There is just a consistent disregard for the player base. Admins ignore us and only respond to outrage when a tftv thread blows up, and this time it's such a large host of bad decisions simultaneously: double attack/defend, more paid divisions while removing unpaid ones, throwing untested maps into the pool, misusing poll data to justify bad decisions, that I worry we will remain stuck with a few terrible precedents. So please don't get hung up on which bad decision is the worst - these are all bad.
We shouldn’t choose maps based on “Which did you enjoy last season?” The question that should be placed on the survey and used to determine this is “Which map X should be swapped for map Y if we were to place map Y into the pool next season?” You can like a map but still want it replaced by one of the same game mode to maintain the balance of the current map pool. Claiming payload and attack/defend are “equivalent” because they both use stopwatch is disingenuous, anyone who has played both knows they aren’t. My statistics professor would have failed me on assignments if I tried to misrepresent data this way.
We shouldn't be placing maps into the pool have had 0 testing in our region. This is spitting in the face of devs who actively develop their maps based on feedback from cups and pugs. Theatretechie has been hard at work doing both of these to create nidal, while proside is being thrown into the map pool with 0 testing or feedback. Worse, many invite players have looked at the map and already been displeased with the changes when compared with vanilla lakeside. The map appears to buff sniper which is already very powerful on lakeside, and makes forward holding easier and require far less of a commitment since you can cross on a battlement instead of low ground, to name a few.
Finally, we shouldn't be removing IM. HL historically has allowed players to play for free until invite.This is no longer true, and previously, only IM and below remained as unpaid divisions. Now, RGL has decided to erase IM and squeeze these players into main to force them to pay a fee since main is a paid division. Worse still, NONE of these paid divisions but invite possess a prize pool. Why are players being forced to pay when they don't even have a chance to earn any winnings of their own?
UGC lasted 23 seasons before players left due to admin detachment. RGL HL is heading into Season 22. I don't want to see this league end the same way, but it feels like it's headed down a path traveled before.