The last couple of weeks have been some of the busiest we've seen for ozfortress and its players in some time. Still, there are some things that we want to share with you in regard to updates to our governing rulebook (Global, Sixes, Highlander and Infractions rulesets), plus updates to au.serveme.tf servers.

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What ruleset changes are we making?

We'll try to keep this as concise as possible, whilst still giving you everything you need to know regarding all of the changes and any needed clarifications. As we progress further into 2023, we will be working towards significantly overhauling the rulesets in three key areas; readability, clarity and availability. A long-time issue with our ruleset has been finding the specifics of the rule that you need in a pinch, for example, the maximum amount of mercenaries allowed in each team during an official match. As of now, you would need to spend time reading much of that mercenary section of our rulesets to ascertain what the limit is, and this is something we aim to fix where possible. Readability and clarity are key areas that need significant work within each ruleset, which goes in tandem with the messaging around any change we make, as most likely noticed with the match communications infractions in particular.

The end goal for this transformation of our "rulebook" is to make everything you need readily available when you need it. Need to know the limit for something, or want to see an example of how to format a post or what needs to be posted in Match Communications? What about the default times for different things? Eventually, with the "magic" of keywords, better search and just generally better structuring for our rulesets, this should become much easier. There will be significant changes made to our rulesets in larger, but less frequent updates to improve on these key areas, whilst endeavouring to not change the meaning of a rule or clause, as ensuring the rules stay unchanged and unaffected by unintentional wording or structure changes is our top priority with these updates. More critical or time-sensitive updates will be made as needed and not be impacted by this update.

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What we've already changed

With data acquired from our four most recent polls, we've made the following changes based on player feedback.

Sixes ruleset changes

Changes specific to Sixes, active in Season 36.

• Changes that saw testing in A Midsummer Night Sixes Cup 2023:
  • Round Timer set at four minutes: MSNC Sixes featured a new Round Timer value of four minutes, with 38.7% of players wanting to stay at four minutes from now on, with 22.6% indifferent and 29% wanting to return to five minutes. With these results in mind, along with those who showed an interest in going lower than four minutes, we have opted to set the value at four minutes for Season 36 of Sixes. We're interested in configs and plugins used by other leagues in regard to Round Timers, and will be looking to experiment further in the future.
  • Win Limit wins out: With almost fifty percent (reaching 48.4%) of players wanting to stick with Win Limit going forward rather than bringing back Win Difference, we have opted to ditch Win Difference for the foreseeable future. It's always a difficult decision to depart from the tried and true, but we're excited to see which direction everyone wants to head with Round Timer plugins in the future.

Highlander ruleset changes

Changes specific to Highlander, active in Season 3.

• Changes that saw testing in A Midsummer Night Highlander Cup 2023:
  • Smaller Divisions Sizes: Smaller Divisions didn't get the best test run that we had hoped, and as of writing this post the poll is not far off even, with Smaller Divisions currently in the lead. We will look to test this further this season, with Intermediate making use of "mirrored" Round Robin matches, taking its duration up to six rounds for the regular season. We are very open to feedback on this system at the conclusion of the season, and will be reviewing poll feedback, specifically which division it is coming from to ascertain whether or not this is something players will like to see for the future.
• Changes made using poll data from Highlander Season 2 Post-Season poll:
  • Playable Match Day change: The playable match days have been changed for Highlander Season 3, now moved to Tuesday to Saturday from Monday to Friday, with 51.4% of players wanting to see Tuesday to Saturday become the default!

Global ruleset changes

Changes that cover Sixes and Highlander, or considered global for all ozfortress competitions. This section has some BEEF, but we have bolded lines just before each change if you just want to glance through at each.

• Changes from all poll data (Post-Season polls for Sixes/Highlander plus data from MSNC polls for Sixes/Highlander):
  • Alternate Account ban period raised: We've raised 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.
  • Mercenary Rule changes: We've made 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 still only make use of two mercenaries per match, and a Highlander team can only make use of three per match, as it was previously. We felt it was important to clarify there is no change to the amount allowed per team per match.
  • Class Denials/Class Locking for Mercenaries: 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.
    • Added reasonable off-class exceptions to our Mercenary Class Locking rule, meaning any mercenary not specifically locked off a specific class, say Sniper for example, is allowed to off-class to Sniper. Off-classes like this only really apply to Sixes, but the same class-locking concept does apply to Highlander, where a mercenary who is approved to play without specifying which classes they are locked to or from, will be able to play any class they wish - other than any classes they are restricted off within that division. Please note this does not specifically mean we will cater to, or otherwise restrict every player from a division above.
  • 2.3. Out-of-Region Play & Ping Eligibility: We won't discuss every aspect of it here, but we've set a range of 150-210 maximum ping for any out-of-region player that doesn't meet the exceptions or criteria listed here.
  • 6.1.2. Game Mechanic Exploits: We've added/updated this section to make it clear that any sticky trap or building hidden inside of a prop or geometry where its visual collision and physical collision do not match up is considered an exploit. This rule has been an undocumented hang-around rule from back in the UGC era, so we're making sure it is properly documented before punishing for its usage.

Infractions ruleset changes

We've made some adjustments to the Infractions ruleset to make a clearer distinction between League and Behavioural infractions, with the key separations:

• League infractions: Infractions typically tied to in-game, organisational or sportsmanship player conduct. For example, breaking a Player Restriction limitation, failing to seek approval for a mercenary from the other team's captain/failing to inform them you are in need of a mercenary and using said mercenary in server, etc. League infractions will provide league admins with a better and more consistent way of dealing with in-game/organisational/sportsmanship-based offences.
• Behavioural infractions: The bulk of the existing Infractions you'll already know - these Infractions are tied to conduct "player-to-player", and governs what content a player puts out in in-game chat, in our Discord, or throughout our community.

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Server updates since A Midsummer Night's Cups

There have been quite a few changes to the au.serveme.tf servers since both of the A Midsummer Night's Cups. These changes have been focused on improving server performance and routing.

• SDR was turned off for all servers after MSNC Sixes and left off for MSNC Highlander, however, we have now turned it back on for servers #10/#11/#12 to test out-of-region player ping as our non-SDR servers (whilst still DDOS protected) have been giving out-of-region players unexpectedly high ping compared to other servers.
  • During ping testing procedures, it became clear that some out-of-region players were experiencing significantly higher than expected ping to au.serveme.tf, so we are working on ascertaining why and believe Valve's SDR may hold a potential fix - we'll continue to investigate and see.
• Fixed AFK kick booting players too quickly, AFK kick is now off.
• Updated whitelists; yes now you can have your badges.
• Fixed some config aliases and whatnot. These can be seen on our Server Configs page.
• Updated server related guides; Book a Server, Server Configs & Self-managed Servers.

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Looking for staff!

We're always looking for anyone who feels like they have something to bring to the team. We're looking for the following:

• Sixes League Admin
• Highlander League Admin
• Artists

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We're open to feedback

If you feel any of our rulesets are missing something that is needed, or a rule could be clearer, let us know!

For Highlander Season 3, we are returning with three divisions, those being Premier, Intermediate and Open. You can find the Player Restrictions now directly on the season page, under its own expandable heading! This allows us to focus on keeping only one area up-to-date, and beyond using bookable servers or looking at the map pool, everything is available in one area!

Seedings are listed in order, along with the tournament format being used next to the division name. Division administrators will be updated before match generation and can be found under the Administrators dropdown on the season page. Expect matches to be generated tomorrow - this will eat one day into Round 1's playable days, but we will offer extensions to teams who genuinely need it.

If you have any issues/concerns/queries with the Player Restrictions, Seedings/Placements or just want to ask a question, please visit our Discord's support category!

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Premier

Round Robin

red pandas
rascals
peepL
lehampter##
THE NASTY NINE

Intermediate

Round Robin - repeated

The Bakes Team
Patent Pending
6pm Curfew
MULLET MAFIA

Open

Round Robin

Significant Otter
fuck it we brawl
Goofy Goobers
Hightower? I hardly know her
Morb Fortress 2 - Morbheads

For Sixes Season 36, we are continuing with four divisions, those being Premier, Intermediate, Main and Open. You can find the Player Restrictions now directly on the season page, under its own expandable heading! This allows us to focus on keeping only one area up-to-date, and beyond using bookable servers or looking at the map pool, everything is available in one area!

Seedings are listed in order, along with the tournament format being used next to the division name. Division administrators will be updated before match generation and can be found under the Administrators dropdown on the season page. Expect matches to be generated tonight.

If you have any issues/concerns/queries with the Player Restrictions, Seedings/Placements or just want to ask a question, please visit our Discord's support category!

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Premier

Round Robin

Witness Gaming
thunderbirds
Goon Squad
5%
bRa1nD4wAg3
altombo's kittens

Intermediate

Round Robin

no imports
bob the digger
Shadow Hierarchy Of Powerful Wizards
buh
Gnome Zone
fuck it we brawl
LF oblivious
Brexit Geezers

Main

Round Robin

6Sins
Mikcow: Clippy bro, you gotta look up.....
100Ping
nmsl
Salt Free Gaming.
CALIFORNIA GOLDEN SEALS
Should Be Studying
Devious Team

Open

Round Robin

crafting with evelyn
emgee and the egirls
The Ferrari Strategists
Tank JR fans
blu team
rerard
Morb Fortress 2 - Morbheads

We've added some time to the signups to de-congest the schedule and allow teams to signup with a little less stress.

• A Midsummer Night's Highlander Cup 2023 signups now close Tuesday 28/02 instead of 27/02.
• Sixes Season 36 signups now close Wednesday 01/03 instead of 27/02.

For the future, we will look to space signups close dates further apart so teams do not have to rush to get signed up for multiple events all on the same day.

If you need any help with signing up, have any issues, or just need to sign up late - let us know via our Discord's support channels.

Seedings

Seedings are listed in-order below. Please note, all divisions will be making use of the Swiss system for Day 1. Day 2 matches are conducted under the Page Playoffs system, with our traditional top four teams from each division competing. If you have any questions or concerns, please reach out via #sixes-support.

Division 1

1. Witness Gaming
2. the walrus gambit
3. Goon Squad
4. bRa1nD4wAg3
5. altombo's kittens
6. wizard academy

Division 2

1. Gnome Zone
2. buh
3. LF oblivious
4. fuck it we brawl
5. puzzlingwildiqtest
6. Mikcow: Clippy bro, you gotta look up.....

Division 3

1. nmsl
2. CALIFORNIA GOLDEN SEALS
3. Kaze on Sniper
4. Should Be Studying
5. emgee and the egirls
6. crafting with evelyn
7. Aussie Formula Racing
8. Morb Fortress 2 - Morbheads
9. FORESKINHARVEST

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Player Restrictions

For A Midsummer Night's Sixes Cup 2023, we have seen a need to employ Player Class Restrictions to better balance teams throughout each division. You can see these restrictions listed on the cup page, and above each roster on their respective team page.

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Schedule Reminder

All group stage matches on Day 1 will be played as best-of-ones with predetermined maps. There will be four matches that will decide the seeding for the playoffs on Day 2. The top four teams from the group stages will go through to the playoffs on Day 2. All playoff matches will be single elimination and best-of-threes with predetermined maps.

Schedule & Format

All group stage matches on Day 1 will be played as best-of-ones with predetermined maps. There will be four matches that will decide the seeding for the playoffs on Day 2. The top four teams from the group stages will go through to the playoffs on Day 2. All playoff matches will be single elimination and best-of-threes with predetermined maps.

Day 1 - Saturday the 25th of February (Group Stage, BO1)

• 7:00pm - Round 1 (cp_sultry_b8)
• 7:45pm - Round 2 (cp_villa_b19)
• 8:30pm - Round 3 (cp_entropy_a18b)
• 9:15pm - Round 4 (cp_logjam_rc12f)

Day 2 - Sunday the 26th of February (Playoffs: Page Playoffs matches are BO1, Semi-Finals & Grand Finals are BO3)

• 6:30pm - Page Playoffs
  • (cp_sultry_b8)
• 7:15pm - Semi-Finals
  • (cp_sultry_b8, cp_villa_b19, Decider: cp_logjam_rc12f)
• 9:15pm - Grand Finals
  • (cp_logjam_rc12f), cp_sultry_b8, Decider: cp_villa_b19)

All custom maps can be downloaded from our own FastDL site, found here.

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Administrators

We ask that you reach out via our #sixes-support channel in our Discord server before asking an administrator directly.

Tournament Administrators

• bird
• Sperkle
• snazzy
• frydog
• Rainy

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Frequently Asked Questions

• Q1: Will there be medals/badges?
  • A: Yes, Summer Cup badge models will be used!
• Q2: The other team isn't showing up or responding, what do I do?
  • A: If the team is more than five minutes late, contact the tournament admin team to claim a forfeit win. Do not delay as a courtesy to the other team. Delaying could and likely will delay the entire cup.
• Q3: How do I get a server?
  • A: See the "Booking an au.serveme.tf server" guide at the top of the cup's page under Helpful Links/Guides.
• Q4: How long can we pause for?
  • A: Individual pauses can last no longer than three minutes, or combined no longer than five minutes. You are limited to two pauses per team.
• Q5: What is the maximum amount of players per team?
  • A: Team roster limit is set at eight players per roster.
• Q6: What are the mercenary rules?
  • A: Mercenaries need to be approved by an administrator, and should be used sparingly.

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Reminders

• During A Midsummer Night's Sixes Cup 2023 we plan on conducting random demo checks to ensure players are recording POV demos. Please ensure that you are recording match demos in order to avoid punishment.
• If you are unsure whether something is considered a game exploit, contact a League Administrator for clarification. Ignorance is not an excuse.
• Please do not delay your match in any way as a courtesy to your opponent. If there is an issue preventing you from sticking to the schedule, please make administrators aware!

The previous playoff schedules for Sixes and Highlander did not allow for the fourth map (for Sixes it was Logjam, and for Highlander it was Cornwater) in playoffs. Additionally, the previous match schedule for playoffs was not Page Playoffs, and sent teams instantly into Semi-Finals, and included a Bronze/Third place match alongside Grand Finals.

We feel as players are more used to Page Playoffs in their typical seasonal play, it would be best for us to revert to that system for playoffs.

What do these scheduling changes mean?

Where playoffs originally started at 7:00PM AEDT for Sixes and Highlander, both Sixes and Highlander will now start at 6:30PM AEDT on their respective days, with Semi-Finals and Grand Finals matches being moved forward 15 minutes (7:15PM & 9:15PM AEDT respectively). We typically don't like making any schedule changes after signups open but we feel most players will prefer these changes and the chance to play all of the maps in each day. You can see the full schedules for Day 2 of each weekend updated on each cup page linked below!

Sixes Cup | Highlander Cup

Signups periods

Yup, all at the same time! A Midsummer's Night Sixes and Highlander cups will be held before the signups of Sixes Season 36 signups and Highlander Season 3 signups close, giving teams more time to sign up for the main season (16 days for Sixes Season 36, 18 days for Highlander Season 3), whilst still having 10+ days to sign up for each cup.

A Midsummer's Night Sixes Cup 2023 signups

You can sign up for A Midsummer Night's Sixes Cup 2023 from Sunday 12th of February, up until Wednesday 22nd of February. We aim to have seeding out Friday the 24th before the cup starts, with the cup being split up into two days over a weekend, Saturday the 25th of February and Sunday the 26th of February.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP! | CUP PAGE

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A Midsummer's Night Highlander Cup 2023 signups

You can sign up for A Midsummer Night's Highlander Cup 2023 from Sunday 12th of February, up until Monday 27th of February. We aim to have seeding out Friday the 24th before the cup starts, with the cup being split up into two days, Friday the 3rd of March and Saturday the 4th of March.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP! | CUP PAGE

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Sixes Season 36 signups

You can sign up for Sixes Season 36 from Sunday the 12th of February, up until Monday the 27th of February. We aim to have seeding out by Thursday the 2nd of March at the latest before the season starts. The season starts Sunday the 5th of March.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP! | SEASON PAGE

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Highlander Season 3 signups

You can sign up for Highlander Season 3 from Sunday the 12 of February, up until Wednesday the 1st of March. We aim to have seeding out by Saturday the 4th of March at the latest before the season starts. The season starts Tuesday the 7th of March.

CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP! | SEASON PAGE

It's here! au.serveme.tf has arrived, with a capacity of 12 servers. Please remember that we are still very much in the testing phase, and it will take some time to ensure everything is up to snuff. With the upcoming Summer Cups and seasons, we will be monitoring server performance very closely to ensure there are no glaring issues. Before we jump into how to use it, there are some things you need to know.

Using au.serveme.tf!

au.serveme.tf make use of Valve's SDR permanently, meaning there are some differences from how you used to use bookable servers. Valve SDR acts like a VPN of sorts for the server, preventing certain protocols like RCON from working typically. Because of this, servers using Valve's SDR need to come up with solutions, and in the case of bookable servers - a way to grant RCON control of some variety to the person booking the server.

Controlling your server

serveme.tf accomplishes this in two ways, kind of. When using an au.serveme.tf server, you can opt to either send commands in the game chat via !rcon command-goes-here, or use the Web RCON button found on your booking's reservation page. You'll notice earlier we said "kind of", but the two options we listed are full RCON control of the server, so what gives? When booking the server, you get the opportunity to set the map, config and whitelist. But these controls aren't limited to the booking period - they are also available whenever via the "Edit" button on your reservation page. You can change all of the aforementioned server options here as well!

Booking/reserving your server

"Ok, you've told us how to control our server, but not how to book one" is probably what you are wondering, or not, it is pretty simple. Navigate to au.serveme.tf home page, and you'll find two options. You can choose either "Get server" or "1-click server", but for now we recommend "Get server". Upon clicking the button, you'll be redirected to a page where you can configure the server as you like, with the same server options we discussed earlier, and some new ones. It's all easy enough, just follow through with the prompts!

Other booking features

There are a few more things you should be aware of. For instance, instances! As a free user, your bookings last two hours and can be extended if needed, but as a premium user, they last five hours! Premium users also get the benefit of reserving servers more than three hours ahead of when they intend to use it, unlike free users. Free users are limited to only one server at a time, with premium users being able to use more. Why are we telling you this? Well it leads into our next topic.

Patreon, increased costs, premium and more

Yeah, the bit no one likes to talk about. How much? Well, not a whole lot more than what we were already paying per month, but an increase. We'll detail this further at a later date, and we'll be sure to update our Patreon members. What it means for now, and for you, is there is an opportunity. Any new or existing Patreon members on every tier except our Soldier tier will receive au.serveme.tf premium membership. For a full list of benefits, see our Patreon.

Got questions or feedback? Need help?

Feel free to reach out to us via our Discord's #ticket-support channel, you'll notice a Server Ticket. For anything else, please feel free to reach out to core directly. As with many things this year, there will be more to come, and this is no exception. We're excited to be working with au.serveme.tf, and will work to bring more to our servers!

Well, it's been a bit. You're all probably wondering when it's all dropping, when you'll see our teased Summer Cup, and when the following seasons will be. We'll answer that below, but there are a few housekeeping items that provide some context as to why things have taken so long to progress.

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The Server Situation

There's a bit to unpack here. As you may have noticed, there is some stuff happening with our servers. In early October, our current server provider Qixalite, whom we work very closely with, announced that they were pausing all of their Team Fortress 2 services. Initially, the plan was to use our own hardware, with their booking software, but this changed. For one reason or another, we needed to find another solution. Enter serveme.tf, a name some of the "boomers" amongst us will recognize. With a name synonymous with quality, serveme.tf provides bookable game servers globally, so we've partnered with them to bring au.serveme.tf to life!

So what does this mean for you?

With the swap in providers, comes a few changes to how you use bookable servers. There will no longer be a Discord bot, but instead, a full web interface for booking and controlling your server. We have an updated booking guide ready for au.serveme.tf's full release, which we'll give its own post.

With the transition away from Qixalite services, however, comes further cost. Sadly that is the nature of renting server hardware. We'll update our Patreon goal to reflect that once everything is finalised, and let everyone know. We do however have some planned additions to our Patreon Tiers, namely au.serveme.tf Premium will be included in our tiers. More details on exactly what is included will come in a follow-up post, so keep an eye out for that.

Please hang with us while we resolve any potential teething issues with the new setup, and as always you can reach out for help with the new system when it arrives!

o7 Qixalite, we'll meet again!

We would like to thank Qixalite, especially their server team, for everything they have done for the ozfortress community. They were the invaluable lifeblood of our community for many years, and whilst their contributions may have not been fully recognized by many, we hope to see them again. One final o7 for Qixalite!

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Plugin changes & additions for future seasons

Many of you who have completed our Sixes and/or Highlander polls will have seen a question related to a plugin aimed at reducing, limiting or removing interpolation abuse, most prominently seen in Highlander with Spy melee. Whilst we may not implement anything for our upcoming seasons or cups, it is still planned, but we want to ensure there are no unintended side effects of its usage.

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Sixes and Highlander seasonal league changes

The post-season polls for Sixes and Highlander contained a lot of potential changes depending on player feedback, and we have some of our own changes to implement as well, so below you will find three, mostly-complete lists of changes for our upcoming seasons.

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.

Sixes changes

• We're looking to make changes to the Round Timer value used in our configs, which we'll be trying in the Summer Cup.
  • We're also looking to make changes to the Round Win Limit, or removing it in favour of our traditional Win Difference, AKA the mercy rule.
• 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.

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.

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Staff; who's gone, who's new!

We're losing two champs. Chimes and Thyme have served as a League Administrator for over a year now, and both were invaluable members of our administration. Chimes joined us during our transition period from catfish to core as Head Administrator, and Thyme came over from RSL to get Highlander in ozfortress up off the ground. Whilst we can't hope to replace them, we know a guy. It's big shoes to fill, so brace yourself, community legend frydog has stepped up to take this mantle, and we have full confidence that they will become an integral part of our administration, as long as he stops simping on Twitter.

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Approved Casting organisation addition: BearCasts!

BearCasts has been on the job for a while now, providing coverage of Highlander initially, but later expanding to cover interesting Sixes games. It's not often we get to see a group of vocally inclined gamers get together and build something unique, without the lack of professionalism you typically see. BearCasts are nothing short of top-tier, and we feel it's time for them to be recognized as such. From Sixes Season 36/Highlander Season 3 onward, BearCasts will be joining KritzKast and CappingTV officially as an Approved Casting organisation.

Head over to their Twitch channel, and make sure to click through their socials and follow them for more TF2 action!

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Summer Cups & Upcoming Seasons

Yup, plural - Summer Cups. You'll find out more soon, but we'll leave you with this; Summer Cup will be two separate, two-night cups - one for Sixes and one for Highlander. The structure of which will be a map test cup. When it comes to signups time, we will be doing something a little different. Both Summer Cups and Sixes/Highlander seasons will have their signups open close to, if not at the same time, and it'll be soon. Sixes and Highlander seasonal league signups will be open for longer than their typical signups periods, and will close after their respective Summer Cups!

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Stick with us, we have a YEAR ahead of us!

Whilst it has been a bit of a slow start to the year, we hope you can understand we've had a lot on our plates, volunteer-wise or personally, but we're looking to make strides in 2023, and we hope to see you there when we do.

Post-Season Polls!

We're looking for as much feedback as possible! If you are a team captain, please send the poll to your team and encourage them to fill it out! The poll only takes a few minutes to complete, providing us with feedback, insight, and concerns on potential changes, our future direction, and more. We've linked each poll below!

• Sixes Post Season 35 Poll
• Highlander Post Season 2 Poll

Next Seasons & Delays

There is a bit of a surprise below, but we wanted to give everyone some insight into why things are moving a bit slowly on our end. In late 2022, our main and only server provider Qixalite announced that they would be taking a step back, and slowly shutting down services. We have been working to have our own server solution ready, but this takes time and will undoubtedly have teething problems. If everything goes according to plan, you should see our new servers in action for our upcoming cups (yes, plural).

Something is returning!

We're excited to see you back for Season 36 of Sixes and Season 3 of Highlander, but first, we have some off-season action coming. Many of you have noticed that we're running a bit behind schedule, but we promise there are good reasons for our delays. In the meantime, here's a sneak peek, for some it'll be familiar:

Please note: This art is not final, merely a placeholder teaser!