History

When we created pickup2 one year ago our vision was for it to be a pickup channel that would cater some of the best players without being elitist: We invited good players to the channel and allowed them to invite others -from any division- as long as those others had good comms. After just one month (and about 200 invited) we had 20 pickups per day. Compare that to now when we have 600 invited and only 5 pickups per day.

So, what is the difference between now and then? You could come up with many different answers to that. Assuming TF2 isn't dead, the answer I lean towards is this: When people play pickups they prefer to play with people they know. If you look at the topic and know none of the added players then you usually won't add. On the other hand, if there are 6-7 players added that you enjoy playing with then you will probably add.

Therefore I see the need to reduce the number of invited players and also restrict new prospects in such a way that people can enjoy playing pickups with each other again.


Changes

In the old pickup2 everyone could invite everyone. In the new installment this will be drastically changed: Only admins will be able to invite. Players on #mpuktf2.pickup2 can request an invite for someone by using the !requestinvite command. If you want to be invited to the channel you should NOT ask an admin to invite you - instead you should ask a player you know from the channel to request an invite for you.

Admins will only invite new players if they meet the following requirements: You can speak English in a way other people can understand and you will respond in whole sentences if someone talks to you. You have good English voice comms (being able to call push/fall back, call kills, know the area names in maps). And during ETF2L Season 5 or 6 you have played at least 30 consecutive days for a div1/2/3 team (if you played for a div3 it must have ended top7 in your division).

[Note: At the end of the day, the admins decide who to invite and who not to invite. For the majority of the invites we will follow the requirements stated above though.]

We do realize that there are players in div4 (or below) that are better than some of the players in div3. That is why we originally didn't make a requirement about which division someone played in. Unfortunately we can now see that it got out of control. Most people simply can't say 'no' to their friend if he asks to join, even if he isn't good enough. That is why we see this new requirement as an unfortunate necessity.

If a friend has requested an invite for you then you can try joining the channel 24 hours later. If you aren't able to join then your request was rejected.


The Purge

On Feb 1st we will kick everyone from the channel and then we'll begin inviting players that meet the new requirements.

There is one exception to the rule: If needed, we are willing to invite players from div4 that will play medic only. (It is important that you actually have experience playing with a div4 clan for a longer period of time.) We will deal with those cases individually whenever they occur.

I know that a lot of people will be affected badly by the purge. To you guys, I'm sorry. But don't lose your hope just yet. This is a great incentive for you to put some effort into your clan play, to reach div3 and thereby gain access to the pickup channel. Additionally, I have a new pickup channel on the drawing board: Basically it will be pickup1 but with the extra requirement that you should have a mic and be able to speak English on ventrilo. It probably won't happen within the next couple of months, but I definitely see the need for it and I will work towards realizing it.