core League Director

POV Demo Rule Changes

POV Demos can now be requested from any match played on an ozfortress server

To better our league's Anti-Cheat, we will now be able to request POV demos from ANY match played on an ozfortress server - official, scrim, pug game or otherwise. Whilst we understand there will be some apprehension to this change, it is only happening because we feel it will contribute to improving the league. Scrim POV demo requests will be worked into the existing failure penalties. Unlike official match POV demo requests, the first penalty for failing to provide a scrim POV demo is a warning. After this, the next second penalty follows the same guidelines as the official match POV requests, meaning that if you fail two scrim POV demo requests you will receive a six-month ban. It is important to note that we will not conduct random demo checks for any match that isn't an official match. This means that if you receive a request for a POV demo from a scrim or pug, it is related to an active Anti-Cheat report.

Please see the ruleset for more information on failure penalties.

Docs Updates

Global Ruleset Changes (or otherwise Global changes)

  • Soon: Name Change Policy.
    • We are working to create an exhaustive Name Change Policy for our website. We have no details to release now, only that we will be releasing a post dedicated to this sometime during the season. Please be reasonable with your expectations as to what this policy will entail, but keep in mind we are not trying to work entirely against the wishes of our players, we just want to see some sensibility come to name changes in ozfortress.
  • Removed: Secondary Match Days.
    • If teams are unable to play their match within the Playable Match Days for their format, they will need to be granted an extension via their division admin to play on days not within the Playable Match Days. Extensions will be more lenient than they were before Primary/Secondary Match Days were added.
  • Changed: Mercenary Requests & Usage Policy.
    • When admin intervention is required for mediating denied mercenary usage, the proposed mercenary will be valued against the player they are replacing. It is not just a blanket check of the division they are playing in. This is staying in line with restricting mid-season transfer requests to avoid teams upgrading their roster mid-season.
  • Changed/Added: More severe Disband Penalties for Captains.
    • For incidents where it is clear the captains of a roster do not care for their roster or the penalties that come from a disband, or in cases where a captain is purposefully destructive to their roster - captains could see harsher penalties at the discretion of the league administration.
  • Added: Purposeful Sniper scoped-in crouch exploitation is prohibited.
    • When a sniper scopes in whilst crouched, it is possible to obscure up to or above 50% of that sniper's character model whilst still maintaining vision around the objects obscuring their model.
      • We understand that this is potentially difficult to police, however, it will often be very clear when someone is intentionally abusing this mechanical oversight. We will be reviewing each reported case of this behaviour individually, and not blanket banning any instance that could be purposeful exploitation.
  • Added: Any form of complete animation break or exploitation.
    • Some examples are T-Posing or "Civilian mode", Contracker exploits, or ragdoll "mods" that break the intended effect of a Spy's Dead Ringer item. This does not include disabling ragdolls or their physics via a config file, but specifically targets modifications that break animations or ragdolls.
  • Updated: Best of three (BO3) Picks and Bans order has been unified between Sixes and Highlander.
    • The process is now Team A Ban, Team B Ban, Team A Pick, Team B Pick, Team B Ban, Team A Pick. This Pick/Ban process has seen more extensive use in Highlander and other regions/leagues.
  • Updated: Ping Limit and Ping Exception rules to allow for neighbouring regions (Asia) to play within ozfortress.
  • Added: Non-official matches are now required to be recorded by players.
  • Moved: 2.4. Playable Match Days moved to 7.3. Match Organisation & Playable Match Days.
  • Updated: User Policy Conditions now prohibit permanently banned Steam accounts and known sold Steam accounts.

Sixes Ruleset Changes

  • Upper and Lower division terminology removed. This often proved confusing for many, and with us returning to one single 5CP config, there is no longer a need to distinguish beyond just the division names.

Highlander Ruleset Changes

  • Updated: ABBA explainers throughout the Highlander Ruleset, and added 1.3.4. ABBA in preparation for ABBA in the Regular Season.
  • Added: Roster size reduced during signups.
    • Rosters may only sign up for the season with a maximum of 12 players. During the first transfer window, the roster size will be increased back up to 15 and will then remain at that number for the rest of the season. We will be seeking feedback on this post-season.
  • Updated: KOTH map scores should be submitted as 1-0 to the victor.
    • This change works in tandem with the Tiebreakers we have added to the ruleset.
  • Updated/Added: League tiebreakers have been changed to de-emphasize round score as heavily. We have also added additional manual tiebreaking measures.

Clarifications & Addressing Issues

  • Late Roster Signups will not be allowed past the seedings, period. The conditions where late signups can be safely entered into an active season are so unlikely that we will just be ruling it out entirely.
  • Rosters who wish to disband, disband. We will no longer be restoring rosters, even within the same round. The process of disbanding will now be irreversible.
  • ozfortress is now trialling "Trial Admins". Trial Admins within ozfortress will act with the full capacity and ability of League Admins. The new role is merely to indicate newer staff members.
  • Round bans from Infractions and/or League Penalties will now be recorded in the Team Captain Discord.
  • Transfers will now be manually listed publicly within the Team Captain Discord and that season's league page. This process will be entirely manual for now, so we ask for some lenience whilst we get in the swing of doing this consistently.
  • If a division is using Round Robin, all matches will be generated at the beginning of the season.
  • Mercenary approval or denial by league administrators in the case of a dispute will be purely based comparatively on the player that the mercenary is replacing.
    • This is not a requirement for teams when negotiating mercenaries with each other, but will be the primary consideration for us when resolving disputes.
  • End-of-season awards requirements are being changed. Teams may no longer be required to nominate their players but are required to submit votes. Please note however, we do expect a reason from team captains as to why they do not wish to nominate their players, and it is up to our discretion as to whether or not you will be required to submit nominations for your roster.

Infraction Ruleset Changes

Infraction Threshold Ban Levels Changed

  • Changed: 20 points = 3-Round Match Ban:
    • This ban level was previously set at 30 points, however with fewer Tier 1 and Tier 2 infractions than we had in the past - we feel three Tier 1's before any action is taken is too lenient. Additionally, the Tier 2 infraction for impersonating ozfortress players is still yet to be applied in any case - but we will continue monitoring cases leading to this ban level and make changes if this change appears to be too heavy-handed.
  • Added: 40 points = 6-Round Match Ban:
    • New: For some time, we have been looking to add a less severe, middle-of-the-road ban level that could act as a deterrent without letting behaviour and punishment graduate to a 1-Year Ban. With only one Tier 1 and one Tier 2 infraction, both of which are used far less than the current Tier 3 infractions - we feel this ban level is a second deterrent that has been needed for some time.
  • Unchanged: 60 points = 1-Year League Ban:
    • This ban level is identical to what it was previously.
  • Unchanged: Every +30 points above 60 points is another year:
    • Ban lengths above one year are far rarer these days, and only reserved for large/multiple breaches.
    • Previously, there was a two-year ban level set at a 90-point threshold, however, it operated identically to this, and every 30 points above this threshold was still an extra year in ban length.

Probation Multipliers Updated

The Probation period multipliers have been updated to be 2x across the board, rather than Tier 2's previous multiplier of 1.5x.

Ban Reset Maximum Threshold Lowered

The Ban Resets maximum threshold has been lowered from 90 points to 60 points. This means any offender who receives more than 60 points during their ban will likely have their ban extended at the discretion of the Behaviour Panel. We've made this change to ensure we can effectively remove bad seeds from our community.

Infraction Offences Updated/Reworded

Going forward, we're working to ensure every part of our ruleset has a purpose, minimizing any confusing overlap. 

  • The previous "General bigotry/use of derogatory slurs" infraction, along with the "Discrimination of any kind" infraction, have been combined into one infraction. This is in a general effort to simplify the ruleset, but to also ensure every offence encompasses its own potential behaviour breaches.
    • "Bigoted, derogatory or discriminatory remarks of any kind. Some examples are:
      • Racism
      • Sexism
      • Homophobia
      • Transphobia"
  • "Impersonation/implied affiliation of ozfortress staff" infraction has been reworded to emphasize maliciousness.
    • "Malicious impersonation or implied affiliation with ozfortress staff."
  • "Impersonating an ozfortress player" Tier 2 infraction has been reworded.
    • "Malicious impersonation of ozfortress players."
  • Witch-hunting example removed from "Repeated serious abuse/harassment" infraction. Please note that witch-hunting is still considered harassment, but it alone as the only example often overshadows what this infraction is meant to encompass.

Behaviour Reporting

We want to remind everyone to report poor behaviour that they see. We aren't omniscient, so even if you think we may have seen it, please still report it. Additionally, we do not go out of our way to hunt for infractable behaviour. If it's not reported to us, we won't know. The only exception to this logic is those who are dumb enough to drop it in our laps on our website or in our discord.

Behaviour Panel Lead Role Dissolved

The Behaviour Panel Lead role will be dissolved, in favour of allowing myself, Head Admins and Public Behaviour Panel Members to process and issue infractions.

We're looking for Behaviour Panel Members

If you think you may be a good fit for the Behaviour Panel, please apply!

Game Server Bans Becoming Automated

A pain point for some is how inconsistent game server bans are for those who are banned. This process has always been entirely manual, meaning it was often reliant on me (core) to set reminders to ban/unban players. So, starting soon we'll be significantly improving this process, so all that will need to happen is for either myself or someone with permission to add a ban, and it will start/end by itself. Additionally, we're changing the length of game server bans to allow banned players to begin reintegrating into the community. We feel it's important for us to recognize that we are in a position unique to our league, as we are the only server provider - so we're making the following changes:

  • Regardless of the ban length (excluding 3-Round Match Bans and 6-Round Match Bans), in the last three months of the league ban, banned players will be able to join servers once again, but will be muted on the server. We're open to feedback on this, so if you want to chat, contact core directly.
Posted 3 months ago
- edited 3 months ago
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