Here are our plans... (scroll down to the bottom for a summary of how our server is ran)

Scotch, Golum and I are three friends who have been enjoying TF2 for many years, and we decided that it's time we set up our own server. This is not the first time we've done this, back in 2011 myself (Gromit) and Golum both ran a server which became decently popular. We've had a break and now we're itching to give it another shot, this time better prepared and fully invested in going the long haul if it ever makes it that far.

We would like to put in the effort to make this server take off and gain a playerbase, just like the last one. We have short term goals and hopes for the future too, this is our project for the year, and we want to see if this can develop into a community or if it is just going to stay as a single server. We take inspiration from a popular band that Scotch and I both love called Elbow and have named our server/group with a vague reference to it.

The kind of environment we want to offer to people is one clean of ads, stats with annoying messages, gameplay changes, quake sounds, etc etc. There are a lot of custom servers out there that do things their own way which often means sandwiching the server with mods and plugins.
The three of us, while not afraid to install some plugins to our server, still would like to keep the game tidy and basic.

So, down to the facts - what exactly does our server offer?
*First of all, we run a 24 slot server, we keep weapon damage and bullet spread enabled as well as random crits.

*We use UMC and we have configured it in a way that keeps the server rotating through the most popular maps. If the player count is low it picks out smaller maps. As it fills up, larger maps, there is no upper limit for any map. When the server has enough people it will offer a "Mystery Map" button in the end of the map vote. This picks from a seperate pool of maps that you don't find on the typical rotation. A handful of these maps are custom, the rest are still fairly popular maps to ensure the option is still voted for.

*We have a small admin team, but they can all be trusted with their power and should also be fairly active. We aim for quality over quantity with our staff.

*We also have a minimum interference policy. This is a general guideline that applies to two things - staff behaviour and the server's plugin setup. In short; we want the base experience of TF2 to be unaltered.
The plugins installed on the server are mostly back-end things but we do use gScramble to make sure it runs smoothly and does not end up in that typical Valve server state where the teams get stacked, and we try to keep it clean of trolls that on a Valve server could run rampant for as long as they want.
Staff are there because they want to play the game, and are expected to only use their powers when they have to deal with a troublesome player.

*We do not want any gimmicky things on our server such as stats, ads or "fun" plugins. We aim to give our players a positive experience without filling up their screen with "you got 5 points for doing something!" every time they move. Players should be undistracted by plugin/admin activity.

Finally, our rules. They are very simple and you can find them here:-

- we want you to have a laugh here but please be mature when appropriate
- respect the people you're playing with
- play fair (no cheating/exploits)
- any language is allowed in chat, but please speak English when using your mic


24 slots, crits and spread enabled
UMC controlled popular map rotation (with a handful of customs)
Small admin team, but well experienced
No "fun" plugins or anything to interfere with the game (except maybe for scrambling)
Rules consist of don't be a jerk and it's all good