White List Update / Map Rotation

   sigafoo   - 6/19/2018

Whitelist reduced


As the new season is beginning this week, and we are here to officially announce the changes to the whitelist this season.

Removed


Short Circuit - The short circuit (SC) was a very powerful tool for the engineer. Giving the engineer a consistent counter to his counter classes. With the changes to the short circuit, turning it more into a long range skill shot. We believe that it is not a weapon which needs to be restricted anymore.

We will keep an eye on it this season and listen to community feedback.

Dead Ringer - This was easily our most controversial ban. In our first season, prior to the nerf, this ban was well liked. After the nerf, many saw the ban as unnecessary. After giving it much thought and seeing how the DR has operated in other leagues, as well as listening to community feedback. We've decided to remove this from our whitelist.

Added


The TF team has overall done a good job with weapon balancing and we will not be adding any new weapons to the ban list.

Maintained


Soda popper - Is just a plainly an unfun weapon to play against. Scout is arguably the most powerful class in the game, heavily based around mobility. With this weapon, he gains a ton more mobility, with little downside. It gives the scout a potential get of jail free card for bad positioning, or options to get to fights he couldn't before. This weapon is unbanned in Highlander right now, so we'll keep an eye on that league to see if it gets any use. If we need to reverse our decision.

Crit-a-cola - Is one that we were very on the fence about. After many nerfs it seems to be in an okay spot. However, we are airing on the safe side with this. Scout, again, is already so powerful. We think that maybe in lower games this might give scout that extra advantage that we are not comfortable with.

Fist of steel - If a heavy is fully buffed (minus the penalty) on the cart with these out. A scout cannot kill him using an entire clip point blank. The FoS require too much focus from a team to kill the person on the objective. Let alone it removes the inherent counter of sniper vs heavy. These will remain banned until Valve balances it out better.

Machina - Sniper is already one of the most powerful classes in the game. This weapon is essentially a straight upgrade from the sniper rifle. During the second season of RGL, the Machina was either banned or saved in 100% of matches. This will remain banned until Valve balances it out better.

Jarate - Jarate for personal use isn't that broken. Though it does give the sniper a counter to his counter, which is not well designed. The problem with Jarate is that the sniper can easily spam the jarate towards the enemy team and stifle a push that easily. If a core class gets hit in the blind throw, they'll either die quickly pushing or not push at all. This is too much power for a secondary on the sniper. This will remain banned until Valve balances it out better.

Razorback - Spy countering the sniper through backstabs is fundamental to the game. While the Razorback is about as balanced as you can make this weapon (which shouldn't exist in the game), ultimately it stills forces a team to have to use their sniper to counter the enemy sniper. Removing this item allows teams to have more options to counter snipers, which is a key pick to get in Prolander. Even last season the Razorback was the most banned weapon in Invite. I don't believe Valve will balance this weapon going forward and there are no plans to remove it from the list.

Diamondback - The Diamondback is in incredibly powerful tool. The ability to backstab a teammate and then two shot a medic is incredibly powerful. Or get 'free' crits by sapping trivial engineer buildings. It is just too strong. This will remain banned until Valve balances it out better.

Red Tape Recorder - The RtR is banned for multiple reasons. First is that the weapon is almost always the better sapper inside of competitive. Having a longer sap doesn't matter that much in the comp, and is even a benefit when sapping mini-sentries. The fact that it almost instantly downgrades a sentry is incredibly strong. Add in the glitches that are related to this weapon and you can see why this is not allowed. This will remain banned until Valve balances it out better and the glitches related to it are fixed.

I don't agree with you!


That's totally okay if you agree or disagree with our bans. This is why we allow teams to go through their own pick/bans. They generate their own whitelist for that match and it is used in place of the default whitelist (above.)

Map Rotation



Week 1 - Upward
A well loved staple of Prolander. Don't expect to see a season without this map anytime soon.



Week 2 - Viaduct
Another staple of the comp community.



Week 3 - Steel / Badwater
We're going to give steel another chance this season. We'll see if A/D maps can work in Prolander. This is required for Invite and Div-2. For Recreational, if both captains agree, teams can opt out of Steel and play Badwater instead.



Week 4 - Coalplant
Coalplant played really well last season and we are going to keep it in for this season.



Week 5 - Borneo
Borneo is a great payload map, every point is somewhat holdable. Not too fast paced, unless one team is really rolling. A great way to end the season.



Week 6 - Barnblitz
This is only for Invite, other divisions will be in playoffs. Barnblitz will make its return in the final week of Invite.



Possible maps for next season

- koth_Cascade
- pl_Vigil

We're going to try to play at least one of the newer maps every time we host a pug night in our discord. From that data, we'll determine if we'll use these maps in future seasons. We don't want to become a league that season after season will force maps that are untested or not well liked. We'll do our best to listen to the community and give the community plenty of chances to try them out.

Good luck in your first weeks match up