Having been one of the tournament admins on both I61 and I63 I personally feel like the actual tournament organization was messier then last year. This mainly because this year it was more of our own fault. As reference: last year we where, until last minute, forced to use a tournament system that wasn't functional in any form. This caused us to switch to toornament last minute so we could properly host the tournament. Our bracket, teams and groups where already known well on time. We didn't have LAN servers because they where not prepared properly by insomnia and once we had the base setup sorted for them they kept on taking up more and more memory eventually crashing after 10-20 minutes. This finally caused us to only have a couple of LAN servers with a machine that we brought and had setup. The open tournament had no LAN servers whatsoever.

Last year's preparation was largely thanks to heny. Miss you my man.

Now onto this year...
Out of our control:

• We where initially forced to use a dashboard to manage the servers which kept on bringing issues with it. We had planned into the schedule to test the servers well in advance but twiikuu's flight got delayed for 3 hours so he wasn't able to take care of it on the Thursday evening. Twiikuu then took most of the Friday to get the servers up and running and we finally had them operational for the last rounds of the group stages.
  
• toornament was having some issues throughout the day going as far as deleting one of the open group made fixtures. This was all fixable eventually but definitely caused some panic.
  
• The league of legends grand final went the full series and ended up delaying everything on the main stage after it due to poor planning. They went about 2 hours over their scheduled time. (don't blame the cs:go dudes or the players themselves)

Now onto the actual issues/mistakes:

• Me and dr.happiness where not sitting next to each other making communication extremely difficult. This because insomnia expected us to be seated with production and essentials expected us to get seated with the other tournament admins.
  
• Me and happiness had to scavenge for our pc parts on the Friday morning to get our setups going.
  
• On the Friday morning I got told: "Oh, we have a whole rule page on toornament. We copy-pasted the league of legends one and edited it". Giving me no time to properly read through it.
  
• We had to manually sign up some teams to the toornament page because it wasn't clearly communicated and they hadn't signed up themselves.
  
• The essentials discord is a mess and wasn't properly prepared for communication. From me not properly having access to ping all the team leaders to make them aware of situations to me not even being able to give the right roles to team leaders so they could get access to information. Certain teams or their team leaders where not in the discord shortly before everything was supposed to start. Players apart from their team leaders couldn't get into the channels that we where using for communication/announcements. This should have all been taken care of before the event.
  
• People still didn't know we had a public schedule on Friday afternoon after the games where already well on their way.
  
• In the middle of the grand final I had to go confirm on how the prize money organization was going to work. Nobody in essentials had any idea yet. We luckily managed to get this sorted properly.
  
• During the final the communication between production and staff on stage/the players was super limited and not well prepared. We where doing all that was possible with discord, me on just my mobile phone and dan in the back at production. One of the best examples is us missing the start of Granary. The internet of the production had dropped and, although they where 5 meters away, we had no clue on stage and ended up starting without them being close to ready.
  
• For the grand final we for whatever reason gave the time for when we can start with stage setup as starting time for the actual match. In a best case scenario the setup of the players easily takes 30 minutes(setting up peripherals, installing mumble, configs setup, ...). If any form of issues arise, which is almost always the case, it can easily take an hour.

There are a bunch of other things. Insomnia itself seems to have had some troubles with their organization after parting ways with multiplay. Talking to one of the head esports organizers after the finals made it seem like they are not too happy. Mainly because they had no clue on what the TF2 tournament was like in terms of general status but where getting some complaints.

Because you cant blend together 2 colors in css. You can only blend together 2 images or an image and a color. As these are supposed to be minor overlays that highlight who goes through to playoffs but not remove the separation of rows I recon an image was used.

Although the old design did only use images for 60-75% of all backgrounds so it might as well be that. I'll probably make it a background-color only item with some additional css.

I'll look at that tomorrow.

cu@

The final changes for the whitelist can be found down below. Next to the tested weapons we also opted to ban the Machina.

• The Gas Passer -> Banned
  
• B.A.S.E Jumper -> Banned
  
• Bonk! Atomic Punch -> Banned
  
• Sandman -> Unbanned
  
• Machina -> Banned

Hi everyone,

I've added a mention for the banana in the OP as it seemed to have slipped under the radar.
Apart from that I'll give a quick rundown of my personal thoughts + answer some concerns mention in the thread.

Feedback Info
First things first, how was feedback gathered for this Whitelist. We always try to get a decent sample pool of our players for feedback. With ETF2L I always try to message every single main line-up Premiership player from the past season(Although I sadly enough cant always reach all of them). I do this as it allows me to ask for some weapons more in detail as well as try to understand their reasoning behind their statements. A yes or no from a poll result does very little and polls generally get ignored by a lot of people.Which is why I tend to go for this option as I feel that a conversation holds way more value.

"Banning Pyro"
If this is what came across after reading the news post then sorry as this was not the intention. Banning Pyro, although sounding tempting ;), is never going to be the solution. The wording is like this due to the large changes that Pyro has gotten in the update. This affects the class as a whole rather then specific unlocks. Meaning that within the short amount of time that we have for testing we would like additional data on all the Pyro weapons. A couple of mentions I had received already where:
The Powerjack due to it allowing Pyro to get to mid only 2 seconds later then the Scout.
Scorch Shot as well as the Detonator due to how easy they are to spam and the amount of damage that can get done with them.

The Dragon's Fury
The Dragon's Fury was one of the weapons I got the most responses when asking around as it is probably the most unknown as well as scary factor of the new Pyro weapons. But from all the people that I asked 72% where in favor of keeping it banned, 8% was interested in trying it out and the remaining percentage wanted it unbanned.

And personally I very much agree with keeping it banned. Testing would always be an interesting thing for the future but testing it now would mean that it would get the largest part of the attention and the remainder of the Pyro weapons might not even see daylight. With how current flamethrowers already seem like an issue I personally would want feedback on them over just the Dragons Fury any time of day.

Weapons
Why are these specific 4 weapons being tested? Well because none of them have seen competitive play before(Or at least not a lot). Meaning that we dont have a base line where we can compare the changes to. All 4 of these weapons hold the possibility to be used in the finalized Whitelist but is an uncertainty due to this lack of data.
Why are there only 4 weapons being tested? Its the middle of the holidays and there is little time to test the weapons. So in the hopes that they would get tested we left it at a low amount so there is enough time to test them all.

There are some weapons that have gotten mentions so I'll give some quick rundowns of my personal notes/thoughts:

• Mantreads
  Still bugged, if it wasnt it would be an interesting weapon but would have to get tested imo.
  
• Natascha & Cow Mangler
  Both of the weapons are pretty braindead. They dont add a lot if anything to 6v6 and with Valve buffing both of them in the update it just shows how out of touch they are on certain aspects. The changes that they received dont suddenly turn them OP or anything similar but the weapons both rather disrupt 6v6 then anything.
  Infinite ammo always seemed like a crutch and encourages brainless spam.
  Being able to fuck up people's movement makes the weapon very easy to run on open defenses. While granting yourself damage resistance and making your target a sitting duck allowing the downside of reduced damage to be almost negligible.
  
• Atomizer, interesting due it having to be hold out but giving scout more mobility seems like a bad idea. It can be tested at one point in time but not during the short period we have now.
  
• Machina
  I'm personally 50/50 on the weapon.
  
• Solemn Vow
  Tested multiple times in ETF2L. Always an interesting discussion but also always a majority that want to keep it banned. Maybe at one point in the future it can be looked at once more.
  
• Reserve Shooter & Crit-a-Cola
  Free minicrits are a no-go in my book.

Thanks for the comma note, I've edited it in the main post. Hope its easier to read now.
If anybody finds any other typo's in the OP feel free to point it out.

In the end a quick thanks to everybody that is taking part in the conversation!

The Jungle Inferno update was introduced mid-season, and some provisional measures were taken by the admin team. This included bans for both the new weapons (Dragon’s Fury, Gas Passer, Thermal Thruster, Hot Hand, Second Banana) as well as the majority of the changed weapons (Panic Attack, Pretty Boy’s Pocket Pistol, Mantreads, Beggar’s Bazooka, Backburner).

These changes meant the previous whitelist was modified in favour of an updated whitelist. Since this was only a short-term adjustment which be improved upon, let us look at the changes needed for the next iteration of the Global Whitelist. With some downtime during the holidays we’ll be approaching the whitelist slightly differently; due to there being limited playtest data available for the new and changed weapons since the update.

The following weapons will be unbanned in a provisional whitelist for a short amount of time, after which we will make a decision on the temporarily allowed weapons. The final decision has been made and the outcome is listed below. Together with this we also opted to ban the Machina.

• The Gas Passer -> Banned
  
• B.A.S.E Jumper -> Banned
  
• Bonk! Atomic Punch -> Banned
  
• Sandman -> Unbanned

Apart from testing weapons we also ask you to give feedback on the Pyro class as a whole. We want your thoughts on Pyro's old weapons, as well as the new one that will be unbanned by this whitelist.

Changes to the whitelist
Below is a summary of changes that will be part of the whitelist, followed by an explanation for each weapon as to why it is allowed, banned or being tested.

Multiple Classes

• Panic Attack -> Unbanned
  
• B.A.S.E Jumper -> Unbanned for testing

Scout

• Sandman -> Unbanned for testing
  
• Bonk! Atomic Punch -> Unbanned for testing

Soldier

• Cow Mangler 5000 -> Banned
  
• Beggar’s Bazooka -> Unbanned

Pyro

• Backburner -> Unbanned
  
• Gas Passer -> Unbanned for testing
  
• Thermal Thruster -> Unbanned
  
• Hot Hand -> Unbanned

Heavy

• Natascha -> Banned
  
• Second Banana -> Unbanned
  
• Gloves of Running Urgently -> Unbanned

Medic

• Vita-Saw -> Unbanned

Sniper

• Darwin’s Danger Shield -> Unbanned

Reasoning behind (un)bans

Panic Attack - Unbanned
Although heavily changed from its previous version it still isn't a standout weapon. Its reduced bullets per shot and damage penalty lead to the weapon doing worse than the default shotgun in most cases.

Pocket Pistol - Banned (Unchanged)
Although its initial bug of always getting +7 health has been fixed; the weapon maintains to be an issue. This due to its faster firing speed combined with the healing while having a minor downside. Due to this the weapon will remain banned.

Cow Mangler 5000 and Natascha - Banned
Both of these weapons have been discussed in depth in the past. With both of them getting buffed in the update, we opted to ban them.

Beggar’s Bazooka - Unbanned
Although there is still a bug (of which abuse is easily proven) that persists with the Beggar’s Bazooka its effect on the weapon isn't enough to warrant a ban of the weapon.

Backburner - Unbanned
Banned recently due to a bug. With this getting fixed in the update of 13-12 we will be unbanning the weapon.

Dragon Fury - Banned (Unchanged)
The weapon itself does have a larger range than the base flamethrower and its projectiles don't match their visual. The reduced airblast rate is a significant downside and its overall damage does match to the other flamethrowers (Although this might be because they seem bugged). But with the Pyro class already changing a lot as well, together with new Pyro weapons that haven't seen competitive play yet, we will keep this banned.

Thermal Thruster - Unbanned
A very unique tool for the Pyro that brings new opportunities for the class. The weapon has a slow recharge as well slow weapon switching speed. The weapon’s unique ability isn't amazing, because Pyro's overall mobility is still far from Soldier or Scout. For this reason the weapon is unbanned.

Hot Hand - Unbanned
This weapon doesn't add much to Pyro. Although slapping people is a very satisfying thing to do the weapon in itself isn't strong.

Second Banana - Unbanned
The weapon doesn't stand out too much(So much that we initially missed it in this post). Its made to commemorate the Heavy losing to Pyro in the race for the update. And thus the weapon isn't an original design and feels like a Sandvich with slightly altered stats. With the Sandvich already being allowed the Banana can get added on in as an somewhat situational alternative.

Gloves of Running Urgently - Unbanned
These gloves got changed quite heavily. Instead of having a mini-crit effect on equip you now drain your maximum HP. Although getting to mid fast is now possible, getting there fast with lots of HP isn't. Since you need considerable time to recharge your HP and your buff is also affected, the weapon is unbanned.

Vita-Saw - Unbanned
The Vita-Saw’s stats have finally changed after being in the game for 7 years(!). The weapons ability to maintain a % of your ÜberCharge after death is still something that shouldn't be underestimated. But due to it only allowing you to maintain it after hitting an enemy with it, it is more skill rewarding. It doesn't overshadow the Ubersaw and vice versa but both will have their situational benefits. Due to this the Vita-Saw is unbanned.

Darwin’s Danger Shield - Unbanned
It blocks fire damage instead of bullets and doesn't give +25 max HP on the wearer. With the amount of Pyro's running rampant on pubs it has its utility there but in 6v6 its effects won't show as much leading to it being unbanned.

Global whitelist
So here we are, the whitelist is done and can be found here.(ID:8319)

We are aware that there are still some bugs with the weapons that are being allowed in this whitelist, however these don't completely break the weapon. Any abuse will get handled by the respective league that they occur in.

The only weapon that maintains a major impact bug is the Gloves of Running Urgently. This bug however has not been reproduced yet with consistent results. While our testing period with the provisional whitelist is going on we ask players to see if they can replicate any bugs with the GRU, and if so the weapon’s status in the whitelist will change accordingly. If players have this bug happen during a match we ask of them to act as honorably as possible. Here is the only noted case of the GRU bug occuring.

That's all for now, we will be actively reading any discussions that go on in regards to the whitelist and appreciate anybody that tries to take part in the discussion.

We won't keep you any longer than we already have: Happy Holidays to everybody! <3
Here’s to another amazing year of TF2!

-Your Global League Administrators

Thank you to NYK and Wiethoofd for their help in this writeup.

Thanks Heny for the event and everybody that helped making it great event. And also a big shoutout to alcohol.

3.22% of my life
11.28% since I started playing.
If I add in a rough estimate of the amount of time I spend on ETF2L and whatnot it comes to around 17.08% since I started playing.

Although this is a basically dead thread I might as well post an overall statistic from what people mentioned in here. With the map pool still being almost the same this is still relevant anyway. First the 4 most liked maps, not really a surprise to most I recon. There are the amount of votes and the order that people placed them in. This wont be 100% accurate due to scraping and optimizing that was done to not make this take ages.
The numbers at the bottom represent the place they were in the list, so number one is the first item on the list.

http://i.imgur.com/BhUJ75v.png

There is already quite a big jump between Product and the other 3 but even so it managed to get into the 4th place spot.
Next up is the bottom 5 maps. I will mention that while most maps got around 130 votes Reckoner only got 41 and Metalworks around 110.

http://i.imgur.com/4VT8PEA.png

Badlands still has an overall decent scoring but has a score that is all over the place and slightly hangs towards the lower areas. The Reckoner bars being exceptionally low due to the amount of votes but averaging around 6.5 and metalworks with the lowest score averaging around 6.7. Granary also averages around 6.5 but there seems to be a trend that it is the 9th placed map on the listing.

Here is an overview as pie chart with which map gets disliked the most. The calculation that was used to achieve this was: amount of time on placement*placement # for every placement and then the sum divided by the amount of times the map was listed. If there is interest I can make a split up version for both EU and NA but currently don't have the time to finish it in this sitting alone.

http://i.imgur.com/Ka14DQB.png

The final listing is:
Snakewater - 2.907
Process - 2.930
Gullywash - 3.231
Product - 4.008
Badlands - 4.882
Sunshine - 5.219
Reckoner - 6.537
Granary - 6.553
Metalworks - 6.728

This was my first time doing this type of info post so if there is any feedback in regards to that feel free to leave it.

Edit. My cursor was apparently in some of the charts

Shoutout to heny for being a hella good tournament admin partner.
Shoutout to all of production for doing the things a production team does and doing it amazingly.
Special shoutout to Wolf Machina for organizing a lot of this, wouldnt have been this great without him.
Shoutout to fellow etf2l admins that were chill to be around and menty for living up to drinking a beer and wearing cosplay.
Shoutout to the other tournament admins for being nice dudes to drink with.
Shoutout to Tob, Synrise and Sacrilege for being traveling buddies.
Shoutout to everybody that came up to me and introduced themselves(And the people that reintroduced themselves because I forget)

aoshi_frend

Apologies for that. It didnt meant to be insulting in that way. I'm currently just very stressed due to me being in an exam period. Although it doesnt justify my behavior I'll be watching myself to not make it happen again.

Pahan's application was nice and well constructed. Irfx made an application and retracted it. The black stripe hides what I think was his real life name.

Well its quite hard to overturn who we picked after the captains have already been announced. The discussions as to who were going to get the captain positions was ongoing for around a week already. And Raf told me he didnt want to be team leader so not sure why I should take his application serious anymore after that.

I like Ganon as a person from playing in a team with him a year. Not from being at the same lan. I dont think I talked to him for more then 5 minutes at LAN itself and he slept during the car ride :D

http://i.imgur.com/rEWBMhO.png
http://i.imgur.com/EMetsYU.png

"I guess people will mostly play on the 2nd roster"

I'm actually quite curious if you're that forgetful or just straight up stupid.

http://i.imgur.com/WHNlLp0.png?1

I didnt say you didnt send me an application. I said it never came through which I showed you with the above mentioned picture.

This in terms meant that the other proposed roster was going to be missing those exact same people as there was some overlap. Which made both roster equally worse. We cant tell which of the proposed rostered players will actually play or not in the end. Its meant as an initial baseline.

I dont even have words for how stupid this sounds.
- Meeting somebody at a lan doesnt mean shit.
- Yes I am confident that his application was the best one that came through to the ETF2L email and I still am. You started a shitstorm because you were unhappy with the captain before even properly speaking to him.
- The whole Belgium vs France in the group stages is a really low blow and I personally couldnt care less. This is a cup thats meant for fun but you acting like a spoiled child made it one of the most horrible cups I've had to run in the past 2 years I've been an admin.