Casters:
Rainy, freaky, capy, shakey
Award Nominations for Spring '24 are Live!
As Summer begins our Spring '24 season draws to a close and both Sixes and Highlander Award Nominations are now open. Threads for team captains to submit their roster's Award Nominations are linked below. If you need any assistance in this process please reach out to your Division Administrators for help. Award Nominations will close on Sunday the 8th of December at 11:59pm AEDT 2024.
If this is your first time submitting Award Nominations there are some guidelines and information below to keep in mind:
- Only one of the captains on your roster needs to submit your team's nominations. We expect most teams usually discuss who they want to nominate for what award. Please note, you can only nominate your teammates for an award, voting will come after all nominations are submitted.
- Failure to submit both nominations and votes for your team this season will result in players not being eligible for in-game medals.
Award Nomination threads
PRELIMINARY SEEDINGS
Welcome to Highlander Spring '24!
Below you can find our initial Seedings for the season to come. If you have any issues with our listings or with any of the accompanying player restrictions, please reach out to any of our Highlander Administrators or via our help and feedback channel in our discord.
PREMIER
S.M.
crylander
Significant Otter
rascals
Youth for Christ
Guzman y Gibus
Where no ability meets no effort
MAIN
sejinming fever
Bisexual Lighting
Rich and Grainous
Bürgr
rat gaming
With Blackjack and Furries!
MouseWarriors
funny people
Premier & Main
We're running it back with a two division season once more! With 15 teams signing up this season and with a large number of newer players jumping into the competition we did look into crafting a competition with smaller division sizes but unfortunately we came across obstacles preventing us from doing so. Firstly the number of newer or "Open" level teams in comparison to the number of other teams and signups as a whole; Bürgr, rat gaming, With Blackjack and Furries!, MouseWarriors and funny people we felt all fit the criteria of "Open level teams". However, a division of 5 teams isn't feasible for fair competition with bye weeks and skipped maps each round. This would mean, that for an open division to work, 4 of the aforementioned teams would compete within an Open division whilst one team would be bumped up into a division were they would likely be outclassed by their competition. With this in mind we opted to include the 5 teams listed above along side sejinming fever, Bisexual Lighting and Rich and Grainous to create the Main division you see before you.
As for Premier, we believe that with the rostered players, there remains plenty of good competition throughout the season. An Intermediate Division was considered between the admin and advisor teams to combine some of the lower seeded Premier and upper seeded Main teams; However we felt the skill gap between both sets of teams was too vast to justify.
Playoffs
It has been decided that this season both divisions will be making use of the Expanded Page Playoffs. 6 teams from both divisions will progress into playoffs for this season of Highlander with the larger division sizes of 7 and 8 for Premier and Main respectfully supporting this decision. Both divisions will also feature a Bronze Final mentioned in our previous News Post.
Season Progression
Season will begin this coming Wednesday the 9th of October with team captains being invited to the Team Captain's Discord with in the coming days once we have completed setting up the season.
The regular season will be 7 weeks long for both divisions with only the Premier division featuring bye rounds (1 for each team). Following regular season will be 3 rounds of playoffs wrapping up our final Highlander Season no later than the 15th of December. You can find all the Key Dates including Transfer Windows here.
Congratulations to all Winners and Runners Up!
Congratulations to our Division Winners brodie's esco bar, Natascha Enjoyers, at least we all had fun :/ and chess in the park. Thankyou all for participating in Experimental Cup 3 we hoped you enjoyed participating in it as much as we enjoyed bringing it too you. We definitely aren't done with Highlander Cups in this region and it's been great to see everyone's enthusiasm around the subject.
Congratulations Division 1 Winners brodies esco bar!
Placements
- brodies esco bar - $300
- crylander - $200
- Significant Otter - $100
Grand Final Map Scores
Croissant: 1 - 0
Summercoast: 1 - 2
Daenam: 3 - 2
Match
Division 1 MVP
Remorse - $25
Congratulations Division 2 Winners Natascha Enjoyers!
Placements
- Natascha Enjoyers
- Where no ability meets no effort
- CHINESE DRAGON POWER
Grand Final Map Scores
Sultry: 2 - 1
Proplant: 3 - 1
Match
Division 2 MVP
Laz - $25
Congratulations Division 3 at least we all had fun!
Placements
- at least we all had fun :/
- item shop
- Grainy Ridden
Grand Final Map Scores
Daenam: 3 - 1
Proplant: 3 - 0
Match
Division 3 MVP
eunsoo - $25
Congratulations Division 4 chess in the park!
Placements
- chess in the park
- Burgr
- Morb Fortress 2 - Morbheads
Grand Final Map Scores
Summercoast: 2 - 0
Problitz: 2 - 0
Match
Division 4 MVP
indy and her jones - $25
Clip Contest Winners
Best Overall Clip
NEBU!A - $30
turris - $20
kimjo - $10
Best Gas Passer and Neon Annihilator Clip
bird - $25
To all prize winners, either myself or core will reach out to you individually over the coming days to discuss payment.
Thanks & Recognition
I just want to extend my thanks and appreciation to particular individuals that this Cup wouldn't have been possible without.
Kai
Kai gave up playing in the cup to help teams and players throughout Experimental Cup 3, ensuring it could run as smoothly as possible. Without her there is no way this event would have been as successful as it was. From internal discussion to moderating matches and ensuring everyone was staying on track she was the backbone of this event and for that we're all extremely grateful.
core
This poor old man was responsible for fixing the, at the time, mess that was cp_croissant. He has put in countless hours of work modifying the map, fixing visual and game play issues to ensure we could have the best version possible for this cup. And while it would be enough to thank him for his work on the Croissant alone, core was responsible for ensuring the whitelists were up to date as well as fixing up and testing the 5cp config to confirm it was all working correctly. Thanks for your service old boy; now back to bed.
Rainy
Rainy covered the majority of Weekend 1's action from his own Twitch Channel giving players who weren't participating insight on the event and entertainment from a spectators point of view. He also covered the Division 1 Grand Finals on the final day of event highlighting the action to those beyond our region. His coverage throughout provided hours of entertainment for all watchers on and we all appreciated the coverage and effort that went into the broadcasts.
And thankyou, the community for participating in this event. We hope to see you all in this season of Spring '24 Highlander and beyond!
Highlander Spring '24 Changes!
The following are changes that will debut in Highlander Spring '24.
Map Pool
Below you'll find the Spring '24 Map Pool.
Highlander Spring '24 Map Pool:
Upward
Swiftwater
Vigil
Summercoast
Steel
Product
Ashville
Proot
While we're still trying to stick to our initiative of a smaller, more refined map pool, we listened to player feedback requesting more maps and have come to a middle ground. This season we'll be adding one more stopwatch map for a total of 8 Maps.
Proot & Summercoast
This season we'll be adding Proot and Summercoast to our Map Pool. Proot has been in high demand since it was removed after Autumn '24. It is a well-designed map that had high vote totals throughout all of our recent polls so it makes a lot of sense for us to add it back into the pool. As for Summercoast, it was the most requested map for addition into regular season after Experimental Cup 3. The map also had a very high pick rate in playoffs throughout the cup cementing the idea of adding into the Map Pool.
Warmtic & Daenam
With the addition of Proot we have decided to say goodbye to Warmtic for now with it being the most disliked map in the Winter '24 Season's Map Pool. These two maps always seem to be neck and neck in terms of liked-ness by the community so it would come as no shock if we saw these maps being swapped in and out again in the future. While Daenam was our second highest requested map from Experimental Cup 3, the feedback we've received from players has led us to believe that the map is not ready to be played in a regular season of ozfortress Highlander at this stage in time.
Whitelist Changes
Natascha Unchained
The Natascha will be unbanned for Highlander Spring '24. Our poll feedback from the Experimental Cup outlined a trend of players either not noticing it being used or realizing how minimal its impact was overall during their matches. However, we will be monitoring its usage and players thoughts on it throughout the entirety of Spring '24.
Loch-n-Load Locked up
The Loch-n-Load will be banned for Highlander Spring '24. In the Experimental Cup poll data, players stated that the weapon's absence from competition was quite noticeable. Yet, the votes for removing it from the Spring '24 season was only slightly greater than votes wanting it to remain unbanned. Thus, we discussed the choice to ban it internally with advisors, after which we came to the conclusion that we will be banning the weapon due to its oppressive presence in competition. Like the Natascha, we will monitoring players thoughts about the choice to remove it and see if it will be worth bringing it back in subsequent ozfortress Highlander competitions.
Playoffs
Playoff Size
We intend to expand playoffs to include more teams with division's sizes of 8 teams or greater having a playoffs bracket that houses a total of 6 teams. The playoff's bracket would behavior in the same fashion as the Division 1 bracket used during Experimental Cup 3. Divisions of 7 or fewer teams will still use the tried and true Page Playoff system however. This is to encourage teams to put effort in all season long to make playoffs and gives more teams to opportunity to finish higher with in the season's rankings.
Bronze Final
After its popularity in the Experimental Cup we've decided to offer teams a Bronze Final that will occur in the same week as our Grand Finals. This match between 3rd and 4th place will be forfeitable in its introductory season with team being allowed to forfeit the match. However, which ever team ends up forfeiting the match will ultimately finish the season in 4th place. Depending on its potential and popularity we may incorporate it in future seasons beyond Spring '24.
ABBA in all Divisions
For all playoff matches moving forward, ABBA will be on by default for all divisions. This decision has come after seeing its popularity and positive reception in Round 4's ABBA match of Winter '24 and the Grand/Bronze Finals of Experimental Cup 3. However, if both teams decide they don't want to play ABBA in their playoff's match, they may disable it for all stopwatch maps. Meaning, ABBA is either on for all stopwatch maps, or off, for all stopwatch maps. This won't be a pick-n-mix, you can't mix and match your sweets. KOTH (King of the Hill) with still be played as a first to 3 rounds won (BO5) per map.
Tiebreaker Metric
We'll be keeping the site scoring metrics we used at the end of the last season of Highlander. However, come playoffs we will be using a metric contrived by League admin redja that takes individual team's win rates and compare it to their potential win rate if the site scoring fails to display distinct rankings come playoffs. Below is the order of tiebreakers used to determine playoff standings;
- Map Points
- Direct encounter
- Round Win rate Calculation
Rosters & Transfers
Roster Size for Signups
Last season we capped the roster size for signups at 12 allowing teams to transfer in the remainder of their players at a later date for a total roster size of 15. Moving forward we will be allowing teams to sign up with the full 15-player roster at the start of the season.
Transfer Windows
After trialing fortnightly transfer windows last season we will be returning to weekly windows. With this in mind, teams will only be allowed to transfer in 2 players per window as opposed to the 3 players they were allowed to transfer in last season.
Signups Close Soon!
Don't forget that Signups close this Saturday! If you require any assistance such as finding a team, finding players or any other sort of assistance. Please reach out to our Highlander Admins or alternatively open a support ticket in our discord and we'll get back to you ASAP.
Global Ruleset Changes
Global Ruleset changes are on the way and should be live with a news post in the next couple of days. Due to the limited time this off-season, we are quite busy but working to get everything out.
Back into the fray!
It's all about peace, love and frags. Rounding out the year we have our final Highlander competition set for the Spring time of 2024.
Signups
You can sign up for Highlander Spring '24 from today (Wednesday the 25th of September) up until Saturday the 5th of October at 11:59pm AEST. With this in mind we'll aim to have seedings out by Sunday the 6th or Monday the 7th at the latest with the Season starting on Wednesday the 9th of October.
SIGNUP NOW · SEASON PAGE
Season Changes
Over the course of the next week our staff will be in meetings and discussions in which we will be reviewing the data collected from both surveys from Winter '24 and Experimental Cup 3. After consulting with our internal advisor team, a separate news post will be published documenting all the changes that will be implemented for Highlander Spring '24, and the Global Ruleset at large.
Admin Departures
Both Rainy and hive will be stepping down as Highlander Admins for the foreseeable future. Rainy has been a valued member of our team since the very beginning of ozfortress Highlander back in Season 1. He's been a backbone of our internal operations and we can't thank him enough for the time he's given up over the course of the last 2 years. Thanks for keeping us (Sperkle) level headed over the seasons and we wish you nothing but the best in all your future endeavors.
As for Mr. hive (Robert), everyone on our staff team is in agreement that hive has been one of the kindest, and most compassionate administrators that we've had the pleasure of working with. Hive always does his best to provide support to any and all player's who need it and has gone above and beyond in his time with us.
Whilst we're not bringing on any new staff this season, you'll still have both Sperkle and Kai as well as the previous Trial Administrators redja and woozy graduating into fully fledged League Admins. We are still looking for individual's who would be interested in becoming League Administrators in the future however. If this appeals to you, please fill in one of our Staff Applications and we'll get back to you.
(Graphic by dezi)
Congratulations to our respective Premier and Main division winners Atomic Deluxe and Tracy Waldron! And of course, a big thanks to all the teams who competed in the Winter '24 season of ozfortress Highlander. We'll be back very soon with our Spring competition!
Below you will find the final placements for the Winter '24 season of Highlander as well as player and team awards.
Congratulations Premier winners Atomic Deluxe!
Placements
- Atomic Deluxe
- BRIANLANDER
- crylander
Grand Final Map Scores
Swiftwater: 2 - 0
Steel: 2 - 0
Match
Awards
Best Scout: HUNGRY.4.EGGS
Best Soldier: Lizrd-Wizrd
Best Pyro: brodie escobar
Best Demoman: Doge.exe has stopped working
Best Heavy: JP
Best Engineer: Sexy Turtle
Best Medic: remorse
Best Sniper: Flow
Best Spy: Andyroo
Most Improved Player: chimes
Most Valuable Player: Doge.exe has stopped working
Most Improved Team: BRIANLANDER
Friendliest Team: good pug
Best Dressed Team: Significant Otter
Best Caster: Rainy
Congratulations Main winners Tracy Waldron!
Placements
- Tracy Waldron
- Scurvy Ridden
- CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ
Grand Final Map Scores
Swiftwater: 1 - 0
Vigil: 0 - 1
Ashville: 3 - 1
Match
Awards
Best Scout: April
Best Soldier: indy and her jones
Best Pyro: Relz
Best Demoman: akari
Best Heavy: chill weed vibes only
Best Engineer: arbabf
Best Medic: bobo
Best Sniper: seiran
Best Spy: hef & Classy Doctor
Most Improved Player: Mr. Venom
Most Valuable Player: seiran
Most Improved Team: Dispensers
Friendliest Team: Should Be Studying
Best Dressed Team: CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ
Best Caster: freaky
Just as a small aside, clip submissions for Experimental Cup 3 will close at 11:59pm AEST this Friday the 27th. Please have all your clips with demos, summited via this google form by then.
Furthermore, if you haven't already please take a look at the Post-Experimental Cup 3 Survey. The feedback from which will go into shaping the upcoming Spring '24 Season.
"let us cook", Hey! That's my line!
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