(art by foodeater)

---

The Competition Remains the Same!

Highlander Winter '25 is here and for our 10th season, we have a few things we'd like to tell you about! While we need to address some whitelist changes, Map Pool additions and staff rotations we still have the goal of bringing you more Highlander competition that you love and we love bringing to you!

Signups

You can sign up for Highlander Autumn '25 from today (Thursday the 22nd of May) until Friday the 6th of June at 11:59pm AEST. With that said, we'll aim to have seedings out by Sunday the 8th or Monday the 9th of June at the latest with the Season starting on Wednesday the 11th of June.

SIGNUP NOW · SEASON PAGE

---

Winter '25 Changes to come!

Rule Changes, Penalties & Roster Shrinkage

As discussed in our previous News Post we have made numerous changes to our Rules and Penalty System which will all be taking effect as we planned. However, arguably the biggest change that will be taking place is the Roster Shrinkage.

Upon reflecting on our idea to reduce Highlander roster's down to 12 players from the original 15, we feel that this change would be to harsh to implement from the get go. Especially with a wider variety of classes being needed as subs on an active Highlander roster 3 subs didn't seem like quite enough. Ultimately, we have decided that Highlander rosters this season will consist of 13 players. We will monitor this smaller roster size throughout the season and reflect upon it internally post season.

---

Map Pool

Proside

For the second time in a row a Highlander Map vote has ended in a tie - this time between Proside and Cascade, both receiving 22.7% of votes each. To settle this tie, we have once again left the decision to our advisor team. Ultimately Proside (pro version of Lakeside) was decided to be the one rounding off the pool of 9 maps for this season.

Proot

In light of players warming up to Proot more over the past 2 seasons, we have decided to not rotate it out and instead keep it around for the foreseeable future. While this did go against our initial philosophy of 'aggressive map rotations', we would be remiss if we didn't give players the opportunity to play maps that they both like and wish to see more of. This also means that the map pool now has an equal amount of King of the Hill and Payload maps. However, we still intend to alternate swapping out maps of different game types at the end of each season to continue bringing players some variation and the opportunity to find new favorites.

---

Whitelist Changes

Airstrike

The Airstrike will be unbanned after nearly a decade of absence from Highlander. Though it's crazy to consider a weapon being unbanned after so long, the community has made it very clear that this weapon deserves a chance in the upcoming season. Exactly 50% of voters believed that the weapon should be unbanned, with a sizable 22.7% being indifferent on the weapon's inclusion or exclusion in Winter '25 Highlander's whitelist. We will moderate it's usage throughout Winter and check in on it again at the end of the season.

Loch n Load

In a much closer vote the Loch n Load will remain banned with 42.4% supporting this decision and 39.4% being opposed. With votes consistently being this close we will continue to keep an eye on this discussion and carry out additional polls for the items inclusion in future competitions as we see fit.

---

Goodbye General Feedback Forms

Simply put, the General Feedback Forms weren't as effective as we'd thought they'd be and moving forward we won't be using them any longer. We intend to modify post season surveys in a way that makes them easier to digest similar to what we did with the Pre-Winter'25 Survey prior to the start of this season. However, we know it's important for teams and players to submit verbal, written information so we will be sure to have an outlet for those looking to provide feedback that way.

---

Staff Changes

indy and her jones and Cryo

We're happy to announce that both indy and her jones and Cryo will be joining our staff team this season as the newest Trial Highlander Administrators. They'll be joining redja, woozy, Sperkle and of course Pulse who has now moved past his trial status and become a fully fledged League Administrator. Both indy and Cryo have proven themselves to be fantastic advisors in the past who made it clear to our us that they care about this scene and bettering it in anyway they can. We're excited for them to join the ozfortress staff family and wish them the best going into Winter '25.

Kai

Typically when a member of staff steps down we will make note of it, thank them in a post and personally for giving up their time to assist us in running competitions and seasonal leagues. Kai deserves that and then some. Kai has given up so much of her time and energy making ozfortress a better place and has decided that she is ready to step down from her position. Since she joined the staff team back in Season 5/Spring '23, Kai has acted as an admin for 5 highlander seasons as well as provided consistent admin support for numerous off season cups and events. She has always gone out of her way from tracking Highlander teams and players before signups have closed in order to make seedings easier to actively reaching out to users with useful resources, on top of always being on call when she can be for league related issues. Truly the GOAT of league admins and we can't thank her enough for all she has done. You've left a profound impact on staff, players, and ozfortress as a whole Kai. All of us wish you nothing but the best for your future. May you have many more holidays (God knows you've earned them) and a life full of lovely cats and kittens. Thank you for all you've done boss!

---

Pre-Winter '25 Survey Results

---

Changes are coming prior to the start of the Winter '25 Season of competition. Let's talk about it!

Roster Shrinkage

Going into our Winter '25 seasons, we intend to shrink roster sizes. We know this seems scary, but don't worry, we are here to walk you through it. After lengthy internal discussion, we aim to change roster sizes by the following amounts:

Sixes: From 10 Players to 8 Players
Highlander: From 15 Players to 12 Players

We believe that shrinking rosters to the sizes listed above will encourage improved competition and potentially allow for the creation of more teams to compete within our seasonal leagues. We believe this is more than reasonable considering the current 'Mercenary Culture' that we find ourselves in, where a majority of teams playing in seasonal competitions opt to use a mercenary closer in skill level to the absent core player, as opposed to a substitute who may not be up to the same standards.

For these reasons, amongst others, we feel we have a strong case for reducing roster sizes. However, we welcome the community to send us feedback, we even encourage it. This is a huge change and directly conflicts with our past initiatives to improve roster and scene health. We get that. So, we want to hear from you, via a support ticket from our Discord or via our General Feedback Forms if you have feedback, an issue that needs to be brought to our attention regarding this approach, anything!

---

Global Ruleset Changes & Doc Updates

Rule changes have not been added to the ozfortress docs at the time of the post being released, but will be soon.

• Combining 1.3.2. Upper Division Playoffs Stopwatch & 1.3.3. Lower Division Playoffs Stopwatch to now be 1.3.2 Playoffs Stopwatch, which reflects the same set of rules for all divisions of Highlander during Playoffs.
• Expanded the wording around 2.4.1. BO3 Playoff Matches (Sixes) & 2.4.2. BO5 Playoff Matches (Sixes) to elaborate on pick deferring and its use in Sixes Playoffs.
• Players who are transferred out as an 5.4. Emergency Transfers can not be transferred back into the roster for the remainder of the season.
• 6.2. Mercenary Approval will now specify that teams are not to engage in 'Mercenary Bargaining' of any kind. Additionally, if teams have already approved a Mercenary, they are not permitted to unapprove that same Merc. Only Administrators have the ability to revoke an approval on a Mercenary.
  
• Roles have been modified in the 7.2. Team Captain Discord, which now prevents unnecessary spamming of GIFS and unrelated media within the Discord. Consistently posting unrelated materials and messages in this Discord can result in removal and further league-related repercussions.
• The 8.5.1. Live Coaching rule now describes and reflects that all forms of coaching during an active match are prohibited, including messages received over chat services such as Steam, Discord or Twitch. Cases of coaching are to be looked at on a case-by-case basis. Coaching is permitted during scrims, before/after matches and between maps.
• The 8.8.1 Pause Limits rule has been changed to '1 pause per team, per map that is played'. This means in regular season matches that play 2 maps, 2 pauses will be available to be used at any time. Whereas in playoffs, 3 to 5 pauses may be used across the match per team.
• The following game modifications will be listed as allowed under 12.1.1. Game Modification:
  • Medic Radar and any scripts related to it are permitted.
• The following game modifications or exploits are prohibited under 12.1.2. Game Mechanic Exploits:
  • Rocket Trail scripts that modify rocket trails.
  • Engineer stored multiple melee critical hit.
  • Heavy lunch box items health exploits
• A small guide that will provide players instructions on what to do when an active match's server dies with a Match Restart/ Continuation Procedure.
• Round Bans won't be moved around upon the players request. Round bans are now applied immediately once decided upon. If a player is given a round ban and they are set to play in a scheduled match within 48 hours, they will be permitted to play, and the ban will begin at the start of the subsequent round.

---

Penalty System Overhaul

Since introducing the Penalty System last year, we've noticed both benefits and hindrances. Firstly, having concrete procedures in place to guide teams on how to conduct themselves and punish those who neglect their responsibilities has helped see a reduction in banned players and overall infractions. However, with the current system in place, some teams still don't take the penalties applied seriously.

After internal deliberation and discussion amongst staff, the following changes have been made to the Penalty System:

Team Penalties:

• Teams will no longer receive warnings; all breaches will now result in a minor, moderate or major penalty.
• 2 Minor penalties are equivalent to 1 Moderate Penalty.
• 2 Moderate penalties are equivalent to 1 Major Penalty.
• 2 Major penalties will now result in a team's disbandment.
• Major penalties will no longer deduct points from teams who incur them.

Player Penalties

• Warnings will be kept for some Player Penalties.

In addition to the general changes listed above, all penalties have been looked at and modified. As well as this, new penalties have also been added for rules that previously didn't have any direct ruling associated with them. You can view the new Penalty System as well as individual penalties and rules in a Google spreadsheet linked here until they have been applied to the online ozfortress docs.

---

We'll be making a follow-up post before the beginning of the Winter '25 seasons, outlining where we stand on Roster Shrinkage after getting additional feedback from the community, as well as other changes, such as Staff Changes, so stay tuned!

---

---

Transfer History

Transfer Window #1

---

Transfer Window #2

---

Transfer Window #3

---

Transfer Window #4

---

Transfer Window #5

---

Emergency Transfers

---

Mercenaries Used

---

Below you can find all the Mercenaries Used for all division throughout Winter '25 Highlander.

---

Merc History

Round 1

---

Round 2

---

Round 3

---

Round 4

---

Round 5

---

Round 6

---

Round 7

---

Playoffs Round 1

---

Playoffs Round 2

---

Playoffs Round 3

---

---

Key Dates & Transfer Windows

---

Key Dates

Signups & Seedings Dates

Thursday 22nd of May 2025: Signups Open
Friday 6th of June 2025: Signups Close, Rosters Locked for Seedings
Sunday 8th of June 2025: Seedings Released
Wednesday 11th of June 2025: Season starts

Regular Season Dates

Wednesday 11th June - Sunday 15th June 2025: Round 1
Wednesday 18th June - Sunday 22nd June 2025: Round 2
Wednesday 25th June - Sunday 29th June 2025: Round 3
Wednesday 2nd July - Sunday 7th July 2025: Round 4
Wednesday 9th July - Sunday 14th July 2025: Round 5
Wednesday 16th July - Sunday 21st July 2025: Round 6
Wednesday 23rd July - Sunday 28th July 2025: Round 7

Playoffs Dates

Wednesday 30th July - Sunday 3rd August 2025: Playoffs Round 1 / Page Playoffs
Wednesday 6th August - Sunday 10th August 2025: Playoffs Round 2 / Semi-Finals
Wednesday 13th August - Sunday 17th August 2025: Playoffs Round 3 / Grand & Bronze Finals

Transfer Windows

Wednesday 11th June - Tuesday 17th June 2025: Transfer Window 1
Wednesday 18th June - Tuesday 24th June 2025: Transfer Window 2
Wednesday 25th June - Tuesday 1st July 2025: Transfer Window 3
Wednesday 2nd July 2025 - Tuesday 8th July 2025: Transfer Window 4
Wednesday 9th July 2025 - Tuesday 15th July 2025: Transfer Window 5
Wednesday 16th July 2025: 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.

---

---

Player Restrictions

The number of restricted players allowed on one roster this season is 5

---

---

Division Admins

---

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

• redja
• woozy
• Pulse
• indy and her jones
• Cryo

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

---

---

Map Schedule

---

Map Pool

Highlander Winter '25 Map Pool

Upward
Swiftwater
Vigil
Eruption
Steel
Product
Ashville
Proot
Proside

Changes to the Highlander Winter '25 Map Pool

• Added Proside

Please note: pl_upward_f12, pl_vigil_rc10, pl_eruption_b14, cp_steel_f12, koth_product_final, koth_ashville_final, koth_proot_b6c-alt2 and koth_proside_v1 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 pl_eruption_b14
rcon changelevel cp_steel_f12
rcon changelevel pl_vigil_rc10
rcon changelevel koth_ashville_final1
rcon changelevel koth_proot_b6c-alt2
rcon changelevel koth_proside_v1

---

(Graphic by dezi)

The first Highlander Season of the 2025 year is now complete! Congratulations to the winners of each division Leap of Faith Deluxe, SYDNEY'S REALEST and lana del rey fan club! This season we'll be taking a leaf out of the Sixes book and doing some additional player awards in the form of Seasonal Trivia. With assistance from treemonkey we'll be using the information gathered on more.tf to add a list of additional awards for each class of all the divisions.

Below are the Final Rankings and Awards for the Autumn '25 season of Highlander. At the bottom of each Division's Awards is a link to an additional thread with additional information on classes and players (Trivia)! The Division based Trivia will only pertain to the regular season's results, playoffs and beyond has been excluded to ensure everyone has as similar amount of matches played as possible.

---

Congratulations Premier winners Leap of Faith Deluxe!

Placements

- Leap of Faith Deluxe
- crunch cats
- oh crab !
- BRIANLANDER

Grand Final Map Scores

Match · VOD

• Ashville: 3 - 0
• Vigil: 2 - 0

Bronze Final Map Scores

Match

• Swiftwater: 1 - 2
• Product: 3 - 2

Awards

Best Scout: maz (10), HUNGRY.4.EGGS (9), strawbunny (6)
Best Soldier: mashiro (11), jd (9), takeyon (8)
Best Pyro: brodie escobar (15), styxs (11), matt (4)
Best Demoman: robor (11), doge.exe has stopped working (9), turris (6)
Best Heavy: typo.(11), JP + Trash (9), wils (4)
Best Engineer: silvo (9), mikcow (8), eden (7)
Best Medic: remorse (14), lau (10), song (5)
Best Sniper: Flow (10), skyhigh (8), spunchbob3 (6)
Best Spy: Andyroo (13), Speedy (11), henwe (5)

Most Improved Player: Glitchy (12), trash (7), wils (6)
Most Valuable Player: doge.exe has stopped working + skyhigh + robor (5), jd + maz + typo + lau (3), silvo + sarkreez + remorse (2)
Most Improved Team: crunch cats (12), Mates Rates (10), Leap of Faith Deluxe + BRIANLANDER (6)
Friendliest Team: BRIANLANDER (11), Mates Rates (9), crunch cats (8)
Best Dressed Team: BRAINLANDER (13), Mates Rates (8), crunch cats (6)

Best Caster: tal (10), turris + Sperkle (9), Freaky + Dave (3)

Premier Season Trivia

---

Congratulations Intermediate winners SYDNEY'S REALEST!

Placements

- SYDNEY'S REALEST
- Metaphorical Idioms
- Rich and Grainous
- spentagon fever

Grand Final Map Scores

Match · VOD

• Steel: 0 - 2
• Vigil: 2 - 0
• Proot: 3 - 2

Bronze Final Map Scores

Match

• Ashville: 3 - 0
• Vigil: 2 - 0

Awards

Best Scout: seiran (9), rain (8), Evelynn+ monolith (7)
Best Soldier: Matty (11), indy and her jones (10), zando (9)
Best Pyro: ziah (11), Cryo + Bree (7), yons + goblxn (4)
Best Demoman: silent* (11), Rainy (9), mort (8)
Best Heavy: reeee.vol 2 (10), TUX (8), lillybit_0 (7)
Best Engineer: sulu + Content (8), Mirage + Verydarklord (7), brownie (6)
Best Medic: olivergeeoz (9), bobo + scarlllyyy + arbabf (7), april (6)
Best Sniper: Noemie (11), Dezi (9), Zort + Spoyo (6)
Best Spy: Classy Doctor (14), Wergy + Karly (7), chiddy (6)

Most Improved Player: Matty (16), Mort (10), Classy Doctor (5)
Most Valuable Player: Rainy (6), silent* (5), akari + Matty (4)
Most Improved Team: Paws of Steel (12), Rich and Grainous (8), MAINAZUMA (7)
Friendliest Team: Paws of Steel (10), Stimulated Elderly Reaction + Rich and Grainous (7), MAINAZUMA9 (6)
Best Dressed Team: Paws of Steel + Metaphorical Idioms (8), MAINAZUMA9 + Rich and Grainous (7), SYDNEY'S REALEST (5)

Best Caster: Freaky (17), Rainy (7), turris (6)

Intermediate Season Trivia

---

Congratulations Open winners lana del rey fan club!

Placements

- lana del rey fan club
- Fat Fortress
- Rent's Due
- Nik-6 (Plus 3)

Grand Final Map Scores

Match · VOD

• Eruption: 0 -2
• Product: 3 - 0
• Vigil: 2 - 1

Bronze Final Map Scores

Match · VOD

• Steel: 2 - 0
• Ashville: 3 - 0

Awards

Best Scout: FIN (14), Sirgy (13), astral (7)
Best Soldier: archie (13), Gregory + Kou (12), Peepo (6)
Best Pyro: froglvvr (15), Cantrip (13), june (she/her) + mercicrux + ness™ (5)
Best Demoman: juliangonzales2009@yahoocom (16), ALittleSilly (7), SwaySway (6)
Best Heavy: Pablo 62 (13), Diavolo Diablo (12), Frosted (8)
Best Engineer: Sev (12), Raina (11), Allison (9)
Best Medic: bobb0 (13), 0nkee (10), good small horse (9)
Best Sniper: rice + Yeeting Baby, + Dight a blight (8), ÅɞîD + midside (7), Haste (4)
Best Spy: Captain Sigma (13), james16 (12), gamer juice + sully (6)

Most Improved Player: juliangonzales2009@yahoocom (12), randomcat (11), Frosted (8)
Most Valuable Player: SwaySway (7), astral (6), Sirgy (5)
Most Improved Team: funny people (10), Fatpoggers Highlander (7), FELLOWSHIP OF THE SANDVICH (6)
Friendliest Team: funny people (13), Nik-6 (Plus 3) + rat gaming (8), Fatpoggers Highlander + lana del rey fan club (5)
Best Dressed Team: lana del rey fan club (14), funny people (10), rat gaming (7)

Best Caster: Freaky (14), Sperkle (11), tal (7)

Open Season Trivia

---

Highlander Autumn '25 Open Season Trivia

Note: This trivia is from weeks 1 - 7 of the regular season and excludes playoff data.

---

Open Division Statistics

Scout

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: FIN (1.29)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: FIN (0.66)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: Dede (1.13)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: astral (388.5)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: Eagle (285.6)
Highest Average Bleed Damage Per Minute: Sirgy (55.3)

Soldier

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: pewdekz (1.08)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: Kou (0.38)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: Sour Duh (0.96)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: pewdekz (408.9)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: pewdekz (320.6)
Most Airshots: phee (4)

Pyro

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: Cantrip (0.81)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: juna (0.63)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: ness™ (1)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: juna (249.1)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: Maeveanic (316.7)
Highest Average of Spys Killed Per Minute Cantrip (0.32)

Demoman

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: proton (0.98)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: SwaySway (0.45)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: robret (0.80)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: SwaySway (499.9)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: SwaySway (404.2)
Most Airshots: Dupiter (5)

Heavy

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: capulo (1.14)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: kenji. (0.52)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: Zoe (0.97)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: Diavolo Diablo (343.5)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: Zoe (577.2)
Highest Average of Heals Received Per Minute: Zoe (271.1)

Engineer

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: ashoo & Raina (0.7)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: ashoo (0.57)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: Bjam (0.71)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: Raina (249.0)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: Bjam (226.0)
Highest Average Sentry Damage Per Minute: Luciferin (92.3)

Medic

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: good small horse (0.18)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: bobb0 (0.86)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: 0nkee (0.53)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: good small horse (62.8)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: good small horse (216.3)
Highest Average Heals Per Minute: Hindenpeter (1225)

Sniper

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: ÅɞîD (1.28)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: Aristotel (0.25)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: Midside (0.87)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: Dight a blight (401.9)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: Jameshasconnected (259.2)
Highest Headshot Average Per Minute: ÅɞîD (1.4)

Spy

Highest Average Kills Per Minute: james16 (1.09)
Highest Average Assists Per Minute: FMOSZ (0.09)
Highest Average Deaths Per Minute: TTV TheFizzOCE (1.08)
Highest Average Damage Per Minute: james16 (442.8)
Highest Average Damage Taken Per Minute: james16 (207.5)
Highest Average Backstabs Per Minute james16 (0.9)

---