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RGL Staff Changes, Global Rule Updates, and 2021 August Bans

   exa   - 9/10/2021
Past articles:
January
February
March/April
May
July/June


RGL Staff Changes


  • Makkabeus Rex will be resigning from their position as a Sixes Head Admin. Reno will be filling in their place and take over as the head admin for that format.
  • Yotts and will be resigning from their position as a Prolander Head Admin. A replacement will be announced.
  • JohnnyFromCali, tua, Klowwd, and sakura, and djnnseng will be stepping down from their positions as Highlander Challenger Admin, Advanced Admin, Amateur Admin, Main Moderator, and Newcomer Moderator respectively.

We would like to thank them for their work and time spent volunteering and wish them the best of luck in their future endeavors.


6v6 Staff List

Head Admin
Reno (reno#0019)

Invite
Admin: virgil (virgil#5087)
Moderator: Scream (Scream#4249)

Advanced
Admin: dave2 (deathsnail39#6731)
Moderator: min-ji (nina min-ji#7460)

Main
Admin: je'mond (je'mond#0007)
Moderator: min-ji (min-ji#7460)

Intermediate
Admin: Fluey (fluey#9037)
Moderator: Fleskore (Fleskore#0160)

Amateur
Admin: camp3r (camp3r#0001)

Newcomer
Admin: Kitty (Kitty™#5889)
Moderator: Fleskore (Fleskore#0160)


HL Staff List

Head Admin
WiLLmaTiC (WiLLmaTiC#0777)

Invite
ire (ire#3444)

Advanced
Admin: Joey Lemons (Joey Lemons#7629)
Moderator: Bert (Bert#4135)

Main
Admin: Rebel (Rebel#7198)
Moderator: Spazz (Spazz#9847)

Intermediate
Admin: Icy (Icy#9717)
Moderator: grey (grey#2625)

Amateur
Admin: Charizard (Charizard#9735)
Moderator: yogrrt (yogrrt#5974)

Newcomer
Admin: Powerpuker (Powerpuker#4678)
Moderator: Kitty (Kitty™#5889)


Global Rule Edits




[1009.4.1] - Ringer Guidelines has been updated to include much more clarification regarding the sections in our ringer guidelines. This refers to when penalties are issued when match overturns are issued for using undeclared ringers, as well as the guidelines that the admin team uses when selecting a ringer when a team is repeatedly denying ringers.


[1006.8] - Division Guidelines has been updated to clarify how a player's roster experience is handled, as well as considerations for skill decay for players that have not touched competitive TF2 in an extended period.


[1008.7] - Requesting Match Forfeits has been updated to include a note about the distinction between playoff and regular season handling of match forfeits.


[1005.1] - Who Can Register has been updated to clarify that the liability of an account that a player registers in RGL becomes their own. Players that have their accounts compromised should create a support ticket in the RGL Discord immediately to resolve this dispute.

(6v6)
(Highlander)

[2019] - League Fees and Ringer Fees (Highlander) and [3015] - League Fees and Ringer Fees (6v6) have been added to clarify what the league and ringer fees for each format are.


[3001] - Gamemode Rules (6v6)
has been updated to reflect how Highlander and Prolander format-specific rule addresses the minimum number of players need to start a match (being able to play down one player). For 6s, teams can opt to start a match 5v6.


[1002.2] - Harassment / Flaming / In-Game Toxicity has been updated to include more examples of what is considered harassment.


[1010.1.1] - Tardiness has been updated to modify the time intervals for tardiness, which is now 10-minute intervals (previously 5).


[1006.8.2] - Newcomer Division Guidelines has been added to clarify the guidelines that the Admin team reviews when placing teams for the Newcomer division.


[1005.2] - Region has been reverted to the previous iteration of this rule where each region now has a maximum capacity of non-region players per format. For the North America region, the cap is three non-NA players for Highlander, two for Sixes, and two for Prolander.

Starting in the year 2021, RGL had updated the region rule to a latency-based system where teams have a maximum capacity of a third of the roster having connections exceeding 150 ping to the league's default region central server. After two seasons, this has given us new findings regarding this rule that was not initially anticipated, which will be covered here.

  • Anti-cheat

Specifically, with anti-cheat, the current rule has contributed to an increase of cheating and alting cases to the league. With the current RGL leagues operating in North America, the increase in cases from non-regions created a bigger backlog for the volunteer staff to handle. With non-region players not having much of a background or experience, this also made it difficult to handle alting cases which affected the integrity of the league primarily in our lower divisions. Additionally, in other regions where documentation is fuzzy, it became difficult for mirrored cheating bans to be placed due to unclear evidence or practices in these regions.

  • Enforcement

Enforcement of the 150-ping rule also proved to be inconsistent. Fundamentally, ping as a metric is difficult to enforce and not a consistent metric, especially after the season starts. There were many situations where players near the 150 ping cap would sometimes be okay, and then other days where they were not.

Below contains a major point from a 2020 article discussing the region rule. They will be reiterated here due to the pronounced issues that were brought up by division administrators:


  • Issues of Skill Equivalency and Sandbagging

For players participating in our league, you may know that we have an "Admin Placement" division. This is for players who are above Open but might not be ready for Invite. This is a placeholder for the Intermediate, Main, and Advanced divisions. Instead of teams selecting their own divisions, teams will register, and admins will review their roster strength, logs, and other factors to determine what division they should be placed into. The issue lies with players participating in regions, such as Europe or South America. Cross-experience becomes blurry, for example, where to particularly place players with SA UGC experience, as there is only one division that exists in that particular region. The possibility of placing a top player from South America or a player that may have a lot of experience from competitions in that region into a wrong division in RGL NA becomes a possibility. This is further pronounced by the past history of teams that intentionally sandbag by taking advantage of the lack of familiarity of player skill from other regions.




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. Appeals can also be found on the same page.

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


Cheating


The following player(s) have been caught cheating by the RGL Anti-cheat team and will be banned:

  • jel - 2-Years / First cheating offense
  • Sk4rbee - 2-Years / First cheating offense



Ban Evasion / Alting


The following player(s) attempted to sandbag by trying to register their alternate account in RGL. This will be a 6-month ban issued onto the main account.


The following player(s) evaded their ban by using an alternate account on the RGL site and the RGL Discord, while their main account is actively serving a league ban. Their ban will be extended by another 7-months (6-months for alting on the league site + 1-month for Discord ban evasion) starting when the evasion ban was applied:




Alting


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




Probation


The following players have been banned and placed on probation:

  • clin - 12-weeks - Use of racist and homophobic slurs during an RGL match. (3rd ban inside of RGL)
  • Rene - 1-Year - Disregarding a previous warning through continued harassment and threats of harm to RGL player(s). (3rd ban inside of RGL)

Update on the player(s) that have been banned while on probation:

  • shaayy - 6-months - Repeated harassment of an RGL staff member. (2nd ban inside of RGL, 1st while on probation)

After the minimum period has been served, the player(s) can appeal to have the ban lifted if they can show that they've improved themselves and how they interact within the community.


League


  • Imulseify - Scamming; posting phishing links in the RGL Discord - 6-months
  • Kron - Sending threats of DDoS on an RGL platform (Forums). - 6-months
  • SexGod - Sending threats of DDoS on an RGL platform (Forums). - 6-months
  • elk - Repeated harassment and death threats towards community members. - Permanent



Sportsmanship and Spirit


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

  • PURE CHEATS - Use of a racial slur during a scrim. Offseason ban delayed for the start of Sixes Season 7. - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • Toe - Use of a transphobic slur during a scrim. Offseason ban delayed for the start of Sixes Season 7. - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • XXXTSARA - Use of a racist slur during a scrim. Offseason ban delayed for Season 10 of Highlander. - 2-weeks / First Offense
  • jaiden- - Use of a transphobic slur during a scrim. Offseason ban delayed for the start of Sixes Season 7. - 2-weeks / First Offense



VAC Ban


The following account(s) 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.


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