Hey everyone.

Rain set up a Discord server for TF2 players that are interested in playing this game. Come join and chat here: https://discord.gg/kJdyT6A

Closed beta starts on the 9th of May. Hopefully you guys got in.

Demo call! We are going to be experimenting with weekly (?) pug highlight videos from the HLPugs.tf platform. Submit your plays if you want a chance to be featured!

Instructions:
demo type: (POV/STV)
region: (NA/EU)
player to spectate: (player name, only needed for STV demos)
start tick: (#)
end tick: (#)
description: (one or two phrases)

Please submit this in our #pug-highlights channel in our Discord. Thanks.

excuse the bowlofmayo in my mumble in that clip :(

thanks for doing this :)

No. This is just the first wave of acceptance notices. A lot of people are getting in.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/264610344083783680/438101362627313664/Kn8FScT08e6kazlmLU_wUArGH27hZcc-P1mLZ4wwIj-XZ6Bmlu0_WH8jQI_n0pQWFCPE-sWIcjzFMSIzDHP6ipoHagQFE2UUQood.png

First wave for closed beta invites were given out today. Did anyone here get in?

http://maplestory2.nexon.net/en/microsite/roadtrip/

Make sure you guys finish the road map too. The first 10,000 people that complete the road map activities are automatically accepted to the closed beta.

If its get to 200,000 then we get some sort of reward.

It has been roughly 5 months since the launch of our open beta for HLPugs.tf. Since then we have learned a lot about our system and have worked to improve the service so it is easily usable for all our users. As we near the end of our open beta and prepare the launch of our new organization which includes an entire rewrite of HLPugs, we want to shift our focus to encompass all skill levels and to be inclusive to other game modes as well.

New Goal: Become a great environment for players to practice and play competitive TF2 with people around their skill level.

Process: It is important that we get mid-silver / low platinum players to add up. This starts by having a trickle-down process, so that newer players will start seeing our site as the place to add up. The primary issue with our service right now it is primarily used by platinum players, which may seem off putting or intimidating to lots of players. However, if we can get more players of similar skill levels to add up, less intimidation will occur, PUGs will be more consistent, and we can grow the player base.

Viable solutions for low / new players not adding up:

• Create a mixes site (e.g. “HLMixes”) to target these players. We would initialize MMR with UGC History (or hours if history not available) to ideally find the skill index of a player in order to balance and create the most balanced teams possible.
  
  
• Improve alt account detection so skilled players do not ruin mixes.
  
  
• After a certain number of PUGs, we could encourage these players to move to the captain-draft system (such as a banner to redirect players). This could be done in waves of players at a time, so players are not moving up alone.
  
  
• “Newbie” mixes nights (once a week) where new players are encouraged to play with experienced coaches/players that can teach or help them.

Potential Site Improvements for New(er) Players:

• Prevent platinum players and other players from sandbagging in the mix site. With the UGC History, we could restrict logins to the mix site for all platinum players.
  
  
• Class preferences on the classes they wished to get picked on.
  
  
• Improve reporting systems to reduce behavioral issues.
  
  
• Tool tips to guide players on how to properly pick players.
  

If you have any feedback, thoughts, or opinions regarding how to improve our service, please share them. We are actively working to develop our system so it can be enjoyed by the wider audience of TF2. We care about any feedback that you wish to send our way, as we want this project to continuously improve.

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Discord (For anyone to use in order to suggest feedback, talk to the support team, or submit any questions to the team)
Steam Group (Receive announcements for when PUGs are starting)
Patreon (Supporting our project will give you a site icon, ability to change the color of your name, longer pre-ready up duration, and more)

Beta Update #8 and Future

With the apparent decline of the highlander scene, we at HLPugs.tf want to push ourselves as an organization and make our service enjoyable to everyone. Thus, with the sponsorship of Wish and his renowned fame and wealth in the Roblox community for his mods, HLPugs.tf is now offering over 520$ a month in cash prizes to the top players and a raffle entry to those that win over ten games each month.

Prize breakdown (based on the top win rates):

1. 200$ + 20 raffle entries into the unusual giveaway
2. 100$ + 10 raffle entries into the unusual giveaway
3. 50$ + 5 raffle entries into the unusual giveaway

In-Game Medals

We are also introducing in-game medals for those that continue to exhibit good behavior and maintain an active status while playing PUGs.

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

New Maps

The current HLPugs.tf map pool is stale and boring for an already agitating game mode. Thus, we are proud to announce our new map pool that we plan to push (already live on the site now): pl_badwater_mle (EU), pl_swiftwater (NA), cp_process_disabilites, cp_steel_ugc, koth_product_ugc, pl_upward_abandonedfinalfix, cp_gullywash_pro, koth_lakeside_event, cp_secret_base, and koth_qonk_a10.

New Whitelist

The competitive matchmaking update just came out this week. Valve’s clear intentions is to have competitive environment where there is no restrictive weapon whitelist and we believe that should followed. Thus, HLPugs.tf will now use an open whitelist with no banned weapons: https://whitelist.tf/8179.

Thanks everyone for participating in the beta of our project so far and we hope to bring new and memorable experiences for you to enjoy.

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Discord (For anyone to use in order to suggest feedback, talk to the support team, or submit any questions to the team)
Steam Group (Receive announcements for when PUGs are starting)
Patreon (Supporting our project will give you a site icon, ability to change the color of your name, longer pre-ready up duration, and more)

Unbanned the dragon's fury, phlogistinator, and short circuit for play testing with the recent update.

Update #8 should arrive this weekend ideally.

Beta Update #7 (03/11/18)

• Substitution System Rehaul Changes #1...
  - Fixed the infamous bug where the dropdown box to substitute in a player would not appear if no one applies for spot
  - Added a system message that is emitted to the captain when no one applies for the substitution spot
  - Substitution notification now disappears instead of persisting on the page
  - Removed the "Hide substitution boxes"
  
• Added a pre-ready button (timer starts at 5 minutes; 10 minutes for patron supporters)
  
• Fixed warning pick buttons
  
• Fixed PUG scores showing up as "undefined" for 5cp maps
  
• Fixed the bug where pick buttons were sometimes disabled for captains
  
• Timezone on the EU site will now display in CET
  
• Captain Elo
  - Elo is now defaulted at 5000
  - Elo on site chat is now rounded
  
• Added a privacy policy in the rules page: hlpugs.tf/rules
  
• Updated pl_vigil_rc2 to pl_vigil_rc2a
  
• Announcements
  - Announcements can now be advanced by clicking on it
  - Added region based announcements
  
• Added a role management system that will allow us to give admin/mod/patron/etc roles without restarting the site
  - If you supported our patreon and have yet to receive your perks, please link your Discord to your Patreon and PM an admin.

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Discord (For anyone to use in order to suggest feedback, talk to the support team, or submit any questions to the team)
Steam Group (Receive announcements for when PUGs are starting)
Patreon (Supporting our project will give you a site icon, ability to change the color of your name, longer pre-ready up duration, and more)

Beta Update #6 (2/25/18)

• Players are now static during drafts
  - This means you can no longer f5. :)
  - Captains will not be removed from the draft list and are unpickable
  - If a player is needed on a certain class, then captains cannot pick them on other classes (will help to prevent dead drafts)
  
• Fixed an issue with DB connection to the EU servers
  
• Fixed color UI not showing up consistently
  
• Fixed a case where Adblock would block the "socialterms" tag -- causing player links on profiles to not display
  
• Fixed the case where having multiple tabs while added up would cause you to display both in the draft and continue to be added up
  
• Fixed the issue where the favorite class options would not allow you to disable certain classes
  
• Web notifications will now auto-close after 60 seconds
  
• Player Honors
  - Player cards with platinum or premiership experience will now have a darker blue color
  
• "Platinum" players will now start at a default captain rating of 5100
  - This is currently an experimental change. If it works well, then we will implement it on the EU site.
  
• Map Pool: Removed Millstone from NA and Process from EU
  - Updated koth_product_rc8 to rc9 and pl_vigil_rc1 to pl_vigil_rc2
  
• Implemented rotating announcements
  
• Captain rating is now displayed on mouse hover
  
• Tool tips for the buttons on home page now displays below the icon
  
• Updated rules to be more specific about medic captain overriding
  
• Chat messages now have props that indicate author status (admin/mod/voice actor)
  
• Added new message indicator to chat (only shows up if you aren't scrolled all the way to the bottom already)
  
• Added a visible scroll bar in the chat
  
• Added an "@everyone" ping in the site chat (only for admins/mods)
  
• Added time zones on the bottom right
  
• Added a score update for 5cp maps

Upcoming: We plan on rehauling the substitution system. We understand there are issues with subbing out players and plan to tackle the issue in our next update hopefully.

Thank you to everyone for participating in our open beta so far. It has truly been an amazing journey and it is from your support that keeps this project live and going. Thanks once again.

---
Discord (For anyone to use in order to suggest feedback, talk to the support team, or submit any questions to the team)
Steam Group (Receive announcements for when PUGs are starting)
Patreon (Supporting our project will give you a site icon, ability to change the color of your name, and access to our private Discord channel)

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/394191329745436676/410428897595883560/logoWhitebackgroundCircle.png

Beta Update #5 (2/6/18)

• Mouse hover now displays your UGC player honors history
  
• We have added an API documentation for HLPugs.tf: https://minicircle.github.io/hlpugs-api-docs/
  
• Fixed "NA" showing up in notifications instead of "EU"
  
• Fixed the issue where changing your name would crash the server
  
• Fixed an issue with the banning logic
  
• Added a warning system for captains when picking a certain player on a class would force the enemy captain onto a particular class
  
• Clicking the "class name" will now add up to that particular class
  
• Fixed player stats incorrectly showing the number of losses on the Player Statistics Panel
  
• Added a new page that is thrown when a player does not have enough hours or is banned from the site
  
• Added a new logo for the site (thank you KonektiV!)
  
• Added ability for Patrons, admins, mods, and voice actors to change their name color (affects their color in chat and while added up)
  
• Made chat text bigger
  
• (Finally) added ties on 5cp map which will show on your user profile
  
• Banned the Rocket Jumper
  
• Links in announcements are now clickable
  
• Class icon will now become larger if you hover over someone on that particular class
  
• PUG Status Update will now give the STV and overview link on each score update
  
• Fixed emote auto-complete so you can now type :omegalul: in a sentence
  
• Voice packs should now be significantly louder (1/4th multiplier on sound has been removed for all packs except default)
  
• Significantly updated the draft layout (should look better on mobile landscape)
  
• Ability to hide sub boxes

STATUS ON THE MAP POOL AND EU SERVERS: We are going to test with a new map loading logic. This will hopefully allow us to create a different map pool for both the EU and NA regions respectively.

On the topic of the crashes with the EU TragicServers, we are looking to retrieve a couple dedicated servers from certain players in the community this weekend. Please be patient as we try to get this issue resolved, thanks.

In Progress: Adding extended stats that displays all the wins/losses on particular maps with another player

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Discord (For anyone to use in order to suggest feedback, talk to the support team, or submit any questions to the team)
Steam Group (Announcements will be posted here as well as the Discord)
Patreon (If you would like to support our project)

For first time logins, you need to set your profile to public in order to verify the number of in-game hours that you have. You can set it back to private after you set your alias.