Cross posted from EQD Steam. It's not too late to sign up!~ :3

http://www.equestriadaily.com/2016/11/friendship-is-gaming-community-event_24.html

http://eo.steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/groups/Equestriadaily#announcements/detail/585861478934038366

This is long overdue I know.

http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=22765

Valve has finally released matchmaking in two modes: Casual, and competitive. In the process they have completely overhauled the main menu and changed how even the basic format is being played by default. I will leave you to read the updates and form your own opinions if you haven't already done so.

As a result of these changes Valve's quickplay no longer points you to default vanilla servers run by Valve and these no longer exist. Instead, it will point you towards either casual (12 vs 12) or competitive (6 vs 6) servers. If you want to play a vanilla game of tf2 you will have to find a community server, which are few and far between since they have mostly been killed off (save for the popular one's with things instaspawn, ads, and 24/7 same map horseapples) that many regular members don't care for or would prefer not to see.

Some of you might not know this, but back in the day when there was no quickplay period, everyone played on community servers and for the most part it was great! There were so many of them that if you found a bad apple it was easy to just blacklist it and move on but today it's very difficult seeing the state of community servers the way it is.

I would encourage everypony to try and find and or start some community servers so we can, ideally, get things back to the way they were.

If you have any questions, please don't hestiate to ask! :3

I'm posting this on behalf of one of the co-leaders for this team. If you have any interest please give him a shout.

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Freshly Picked FiG's is an iron HL team playing in UGC season 19. Most of our roster is already established, but so long as you can consistently show up and sub, it'll be easy to get a place as a starting player.

To be accepted you must be able to consistently show up to practice on Saturdays and Fridays at 8:00 to 9:30/10:00 PM EDT. Match days will be on Mondays from 8:00 to 10:00 PM. It's ok to miss a few practices so long as you inform us at least a few hours beforehand. Due to the limits placed upon Iron players, the highest level of prior experience allowed is Steel.

Our biggest problem is inexperience which stems from us having to run so many new and inconsistent players. We are currently down a scout and demoman but we will accept anyone willing to play and learn multiple classes.

Current skill level is irrelevant so long as you can commit yourself to improving.

If you would like to join add:

http://eo.steamhost.cc/steamcommunity_com/profiles/76561198102343726

From the Valve News Network. The video is a week old but it contains some information that I didn't even know about. Most of it is competitive related but there are also casual tidbits in there I hope

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0IMwHcfVIYU

(From the website) NEW Week 1 Dates

Highlander Week 1 - Monday May 30th
6v6 League Week 1 - Wednesday June 1st
4v4 League Week 1 - Friday June 3rd

We are changing when the Summer season starts to allow more teams time to finish setting up. The change in start date also allows us to be consistent with what is has been in past Summer seasons. We are also using the change in start date to give us more time in balancing divisions and to allow teams to prepare for the changes we are outlining below.


Division Consolidation

This season we have recognized there's a record low number of teams across the board throughout our divisions, across all 3 league formats. Changes in division structure are needed to ensure a healthy future for our league.

For Highlander, the following changes are taking place:

In North America we are dissolving the Gold division and merging most of the teams into Platinum. The lower-end of Gold will be merged into Silver.

In EU we are removing Gold in the same manner as North America. Iron is also being consolidated into Steel. The higher-end of Steel will be merged into Silver.

For AUS/NZ we are consolidating the Platinum and Steel divisions into one regional division.


Please bear in mind that the changes in the structure of our divisions are not meant to be permanent. Should our numbers return, or should after teams reestablish themselves and another division is found necessary, then we can look into bringing back the divisions that were removed.

RIP Gold