[1006] - Team Registration and Eligibility⚓︎

[1006.1] - Team Names, Tags, and Avatars⚓︎

Teams may not change names once the season starts. Teams that receive a sponsorship mid-season may be granted an exception on a case-by-case basis and should contact their division admin.

• Offensive, sexually suggestive, or inappropriate team names, tags, or avatars are not allowed in RGL.
• Team names, tags, or avatars referencing an established company or brand that is used without the explicit approval of the brand are not permitted.
• Team names, tags, or avatars cannot reference gambling sites or other sites promoting content not suitable for minors.

RGL reserves the right to reject any inappropriate team name, tag, or avatar. If admins deem your team name, tag, or avatar to not be up to RGL's standards, we will ask you to change it. If you are unable to come up with a reasonable one after multiple attempts, the admins will select one for you. Once changed, the team name will be locked. Penalties may be administered on a case-by-case basis depending on the severity of the situation.

[1006.1.2] - Roster Player Names⚓︎

Teams are also required to have discernible names during matches but are not required to use their official RGL aliases. Matches may be paused, and players will be forced to correct indiscernible names (e.g. everyone using the same emoji as name, Player1-Player9, etc.).

[1006.1.3] - Team Historical Seasons Link⚓︎

The RGL site supports historical teams and the creation of teams from past rosters.

When creating a team you can choose from any past team that you were a leader on. This will be displayed on the team page where it will show past seasons.

• Once a team is connected to other teams, the name/tag is locked.
• The auto-joining of players during team creation is only allowed for teams in the same league from the last six months.
• Team connections should be with teams of the same name. Variations of a team name may be changed to a single team name in order to be linked.

Please create a support ticket in the RGL Discord if you have questions about linking your teams.

[1006.2] - Roster Placements⚓︎

Teams may indicate which division they wish to play in during the registration period. However, division admins place teams in divisions and reserve the right to place any team in a division different from the one they requested and to restrict players from playing certain classes in a given division.

Teams are sorted into divisions of roughly similar and competitive skill levels. Team placement into divisions may be appealed to or otherwise altered by administrators before the start of the season. While rare, a team's division may be changed mid-season.

[1006.2.1] - Pre-Season Rosters⚓︎

Teams can be created and joined without having been paid. In other words, you may form a full team on the site before actually spending any money. For a team to be eligible to play in a season or cup, it must have the minimum number of players needed to play by the given deadline. Roster deadlines can be found on the registration page.

[1006.2.2] - Division Placements⚓︎

In general, teams will be placed based on, in no particular order, their preferred division, as indicated during registration, and the average skill level of their players, relative to other teams' average skill levels.

A player's skill is determined based on their experience. A player that rosters on a TF2 team (even if roster riding) will be considered at the skill level of the team they have joined to determine experience. When division administrators review teams for placement, all seasonal experience that a player has on past rostered teams (whether playing as a starting or substitute role) will be weighted and impact the specific division placement of the team and/or individual class restrictions.

Consideration of skill decay may be given after one to two full years of no competitive experience in any TF2 leagues and very few logs of games.

The general division structure in RGL is as follows:

[1006.2.3] - Division Equivalencies⚓︎

The following tables show the rough equivalencies in divisions between RGL and other leagues. They are a basic guideline - skill levels may vary, and as such division admins will use discretion in applying these equivalencies.

Division Equivalences Between Other Leagues

[1006.2.4] - Newcomer Division Guidelines⚓︎

Newcomer divisions are reserved only for players entirely new to competitive TF2 or with very little experience on low-placing teams (Highlander, Sixes, etc.) within the past two approximate years. Newcomer is intended to be a restricted division to enable the fostering of new competitive TF2 players' interests in and experiences with the game modes as a whole, commonly through the use of tutors such as NA 6v6 & Highlander Newbie Mixes. In other words, Newcomer eligibility is primarily based on experience rather than skill.

Class restrictions (as detailed in [1006.2.5] - Sandbagging and Class Restrictions) do not exist in Newcomer. If you should be class-restricted from any class in Newcomer, you are considered too experienced to play in the division. This includes Medic mains with demonstrated competitive experience wishing to play in Newcomer divisions.

Players are examined both on an individual basis when division placements are done pre-season by Administrators and on a team-as-a-whole basis. For example, a single rostered player having placed in the top 4-6 in playoffs in any RGL division regular season (as detailed in [1006.2.5] - Sandbagging and Class Restrictions) attempting to play on a Newcomer team will pull the said team up a division to Amateur.

RGL Cups/Tournaments are not taken into consideration unless a player has routinely performed significantly well over a significant number of Cups/Tournaments and/or has little to no other competitive experience to reflect accurate division placement.

[1006.2.5] - Sandbagging and Class Restrictions⚓︎

Depending on the skill level of a player and their team, they may be restricted from or to certain classes. This will be specified in the notes section on the team page. By default, restrictions will remain in place should a player change teams within the same division. An exception would be if the enemy team approved a ringer to play a class they are restricted from in the division ([1009.4.4] - Ringer Approvals - Ringer Approvals for more information regarding this procedure).

Restricted players may not spawn on any class they are restricted from during a match and impact the match (e.g. - switching to spy to check for offclasses, going engineer to upgrade a tele, etc.). Narrower restrictions of particular weapons, loadouts, or situations will not be considered or applied in any circumstance.

Violations of class restrictions placed on players may result in a default loss and a minor team penalty.

In general, we will class restrict:

• If a person has made the top 3 in the same division
• If a person has made playoffs in the division above
• If a person is demonstrably better on a class than everyone else in a division

Each team has a maximum capacity for class-restricted players on their roster:

• Highlander - 5 Players
• 6v6 - 3 Players *

* = Only counting players restricted on Scout, Soldier, Demo, Medic, or Sniper.

Restrictions are context-dependent and may change across teams. For example, a player on one team may not have the same set of restrictions if they switch to another team in the same division. The addition of a player to a roster may also add restrictions to other players on that team.

In general, we largely favor recent experience and demonstrated current skill to historical performance as we find it better reflects a player's actual ability. There are also always exceptions, such as when a player is particularly bad or good at an offclass or was noticeably the strongest or weakest player on a previous team. We also handle medic experience differently, and will largely look at a player's fragging class ability rather than the med level when evaluating what division they can play. At the moment, we operate mostly under the assumption that if you're rostering on a team, you're able to play at or close to that level.

Advanced is a special case for sandbagging restrictions, as they are the divisions below Invite, which is at the top and has a fixed size. In an ideal world, the restrictions here would be much lighter as Invite would be filled with the best players and those who play in the division below would be unable to make Invite that season. However, the restrictions can also be much heavier. For example, in Advanced 6s, if Invite only has 6 teams out of an 8-10 team capacity, heavier restrictions will be applied to Advanced.

For teams that get knocked out of a qualifier for a particular division, they will all be allowed to play in the lower division on their main classes with no class restrictions with the following exceptions:

• If a player would be restricted off a class in Advanced or Main and they play qualifiers on a different class, then that class restriction still applies
• If a person would be restricted off a class in Advanced, they cannot play that class in qualifiers and will be restricted in Main

If a team does not win qualifiers on the classes a player is on then your team is at the level of the lower division without additional restrictions. Please note that throwing in qualifiers is subject to a league suspension and penalties as written in [1008.13] - Match Throwing / League Fixing.

[1006.3] - Regular Season Rosters⚓︎

Team membership cannot fall below the minimum count of players necessary for play. If it does, the team must roster enough players for their next match, otherwise, it will be considered an automatic forfeit. Admins are required to approve all roster changes, but a leader must accept a player to their roster 18 hours before a match to avoid using them as a ringer.

[1006.3.1] - Roster Transactions⚓︎

After team placements, all players who join a roster must be reviewed and accepted by an administrator. Players with experience levels higher than the team's division will be cleared by an administrator as to which classes they are not allowed to play on the team page notes.

With the possibility of teams rostering players from a division higher than the division that they are competing in, division admins may deny roster transactions midseason. Depending upon circumstances, players may be locked to/from certain classes, or removed from rosters. Violations of this restriction may result in a default loss and a minor team penalty.

During the first two weeks of the season, teams are permitted as many roster transactions as needed. Following this period, teams are permitted roster joins proportionate to a third of the format's team size per week until roster locks, as follows:

• Highlander - 3 Players
• 6v6 - 2 Players
• Prolander - 2 Players

A player may only switch teams a maximum of two times per season in a single format, once the season has begun. Exceptions may be made if the player's most recent team has died.

Example: I joined Sparkling in the preseason. I then joined Ascent just before the season began. I was rostered on Ascent for the first few weeks and decided to join a new team, Dunk Master. That would use one of my two roster switches. After a week I decided to join Ford Gaming. I have now used both of my regular-season roster switches. I cannot join the roster of any other team for the rest of the season. I can still ring for other teams, but I cannot be officially on their roster.

[1006.3.2] - Roster Locks⚓︎

Rosters will lock two weeks before the end of the regular season. Once the rosters have been locked, no new players can join the roster.

If a team knows that they will miss the deadline, they should contact an admin for an extension.

Roster transactions after the deadline will not be approved.

[1006.4] - Roster Move-Ups⚓︎

Teams that are moved up between divisions mid-season are subject to the following:

1. Team move-ups will not be conducted any later than week 2.
2. Affected match scores will be subject to normalization (See below for details).
3. Roster restrictions may be reconsidered by the admins' discretion.

When moving up a team, the match points won by the team's match points will be normalized with the following formula:

1. An average of match points won by the division above will be calculated.
2. That average will be divided by the total available match points to result in a normalization ratio.
3. This normalization ratio will be multiplied by the move-up team's current match points.

This resultant match points total will be the normalized value for match points. Teams who have played a match or multiple matches against a move-up team will receive match points to compensate for the move-up. Points will be calculated depending on the format. For formats using match points, teams will receive 3 match points per match played against the move-up. For formats using win percentages, teams will be given 2 rounds won against the move-up.

[1006.5] - Team Mutiny⚓︎

A two-thirds majority of rostered players (no distinction is made for starters/substitutes) may elect to have a team leader's status removed or for the player to be removed from the roster entirely. A replacement leader must also be designated by the majority. A team representative may open a support ticket in the RGL Discord or contact their Division Admin to begin this process.