Announcement time: the meliodas server (currently in the Netherlands) is moving to Frankfurt, Germany.

From macsforme: https://forums.bzflag.org/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=19911&p=175466#p175466

A new experimental plugin is being deployed to LeaguesUnited servers. This plugin arose from the predicament of players who are on the mute list and therefore unable to communicate with others to arrange matches or communicate with their team about match strategies during the game. This plugin will allow muted players to send certain pre-determined messages (including public messages, team messages, and private messages), which should mitigate some of the communication difficulties faced by players on the mute list. This concept is based on the "chat wheel" feature found in certain other games, that allows you to send quick pre-defined messages to help you and your team play better.

Upon joining game servers, the affected players will be greeted by an explanation of their muted status along with a list of available slash commands which they can use to send specific messages. The slash commands can be sent to the public, team, or private message channels, and will send the indicated message to that specific destination.

It should be noted that being placed on the mute list is a consequence which still results in the loss of general social chatting in the game. While this plugin is not intended to mitigate the deterrent effect of being on the mute list, we feel that it benefits the league to facilitate as many matches from these players as possible, along with critical team communication during the matches, despite their muted status.

It should also be noted that our existing rules regarding player harassment and match disturbance will be enforced, including the use (or spamming) of these slash commands to do so. Whereas this effort has involved a significant investment of time from multiple developers both inside and outside of the league in order to provide a benefit to muted players, any abuse of these commands will be considered an insult to these developers' goodwill, and in addition to the standard player penalties, may result in restrictions on the use of these commands, the removal of certain messages from availability, or the removal of the plugin entirely. Please be respectful of these new abilities.

LeaguesUnited will implement a new forum-based chat to increase communication between the player base and administration.
Where: https://discord.gg/9rCkfyZ

Thread begun by zaa on bzflag forum:
https://forums.bzflag.org/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=19896

From zaa:
Over the years, there has been a gradual, yet dramatic drop in player retention and overall league activity in Leagues United. I’m proposing the implementation or utilization of a new public chat platform, in which LeaguesUnited community members can participate in open-forum discussion. I believe that with a newly-introduced discursive space where players are contributing to a shared goal, overall player morale will improve, which will produce an increase in competition and player retention, leading to an increase in league activity.

Consti posted his Hix triples event:
https://forums.bzflag.org/viewtopic.php?f=114&t=19886

The BZFlag FunMatch Challenge returns on March 31st, 2018 for a triples event on HiX. Registration is now open at http://challenge.leaguesunited.org

The rating method has changed from what it was in the past. Rather than using 1vs1 League ratings, the site will now
pull in your personal ELO rating from the LeaguesUnited site instead (winter season). As before, your team rating will
be the average of the individual ratings of all your members. The more official matches are played before the event, the more accurate the team ratings will be for the event, so I encourage everyone to play as many of them as possible between now and then.

A higher rating will earn your team an easier path on the ladder, but tied matches will go to the lower-ranked team
during the tournament. Please keep this in mind, because this has occurred in the past and not everyone was aware of this rule

See you there!

Oct 1 brought the support for new match types and Elo ratings tied directly to players. With this, there is the introduction of new official match types:

• Team vs Team (TvT) ie: [FF] vs MILK
• Team vs Mixed (TvM) ie MILK vs possum jenkins(poison) & Indy(Mavericks)
• Mixed vs Mixed (MvM) button(milk) & sage(poison) vs moto unit(mavericks) & M1chael(BerZerk)

Some guidelines:

• Official matches (whether mixed or not) are never between teammates of same team. Simply put, you cannot play against your own teammates in an official.
• In a mixed official, once the match begins, players cannot change colors unless EVERYONE agrees to balance
  teams. Teams should be decided beforehand to avoid issues.
• To avoid misunderstandings & conflicts from those too 'hot to trot' for mixed officials, communication must be CLEAR that it's a mixed official. Players be sure to check the chat and countdown timer message. It will state whether it's fm or official. Stands to reason if it's a mixed official and you don't want that, go obs!