Welcome to another great part of the Season 8 revelations. The title gives it away a little, but we forgot to mention one final thing: we have more prizes. For whom, we hear you ask? Well, for everyone of course!

Considering there are winners in all divisions, we’re thrilled to announce that Valve will be providing us with some great in-game community prizes for everyone participating in Season 8 to have a shot at! We know you’re curious to know more about these prizes, so keep checking ETF2L for more information, and be sure to Sign Up!

Sign Up Now!

Rule page updates

First off, for maximum clarity and to solve future Season schedule problems we would like to make our make our provisional Season schedule clear.  Season 9 will start in the middle of January and end in the middle of April. Season 10 will start early in May and end early in July.

We’ve updated the Rule Page with the Season 8 rules. You will notice the familiar rulings like the Golden Cap rule and the Week 9 transfer rule. We are also delighted to announce that both the Fish and the Frying pan will be allowed in Season 8. Be sure have a look at the rule pages:

General Rules – League Rules

Banning Policy

We are also making some improvements to the banning system. As a new guideline, bans cannot end during a Season anymore and will be rounded off to end before or after a Season if they do. The ETF2L punishment for cheating  (aimbot, wallhack, esp etc) is a 1 year ban from all ETF2L competitions. All bans, including older ones, will use this rounded 1 year format.

We have also addressed the issue of players with multiple accounts. If someone is found guilty of cheating, then all their accounts will be banned for the same length with the same penalties applied for matches featuring these accounts. If someone is found to have played in multiple teams under multiple ETF2L accounts but hasn’t cheated, then the accounts will both be banned for 4 months, then one account will be unbanned (it will be up to the owner which account is unbanned). The others will then be permanently closed. Returning under a new account while banned will be punished by an additional year being added to the original ban time, again rounded off so it does not end mid-Season.

Additionally, we have the following bans to announce:

• Cloak/aveN – Aimbot – 1 year ban
• Sm1le/Jusceee  – Second account sm1le –  1 year ban
• Dny – Found implicit in the Boomeh case – 1 season ban

While the big leagues have started or are close to getting started, Esports Heaven is continuing with what they do best: organizing small tournaments which usually take two days to finish. Tonight is going to be the final day of their latest cup: the TF2 Kingston HyperX Battle.

Last Tuesday, 32 teams started the tournament with a chance of winning £250. Tonight, only four teams remain and will fight in the Semi-Finals at 20 CEST, with the winners progressing onwards to play the Final at 21.15 CEST. ETF2L Radio will be providing all the action for the Final, which will be between the winners of Monster Much versus Team Dignitas, and Power Gaming versus Epsilon eSports, but we want to know which teams YOU think will make it all the way to the top! Vote in the poll below:

We will keep you up to date on the score from the Semi-Finals and let all of you know who has made it to the Finals at around 20.30 CET. ETF2L Radio will go live with a short preview about half an hour later with the match starting at around 21.15 CET.

In summary, for people unwilling to read long pieces of text:

• Starting Thursday, October 7th at 21.00 CEST
• Hosted by Dave,  Pledge and Torden
• SourceTV: relay.toaster.fi:27020
• Mumble cast: fakkelbrigade.eu:64740
• Join #etf2l.radio for shoutouts

I look forward to seeing you on tonight!

– Pledge

Welcome back all to the second half of our Season 8 launch! Our menu tonight definitely consists of the sweet stuff as we’re revealing the prizes for ETF2L’s biggest Season yet, and all the details for the juicy new Playoff system!

If you still haven’t signed up yet however, what are you waiting for!

Sign Up Now!

Prizes

We’re delighted to be able to announce that the total prize pool value for Season 8 will be over €3,000, with both cash and hardware up for grabs! Once again, the Season will be supported by our partners SteelSeries, who will be providing us with some more of their fantastic hardware. I’ll cut to the chase and give you the breakdown:

1^st : €750 + 6x SteelSeries 7H

2^nd: €350 + 6x SteelSeries Xai

3^rd: €150 + 6x SteelSeries 6Gv2

We’re also thrilled to be able to reveal that the new Division 1 will also be competing for prizes alongside their fight for promotion to the Premiership! We really want to encourage the ‘sub-top’ to develop, so we hope these prizes act as a great incentive!

1^st: 6x SteelSeries 9HD

Huge thanks go out to SteelSeries for again coming up with the goods!

Playoff System

With all these new prizes at stake, it would be a huge shame to see the top spots decided by a default win in Week 5, for example. For that reason, Season 8 will be the debut for our new Playoff system. Allow us to explain.

The teams that finish in the top 4 positions of the Premiership will progress through to the Playoffs, and seeded #1-4 respectively. In reward for their #1 finish, the team at the top of the table will be allowed to pick their opponents, and 2 of the 3 maps to be played in a Best of 3 Semi-Final. This creates a whole load of tactical drama, and is something we’re really looking forward to!

The two remaining teams will similarly battle it out in a Best of 3 game, with the higher seed again picking 2 of the maps. The losers of these 2 games will meet in a Consolidation Final to decide the 3^rd spot, whilst the victors will progress onwards and upwards to the Grand Final – the climax of Season 8!

With more and more teams within the Premiership emerging as title contenders, we can’t wait to see how the Season unfolds, and we look forward to a hugely dramatic Playoff Series to determine who gets these great prizes!

Seeding Applications

Keep your applications coming in if you feel your team needs special consideration for Season 8 seedings. Read all the details here, and email your application to staff@etf2l.org

Updated ETF2L Config

As announced yesterday, we will be introducing a new Whitelist config to enforce our unlock rules. We are currently doing final tests, so expect to hear more very very soon!

Sign up ye madmen!

That’s it for Season 8! We hope you’re as excited about it as we are! There’s nothing else to say except sign up!

Sign Up Now!

The Third BBall cup has come to its conclusion. Over 128 teams competed versus each-other until only 4 teams were left standing. In the first semi-final Eliyahu Ha Navi took a clear victory over pinky scoring 25-12. The other semi-final saw -MM- beat
2shotmeluchlach with a solid 25-14 score. The two teams then faced each other in the grand final:

Match Overview
Eliyahu Ha Navi vs Tu Veux Du Pain?
Final
Sunday, September 26th 19:00 CEST

ctf_ballin

25 - 23

OVERALL
Eliyahu Ha Navi [1:0] Tu Veux Du Pain?

Our huge congratulations to Eliyahu Ha Navi for winning the Third ETF2L BBall Cup!

The Highlander Challenge and the new Unlocks

Unlocks that get released during a running season are usually banned for the remainder of that season/tournament. Because Highlander teams have practiced just as well for their games, the Highlander Challenge will not be an exception. Therefore, all weapons that got added in the MannCo update will remain banned from the tournament. Except for the fish, because slapping somebody with a huge mackerel has got to be humiliating. And awesome.

Community Frag Video Project

If you happen to make a 5 man killing spree with said fish, then be sure to have a look at this thread on our forums for a shot at eternal fame in this cool Highlander Frag Movie project. Be sure to send this guy the demos of your best reflect airshots, mass chainstabs or whatever awesome play you made.