Season 6: Welcome to 330 teams!

The European Team Fortress 2 League is glad to welcome 330 participants to the 6th installment of our regular Season. Season 6 – officially powered by SteelSeries Xai – will be the biggest TF2 tournament ever arranged. The champion will win six pieces of the recently published high quality gaming mices ad valorem 480 Euros.

Teams from almost 30 different countries will participate in Season 6. See below for a complete country ranking!

Country Ranking

1. European – 58 teams
2. Russia – 48 teams
3. Germany – 43 teams
4. France – 18 teams
5. United Kingdom – 18 teams
6. Italy – 16 teams
7. Sweden – 14 teams
8. Finland – 13 teams
9. Hungary – 13 teams
10. Ukraine – 11 teams
11. CzechRepublic – 9 teams
12. Poland – 8 teams
13. Israel – 6 teams
14. Latvia – 6 teams
15. Portugal – 6 teams
16. International – 5 teams
17. Norway – 5 teams
18. Spain – 5 teams
19. Benelux – 4 teams
20. Bulgaria – 4 teams
21. England – 3 teams
22. Lithuania – 3 teams
23. Netherlands – 3 teams
24. Austria – 2 teams
25. Turkey – 2 teams
26. Belgium – 1 team
27. Croatia – 1 team
28. Denmark – 1 team
29. Luxembourg – 1 team
30. Slovakia – 1 team

Waiting List

Please have in mind still being on the Waiting List doesn’t mean you don’t get a spot in Season 6. All dropped teams until the end of Week 2 will be replaced with fitting teams from the Waiting List. About 70 teams are currently registered on the Waiting List – of course you can still join (but your chances won’t be high to get a spot).

-> [Join Waiting List] <-

Last Division 1 spot – Decider match eSrael vs. SHIFTplay

As Team Imperial folded in the summer break, there is one remaining spot in Division 1. As these two deserve it most, both 3^rd places from Division 2a&b in Season 5 will meet in a decider match. SHIFTplay vs.  eSrael will take place TONIGHT at 20:45 CEST. Watch out for Source TV!

-> [Match Page] <-

Upcoming schedule

Next on the schedule are our provisional divisions which will be published tomorrow. Map pick phase will open Monday night after the final divisions are published. All upcoming dates are listed below.

• 18th of September – Announcement of provisional divisions
• 21st of September – Announcement of final divisions
• 22nd to 27th of September – Map Pick phase
• 28th of September – 1st Match week

Season 6: Rules

The recent polls did not work out as planned, due to some idiots trying to manipulate the outcome of the polls by creating multiple accounts. About 1500 votes had to be deleted and a few guys won a league ban till 1.1.2010 – congratulations. Have in mind public polls are done to give us some impression about community’s opinion and don’t necessary decide how we handle issues. It’s not worth it.

As the FaN poll ended more or less in a draw there was another internal staff discussion where we decided to go with FaN limit 1. Please do not discuss this issue anymore – it won’t change anything.

Besides, the cp_well train jump rule will stay; cp_yukon and cp_waste won’t be added to Season 6 map pool. Also we have added two new bugs to our Rules Page: Freight door Bug, Gravelpit Spawn Teleport. Don’t forget any kind of bug using will be punished.

And, last but not least, we decided all team rosters will be locked from the start of Week 9 till the end of the Season. This is the conclusion of some ungentle people who joined a team for one match and left it right after in previous Seasons.

Overview

• [Rules Page]
• All Spy and Sniper weapons allowed
• Force-A-Nature: Limit 1
• Team rosters locked from Week 9 on
• cp_well train rule stays
• Bugs added: Freight door Bug, Gravelpit Spawn Teleport
• cp_yukon and cp_waste won’t be added to map pool
• Note for new teams/players: Be sure to know all important rules by the start of Season 6. Rule breaks will be punished with point deductions.

League Config: Added mp_windifference 5

Valve added a new cvar in their last update which automatically ends a map after a set win difference. As this is perfect for regular ETF2L matches, the command was added to the league config. Please add the command to your server or update it with newest version of our league config.

-> [Official ETF2L League Config] <-

Follow us @ Twitter!

For all fans of Twitter we have created an ETF2L account which informs you about recent published newsposts. Feel invited to follow us on Twitter and always be up to date!

-> [ETF2L Twitter Page] <-

Mapping Contest: Final standings

Some people already might have guessed this due to our last newspost: a final cup for the top 3 of the Mapping Contest will be skipped. There isn’t enough time left for a decent cup before Season 6 starts, and we want to give the best maps the opportunity to be a part of that.

The results of the public polls will count as final standing. About 600 users rated the top 5; in the end it was a pretty close result between the first and second place, but cp_gullywash made it with a total rating of 6.53! The map made by Vale’Arnold is the official winner of our contest and will be included to Season 6 map pool, as well as being part of the 5^th Cup final.

But also the second (cp_yukon) and third (cp_waste) place will get their chance to be part of the biggest TF2 tournament ever played. Again it’s up to the community: Should these two maps be added to the official map pool and be included to our upcoming events? Vote below!

Final standings

• cp_gullywash by Arnold [latest version]
• cp_yukon by MangyCarface [included into TF2]
• cp_waste by Icarus [latest version]
• 4th – cp_outlaw by jasska
• 5th – cp_afterdusk by ForgottenCake
• 6-12th – cp_generator, cp_trainstation, cp_fool_hill, cp_energy, cp_follower, cp_greenvalley, cp_resonance

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Season 6: Status + polls

The first days of the sign up period went amazing. With over 250 teams registering in the first 90 minutes, our internal record was broken again. In the meanwhile almost 400 teams signed up! We would like to thank the whole community for their trust and positive feedback to this project :)

Slot limit

As we had a slot limit of 250 teams in Season 5, of course many teams worry about their spot in Season 6. Happily we can already announce the slot limit of Season 6 will be raised up again! A final slot limit will be decided on Thursday. If your team wants to take part in Season 6 and haven’t signed up yet, please be sure to do so by Thursday!

Weapon Unlocks

Another big discussion point is the weapon unlocks. After gathering community’s opinion we decided to allow all new Spy and Sniper weapons. The Force-A-Nature will get another final poll to decide whether it should be banned completely or if it’s allowed with a limit of 1.

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Rule 1.5.5

Due to some requests we also created a poll about the jump rule on cp_well – should we keep this rule like in recent seasons or remove it like its standard in the US? Give your opinion below.
Note: This won’t effect rule 1.5.6.

1.5.5 cp_well: It’s not allowed to jump over the train until countdown reaches 5 seconds

It’s forbidden to jump over the trains to opponent’s side during the “Installation Time” until Countdown reaches 5 seconds. Jumping on the trains and spamming over is allowed whole time.

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Schedule

Season 6 of the ETF2L league is on the horizon. Sign-ups will open this evening at exactly 20:00 CEST with the league scheduled to start three weeks from now. See below for the complete schedule!

• TODAY, 20:00 CEST – Sign Ups OPEN
• 13th of September, 23:59 CEST – Sign Ups close
  
• 18th of September – Announcement of provisional divisions
• 21st of September – Announcement of final divisions
• 22nd to 27th of September – Map Pick phase
• 28th of September – 1st Match week
• ~ 6th of December – General Match Deadline

Map Pool

For season 6, we have somewhat changed the structure of our map pool. Most players will remember the structure of the primary and secondary map pool. That is no more, we now have 1 map pool for everyone. This map pool contains 8 maps. During the map pick phase (see schedule above), you can choose one map to play against each opponent in your division, the opponent will choose the other. The only limitation here is that you can only choose a certain map twice in this competition, this was three times in previous seasons.

The results from our recently-held custom map vote indicate that cp_gullywash came out on top. It had an average grade of 6.53 This was just marginally more than cp_yukon, which scored a 6.48. Other contestants were cp_waste (5.52), cp_outlaw (4.01) and cp_afterdusk (3.33). Based on these results cp_gullywash has been added to the season 6 map pool.

The map pool for season 6 is:

• cp_badlands
• cp_fastlane
• cp_freight (not cp_freight_final)
• cp_granary
• cp_gravelpit
• cp_gullywash
• cp_well
• ctf_turbine

Sign-ups

In order to sign up, you will have to meet the following requirements:

• Have at least 6 players entered into your 6v6 team.
• Have at least 2 different contact methods entered on your team profile.
• Important: On sign-up, please indicate the division you think is suitable for your team.  You can enter this on the sign-up page.
• Only a team leader/deputy can access the sign-up page.

-> [Sign-up page] <-

Once signed up you will be put on the waiting list until your participation is verified by an admin. All verified teams will appear on this page: [Link]

Division Seedings

Please note: Once we have released our provisional divisions, every team that thinks they have been misplaced has the right to appeal their placement. Please collect screenshots of good results you’ve had if you plan on doing so. Exact details of the procedure will be announced in due time.

League Config: Update

Also our league config was updated for Season 6. All changes are listed on our [Rules page]. This config is to be used with immediate effect for every competition including the Nations Cup. Be sure to update your server as soon as possible!

-> [Updated Config] <-

Staff search

In order to start Season 6 with an adequate team, the ETF2L is once again looking for new league admins to strengthen our staff. If you are interested in working for the biggest Team Fortress 2 league worldwide, have a read below!

Admins

The work of a league admin consists of three seperate parts:

• verifying results from played matches
• helping out people on IRC with various requests
• taking part in discussions with our admin team about new competitions, rules, match issues and more

Being a league admin means having some free hours every week and have the will to commit to the work. Also a regular use of IRC is required!

Anti Cheat Admins

In addition to this, we are in need of experienced people for anti-cheat issues. If you have a good knowledge of how cheating cases should be handled and analyzed, you are more than welcome to apply.

Forum Moderators

Last but not least we are searching for forum moderators. Do you regularly visit our forum and like to browse through active threads? Are you a responsible guy and probably already have experience on moderating forums? Help us out and write an application!

Applications

If you are interested in joining our team send an email to deneusbeer@etf2l.org with the following details:

• ETF2L Nickname
• Real name, age and nationality
• Spoken languages (average english required)
• Past admin experience
• Motivation: why do you want to join our team?

Please have your application sent before the 13th of September. You can expect a response from us in the week after that.

Soldier 1on1 Turris Cup: Insanus Exfanus wins the title!

The second fun cup of this summer, the Soldier 1on1 Turris Cup, is finished aswell! In the final Insanus Exfanus from Division 1 team FakkelBrigade dominated his opponent  Pingu and won by a clear 3:0 streak. Congratulations!

The competition was archived and can be found in the [Hall of Fame].

SteelSeries introduced today the new SteelSeries Zboard™ Limited Edition Aion™ Keyset and SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Aion™ Asmodian Mousepad. Co-designed with NCsoft® Corporation, Aion’s publisher and developer, the limited edition gear provides customized functionality and original artwork from the game that allows players to battle and quest with ease into Aion’s breathtaking world of Atreia.

Aion, the most anticipated MMO of 2009, is a visually stunning massively multiplayer online RPG where players fight in an epic celestial war between twin races of winged beings. Aion has received numerous international industry awards and will be available in stores this September in North America, Europe and Australia.

“The popularity of Aion internationally was so impressive that when the opportunity arose to partner with NCsoft to create branded products for the release of Aion in several of the largest western territories, we were thrilled,” said Bruce Hawver, CEO of SteelSeries. “The limited edition gear is designed for Aion players to customize their experience and help improve their game.”

The SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Aion Keyset will offer the full breadth of in-game commands on color-coded keys across the board. The keyset also provides players with:

• Dedicated action keys, menus, and chat commands that are labeled across 69 keys
• Full customization of each key through the SteelSeries Z Engine
• Quick-access emote keys for greeting, intimidating, or taunting your opponents

The SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Aion Asmodian Mousepad features a high -quality cloth material that provides a precise, consistent glide and a specially designed non-slip rubber base, which prevents the pads from sliding on any surface. The SteelSeries QcK Mousepads have been thoroughly researched, designed and tested by professional players.

“SteelSeries has a reputation for designing high quality products that resonate with gamers. NCsoft believes that SteelSeries creates great gear that visually represents Aion and provides excellent tools for our players to have a great gaming experience,” said Chris Lee, Senior Global Brand Director for NCsoft in charge of Aion.

The SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Aion Keyset and SteelSeries Limited Edition QcK Aion Asmodian Mousepad will retail for $19.99 USD and $14.99USD.

Products are now available for pre-sale at Game Stop and Amazon.com. Pictures of all new products can be found at [FragYou.net], the official SteelSeries blog.