Prolander
Prolander (also known as 7v7) is a competitive format. The first season of Prolander began on June 15th 2017 in North America, and spread to Europe and Australia in April and August 2018, respectively. The format aims to be a middle ground between 6v6 and Highlander, which encourages the players to not stick to a single meta and adapt to the opposing team.
Contents
Game modes
Class limits
Classes are limited to one of each class. Any combination of 7 of the 9 classes is allowed, within the class limits. While a config is used to enforce the class limits, it is still possible to spawn two or more of the same class. It is therefore against the rules for two of the same class to leave the spawn room or to have any interaction on the match.
Weapon bans
Even though it is a commodity before a match for both teams to go through a process of pick/ban to define which weapons are banned or allowed, the leaders of the respective teams can also decide to not select their picks/bans.
In the latter case, the league's default whitelist for the format is instead applied, with the banned weapons being as followed:
| Class | Slot | Weapon |
|---|---|---|
| Primary |  Soda Popper | |
| Secondary |  Crit-a-Cola | |
 Mad Milk | ||
| Melee |  Fists of Steel | |
| Secondary |  Short Circuit | |
| Primary |  Machina† | |
| Secondary |  Cozy Camper | |
 Darwin's Danger Shield | ||
 Razorback | ||
 Jarate | ||
| Secondary |  Diamondback | |
| Building |  Red-Tape Recorder† |
† Banned from both the default whitelist and the pick/ban process.
However, if the opposing teams decides to go through a process of pick/ban, then the order is as followed:
- Banning wave #1: Away / Home / Away / Home
- Picking wave: Home / Away / Home / Away
- Banning wave #2: Home / Away / Home / Away
Strategy and gameplay
With its team sizes of seven, and a limit of one class per team, the most common strategies tend to revolve around the support and pick classes chosen by each team.
Classes can be changed in-game at any time, as long as there are no more than one of each class outside the spawn at any given time. As with other competitive formats, there is a combo consisting typically of a Medic and a Demo, with other classes such as Heavy and/or Pyro often joining them.
The combinations of the possible classes create a variety of gameplay options. For an example, the team on defense on a Payload map may choose to use a Medic, Demo, Pyro, Heavy, Engineer, Soldier, and Sniper, which would be a more combo dependent, defensive composition. The team on offense, however, may run a Medic, Demo, Pyro, Sniper, Soldier, Scout, and Spy, which is very flank/pick reliant composition, which could be used to counter the opposing team's defenses and exploit lightly held flank routes.
The format revolves around shifting classes in response to the other team. For example, if BLU team struggles to deal with a RED Engineer, they may run a Spy; if a RED Sniper then changes Pyro to counter this Spy, then that leaves RED open to a BLU counter Sniper, and so on. This makes Prolander a counterpick-heavy competitive format, since it requires its team to have some level of proficiency with each and every classes playable in the game.
Gameplay demonstration
History and reception
The idea of Prolander was a popular discussion in the Highlander community, and Sigafoo had began testing out matches in said format. Originally, it was supposed to be a 6v6 variation, but then, it was later modified to a 7v7 format due to popular demand from the following playerbase behind it, and the TF2 community itself showing interest in the format.
For now, the only league that hosts Prolander tournaments is RGL, and it has become popular in the competitive community thanks to the large number of regions the aforementioned league covers (North America, Europe and Australia) as well as the playerbase itself, which continues to grows as the format continues to be played at high-level tournaments. The league has prize pools of up to $4000 at the high level, which contributes to its popularity.
In 2019, after 4 seasons, European Prolander was indefinitely suspended due to the retirement of several league admins. In 2021, RGL hosted its last Prolander tournament in the form of a one-day cup.
| |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
