We've heard of some confusion from players regarding the LAN Break and how that affects Match Scheduling, so we wanted to clarify some of those questions in this post. There is also some speculation around a potential upcoming game update, so we wanted to let you all know how teams may need to approach their matches post-update if there are any issues.

LAN Break

Since before the season started, we've had a note in both Key Dates pages for Sixes and Highlander that we would be having a week break to allow LAN players to not have to worry about playing their match for that week - these dates have not changed, but we want to clarify a bit of confusion surrounding them.

We used the word "break" literally, as we initially planned for teams to not even be allowed to play their match during the break, and even scheduled the rounds accordingly. However, we will now be allowing teams to play their post-LAN rounds (Round 5 for Sixes and Round 4 for Highlander) early via an extension, which both teams will need to agree to and seek administrator approval for.

Match Scheduling

Round 3 of Highlander has already ended, and Round 4 of Sixes will end this Thursday, so both should be unaffected by LAN. If you were planning on asking for an extension for Round 4 of Sixes this week however, please note we will not be allowing any that clash with LAN unless no one on the core roster is attending LAN, but considering the overlap this is fairly unlikely to happen. Round 4 matches for Sixes will be allowed to seek an extension into the LAN break, but again the match cannot be extended into days overlapping LAN unless both teams have no one on their core roster attending LAN.

To be clear, we do not expect nor require teams to play during the break, it is after all a break. However, we wanted to make it clear that teams who want to schedule their post-LAN matches to be played earlier can if they wish. This does not mean however that rounds after Round 5 of Sixes and Round 4 of Highlander can be scheduled earlier than the dates found in each seasonal league's Key Dates page.

Please note, Rounds 2-7 for all divisions of Sixes were linked to the wrong Key Dates page under the Match Details heading, this has been fixed. The Key Dates button at the top of the Match Notice was always linked to the correct page.

Game Update Speculation

As you have probably seen from your favourite TF2 youtubers, there may be an update coming very soon. Please note this is pure speculation, but it is believed that there may be more in this update than what was originally expected, part of that being potential weapon changes. In the event of any weapon changes, we will meet and discuss the changes with admins and respected players, and if need be test any changes made and whether or not those weapons should remain in season.

We previously added a rule to our Global Ruleset (1.14. Game Client Updates) dictating what players may need to do if their matches are interrupted by update issues.

We Need You!

We're often looking for, and happy to bring aboard new staff members. In that spirit, we added a "Join us" page to our docs which may help you understand who we are looking for. All open roles are there, and please let us know if you have any questions. We'll endeavour to get back to as many applicants as we can.

Support

As always, you can reach out to us via our Discord's Support category, however, we may be looking to trial more effective support systems in the coming months, and when we do we hope to hear from you! But for now, if you have questions regarding anything in this post, please reach out via #sixes-support, #highlander-support or #ticket-support.