The Highlander Open Cup

The whitelist for 9v9 has been updated and can be found here. Updates: 

• The Conga taunt if used at the end of a round can glitch hitboxes for the next round. Therefore it will be banned.
• All the new weapons from the recent updates will be allowed.

We’re here now at the start line of The Highlander Open. If you were unfortunately unable to sign up in time, you can still sign your team up and you’ll be added to the waiting list where you could be added to the cup if another team drops out. We also have a new screenshot of one of the medals here. Looking good, eh? With that out the way I want to go over 4 different items with this post. In addition  There is information under the Schedule section which you should read carefully as it is very important to how the weeks run.

Groups Stage Tables now available

Yes, you read it correctly, the tables are now live here with 256 teams so all you teams out there can now get busy scheduling your Week 1 Group Stage matches! Remember though that your Week 1 match must be scheduled by Friday 11th July for sometime in Week 1 (13th-20th July) in time for the start of Week 1. If you signed up but are not in the tables, you will be on the waiting list in case a team drops early on in the tournament.

Teams without 9 players on their roster by Thursday 3rd July may be removed from the competition, please make sure you have enough players. Let an admin know if you are dropping from the tournament.

If your match isn’t scheduled, you and your enemy team will receive a default date for that match on its page. This same style also applies for Week 2 & 3 in the Group Stage. Details about the other dates are below. More information about default dates is available here.

Schedule

Sort-of the big one here. There has been some minor changes to the overall schedule but nothing that will impact your team on the whole. We can now also show the full schedule with the Single Elimination playoffs included! Relating to the bits below about Schedule deadlines, the rules have also been updated to accommodate the change.

The cup will be in 2 main parts, the Group Stage and the Single Elimination Playoff Stage with finals at the end.

• Final groups announced: Now (above)

• Schedule deadline for Week 1 matches: Thursday 10th July at 23.59 CEST
• Week 1 start: Sunday 13th July
• Deadline for Week 1 results: Sunday 20th July at 23:59 CEST

• Schedule deadline for Week 2 matches: Thursday 17th July at 23.59 CEST
• Week 2 start: Sunday 20th July
• Deadline for Week 2 results: Sunday 27th July at 23:59 CEST

• Schedule deadline for Week 3 matches: Thursday 24th July at 23.59 CEST
• Week 3 start: Sunday 27th July
• Deadline for Week 3 results: Sunday 3rd August at 23:59 CEST

The results for each week in the group stage will need to be submitted by 23.59 CEST on the sunday (shown above) at the end of their respective week otherwise they will be nullified (0-0)

• Tiebreaker Week: Sunday 3rd August to Sunday 10th August (If you are tied in points with another team in your group after the three weeks, you will be issued a Tiebreaker match for this week)

At this point the top 2 in each group (128 teams in total) will be placed into the Single Elimination Playoffs (starting Sunday 10th August) where each round half of the teams previously will be knocked out of the cup. These matches will need to be scheduled and played promptly like in the group stage.

• Round 1 of playoffs start: Sunday 10th August
• Round 2 of playoffs start: Sunday 17th August
• Round 3 of playoffs start: Sunday 24th August
• Round 4 of playoffs start: Sunday 31st August
• Quarter-Finals week start: Sunday 7th September
• Semi-Finals week start: Sunday 14th September
• Grand Final to be played between: Sunday 21st September and Sunday 5th October

Read the rest of this entry »

We’re pleased to announce that hrbls has successfully completed his admin trial and has been promoted to a full member of Anti-Cheat staff. Welcome to the team Harbls!

Some players have been spotted with recent VAC bans affecting Team Fortress 2 and thus are now banned from ETF2L for one year:

• Mitchell Smith
• BODLAK
• RdRand
• metasquid
• Deket
• God
• flashback830
• -_-
• Kappa
• zOoleX
• matrix233

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

 
The following user has been discovered as an alt account of a currently banned player.
The ban has been extended by one year:

vinz. alt of Kayziix

 
Now that the Highlander Open is around the corner, we hope that noone will hesitate to report possible cheaters or alt/smurf accounts so that our new players can enjoy a smooth and fair transition into competitive TF2. Reporting can be done by going to our support page and typing !acrequest in irc. Reports can be entirely anonymous if requested by the user. We appreciate any information that will help us keep the league clean. 

Enjoy the weekend everyone.

It’s the match you’ve all been anticipating with the top 2 teams of Season 18 powered by Tt eSPORTS, Epsilon eSports and Awsomniac facing off to decide who will have a guaranteed spot in the Grand Final. Epsilon eSports were briefly in the firing line to come up as the underdog to this match however with only 5 points between them and 2nd place  Awsomniac, we could be in to see an upset and watch  Awsomniac take 1st place. In addition, if we see a draw tonight,  Awsomniac will have an advantage with a final match still yet to be played against their russian foes Lethal Weapon where if they take the 6 points home we could see them rise above  Epsilon eSports by 1 point. With potential for either side to win in one way or another, we should be in for one hell of a show! Casted on TeamFortress.TV by Admirable and Ryushi with a fixed Jon on the camera!

Read the rest of this entry »

Banner by stuntz

Highlander Nations Cup #3 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Whitelist Update

With the unfortunate timing of the most recent update, we didn’t have long to decide where the unlocks and taunts would be positioned within the whitelist. After some very brief testing we’ve come to the following conclusions:

• The Conga taunt if used at the end of a round can glitch hitboxes for the next round. Therefore it will be banned.
• All the new weapons will be allowed.

It has come to our attention that some of the other taunts can be used to get inside enemy spawns, or clip through walls. We remind you that bug abusing is not allowed and you can be punished for it.

The whitelist for 9v9 has been updated and can be found here.

Banner by stuntz

UPDATE: FLAG CHANGES HAVE BEEN DISABLED FOR THE DURATION OF THE HLNC (EXCLUDES HLO). PLAYERS WITH DIFFERENT FLAGS FROM THAT OF THE NATION THEY WISH TO REPRESENT MUST FIRST CONTACT AN ADMIN TO SEE IF THEY CAN PLAY.

Highlander Nations Cup #3 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Captains

This is the list of approved captains for their nation. Only the people listed below have the right to lead their team into the Cup!

•  Austria – private_meta
•   Belarus –  Alex_jj
•   Belgium – Crazyman
•   Bulgaria – superlub0
•   Croatia – Dania
•   Czech Republic – misha YB`g
•   Denmark – F2
•   England – Hildreth
•   Estonia – sheff
•   Finland – Toba
•   France – Mista
•   Germany – basH.
•   Georgia – Bery
•   Greece – sλayeR
•   Hungary – PingWIN
•   Iceland – Hafficool
•   Ireland – b33p
•   Israel –  SorroW
•   Italy – carnifex
•   Latvia –  Dr.kaka6ka
•   Lithuania – Spreijer
•   Netherlands – kKaltUu
•   Norway – fanny_filth + Rudey
•   Poland –  Steve!
•   Portugal – Kiler4fun
•   Romania –  Shape
•   Russia – irfx
•   Scotland – Fragm3nt3d + Fenrir
•   Slovakia –  adysky
•   Slovenia – Jan
•   Spain – pl0
•   Sweden –  nijoonen
•   Switzerland – 1pt
•   Turkey – turkuaz
•  UAE – NightWing94
•   Ukraine – Klefsas
•   USA – overseer + HueyLewis

If you are on this list, you should have been given Leader to the official team page for your nation. If your nation has not previously participated, you may create a teampage yourself. If your nation has competed before you must use the same teampage. If you need help contact an admin!

Captains should add the desired roster to the team page as soon as possible, remembering the maximum roster size of 20. Teams without at least 12 players on the team roster (exceptions may apply) by July 6 could be removed from the Cup.

Please remember if a player has joined Nation X’s roster, they may not play for Nation Y. Contact an admin if you have any queries about this.

Highlander Nations Cup #3 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Schedule

Now that we know exactly how many countries are taking part, 37 which is three more than last year, we can create a finalised schedule. Luckily it will be in the same format as last years competition.

• Captains Announced: June 22
• Schedule week: June 29 – July 6
• Groups Round 1: July 7 – July 11
• Groups Round 2: July 12 – July 16
• Groups Round 3: July 17 – July 21
• Groups Round 4: July 22 – July 26
• Groups Round 5: July 7 – July 11
• Tiebreaker Week: July 27 – July 31
• Round of 16: August 1 – August 5
• Quarter Final: August 6 – August 10
• Semi-Final: August 11 – August 15
• Grand Final: August 16 – September 7

Round 4 and Round 5 in the groups are solely for the Groups with 5 nations in them. Nations in groups with 4 teams don’t play any games these rounds.

The groups will be announced in the coming days, however I will explain the format now. There are 37 teams in total which means there will be 3 groups with 4 teams, and 5 groups with 5 teams.

• Groups with 4 teams will play Rounds 1,2 and 3.
• Groups with 5 teams will play any 4 of the 5 Rounds, depending on how the fixtures are created (at random).

This will mean for Groups with 5 teams, you might have to play 2 games in the round from July 7 – July 11. However you will later get a round with no games, so hopefully that makes up for it.

Highlander Nations Cup #3 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Maps

Now we know exactly how many countries are taking part, we can create a finalised map schedule too.

• Groups Week 1: pl_badwater + cp_steel
• Groups Week 2: pl_upward + cp_intermodal_g1
• Groups Week 3: koth_pro_viaduct_rc4 + cp_gravelpit
• Groups Week 4: pl_badwater+ cp_steel
• Groups Week 5: pl_upward + cp_process_final
• Tiebreaker Week: Best of 3 picked from the map pool.
• Round of 16: pl_badwater + koth_pro_viaduct_rc4 (decider map: cp_intermodal_g1)
• Quarter Final: pl_upward + cp_process_final (decider map: cp_gravelpit)
• Semi-Final: Best of 3 picked from the map pool.
• Grand Final: Best of 3 picked from the map pool.