iridescentFUZZ

Doesn't matter if your team is getting winning or losing 5-0; we expect players to fullfil their class roles in a serious fashion. Additionally, you've been banned for off-classing(among other things) a couple of times prior to this, so you're expected to be genuinely attempting to improve your image and reputation as a player. Going battle medic and off-classing to spy as medic shows a complete lack of respect for your opponents and disregard for our PuG rules. Your ban has been reduced to two weeks. Future bans for you will get exponentially longer, so maybe try avoid getting banned in the first place.

Double elim is better suited for something run over a short period of time, and group stages + playoffs is better suited for a long-running tournament. I think it would have been more appropriate for the poll to ask for opinions on how long the tournament should run.

Forgot to mention this is only for 5CP. I've updated the first post.

A thread is a good idea for complaints, and the guidelines we have in mind make it reasonably simple for someone complaining about an off-classer, but we'll primarily be checkings logs and not demos. Strange weapons will be allowed as soon as the whitelist is updated.

Ban reduced to one week.

Since this community, and maybe gaming communities in general seem to have a great number of socially and emotionally challenged individuals I thought some might benefit from an article not on gaming or anything of the sort, but simply on being a better human being or having the choice to be a better human being. http://www.artofmanl...in-the-mundane/ If you're too lazy to read the entire article, this excerpt from Steve Covey's book, The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People: Powerful Lessons in Personal Change sums up the article pretty well.

It's beandog! <3

I demand monetary compensation for this unlicensed use of the Admiral Fuzzbeard™ brand.

The closest we'll go to allowing more unlocks is the current ETF2L whitelist. We're still discussing stranges for the near future. The text that follows this is my opinion alone, and I do not speak for the rest of the admin team when I say that everyone needs to stop talking about "the metagame" as if this is some kind of MOBA. The unlock meta-game is a tiny part of 6v6 TF2, and I think a lot of people are misguided in thinking that allowing more unlocks will be the saviour of competitive TF2, or even bring anything good to the table. Barring attempts to get TF2 to DreamHack or other such events, support from Valve(be it through in-game lobby systems or spectator options) is the only thing which will make TF2 grow as an e-sport. I've said this earlier, but I see absolutely no merits to allowing unlocks like the quick-fix, direct-hit, jarate and huntsman, both from a league standpoint and a PuG standpoint. The game is only as stale as you make it. If you're asking for more unlocks with the end goal of increased fun, then you should probably not be playing 6v6 TF2. If you think unlocks will bring some magnificient paradigm shift and increase the skill-ceiling, I think you're sadly mistaken. It would be good to remind everyone in here that TF2 is an FPS, not a MOBA or RTS, and FPS games have primarily been about individual mechanics, timing, aim, movement, positioning and team co-ordination. tl;dr - Stop thinking about how you could have won that one scrim if you had full quickfix charge after wiping on mid, and think about how you could have prevented your team from getting wiped on mid in the first place.

Because we have yet to see a single benefit from allowing ridiculous, gimmicky weapons into the game "for the lulz". As good(in terms of unique mechanics) as weapons like the quick-fix are, most of them are far from balanced, and Valve seems to have no intention of balancing them for 6v6 now, or in the near future. If/when Valve finally confirm their intent to implement an in-game 6v6/HL lobby system or CS:GO-esque spectator features, with the condition that leagues/servers use their pick-ban system for unlocks we would consider using a "unified" ruleset. It should be allowed as it's simply a cosmetic replacement for all classes except engy and spy, but I'll look into that.

Not happening. About the killstreak weapons, we shall see.

How would you even whitelist people by mumble channel/server? Even if you could, that's probably not a great idea for two reasons: One, it doesn't ensure the people who join will communicate in the first place; two, it simply adds another barrier of entry that really doesn't need to be there. Like nata, I feel that this is indicative of a more complicated issue. While in-game comms are not optimal, using them during PuGs is probably miles better than making mumble mandatory via a whitelist.

As you may know, the AsiaFortress servers numbered 1-3 currently have a player whitelist in place. What this means is anyone who wants to play on those servers needs to join the AsiaFortress Pickup group. Joining is only possible via invite. The procedure to apply for an invite to servers 1-3 is as follows: Make sure your Steam community profile is set to public, with 25+ friends and has a minimum of 250 hours played of TF2. Go to the AsiaFortress Pickup group and join the group chat directly via the link. Once you're in the group chat, politely ask for an invite while stating your most common alias/name if you aren't currently using it. An admin will check your profile for the above criteria. Also mention the name(s) of any player(s) who may have introduced you to AsiaFortress PuGs. If the admin/mod approves your account, they will invite you to the AsiaFortress Pickup Steam group. Accept the group invite, and your ID will be added to the whitelist when the server's map changes. DO NOT : Add or spam friend invites at the admins or mods. Spam the group chat with requests Leave the group chat after asking for an invite - until your invite has been sent (check your steam community) IMPORTANT! Change your name after asking for an invite NOTE: If you're already in the group or have been invited, and cannot join a server even after a number of hours or map changes, please post in this thread so we have an idea of who is facing this issue. Click here to view the article Click here to view the article

As you may know, the AsiaFortress servers numbered 1-3 currently have a player whitelist in place. What this means is anyone who wants to play on those servers needs to join the AsiaFortress Pickup group. Joining is only possible via invite. The procedure to apply for an invite to servers 1-3 is as follows: Make sure your Steam community profile is set to public, with 25+ friends and has a minimum of 250 hours played of TF2. Go to the AsiaFortress Pickup group and join the group chat directly via the link. Once you're in the group chat, politely ask for an invite while stating your most common alias/name if you aren't currently using it. An admin will check your profile for the above criteria. Also mention the name(s) of any player(s) who may have introduced you to AsiaFortress PuGs. If the admin/mod approves your account, they will invite you to the AsiaFortress Pickup Steam group. Accept the group invite, and your ID will be added to the whitelist when the server's map changes. DO NOT : Add or spam friend invites at the admins or mods. Spam the group chat with requests Leave the group chat after asking for an invite - until your invite has been sent (check your steam community) IMPORTANT! Change your name after asking for an invite NOTE: If you're already in the group or have been invited, and cannot join a server even after a number of hours or map changes, please post in this thread so we have an idea of who is facing this issue. Click here to view the article

People in the group should be able to join servers 1-3 now. If anyone has issues, post them in this thread or the other announcement thread.

I can't answer for why some people are unable to join despite being in the group as we're looking into that currently. However, people are not supposed to add admins or mods and ask for invites. They're supposed to come into the group chat and ask for permission so they can be screened by whichever admin is around.

Wait, do CRTs run at 100Hz or more only on low resolutions?

With the problem of an increasing number of alt accounts entering the community to circumvent bans or simply screw around, a server whitelist is proposed to be set in place. Servers 0-3 will enforce a player whitelist implemented via a steam group. What this means is if you want to enter a server with a whitelist, you will need to create a forum account and post in a topic asking for an invite to the steam group. You will also need to have a public steam profile. The issue at hand is this; how many of you are aware of the existence of alternate accounts in games, and how many have had games ruined by said alternate accounts; more importantly, how many of you would like to see at least one or two servers with a player whitelist so you can go in and be assured of even some level of coherent play without anonymous alternate accounts? Continuing from that issue, how many whitelisted servers would be appropriate, in your opinion?

As it would not have been appropriate to post my views with the first post, as that could influence voting, I shall do so now. I feel that having servers 0-2 whitelisted and 3-4 non-whitelisted will provide the perfect balance for any combination of available players. For example, a combination of 8 group members and 4 not-yet-invited players available will allow them to PuG as a group if the only non-whitelisted server is occupied.

As you may know, the AsiaFortress servers numbered 1-3 currently have a player whitelist in place. What this means is anyone who wants to play on those servers needs to join the AsiaFortress Pickup group. Joining is only possible via invite. The procedure to apply for an invite to servers 1-3 is as follows: Make sure your Steam community profile is set to public, with 25+ friends and has a minimum of 250 hours played of TF2. Go to the AsiaFortress Pickup group and join the group chat directly via the link. Once you're in the group chat, politely ask for an invite while stating your most common alias/name if you aren't currently using it. An admin will check your profile for the above criteria. Also mention the name(s) of any player(s) who may have introduced you to AsiaFortress PuGs. If the admin/mod approves your account, they will invite you to the AsiaFortress Pickup Steam group. Accept the group invite, and your ID will be added to the whitelist when the server's map changes. DO NOT : Add or spam friend invites at the admins or mods. Spam the group chat with requests Leave the group chat after asking for an invite Change your name after asking for an invite This post has been promoted to an article

Thank you BasedHUD god. On a more relevant note, I quite like the design of the HUD. Just might consider using it.

What. I think you're overstating things a bit. No one's saying people like that should be helped or even tolerated. Ban and move on. If, however, he/she makes a ban appeal and genuinely undestands his/her error and attempts to make amends in future games, I see no reason why he/she should be shunned.

Despite being inclined to just sit on the sidelines and watch the drama unfold, I've finally decided to weigh in on this issue after having thought about it for a while; now that I actually have something to add to the discussion. Progress of the competitive scene being the issue, the two key things contributing to this progress are positive player quality and positive player quantity. I will attempt to avoid getting into a debate on which is more important, but I would say that player quantity is a precursor to player quality. Whether a very small, highly competitive community or a large playerbase with big skill-gaps between teams/divisions is preferred is another question entirely. That aside, player quantity increase comes primarily from new players entering the scene, and that in turn is significantly affected by the image a competitive scene creates of itself. At a more complex level, positive player quality comes from mentoring, team-building and competitive events, among other things. However, the most basic pre-requisite for positive player quality is player retention. How will players improve if you're not retaining players that join the community? While player retention is not affected much by how a competitive scene looks from the outside, it is affected by the nature of a competitive scene, whether that nature is also represented in an outwardly fashion or not. Summing up, the influx of new players, and player retention are the two key issues that need to be addressed for progress. Here comes the crux of the issue; the nature of a competitive scene. You want better quality players? More players? Then work on creating a good outward image for the Asian competitive scene, and work on not actively driving people away once they've joined the competitive scene and would like to be considered a part of it. As the reddit thread has shown, a lot of potential new-comers see AsiaFortress in a very negative light. While this could simply be vocal minorities spreading vitriol, lack of exposure of the complainants to our competitive scene, or it could be that their complaints hold genuine weight, I think getting into that debate is completely redundant. If you want new players to even dip their toes in the frigid body of water that is the Asian competitive scene, you have to make it seem like a hot spring(short term change), while at the same time attempting to make the competitive scene a better place in terms of player retention(long term change). To continue in the vein of freyja's post, would it kill you to simply be nice, or at the very least neutral? No matter what you do, where you go in life, you're going to run into people that annoy you whether it is because they're unpleasant, naive, ignorant or simply have personalities that clash with yours. You can't yell at or insult every person that annoys you IRL, so why let the anonymity of the internet change that? Veterans want newer players to change the way they approach and see the game while newer players want veterans to stop being unnecessarily vitriolic. Here's (what I hope is) an eye-opener; the two don't have to be mutually exclusive. Why should you as a newbie ignore the advice of every other veteran because you've had a few bad experiences? Why should you as a veteran rage at and insult a newbie because of a few newbies that occasionally ruin PuGs? As to the reasoning behind rage/insults/administrative-action directed at players(new or not), I find the accusation of double standards to be spot on. Kicks/bans being handed out for mere name-calling? Yes, name calling; not even racial/sexual/bigoted slurs. Moving onto the kind of abuse thrown around within the community, between veterans and new players alike; what some people consider trash-talk or friendly banter, others consider offensive. Maybe exercise a little restraint and judgement before spouting inane, incessant trash at people. Like someone mentioned, rage is not necessarily a bad thing. I don't see anything wrong with a veteran getting annoyed with a new player for something stupid they did, provided that rage is not unnecessarily offensive, and the rage is followed up by constructive advice. If you're being condescending, you're not doing it right. Last, I'm going to mention the attitude displayed by a number of players, some newbies, some veterans at the highest level; the attitude that, "The teams are stacked, so I'm going to sub out/offclass/screw around till the PuG is over". Some of those players then have the audacity to complain about the quality of games or the scene as a whole. It's not realistic to expect every single person to play super-serious every single PuG they play, but what you sow is what you reap. To name a few of the good examples in this community, we have summer, teal, bran, 2ragic, madman, js and rufus. Those are the kind of people all of you should be striving to emulate. And no, there's no TL;DR, sorry.

Download link Download the map as we prepare to update the map-pool.