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Important Details

**Read below to view more about the Invite default match day.

How to find a team to join

Finding a team is not hard, but it does require you to put in a little effort.

New Players to Competitive:

We encourage you to make a post in the websites Looking For Team (LFT) section and also post in our Discord #lft channel.

You should also contact leaders of teams who need a player. You can find them listed in the Teams Looking for Players (LFP) section and also the LFP section of our Discord #lfp channel.

Experienced Players to Competitive:

We particularly encourage you to make a thread on the RGL HL LFT forums section. This will allow you to advertise yourself to higher profile teams.

Browsing the LFP section of the forums will also present you with many teams that are looking to recruit players.

League Format

With Season 3 of RGL Highlander beginning, there are many changes that we wish to change or improve on that were either successful or were not very well received by players in the second season.

Invite

The first of which includes changes to the Invite structure. In the second season, we had a single-round robin structure with 6 teams. Invite also featured a double KotH week (Lakeside and Ashville being played in a single match), with a 5-week regular season and a 2-week wildcard week to compensate for the small number of teams in the division. The issue really stemmed from the wildcard match, where the 6th seed was able to play the 5th seed in a single map that resulted in an elimination. Furthermore, it was argued that the 6th seeded team that has a large gap in match points should not be given a second chance to get into playoffs. In the case with Season 2, a team with zero wins was given a second chance and although they did upset the 5th seed -- this will likely never happen every season (if at all again). The idea of giving the 5th and 4th seeded teams a second chance to try to get into playoffs would continue to make things fresh and anti-climactic, with the possibilities of upsets occurring. Finally, players had difficulty adjusting their schedule to accommodate for the lower bracket matches during playoffs. To remedy this,

• Invite will only feature one wildcard match between #4 and #5 if both teams have less than a difference between one match point. This would be for a 6-team Invite.
• Playoffs will now start on week 7 if we do continue to use the double elimination structure. This would result in all lower bracket matches being played on Monday.

The map pool for Invite was only able to feature seven maps, four that were stopwatch and three that were king of the hill. The double KotH week seemed to be well-received by players for the most part. It was also necessary to have the same number of maps of a 7-week season in a 5-week season. It should be noted that we shall be continuing this double map structure going into season 3. The question really stems from the idea of trying to diversify the map pool for the upcoming season.

• The regular season will feature a week for double KotH maps again if Invite only fields 6 teams.

Regular Season

• The regular season for Invite will have a $10 entry fee for all the players participating, with the cost decreasing as the weeks go on.
• We will push for an 8-team Invite again for Season 3. If we do hit 8 teams, we will look into possible payouts to all teams participating in Invite.
• We are looking into waiving fees for winning Advanced teams.

Non-default match day/time for casted matches

It should be noted that we are moving Invite casted matches to a different day or time. This has the following benefits for Highlander:

• Ability to get more high leveled casters to assist with production
• Higher viewership since players that are not playing a match (on Monday @ 930 PM EST) can view the casted matches
• Appeals to sponsors that wish to support the league with this higher viewership

The reality of casted matches in North American highlander is that all the matches are being played on the same day at the same time. We are single handedly shooting ourselves in the foot by fragmenting most of our viewer base (players that play the format) from being able to view the casted matches. By having it at a more viewable time, we would be able to showcase the format to a wider audience and help grow the league.

Some things we can do:

• Have the casted match be played at 10:30 PM EST on Monday (after most times have finished their match)
• Reschedule to a different day where both teams would be available to play in the match
• With the round robin structure, we will know all the matches for the regular season. We would be able to inform teams weeks beforehand to reschedule accordingly.

Playoffs

• Double-elimination Swiss bracket - top 6 teams
• Lower bracket matches will all be played on Monday

Review of RGL HL Divisions

These are our current thoughts and is a review of some issues with our Advanced and Main divisions.

Review: Advanced

• Advanced is not maintaining rosters to move up into Invite

Advanced is a division that had the intended goal of being a stepping division to help players gain the experience and skills necessary to play and compete in Invite. That was the purpose of the division since the start of the league. Back in Season 1, we saw glimpses of that occurring with the top Advanced teams having the skills capable of competing in Invite the immediately following season. Unfortunately, all three of the placing Advanced teams of Season 1 did not return, and although we saw the rise of Space Force, it was merely a mix/merge of the Advanced teams into a single roster. The question stems from the concept of being able to foster a move-up roster from one division to the next, while keeping its core players to be able to effectively compete in the said division. This is also a question that continues to be asked going into Season 3, as it does not look very likely that there will be any returning placing Advanced teams going into the Invite division.

• Advanced has a problematic issue of being a safe haven for higher experienced players to offclass or participate within that division

Advanced, as a division, is considered the 2nd best division. As such, it becomes a place where players want to off class or toe with the division guidelines by main classing (even if they would compete fine in Invite). The essential issue that arises from this cultural perspective of not wanting to “try” or “improve” in the higher division leads to stagnation and a weaker Invite division. This consequently leads to a smaller Invite (has been six teams for two seasons straight), because the division has not been able to properly maintain more than six teams in a single season. During the preseason of Season 2, our goal was to aim for 8 teams in the Invite division. We failed to secure this number, with IRENE disbanding as well as the numerous Advanced rosters that we asked or forced up to Invite (if they were above the division guidelines for Advanced) flaking out. It seemed clear that all the current S2 Advanced teams had zero intention of playing in Invite either to improve or keep the division alive, even in the case that we would be forced to remove Invite entirely if the intended structure did not work.

• Advanced as a division is failing to secure the number of teams necessary to maintain a round robin structure

In two consecutive seasons, Advanced has dropped a team in the beginning of the season, leading to one or two bye-weeks for the rest of the season. This consequently leads to an unengaging week for the teams that have the bye-week, because it is essentially a week with no match (teams even opting to not scrim at all). It is not a conducive environment where the point of the league is to participate in matches and have engagement with the rest of the teams and players each week during the regular season. This leads to the question of the viability of a round-robin format in the division, with the question of a swiss structure being an option.

Review: Main

• There is too much overlap in the division guidelines between Advanced and Main

The two divisions have shared similar guidelines since their creation. A player that is considered “High-Silver” would be able to compete in both divisions as their main class, because of how closely skilled the top Main and Advanced teams are. This brings up the issue where you often have many Advanced players that can roster and play in Main, without any approval. This also leads to the topic addressed above, where Main becomes another haven for higher experienced players to off class or participate in the division, because of how similar the division guidelines are. When the top 6-8 Main teams are readily able to compete with all 8 Advanced teams, it begs the question of why the two divisions are separated in the first place.

What can be done to address this?

To address the issues of higher experienced players playing in Main, we will be updating the division guidelines as well as updating the rules as to what players are eligible to roster in the division.

• All players from Top 3 Advanced teams will need approval to roster/ring on a Main team
• All Invite players are no longer eligible to be rostered on a Main team (including offclassing)
• Main teams that continue to toe division guidelines will be moved up to Advanced

To address the issues of Advanced not properly maintaining rosters to compete in Invite as well as the division failing to secure eight teams at the start of each season, the following changes will be enacted:

• The size of Advanced will be decreased to six teams
• Winning advanced teams will have their fees waived if they do maintain their roster to compete in Invite
• We will strongly enforce the move up rule as stated in the RGL HL rules:

All Divisions Structure

Note: Maps are subject to be changed or added based off feedback from the Experimental HL Cup #2. We will gauge community feedback to help decide the remaining maps. A full map pool will be announced in a part 2 article after the cup has finished.

Map pool

• koth_product_rc9
• pl_upward
• cp_steel

Regular Season

Invite, Advanced, and Main will feature a round-robin format.

• We are looking to split Main into two separate divisions e.g. Main Red and Main Blue. These two divisions will be the same in skill level. The top 4 teams from each Main division will combine and play together in the playoffs in a single-elimination Swiss bracket.
• Only the Open and Intermediate divisions will feature a Swiss system with no division sizes.

Playoffs

The number of playoff spots may grow/shrink depending on division size before Week 1.

• Invite - See above for Invite playoff structure
• Advanced - single-gauntlet structure - top 4 teams
• Main - single-elimination Swiss bracket - top 4 teams combined from Main Red and Main Blue
• Intermediate - single-elimination Swiss bracket - top 8 teams
• Open division - single-elimination Swiss bracket - top 8 teams

Please note that a team’s division is still subject to change as the week goes on or if a team leader can make a compelling case for being in a division. Players that leave and join new rosters during the season will also be monitored. If you believe that a team should be in a different division, you can contact us here on Discord.

Other Changes

Registration Restrictions

Alluded earlier with the RGL HL S1 Playoff article, the concept of enforcing division guidelines in a prompt manner is something that we wanted to work on improving for future seasons. No one wants to play with sandbagging players in lower divisions. We understand this. It simply ruins the integrity and competitive nature of newer and lower division players trying to play with players around their skill level to improve.

Starting now in Season 3:

• There will be functionality added that will allow us to add "minimums" to player accounts, so they cannot use the site to register lower than what we tell them.
• This has the added benefit of ensuring that players that win a division do not stay in the same division, and instead are moved up to the next. This feature has already been rolled out and will be used for the upcoming season.
• This also allows us to keep track of sandbaggers, as well as teams that should not belong in a particular division or are starting to the toe the guidelines of their division.

Staffing Changes

We are moving our division admins around for Season 3.

The following reflects the updated positions of each admin in RGL HL:

• Invite – cinder
• Advanced – Dimento
• Main – Aad & Witness
• Intermediate – wax and exa_
• Open – FATHER

Log Parsing, Medals, and Roster Sizes

To be included in the Part 2 Article

Match Points Recalculation

The topic of match points has been brought up throughout the season, as this is a system that RGL has been using since day 1. The point of this section is not necessarily to argue the pros and cons of using W/L or pure MP during the regular season, but to discuss the changes we will be enacting to not heavily punish teams that drop a round in our current system.

• Loser Points would now be calculated off a max of "1" point.
• This team would also get a percentage of that based on the number of points they scored against the max rounds.

For KotH, this will be:

Prize Winnings

For RGL HL Season 3, our expected prize pool is looking to exceed $1,000 prize pool for the Invite division. Payouts will be listed when the season starts. Every team in the division will be eligible to win a payout from the prize pool.

Invite S2 Award Results

Congratulations to the winners of their respective categories:

– b4nny
– rain
– River
– Bowl
– carcin
– exa_
– Nursey
– Fallen Lord
– Dimento
Debut of the Season – Blue99
Most Improved of the Season – SpotlightR
Production of the Season – DolphiN
Best Player of the Season – b4nny

Bans

These bans were enacted before the release of this article.

The following players have been caught cheating by the RGL team and will be banned for one year:

• Duck
• vec
• Timm

The following players have demonstrated toxic behavior as well as using racial slurs on RGL platforms. They were banned for the duration of Season 2 and will miss the first several weeks going into Season 3.

• Minty Fresh
• MrTurtle
• JuJu

The following player has been banned for publicly harassing members on a RGL platform and will be banned for the first several weeks of S3.

• nip nop

The following player’s ban has been extended for three months for creating multiple alt accounts to troll as well as attempting to disrupt the Grand Finals cast.

• jim

The following player has been suspended for the first week entering Season 3 because of misleading RGL admin staff, teams, and players regarding the flexibility of his situation to reschedule during Grand Finals. 1/9th of Kids Next Door's winnings have been revoked.

• Bowl

You can read further details and context about each of the player's bans by viewing their discipline history on their RGL profile.

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