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We are kicking off the new year by looking toward the future! We are looking forward to what 2026 brings for Highlander. We are excited to announce Highlander Experimental Cup #10!

This cup will influence one map for Highlander Season 35. Check out the details below and how to sign up! We encourage teams to sign up however they want, whether that’s with your regular Highlander team or by playing with friends on other teams by signing up using a Highlander Fun Team.

Schedule

• Signups: OPEN NOW – February 12th 18:00 CET (Late signups are possible until the end of round 2)
• Final Tiers: February 12th
• Group Stage: February 13th – March 12th
• Tiebreaker Matches (If necessary): March 13th
• Grand Finals & 3rd Place Match: March 14th – March 15th

Format & Whitelist

Division System: We will be running larger Swiss groups. Depending on signups, we aim to have 2-4 groups based on skill (Premiership/High, Mid, Low, Open), similar to the legacy UGC format. Both competitive teams and Highlander Fun Teams are welcome to sign up.

Week Structure: We have decided to run this cup in a week structure over the traditional weekend or one-night-cup structure for test cups. This is to make participation more accessible as this cup will influence the season 35 mappool.

However, we will run rounds from Friday to Friday to help avoid overlapping the standard 6v6 official days. If no other date preferences are set Automatic default dates will prioritise Monday.

Map Feedback: After each round, we will send a map-specific feedback poll.

Whitelist: We will be using the Standard HL Whitelist.

Map Pool & Map Rotation

For this cup, we’ll be running the following 4 Rounds of maps.

• pl_divulgence_b4b – tf2maps.net
• pl_eruption_b15 – tf2maps.net
• pl_downfall_b12 – tf2maps.net
• tow_tetsudo_b10a – tf2maps.net

Map rotation:

• Round 1: pl_downfall_b12 (February 13th – February 20th)
• Round 2: pl_eruption_b15 (February 20th – February 27th)
• Round 3: pl_divulgence_b4b (February 27th – March 6th)
• Round 4: tow_tetsudo_b10a (March 6th – March 13th)
• Note: Round 3 matches may be played during, before or after LAN for those attending poLANd.tf 2026 (February 27th – March 1st).
• Grand Finals & 3rd Place Match: Pick/Ban (March 14th – March 15th)

New Rules: TOW (Tug Of War)

For Round 4, we are playing tow_tetsudo_b10a. As this is a Tug of War mode, specific rules apply:

• Win Limit: 3 Rounds (mp_winlimit 3)
• Time Limit: None.
• Winning the Map: The first team to win 3 rounds wins the map.
• Round Win Condition: A team wins the round by either fully capturing the payload or by having pushed the neutral payload cart further into enemy territory than the opposing team when the round timer ends.
• Golden Cap: If the final score of a TOW map has a difference of only 1 point (3-2 or 2-3) it is classified as a “Golden Cap” result, with the winner being the team who won 3 rounds.

The config etf2l_9v9_tow.cfg will be uploaded to serveme.tf for use with this map. Until the configs are updated, please use etf2l_9v9_koth_bo5.

End of Cup Poll

At the end of the cup, players will vote on which map will join the Main Season 35 Map Pool (the map voted here will be replacing Upward for Highlander Season 35).

The candidates in this poll are:

• pl_divulgence_b4b
• pl_eruption_b15
• pl_downfall_b12
• tow_tetsudo_b10a
• pl_borneo_f2 (From AFA)

Sign-up Process

First and foremost, you must sign your team up here: 

Then, if you are applying for Division 6/Open tier (which is our entry division), you do not have to provide any proof that you are capable of playing at that level.

Otherwise, we encourage you to send in an application through the ticket system in our Discord or by directly contacting a league admin, with the following information:

– Team name, Division you apply for and ETF2L team link
– Roster
– Recent results and logs associated to them
– Reasons why your team deserves to be placed in the tier you applied for (optional)

e.g.
– Team BIG EXPLOSION, Premiership, https://etf2l.org/teams/1/
announce the roster with the classes
– 5-2 vs Team Aoshi’s All Stars (Prem) : https://logs.tf/012345

Teams that do not send an email or contact the admins risk losing their spot in the division they are asking for.

Please note that the success of your request also strongly depends on the free slots in the tier you aim

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