Australian Hightower Highjinx Ruleset¶

This ruleset was created for the Australian Hightower Highjinx. Please note that we will refer to this ruleset as AHH through parts of the ruleset.

Format Specificity¶

Rules within this ruleset apply explicitly to Australian Hightower Highjinx. It is safe to ignore most of the Global Ruleset, as any governing rule needed from the Global Ruleset for Australian Hightower Highjinx is listed below.

Applicable Global Ruleset rules¶

• 1.3. Rulings
• 1.6. Player Integrity
• 1.7. Sportsmanship
• 1.9. Staff as Players
• 2.5.2. Swiss System
• 3. Player Eligibility, in particular:
  • 3.1, 3.2, 3.3 & 3.5.
• 4. Teams, excluding:
  • 4.4, 4.5 and 4.6.
• 8. Matches, in particular:
  • 8.1, 8.4, 8.5 & 8.9.
• 10. Servers
• 12. Cheating, Exploits and Bans
• 1.4. Penalties, in particular:
  • 2.9. Match Throwing
  • and any penalties attached to the above Global Ruleset rules.

1. Australian Hightower Highjinx Format¶

1.1. Class Limits¶

The following class limits are expected to be observed for official matches. Breaking these limits in any way is considered cheating, and depending on administrator discretion could lead to league penalties or a match result being overturned.

1.1.1. Core Class Limits¶

• 1 Scout
• 1 Soldier
• 1 Pyro
• 1 Demoman
• 1 Heavy
• 1 Engineer
• 1 Medic
• 1 Sniper
• 1 Spy

1.2. Unlocks (Whitelist)¶

The AHH whitelist can be found here. This whitelist allows all weapons/unlocks, taunts and cosmetics.

1.2.1. Weapon Pickups¶

Dropped weapons can be picked up - including any medigun.

1.3. Scoring¶

For AHH, PLR (Payload Race) maps should be scored as 1-0 to the winning team on match pages. For KOTH (King of the Hill) maps, the score should be 3-0/3-1/3-2 to the winning team. When submitting scores, please ensure you also submit the logs.tf link of your match/each map in your match in the Match Comms section, as well as a link to the ozfortress profile/s of any mercenaries/ringers used.

1.4. Match Win Conditions & Tiebreakers¶

Each map will be played until a team has pushed the cart to a win/run their KOTH timer down to zero.

For PLR (Hightower and Helltower), if neither team manages to push the cart to a win, the match will end by map timelimit, and the team who pushed the their cart the furthest at the end of the map timelimit will win. If cart progress is tied at the end of the map timelimit, the match will be decided by the team who scored the most kills according to logs.tf logs. Please note, unlike typical Payload/Stopwatch matches, PLR is not played in any form of halves, it is "one and done".

For KOTH (Snowtower), a team wins when their KOTH timer reaches zero, and the match ends when one team has won three (3) rounds.

1.5. Scheduling¶

Due to the time constraints surrounding AHH, once the server connect string is sent by one of the teams (preferably the Home team, but teams can decide between eachother), all players must immediately join the server. Failure to have nine players readied up in the server within five minutes of the match start time will result in a forfeit loss. Please contact an administrator via your Captains Discord match channel to claim your forfeit. Please note, administrators will use their discretion when awarding a forfeit.

1.6. Substitutes & Mercenaries/Ringers¶

Substitutes and mercenaries/ringers are allowed for AHH. If a player on the roster becomes unavailable and you need to source a mercenary/ringer (and cannot make use of a substitute from your roster), please contact an administrator as soon as possible.

1.7. Rosters¶

1.7.1. Roster Size¶

As Australian Hightower Highjinx is a Highlander competition, in-game roster size is set at nine (9) players, one on each class. The roster size on our website is set at thirteen (13) to allow room for four (4) substitutes. As detailed in 1.6. Substitutes & Mercenaries, if you need to replace a player on your roster, please contact us to do so prior to the event. If you need a mercenary/ringer, please contact an administrator as soon as possible.

1.8. Forfeiting¶

Teams are not allowed to forfeit a match within AHH. If you can no longer play in the competition, inform us and ensure we remove your signup before the competition starts so you do not face any penalty. If you cannot complete/play a match when the competition is live, your roster will be disbanded, and both players will face the disband captaincy penalties.

1.8.1. Claiming a Forfeit¶

If the team hasn't communicated with you within three minutes, or is more than five minutes late, contact an administrator via your Captains Discord match channel to claim a forfeit win. Do not wait longer than this as it will affect the remainder of the event.

1.8.2. Medals & Forfeits¶

Teams who forfeit a match, or are forfeited by AHH staff, will not receive any participation/placement medals.

2. AHH Playoffs¶

2.1. Playoff Match Format¶

Playoff matches for AHH consist of Best of One (B01) map for Quarter Finals and Semi-Finals, and the Grand Final will be a Best of Three (BO3) series with map order picked as dictated below. In a Best of Three (BO3) match, the team that wins 2 out of 3 maps wins the match. Each map should be played as per 1.3. Scoring.

2.2. Playoff Map Selection Order¶

2.2.1. Best of One Playoff Matches¶

For Playoff matches following a Best of One (BO1) format (Quarter Finals/Semi-Finals), the higher seeded team/Home team is awarded the first map ban, with the lower seeded team/Away team only being awarded one map ban. The higher seeded team/Home team will need to select the remaining map to finish the Pick/Ban process on the match page.

Using the Pick/Ban system on your Match Thread:

1. Team A bans a map
2. Team B bans a map
3. The remaining map is played (and will need to be picked by the higher seeded team/Home team as mentioned above).

2.2.2. Best of Three Playoff Matches¶

For Playoff matches following a Best of Three (BO3) format (Grand Finals), the higher seeded team is awarded a map pick advantage prior to bans.

Using the Pick/Ban system on your Match Thread:

1. Team A picks a map
2. Team B picks a map
3. The remaining map will be played as the decider (and will need to be picked by the higher seeded team/Home team as mentioned above).

3. Pausing¶

Pauses during a match are allowed for any reason, except for immediately after readying up with the intent of delaying the match, or pausing at any time just to delay the match.

The match may only be unpaused by the team who initiated the pause, with confirmation from the opposing team in in-game chat. Unpausing initiates a five-second countdown.

3.1. Pause Limits¶

Each team is allowed two pauses per match, with a combined total time limit of five minutes.

3.2. Tactical Pauses¶

Tactical pauses are not allowed.

3.3. Pause Command¶

To pause a match, teams must open their console and send the command: pause. The same command can be sent to unpause the match.

3.4. Repause Command¶

To allow a player to rejoin the server during a pause, use the command: repause. No warning is required to use the repause command.

3.5. Abuse of the Pause function¶

If a team is breaching any of the pause rules, a tournament administrator must be contacted immediately.

4. Player Eligibility¶

4.1. Ping Requirements¶

AHH does not follow our Global Ruleset ping or out of region rules, thus anyone from any region or ping is eligible to play.

5. Broadcasting Matches¶

5.1. Official Broadcasting¶

CappingTV is the official broadcaster for AHH 2026. Any other organization will need to seek approval from the tournament administrators.

5.2. Unofficial Broadcasting¶

Any casting organization not listed as the official broadcaster is considered unofficial and may not be allowed to broadcast unless approved by tournament administrators.

5.3. Streaming Player POVs/Player Streams¶

Players are more than welcome to broadcast their POVs on their own Twitch/YouTube channels. Please note, if you are invited onto the official broadcast, please follow their instructions, and do not broadcast behind the scenes of their broadcast.

6. Servers¶

6.1. Server Selection¶

Server selection follows our Global Ruleset server selection rules mentioned in the Applicable Global Ruleset Rules section closely, with some additional rules specific to AHH.

Server region will always default to Sydney Australia. If two international teams are playing together, they are welcome to book an NA/EU/SEA serveme server of acceptable/comparable ping for both teams. If an OZF team is playing an international team, the default server region must be used.

Teams should use au.serveme.tf or other serveme.tf regions for their matches. If needed, matcha.tf & TF2 Quickserver servers can be used.

6.2. Server or Map Issues/Crashes¶

In the event teams experience significant server or map issues, teams should contact AHH staff via their Captains Discord match channel. Alternative providers can be used if absolutely needed, especially for ping/routing related issues.