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RGL HL S2 Map Pool, New Medals Poll, and More (Part 2)

   exa   - 12/21/2018
RGL HL S2 League Structure, Plans, and More (Part 1)

Vote Now


Medal Designs


Medals are an integral part of any competitive TF2 league since it serves as an incentive for players to participate in the league. We are aware that not many players may have been very fond of our first design that we showcased publicly. We are happy to announce that there is a second design that is being worked on and we are going to host a poll to see what the community would rather prefer for the RGL HL medals. You can vote here.

NOTE: The thumbnail for option #1 will be updated as soon as we can. The graphic here contains what the actual medals would look like in-game.

Placements


Placements are important for any team, specifically for the league structure that we are trying to aim for with Season 2. We have started placing teams into the divisions to allow teams to understand which teams to scrim in their division and to allow us to receive feedback about our placements. Teams that believe they belong in a higher division should be able to defeat at least half of the division above their current division OR dominate most of the top teams in their current division.

Please note that a team’s division is still subject to change as the week goes on or if a team leader can make a compelling case for being in a division. Players that leave and join new rosters during the season will also be monitored, teams with significant changes will regularly be reevaluated and placed in a division. If you believe that a team should be in a different division, you can contact us here on Discord.

Map Pool


We thank everyone for participating in the Experimental HL Cup that happened from the 15-16th of December. This helped to generate a lot of feedback on the forums as well as give us a chance to see if there are potentially any new maps that would be ready for the Highlander Season 2.

However, this will be the map fool across all 5 divisions for RGL HL for Season 2:

  • Week 1 - koth_product_rc9
  • Week 2 - pl_upward
  • Week 3 - koth_ashville_rc1
  • Week 4 - pl_swiftwater_final1
  • Week 5 - koth_lakeside_final
  • Week 6 - pl_borneo
  • Week 7 - cp_steel

Roster Sizes


In the beginning of the season on the first S2 League Article, we had the team roster sizes set to 12, with the idea of increasing it to 18 during the season. The idea was to maximize the total number of potential teams created (if the roster sizes were 12 during the preseason), while also helping us place teams in their correct divisions as this would help us see who the core players of the roster were.

Looking back at it now, this may have not particularly yielded the results we wanted since it only delayed teams rostering their subs until after the season start. Team sizes should now be default at 18 during the preseason and entering season 2.

Rule Change


"If a player’s ping causes the game to be unplayable for other players (e.g. their character is constantly jumping around, etc...), that player may be blocked from that regions competitions.”

This is a rule that has been in the RGL.gg rulebook for many years now. In an online competitive league, lag and ping can be factors in the overall outcome of a match. We unfortunately do not have the resources necessary to have a LAN to counter these drawbacks of online play. However, it is not to say that a player’s net settings can be instrumental in the overall enjoyment of the other team that is playing against the individual. Players that are warping, teleporting, or stuttering across the map can not only create a disadvantage to those playing against them, but also can hurt the enjoyment of the players participating in the match.

Furthermore, this hurts the integrity of a league that both operates online and tries to enact fair rules and guidelines in its competition. With the past season, we had run into several issues with teams or players that were visibly lagging across the map. There is already precedence there with us blocking players from playing in the North American region. It should be noted that it is not the league’s responsibility to accommodate the players with issues such as high choke or clear warping issues during a sanctioned RGL match. Going forward into Season 2, this will be enforced more heavily.

Invite S1 Award Results


Congratulations to the winners of their respective categories:

  • Scout of the Season – arekk
  • Soldier of the Season – habib
  • Pyro of the Season – Billysaurus
  • Demoman of the Season – Jarrett
  • Heavy of the Season – Carcin
  • Engineer of the Season – Spamfest
  • Medic of the Season – Nursey
  • Sniper of the Season – Fallen Gourd
  • Spy of the Season – feint
  • Best Player of the Season – Fallen Gourd
  • Honorary Award: Producer Of The Season – DolphiN

Invite Default Match Dates


Invite default match date should be at Monday on 9:30 PM EST. This, however, will come at the cost of the production side, as we will likely not have the best casters to commentate each match and will also be at a time that most players (that are interested) will not be able to watch the stream.

Every week, we plan to look at the match of the week and ask if teams would want to reschedule to a different day to play the match. We will prioritize covering teams that can reschedule their matches from Monday though.

Demos


Over the span of Season 2, we will be requesting for POV demos regularly. Players that do not have their demos will receive punishments for not submitting their demos. Please make sure you are either using the in-game demo recording option or PREC and ensure they are working every match.

NOTE: Scrim demos may be requested for anti-cheat checks, missing demos in those cases will also result in punishments.

Player Penalties

  • First Time: Warning
  • Second time: Player is banned for two weeks from RGL competitions
  • Third Time: Player is banned for two months from RGL competitions
  • Fourth time or more: Player is banned for one year from RGL competitions

Team Penalties

  • First Time: Minor warning which will be removed if the demo is uploaded
  • Second time or more: Major Warning that cannot be removed

Future of Articles


Format-wise, we are not doing predictions anymore for the articles. Predictions will be moved to a weekly thread on the RGL HL Forums. We want to focus on covering notable events from the season (roster transactions, teams dying, etc.). The intent is to focus more on producing quality weekly articles rather than weekly prediction articles that did not include very objective reporting from the beginning.

Bans


Something that we want to do more consistently is be transparent about our bans in RGL HL. Some of these bans were issued during Season 1 and shortly before the release of this article.

The following player has played on an alt account in the Experimental HL Cup while being banned on their main account. Their ban has extended for another 3 months:


Secretly Satan has assisted him with alting, so he will be banned for 3 months.

The following player have been caught alting to intentionally smurf in lower divisions during Season 1 and will be banned for a year:


Jim Vickers is the Alt account associated with him, which is also a shared account among multiple Prem ETF2L players.

Extrasolar has assisted them with alting, so he will be banned for 6 months.

There is a distinct line between what is considered “trash talking” and what is saying racial, homophobic, or transphobic slurs. It is in any competitive league, however where good natured trash talk is part of the community and the game. The line is clearly drawn when a player makes it personal and uses it to directly attack another person’s race, gender, or disabilities.

The following player was banned for repeated use of racial slurs during the Experimental HL Cup. The ban was in motion for the remainder of the Experimental HL Cup and will be restricted from play for the first 5 weeks of RGL HL Season 2:


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