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FINAL SEEDINGS

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It wouldn't be an ozfortress season with out a few complications would it. Unfortunately due to one team dropping out prior to the start of the season we're back down 16 teams. Typically in a 16 team season we'd have two even divisions of 8 teams each. However, when looking into this we found that the skill difference between the 7th seeded Premier Division Team 50,000,000 Doctrine Fans Can't Be Wrong and the 1st seeded Main Division Team CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ is too great and bring the Main team up into the Premier Division wouldn't be a positive fix. Thus, we have decided to keep the 9 Team Main Division and have a 7 Team Premier Division.

With this in mind we still intend to generate all the Premier Division matches as Round Robin. This means all teams in the Premier Division will have 1 bye week this season. As for Main nothing has changed and the season will still be generated as SWISS. Below is the Final Placement's for Highlander Winter '24.

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PREMIER

Atomic Deluxe
BRIANLANDER
crylander
EVIL RASCALS
Significant Otter
good pug
50,000,000 Doctrine Fans Can't Be Wrong

MAIN

CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ
goblin deez
Scurvy Ridden
Sharon Keast
Tuah Previously, Where no ability meets no effort
Should Be Studying
Dispensers
rat gaming
monosodium glutamate

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Additional Restriction

We have added an additional soldier restriction to yons on CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ. You can find the full list of player restrictions here.

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Division Administrator Changes

Finally, we will be swapping our Division admins around slightly. hive will be moving to admin the Premier division and woozy will now be a Main Division administrator.

If you have any issues with any of this new information please contact one of our Division Admins or reach out via a support ticket in our Discord. Matches will be generated with in the next few hours.

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PRELIMINARY SEEDINGS

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It's the biggest Highlander Season in 2 years! With a whopping 17 teams, we're keen to get the action underway next week. But first, we have released our Seedings as well as all the current Player Restrictions we plan on implementing for the Winter '24 Highlander season. Below you can find the current list of Player Restrictions as well as our Seedings for the Premier and Main divisions. If you have any issues with either please do not hesitate to reach out to one of our Division Admins or preferably via our support channel in Discord.

Player Restrictions can be found here.

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PREMIER

Atomic Deluxe
BRIANLANDER
crylander
EVIL RASCALS
Significant Otter
good pug
50,000,000 Doctrine Fans Can't Be Wrong
Team Wahoo!

MAIN

CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ
goblin deez
Scurvy Ridden
Sharon Keast
Where no ability meets no effort
Should Be Studying
Dispensers
rat gaming
monosodium glutamate

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Why two divisions?

This season we intend to run two divisions like we did last season. We believe that an eight-team Premier division and a nine-team Main division will provide the best competition with the least amount of skill divide possible.

The Premier Division this season houses eight teams, all of which we believe will be of similar/equal skill to one another. We feel the biggest gap in skill is likely between the 5th and 6th-seeded teams. Furthermore, we think that placing any of these eight teams in the division(s) below wouldn't be beneficial as their skill level is currently far greater than that of any of the remaining teams even with harsh or scrutinised class restrictions.

The Main Division for this Highlander season will have nine teams. While nine teams isn't ideal for a season that will only run for a maximum of 7 weeks (not including 3 weeks of Playoffs for a total of 10 weeks) we believe this will have the best competition for the remaining teams outside of Premier. We are aware that there is a sizeable skill gap between the 6th and 7th-seeded Main teams but we don't believe that restricting players on the higher-seeded teams in the division or splitting the division up into two divisions would resolve this issue. Splitting Main into two divisions (for a total of three divisions) would result in a bottom division of four teams with match repeats, which we feel would not result in good or enjoyable competition as regardless of any restrictions that would be implemented, the higher seeded team could be far better than the three seeded below them.

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Season Progression

For Winter '24 both the Premier and Main Divisions will have a 7-week regular season with the entire Map Pool being played. With this in mind, the Premier Division will be using the Round Robin match system, with all matches being generated at the start of the season. However, due to the number of teams in the Main division, Main will be making use of the Swiss System - meaning matches will be generated weekly.

Please keep in mind that ABBA will be played in Week 4 of the Regular Season for both divisions. The map (only map) being played during that week will be the newest version of Upward.

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Sniper Crouch Exploit

When a Sniper crouches whilst scoped in, his head moves slightly to the right instead of straight down. This means while crouching near a wall or large object, a Sniper can conceal up to, or sometimes more than 50% of their character model - often obfuscating where the head hitbox is. Because of this issue, an enemy sniper abusing this issue can often have a mostly uninterrupted line of sight, but with their character model being significantly covered. In a Sniper dual, a Sniper crouching close enough to a wall can likely negate a headshot from an opposing Sniper whilst still being able to shoot unobstructed.

From Winter '24 of Sixes and Highlander onward, we will be classing purposeful abuse of this issue as game mechanic exploitation. 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.

This will be touched on again in an upcoming post (titled: Demo Recording Rule Change, Docs Updates, Infractions Ruleset Changes & Game Server Bans), but for now is not live in the ruleset.

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Winter Is Here, And So Is Highlander

Welcome back everyone! We hope you're all well rested and are ready to jump back into the action with our seventh season of ozfortress Highlander. During the off-season we've been working hard behind the scenes to bring you a great Winter experience! Below we have a list of changes that will be implemented in the upcoming season as well as some updates to our staff.

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Staff Updates

After 5 seasons of hard admin work and providing servers to the community Oldcustard will be stepping down as a Highlander Admin. Oldcustard has been an internal voice of reason throughout his time on the ozfortress staff team. Always remaining level headed and calm regardless of what was being discussed and always provided a genuine and well thought out perspective on all matters. We can't thank him enough for all he's done for the ozfortress Highlander scene and we wish him nothing but the best in all his future endeavors.

With Oldcustard's departure we will be bringing on two new individuals who will be adopting the role of Trial Admins. Trial Admins will be shadowing our current admin team of Kai, hive, Rainy and myself over the course of the Winter Season and assisting where possible. Our two new Trial Admins for this season will be redja and woozy both of which have been active in our scene over the past couple of years. Despite one of them not bringing the AUS to ozfortress, we feel both will make a great addition to our team this season and we're look forward to seeing them in action.

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Changes, Rule Modifications and Additions

The following are a list of changes and additions that are being made to ozfortress that will either change of effect how the Winter '24 Highlander league is run and will progress.

Secondary Match Days:
- Secondary Match Days will no longer be in effect. If teams are unable to play their match between Wednesday - Sunday then they will need to be granted an extension via their division admin to play on Monday or Tuesday (Previously secondary days).

King of the Hill (KOTH) Scoring:
- For the Winter '24 Highlander Season King of the Hill maps will now be scored as 1 - 0 in the winning teams favor. This change has been implemented to combat an issue our website has when it comes to calculating scores correctly. Meaning, this change may only be temporary as our developer team is looking into the issue.

New Point Tiebreaking Measures:
- With the introduction of the new way of scoring King of the Hill maps we have introduced a series of tiebreaker metrics that will be used upon a potential tie in points come end of the regular season.
Tiebreaker Measures
1. Team will have all their KOTH rounds they've won throughout the regular season tallied with the highest total being the winner of the tied teams.
2. If the above fails, the direct encounter will be used with the winner of said match being the winner of the tied teams.
3. If the above fails, a Best of 3 tiebreaker match will need to be played. This match will feature the two maps from the direct encounter match with the final map being determined after each team bans 2 maps each. (Teams need to play on opposite sides they started on in the direct encounter).

ABBA week in Regular Season:
- During the Winter '24 Highlander Season Teams all divisions will be playing one week of ABBA in the regular >season. The week in question will only feature one map of Upward. The first team to win 2 rounds of this map will win >that week's match. If you are not familiar with our ABBA works or what it is you can find more information here

Map Pool Reduction:
- This season's map pool will be reduced down to 7 maps. You can find all the maps and the versions being used here

Roster Size Reduced During Sign-ups.:
- Rosters may only sign up to 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.

Transfer Windows:
-This season transfers will be processed near fortnightly with the first transfer window being in week one and the following being ever subsequent fortnight. There will be a total of three transfer windows throughout the season with their dates subject to change based on how long the season will be.

Pick/ban Time Requirement
- For this season the Pick/ban process in playoffs need to be completed by 7pm AEST the day before the match is scheduled to be played. This is to give teams a chance to scrim the maps being played if they so choose.

Pick/ban Process Changes
- This season the Pick/ban process will be changed to accommodate to the new map pool size. The new Pick/ban process will be as follows:
Home-Ban, Away-Ban, Home-Pick, Away-Pick, Away-Ban, Home-Pick

Note: Rule changes may not be updated on the websites docs. We will have them modified and updated prior to the season's start.

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Highlander Autumn '24 Post-Season Survey Results

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Below you will find survey results are from the Autumn '24 Post-season Survey's. The surveys results come from Premier, Main and Advisor surveys.

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ABBA In Playoffs

Advisors

Premier

Main

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ABBA In Regular Season

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Alternative King of the Hill Week of Regular Season

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Darwin's Danger Shield

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Division Sizes

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Fixed Match Days

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Loch-n-load

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Autumn '24 Map Pool

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Map Vote for Winter '24

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Preferred Match Generation

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Natascha

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Pick/ban System

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Pick/ban Completion Time Requirement

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Secondary Match Days

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Soda Popper

Advisors

Premier

Main

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Why don't we show the text responses?

We hide text responses to properly filter and address the feedback internally without the concern of someones response being criticized or judged by the community.

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(Graphic by dezi)

Congratulations to our respective Premier and Main division winner Musos Deluxe and WE ARE THE WORLD 39 FOR OPEN! Furthermore we'd like to thank you all for participating in our Autumn '24 season of Highlander. We hope to see you all for our future Winter '24 season as well as perhaps a little something after that... but you'll have to wait to find out more on that little secret. Stay active in the off-season, pug hard, scrim hard and work on being the best Highlander player you can be!

Below you will find the the placements for the Autumn '24 Season of Highlander as well as Player and Team Awards.

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Congratulations Premier winners Musos Deluxe!

Placements

- Musos Deluxe
- crylander
- NOT rascals

Grand Final Map Scores

Ashville: 3 - 0
Borneo: 2 - 0
Match

Awards

Best Scout: HUNGRY4EGGS
Best Soldier: Lizrd-Wizrd
Best Pyro: ms. pauling bong fiend
Best Demoman: RAZE
Best Heavy: JP
Best Engineer: Sexy Turtle
Best Medic: remorse
Best Sniper: calski & Flow
Best Spy: Andyroo

Most Improved Player: Stamm
Most Valuable Player: HUNGRY4EGGS & remorse
Most Improved Team: Significant Otter
Friendliest Team: Significant Otter
Best Dressed Team: Musos Deluxe & Significant Otter

Best Caster: turris

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Congratulations Main winners WE ARE THE WORLD 39 FOR OPEN!

Placements

- WE ARE THE WORLD 39 FOR OPEN
- Where no ability meets no effort
- Sharon Keast

Grand Final Map Scores

Ashville: 2 - 3
Swiftwater: 1 - 0
Warmtic: 3 - 0
Match

Awards

Best Scout: Laz
Best Soldier: indy and her jones
Best Pyro: Relz
Best Demoman: Corn
Best Heavy: tom.
Best Engineer: eden
Best Medic: Doctrine
Best Sniper: kbn
Best Spy: hiccups

Most Improved Player: seiran
Most Valuable Player: Pigel
Most Improved Team: rat gaming
Friendliest Team: petrodragonic apocalypse
Best Dressed Team: WE ARE THE WORLD 39 FOR OPEN

Best Caster: freaky

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Player Restrictions

Note: Number of restricted players allowed on one roster is 5

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Player Restrictions

CONNECTICUT KIA BOYZ

Corn Restricted off Scout & Demoman
bubsdoge Restricted off Scout
hef Restricted off Soldier & Demoman
Tenous Restricted off Scout
yons Restricted off Soldier

goblin deez

bambi Restricted off Scout, Demoman, Heavy & Sniper

Tracy Waldron

Laz. Restricted off Scout
rosss3s Restricted off Heavy
aisha💕😘 Restricted off Soldier

Tuah

angus Restricted off Scout
Titan Restricted off Sniper
gingacharma Restricted off Spy

Should Be Studying

Mio Restricted off Soldier & Sniper

Dispensers

Rainy Restricted off Pyro & Heavy
Disturbed Restricted off Scout

Previously Rostered Players

Susu Restricted off Scout, Soldier, Heavy & Sniper

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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

PREMIER ADMINISTRATORS

• Rainy
• hive

MAIN ADMINISTRATORS

• Kai
• woozy
• redja

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

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Map Pool

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Highlander Winter '24 Map Pool

Upward
Vigil
Swiftwater
Steel
Product
Ashville
Warmtic

Map Schedule

Round 1: pl_swiftwater_final1 & koth_product_final
Round 2: pl_vigil_rc10 & koth_warmtic_f10
Round 3: cp_steel_f12 & koth_ashville_final
Round 4: pl_upward_f12 (ABBA)
Round 5: pl_swiftwater_final1 & koth_warmtic_f10
Round 6: pl_vigil_rc10 & koth_ashville_final
Round 7: cp_steel_f12 & koth_product_final

Changes to the Highlander Autumn '24 Map Pool

Please see the Poll Results linked on the league page for specific percentages.

• Removed Borneo and Proot
• Upward updated to version pl_upward_f12, previously f10

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Please note: pl_upward_f12, pl_vigil_rc10, cp_steel_f12, koth_warmtic_f10, koth_product_final and koth_ashville_final are custom maps. If you don't already have these installed, please click the links above to download them, and then move them to your ..\Team Fortress 2\tf\download\maps directory.

The following commands can be used to change maps to the correct version. Type or copy these commands into your console to change to that map, as long as you have the correct rcon password.

rcon changelevel pl_upward_f12
rcon changelevel koth_product_final
rcon changelevel pl_swiftwater_final1
rcon changelevel cp_steel_f12
rcon changelevel pl_vigil_rc10
rcon changelevel koth_ashville_final
rcon changelevel koth_warmtic_f10

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Key Dates & Transfer Windows

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Key Dates

Signups & Seedings Dates

Sunday 2nd of June 2024: Signups Open
Friday 21st of June 2024: Signups Close, Rosters Locked for Seedings
Sunday 23rd of June 2024: Seedings Released
Wednesday 26th of June 2024: Season starts

Regular Season Dates

Wednesday 26th June - Sunday 30th June 2024: Round 1
Wednesday 3rd July - Sunday 14th July 2024: Round 2
Wednesday 17th July - Sunday 21st July 2024: Round 3
Wednesday 24th July - Sunday 28th July 2024: Round 4
Wednesday 31st July - Sunday 4th August 2024: Round 5
Roster Lock applied on Wednesday 7th August 2024
Wednesday 7th August - Sunday 11th August 2024: Round 6
Wednesday 14th August - Sunday 18th August 2024: Round 7

Playoffs Dates for Premier & Main

Wednesday 21st August - Sunday 25th : Page Playoffs
Wednesday 28th August - Sunday 1st September 2024: Semi-Finals
Wednesday 4th September - Sunday 8th September 2024: Grand Finals

Page Playoffs

All divisions will use the Page Playoff system for their finals.

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Transfer Windows

Transfers this season will be processed and approved on a fortnightly basis. There will be three transfer windows for this season of Highlander. Teams should note the Transfer Windows to prevent player issues with their rosters during the season. Transfers can be requested at any point during the season, however, the players in question will only be reviewed during the current or next Transfer Window, depending on when that player was requested. Furthermore, players won't be processed until their team's match has concluded for the current round. The listed transfer windows can be found below.

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 3 Player Transfers are processed in each window.

Transfer Window #1

Wednesday 26th June - Tuesday 2nd July 2024: Round 1
Note: Roster sizes will be increased to 15 during this first transfer window
Transfer Window #1 starts after Final Placements have been released, and closes 11.59PM Tuesday the 2nd of July 2024

Transfer Window #2

Wednesday 17th July - Tuesday 23rd July 2024: Round 3

Transfer Window #3

Wednesday 31st July - Tuesday 6th August 2024: Round 5
Roster Lock applied Wednesday 7th August 2024

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Award Voting

Howdy folks, with the temperature dropping and the winter months approaching it is time we Farwell the Autumn '24 Sixes and Highlander season's with our seasonal award voting. Voting is open from now and closes on the 19th of May 2024 at 11:59pm AEST. Votes will need to be submitted by Team Captain's who team's competed in the aforementioned seasons.

For those who are new or unfamiliar to voting any and all information regarding the process can be found in the links below but to summaries it for all who may be curious;

Team captains vote for players who competed in their teams division for certain categories in which players are nominated in. From left to right players voted will receive 3, 2 and 1 points with the player with the most points receiving the award. All categories require 3 votes with teams and team captains being prohibited from voting for players who were rostered on their team. Votes only need to be done for the division you and your team competed in.

Votes are to be submitted to the admins listed on the voting spaces below.

Sixes Voting

Premier Voting • High Voting • Intermediate Voting • Main Voting • Open Voting

Highlander Voting

Premier Voting • Main Voting

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Post Season Surveys

Finally, with all Autumn competitions complete we are looking to receive any and all feedback you've got through our Post Season Surveys. This time around we are dividing our surveys up to focus on getting feedback from each individual division of play for both Sixes and Highlander. We hope this will allow us to identify the issues effecting each area with more ease as well as still getting an idea of what you, the community, want in future seasons.

Sixes Surveys

Premier Survey • High Survey • Intermediate Survey • Main Survey • Open Survey

Highlander Surveys

Premier Survey • Main Survey

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