Update on league divisions

People keep asking me if TFCL will have divisions, and what they're going to be called. When IM got removed the questions basically doubled, so I'm just going to post this here to clear some things up. FAQ style!

Q. Will TFCL have divisions?
A. Yes, we will. Just need the teams to justify more than a single division.

Q. What are they going to be called?
A. S Rank, which is the highest form of competition in TFCL. This is comparable to Invite, and is where all of the top teams will go.
A Rank is the second highest division, and is similar to Intermediate.
B Rank is the Base Rank, most similar to Open. This is what everything is considered as of right now.
C Rank is the training division, intended for teams that are brand new to competitive Team Fortress 2. This is very similar to Iron, and is also what our coaching service will primarily focus on.

Q. When are they going to be out?
A. Divisions will be introduced as soon as we have enough teams to justify them.

Update regarding Ultiduo

To try and encourage more teams signing up, especially now that there's a prize pool involved with the first place prize being the same as last seasons, I'm going to extend things a bit.

Week 1 is now set for August 12th, with the registration deadline being August 9th. I'll update the site to reflect these changes, and also post an announcement to the steam group.

Honestly, when I first read the news? I instantly thought it was a joke. It came from TMZ, and I just don't trust their shit. I mean, do you have any idea how many times Stan Lee has died? It's just, I didn't believe it. I didn't want to believe it.

Even now I'm still wondering if this is just one giant joke. Like an inside joke that no one but LP themselves understand. But I know it isn't. It's just... too real.

Man, this news really hit me hard. Linkin Park was one of the only bands I've been meaning to see live, having played such a huge part of my childhood.
I never liked their new album, but looking back at the style change now, a more melodic "happy" sound makes a lot of sense. I just have no words to properly express this shit. I mean... fuck. Suicide is no joke, and whenever it happens to somebody you know or respect, it tends to change your view on them, and kinda analyze their old life a bit more. There were so many clues leading up to this shit, yet no body saw them.

Linkin Park wasn't a typical band. They were like a family. My thoughts go out to them, and to Chester's actual family, and his 6 kids. Just... rip.

If pure casual stuff, I find that I have the most fun on badwater. If we're talking competitive, I'd vote for process. No idea why, but I adore the crap out of that map.

Thanks man! I've been dedicating almost every single day of the past six months exclusively to TFCL and related projects. It's actually harming my health a bit, as I've been sleeping very poorly lately. But meh, I'm not complaining. I love what I'm doing, and really see a bright future for TF2 and TFCL. I'm putting everything I've got into it.

Alright, so I finally got around to updating the original post. I was procrastinating on that for so damn long.

I'll likely edit it again soon, as it's kinda formatted poorly. I also want to include some more info in the OP, but for now, it's good enough.

Also, since people keep asking if we have a discord? Yes, TFCL has a discord. We've had one for a while, though I guess never really made it public or something.
https://discordapp.com/invite/cSvCVaC

If you have any questions, let me know.

You know what, to heck with it. I don't see highlander getting six more teams before July 4th, when all the more recent signups have been for 6's and ultiduo. So I'm calling it. Highlander isn't happening this season.

Currently Ultiduo has more teams, so I'm moving the prize pool over to Ultiduo.

1st. $200 ($100 per player)
2nd. $40 ($20 per player)
3rd. $10 ($5 per player)

I'm extending registration by two weeks as well so some more quality teams and players can come in for the pool.

I'm also going to test a community donation thing. So if you guys want to increase the prize pool, contact me in PM on here or @TF2League on Twitter. I'll also accept item donations, specifically keys, hats, and whatever else. Can't be a base weapon though, needs to have some kind of special quality to it. Will have a new account for trades.

edit: new registration deadline is July 27th. First match on July 29th. Figured I'd give everyone enough time to sign up and get their teams together.

Wait, this is a thing? Where is this?

Our main medic has missed a few games now, and can't scrim Wednesday at all. So we're looking for somebody that could potentially become a starter sometime down the line, but will start out as a sub.

https://play.esea.net/teams/138675

Main requirement is being open on all official match days, and availability on Wednesday.

Add me if you're interested.

https://steamcommunity.com/id/Sidular

Used 808 in the past, and they're good little speakers. Though they don't have the best sound out there. You're mostly paying for the durability and small form factor, not sound.

While I've never owned it myself, I found that the Wonderboom has good sound for its price. However the main downside is the thing is exactly $100, so not sure if that fits into your budget or not.
https://www.amazon.com/Logitech-984-000840-WONDERBOOM-Waterproof-Bluetooth/dp/B06XGWJTS7

Also even though it says it's waterproof, a friend of mine says that his broke after the speaker fell into a small puddle from off his deck. Not sure if this was due to the fall or the water, or a mix of both. But it's worth mentioning. (fall was maybe 3 feet)

So, just a quick and general update for you guys regarding the status of the league.

Highlander needs 6 more teams before July 4th, or the entire season is going to be cancelled.
Sixes needs one more team before July 4th, or the season will be shortened down to 4 weeks.

If Highlander is cancelled, the pool will go to whichever format has the most teams. Currently that looks like it'll be Ultiduo.

Possible Prize Changes
If Highlander is cancelled, and Ultiduo has more teams registered by the deadline, then Ultiduo will have a prize pool of around $250. That will be split between first, second, and third place.

The pool will look like this.
1st. $200 ($100 per player)
2nd. $40 ($20 per player)
3rd. $10 ($5 per player)
If this happens we'll extend registration for Ultiduo again, so more teams have the chance of signing up with the new pool.

If 6v6 has more teams registered by the deadline, the prize pool will increase to $500. That will be split between first, second, and third place.

The pool will look like this.
1st. $360 ($60 per player)
2nd. $100 ($16.66 per player)
3rd. $40 ($6.66 per player)

Tested it earlier with Hyce.

Map is pretty simple. Spawn rooms are sort of weirdly designed, and very long.
Rocket jumping from the "dish" isn't super hard at all, though the current reflections on the dish do make it kind of disorienting at times.
Also, surfing rockets is very easy due to the downward angle of the dish. In fact, it's too easy. I managed to get some frags as a medic simply by surfing a rocket. That should not happen.
Playing soldier on it is also surprisingly easy, and potentially unbalanced. If you hold the point it's almost impossible to retake it, as you can just spam rockets down without much risk. As somebody that never plays soldier, I rather enjoy being able to shoot the enemy without them being able to shoot back. Though if you're not a horrible soldier, I can imagine that this would be infuriating as all hell.
http://logs.tf/1761531#76561197999339627

All in all, I'm not sold on this map quite yet. While I did have fun playing it, it was mostly the company that made it fun. I've never before had an impromptu heavy boxing match break out in the middle of an ultiduo game. So I can at least say that this map provided me with that. So that's nice.

I got votekicked for hacking as a medic. Apparently uber = god mode.

Oh yeah, I remember another time I was on a 24/7 2fort server with a win limit of... idk, but it was super high. So I'm just going to say it was 100.
So anyway, here I am playing the game, when suddenly I get the urge to cap the intel. There was only maybe 5 or so caps in total, and with a winlimit that high, I didn't see any harm in capping once.

Well, the entire server decided to freak the fuck out on me. I'm talking insults left and right, from both teams. To them, I had just committed a federal offence. Though apparently it wasn't enough to ban me right then and there.

Nope. What got me banned was me comparing their server to hightower. I asked in actual curiosity, "So are we basically doing hightower rules then? No capping?" and that is what finally did it for them. I had just compared their great and powerful 2fort server to some lowlife hightower server. That's a no-no.

tldr; I compared a 2fort server to a hightower server, and got banned for it.

I got banned from a turbine server for joining it. Apparently I wasn't allowed to join it or something, so instead of setting a password, they just banned anyone that joined the instant they connected.

I also got banned once for hitting a headshot on a person that was "in spawn". To be fair, that headshot was bullshit, and probably the worst case of lag I have ever seen. If I remember right, I ended up shooting at a soldier, and missed. There was nobody behind him at all, but I guess due to lag, my shot ended up connecting with a player that had just spawned, or was otherwise still in spawn and nowhere near the soldier. I still don't get how I actually hit him, and honestly, the ban was kinda justified. I mean, it was bullshit all the same, but still. If the situation were reversed I'd likely ban me too.

And then finally, I was on a server that was playing all of these custom maps. These maps were pretty high quality, and mostly payload. Very well designed, and yet I managed to get severely lost in one of them. There was like a crashed airplane or something that you spawn in on blue side, and I remember getting lost on it. I made a quick quip that I was lost and needed an adult to guide me back to salvation. After a while I got the hang of the map. Then the next map happened, and I once again got severely lost. This one was basically designed to confuse the fuck out of you, and even had a maze like pyramid thing. Well, I'm kinda getting a tad angry and say something like "Holy shit this map is like a maze" and apparently I was "negative" towards the map maker, who I guess was on the server and heard me "complain" about the map. Ended up getting banned because I was "abusive" and "toxic" and didn't "respect" the admins.

tldr; I got lost on a map, said the map was a maze. Map maker heard me, and banned me.