ozfortress Highlander Season 3

Below are the maps for Highlander Season 3, as well as the maps that were removed, and new map additions - with the percentage of poll participants who want the map removed.

Remaining Season 2 maps in Season 3

Maps continuing into Season 3, from Season 2.

• Upward (6.9% - nice)
• Product (10.3%)
• Vigil (20.7%)
• Ashville (20.7%)
• Swiftwater (24.1%)
• Warmtic (27.6%)
• Steel (35.5%)

Maps added to Season 3

New or returning maps, coming to Season 3.

• Proot (75.7% of players want to see this map in season)
• Cornwater (40.5% of players want to see this map in season)

Maps removed in Season 3

Maps from Season 2, removed for Season 3.

• Borneo (32.3%)
• Cascade (38.7%)

If you want to read about further changes other than those that affect Highlander directly, see our news post.

Highlander changes

• Highlander's Playable Match Days have now officially been changed from Monday - Friday to Tuesday - Saturday.
  • Over half of the poll submissions wanted the change, with a quarter being indifferent.
• We are intending to make poll results public, but do so in a way that is sustainable for administration and respectful to our typical pre-season time constraints.

General changes

General changes, not limited to one or affecting both Sixes and Highlander:

• Clarification/changes for " Inappropriate or unrelated posting in Match Threads, specifically Match Communications." infraction:
  • Posts in Match Communications/Threads that do not fit our Post Guidelines prior to the conclusion of a match, from scheduling the match day/time to posting scores, logs and other final match details will be infractable.
  • Posts in Match Communications/Threads that do not fit our Post Guidelines after the conclusion of that match will not be infractable. Please note, this does not include content that breaches our Community Guidelines or Infractions Ruleset, this content will always be actionable and infractable.
  • The above changes have been made as a step back from our initial implementation of the rule, whilst still protecting the match organisation process. We've stated it before, but if it is in our rulesets, we will act on it to the fullest extent of the rule.
• We're raising the penalty/punishment for the usage of Alternate Accounts within ozfortress from 12 months to 24 months.
  • The usage of Alternate Accounts has increased from when the rule was first implemented, so we feel it is a well-overdue increase.
  • Account Sharing penalties/punishments will remain at 12 months as of now.
• We're making the following changes to our mercenary rules across the board:
  • Lifted the overall season mercenary limit from "Teams can only make use of mercenaries within four matches per season" to unlimited, but teams can only make use of an individual player as a mercenary twice within a season. In essence, this means if your team was to merc LordShidden for two matches, they could not be used as a mercenary again within that season.
  • We've made this change to no longer limit teams' mercenary usage within a season, but also to prevent teams from making use of the same mercenary for an extended period of time.
  • A Sixes team can only make use of two mercenaries per match, and a Highlander team can only make use of three per match.
• Mercenary class denials and/or class locking needs to be stated along with the approval of the mercenary in Match Communications.
  • This is so we as administrators know, but also to cover your team on either end of the mercenary equation in the event of a dispute.
• Not really a change, but we wanted to reaffirm our position on mercenary denials/disputes:
  • We expect that teams seeking to use mercenaries within their match should be asking for at least three mercenaries before contacting an administrator. We've found that in many cases if a team had sought out a third option, the opposing team typically allows that mercenary. You are still free to dispute mercenary denials, but do not be surprised when we ask if you have requested three mercenaries already. This is the expectation we've set internally when handling these disputes, so we wanted to inform players of how we approach these.
• Out-of-Region player limits have been lifted in favour of a general Out-of-Region Ping Limit.
  • We've opted for a ping limit to allow reasonable inclusion of players outside of our supported region. We've set this limit at 150 ping for now, and are open to feedback on this limit. During the seedings process, we will be doing general ping checks on those who are not from Australia or New Zealand to ensure they are on average at or below that limit.
• Interpolation Plugin will be added to all active au.serveme.tf servers.
  • During the off-season we asked in our highlander poll if players would be interested in a server side plugin that ideally would mitigate "interp abuse". Overall, 81.3% of poll contributors agreed that the interpolation plugin would be an important addition to our servers and thus it will be implemented for the coming seasons.
  • There will be no minimum value for interpolation. However, the max value possible will be "1.01" (just slightly above the default setting. This is the plugins standard value and there should not be a reason to go above this value.
  • Failing to align with the values above will result in players being removed (kicked) from the server. To ensure your settings meet the requirements please watch this short guide by mastercomms on how to create a custom config with specific interpolation settings built in.

New servers have arrived! Qixalite has departed after the difficult decision to suspend its services. Whilst we hope to see them again, we need to tell you about au.serveme.tf! We're working with au.serveme.tf to give the servers we provide a booking platform (thanks in no small part to all of our Patreon members for literally keeping the scene alive). You can read more about au.serveme.tf in our news post. Please also give our guide "Book a Server" a read, as it has been updated for au.serveme.tf.

In our most recent Sixes and Highlander polls, we raised a question to players, would they rather see a ping limit, or continue on with the existing out-of-region player limit. The majority voted for a ping limit, so we got to work on just how that system could and should look. It is important to note, players in-region (Australia & New Zealand) are not subject to the following criteria or exceptions.

We have opted to set the limit for player ping to 150 ping on average, with some criteria/exceptions. Any player who has is banned at any point after this rule has been instituted will need to be reapproved post-ban.

• Be at 150 ping in-game.
• Be in good standing with the league in your region.

1. Any out-of-region player who has been rostered on a team prior to this change, for at minimum two seasons, or has participated in 10 matches, will be eligible for play without ping testing.
2. Out-of-region players who can prove their connection is consistent/stable and within acceptable tolerance (between 15-25 extra ping) who have previously played ozfortress before, but are under the minimum threshold for the first exception listed, will be eligible after ping testing.
3. Any out-of-region player who has not previously participated in ozfortress is still eligible for play, provided their ping falls within 150 ping, or within acceptable tolerance once they have completed this form and have undergone ping testing.

• Any out-of-region player whose ping is above 230, unless they meet criteria/exception #1.
• Anyone who does not meet the criteria/exceptions.

We'll keep that one close to the chest for now as we are looking to limit any potential abuse of this system, however, the process involves reaching out to the admin team, or the admin team reaching out to you during the signup/seeding periods (if and only if you don't already meet the criteria or are known to meet the exceptions). We have a few methods of testing player ping and historical ping.

For further balance, we have opted to restrict some players in the interest of making divisions fairer. You can view the player restrictions below:

Intermediate

• Exquizit restricted off Heavy
• Pipelin12 restricted off Soldier
• Cobra restricted off Soldier, Demoman and Sniper
• Smazza restricted off Scout, Soldier and Sniper
• Fennex restricted off Scout

Open

• remorse off Scout and Soldier
• bill off Scout, Demoman and Sniper
• Wils restricted off Scout, Soldier and Demoman
• Emgee restricted off everything but Pyro, Medic and Spy
• Akim restricted off Demoman
• John The Asian restricted off Scout, Soldier, Demoman, Heavy, Sniper and Spy
• Instinct restricted off Soldier
• Gus restricted off Scout, Soldier, Demoman and Sniper
• dreamwalker restricted off Soldier, Demoman and Sniper
• Mashiro restricted off Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman and Sniper

Our Divisional League Administrators should be your first point of contact for any questions/concerns/issues within your division. If you cannot reach one of them within a timely manner, please seek assistance in #highlander-support in our Discord.

General Administrators

General Administrators are there for when you cannot get in contact with your Division Administrator, but as always we encourage players to reach out via our Discord's support category first.

• Sperkle (Sperkle#4456)
• Bakes (Bakes#3098)

Premier

• Oldcustard (Oldcustard#9667)

Intermediate

• bird (bird#0246)

Open

• Rainy (Rainy#1181)

We've been looking for ways to provide quicker and easier access to our seasonal key dates for all of our seasonal leagues and tournaments, but for now, you can find everything you need to know scheduling-wise for the entire season, here!

By signing up, you acknowledge that you may be placed in any division the administrators deem fit for your roster, and thus your entire team should be reasonable in their expectations on division placement. We will endeavour to let teams know of changes in initial seedings before the final release. Please ensure you specify the division you truly believe your team should be in, this will make it easier for administrators to consult with you on your seeding. Along with selecting your desired division, please also list who you expect to play, and what class/role. We've left a template below, please include it in your signup application's description.

On the ozfortress website, captains can create Teams using the "Start Team" button on the Teams page. Once created, captains can invite players to the team. Team invites are shown on a player's profile, which can be accessed by clicking on your name next to the bell on the top right-hand corner of your screen. Teams provide a pool of players that can be signed up for a tournament. Players may be in the pool for multiple teams but only one active roster for any given tournament. Captains may sign up a roster for tournaments under the league page.

If you're new and not sure how to get started, don't fret! Check out the Recruitment category of the ozfortress Discord where you can express your interest in joining a team, or peruse potential players to form a team of your own. Highlander teams are comprised of one of each class. If you're new to the competitive scene, click here for an introduction to ozfortress!

Once you've signed up your team or have joined one, your part is done. Don't worry if you didn't find or join a team in time, you can always be transferred onto a team in one of the Transfer Windows. See the Transfers link for more info on Transfers, and the Transfers Window link for info on when these windows are, both links can be found at the bottom.

Please ensure you have enough backups to last the entire cup; teams are allowed a maximum of fifteen (15) players rostered.