Already starting to miss 6v6 action so soon in the wake of Season 10? No worries! On Thursday 1st December at 20:00 CET we will be hosting a one night cup! All rounds will be played on cp_croissant, a new map made by Arnold, the mastermind behind the official map cp_gullywash. 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.

Croissant can be downloaded here.

Setup – Cups of 16, divided by skill levels
Merc rules – 2 mercs allowed by default
Bracket draw – Wednesday 30th November at 19:30 CET in #etf2l
Map – cp_croissant_b8
Sign-ups open – Now

It has taken a while, but we can now announce promotions and relegation critera for non-premier divisions! Please bear in mind that we have to consider the new Season 11 structure when deciding these spots, as well as factor in the madness that is the pre-season division seeding. We’d like to have just one group in Division 1 next season and see the skill levels in both Division 1 and 2 rise, so hopefully teams in Division 2 will understand not having automatic promotions. They are welcome to request a Division 1 spot when they sign up to Season 11.

Behold!

• Division 1: The bottom 4 teams from each group will be relegated.
• Division 2: No teams will be promoted. The bottom 4 teams from each group will be relegated.
• Division 3: The top team from each group will be promoted.The bottom 3 teams from each group will be relegated.
• Division 4: The top 2 teams from each group will be promoted. The bottom 3 teams from each group will be relegated.
• Division 5: The top 2 teams from each group will be promoted. The bottom 2 teams from each group will be relegated.
• Division 6: The top 3 teams from each group will be promoted.

BeaVerN ban overturned

As you may already know, we have been rebuilding our anti-cheat team from scratch for some time now. We currently have a small team of promising AC admins, which in addition to senior AC admin  octochris, includes the new admins  hys and Steve. After proving themselves more than worthy, they reviewed a ban which has been in question since it was issued, namely  BeaVerN’s case. After reviewing the demo and previous evidence, they unanimously concluded to that no evidence of cheating could be found. This means that BeaVerN is unbanned with immediate effect, and is to be considered a fully legitimate player.

The anti-cheat would like to say the following:

Let us start by apologising for how long this has taken. It is utterly indefensible that an innocent player and his team have been hung out to dry for two seasons having been convicted of an act that he did not perform. We are utterly disgusted by the conduct that we have seen from some members of the previous AC team, and we will not justify it for one second. This was a mistake, a big mistake, and there are no excuses for what happened, but the best that we can do is learn from it, and make things right again.

 You might say that it is very easy for us to criticise our predecessors, as we weren’t part of the team at the time, but we intend to make good on our promises of improvement. We are very committed to making sure that the process is much fairer and consistent for everyone that chooses to make ETF2L the place that they play TF2, for example, we are currently rewriting anti-cheat protocol, and we intend to shortly set up a documented system for reviews of existing bans.

A human-patrolled anti-cheat system can never be flawless, but we can certainly strive to be better.

BeaVerN wishes to state the following:

I want to thank my friends on Steam, all the people who have supported me, and a special thanks to my clan.

We are very sorry that BeaVerN and his team  Quarantine have been prevented from enjoying ETF2L for most of this year, and we offer our most sincere apologies for the time it has taken to have the case reviewed. In line with the BeaVerN review, the anti-cheat team will have a policy that allows appeals for future and past cases.

More Updates

First off, an update for highlander teams: Being released mid-season and affecting gameplay, The Bombinomicon is banned from the Highlander League. The Apoco-Fist skin is allowed.

We also have some updates from the land of exciting TF2 cups: Excello are hosting another ZOWIE TF2 Challenge, sponsored by ZOWIE. Signing up will help competitive TF2’s future, so be sure to have a look!

The Esports Heaven Sapphire Challenge Final between Epsilon and Relic is expected to take place at around a week from now. Unfortunately yoyotech are unavailable to play the third-place playoff, so Infused receive 3rd place, and thus £50.

On a lighter note, our lovely site coder has added an “add friend” icon to the user and team pages to make it easier to add people to Steam Friends. Enjoy!

Afternoon all.

The following players are now banned:

• eLm0re – Wallhack – 1 year ban
•  eLmore – Alt account of eLm0re – 1 year ban
•  eLmore – Alt account of eLm0re – 1 year ban

That’s all for now!

With many matches still unplayed, we decided to give all teams one catch-up week to finish their remaining matches. The final deadline for Season 10 is now Saturday, 19th November. All matches need to be played and submitted by then or the result will not count and both teams will get a minor warning for an unplayed match after the match deadline. The Season 10 playoff matches will be generated shortly after the catch-up week ends.

• Season 10 deadline for all season matches is the 19th November
• It is the responsibility of the teams to schedule their remaining matches with their opponent
• We will not set default dates for the catchup week, if your opponent is dropped or you have any other issues, please contact an admin
• Gravelpit and Obscure can be switched out for different maps if both teams agree

Also remember that wildcards used in week 7 are not valid and should be ignored as they would push matches past the season deadline. Please contact an admin if your opponent used a wildcard.

Season 10 Roster Locks

We would like to remind all teams of the roster lock rule:

1.7 Teams are not allowed to use new players from week 7 and onward

Teams may not add new players to their roster during week 7 and following playoffs. Teams may use new players in that time, however only if their opponent agrees.

This means all players that have been added after this post are considered mercs and need approval by the other team. Teams caught using new players without approval from the opponent will face a default loss.

Premiership and Division 1 Playoffs

The Premiership playoffs will follow the trusted format of last seasons. The teams who finished in the top 4 will battle it out to decide who will take home glorious pixel and hardware prizes, but most of all eternal fame.  Starting off, the 4th placed team will play the 3rd placed team. The winner of that match will then have to play the 2nd placed team to decide who enters the grand final against the 1st placed team, and who goes home with the 3rd place prize.

The winners of Division 1A and Division 1B will face off for eternal fame, and mousepads. The winner will promote to Premiership, while the losing team will get a promotion match versus the 7th placed team in Premiership. The Division 1 teams that achieved the admirable feat of reaching 2nd place, will play each-other for a shot at premiership promotion, the winner will have to face the 6th placed Premiership team to decide on both their futures.

We are still fine-tuning the other promotions and relegations to make sure they tie in well with Season 11 and divisions of 8, stay tuned!

With over 300 signups and a very diverse audience, the divisions of the first ETF2L Highlander season are now complete, go have a look!

>> Highlander Divisions <<

Teams are seeded across 6 different skill levels, with division 1 being the strongest and most prestigious, and division 6 having the most awesome people. Different regions have been grouped into sub-divisions where possible. If you were too late signing up, or if your team had too few players (less than 10), you can join the waiting list and be placed into the season when another team drops. If you have any questions or requests regarding your division placement, please contact an admin (support page).

Important Highlander Updates

Each week, you will face a different opponent from your division. Week 1 starts Sunday the 13th and will run to Saturday the 19th. You will have to get your match scheduled by the Thursday before the week starts (more info). For example, week 1 starts on Sunday the 13th, so you need to have your week 1 match scheduled by Thursday the 10th at the latest. All further dates can be found in the Calendar. If neither team has a server for your match, ETF2L can provide one for you. Our servers are located in Amsterdam and Germany, kindly provided by Multiplay.

To promote and facilitate highlander practice, we have decided to re-open the ETF2L Highlander Ladder. The map pool includes all of the league maps and some popular highlander and 6v6 maps. All teams are welcome and invited to participate and test the ETF2L ladders. For finding other regular training matches we recommend checking out this thread.

Unfortunately, all popular attack/defense maps still suffer from a bug with the round timer. With no indication that the bugs will be fixed, and Steel being quite vulnerable to the bug, we decided to replace Steel with Gullywash. If the overtime bug happens on Gravelpit (i.e. the round ends after capping in overtime) the full round will have to be replayed. However, teams can agree to replace Gravel Pit with another map, if they don’t want to risk the bug happening. More specific info on this will come at a later date. On Gullywash, make sure to remind the server admin to turn off the item whitelist by using the following command:

rcon mp_tournament_whitelist “”;mp_tournament_restart

Some other important reminders:

Sign up for the ESH Sapphire challenge

Esportsheaven has announced a new 6v6 cup with £500  in cash prizes. The first round is next Tuesday and it definitely needs more teams representing competitive TF2. So if you want to play some exciting games and help the future of competitive TF2, then be sure to have a look and sign up.