Casual Mode

See also: Competitive Mode

“

Who else is ready to win? Click to listen — The Spy queuing up

”

Casual Mode, or Casual, is a Team Fortress 2 main menu matchmaking mode, offering a wide selection of game modes and maps to choose and queue up for, either individually or with up to 5 other players. This matchmaking mode replaced Quickplay in the Meet Your Match Update with the July 7, 2016 Patch.

Overview

In Casual Mode, the matchmaking system attempts to match players to servers that are:

1. In Setup time
2. Hosted in a nearby location

However, these criteria might be loosened if server availability is limited. For instance, a player may be matched to a game already in progress, or to a server hosted in a region located further away from the player.

Casual Mode allows players to filter and select the maps they would like to play in. All maps are split between "Core Game Modes" and "Alternative Game Modes". Attack/Defend, Capture the Flag, Control Points, King of the Hill and Payload are featured under Core Game Modes. Alternative Game Modes features Payload Race, Misc (miscellaneous, maps that do not fit under common game mode types), Mannpower and PASS Time. During events, additional categories may be added, such as select Halloween maps for the duration of Halloween events. In each of these subcategories, the maps can be individually filtered out further.

In Casual Mode, a player can start or join a "Party", joining a temporary group of up to 6 players. This group of players is matched to the same server simultaneously, with all players playing on a single team. Party members are retained between games, although players of the same party may be moved to different teams due to auto-balance. Previously, with Quickplay, games that friends were in could be joined by pressing "Join Game" on their Steam Profile. This is no longer possible in Casual Mode, which disables "ad-hoc connections", but is still possible for community servers.

Casual Rank and Coin

In Casual Mode, players gain experience points (XP) from completing matches and scoring points recorded on the in-game scoreboard. Accumulating XP contributes towards a badge or "Coin" for Casual Mode that is displayed on the top left of the main menu. This Coin changes aesthetically as the player levels up. There are 150 levels, with each level requiring more experience than the last. These levels are divided into 6 stages: Civilian, Freelance, Mercenary, Commando, Assassin and Elite in ascending order (mirroring the Grade system used for Decorated weapons). Each stage consists of 25 levels. Each stage also changes the color of the Coin, ranging from light blue to bright red. Within each stage, there are another five sub-stages consisting of five types of Coins. In the first of the sub-stages, the player is given a plain Coin. Levelling up the five individual levels within this stage adds one star at a time (starting from one) onto the Coin. Every five levels obtained adds more accessories to the Coin, but resets the star-count to one. After 25 levels, this accessory system resets and the Coin changes color.

In addition to Coin levels, there are Tiers. After surpassing Level 150, the Coin is reset to Level 1 and the player's Tier increases by 1. The Coin's appearance also resets. There are currently 8 Tiers in total, meaning the Casual Coin is maxed out at Level 150, Tier 8.

The Casual Mode Coin's Tier and Level is a cosmetic feature that show how much and how well players have participated in matches. These levels can never be lost, nor do they affect matchmaking. However, Coin Tier and Level can be combined to express the player's Casual Rank. A player's Casual Rank is the total number of times their Casual Coin has increased a level, which is the sum of the Player's Coin Level plus 150 for each Coin Tier over one (level 151 would be Tier 1 level 1). A player's Casual Rank is reported in their Personal Game Data under the "Matchmaking Overview" below the "Matchmaking Rating" heading.

Casual Matchmaking Rank

Casual Mode's levels differ from Competitive Mode's ranks; Competitive Mode's ranks do affect matchmaking and can be lost. Instead, Casual Mode uses the Glicko rating system, also commonly referred to as "MMR" (Matchmaking Rank). This rating goes up and down depending on if the player wins or loses the match, and can be viewed in the player's Personal Game Data on Steam under the "Match History" tab next to "Result Displayed Rating". When a player stops playing for an extended period of time, the MMR increases or decreases more depending on how long the player has not played. This is known as "uncertainty decay".

Casual Mode has sv_pure set to 1, which forcibly disables custom files (apart from HUDs and custom hitsounds) on official Valve servers. The specific whitelist is listed in cfg/pure_server_whitelist.txt.

Coin

Levels

Level icon	Level	Needed XP	Owned XP	Grade
	1	0	0	Civilian Grade
	2	750	750
	3		1,500
	4		2,250
	5		3,000
	6		3,750
	7		4,500
	8		5,250
	9		6,000
	10		6,750
	11		7,500
	12		8,250
	13		9,000
	14		9,750
	15		10,500
	16		11,250
	17		12,000
	18		12,750
	19		13,500
	20		14,250
	21		15,000
	22		15,750
	23		16,500
	24		17,250
	25		18,000
	26	1,250	18,750	Freelance Grade
	27		20,000
	28		21,250
	29		22,500
	30		23,750
	31		25,000
	32		26,250
	33		27,500
	34		28,750
	35		30,000
	36		31,250
	37		32,500
	38		33,750
	39		35,000
	40		36,250
	41		37,500
	42		38,750
	43		40,000
	44		41,250
	45		42,500
	46		43,750
	47		45,000
	48		46,250
	49		47,500
	50		48,750
	51	2,000	50,000	Mercenary Grade
	52		52,000
	53		54,000
	54		56,000
	55		58,000
	56		60,000
	57		62,000
	58		64,000
	59		66,000
	60		68,000
	61		70,000
	62		72,000
	63		74,000
	64		76,000
	65		78,000
	66		80,000
	67		82,000
	68		84,000
	69		86,000
	70		88,000
	71		90,000
	72		92,000
	73		94,000
	74		96,000
	75		98,000
	76	3,000	100,000	Commando Grade
	77		103,000
	78		106,000
	79		109,000
	80		112,000
	81		115,000
	82		118,000
	83		121,000
	84		124,000
	85		127,000
	86		130,000
	87		133,000
	88		136,000
	89		139,000
	90		142,000
	91		145,000
	92		148,000
	93		151,000
	94		154,000
	95		157,000
	96		160,000
	97		163,000
	98		166,000
	99		169,000
	100		172,000
	101	4,500	175,000	Assassin Grade
	102		179,500
	103		184,000
	104		188,500
	105		193,000
	106		197,500
	107		202,000
	108		206,500
	109		211,000
	110		215,500
	111		220,000
	112		224,500
	113		229,000
	114		233,500
	115		238,000
	116		242,500
	117		247,000
	118		251,500
	119		256,000
	120		260,500
	121		265,000
	122		269,500
	123		274,000
	124		278,500
	125		283,000
	126	7,000	287,500	Elite Grade
	127		294,500
	128		301,500
	129		308,500
	130		315,500
	131		322,500
	132		329,500
	133		336,500
	134		343,500
	135		350,500
	136		357,500
	137		364,500
	138		371,500
	139		378,500
	140		385,500
	141		392,500
	142		399,500
	143		406,500
	144		413,500
	145		420,500
	146		427,500
	147		434,500
	148		441,500
	149		448,500
	150		455,500

Tiers

Tier icon	Tier
	1
	2
	3
	4
	5
	6
	7
	8

Pie chart showing the proportion of XP accumulated by level 150 that is gained from each Tier.

Update history

July 7, 2016 Patch #1 (Meet Your Match Update)

• Added Casual Mode to the game.

July 8, 2016 Patch

• Removed the abandonment penalty.
• Players are only required to have a single mode selected before queuing.

July 14, 2016 Patch #1

• Fixed a problem where in-progress games with open slots would not receive new players.
• Fixed a case where players would sometimes not receive experience (when playing a match to completion).
• Fixed not getting domination/revenge events.
• Added a feature to the game mode selection screen that allows players to play on specific maps.
• Added the Vote Kick option.
  • Players that are kicked will receive partial experience after the match ends.
• Maps previously using the stopwatch timer will now play to completion, regardless of the first team's time.

July 28, 2016 Patch

• Matches can now start with fewer than 24 players when there are not enough compatible players in queue.
  • The match will still add additional players (up to 24) as they become available.
  • This should improve queue times for low-population regions and game modes.
• Added maps cp_gullywash, cp_snakewater, and koth_probed.
• Fixed not being able to cycle between spectator modes.

August 3, 2016 Patch

• Fixed map objectives (e.g. flags, capture points, carts) sometimes becoming unresponsive in Casual Mode games.
• Fixed a case where players could be late-joined into games playing a map that they didn't have selected.

August 29, 2016 Patch

• Fixed Casual mode badges incorrectly displaying the level 1 badge when at max level.

September 12, 2016 Patch

• Fixed an exploit related to not respawning in the spawn room at the beginning of Casual Mode matches.
• Increased the matchmaking system's preference for matching large pre-made parties against each other in Casual Mode. This should result in more balanced matches, but may cause a slight increase in queue times for larger parties.

September 27, 2016 Patch

• Players can now form rematches at the end of a Casual match.
  • At the end of a Casual match, players will have 30 seconds to opt-in to a rematch.
  • If at least 6 players from BLU and 6 players from RED have chosen to rematch, then a rematch will begin.
  • A rematch will use the same teams, map and server.
• Players can now re-queue into Casual Matchmaking during the end of a match.
  • Players who decline a rematch or simply don't vote in the rematch voting period will automatically be re-queued.
• Updated the way XP is earned in Casual matches.
  • Players will now be awarded more XP based on their team's performance at the end of a match.
  • XP is no longer lost for leaving a Casual match early.
  • A breakdown of XP sources is now shown when your XP bar fills up.
• Casual matches now more strongly prefer to distribute players to teams based on experience, in order to better avoid creating one-sided matches.
• Casual matches are now more likely to start with fewer than 24 players in lower population game-modes or regions, wherein the wait time for a full match would become excessive.
  • The current minimum allowable match size in such situations is twelve players.
  • The matchmaker will still attempt to place late-joiners into these matches as they become available.

September 28, 2016 Patch

• Fixed some players not being able to click on the new rematch UI elements.
• Fixed the end of round music not playing in Casual matches.

October 12, 2016 Patch

• Players will now be randomly selected to participate in a survey at the end of Casual matches.

October 21, 2016 Patch (Scream Fortress VIII)

• Join Halloween matches by selecting the "Halloween" category in Casual
• Added "Load Saved Settings" and "Save Current Settings" buttons to the Casual mode Map Selection menu.
  • Search criteria is now manually saved to give players more control over the default settings when the game is launched.
• XP earned in Casual matches has been adjusted to reward players more for their personal contribution to the match.
  • XP per point has returned to 6.5 XP per point.
  • XP earned for match completion and objective completion now scales based on your score relative to total amount of points scored by everyone in the match.
• Increased the matchmaker's priority of matches with imbalanced teams.
  • This should reduce the occurrence of extended imbalanced matches when multiple players leave.

November 2, 2016 Patch

• Fixed Casual search criteria being saved automatically while connecting to a server.

November 23, 2016 Patch

• Fixed Casual mode search criteria sometimes not loading properly when starting the game.

December 21, 2016 Patch (Smissmas 2016)

• Matchmaking Improvements.
  • At the end of a Casual match, players are automatically formed into a new match with the same players and teams.
    • Players get to vote on which map the new match will take place on.
      • There are 3 maps to vote on, chosen based on the maps everyone in the match had selected when they began searching for a match. The current map is always the first option.
    • This replaces the Rematch system.
  • Players can now set their maximum acceptable ping by clicking the new gear icon in the top right of the Casual and Competitive matchmaking lobby screens and choosing "Ping Settings".
• New autobalance system to help with balancing teams when players leave a match. The system will ask players to volunteer to switch teams.
  • Automatically enabled for all Casual match servers.
    • Players who switch will be able to earn bonus XP as a reward.
  • Community servers can enable this new feature by using "mp_autoteambalance 2".

January 16, 2017 Patch

• Fixed using the wrong thumbnail images for pass_district, pass_timbertown, and pl_swiftwater.

February 14, 2017 Patch

• Fixed a case where Casual servers would spontaneously terminate with "Server shutting down" upon losing connection with the matchmaking service.
• Updated the logic used to pick the maps players can vote on in the end-of-match map vote on Casual servers to help maintain healthier game mode representation across regions.
  • Casual servers were often rotating to unrelated game modes during votes, resulting in partially filled servers in certain regions.
• Added new survey questions to the end-of-match survey for Casual and Competitive modes and fixed a bug where multiple surveys could be displayed at the same time.

June 2, 2017 Patch

• Players who leave a Casual match for any reason cannot be re-matched into the match in question for a few minutes.
• Players who are vote-kicked from a Casual match cannot be re-matched into the match in question for several hours.

October 20, 2017 Patch #1 (Jungle Inferno Update)

• Redesigned the matchmaking screens to be lightweight overlays that can be summoned and dismissed from anywhere within the game.
• Moved the Casual badge panel to the main menu.
• Levels now go beyond 150. All players now have a Tier in addition to their Level. All players start at Tier 1. When your Level goes past 150 your Level resets to 1, your Tier goes up by 1, and your Casual badge will change its appearance to reflect your new status.
• Players who had reached level 150 will have any experience beyond 45500 (the amount required to hit 150) put into an overflow pool. While playing Casual matches, any XP you earn will be matched and deducted from your overflow pool until it runs out.
• The "Vote for the next map!" dialog can now be minimized to view the top scoring players.

March 28, 2018 Patch #1

• Casual Improvements
  • Casual Mode now uses the Glicko skill rating system behind the scenes to better create balanced matches and group players by skill level
  • The maps listed in the Casual matchmaking screen are now sorted alphabetically
  • Added ctf_sawmill, ctf_well, cp_5gorge, ctf_2fort_invasion, and ctf_foundry to Casual Mode
  • Updated the match-end map voting to only vote on maps for the current game mode (if you are playing Payload, you will only vote on Payload maps)
• Fixed not using the initial observer point when first connecting to a Casual server.
• Fixed not being able to spectate observer points or your own buildings in Casual Mode.

May 17, 2018 Patch

• Fixed matchmaking players being able to sit at the MOTD so they can't be kicked by players in the match. They will now show in the scoreboard on their assigned team and will be valid vote-kick targets by members of their team.

June 7, 2018 Patch

• Players who consistently demonstrate a pattern of negative behavior in-game (based upon excessive reports from other players and several other factors) will now receive a temporary matchmaking ban.

March 26, 2019 Patch

• Fixed a rare case where players could appear to be in a match they could neither join nor abandon

April 16, 2019 Patch

• Fixed an issue causing matchmaking to fail for many users due to Steam network changes

July 25, 2019 Patch (Summer 2019 Pack)

• Fixed not seeing the team-goal hints during Casual matches

July 3, 2020 Patch

• Fixed matchmaking badges not displaying the correct tier in the scoreboard and other dialogs

January 8, 2021 Patch

• Added pl_pier to the list of maps for Casual matchmaking

July 18, 2024 Patch #1 (Summer 2024 Update)

• Moved some of the Christmas maps to the normal rotation
• Moved ctf_2fort_invasion out of the Misc matchmaking category and into CTF
• Moved koth_probed out of the Misc matchmaking category and into KOTH

July 18, 2024 Patch #2

• Moved ctf_haarp out of the CTF matchmaking category and into Attack/Defend

November 14, 2024 Patch

• Improved matchmaking performance
• Improved matchmaker behavior for users with less-than-ideal ping levels. The matchmaker should now be quicker to put you in the best available region.
• Improved matchmaker decision making for cross-region parties
• Added error messages when being ejected from the matchmaking queue due to connectivity or authentication failures, rather than the queue simply silently vanishing
• Fixed the matchmaking settings dialog frequently failing to display any datacenters
• Fixed multiple cases of in-progress casual matches abruptly terminating or failing to be assigned any new players if the game server ever loses connection to Steam

Bugs

• Occasionally, the "Vote For Next Map" option may not allow players to vote, or so it may appear to a player joining just after the vote closed.
  • This can be countered by entering next_map_vote 0, 1, or 2 in the console. 0 votes for the first map, and 2 votes for the 3rd map.
• If a player gets disconnected in the middle of a match and attempts to rejoin, the player may be kicked for an "ad-hoc connection", despite it being through the matchmaking system, thus preventing the player from joining.
• Badge colors do not appear while in DirectX 8.
• Players may receive up to an hour long matchmaking ban during the early morning hours of the fall US Daylight Savings Time switch.

Gallery

• 

  A screen explaining the basics of Casual.

• 

  The map selection screen for Casual.

See also

• Competitive Mode
• Quickplay
• Team balance