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RGL Sandbagging Guidelines, Updates to RGL Verification, September Bans, and More

   exa   - 10/27/2020
Past monthly articles: January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August


RGL Sandbagging Guidelines


In general, we will class restrict:

  • If a person has made the top 4-6 in playoffs multiple times in the same division (depends on the division size)
  • If a person has made playoffs in the division above
  • If a person is demonstrably better in a class than everyone else in a division

Also, sometimes a team will want to play a lower division than they can. In this case, we may further restrict their stronger players to bring the team in line with the rest of the division, even if they might not have been restricted otherwise.

In general, we largely favor recent experience and demonstrated current skill to historical performance as we find it better reflects a player's actual ability. There are also always exceptions, such as when a player is particularly bad or good at an offclass or was noticeably the strongest or weakest player on a previous team. We also handle medic experience differently, and will largely look at a player's fragging class ability rather than the med level when evaluating what division they can play. At the moment, we operate mostly under the assumption that if you're rostering on a team, you're able to play at or close to that level. Soon, the RGL site will have built-in log tracking for matches, which will enable us to do a significantly better job of differentiating mains, subs, and roster riders.

Div-1 and Advanced are special cases for sandbagging restrictions, as they are the divisions below Invite, which is at the top and has a fixed size. In an ideal world, the restrictions here would be much lighter as Invite will be filled with the best players and those who play in the division below were unable to make Invite that season. However, the restrictions can also be much heavier. This is the case in Div-1 6s, where Invite only has 6 teams out of an 8-10 team capacity and many Div-1 players could be or have played Invite. The 6s team's strategy around creating a healthier Invite division is an ongoing thing, and more about it will be shared in a later article before next season.

NOTE: Plans to have these guidelines on a publicly visible page will be looked into in the future.


Updates to RGL Verification


In 2019, RGL introduced a verification system to verify the top players in our league. However, the issue resulting from the FAQ is outdated, as the criteria for how you became verified became unclear. We plan to update these criteria here to make it clearer on how you can become verified, as well as lose your status.

What does being verified mean?
Being verified means you are a known player in our community and locked into your alias that is authentic. Most verified players are a long time or top-level player, community contributors, and/or RGL staff.

How can I be verified?
Currently, users can only be verified by admins and we are only verifying players that meet the following criteria:

  • Participate In Invite for 3-seasons or more as a starting player, as well as in casted matches
  • Helped RGL in Administrative or Community Areas

If you wish to send in a request to get verified, please send in a site support ticket in the RGL Discord.

How do you lose your verification status?

RGL reserves the right to revoke the verification status of a player at any time. This can be due to behaviors occurring on or off RGL-platforms. This includes:

  • Receiving any RGL bans
  • Violating any RGL rules, such as our sportsmanship and conduct guidelines
  • Not participating in the Invite division in over 2-seasons as a starting player (long-time or memorable players are void of this)
  • Requesting to switch to a different RGL alias on the site may result in loss of verification on the new alias

You can view our updated FAQ here.


Launch of our New Forums (in Beta)


After a substantial development time, we are finally moving the new forums into open beta. I highly encourage all of you to go head on over and check it out. These forums are meant to be the main forums for RGL and the TF2 community overall and it will provide a better user experience than the previous forums dedicated to RGL Highlander. We hope that we can provide a better user experience across all the formats for RGL using the modern forum software.

Over the next few months, we are planning on slowly disabling certain parts of the Highlander forums to help encourage users to make the transition over to the new forums. At the same time, we are looking to continue to enhance the new forums with more features and fix issues. We currently do not have a public schedule for when functions on the current forums will be disabled and when we will fully launch the new forums.

To go with our new forums, we have also revamped the forum's rules and added some new forum mods to the team. The new ruleset will also be updated on the Highlander forums starting today as well. Be sure to welcome our new forum mods perenne, timeless, constantly, and cyclowns!

New Open Beta RGL Forums: forums.rgl.gg


Launch of RGL Guides


We have released our first video guide in part of a larger series that we plan to help teach newer players to learn about competitive TF2 and RGL. Come check out our first video where we discuss how to record a POV demo here!


RGL Staff List - Autumn 2020


RGL Head Admin - exa_

6v6

Head Admin - Makkabeus

Invite - Makkabeus
Div-1 - ZoomxZe
Div-2 - mopsy
Main - DubThink
Intermediate - patrick
Amateur - denka
Newcomer - fordo

Division moderators - Mortar (Amateur & Newcomer)

Highlander

Head Admin - Micahlele

Invite - asher
Advanced - JohnnyFromCali
Main - Inquisition
Intermediate - WiLLmaTiC
Amateur - Powerpuker
Newcomer - Constantly

Division Moderators - Charizard (Advanced), 2uh (Main), Lasky (Intermediate), Klowwd (Amateur), djnnseng (Newcomer)

Prolander

Head Admin - Yotts

NA Division Admins - Yosephus, piggies


RGL Global Rule Edits




[1010.1.3] - Aliases / Fakenicking] and [1010.1.1] - Tardiness both have been updated to include a "cap" on the number of penalties a team can receive in a casted match. In the prior rules, a 6s team could receive 6 minors (2 major penalties) if their entire team is using the wrong alias during a casted match. This has been updated, so for example, the maximum would be 3 minors if more than half a team is fakenicking for a match.


[1005.4.4] - Nickname Changes is a new addition to our rules. With all RGL aliases being locked, players must now file a site support ticket to request a name change on the RGL site.


[1008.16] - Disruption of RGL Services is not adding anything new but is being added to outline examples of disruption that RGL forbids.


[1009.3.1] - Ringer Guidelines has been updated to reflect that a third of a team cannot be ringers during a match.


[1005.2] - Region has been updated to clarify that a maximum of 2 non-NA players per team is allowed in an RGL match, regardless of ringer status.


[1008.4] - Match Servers have been updated to clarify that all servers must be hosted by a dedicated server provider or through rental server providers.


[1008.4.1.3] - Mandatory Server Settings has been updated to reflect the 1008.4 ruling.


Bans


These bans were enacted before the release of this article. If you would like to file a report, you can do so on our site here. This form will be for appealing indefinite bans in RGL.gg and this form will be for appealing all other bans in RGL.

NOTE: We only look at user-submitted reports. If you do not file a report, then there is the likely chance that we have not seen it and are unable to deal with the situation.


Cheating


The following players have been caught cheating by the RGL Anti-cheat team and will be banned:

  • countryhunter12 - 1-Year / Cheating - First cheating offense
  • miles - 1-Year - Cheating / First cheating offense
  • blink - 1-Year - Cheating / First cheating offense
  • Stephen Curry - 1-Year / Cheating - First cheating offense
  • ralph - 1-Year - Cheating / First cheating offense
  • sf - 1-Year - Cheating / First cheating offense
  • xs - 1-Year - Cheating / First cheating offense
  • DaFuQWiZaT - 1-Year - Cheating - ETF2L Mirror ban / First cheating offense



Alting


The following alternate accounts have been caught connected to existing accounts in RGL by the RGL Anti-cheat team and will be banned:




League


  • Mr. Piggens - Violation of [1007.2.2] - Prize Pool Payouts Disputes. Maliciously affecting the distribution of prizes by intentionally not distributing to certain team starters. - Indefinite until appealed.



Sportsmanship and Spirit


The following players have/had been suspended for 1-6 weeks for their usage (or using a banned player) of racist slurs, homophobic or transphobic language, excessive toxicity and flaming, or derogatory language on our platforms. Repeat offenders will get longer ban lengths.

  • ToKi - Use of a homophobic slur in a match. - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • Onion Main - Use of racial slur in a scrim. - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • Garfunkle - Use of racial slur in a scrim. - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • #ripYomps - Use of a homophobic slur on a weapon name in a scrim - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • Alec - Harassment of a player; transphobic comments - 1-Month



VAC Ban


The following account has been banned for having VAC bans that may be affecting TF2. If you have a VAC ban for a game that is not TF2, please contact an admin to get the ban removed.



You can read further details and context about each of the player's bans by viewing their discipline history on their RGL profile.