In this debut cast of Season 23 we find ourselves graced by many debutants to the highest echelon. Reigning champions Se7en have seen one roster change with Drackk taking the roamer spot. Will this change have any effect on their performance against new premiership hopefuls Velocity eSports. With limited premiership experience this team could cause the most major of upsets by sticking it to Se7en in the first week. So tune in as we kick off Season 23 with WARHURYEAH, CommanderX and ondkaja.

You can also check out the Teamfortress.tv schedule to see what’s coming up.

Staff Changes

MIGHTY BURGER ツ has successfully finished his trial period and is now a full member of the AC staff.

Rules Update

Due to the increasing number of people we have to ban from the league because of a TF2 VAC-ban, despite them showing no signs of being active, in future banposts we will only list those accounts who have joined a team or played an official match at least once. Accounts that do not fit those conditions will still be visible to on our League bans page.

Bans

These players have been caught with VAC bans affecting TF2, and will be banned from the league for one year:

• Kenzo Engineer
• Sam42
• Eyelander 2
• Kolpo
• ogg
• smi
• 4eburek65
• mao
• SpyCheck
• Ana
• dato
• Enes
• Hergan
• Skedzz
• Goat of Babylon
• daronnn
• Peter
• Pedro
• FagMan
• Nitrix
• riven
• palm
• C4rbon
• Ztreak
• sherms
• Fancy
• MacInTosh
• tezumu
• Urmahgawd
• NovaStone
• AtomX
• Frosty
• torrit alt
• j4id_
• Sushah :3

As these players have not been caught cheating by our staff, their match results are not affected.

The following players have been caught cheating by our Anti-Cheat team. They will be banned from ETF2L for one year:

• Sevenad – Triggerbot
• Hi im hugo – Aimbot
• m.ngl – Aimbot
• al3xtheli0n – Aimbot
• torrit – Multihack

The following players have failed to upload demos four times, and have been banned from the league for one year:

• S-Grade

BlackOut TV – Sunday 24th 21:00 CET / 3:00PM US East / 7:00AM AEDT –  Tourettes Chessclub vs. Strong Opinions

It’s that time again, ladies and gentlemen. After an epic season of 9v9 shenanigans, it all comes down to this: CeeJaey and Scissors tussling head to head in a no holds barred cage match to the death. Tourettes Chessclub have been waiting patiently in the wings throughout the playoffs, sipping from the glorious cup of the #1 seed and watching the lesser mortals scrap among themselves for the right to challenge for the title, while Strong Opinions proved themselves the masters of payload by breezing through their semi-final match with Highpander© way back at the start of January.

Both sides are capable of taking the title tonight, despite the public’s view on the saloon.tf standings.  Tourettes Chessclub have their public appearances to back up their claim to the title, double-time victors of Highlander Seasons gone by (7 & 8) defeating former opponents PremTech and Highpander© respectively. On the other hand,  Strong Opinions have some of their own off screen stunts with Scissors‘s team failing to match up to them during practice matches away from the weekly games. However when it came down to the official in Week 4,  Tourettes Chessclub sat back and plucked 6 points from CeeJaey‘s hands on cp_steel, the first map picked for tonight’s game. (I’ll let you decide who chose that one)

So with literally everything to play for; Tourettes Chessclub wanting the chance to become three time champions of European Highlander, matching SNSD‘s record across Seasons 1, 2 & 3 while  Strong Opinions are looking to end that title for them and install themselves as victors despite this being their first Premiership season, demonstrating their skill and determination for all to see. Who win win a tidy €500 and who will walk away with the €350 and egg on their vest? Tune in at 21:00 CET / 3:00PM US East / 7:00AM AEDT on BlackOut TV with Bulow &  sigafoo on the mics and  Jon on the camera!

Rosters:

Tourettes Chessclub

Scout: atomic-
Soldier: uubers
Pyro: Scissors
Demoman: quintosh
Heavy: Husky
Engineer: Deox
Medic: Lazybear
Sniper: Solid
Spy: Khazul

Strong Opinions

Scout: Thalash
Soldier: Raptor
Pyro: Steve!
Demoman: Korv
Heavy: EmilioEstevez
Engineer: Seal
Medic: CeeJaey
Sniper: cloudy
Spy: Toast

Season 23 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Map change

By popular demand cp_granary_pro_b10 makes a comeback into this season’s map pool which results in koth_coalplant_b7 being removed again.

The new map rotation looks as follows:

• Week 1: cp_badlands & cp_snakewater_final1
• Week 2: cp_snakewater_final1 & cp_sunshine_rc9
• Week 3: cp_sunshine_rc9 & cp_process_final
• Week 4: cp_process_final & cp_granary_pro_b10
• Week 5: cp_granary_pro_b10 & cp_gullywash_final1
• Week 6: cp_gullywash_final1 & koth_product_rc8
• Week 7: koth_product_rc8 & cp_badlands

Season 23 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Bonus Round Time

The command mp_bonusroundtime was changed from a value of 0 (setting the humiliation time to 5) to a value of 10. This means that after a round ends there will now be 10 instead of 5 seconds of humiliation time. This allows players to have some more time to change unlocks and teams will have some more time to discuss the last round or the upcoming mid fight.

Season 23 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Premiership Nickname Rule

The content of rule 1.8.2 Premiership players must use their real nicknames has been changed slightly:

1.8.2 Premiership players must use their real nicknames

All players who play a match in the Premiership division must play with their ETF2L nickname. Team tags and sponsorship additions are allowed but the nickname must be the same as the nickname on ETF2L, letter for letter. The nickname should be easily recognizable at a glance. Each incorrect nickname will warrant a separate minor warning; a team can receive this punishment multiple times per game.

Premiership players are not allowed to change their ETF2L nickname while the relevant season is underway.

Often times players add “.”‘s, smileys or other pre- or suffix’ to their nicknames. With the first addition we soften the rule up a little bit. As a result players should receive less unnecessary warnings for nickname rule infringements. At the same time let us also warn you, do NOT test us, if a potential nickname rule infringement is brought up and the majority of the admins thinks it warrants a Minor Warning, it will be applied.

The second addition simply adds a policy which has been enacted for quite some time already to the official rules.

The final divisions have been released… It is time to submit your available-days, gamers!

You have time until saturday,  January 23rd, 23:59 cet to submit dates

Please make sure to submit your preferred days and times. You can do so by clicking here and then click “edit availability”.
You should check your preferred days and times every week. Every week, fixtures will be generated on saturday nights. That means you will be required to check on sundays if you have a match that same day.
Your team can submit up to 3 days and timeframes, in which it prefers to play its match for the respective week. The default date will be set to a date that suits both teams.
You are always allowed to reschedule your matches if both teams agree. However, your games are to be played and the results submitted by thursday, 23:59 cet.

Season 23 map rotation:

Thanks to your suggestions, feedback and the Preseason Cup, we are able to present the following map rotation:

• Week 1: cp_badlands & cp_snakewater_final1
• Week 2: cp_snakewater_final1 & cp_sunshine_rc9
• Week 3: cp_sunshine_rc9 & cp_process_final
• Week 4: cp_process_final & koth_coalplant_b7
• Week 5: koth_coalplant_b7 & cp_gullywash_final1
• Week 6: cp_gullywash_final1 & koth_product_rc8
• Week 7: koth_product_rc8 & cp_badlands

Whitelist/ Unlocks:

There have been many new unlocks added into Season 23. Check the ETF2L S23 whitelist  created with the help of whitelist.tf to see the full list of items that are allowed to be used for this 6v6 Season.
Make sure to have this whitelist installed on your servers. The whitelist contains the same unlocks we used for the Preseason 23 Cup, except for the Pomson.

You need more info? Want to give feedback? This is your first season?

Everything you have to know about Season 23 can be found on our Season 23 home page.
We have created a feedback and suggestions thread on our ETF2L forums for everyone to discuss the season and provide us with constructive criticism.
If you are new to 6v6, ETF2L.org or competitive TF2, check out our [newcomer guide]!