The Groups and Fixtures have now been added to the site, so all Highlander Challenge teams should be able to see who they need to play and when. Please start arranging your first week fixtures now – they are visible on your ‘My Matches’ page, as well as on your Team page. If you have not scheduled your games before the Monday of the week they should be played (for example Monday 27th September for Week 1), then a default date will be assigned for that match.

It’s important here, just before we kick off , to once again remind all players about our rules! This is incredibly useful information to know, especially rules specific to the Highlander Competition, and will save many a headache should any problems arise.  Another great place to look for answers is our FAQ Section, but as ever, if you can’t find the answer to a question or have difficulty, request an admin through our IRC channel #etf2l. Simply join through your own IRC client, or use our built in IRC Plugin on the Support Page, and type “!admin” to receive help!

We would also like to take this opportunity to reiterate the need for team leaders to take all relevant screenshots of their matches (status screenshots and the final scoreboard of each map) to ensure we can easily process results. All players should record personal demos, whilst a SourceTV demo should also be recorded. This enables us to quickly sort any problems in the unlikely event that one should arise.

Finally, we hope that all team leaders will stay organised throughout the Challenge by contacting their opponents in ample time to organise the date and time of matches. We recommend this be done through comments on the specific Match Page, but if games are organised on IRC or Steam (or any other messaging platform), please post this information up on the Match Page so admins are kept up to speed! Remember your team will have to play all it´s matches or you will not be eligible for a medal.

We’re thoroughly excited to be finally kicking off the Highlander Community Challenge, and we hope you are too! Here’s to a fantastic tournament!

Season 8

We’re delighted to be able to say that we are just preparing to launch Season 8. There are loads of things planned that we are extremely excited about, so stay tuned to ETF2L.org to catch the announcement as soon as it drops!

We’ve gone Finals mad here in TF2 world as ETF2L Radio returns to cover the conclusive game of yet another great online competition – the ESH ASUS Battle of Britain Cup.

The big news of the tournament so far came in the Semi Finals, where many were surprised to see German superstars TLR beat a full strength Dignitas line up on both Badlands and Granary. As  TLR|mvp was keen to point out, it’s now the 3rd time in a row that they have beaten Dignitas, so my (joke) accusations of luck seem to be out the window!

Restoring order to this chaos have been TCM-Gaming, who as ever in online competitions have breezed through the earlier rounds and are, for many, the solid favourites to take the £500 prize money home. However, with the way TLR have been playing, who actually wins is anybody’s guess! In spirit of this, cast your own opinion in the poll below!

Returning from a long spell of real life activity and mic problems, ETF2L Radio are thrilled to be able to welcome back TF2 hero JimmyBreeze who will add his usual dose of wise words and delectable sound bites. Tune in for what will be a great cast!

So Jimmy has to suck up to his bosses and will be unable to cast. Feeling especially depressed, I looked for someone else to cast with. The choices were not pretty. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my great (dis)pleasure to announce that none other that Duncan ‘dunc’ Wraight will be joining me on Mumble this evening.

Yes, I understand if this means no one wants to listen.

Can’t blame a guy for tryin’ though.

Update #2! That lovable vagabond  James ‘Admirable’ McDonnell will be joining us to complete our merry trio!

Follow the action live on ETF2L Radio

• Starting Monday, September 20th at 21.05 CEST
• Hosted by Dave and JimmyBreeze,   dunc and Admirable
• SourceTV: fakkelbrigade.eu:27100
• Mumble cast: fakkelbrigade.eu:64740
• Join #etf2l.radio for shoutouts

UPDATE – Experimental Ordnance Low Bracket Cup Final

Tonight also sees the Experimental Ordnance Low Bracket Final match between Team Defiance and Entropy Team. This is a chance to see all the unlocks in action, with the teams playing on cp_freight_final1 , cp_badlands and a possible decider map of cp_granary. STV is on 85.236.102.65:27215 with the game starting at 21:15CEST. Good luck both teams!

And we’re back, bringing you another cast of the Ubercharge tournament as tonight it all concludes in what will be a great Final between Team Dignitas and TCM-Gaming!

Straight off the back of a thoroughly impressive victory over Epsilon Esports, TCM-Gaming will tonight be looking to finish the deal in what they do best – online matches. Dignitas however will have other ideas, and after their conclusive i40 Final conquest will be looking to add to their summer earnings as it draws to a close.

We’re also pleased to be able to announce that we’re working with Level Up TV to provide a HQ Stream of the match which will be available right here on ETF2L!

Follow the action live on ETF2L Radio

• Starting Thursday, September 16th at 21:00 CEST
• Hosted by Dave , nvc and Pledge
• SourceTV: relay.toaster.fi:27020
• Mumble cast: fakkelbrigade.eu:64740
• Join #etf2l.radio for shoutouts

See you there!

Update: After a great evening of games, we are now left with just the two finalists of each Bracket.

Upper Bracket Final:

RAGE.eSports vs. TLR

Lower Bracket Final:

Entropy Team vs. TEAM DEFIANCE

The finals will be arranged and played within a week and we hope to have coverage of the Upper Bracket final. Both finals will be played Best of 3 maps, with the finalists each choosing a map and using map elimination on the decider to choose the maps which will be played.

Keep your eyes peeled for the match info later this week!

Brackets

Update: If your game is going to start late, please alter the timelimit so that the game will still finish before the next round is scheduled to start.

The brackets have been announced and we are ready to get going.

Brackets: https://etf2l.org/experimental-ordnance-cup-1/

Map List & Timings

• 20:00 CEST – First Round – cp_obscure_final
• 20:45 CEST – Second Round – cp_gullywash_imp3
• 21:30 CEST – Quarter Finals – cp_granary
• 22:15 CEST – Semi Finals – cp_badlands
• TBC – Final

Special Merc Rule

Up to a maximum of three mercs may be used without permission from your opponent, providing they are from the same division or lower as the main team.

And sadly, we’re back to announce more bans.

If there’s just one thing we’d like to make clear about our Anti-Cheat team, it’s that they always have full proof – beyond circumstantial evidence – behind every ban we make. This has been highlighted recently in the much publicised ‘boomeh case’. After some considerable effort we have finally found the valuable information we need which has allowed us to connect the ‘tmn’ account to that of the banned player ‘boomeh’. Cases like these do however take time, a particular reason for our continued search for AC-Admins,  but also requires the cooperation of the community, for which we are continually grateful. Therefore, if you have any evidence or suspicion about players, please contact an Admin in our #etf2l IRC channel.

Whilst we also entirely respect the right for players to post their thoughts and feelings up on threads discussing these matters, we would love it if this much energy and attention was given to helping grow the TF2 community! Whether this be through mentoring players and teams, making cool new services or pushing TF2 on eSports news sites, it all is invaluable to help see our game become even bigger and better and something we strongly encourage.

So even though creating a solid case can take time, we will catch cheaters. Like the following:

• Mah jongg : Multihack – 1 Year Ban
• Sm1le: Aimbot – 1 Year Ban
• Boomeh/Tmn: Returning under an alias while banned – 1 Year added to existing ban
• Twistedplay: supporting and playing with a banned cheater – 1 season ban
• Twistedplay members affected:  SoniXzR, Crzy,  Plumbed, Inuy, Aveng
• Sandik: Returning under an alias while banned – 1 Year added to existing ban

We say it every time, but please don’t cheat! We will catch you and you will be banned, so make life easy for everyone and don’t do it!