unbanned. From the first season of NR Sixies I came into it thinking that it’d be not great, but at least we’d learn from it. Then I realized that many of the things I was worried about didn’t affect it the way I thought it would.
We don’t truly know until players actually practice it, play it more, etc… but I thought it was interesting as it definitely ran better and more smoothly than I was expecting.
@Cutimus It also means that Snipers would be more viable to mid. If you ran a heavy to mid and I ran a sniper, the sniper would have the advantage more often, IMO.
There was a game in NR Sixes in Invite where one team ran double heavy whipped to mid and the other ran a single sniper. The team running the sniper won.
Heavy is a powerful class but is balanced out when his counters can exist as well.
Currently, sixes has 22 weapons banned in RGL. What, if any, weapons would you argue should be unbanned in this format?
Blocked weapons for Multiple classes
Blocked weapons for Scout
Blocked weapons for Soldier
Blocked weapons for Heavy
Blocked weapons for Engineer
Blocked weapons for Medic
Blocked weapons for Sniper
Blocked weapons for Spy