Team Interrobang

From TF2 Wiki

Contents 1 At a Glance Information 2 Operations 2.1 Team Rules 2.2 Servers 2.2.1 Team Interrobang Server Line-Up 2.3 Membership 2.4 Team Structure 3 Activities 3.1 Shenanigans 3.2 Field Trips 3.3 Interro Day 3.4 iBattles 3.5 Fun Scrim 4 Miscellaneous Information 4.1 Web Page 4.2 Team Communications 4.3 Support 5 Founding and History 5.1 Timeline 5.2 Evolution of the Tag

At a Glance Information

Name: Team Interrobang
Tag: [!?]
Tagline: "There are no ranks here; we are all equally worthless."
Size: Approximately 130 active members and approximately 2000 forum users.

Operations

Team Rules

• No racist speech, hate speech or excessive profanity
• No griefing
• No spawn camping
• No hacking, cheating or taking advantage of what is generally called an exploit
• No microphone spamming
• No wearing our tag while not part of the team
• No impersonating other players

Servers

Team Interrobang operates and manages a dedicated server leased from Limestone Networks. Servers 1-5 keep stats through HLStatsX (TF2 Statistics, Reset TF2 Statistics). Server #6 is an official Prophunt server and stats are listed on the Prophunt global stats. Servers #7, #8 and #9 have no stats and are used mostly for shenanigans. Each Interrobang server has All Talk turned on. All server addresses are aliased to server#.teaminterrobang.com (replacing the # with the actual server number).

Team Interrobang Server Line-Up

• Team Interro #1 (69.162.110.234:27015) - Payload Maps (Gold Rush, Badwater Basin, Hoodoo and Cashworks)
• Team Interro #2 (69.162.110.235:27015) - CTF_2Fort
• Team Interro #3 (69.162.110.236:27015) - Arena Maps
• Team Interro #4 (69.162.110.237:27015) - tf2maps.net PLR/CTF Contest Finalist Maps
• Team Interro #5 (69.162.110.238:27015) - CP Maps
• Team Interro #6 (69.162.120.170:27015) - PropHunt Mod
• Team Interro #7 (69.162.120.171:27015) - KOTH Maps with Presents
• Team Interro #8 (69.162.120.172:27015) - Arena Shenanigans with Instagib plugin
• Team Interro #9 (69.162.120.173:27015) - Private Server

Each server runs a plugin that puts the next map up for a vote. Because of this there isn't a set map rotation. Also, the servers are actively monitored by the "Interrocam", a utility that records demos. These demos are publicly available and allow viewers to spectate any player or from any angle.

Membership

Application to Team Interrobang requires no skill or ability requirements but requires upholding standards of civility and sportsmanship. Applicants must register an account on the forums and be a member of the Interrobang steam group. Applicants must also be at least 17 years of age. 16 year olds can apply, but are required to go through a maturity check, as well as receive a full or senior admin's approval before the application can be voted on. Finally, they must have at least 24 hours of play time and have a minimum of a one month calendar time on team servers for their application to be considered.

Team members may participate in ladder or league play with other teams as long as the Team Interrobang tag [!?] is worn in front of their name while on team servers and that player's participation doesn't otherwise violate the team rules. Team Interrobang doesn't have a scrim team but does run internal semi-competitive events called InterroBattles.

Team Structure

Team Interrobang actively eschews the usage of the term 'clan' which applies to more competitive groups.

The team is broken down into three levels: Junior Admin, Full Admin and Senior Admin. Unlike most groups, all team members have the admin powers necessary to mute, gag, and kick players. Most issues in the servers are handled by the mute, gag and kick abilities available to every member. A small group of members (Full and Senior Admins) hold additional admin powers to kick other team members, ban cheating players, and perform investigations of team members who have broken team rules. Additionally, the Senior Admins are responsible for processing bans, managing the team's membership and finances, finalize approval of applications, and run the team's servers. Otherwise, Full Admins and Senior Admins are the same as other members and receive no additionally favored slots on the team's servers.

Any policy changes are done either by consensus of the team's admin corps (Full and Senior Admins) or after votes with the membership as a whole as well as through the team's periodic town hall meetings.

Activities

Shenanigans

In addition to normal game play, the team also indulges in periodic "Shenanigans" where team members undertake various group activities, such as karaoke and assorted non-standard game-play modes. Server #8 is dedicated to Shenanigans with custom maps and the homing projectiles plugin.

Field Trips

Field trips are a charity event to help fill other people's empty servers. Every few months, team members get together and go find servers on the internet that need filling. The goal is not to grief or harass, but to spread the love and shenanigans that is Team Interrobang, and the events have introduced new people to the Team Interrobang servers. Field Trips are voluntary, but are for team members only. Team members remove their tags for these events, as they don't want to be seen as a griefing or hacking clan when 15 - 20 players join a server with the same tags.

Each trip has a theme, and this involves changing your name to fit that theme. The original trip was called the "TI Pirate Raid" and occurred in April 2009. The theme for the event was movie villains. The second trip took place in August 2009 and was simply called a "Server Field Trip". The theme for that event was Muppet characters. The most recent trip was titled "Official TI Field Trip 3.0" and developed in November 2009. The event's theme was U.S. presidents.

VirginBride is credited with the original idea and has administered every trip so far.

Interro Day

March 24th marks the anniversary of Team Interrobang's founding and is filled with grand festivities including skill competitions, the activation of the birthday mod, and other activities that have become the stuff of legend.

iBattles

InterroBattles, or iBattles, as they are more commonly known, are semi- and often pseudo-serious pickup games in which, at the start, two selected captains will agree upon a method of dueling for first pick of the participants, who include team members and regulars on the team's servers. Teams are then selected one player at a time, gym-class style, and then the two teams will battle for bragging rights. Typically, three maps are played, and the teams are reselected each map, with the captains being the last people picked from the previous map - colloquially known as the 'fat kids'. iBattles are generally held once or twice per week.

Fun Scrim

Team Interrobang has had a number of fun (or faux) scrim teams. These consist of members and pubbers adding {team name} after their names. Most of these are just diversions and give the members a reason to smack-talk. The first scrim ever is between the Tunnel Snakes and the Robot Masters. It occurred on December 18 2009.

• Tunnel Snakes
• Robot Masters
• Ben-Hur (Defunct)
• Nothing (Defunct)
• Tremors (Defunct)

Miscellaneous Information

Web Page

Team Interrobang has an active webpage that forms the focus of the team's non-game activities. The page includes an active forum section and includes current information about the status of team's game server. The Team also has a facebook group.

Team Communications

Mumble - The team operates a Mumble server open to the Team Interrobang community.
Chat Client - The team operates a free AJAX chat client open to the Team Interrobang community.

Support

Beginning in August 2008, Team Interrobang was entirely supported by the donations of its members. Donations from team members do not confer any benefits on donors. Public players are also encouraged to donate and receive two months of reserved slot access for each $5.00 donated.

Founding and History

Team Interrobang was founded by Apollo, Arcanus, and Andrew on 24 March 08; three former members of the 352nd Infantry Division (tag: [352nd]) that had either been kicked out or left. Many other members of the 352nd Infantry Division formed the 2098 clan. The group grew from 1 game server to a dedicated server on 24 Nov 08 and migrated from Ventrilo to Mumble on 17 Feb 09.

Timeline

24 Mar 08 - First Team Interrobang Game server launched through gameservers.com; a 32-person server out of New Jersey.
30 Apr 08 - Second 32-slot server purchased from Darkstar LLC.
21 May 08 - Third 32-slot server purchased from LowPings.net.
31 Jul 08 - New web page ([www.teaminterrobang.net]) hosted by Ric0_MD and designed by impulsenine.
03 Aug 08 - Andrew removes old site after departing team.
08 Nov 08 - First Drunken Shenanigans.
12 Nov 08 - Forums hit 10,000 posts.
23 Nov 08 - Team purchases dedicated server from clutchkill.com.
17 Feb 09 - Migration from Ventrilo to Mumble.
27 Feb 09 - Participation Record: 128.
24 Mar 09 - One year anniversary.
03 Apr 09 - First T.I. Field Trip. Theme: Movie Villains
21 May 09 - Participation Record: 170.
31 May 09 - Team moves from recruiting where only admin corps votes count to where all member votes count.
01 Aug 09 - Second T.I. Field Trip. Theme: Muppets
15 Sep 09 - Two additional servers are included and all servers exclusively run Team Fortress 2.
02 Nov 09 - New website goes live. Redesigned by impulsenine. Troubleshot by Chayoss. Transfer completed by pants, twier and arcanus.
03 Nov 09 - Team Interrobang submits a CEVO team, Abusement Park.
07 Nov 09 - Third T.I. Field Trip. Theme: U.S. Presidents
17 Dec 09 - Participation Record: 226.

Evolution of the Tag

The team's original tag was [‽] but was changed to [What!?] due to problems viewing the Interrobang symbol and the tag being rather small. Later it was changed to [!?] to clarify the name as Team Interrobang rather than Team What!?, and to quell mock tags like [Who!?] and [Why!?]