ETF2L 6th Cup

Let’s do a quick head count here, shall we? Raise your hands, those who remember our grand competitions graciously labeled “Cups”. If you did, you might be positively surprised by the news – we at ETF2L would like to revive the tradition we’ve been developing until May 2010 when two of the strongest teams of those times had clashed in the finals of the most recent, 5th Cup. As a league-wide competition, it’ll be a great opportunity for the top tier teams to further strengthen their dominance, but also for the underdogs to rise, shine and undermine the confidence of the old guard. It would also serve as a testing ground for us to give all the new maps a try in a competitive environment to bring in some variety to the scene. And by variety, we also mean *cough* unlocks. Whether you are a group of tryhards or just laid back casuals, it’s about time for you to buckle up and sign up with your 6v6 team for some action!

Important note for all teams that have not played all of their Season 13 matches yet: The rosters will be unlocked to allow teams to add new players to their roster for this tournament. All new players can be used in the 6th cup but still count as mercs and need the opponent’s approval for all remaining Season 13 matches, including tie breakers and playoffs.

Prizes

The winner of this tournament does not only win bragging rights but as well €300 cash.
Read the rest of this entry »

Highlander Season 3: colony vs Parrot Gapers – Premiership Match

Watch live video from VanillaTV on www.twitch.tv
As one season at ETF2L begins to wind down, another is only just beginning. Highlander Season 3 is set to begin with two contrasting teams, colony and  Parrot Gapers playing the most played map in Highlander, pl_badwater. If you’ve followed European Highlander, you’ll have heard of the Finnish Highlander veterans who after a disappointing Season 2 are looking to begin this season a lot stronger with a few roster changes. Most notably is their new sniper MInd who has been very impressive during the recent Highlander Nations Cup and will be key if colony are to win tonights game.

Parrot Gapers are a new team to the highest level of Highlander in Europe, after winning Division 2b last season with their raw deathmatch skills. Among the players are Spary, and newly promoted Premier Division players kiler4fun and Si^ from  myDGB.net. The question is whether the strength of Parrot Gapers’ deathmatch can best  colony’s highlander knowledge and experience.

We tried to get a serious statement from Parrot Gapers, this is what Gubbins had to say:

There was once a team of gapers, so flawed and broken in many ways that the ETF2L staff denied them their premiership invite for a season and decided they should try their luck in a div below. Mistake. What you will witness tonight is a full feathered Finnish Gaping of the Parrot kind. SNSD, I hope you can get out from under your duvet to witness the undoing of your reign. Let the widest gaper win!

I also spoke to SabaSaba from  colony:

Both teams have lots of TF2 veterans, so it will most likely be small things that make the difference. Tiny mistakes can become really expensive and cost the whole map. These teams have never faced each other, so there is no historical burden or expectations between the contesting teams.

This game is being casted by  Skully and ThePledge at VanillaTV, with huhy on the stream. The game starts at 20CET.

• STV: fakkelbrigade.eu:27020; password tv

Match Overview
colony vs Parrot Gapers
Week 1 (Premier Division)
Wednesday, November 7th 20:00 CET

pl_badwater

4 - 0

pl_badwater

4 - 0

OVERALL
colony [6:0] Parrot Gapers

Lineup Team  colony

• Scout: furbo
• Soldier: letku
• Pyro: yonus
• Demoman: nappr
• Heavy: zooob
• Engineer: noretus
• Medic: Kissakala
• Sniper: MInd
• Spy: SabaSaba

Lineup Team  Parrot Gapers

• Scout: kiler4fun
• Soldier: Old_Grandma
• Pyro: quad
• Demoman: Spary
• Heavy: Jaroi
• Engineer: wpminnows
• Medic: Si^
• Sniper: Gubbins
• Spy: Evokje

Season 13 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Quarantine vs BFF – Premiership Match

Watch live video from vanillatvorg2 on www.twitch.tv
As the gears of the ETF2L Season 13 powered by Tt eSPORTS begin to grind to a halt, many teams have already completed their season, waiting and watching for the few remaining participants to get their act together and finalise the rankings. Quarantine and  BFF are two teams that have delayed their match to the very last week possible in a bid to find a time where both both teams could make it and allowing the lackadaisical BFF to grind down second-place contenders  Crack Clan and the unfortunate  Punchline.  Quarantine on the other hand have been working hard in preparation for a game that could really alter the flow of the season.

Here is  Quarantine’s  Kritzonite with his thoughts on the matter:

We’re looking forward to the game, and though we know BFF are a very strong team, we’ve been playing quite well lately and feel if we perform at our best, we can take points.

I also sat down and had a chat with  kaidus from  BFF and this is what he had to say

 Quarantine are a bit of a mystery as our practice schedules have barely matched throughout the season, but we’re confident we can take 6 points tonight.  Quarantine’s main threat will always be zappis, but with  cookye and bybben in our corner it’s nothing we should be concerned about. Anything other than a clean sweep tonight will be a big dissapointment, but realistically not the end of the world for our title ambitions.

VanillaTV will be covering this match live on their secondary stream from 21.15 CEST, celebrating the return of  Pledge solo casting and  DjShrew on the camera; see you there – or check out the stream below!

Match Overview
Quarantine vs All Tied Up
Week 6 (Premier Division)
Tuesday, November 6th 21:15 CET

cp_badlands

0 - 5

ctf_turbine_pro_rc2

1 - 2

OVERALL
Quarantine [0:6] All Tied Up

Season 13 powered by Tt eSPORTS: myDGB.net vs AVENUE eSports – Division 1 Match

Watch live video from VanillaTV on www.twitch.tv
You really get spoiled for choice tonight! VanillaTV decided to also cover this match as another feature of ABC Tuesday ( Arx,  Beta and Comedian) as it decides whether  myDGB.net (former Naughty Badmen) or  AVENUE eSports (former ALUMINUM) get direct promotion to the Premiership division next season and who will have to play a relegation match against  Punchline to advance.

Here is what  Si^ from  myDGB.net has to say:

I think we are focused on wanting to win this game, it has been a up and down season with a lot riding on this game.  AVENUE are a team not to write off for sure, and we have not played them for a long time. I hope we are able to provide an interesting game and can deliver the result we want. I believe both teams are worthy to take a spot in the Premier Division.

 AVENUE eSports’  skeej will get his team to focus on the opponent’s scouts:

I think after  uV not really making the progression people expected to this season,  myDGB have always been the clear favourites. Every single one of their players have strong deathmatch abilities and individual decisionmaking, and aren’t afraid to play surpisingly aggressive in unexpected situations, trying to catch us offguard. We’ve been quite inconsistent lately on tonight’s maps in practice wars, but thereby also managed to gather some diverse strategies which can aid us towards our victory. I think a major deciding factor will be how well we manage to keep their scouts under control, while simultaneously not giving too much room to  t0dA and the soldiers to get “free” damage. We hope to give the specatators something good to watch!

Coverage starts at 21:15 CET on the primary VanillaTV channel.

Match Overview
Pokeman vs AVENUE eSports
Week 7 (Division 1)
Tuesday, November 6th 21:15 CET

ctf_turbine_pro_rc2

2 - 1

cp_gullywash_final1

5 - 3

OVERALL
Pokeman [6:0] AVENUE eSports

It has been a while, but better late than never. Monkeh, one of the leaders of the reputable community nervousENERGY (the above banner is a work of  JustMoose, one of their members, thanks for that!), donates £160 as prize for another Ultiduo cup, hosted at ETF2L. Grab your favourite healbot or rocket dispenser and sign up! Full information on setup and rules can be found on the cup’s hub page.

For everyone who never heard the term “Ultiduo” before: One medic and one soldier per team face off on the King of the Hill map koth_ultiduo_r_b7. Whoever holds the central capture point under the bridge for a total of 5 minutes, scores one point. The team that first scores 3 points, wins the map. There are some tactics, such as bombing the enemy medic while the allied medic stays in spawn or suiciding (as medic) if it becomes obvious he is going to die and loose his uber percentage anyway.

The nervousENERGY admins have set up two Ultiduo training server. You can reach them under the following IPs.

• connect ne4.nervousenergy.co.uk:27075
• connect ne4.nervousenergy.co.uk:27085

To get an idea how Ultiduo plays, check out this VoD on Salamancer’s YouTube channel or one of the many other videos uploaded to YouTube.

Prizes

The most important part (not fun but money) first! As mentioned, the notorious  Monkeh from nervousENERGY donated £160 to the prize pool. The distribution is as follows:

• 1st Place – £100
• 2nd Place – £40
• 3rd Place – £20

Setup

• Maximum signups: 80
• 16 seeded groups of 5 teams
• Top 2 in each group advance to the knockout stage
• Single elimination knockout stage with 32 teams
• Each map is played “best of three” (i.e. with mp_winlimit 2)
• Config download: [Ultiduo config]
• (The config requires the ETF2L base config to work; also included in the config pack)

Schedule

The schedule for the group stages and the first rounds will be very tight to finish the whole tournament before the Christmas holidays. All matches will have fixed default dates with the option to reschedule within the deadlines. Extensions will not be granted. All group stage matches that are without result on November 24 @ 23:59 will be nullified. The winner of unplayed knockout matches with no result will be decided with a coin toss, when the deadline is reached.

• Group stage: November 11 to November 24
• Round of 32: November 25 to November 27
• Round of 16: November 28 to December 1
• Quarter finals: December 2 to December 8
• Semi finals: December 9 to December 15
• Final and consolation final: December 16 to December 22

The default dates for each round will be set as follows (time to be decided):

• Group stage week 1: November 11 (Sunday)
• Group stage week 2: November 14 (Wednesday)
• Group stage week 3: November 18 (Sunday)
• Group stage week 4: November 21 (Wednesday)
• Knockout stage round of 32: November 25 (Sunday)
• Knockout stage round of 16: November 28 (Wednesday)
• Knockout stage quarter finals: December 2 (Sunday)
• Knockout stage semi finals: December 9 (Sunday)
• Knockout stage final & consolation final: December 16 (Sunday)

In case two teams are tied on one of the two promotion spots after the group stage, the tied teams have to fight a combo (medic and soldier) melee only (no healing or buffs allowed) 2on2 battle and report the result to an admin.

Unlocks

The list of allowed unlocks is very short to make the game as balanced as possible. A whitelist that blocks all other items can be downloaded here. The only allowed unlocks are:

• Soldier: Disciplinary Action [Wiki Link], Original [Wiki link]
• Medic: Übersaw [Wiki link], Blutsauger [Wiki link]
• Both: Reskins of stock weapons (e.g. strange weapons, festive weapons, botkiller weapons, the Frying Pan, Conscientious Objector, … you get the idea)

Schedule week begins

The [group tables] for Season 3 have been finalized and be accessed under the Leagues menu at any time. Teams should begin scheduling their Week 1 games, as the first default dates will be issued on Friday.

If this is your first season in ETF2L, make sure to read through the [FAQ page] for step-by-step descriptions of common league procedures and [contact admins on IRC] if you have any questions.

A summary of all important Season 3 announcements can be found on the [Season 3 Hub], while individual schedule and week deadlines are marked on the [Calendar].

Reminders

All of the rule changes introduced in ETF2L 6v6 Season 13 apply to Highlander Season 3. Here is a brief summary:

• Premiership-only rules:
• Nicknames – Teams must submit a list of official nicknames for their players. Players may use only their official nicknames in league matches.
• SourceTV demos – Uploading STV demos is mandatory for all Premiership matches.
• General rules:
• Late warnings – Matches must be played within their week’s deadline. If results are not uploaded within 24 hours after the week’s deadline, both teams receive a warning that may not be removed.
• Extensions – Teams may request an extension of up to 1 week for their match if their opponents agree, the match does not have a default date and there is at least 24 hours remaining before the scheduled date.

As in previous Highlander seasons, each team has only one [Wildcard] they can use to reschedule a match without their opponents’ consent.

The full list of rules in effect for Season 3 can be found on the [Rules page].