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 map/s 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.
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 |
Update history
- Added Casual Mode to the game.
- Removed the abandonment penalty.
- Players are only required to have a single mode selected before queuing.
- 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.
- 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, andkoth_probed. - Fixed not being able to cycle between spectator modes.
- 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.
- Fixed Casual mode badges incorrectly displaying the level 1 badge when at max level.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Players will now be randomly selected to participate in a survey at the end of Casual matches.
- 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.
.
