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PugChamp
PugChamp

PugChamp is the easy way to get a pug going. Add up, ready up, get picked, play. The site does the rest, from finding a server to keeping score.

How a pug happens

45 s Add up pick the classes you'll play Ready up 45 seconds to say you're in Draft two captains pick the teams Play a server is ready and waiting Rated the leaderboard moves enough people everyone's in teams done game over
The whole thing runs itself. You can only be in one place at a time: added up, drafting, or in a game.
added up Scout 4 added up
Roamer 2 added up
added up Pocket 3 added up
Demoman 2 added up
Medic 2 added up
Captain 3 added up
2 captains 12 players Every class covered Server free No draft running
Ready up
9 / 13 ready · 28 s left
Ready
The 6v6 page: a card for each class, what's still needed underneath, and the ready-up bar once it starts.

1. Add up and ready up

Open the format you fancy and tick the classes you're happy to play. Tick Captain too if you're up for picking a team. That's it, you're added up.

As soon as there are enough people, two captains and a full set of classes, a ready-up starts on its own. Everyone gets 45 seconds to hit Ready.

  • Miss it? No problem. You just sit that one out, and nothing happens to you.
  • Stepping away for a bit? Turn on Pre-Ready and your browser will ready you up for anything that starts in the next couple of minutes.
  • If not enough people ready up, everyone stays added up and it tries again when the numbers are there.

2. The draft

Two captains are chosen from the people who ticked Captain, one RED and one BLU. RED picks first, then BLU gets two, then RED two, and so on down the list until both teams are full. Each pick has 60 seconds on the clock.

Captains don't pick their own class. Whatever's left open on their team at the end is theirs.

  • If medics are scarce, the ones who added up as medic are kept for medic, so nobody ends up without one.
  • Didn't get picked? You stay added up exactly as you were, ready for the next one.
  • A captain who lets the clock run out gets a cooldown. Everyone else goes back to being added up.
RED picks first then it snakes 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 1 pick 2 picks 2 picks 2 picks 2 picks 1 pick 60 seconds a pick
Pick 7 · BLU to pick · 0:41
RED 1512±380
  1. wisp Captain
  2. corsa Scout
  3. ymir Scout
  4. Balder Pocket
  5. fenrix Demoman
  6. open Medic
BLU 1498±362
  1. Nadia_ Captain
  2. jinx Scout
  3. plume Roamer
  4. Kessler Medic
  5. picking… Demoman
  6. open Scout
Process
Sunshine · tonight
Gullywash
Snakewater
The draft board: whose pick it is, both teams so far, each team's average rating, and the map.
  1. 20:14:02
    A server is booked and set up with the right config, whitelist and map.
  2. 20:14:09
    Only the twelve of you (and admins) can join it. Anyone else gets kicked.
  3. 20:14:10
    The connect details land on your game page and your notification goes off.
  4. 20:19:10
    Five minutes in, anyone still not on the server gets a sub request opened against them.
  5. 20:22:41
    Live. The score and who's on the server are read straight from the game. A Pug: RED 2–1 BLU (12:34)
  6. 20:53:07
    Game over. Ratings update, the logs.tf link appears, and the server is handed back.
A game page's timeline: the server, who joined, every round, any subs, and the result.
Sub needed someone drops or never joins People volunteer 2 min window One gets picked at random · joins the game everyone's notified nobody volunteered? it stays open and the first to do so is in
How a sub gets found, whether the game, a captain or an admin asked for one.

3. The game

Once the draft's done, a server is booked for you and the connect details show up on your game page. Just connect and play.

Have to leave? It happens. A sub request goes out, people volunteer, and one of them takes your place. The game carries on.

  • Try to be on the server within 5 minutes of the draft finishing, and back within 3 if you drop. After that a sub request is opened for you automatically.
  • Being subbed out counts as a penalty, so it's worth a quick word to your captain first if you can.
  • Captains and admins can ask for a sub too, and an admin can call a game off if it's gone wrong.

4. After the game

Every game you finish moves your rating. You start at 1500 with a wide margin, and the margin narrows the more you play. If you've played ETF2L, your first rating starts closer to where your division suggests. After five games you get a band on the leaderboard.

Your player page keeps track of the rest: your rating over time, your win-loss record as a player and as a captain, your current streak, which classes you play, and how you've done against, or alongside, anyone else on the site.

  • Awards are worked out from the games, never voted on. A winner and two runners-up each.
  • The Statistics page shows the bigger picture: how many games get played, when, on which maps, and which side wins on each.
  • Every game and every player has a share card, so links look nice when you paste them in Discord.
Before
1500±500
won
as Pocket
After
1587±431
10 % 20 % 30 % the rest GOLD SILVER BRONZE STEEL ← highest rating lowest → Fewer than five games? You're still placing, no band yet
Most Games who played the most
Best Medic best win rate as medic, five games or more
Most Subs who stepped in the most
Biggest Climb who gained the most rating
Your rating is a number and a margin of uncertainty. The leaderboard sorts everyone into bands, and the awards are counted over the last thirty days and over all time.

Everything's out in the open

15 min 1st time 1 h 2nd 6 h 3rd 1 day 4th 7 days 5th and on Same thing again within a week
Player fenrix Can't add up captain sub chat request admin Why Cooldown: let a draft pick time out (2nd in 7 days) Until today 21:19
One row from the Restrictions page: who, what they can't do right now, why, and when it ends.

There are no secret bans here. The Restrictions page lists everyone who's currently restricted, what they can't do, why, and when it ends. Automatic cooldowns show up there too, and so do the admins.

Cooldowns are automatic and short to begin with. Letting a draft pick time out, or getting subbed out of a game, gives you a 15-minute cooldown the first time. Do the same thing again within a week and it gets longer. Stay clean for a week and the count resets.

  • Think a restriction is wrong? Appeal it from the banner on your own page and an admin will get back to you.
  • Everything an admin does is written down and can't be edited afterwards.
  • The changelog says what's changed on the site and when.

Questions?

Ask an admin. You'll find them on the Restrictions page, or use Request Admin in the toolbar and they'll get a message.