First highlight video is up:

https://youtu.be/iycF8XWU7ag

The plan is to do one of these at the end of every month, with the best highlights from that month's pugs.

This one only had the last 5 days of September to pull from, so it's a small sample. Once there are more games and more clips to choose from, It should also take the players and the level/rating of the game into account when picking what makes it in.

If you hit something nice in a pug and want it considered for next month, just type !clip in game chat when it happens.
Also open to song suggestions, I could use the help there.

Thanks! Yeah, that's the plan. I've still got a few features I want to get out first, but once those are released Id want to open source it, so the community can help maintain it and keep it going long term.

Hey all,

Europe hasn't had a proper pug site in a while, and I know part of why, because I've been the reason before. I've run pug sites that went well for a while and then slowly died. Every time it was the same story: the code got harder and harder to change. Bugs piled up, every fix risked breaking something else, and the features people asked for never got built. Griefers showed up and there weren't proper tools to deal with them, and nobody could see what the admins were doing or hold them accountable. Eventually the lobbies stopped filling and that was that.

So I rebuilt it from scratch with one goal: a pug site that stays maintainable, one that can keep getting upgrades without things breaking or turning flaky.

It goes live today at protfx.com. It deliberately takes on PugChamp's style and look, so it has that nostalgic feel everyone is already used to.

What it is

Captain-draft pugs for 6v6 and Highlander, plus first-come-first-served Ultiduo and BBall. If you played on PugChamp, you'll feel at home straight away. It's the same look and the same flow but upgraded to 2026 standards.

https://protfx.com/images/tftv/02-draft.jpg

The stuff that killed the old sites, fixed

https://protfx.com/images/tftv/03-admin.jpg

Subs that actually work. If someone leaves, or never connects, their captain can request a sub, and if someone fails to connect in time the server requests one by itself. Everyone online gets a notification and can apply. The sub is swapped in and the new roster goes to the game server automatically, so no admin has to be around. Leavers get a penalty, and repeat leavers get longer cooldowns (clean games wear it off again). If a game falls apart completely, it ends unrated and everyone is freed.

Voice is built in

Voice runs on our own Mumble server. You link your Mumble client once from your account page, and after that every game gives you a button straight into your team's channel. Only your team can get into it. You need a linked Mumble to play, so do it once when you sign up.

Moderation:

• Admins can restrict exactly what someone abused (playing, subbing, captaining, chat, or requesting an admin), with a reason and an end date.
  
• The restrictions list is public: who, why, and until when.
  
• ETF2L bans are honoured automatically. No admin has to spot them.
  
• Don't agree with a call? You can appeal it, and appeals are handled oldest first.
  
• Request Admin is a button on every page, and the admins who are online hear it straight away.
  
• Every admin action goes in an audit log.
  
• Alts and suspicious accounts can't just add up. they will have to wait on a Waitlist until an Admin approves them.
  
• You claim your alias once, so nobody turns up under a new name every night.

Admins also get a proper game-night panel. It shows every running game live, who left and how long ago, which subs are wanted and what needs attention.

Ratings and stats

https://protfx.com/images/tftv/04-ratings-and-stats.jpg

Every game is rated (think ELO, built for team games), and there's a leaderboard per Format, player profiles with your stats and rating history, and monthly awards.

Why this one might last longer

This is the bit I care most about. The old sites died for two reasons.

Griefers won, and admins answered to nobody. There weren't the tools to deal with griefers properly, and when an admin made a call nobody could check it. This time admins have proper tools (the moderation section above), every restriction is public with its reason and end date, anyone can appeal, and every admin action is written to an audit log the other admins can see, so each call can be checked and admins are accountable for them.

The code got fragile. Every change risked breaking something, and there was no way to know until a game fell over mid-pug. This time:

• Nearly 6,000 automated tests run on every single change, including 110 that click through the site in a real browser like a player would. If anything fails, the change doesn't go live.
  
• There's more test code than actual site code.

I build it with AI agents, and that's exactly why it's tested this heavily: nothing ships unless those checks pass, and I review what goes in. That's what lets a bug get fixed in the afternoon and go live before pug night, without breaking everything else.

Built on Elixir and Phoenix, which is made for exactly this. A pug site is one big real-time lobby: dozens of people watching the same launchpad, draft and scoreboard, all changing at once. That is the problem Elixir's runtime (the BEAM, built by Ericsson to run telephone switches) was designed for, and it's what Discord and WhatsApp run their real-time messaging on.

There's a public changelog so you can see what's changed and when.

Feedback. Found a bug or have an idea? Post it on the feedback board and upvote the ones you want most. I mark every post Under review, Planned, In progress, Shipped or Declined, with a note, and you get told when something you upvoted is planned or shipped.

https://protfx.com/images/tftv/06-feedback.jpg

What's next

This weekend is all about ironing out whatever bugs pop up now that real people are playing. I'll be online, and fixing things as they come in. If the weekend goes smoothly, I'll have more to announce next week.

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ics2UTyrKBo]

I can help.

Another idea I had, which I would like to get your thoughts on, is this: During peak hours (or at the discretion of admins), we could use a captain pick system, and then switch to a first-come, first-served system during off-peak hours. This could provide some regularity in when to expect high-level pugs.

I've been approached to develop a new TF2 pickup games website, similar to the old tf2.online or a fresh variation of it.

Before I start development, I'd like to gauge the community's interest and get your thoughts on what features would be most valuable and if its even necessary.

So, I have a few questions for you:

• Would you be interested in using a new pickup games website?
  
• What did you like or dislike about previous platforms like tf2.online or the current tf2pickup.eu?
  
• In terms of complexity, would you prefer:
  a) A simple, straightforward site that just handles the basics of organizing and launching pickup games
  b) A more feature-rich platform with additions like player stats tracking, ELO ratings, etf2l Integration , etc
  
• Would you prefer to use Mumble or Discord for the new system?
  
• Any other thoughts or feedback?

Do you think creating a new site might fragment the community or harm the existing player base? Would it be better for the TF2 scene to avoid having multiple platforms?

Depending on the feedback and the complexity of feature requests, I hope to have something playable within a week or two.

https://github.com/c43721/rgl-api
"This API is no longer active. The owner of the site decided to not provide API access nor to include it first-party. "

Disappointing and confusing to see them going out of their way to also take down community made api as-well. Its only unnecessarily increasing the work load for developers.

https://clips.twitch.tv/SpicyStylishOcelotOneHand-xBBEiHPGCALKCfZ4

Your highlighting Crypto's impact on the environment without putting into context.

Gold Mining Energy Consumption per year = 131 TWH
Banks Average Energy Consumption per year = "140 TWH a year only on those three metrics is around (I am rounding) 26 TWh on servers, 87 TWh on branches and 26TWh on ATMs for a total of close to a 140 TWh a year."
This also does not include the manpower it costs to run the banks.

In the long-term once renewable energy is cheaper cryptocurrency will also become greener.
digital currency is much more efficient, simple and reliable which is why banks are already investing in becoming digital.

@Eemes

won with a afk demo

https://streamable.com/eyntyo

if someone posts my ban logs u can tell the circlejerk friend shit isn't true at all.

Go on show me proof. I remember doing it initially for a pug or two when the bug first came to be known but have never done it since and I don't recall sniping for 5+ mins let alone the 12 mins ur claiming or "abused the fuck out of ".