No, it's fixed already.

What? Who would ever look at valve for new competitive maps when we have an entire community revolving around making those? (I'm making one myself, it'll be done when HL3 comes out)

#75 this plus the collective force of 100000s of pootis pub players might actually be able to develop working strats for some of the weapons that are mostly seen in pubs today.
It will also help to balance new weapons more quickly, as everyone will be playtesting them when they come out and through the lobbies valve gets actual data on how well the new weapon performs as opposed to its sidegrades.

Let us not forget one thing, everyone: Valve has already a "lobby system" in the game. It's called Mann vs Machine. I think it will be rather simple to have a somewhat similar setup for highlander lobbies and possibly for 6s later. It's really not hard to change that once the basic stuff has been done. All that needs to happen is the HL system to be a success to keep Valve's interest. Which means that we need lots of pub players to hop on the comp train. This is best achieved through HL.

Of course. I would play them for fun too. I'm just saying that people shoul not complain about the format because it doesn't fit the style they want to play because it's obvious that the lobbies are not there to take the place of ESEA&co but to allow pub players to make the transition to comp and generally make comp tf2 not obscure anymore. If it is a success, maybe we will see money going form valve into tournaments too later.

What are you talking about? They aren't.

In a quick direct response to Robin: The current 6s bans are pretty much created by experience from past 6s games, right? I claim that a top 6s team today (say HRG) is actually the best combination of 6 players in that class configuration (maybe even period) possible. Exluded from this are only weapons that are so game-breakingly OP that, were they allowed, everyone would be playing nothing but these weapons.
So, as a matter of fact, the current 6s whitelists allow the greatest possible variety within valves current weapon balancing.
This is why I like the idea of a pick/ban system that will show valve that it is actually up to them to rebalance in order to provide more options to 6s players.
The 6s format is unrelenting for unlocks. Only perfectly balanced sidegrades have a chance to get in. And perfectly balanced sidegrades also happen to make the game better and give dosh to valve, so this whole thing is really a win/win situation for 6s too.

I disagree with the sandman. It promotes some sort of skillful play and teamwork and I don't think it would be too OP in highlander lobbies. Also not sure about the sandwich, now that it has to be nommed.

As for general mechanics, I would suggest to auto-enable everything that is whitelisted in current competitive leagues, autoban some of the worst unlocks and leave the rest up to the lobby creators. That way, one can choose not to give a shit about unlock bans and to just start a quick lobbie while still having a decent selection of unlocks that don't break the game.

Since I posted a wall of text, let me state the most important point again:

I believe that these lobbies are not for us. Serious competitive players won't be playing them because they already know comp and are playing in an established league, setup the way it should be.

The lobbies will, however, get people into comp, who subsequentially will make the transition to the 6s we know and love. You should not underestimate the number of good pub players who never made the transition into comp, simply because they didn't know about it or because they found it too obscure to have a second look at.

Let me comment on the HL/Sixes issue:

I can see where valve is coming from. 6s in a way is like chess. It is perfectly balanced and the outcome depends pretty much 100% on the skills of the players involved (and their teamwork). It simply doesn't allow for many "new strats" based on items, unless they are perfectly balanced. Valve make their money from adding new stuff to the game. That is why Robin said that highlander is more interesting for him. I doubt he says this because he finds it boring personally. Highlander allows to give valve the data they need to finally realize that the Pomson is crap. This might actually lead to rebalancing with a competitive standpoint in mind and lead to new the new weapons and "strats" that were talked about, in HL as well as 6s. If people show interest in the "pub lobbies", maybe valve will even add 6s as well, especially if it becomes the new standard for lower level comp like lobbies are atm, which I can see happening.
In any way, it will raise awareness for competitive tf2 in general, and those who realize that they are actually good in valve HL can easily step it up to "real" HL and sixes, making the entire scene grow in one way or another.

Let's be realistic-basically no one on here who is into comp at a higher level already was really gonna play a "valve" 6s league (probably with no mumble comms) seriously, were you? It will simply boost the comp tf2 scene a lot if it goes well, and all options are open for the future.

/my3cents

You know, "ever" on the internet extends no further than a year max.

It's happening.

First it is highlander. In two years sixes. And then? The world!

The Spartan spoke, and it was the truth that he told.

http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/8952-how-to-get-to-in-game-comp-lobbies for those who didn't notice.

You have to use masks. You cut out a part of the video and animate it by hand. Check masking tutorials for your preferred software.

Btw for everyone else, the effect is also used at 0:53 in case your reflexes aren't good enough to pause at 0.043

Supcom FA, best strategy game, 14 bucks. Invest the extra 10.