Welcome to Week 1 of Respawn League AUS / NZ Highlander Season 2. Please make sure you're checking your alerts and using your match comms to communicate with the other leaders. This week's notice will be a little different as it has the most up-to-date map pool and schedule for this season.

1. pl_borneo
2. koth_product_rc9
3. cp_vanguard
4. pl_upward
5. pl_swiftwater_final1
6. cp_steel
7. koth_ashville_rc1
8. pl_badwater_pro_v12

The map being played this week is Borneo (pl_borneo). If you have any problems or queries regarding this week's matches or the league in general, you can visit our Discord on the right of the page and seek admin support.

You can download the map by clicking here.
You can see the map schedule here.
(If you're having trouble setting up a server, you can use this guide for a guideline.)

If you haven't already, check out our other recent post as it clarifies a lot of questions we have been receiving.

We set out with the promise that we would bring our league to Asia, and we have. However, for this to survive and continue, we need help from those in the region. If you intend to play on a team or make one, then get together everyone and anyone you can to play, and let everyone know that we are running Highlander and 4v4.

Want to do more than just play? Maybe participate in running the league? Well you can! We are currently looking for possible staff member to cover the region, if you are interested, look at our #staff_applications_info channel for more information.

Important Dates (Highlander and 4v4):
- Signups close February 8th.
- Seasons start February 11th.

From all of us, we would like to thank everyone for participating in our first season. We would also like to deliver our belated holiday best wishes, and with the new year will come many changes to the way the league is operated and marketed. To answer one of the biggest questions; yes, there will be Highlander and 4v4 in Asia. While we have already announced most if not all of these details in some capacity in the past few weeks, we feel it is a good idea to get everyone on the same page, by having it all on the same page.

With the recent bans on players using game altering software, we will be conducting random demo reviews on a regular basis. As always if you fail to provide your POV Demo within the allotted time, you will receive penalties.

We are looking for more staff! During the remainder of January, we will be reviewing all current and new staff application submissions, and the deadline for these is the 31st. If you, or someone you know would be interested in applying, see our #staff_applications_info for more.

If you need a game server during the season, ozfortress and Qixalite both provide our configs and whitelists on their bookable servers. Thanks again to the work they put in on providing game servers for everyone in the region to use. If you need more information on how to book servers, check #how-to-get-a-server channel in our Discord.

If you are unfamiliar with how to start a team, join a team or just generally not sure how to use our website, please refer to the guide here.

With the changes to the roster limit (17 up from 15), we are toughening the mercenary rules and as such please ensure you have enough substitute players for the season.

If you have any further questions, direct them to our #admin-support channel.

Use of Game Altering Third Party Software, Alternate Accounts

76561198322658025 | vlood.
76561198882088163 | syn - LFT HL

The user above has been found to be using game altering third party software on multiple accounts. They will be banned for a period of 24 months, to which they will be able to return under the conditions of a permanent probation. During this period they will still have access to non-league related properties, but is barred from play for this period. Should ANY team OR user be found housing or aiding this user in circumventing this process in ANY way, they will receive the same punishment. Respawn League will not tolerate cheating or exploiting within our leagues.

Logs

Product | 3 - 2 > Red Pandas
Gullywash | 5 -2 > Atomic Affinity
Borneo | 1 - 0 > Atomic Affinity
Match

Placements

1st - Atomic Affinity
2nd - Red Pandas
3rd - Sanctum

Congratulations to Atomic Affinity, our Season 1 Winners!

Match Summary

The Grand Final match featured two of Australia best Highlander teams; Red Pandas and Atomic Affinity, who have both maintained their top position in the league for the entire season. It is fair to say that this was the match up everyone was waiting for, and boy both teams sure did deliver. The match started on koth_product, with every round coming down to the wire with sub 1 minute times. Red Pandas took the first round, Atomic Affinity responded with the second round win. Atomic Affinity showed up with a dominating presence in the third round, and took it with seconds to spare. Red Pandas fired back with the fourth round win, and with that under their belt, they came back in the fifth round and pulled off the round and map win.

With the first map of the Best of 3 on their side, Red Pandas jumped into the second map, showing up with a convincing midfight win for the first round of cp_gullywash, Atomic Affinity shot back, rolling off momentum all the way to the last point, where they took the first round. The second round was fed off of Atomic Affinity's previous round momentum, and they took the mid fight, and in under three minutes they had taken the second round. While rolling out to the third midfight, Atomic Affinity had arrived slightly later, and in conjunction with some key picks from the flank and pick classes, Red Pandas took the third mid. Atomic Affinity didn't take no for an answer, and responded with a recapture. What ensued was the second longest round of the map, seeing Atomic Affinity and Red Pandas duke it out in choke holds, until Atomic Affinity found a few picks and their momentum delivered them the third round. After some minor technical complications, both teams came back with a desire to win the map, with Red Pandas pulling off the fourth round win after a nine minute stalemate between the teams. With their rekindled momentum, Red Pandas aggressively took the next round with a convincing midfight win and uber trade. After taking two rounds off of Atomic Affinity, they were unable to convert the midfight in their favour, Atomic Affinity took yet another round after some decent exchanges. With their point lead, Atomic Affinity went into the last midfight with a desire to win, and managed to convert the last round, winning them the map.

Coming into the third map, tensions were running high for both teams, both so close to winning, and with pl_borneo to finish on, this became a decider that will be hard to forget. Red Pandas had started the first round on defense, holding out a near nine minute time from Atomic Affinity. There was a key hold on second that delayed Atomic Affinity, but they managed to break past and continue with their pace, taking the round with an 8:59 time. The second round, Atomic Affinity had to defend against Red Pandas, and managed to hold them to their previously set 8:59 time, with a solid second and house hold. With all of this time spent getting past those holds, Red Pandas never got to the last point, securing the map win, and the match win for Atomic Affinity.

Both teams gave it their best, and provided a show of the likes that hasn't been seen in half a decade. While Red Pandas does leave behind their undefeated record, they also managed to break a previous one set by Velox Destruo, taking the same amount of titles, with less losses and more match wins. This alone is a massive achievement, spanned over years of play.

With Atomic Affinity taking the win, the season ended off with interviews, a Q&A and a good chat. We would like to thank every person who particpated at any level, stage or position within or outside of the league, including but not limited to; ozfortress and Qixalite for their bookable servers, the staff team for all the effort they have put in, everyone who has helped by casting or some level of production, and a massive thanks to /dev/zero for spending the time to make the Citadel project on which this website is built. We would also like to thank everyone who has played this season, but our words aren't enough. Everyone, regardless of placement, will receive the Respawn League Founders medal along with their placement and participation medals. This is another way of us giving our thanks to everyone who participated in our first ever season.

With this season complete, we look forward to bringing Australia & New Zealand a second season of Highlander, along with the first season of the Respawn League 4v4 (or 4s) league. We also want to welcome and announce that our first season of Highlander in Asia is a go, and will be released the same time as Australia & New Zealand. Furthermore, we are looking to provide 12 bookable servers in the region via a Booking Bot, bringing a level of booking automation not previously seen in the region. These servers, once confirmed, will host our configs, along with region compliant configs for AsiaFortress, Pure League, etc. More information on everything mentioned here will become available in the coming weeks.

Also, if you wanted to see the badges you will be getting, here they are (in order of 1st, 2nd, 3rd and Participation):

These will be distributed in the coming days.

Hello again, everyone. Welcome back to Round 3 of our Season 1 Playoffs.

This week's matches can be played Monday - Wednesday, make sure you schedule as such. Please also note that you be possibly playing more than 1 match this week, with the second lot of matches being played between Thursday - Saturday.

The structure for all brackets in Playoffs in regards to map picks and bans, with the exception of the Finals, are found in the Match Details on your match page.

You can pick from the entire Regular Season Map Pool. (This was changed to give teams more choice).

Forfeit Rules for Playoffs

While the rules are subject to change next season, we are following the implemented rules, no matter how unrefined. There will be one change however. If you forfeit a Playoffs match, your team will be immediately removed from Playoffs, with the seeds being moved up, and the runner up 9th place team taking the 8th position for a second chance at playing. If you forfeit, all players with the Captain role will also receive a Captaincy Ban for next season.

Administration during Playoffs

If you have any issues during Playoffs, you need to contact us immediately, failure to do so in certain scenarios will result in penalties. If you know your team cannot participate in the Playoffs for any reason, contact us prior to the first round.

Administrators will be following each and every match closely, ensuring Match Details are confirmed and the results are submitted correctly and truthfully. Certain Playoffs matches will be cast by our Official Channel, so please follow our rules when participating in one of these casted matches, and change your name to your username on the league website.

Hello again, everyone. Welcome back to Round 2 of our Season 1 Playoffs.

This week's matches can be played Monday - Wednesday, make sure you schedule as such. Please also note that you be possibly playing more than 1 match this week, with the second lot of matches being played between Thursday - Saturday.

The structure for all brackets in Playoffs in regards to map picks and bans, with the exception of the Finals, are as follows:

Home Team Bans
Away Team Bans
Home Team Bans
Away Team Bans
Home Team Picks

You can pick from the entire Regular Season Map Pool. (This was changed to give teams more choice).

Forfeit Rules for Playoffs

While the rules are subject to change next season, we are following the implemented rules, no matter how unrefined. There will be one change however. If you forfeit a Playoffs match, your team will be immediately removed from Playoffs, with the seeds being moved up, and the runner up 9th place team taking the 8th position for a second chance at playing. If you forfeit, all players with the Captain role will also receive a Captaincy Ban for next season.

Administration during Playoffs

If you have any issues during Playoffs, you need to contact us immediately, failure to do so in certain scenarios will result in penalties. If you know your team cannot participate in the Playoffs for any reason, contact us prior to the first round.

Administrators will be following each and every match closely, ensuring Match Details are confirmed and the results are submitted correctly and truthfully. Certain Playoffs matches will be cast by our Official Channel, so please follow our rules when participating in one of these casted matches, and change your name to your username on the league website.

The user above was found to be an alternate account of the user foolish BEER, discovered by ozfortress. In the spirit of upholding standards upon our league and its players, we will be mirroring this user's ozfortress ban for the full duration, which after this period their ban will be reviewed. This ban covers League Participation only, with no other affect on their access to other Respawn League services.

Crippled Airlines will not receive any penalty for housing this user, as they were unaware of the user's ban status. Should ANY team, whether in Player Pool or Active Roster, be found housing this user for the duration of their ban, will incur penalty onto all other players on the team.

Inappropriate Account Usage

Wonkerz
STEAM_0:1:433464853

foolish BEER
STEAM_0:1:87866219

The named player has been found using an alternate account to play in
the ozfortress league. As such, this player has been banned from
ozfortress.com, the community's competitions, and all other ozfortress
properties for a period of 6 months, after which time the persons will
be on permanent probation. If they are found aliasing during their
competition bans, their ban duration will be extended.

Source: ozfortress ban: foolish BEER - https://warzone.ozfortress.com/forums/threads/103

Registered account on Respawn League: https://respawnleague.com/users/247

Avoiding our Bans system is something we do not encourage, as you can see above.