Casual Mode

Casual Mode is an official game mode released for Team Fortress 2. The mode replaced Quickplay after the Meet Your Match Update.

In Casual Mode, you are preferably sent to a game that is in the setup phase, and to a server hosted in the location nearest to you. You are matched into any game that fits these two criteria, however, the game may not fit these criteria (may be hosted in a foreign country/may be already in progress) if availability is limited. Additionally, in Casual Mode, you are allowed to filter which maps you would like to play in. The division is first split into "Core Game Modes" and "Alternative Game Modes". In Core Game Modes, this can then be filtered down to Attack/Defend, Capture the Flag, Control Points (eg 5 CP), King of the Hill, and Payload. In Alternative Game Modes, this can then be filtered down to Payload Race, Misc (miscellaneous, games that fit into a category by themselves), Mannpower and PASS Time. In each of these subcategories, the maps can be further filtered out individually. At this current stage, some maps are missing, such as CTF Well and CTF Sawmill.

In Casual Mode, you can start or join a "Party", in which you can be a member of a temporary group consisting of 6 players maximum. This group of people will travel to servers simultaneously, and will result in all players playing on the same team if it successfully connects to a server. After a game ends, the team will still be together. It will only be disbanded once everyone quits. Previously, games that friends were in could be joined by pressing "Join Game" on their Steam Profile. This is no longer possible in Casual Mode, however it is possible in Community Servers.

In Casual Mode, you aesthetically level up, gaining experience points from victories and points scored in-game, of any type. There are 150 levels, with each level requiring more experience than the last. Each level changes the image on your "Coin", which is visible in the top left while selecting/loading a Casual game. These levels are first divided into six stages, Civilian, Freelance, Mercenary, Commando, Assassin and Elite. Each of these stages consists of 25 ranks, with Civilian being the lowest stage, and Elite being the highest stage. Each stage also changes the color of your Coin, ranging from light blue to rich red. Within each of the stages, there are another five stages consisting of five types of Coins. In the first of the stages, you are given a plain Coin. Leveling up to five individual levels within this stage will add one star at a time (starting from one) onto your Coin. Every five levels obtained will gain you more accessories for your Coin, but will reset the star-count to one. After 25 levels, the system will reset, but the Coin will become a different color.

Gameplay

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

Bugs

• Under the Rematch system, sometimes if someone was the only player left in a server, they were presumably be able to play against nobody and keep rematching indefinitely. The Rematch system was replaced by the 3 map vote system in the December 21, 2016 Patch (Smissmas 2016).

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 2016)

• 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.

See also

• Competitive Mode
• Quickplay

External links

• Meet Your Match Update
• Casual Mode Update