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Final Seedings, Player Restrictions & Match Generation

We haven't made any changes to the initial Seedings listed in our first Seedings Post on Sunday. However, we have made some minor changes to our Player Restrictions. We believe that the divisional spilt we crafted in the previous post as well as our approach for Player Restrictions is fair and within reason. Below you can view our modifications that have been made to player restrictions:

FIN Scout Restriction lifted.
Wergy Scout Restriction lifted.

We intend to generate Round 1 of Autumn '25 Highlander tonight so please ensure that if you're a Captain of any participating teams that you have joined our ozfortress Team Captain's Discord.

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Map Pool Modification

We have reverted the Map Pool to it's first iteration, returning Product and Swiftwater to Round 5, with Eruption and Proot returning to Round 6. This makes it so that Premier will play all the maps in their 5-week Regular Season where as prior to this change they would of missed out on playing Swiftwater. You can find the full Map Pool schedule here.

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LDU Qualifiers, Season Break & Playoffs Dates

After Round 1 of Highlander and Round 2 of Sixes there will be on a one week hiatus to ensure teams and players have ample time to prepare for the Lan Down Under Qualifiers set to occur from the 21st - 23rd of February! If you need are confused at all you can still find the full season's set of dates including the break for LDU Qualifiers on the respective Highlander '25 and Sixes '25 Key Dates.

Please also keep in mind that this season's Grand & Bronze Final dates fall on the Easter long weekend. So please plan accordingly.

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PRELIMINARY SEEDINGS

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What's 9+10?

21! That's right! 21 teams have signed up to compete in our 9th season of ozfortress Highlander! Making it not only the biggest season in ozfortress history but also the largest season of competitive Highlander in the AU/NZ region since the days of UGC. We'd like to thank you all for joining us and helping us achieve this monumental milestone; we're looking forward to seeing the competition unfold over the coming weeks.

Below you can find our initial seedings for Autumn '25. If you have any issues with these or with any of the accompanying player restrictions, please reach out to any of our Highlander Administrators or via our help and feedback channel/support ticket system in the ozfortress Discord.

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PREMIER

Leap of Faith Deluxe

BRIANLANDER

oh crab !

crunch cats

Where no ability meets no effort

Mates Rates

INTERMEDIATE

Metaphorical Idioms

Team Falcons

spentagon fever

MAINAZUMA9

Rich and Grainous

Stimulate Elderly Reaction

Paws of Steel

OPEN

Fat Fortress

lana del rey fan club

Rent's Due

rat gaming

funny people

Nik-6 (Plus 3)

Fatpoggers Highlander

FELLOWSHIP OF THE SANDVICH

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Return to 3 Divisions

For the first time in over a year, Highlander will be returning to 3 divisions. In the previous years' seasons, we haven't had the signup volume and skill divisions needed to justify a seasonal competition with more than 2 divisions. However, with an influx of new blood as well as our reliable Highlander enthusiasts, we have been able to accommodate what we feel are 3 very impressive and healthy divisions.

As listed above, the divisions this season will be Premier, Intermediate and Open. The Premier division will feature our most established teams whose players have competed in multiple seasons at the highest level. While the players in the 5th and 6th seeded teams have less overall experience than the teams seeded 4th and above, we believe that their recent performances in high divisions of 6's and Highlander warrant them being placed in Premier rather than the division below with teams that lack experience at these high levels of play.

The Intermediate division is a step down from the Premier division but still has many talented players within its ranks. Teams in this division, while not being at the same level or having as much experience as those in Premier, are a cut above a lot of the players in the lowest division. Even teams seeded 7th and 8th have players too strong to compete within the bottom division, as restricting said players would result in compromised rosters that would need substantial reworking.

Finally, the Open division is our last and largest division. This division is mostly comprised of players with minimal amounts of experience (1-2 seasons) or players who are completely new to competitive Team Fortress 2 and Highlander. If you are apart of the latter, welcome! We hope you enjoy your time here. Thus, this division is acting as a sort of "Newbie Division" and serves as an ideal entrance to organised competitive TF2!

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Restrictions

As always, the restrictions listed on our Player Restrictions page are not final until the season begins. However, we feel it is worth mentioning that we have tried to take a minimal approach to restrictions this season, within reason, which comes as a side effect of having these 3 divisions. While we still are restricting players in the Intermediate and Open divisions who we feel would be too strong on particular classes, we have also allowed leeway for certain players that in past seasons haven't had this option. For example, some players in the Intermediate division would normally be restricted off particular classes in a 2-division season of Highlander and are now being "allowed to cook" as the kids say. The same can be said for players in Open, as only the ones who fall outside the classification of minimal experience have been restricted.

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Season Progression, Rounds & Season Break

For the Premier Division, the regular season will be 5 rounds long with each team playing each other once. Then, Page Playoffs will be played, resulting in an 8-round season. As for the Intermediate and Open Divisions, the regular season will be 7 rounds long with each team playing each other once, after which Page Playoffs will commence for a total of an 11-round season. The only key difference between the Intermediate and Open seasons is that the Intermediate division will have 1 bye week per team, while the Open division will play all 7 rounds without byes being required.

With the shorter season, Premier will only have 3 transfer windows, locking rosters from round 4 and beyond, whereas Intermediate and Open will have the standard 5 transfer windows. You can view additional information transfers on the Key Dates & Transfer Windows section of our league page.

Round 1 of Autumn '25 Highlander will begin on Wednesday, the 12th of February, and will conclude on Sunday, the 16th of Febuary. After this, Round 2 will be delayed by a week and will begin on Wednesday, the 26th of February, to accommodate for the Lan Down Under Qualifiers that will be held between the 21st and 23rd of February.

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Highlander Autumn '25 Changes!

The following are changes that will debut in Highlander Autumn '25.

Fresh Meat (New Admin)

Please welcome Pulse, our newest Trial Highlander Administrator, who will be joining the team this coming season! Pulse has been an active member of our Highlander community over the last few seasons and has provided us with excellent feedback and opinions over said seasons. We're very pleased to bring him onto the ozfortress staff team, and we know he'll do great things this coming season.

Map Pool

Below, you'll find the Autumn '25 Map Pool.

Highlander Autumn '25 Map Pool:

Upward

Swiftwater

Vigil

Eruption

Steel

Product

Ashville

Proot

Similar to last season, we're sticking with a total of 8 maps for Autumn '25. We have also stuck to our mission of rotating a minimum of one map out a season to add variety alongside the maps we all know and enjoy in our Highlander competitions. A detailed Map Schedule will be released in the coming days.

So Long Summercoast

Just like the season it was named after, Summercoast's time has come to an end. Upon reviewing our post-season surveys, it was clear that players didn't enjoy playing Summercoast in the Spring '24 Highlander season. This was further reflected in a follow-up map vote with the map receiving minimal votes to its contemporaries, Eruption and Borneo. Although we intended to keep Summercoast in for a minimum of 2 regular seasons to give players a chance to learn and enjoy the map, the outcry for its removal was too large to ignore, and thus Summercoast will be removed from the season for the foreseeable future.

I Am Proot

With our initial idea to keep Summercoast in for a minimum of 2 seasons, Proot was meant to be on the chopping block for replacement. However, after making the decision to drop Summercoast in favour of another Stopwatch map, we have opted to leave Proot in for another season. The map wasn't overwhelmingly disliked like Summercoast and had a positive reception from players, thus justifying our decision to leave it in for another season.

Eruption > Borneo

Like the legendary guitar solo of the same name, Eruption is here to leave its mark! With Summercoast being removed, 2 candidates were front runners for inclusion in the Autumn '25 Highlander season. Borneo and Eruption were both highly requested in our Post-season survey, so we decided to poll both maps in a recent Discord poll. To our shock, both maps tied with a total of 76 votes each. This is the second time that Borneo and Eruption have tied in our map vote. The first time this happened, we chose to include Borneo in the map pool, where it lagged significantly behind other maps in it's post-season reception. After careful consideration and feedback from the community, we’ve decided to go with Eruption for this season, given its recent updates and positive reception from players.

Eruption's recent balance updates as well as play in other regions, compared to Borneo's lack there of as well as their respective playtime in the global Highlander ethos outside of ozfortress also cemented our decision. Furthermore, Eruption has only seen 1 full season of league play in ozfortress back in Spring '23/ Season 5 where players weren't opposed to playing the map again in future seasons, whereas Borneo has been played in 4 seasons, constantly in a state of 'in and out.'. We're hoping that players and teams will be able to form more concrete opinions about Eruption over the next 2 seasons after they've had time to learn the map and explore it further.

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Playoffs

Returning to Page Playoffs

Last season we experimented with a new playoffs concept in 'Expanded Playoffs' which allowed the top 6 teams from each division to progress into playoffs opposed to the usual top 4 teams progressing forward that is found in Page Playoffs. Unfortunately, after reflecting on its inclusion in Spring '24, we can't justify using it again in future regular seasons, as it has flaws that don't allow teams to be accurately ranked from 1st to 4th at the end of playoffs. Expanded playoffs may return in future off-season competitions that take place over shorter time frames, as a key strength of the format is its use of double elimination. We intend to return to our tried-and-true Page Playoffs system this season, which is only single elimination and flows better come playoffs.

Bronze Final Continuation

After its introduction in Experimental Cup 3 and its regular season debut in Spring '24, the Highlander Bronze Finals have been a huge success, with the majority of players liking the idea of a final match between 3rd and 4th place. Thus, we will be keeping bronze finals going for all divisions for Autumn '25 Highlander and beyond.

Tiebreaker Measures: Round Win Rate Method of Calculation

Come playoffs, if teams are tied and their correct standing can't be determined via our first and second tie-breaker measures (being Map Points and Direct encounter, respectively), then a Round Win rate calculation will be performed. Moving forward we'll be listing the formulas used to make this calculation in our rules alongside our other Tiebreaker Measures on our docs in the coming days, as there is no reason for this information to not be public in the first place.

If you have any questions about the way this calculation is performed, please reach out to its creator and fellow Highlander admin, redja on Discord via @redja.

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Rule Changes

There will be a News Post detailing all upcoming changes that will affect both Sixes and Highlander coming out in the following days. This Post will list changes we're making, such as how we deal with teams playing with cheaters, map play order, and more.

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Signups Close Soon!

Don't forget that signups close next Wednesday, February 5th, at 11:59pm AEDT. If you require any assistance, such as finding a team, finding players, or any other sort of help, please reach out to our Highlander Admins or, alternatively, open a support ticket in our Discord.

(art by dezi)

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Highlander Flood

It's raining down in ozfortress, must mean it's Highlander time again. Welcome to the start of our 2025 Highlander run beginning with our 9th season, Autumn '25.

Signups

You can sign up for Highlander Autumn '25 from today (Thursday the 16th of January) up until Wednesday the 5th of February at 11:59pm AEDT. With this in mind we'll aim to have seedings out by Sunday the 9th or Monday the 10th of February at the latest with the Season starting on Wednesday the 12th of February.

SIGNUP NOW · SEASON PAGE

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Season Changes On The Way

While we aren't ready to share any of the changes we'll be implementing in the coming season as of right now, another post will be released in the coming days once we've established and finalized all changes that are set to occur this season. If you haven't already, make sure you check out our Post-season Surveys that we've released in the previous Highlander Spring '24 - Winners & Award Recipients post. Feedback from these surveys will help shape future seasons so get it quick before they're gone forever... On that note...

Autumn '25 Feedback Form

For the time being we intend to move away from doing end of season surveys. They simply don't yield enough meaningful responses to justify doing them season after season. In their place we will be implementing a General Feedback Form which can be filled in at any point throughout the season. This form will then be looked at with all the submitted feedback, criticism and ideas at the end of each season and wiped going into the start of the next. Any other important data points from our previous Post-season Surveys such as map votes and whitelist changes will be moved to discord polls to incentivize responses in a simpler setting.

New Admins Wanted!

For this coming season we're looking to pick up 2 more Highlander Administrators to join the team. You can apply to join via the aforementioned Post-season Surveys or via our Staff Applications section on our forum. The position of Highlander Admin revolves around the smooth running of all highlander leagues, matches and competitions within ozfortress. This includes, but isn't limited too; settling match disputes, generating match pages on the website and match communication channels in the ozfortress captain's discord, discussing the internal progression and changes of seasons and events and spectating matches as a referee. If any of this interests you, Kai, redja, woozy and myself (Sperkle) would love to have you on our team.

Spring '24 Round Bans

• rohan Banned Rounds 1 & 2 of Spring '24.
• lau Banned Round 1 of Spring '24.
• bubsdoge Banned Rounds 1 & 2 of Spring '24.
• arqu Banned Round 1 of Spring '24.
• APVC Banned Rounds 1, 2 & 3 of Spring '24.
• 21st Century Schizoid Yeen Banned Rounds 1, 2 & 3 of Spring '24.

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Premier Transfer History

Transfer Window #1

• doc Transferred into BRIANLANDER
• sphilliz Transferred into Where no ability meets no effort
• durc Transferred into Where no ability meets no effort
• skai Transferred out of Where no ability meets no effort
• psyco Transferred out of Where no ability meets no effort
• tom. Transferred out of crunch cats
• zennydog Transferred into crunch cats

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Transfer Window #2

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Transfer Window #3

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Emergency Transfers

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Intermediate Transfer History

Transfer Window #1

• skai Transferred into spentagon fever
• psyco Transferred into spentagon fever
• gotaki Transferred into SYDNEY'S REALEST
• Pride Transferred into SYDNEY'S REALEST
• domjni Transferred out of MAINAZUMA9
• WinterPizza850 Transferred into MAINAZUMA9

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Transfer Window #2

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Transfer Window #3

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Transfer Window #4

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Transfer Window #5

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Emergency Transfers

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Open Transfer History

Transfer Window #1

• fam Transferred into FELLOWSHIP OF THE SANDVICH
• astral Transferred into lana del rey fan club
• james16 Transferred into lana del rey fan club
• a Jerry Can Transferred into Rent's Due

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Transfer Window #2

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Transfer Window #3

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Transfer Window #4

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Transfer Window #5

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Emergency Transfers

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Mercenaries Used

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Below you can find all the Mercenaries Used for all division throughout Spring '24 Highlander.

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Premier Merc History

Round 1

Flow merc'd for crunch cats
Sleepy merc'd for crunch cats
doc merc'd for BRIANLANDER
bubsdoge merc'd for BRIANLANDER
thethingy merc'd for Where no ability meets no effort
sphilliz merc'd for Where no ability meets no effort
Train Smash merc'd for Where no ability meets no effort

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Playoffs Round 1

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Playoffs Round 2

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Playoffs Round 3

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Intermediate Merc History

Round 1

Exquizit merc'd for Stimulate Elderly Reaction

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Playoffs Round 1

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Playoffs Round 2

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Playoffs Round 3

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Open Merc History

Round 1

Akari merc'd for Rent's Due
Styx merc'd for Nik-6 (Plus 3)
Xaevra merc'd for Nik-6 (Plus 3)
James16 merc'd for Lana Del Ray Fan Club
Gunwrong merc'd for Fatpoggers Highlander
Brick merc'd for Fellowship of the Sandvich
Fam merc'd for Fellowship of the Sandvich
Broccoli merc'd for Fat Fortress
April merc'd for Rat Gaming
Silent* merc'd for Rat Gaming
Arbabf merc'd for Rat Gaming

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Round 2

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Round 3

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Round 4

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Round 5

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Round 6

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Round 7

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Playoffs Round 1

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Playoffs Round 2

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Playoffs Round 3

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Key Dates & Transfer Windows

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Key Dates

Signups & Seedings Dates

Thursday 16th of January 2025: Signups Open
Thursday 6th of February 2025: Signups Close, Rosters Locked for Seedings
Sunday 9th of February 2025: Seedings Released
Wednesday 12th of February 2025: Season starts

Regular Season Dates

Wednesday 12th February - Sunday 16th February 2025: Round 1
Wednesday 19th February - Sunday 23rd February 2025: Season Break - LDU Qualifiers
Wednesday 26th February - Sunday 2nd March 2025: Round 2
Wednesday 5th March - Sunday 9rd March 2025: Round 3
Roster Lock applied on Wednesday 12th March 2025 For Premier
Wednesday 12th March - Sunday 16th March 2025: Round 4
Wednesday 19th March - Sunday 23rd March 2025: Round 5
Roster Lock applied on Wednesday 26th March 2025 For Intermediate & Open
Wednesday 26th March - Sunday 30th March 2025: Round 6 (Intermediate & Open Only)
Wednesday 2nd April - Sunday 6th April 2025: Round 7 (Intermediate & Open Only)

Playoffs Dates for Premier

Wednesday 26th March - Sunday 30th March 2025: Playoffs Round 1 / Page Playoffs
Wednesday 2nd April - Sunday 6th April 2025: Playoffs Round 2 / Semi-Finals
Wednesday 9th April - Sunday 13th April 2025: Playoffs Round 3 / Grand & Bronze Finals

Playoffs Dates for Intermediate & Open

Wednesday 9th April - Sunday 13th April 2025: Playoffs Round 1 / Page Playoffs
Wednesday 16th April - Sunday 20th April 2025: Playoffs Round 2 / Semi-Finals
Wednesday 23rd April - Sunday 27th April 2025: Playoffs Round 3 / Grand & Bronze Finals

Transfer Windows

Wednesday 12th February - Tuesday 18th February 2025: Transfer Window 1
Wednesday 19th February - Tuesday 4th March 2025: Transfer Window 2
Wednesday 5th March - Tuesday 11th March 2025: Transfer Window 3
Wednesday 12th March 2025: Premier Roster Lock
Wednesday 12th March 2025 - Tuesday 18th March 2025: Transfer Window 4
Wednesday 19th March 2025 - Tuesday 25th March 2025: Transfer Window 5
Wednesday 26th March 2025: Intermediate & Open Roster Lock

For applicants to be eligible to play in a particular round, the transfer application must be submitted by 11:59 PM AEST/AEDT time the Tuesday of the round before the transfer window.

Teams are permitted to a total of 6 player transfers into their roster this season. Only 2 Player Transfers are processed in each window.

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(Graphic by dezi)

That's a wrap on 2024 Highlander. Congratulations to the winner of the Premier division S.M. and the winners of the Main division sejinming fever. 2025 Highlander is almost here, so don't bask in these team's glory for too long, a new champion(s) may be around the corner.

Below are the Final Rankings and Awards for the Spring '24 season of Highlander.

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Congratulations Premier winners S.M.!

Placements

- S.M.
- crylander
- Significant Otter
- rascals

Grand Final Map Scores

Match · VOD

• Ashville: 3 - 2
• Swiftwater: 2 - 0

Bronze Final Map Scores

Match · VOD

• Swiftwater: 1 - 2
• Vigil: 2 - 1
• Upward: 2 - 1

Awards

Best Scout: krollic (15), HUNGRY.4.EGGS (11), Miffy (6)
Best Soldier: Lizrd-Wizrd (15), norbit the plug (10), mashiro (9)
Best Pyro: bird (16), Styx + peep (8), CH (4)
Best Demoman: maz (13), <user> (12), turris (8)
Best Heavy: typo. (15), HASHFAN (9), Flow (8)
Best Engineer: Sexy Turtle (15), Mikcow (9), redja (5)
Best Medic: remorse (15), jd (12), tal (6)
Best Sniper: calski (14), strawbunny (7), bill + myyyst (5)
Best Spy: Andyroo (15), henwe (12), chimes (4)

Most Improved Player: Mikcow (14), norbit the plug (10), jv (8)
Most Valuable Player: Lizrd-Wizrd (7), Andyroo (5), maz + calski + HUNGRY.4.EGGS (4)
Most Improved Team: crylander (10), rascals (7), Where no ability meets no effort + S.M. + Youth for Christ (6)
Friendliest Team: S.M. + Significant Otter (9), rascals (7), Youth for Christ (6)
Best Dressed Team: S.M. (13), Youth for Christ + Significant Otter + crylander (7), rascals (6)

Best Caster: Rainy (14), jennierubyjane (11), Freaky (10)

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Congratulations Main winners sejinming fever!

Placements

- sejinming fever
- Bisexual Lighting
- Rich and Grainous
- With Blackjack and Furries!

Grand Final Map Scores

Match

• Ashville: 3 - 0
• Upward: 2 - 1

Bronze Final Map Scores

Match

• Ashville: 3 - 0
• Vigil: 2 - 0

Awards

Best Scout: noemie (16), eden (10), Zando (7)
Best Soldier: indy and her jones (13), Gears + APVC (9), zdav (6)
Best Pyro: ziah + FriendlyPyromancer (11), Cryo (10), Cantrip (8)
Best Demoman: Glitchy (12), Pigel + klebs (10), Mirage (8)
Best Heavy: SpicyHipJesus (17), manglemonster (12), GUNWR0NG (7)
Best Engineer: angus (11), Sev + Verydarklord (10), arbabf (9)
Best Medic: olivergeeoz (16), Miss Squidge (10), Sly Rocko (9)
Best Sniper: FIN + Evelynn (13), J (7), WORLD's BLaNKIEsT BLaNK (6)
Best Spy: Bree (13), MonsterGunner0v0 (10), Karly (9)

Most Improved Player: SwaySway (12), Cantrip (10), Zando (9)
Most Valuable Player: SpicyHipJesus (6), klebs + Pigel + olivergeeoz + Mirage + angus + eunsoo + WORLD's BLaNKIEsT BLaNK + Bree (3)
Most Improved Team: With Blackjack and Furries! (13), rat gaming (8), funny people (7)
Friendliest Team: With Blackjack and Furries! (14), Bisexual Lighting (10), funny people (8)
Best Dressed Team: Bisexual Lighting (19), With Blackjack and Furries! (7), funny people (6)

Best Caster: Freaky (20), nightjar (15), Rainy (13)

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Post Spring '24 Surveys

To ensure our Autumn '25 Highlander competition runs as smoothly and fluidly as possible we're wanting to hear from all players who competed in the Spring '24 Season. Below you will find two Post-season Surveys for players who competed in the respective Premier and Main divisions. The surveys are identical and separated for our convenience. Any and all feedback about the running of our regular seasons is always greatly appreciated.

Surveys

• Premier Survey
• Main Survey

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Player Restrictions

The number of restricted players allowed on one roster this season will be decided upon after seedings.

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Intermediate:

SYDNEY'S REALEST

Akari Restricted off Demo.
Brownie Restricted off Scout & Soldier.
gotaki Restricted off Scout, Soldier, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer & Sniper.
Pride Restricted off Scout, Soldier, Demoman & Heavy.

Spentagon Fever

thethingy Restricted off Scout & Heavy.
Time Restricted off Scout.
monkeyspanner43 Restricted off Scout, Soldier & Spy.
skai Restricted off Scout.

MAINAZUMA9

yflow Restricted off Scout.

Rich and Grainous

Striker Restricted off Scout, Soldier, Demo, Heavy & Sniper.

Paws of Steel

Rainy Restricted off Heavy.

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Open:

Fat Fortress

FIN Restricted off Sniper.
xobile Restricted TO Medic.
airstotel Restricted off Scout.

Lana Del Ray Fan Club

bobb0 Restricted off Soldier & Demo.

Rent's Due

Exquizit Restricted TO Medic.

Funny People

theatreTECHIE Restricted off Pyro.

Nik-6 (Plus3)

Oscar The Grouch Restricted off Pyro.
dile Restricted off Engineer.
raina Restricted off Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demo & Heavy.

Fatpoggers Highlander

good small horce Restricted TO Medic.

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Division Admins

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All communication with Division Admins must occur within the Team Captain Discord. Team Captains will be invited after the conclusion of Signups. If you are not in this Discord, please reach out immediately.

HIGHLANDER HEAD ADMINISTRATOR

• Sperkle

DIVISION ADMINISTRATORS

PREMIER ADMINISTRATOR

• Kai

INTERMEDIATE ADMINISTRATOR

• redja

OPEN ADMINISTRATORS

• woozy
• Pulse

To see our complete list including Discord handles, see our Staff page here.

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