Just a quick website update before we start Season 1.

Changes:
- Rules page has had more content added, including: Mercenaries, Match Deadlines / Default Days, Server Usage and Roster Limits.
- Patreon link now working correctly.
- Added Trello Roadmap as link rather than a page.
- Added Map Schedule page under Help & Resources.
- Added Get Started link for when that page goes live.
- Started working on Light / Dark modes.
- Forums are now opened up for LFT and LFP posts.
- General UI improvements, including new SVG logo.
- Fixed notifications not correctly displaying inside the drawer.

There are a number of undocumented changes. As always, please brush up on the Rules before the season starts. Signups close 14th (Friday) so make sure to get your team signed up!

Signups are being extended

We understand how it is difficult to get teams together quickly, while it is true once you have 9 players you can signup to the Season 1 league and then you can add players to the roster all the way up to Week 6 (Roster Lock), we are extending the Signups. Signups will now close on Friday the 14th of September. This should allow for more teams to signup to the league, and a video for which will be coming out soon.

The Asia region Season 1 is being delayed

While we did say we were hoping to only delay the season by a maximum of a few weeks, as a team we have decided to ensure the smooth roll-out and release of the AUS / NZ region Season 1. This means the first season for the Asia region will be starting when Season 2 of AUS / NZ starts early next year.

Announcing RLHL Map Cup for Asia

This decision has been made as delaying the release any further this year would put it into the holiday break. While this is sad news for all those wishing to play this season, we have some good news for you. There will be our first Respawn League Highlander Map Cup for Asia sometime late October (date will be announced later). While this doesn't make up for all the mishaps, we feel it would be good to test new community / stock maps in a Highlander setting. We understand both regions have different opinions on different maps, this is why there will be map votes for the new maps after the Cup has ended, which the entire community gets to vote on.

Again, I personally, along with the rest of my team, would like to apologize to the Asia region for all of the mix up of information and news releases on the status of the league in the region, but we feel by delaying it one season we will be able to ensure a smooth release, along with providing more servers in the region for your use.

Signup / Get Started video

Another piece of feedback we received from people who have not used a Citadel website before was that it was a bit hard to learn. With this in mind, we will be making a video to help users through most of the needed processes on Citadel, the link for which will be found on our New to Highlander Guide page.

Badge Updates

Our Badge Maker, EmperorFaiz has been working hard on 3d modelling our badge, a preview of which can be seen below:

More updates as to the progress of this will come as we get them. As soon as it is ready, we will make contact with Valve.

TL:DR Major Changes to Citadel

• Updated Ruleset (can be found under About & Contact > Rules) to reflect Mercenary rule changes, Region / Out of Region rule changes, POV Recording, Mirror Ban changes, and many more. We suggest having a read through to make sure you are up to date.
• Fixed visual issues with our version of Citadel - There were some visual problems that made the overall usability of our Citadel that needed to be fixed.
• Forum posts background color is now white, along with our panel views across the website.
• Fixed spacing, colors, and made preparations to incorporate a Verify Roster feature in Match Comms.
• Made small internal visual changes, along with preparations for an on demand Mumble booking through Citadel.
• Styling and pages are in place, ready for an eventual automated pug system within Citadel.
• Fixed some Bootstrap styled buttons not displaying correctly with the style changes.
• Fixed the usability / clarity of the Sign in with Steam button. It now is identical to that of most other websites.
• Changed how we handled bans league wide, we now have compatibility with our AutoMod bot to share certain bans cross platform.
• Added Citadel Server Administration page to the MOTD of every server we run.
• Adding more content / fixed up some pages on the website.

We have made a number of these changes primarily because of community feedback / comments.

Patreon

There have been a few generous souls who have wanted to donate or support the league going forward, but I felt that we should be providing more than just a league before accepting anything. We have come up with our Respawn+ tier rewards, which will be expanded more in the future.

Respawn League and all of its services will always remain free, even in financial hardship. We never need community donations, this is only for those who would either like the rewards, or for those who are just bloody legends.

Asia Region update

We now have 2 of our own servers in Singapore, to better cover South East Asia with reliable hardware. In the coming days, we will also have 2 of our own servers in Tokyo to try cover East Asia. We recognize that there is a large HL community in this area, and we are working hard towards bringing our league to the Asia region. We ask for patience as this is no easy task, however we would like to fit in a full 12 week season for the Asia region this year. You can make your teams on Citadel now to be ready to participate. You can now also signup to the Asia division in Season 1.

Thank you, really

We are now just over 2 weeks out from the launch of our first season, and the support for this project has been incredible. I think we can all agree that this league was needed to fill the ever growing void that was being left in our regions.

Also a #thank to our first Patreon Pledger? Patron? Not sure what they refer to it as to be honest. Anyways, thank you ^.^

• Disturbed

Feel free to ask questions, send us messages, etc.

We've been receiving heaps of messages through our own Discord DM's, Steam messages, etc. While we appreciate the interest, we ask that if it pertains more closely to the league, that you ask it in the #admin-support in our Discord. No question is a silly one, fire away.

Evening all,

Wanted to clear up some misconceptions and queries surrounding users currently banned from other leagues. Our ruleset will be properly updated to reflect what is said here. Currently, we mirror Cheating, Alternate Account and Toxicity bans from associated leagues (more info on this can be found in our ruleset), and while we will mirror these bans, we will modify punishments where we see fit.

https://warzone.ozfortress.com/forums/threads/66?page=1

Johva STEAM_0:1:105847767
slav STEAM_0:1:429538954

The user Johva / Slav was found to be using alternate accounts within the ozfortress league, and as such was given a 6 month ban commencing June 28th. It has now been 2 months since his ban on ozfortress, and we feel in the spirit of opening our new league, that we will halve his ban period to 3 months. What this means is he will be able to participate in Season 1, from the 28th of September. We are not wiping the slate clean however, and any future incidents will be counted as his second ban.

If you are currently banned from a league for any reason, you must first consult with our team as to the processes of having your ban reviewed. Failure to do so is considered as the user is trying to circumvent the ruleset, and will result on harsher punishments.

Regards,
Respawn League team.

Our thanks
I'de like to thank each and every person who has signed up to the website and joined our Discord. We've crossed 200 members on Discord and close to 100 on the league website. It's also good to see the amount of full, ready teams that signed up.

When do signups close?
Signups for Season 1 close on Monday the 10th of September at 11:59PM AEST.

Asia league situation?
Many have asked over the past few days as to what our current plans are. The current status of the Asia division is that we will have to delay the Season by a few weeks, maybe longer. We will be bringing constant updates on the situation for the region. In the meantime, if you wish to participate in some highlander pugs in the South East Asia region, you can join the SEA Highlander Discord. Once we have things setup in the region we will start hosting official pugs.

Whats the issue with the Asia region?
Currently, we only have 4 servers, graciously provided by PURE, as our only guaranteed servers. While CPU.TF has our configs on their servers in the region, but have a limited amount of servers depending on how many other servers are operating. Our current plan is to setup our own servers in the region, and we are assessing the financial possibility of this.

Whats happening with Off-Season Tournaments?
While we were planning to run a tournament after this season, we've postponed this until we know exactly what is happening in the Asia region.

We've updated our rules surrounding exploiting.
Please remember to check the rules frequently as they are being updated. Ignorance of them is not innocence.

Can we have a higher roster limit?
You ask, and you shall receive. Sort of. We've upped the roster limit by 1 for now, from 14 to 15. This allows an extra substitute and the possibility of having a 6s roster on your Highlander roster. We don't see the need of going above this number.

Mercenary rules have been relaxed.
We have relaxed the mercenary rules, so you can now use a maximum of 8 mercenaries a season, with a maximum of 2 per match. This was changed purely for people who don't have reliable substitute players.

BADGES!?
Yes, badges. You've probably seen the concepts in our #tf2-discussion chat. We have now passed the design to our badge modeler. We will provide updates on this as they come.

Respawn Plus
We've had some people who are wishing to support us financially, to cover server costs and whatnot. While for these people the league may be enough, we would like to give them something more. Respawn Plus is going to be a series of rewards and perks. More on this at a later date. We want to reassure everyone that the league will always be a free service, and donations are not needed unless you feel it is.

Regards,
core.

Signups for Season 1 are now open. To participate, you must have a minimum of 9 players on your roster, then you must join the Season 1 league under the Leagues tab on the navigation bar.

If you have any issues, feel free to reach an admin via the #admin-support channel in our Discord. The Discord link can be found on the right sidebar.

A Quick Note

I would just like to thank everyone who has joined the Discord and Citadel thus far, the support and interest in this venture is much appreciated. We've jumped up 180 members in less than 48 hours, wow.

Season 1 Details

• Choose your match day: You have from Tuesday - Friday for matches.
• Signups for our first ever season of Highlander - Season 1, open
  tomorrow (Monday the 27th of August). This will give you a few weeks before season start.
• Season 1 will commence on Monday, 17th of September. Your week 1 matches are generated, and you will be able begin match communications.
• Due to community vote, everyone will have an optional Pre-Season Match / Scrim that, while not mandatory, we'd like to see be used. You can organize your match on the generated match pages' communications.
• This season will have in-game medals, distributed after the season has finished. The latest concept for this badge can be found below:
• This badge concept has now been passed to our badge designer, and we will be making contact with Valve in the coming weeks.

General Information

• All popular Australian server providers are now running our configs and whitelist, so you have the choice of server provider.
• Our own Bookings bot is still under development, and should be completed before season start.
• Citadel will be experiencing some down times / maintenance to update and upgrade features in non-peak times.

If you have anymore questions, please don't hesitate to post a message in the #admin-support channel of our Discord, the link for which can be found on the right sidebar.

We've also prepared a promotional video, watch it here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYo1iGZuZ9Q

To participate in pugs, join the Discord. After 7 minutes, our verification level will be lifted off you and the AutoMod bot will give you the Users role. You can then go to #role-assign and click the :respawnFIST: reaction to join the HL Pugs role. This gives you access to HL Pug announcements, connect-details, etc.

Have fun and happy pugging,
Regards Core.