god my mic was so shit early on

The Just Chatting category quickly rose to the most popular category past every single gaming category because it was the most universally relatable, no matter what game was being played (spare tournaments like Worlds and The International). During the pandemic in particular, the overall use of Twitch rose extremely due to people being stuck inside their homes, bringing an influx of old and new users.

Over time people have realized that the punishments Twitch gives out are not only generally inconsistent in length, but normally don't scale off of number of previous bans/timeouts. Besides cherry picked stories of nudity examples somehow only receiving a 3 day ban, the general state of the Just Chatting category for some has been turned into:

1. Skirt the line as hard as possible
2. "Accidentally" get a temp ban for 3-7 days
3. Receive traction of their ban via Twitter/Reddit/word of mouth
4. Come back with increased viewership from the advertisement
5. Plug their higher source of revenue (like onlyfans, for example)

These types of channels receive even more traction due to countries that ban porn, but allow Twitch (Asian/Middle Eastern countries like South Korea, Turkey, ect).

https://i.imgur.com/q8hOj7i.png

linked this in their discord since its not in the rgl pug thread

I don't think it's that complex that NA needs another html pug era that exists alongside inhouse pugs. Discord pugs get going fast, and can sometimes make sure fatkids get to play, but:

-Can't be nearly as picky about your class/role
-Can't control who is on your team unless you volunteer medic
-Can't guarantee your teammates are enthused about what they end up playing
-Can't let captains know what the player they're picking is going to play to help balance issues
-And because of all of the above issues combined, has a smaller pool of players to create multiple quality games (adjacent skill level)

In houses as a concept will never die, but they are not an amazing avenue for the casual/picky player that isn't interested queuing far past scrim time. Realistically the best choice is actually reviving RGL Pugs and giving feedback on what features are needed/problems arrive. The developers have already proved they're willing to make changes since it's alpha release, and the HL community already actively uses it. If the community wants something akin to PugChamp 2.0 I don't think it's crazy to think that RGL Pugs could get there if people actually try it.

please have a rule in writing for this shit at this point so it takes no longer than 5 minutes to sort out dear god

that plus the resolution to the issue being consistent over time

would like to return

Would make it easier to push into last when you have advantage, and probably harder when you don't (less strategic variety).

The reason you see consistent shutter snipers in spawn isn't just 'cause it's low risk, but it's the only reliable way to try to prevent sentries from getting spammed down pre-push, and prevent the other team from milking in partway without using. Any other attempt by the defense isn't gonna have the health to stop either and not risk feeding (tanked players vs. not tanked players), and sticky traps on doors have some RNG that you trapped the correct one.

Play long enough on a team with a flank/scouts that don't care to play sniper on last ever and watch as teams slowly realize they can bare minimum peek almost every door for free for info as long as they're tanked, then eventually you'll never have a sentry and ubers will start halfway into your last. Only argument otherwise is maybe lower division teams aren't good enough to ever realize or try these things, which I cannot speak to.

For pushing in a stalemate, the biggest advantage you have against sentry guns is they aren't mobile and can't stuff doors they can't see (unless perfect central placement like process, for example), and not only is that great for snipers that don't need to go deep, but being able to go offensive sniper forces the defense to go into forward holds that tend to make it much easier to sack in the first place (less distance to get to the medic once you find a way in).

I think a hypothetical, never will happen but interesting to think about, sniper limit 0 could definitely benefit lower divisions; I'm sure we all have flashbacks to product games we've played/watched where C-Tier snipers dominate because the opposing teams have C-Tier coordination with C-Tier Rocket Jumping mechanics. Maybe process weeks where one teams flank scout had a record k/d because they were on sniper for 40% of the game. Those benefits decrease/disappear pretty quickly as you increase the skill level of the players, though.

oh damn didn't even notice this because the pause froze the HUD during the cast

Yes, so even though losing LAN was depressing at the time, it actually led to more money in the pocket of the players since they didn't need to spend their prize on the trip to Dallas.

Can't quite remember the season or breakdown exactly but somewhere around Season 12 or Season 13 I think Chess Club ended up with scraps remaining ($15?) after they got their Canadians to LAN.

@alfa since he was there. Most 4th place teams probably got screwed similarly though.

Edit: Fun fact, players like TLR always got to pretty much pocket their share since they lived in/near Dallas.

Prob needs some formatting, also unsure how productive expressing your thoughts like this will be when you touch on multiple different subjects.

Things botmode talks about for those who want a TL;DR
- The win condition system for the 3 min config
- The round timer for said config
- Implementation in RGL
- Pros/cons of season length/structure
- Implementation of cups to replace Post-Lan seasons
- Benefits of cups we've had in the past
- Plans for future international LANs

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
On the topic of your cup idea, it would have been beneficial in some scenarios in the past to have some sort of a "shorter season" when holidays/LAN timing got in the way. I know scheduling was a mess for my teams ESEA matches around the time of Rewind II, and it looks like the current RGL Match Page could tell a story of what the recent Fullerton LAN did to the teams this season.

We're 3 weeks in, and 19/30 games do not have their scores reported.

Main difference to remember, though, is this ruleset enacts that endless possibility more often since you only need the teams to not reach 5 rounds, rather than having the scores tied when the map timer runs out.

I guess the unfortunate truth about the "match fixing" rule is unless there's literal text proof of planning the throw, punishments put in place will be a judgement call.

With that said, whoever made the judgement call that this was a thrown match is either severely ignorant, or severely biased.

- Sandblast said in interviews prior that week they were unable to scrim hardly at all. This is shown in their logs.
- Phlps is new to the team, and is offclassing
- Kev likely had no idea he was going to need to play a match
- Sandblast, their carry player, is forced to offclass on medic

No fucking wonder they lost in 7 minutes. Can you see throwing teams run an excess of sniper? Yes, but excess sniper doesn't inherently mean they're throwing, whether it's last or mid. I casted the damn thing and at no point did I think to myself "they're trying to lose as quickly as possible", even if given the circumstances they expect to lose.

Aren't these types of things supposed to be greenlit by exa? Or whoever? I refuse to believe more than 1 person are responsible for decisions like these.

Most/all of these "whoever holds mid" and timer ideas blow because for every punishment you give a team for promoting a stalemate, you give incentive for the other team to force said punishment upon them by continuing the stalemate. There's not really a way to force 5cp to play faster fundamentally without practically morphing it into KOTH.

Half of the deal is teams aren't going to play super fast and reckless in certain situations when stakes are high, and your opponents are really good/can punish your tiny little mistakes. The other half is pretty much what grape juice said; if both teams suck at breaking stalemates the games not gonna go anywhere.

Sure, but there's still a ratio of reward received vs skill required, which is definitely skewed way higher for the cow mangler charge shot than the iron bomber hit box, so one being banned and the other untouched is not bizarre.