Season 17 powered by Tt eSports – Premiership Qualifier: Dotter vs Lethal Weapon

There are two qualifiers being played tonight, the first one being a contest between Dotter and Lethal Weapon. Both teams consist of some of the best players from Sweden and Russia respectively so tonight might be a question of national pride as well as division placement. The winner goes through to the Premiership while the loser will have to fight for their spot in a round robin with the other losers later this week.

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Final Divisions now Live

The Provisional Divisions

The signup count for Season 17 powered by Tt eSports is 296 teams with a few on the waiting list to compensate early drops. The divisions are still subject to change, there is no guarantee for anyone except those teams who earned promotion or stayed comfortably in the middle of their division.

<<< Provisional Divisions >>>

If you are not happy with the division that your team has been placed in, please contact an admin in IRC as soon as possible. Keep in mind that much like during the signup process, you must provide evidence of your ability to perform at the level of the division you wish to enter. This means, at minimum, a screenshot album displaying performance of your team against other similar-skilled teams. These pictures can be taken from PCWs, scrims, cups, other leagues and so on. However we do not necessarily take into consideration screenshots that were submitted after the deadline.

The divisions will be finalized and divided into groups on Saturday night.

Qualifiers

Much like in the previous two seasons, we had more applications than slots for our top division. Because it worked so well in the past and to give you all some pre-season TF2 action, we will again host qualifiers for the Premiership Division.

Four spots are up for grabs in the Premiership Division. 6 teams will fight for this spot, they are in no particular order: AYOGURL SUGADADDY HOOD PUSSY CREEPERS, Dotter, Fenneks eSports by SimRai.com [season 18, Lethal Weapon, BONNE AMBIANCE 2K14 and Politically correct pander. Initially, each team will play one other team in a best of 3 match. Each winner progresses to the Premiership Division, which leaves 1 spot left between the remaining 3 teams. These 3 teams will play a round robin, and the winner will secure the final spot in the Premiership Division. The two losers in the round robin will play in division 1.

This season we took schedules from each team in the play-offs, due to this we are able to pre-schedule the initial bo3 matches.

AYOGURL SUGADADDY HOOD PUSSY CREEPERS vs Fenneks eSports by SimRai.com [season 18

Monday 20th January at 21:15

Dotter vs Lethal Weapon

Monday 20th January at 21:15

Politically correct pander vs BONNE AMBIANCE 2K14

Sunday 19th January at 21:15

Just to clarify, the winners of each of these three matches will progress to the Premiership Division. The three losers play each other in a round robin to compete for the final spot. This round robin will take place across Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. You can view an image here (ignore the incorrect days at the top), to try and help you understand if it still confuses you.

SIGN-UPS CLOSED

The Pre-Season signups for Season 17 powered by Tt eSports have been closed.

You can still sign up for the waiting list to replace dropped teams in the first few weeks of the Season.

>>> Join Waiting List! <<<

Prizes

The 17th 6v6 Season of ETF2L is about to begin, ladies and gentlemen, with signups closing tonight all the teams are already preparing for seven weeks of tense matches. We here at ETF2L are also working hard to provide you with the best environment for competition possible. If fighting for the European crown is not enough for you, you will certainly be thrilled to hear that Season 17 will again provide money prizes for the best teams! Thanks to our anonymous benefactor we are able to bring a grand total of €1000 to the table. We’re really excited to see what this season brings.

Players in all divisions will receive in-game medals for winning the group, as well as participation medals for finishing the season.

In addition to the cash prize, we have top quality hardware prizes for the three best teams in the Premiership thanks to Tt eSports by Thermaltake. Please make sure you go and visit their website and Facebook Page to find out more about them!

•  Premiership winner: €500 + 6x Tt Cronos Gaming Headset

•  Premiership runner-up: €300 + 6x Tt Theron Gaming Mouse

•  Premiership third place: €200 + 6x Tt Black Element Gaming Mouse

• Division 1 winners: 6 x Tt Pyrrhus Gaming Mousepad

Once again a massive thanks to private_meta who has donated €252 to be handed out to lower divisions in the following method:

• Division 1 winner: €80
• Division 2 winners: €47
• Division 3 winners: €26

Provisional Divisions

The Provisional Divisions will be announced tomorrow, Friday 17th January. Stay tuned!

Highlander Season 5: itsallgood vs Kill Switch

Tonight is a best-of-3 matchup between   itsallgood and   Kill Switch for a spot in the grand finals to compete for glory and €500, with the loser taking third place and a €150 consolation prize.  itsallgood are fresh out of the first playoff game of the season against  DAROUTOUTOU, beating them in a close best of 3. Both of tonight’s teams have a long history of playing against each other, so surely this will be an interesting game. Also worth checking out is Gentleman Jon‘s TF2 by the Numbers, a statistical analysis of the two teams’ performances throughout the season.

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Sign-ups closing soon

The Sign-ups for Season 17 will close on Thursday, January 16th. Because we can only include teams in multiples of eight, signing up really late on Thursday may not guarantee you a spot in the season. So signing up sooner than later is recommended.

>>> SIGN UP NOW! <<<

Sign-up Process

Make sure to choose your desired division when signing up. If you created a new team or feel you can jump a division, feel free to apply for the division you believe you deserve you should be in. To prove you are capable of the division you applied for, we require you to submit screenshots of results from your recent practice matches or tournaments where you scored decent results against teams that play on the level you aim for. The quantity is not the most important factor in this case, it’s more of a helpful measure for us to figure out if your team will be able to keep up with the pace. There is no magical, minimum or maximum number of screenshots that you have to submit.

Please note that the success of your request also strongly depends on the free slots in the division you aim for. Established teams will be favoured over new teams or teams that request to jump a division. The screenshots have to be uploaded to an online image storage service (for example, you can use imgur or Dropbox). Keep in mind that if you opt for a zipped archives with tons of pictures attached to an e-mail, your application will be ignored. Keep it clean.

If you are applying for Division 6 (which is our entry division), you do not have to provide any proof that you are capable of playing at that level. This only applies to Division 5 or higher.

Please send your application to staff@etf2l.org. The division assignment request has to include the following information in order to be considered. Incomplete applications will be ignored!

• Do not use HTML in your e-mail. If you want to add a link, just paste the link in the e-mail as you would enter it in your browser.
• Team name
• Team link on ETF2L.org
• Division you apply for
• Link to the online photo album
• Reasons why your team deserves to be placed in the division you applied for (optional)

Rule Updates

Teams may now change a maximum of 1 player per map, regardless of technical difficulties:

Teams are allowed to switch players during the game, with or without a pause, to a maximum of 1 player per map, so long as they are entered correctly on the team roster. However, using this to bypass spawn times is strictly forbidden. Furthermore, a team may under no circumstances have more than 6 players on the server.

The explanation of a Default Date has been changed in the General Rules:

When teams either cannot agree on a date or do not schedule a match before the schedule deadline, admins will issue a default date for the match. Teams can still play on a different date if both teams agree, but no later than the deadline for the match. If one of the teams cannot play on the default date and the other refuses to reschedule, the other team can assemble at the default date and request a default win 15 minutes after it passes.

The way in which Default Dates work in Playoffs has been changed. This rule now applies to all playoff and tiebreaker matches:

All teams must submit 3 available days for a playoff match at least 2 days before the start of the match week (i.e. before Friday 23:59). If the days submitted by both teams overlap, the default date is issued to one of the overlapping days based on admin discretion. If the days submitted by teams do not overlap, the default date is issued to the day not submitted by either team.

A new rule regarding communication with both teams has also been added:

Team availability must be fully disclosed on the match page. Default dates in the Season and playoffs are issued using only on league rules, newsposts and information available on the match page. Schedule proposals, notices of availability and any other schedule-related communication exchanged between players, teams and casters, or in private conversations with admins is not valid and will be ignored when deciding default dates.

There has always been an issue with teams not adhering to rules in Playoff matches due to no threat from the warning system. Therefore a rule regarding penalties in Premiership Playoffs has been added.

Specific Minor and Major Warnings now result in a cut of any prize money in that specific competition. A Minor Warning results in 10% of any cash prize won being docked. A Major Warning results in 30% being docked. Please note admin discretion is applied to every single case related to penalties in the Premiership Playoffs. Only specific Minor and Major Warnings are applied to this rule, they include but are not limited to:

• Flaming (Minor and Major)
• No results after deadline
• Using an unapproved merc
• Using an unlisted player
• Violation of the Class Limits
• Nickname rule violation
• Fraud Attempt
• Using a banned player
• Cheating
• Scheduling Violation
• Missing, wrong, or incomplete status screenshot

As a special rule, forfeiting or not showing up to a match in the Premiership Playoffs is punishable by 50% of any cash prize being docked.

 Maps and Unlocks

Coalplant has been removed, due to poor fps optimization on the map for lower performance systems. Map creator Scorpio Uprising had this to say: “Ashville had a very specific layout that kind of screws with optimization, and coalplant is basically the same”. Metalworks has been re-added to replace it. This is the confirmed map pool for Season 17.

• Week 1: cp_granary/cp_gullywash_final1
• Week 2: cp_gullywash_final1/cp_badlands
• Week 3: cp_badlands/cp_metalworks_rc5
  
• Week 4: cp_metalworks_rc5/cp_process_final
• Week 5: cp_process_final/koth_pro_viaduct_rc4
  
• Week 6: koth_pro_viaduct_rc4/cp_snakewater_final1
  
• Week 7: cp_snakewater_final1/cp_granary

The confirmed list of allowed unlocks in Season 17 is as follows:

• The Kritzkrieg
• The Übersaw
• Crusader’s Crossbow
• The Blutsauger
• The Overdose
• The Gunboats
• The Boston Basher
• The Pain Train
• The Escape Plan
• The Winger
• The Black Box
• The Degreaser
• The Flare Gun
• The Axtinguisher
• The Dalokohs Bar
• The Jag
• The Amputator
• L’Etranger
• Conniver’s Kunai
• The Loose Cannon
• The Force-A-Nature
• The Buff Banner
• The Concheror
• The Diamondback
• The Widowmaker

Prizes

Prizes will be announced as soon as we can confirm them. Sorry for the delay!