Register Now For Season 3

Season 3 Registration has been underway for a few weeks, and our admin team has been hard at work setting up the new season. We would like to give a big shout out to the over 130 rosters who have registered for Season 3, over 100 of which have 4 or more active players on their teams! Below you can find all information regarding season 3, including league updates and changes from season 2.

Season 3 Dates

May 8th- Provisional division placements begin
May 16th- New team registration closes
May 19th- First default match date in Invite/Advanced/Main/IM
May 20th- First default match date in Amateur/Newcomer
Jun 5th- Weekly roster join limit of two per week is added
Jun 28th- Rosters lock
Jul 12th- Regular season ends
Playoffs will last 3-4 weeks depending on division

Please contact administrators if you feel your team is placed into the incorrect division before first week matches are scheduled.

League Updates

As some might have noticed, we have changed the name of our open division to “amateur”. This change has been done to better reflect the status of the division. There is an upper bar for player skill that was allowed in open, and our admin team felt the name was misleading due to it being closed for higher skilled players. For all functional purposes the ‘open’ division and ‘amateur’ division are identical apart from their names.

We have also added new staff to our 6s team! Please give a warm welcome to our new staff members, who will be filling division admin/moderator positions:

• ZoomxZe
• Denka
• Hawko

Staff member FrickMyNick will be stepping down from his position as a division admin.

Newbie Mix Team Drive

RGL and Newbie Mixes have officially partnered for Season 3! Read more about this partnership below:

*Note that participation in their team drive is not mandatory for participation in the newcomer/amateur divisions*

Newbie Mixes 6v6 Team Drives are back! The folks at Newbie Mixes are happy to partner with RGL to resume their seasonal team drives for players who are new to competitive and looking to enter the scene. In the team drive, you will be placed with 5 other players with similar experience/goals onto an RGL 6v6 team and have your new team partner up with an experienced mentor.

• You will be playing for the entire RGL season at least 3 nights a week, 2 hours a night, some time between 8:30 PM EST to midnight EST.
• You MUST have open availability on at least 3 nights between those times, Sunday-Thursday. The most common match times are the default times on Wednesdays at 9:30 pm EST.
• Sign ups for the team drive will be open until May 11th.

This is a fantastic opportunity to gain experience and connections in the competitive world of tf2!

Click here to sign up

Your questions can be directed to the Newbie Mixes Discord: https://discord.gg/fqYHKUE

Or click here to read their FAQ

Newbie Mixes are also looking for experienced players that are interested in mentoring these new teams. This season, we are also offering a perk for experienced players interested in coaching! RGL will refund league fees if you complete the full season as a coach. If interested, sign-up at the form here: https://forms.gle/QD96qVVmP5FNth316

Map Pool

The Map Pool for Season 3 has received the following change(s) based upon results from our post season survey and invite division map tests:

• cp_granary_pro_rc8 has been replaced by cp_villa_b13a
• koth_bagel_fall_b7 has been added for play inside of the Invite division only

A ninth map has been added for play in the invite division due to the following factors:

• Invite will most likely contain either 9 or 10 teams, resulting in a 9 week long double round robin (as opposed to normal 8 week long regular seasons). In light of the extra matches, an extra map was considered desirable by players.
• Invite representatives noted that an additional map could work in tandem with the pick/ban system, to help promote diversity among the played maps.
• Bagel was well received in preseason Invite map testing, even when compared to other 5cp candidates. When asked if bagel should replace clearcut, responses were evenly split.

In total, the map pool for season 3 will be the most updated version by season start of the following maps:

• cp_snakewater_final1
• cp_sunshine
• cp_gullywash_final1
• koth_product_rcx
• cp_process_final
• koth_clearcut_b15c
• cp_metalworks
• cp_villa_b15
• koth_bagel_fall_b7 in the invite division map pool

Whitelist

We have made updates to our whitelist following a pre-season meeting with Invite Team leaders and representatives. The following weapons have been tentatively unbanned for play in Season 3 (our whitelist may be updated midseason if required):

Detonator, Gas Passer, Scorch Shot
Survey results from NA players indicate our playerbase feels pyro secondaries pose no problem in competitive 6s. The opinions from high level Invite representatives also fell in line with this. Considering that pyro already lacks a relevant niche in high level play, it makes no sense to place unnecessary restrictions on the class.

Solemn Vow
This weapon is largely considered to be a minor factor in higher level play. Teams with effective levels of communication and teamplay are already aware of how to track ubers and players will communicate damage on hurt enemies themselves. Relying on medics using the solemn vow as a replacement for those skills is inadvisable due to its comparable unreliability or potentially dangerous positioning requirements for utilization. Additionally, the solemn vow requires an appreciable amount of focus to be effectively used. Medics spend much of their time in game focusing on incoming threats or healing teammates. Having the presence of mind to make good use of the weapon while maintaining a high level of focus on other aspects of play can be rather challenging. While concerns exist that it would allow for the skill of uber tracking to be bypassed, this would likely not be as impactful as many theorize due to uber tracking still being necessary in the many situations where medics do not have free sight on each other. Ultimately, while this weapon might make some aspects of medic easier, it would also give an increased amount of playmaking and calling potential to an otherwise backseat role. Given this reasoning, we have decided to unban it.

League Table and Points System

The traditional 6s league table ranking system will be receiving the following changes based upon feedback from our post season survey:

• The primary ranking metric for league table seeding will be Win/Loss.
• The secondary ranking metric will be a ratio of rounds won to total rounds played. Unfinished rounds are not considered in this statistic. The calculation is done with the formula (Rounds Won)/(Rounds Won + Rounds Lost)
• Tiebreakers, if required, will be handled according to the global ruleset. (Head to head -> Strength of schedule formulas -> etc.)

LAN

Due to uncertainties surrounding COVID-19 we are uncomfortable scheduling a LAN for Season 3 given the chance of quarantine measures still being enacted. Our league has funds earmarked for renting a LAN venue, and will be hosting an event at the nearest available opportunity.

Plugins

We currently have community polls available to gauge interest in the use of various competitive plugins. You may view the poll here. Due to insufficient testing in North America and the lack of time to thoroughly do so, some features such as the “Removes medic attach speed” portion of twikuu’s plugin are not being considered for Season 3. Regardless, we still hope to gauge community interest, so please submit your votes in a timely fashion.

Best of luck to all teams in Season 3! If you have any questions regarding the the traditional 6s league, feel free to contact members of the staff team, or leave a message in the #help-and-feedback channel of our discord. Thanks!