6v6 Nations Cup Signups Open

The Signups for the third ETF2L 6v6 Nations Cup are now open! All team captains can now sign up until July 11. That is also the deadline for the rosters to be finnished and for the submissions of the preferred play days for each national team. We will then sort the teams into skill based pools and time based pools. We are aiming to release the groups at July 13 or earlier.

The rules page is still in the making but the captains know what they can expect from the forum discussions. Week 1 of the Group Stages will kick off on Monday, July 16. We will publish the whole group fixture schedule until July 13.

• Group Stages: July 16 – August 5
• Round of 16: August 6 – August 12
• Quarter Finals: August 13 – August 19
• Semi-Finals: August 20 – August 22 AND August 30 – September 2 (Break for i46)
• Final: September 3 – September 9

Staff Changes

 säm is leaving the ETF2L Anti-Cheat staff at his wish. Thank you for the time and effort you put into hunting down cheaters to make this league a better place.

Highlander Nations Cup Reminder

Any Group Stage Round 1 and Round 2 matches without a scheduled date will be issued default dates on this Friday, July 6th. For matches with no schedule proposals, the default dates will be assigned to Sunday/Monday, since Tuesday is last play day for both rounds. Start scheduling your matches if you haven’t already!

Highlander Nations Cup Group Stage – Czech Republic vs. England

Match Overview
Czech Republic vs England
Week 1 (Group D)
Tuesday, July 3rd 21:00 CEST
SourceTV: connect relay.vanillatv.org:27100

pl_badwater

0 - 2

pl_badwater

0 - 2

OVERALL
Czech Republic [0:6] England

It is time for the second match in the Highlander Nations Cup group stage! The underdog from the  Czech Republic will try to beat favourite  England on pl_badwater. There will no cast but an STV relay, provided by VanillaTF2.

• connect relay.vanillatv.org:27100

The lineups are not 100% confirmed but this is what it could look like.

Lineup Team Czech Republic

Lineup Team  England

• Scout: Toy-Boy
• Scout: tbd
• Soldier: #n00pe
• Soldier: boomeh
• Pyro: kuličkovka (TooM)
• Pyro: Greg
• Demoman: Y00Pe
• Demoman: Hildreth
• Heavy: DE70X
• Heavy: Ruskeydoo
• Engineer: Zerox11
• Engineer: tbd
• Medic: Rok0s
• Medic: Si^
• Sniper: dvb
• Sniper: Gubbins
• Spy: elwin
• Spy: Hurri

One Night Cup: Quickfix

On Thursday, July 5 at 20:00 CEST it is again time for our *cough* monthly one night cup! This time, we will focus on the reworked Quickfix and the Overdose syringe gun. Similarly to the past events it is also possible to enter this cup using a Fun Team which can be setup in the normal way using the page found here. The signed up teams will be divided into skill based brackets of 16. For this competition the 6v6 roster lock will be (physically) lifted. New players will still be considered mercs for all remaining playoffs though!

A few things to note about the two medic unlocks:

• Overdose provides a speed bonus only while the weapon is out.
• Quickfix charges at the maximum rate regardless of whether the heal target is hurt.
• Quickfix megaheal only works on the Medic if he has a heal target, otherwise it heals him at a normal rate.
• You can capture points while the Quickfix megaheal is active.

The map schedule is as follows:

• 20.00 CEST, Round of 16: cp_badlands
• 20:45 CEST, Quarter Finals: cp_snakewater
• 21:30 CEST, Semi-Finals: cp_gravelpit
• Until Wednesday, July 11, Final: All three maps, tie-breaker decided by the teams (both teams select a home map, remaining map is decider)

Teams are encouraged to experiment with the new unlocks and contribute feedback after the cup is done.

The following unlocks are allowed:

• The Quickfix
• The Kritzkrieg
• The Blutsauger
• The Crusader’s Crossbow
• The Overdose
• The Übersaw
• The Original

***Get the whitelist for this cup here (etf2l_whitelist_quickfix.txt)***

To load the whitelist copy it to the /tf/configs folder of your server, join the server, establish the rcon connection and enter the following line in the console:

rcon mp_tournament_whitelist “etf2l_whitelist_quickfix”; rcon mp_tournament_restart

Rules overview:

• ETF2L Season 12 rules apply (apart from the unlock ruling)
• Setup – Cups of 16, divided by skill levels
• Merc rules – 2 mercs allowed by default
• Bracket draw – Thursday, July 5 at 19:00 CEST in #etf2l
• Signups open – Now
• Signups close – Thursday, July 5 at 18:00 CEST

Highlander Nations Cup Opening Match – France vs. Turkey

Match Overview
France vs Turkiye
Week 1 (Group B)
Monday, July 2nd 21:00 CEST

pl_badwater

2 - 0

pl_badwater

2 - 0

OVERALL
France [6:0] Turkiye

Tonight the first match of the Highlander Nations cup will go live! Team  France is taking on the team from  Turkey on pl_badwater. There will be two casts available. VanillaTV will cast the match in English with  Hildreth and his favourite medic TheSucker on the mic and  NigelWantsKFC on camera. For more information visit the VanillaTF2 homepage.

The French organisation HiScore.tv is casting the match in French with  Remitche and a sidekick. More information on that at the HiScore.tv homepage.

Who will be the better soldier?  T-Mac or  T-BAG? Will  Flippy dominate the match as sniper? Can  ForzaEagLE make the difference on demoman? Tune in and you will see!

Lineup Team France

Lineup Team  Turkey

• Scout: Plapla /  fl1p
• Scout: Rigel
• Soldier: T-Mac
• Soldier: T-BAG
• Pyro: DeGuN
• Pyro: DarkCloud
• Demoman: Exon.
• Demoman: ForzaEagLE
• Heavy: Tek
• Heavy: volper
• Engineer: MistaWolf
• Engineer: knoxville
• Medic: Flaoua / DarkBobo
• Medic: kardanadam
• Sniper: Flippy
• Sniper: gio
• Spy: Daff
• Spy: exzntrc

Highlander Nations Cup

Most of us may still be stuck in the magical rainbow land from the Pyromania patch, but here on ETF2L we are proud to announce the beginning of a summer of sizzling international TF2 action as the Highlander Nations cup begins with the first game of the group stage starting this Sunday. Team leaders can see their matches by visiting their My Matches page, please start scheduling your week 1 and 2 matches as soon as possible as the games will come thick and fast in order to avoid a massive scheduling overlap with the 6v6 Nations Cup. All group stage games must be completed by Sunday 15th July, all games left unplayed will be nullified and all tiebreakers must be completed by Wednesday 18th July before the knockout phase of the tournament begins.

Groups & Schedule

The groups have been seeded and drawn, with 6 groups of four teams and 2 groups of three teams with the winners and runners-up from each group proceeding to the knockout stage of the cup. You can find the full group listings HERE. The schedule for the tournament is as follows:

Group Stage:

• Round 1: Played between  Sunday 1st July – Tuesday 10th(same as Round 2)
• Round 2: Played between Friday 6th – Tuesday 10th
• Round 3: Played between Wednesday 11th – Sunday 15th
• Tiebreakers: Played between Monday 16th – Wednesday 18th

Teams should note that you may play these matches early and in any order, but no later than their round deadline – you will not be allowed to schedule Round 1/2 matches during the Round 3 timeframe or later.

Knockout Stage:

• Round of 16: Played by Tuesday 24th July
• Quarter-finals: Played by Tuesday 31st July
• Semi-final: Played by August 7th
• Final & 3rd place match: Before i46 (Thursday 23rd August)

Rules & Setup

The full Highlander Nations Cup rules are now live. Some of the most important rules are listed below but make sure to check all of them out.

• Teams must have a minimum of 12 players on their roster and a maximum of 20 players.
• Rosters will be locked during Playoffs.
• There will be no mercs allowed.
• There will be no wildcards.
• Teams with 2 default losses will be expelled from the cup.
• Dropped teams results will be removed from the Group Stages unless they have played all Group Stage matches.

Boneyard Productions Movie Competition

In other news, the world reknown video editor and international man of mistery  BoneS has announced a movie making competition sponsored by Tt eSports. You can find all the information you need to know about the competition in this forum thread, or alternatively check out the promotional video below.

 Vaskie left us with some information on the ESEA LAN TF2 finals this weekend.

ESEA Season 11 Lan is here and for anyone that is up to pair with the latest news on the American Scene this is the most exciting LAN to be had, by far!  Mihaly’s Flow,  Leviathan Gaming (Ex-Quantic Legacy),  Classic Mixup, and  Srsly Br0 are going to be brawling against each other to see who comes out of the Lan with the first prize being $4,800. But that’s not all, the second place will be taking home $2,400, the third $1,680 and the fourth $1,200, but the big question is who is gonna steal the trophy this time…

The rosters and seeds for this Lan will be:

1.  Mihalys Flow (harbleu, ww-, PYYYOUR, soup, Ruwin, Shrugger)
2.  Srsly br0 (boomer, blaze, mesr, dummy, oPlaiD, Yz50)
3.  Classic Mixup (Platinum, lansky, kbk-, smaka, mo0se, enigma)
4.  Leviathan Gaming (enoryT, Dave__AC, shade, b4nny, cyzer, clockwork)

With i46 happening in August, this is a great chance for Europeans to see how the Americans go at the game, and understand whats the reality of Team Fortress 2 on the other side of the ocean.
With all of the competition in Invite being so damn strong, this is looking to be the best season of Lan yet, and none should lose the opportunity to watch the greatest American players going agains’t eachother.

You can watch the stream right underneath. Vaskie provided a viewing guide that will be updated as often as possible.  Our favourite Romanian Canadian Alfa will keep this thread updated with STV and Mumble cast information for everybody who wants to be his own director but we really recommend you to support TF2 and ESEA by watching the stream as this is what counts for the sponsors!

Watch live video from ESEA LIVE S10 LAN Finals in Dallas! on pt.twitch.tv

Season 12 powered by Tt eSPORTS: Playoffs

Today is the last day you can/could play your matches. Where necessary, the tie-breaker matches have been created. The first premiership playoff, TCM Gaming vs. Punchline, has even already been scheduled for Thursday, June 28! Please start scheduling and playing now, below is the full list of all playoffs and tie-breakers.

Premiership Playoffs

• TCM Gaming vs  Punchline – Overall 2-1
•  TCM Gaming vs  Team Infused
• Winner vs  Epsilon eSports

Premiership Relegation

Tie-Breakers

The playoffs and tie-breakers are played “best of three” with map elimination. Because the map elimination does only work with an uneven number of maps, cp_obscure_final is removed from the playoff map pool. The playoff map pool consists of:

• cp_badlands
• cp_granary
• cp_gullywash
• cp_snakewater
• cp_gravelpit

The premiership playoffs always have to be played until the next Saturday, all tie-breakers have to be played in a period of three weeks (until July 14).

Highlander Nations Cup Information

As one major international tournament starts to reach its closing stages, we are just about to kick off our first ever Highlander Nations cup! The signups to the Nations cup are still open and will close cup at Midnight CEST on Wednesday, June 27. If you have not signed up yet, you can do still do so. The draw will be held the following day, with the teams seeded into pools to ensure we get the best games possible during the latter stages of the tournament. Team captains are reminded that the minimum roster size is 12 players and the maximum is 20, if your team fails to meet these requirements you will not be allowed to participate. Please contact the admin staff if you are a team captain and have problems to fulfill these requirements.

With this in mind, we have allowed team captains to contribute to the setup of the tournament in the Captains Forum, where we have decided on preliminary map pool and schedule.  Captains are encouraged to review the preliminary schedule and suggest any last-minute changes.

Got a Match?

Got a Match? is an initiative to raise awareness for bone marrow donation, ran by one of our Dutch users, CapTVK. Many people need a bone marrow transplant each year, for example leukemia patients. Finding a matching donor is not always easy, the matching is a much more complicated process than for example matching a blood type. More donors are needed all the time. The Dutch highlander team will try to raise awareness of this fact during its matches. If you are interested in becoming a donor, which is an extremely easy process, Dutch people can go to visit the homepage of europdonor.nl to read all about it and sign up. It’s amazing how such a simple act can potentially save a life.

Note that europdonor.nl is only for Dutch residents. Players from other countries can find their national donor registry at the BMDW website.