As announced earlier, sign-ups for our upcoming Nations’ Cup open today at 20:00 CEST. Any national team which represents a country and that can field a team is welcome to enter. You can sign up to the group phase the usual way. In the group phase teams will be divided by their skill level, which prevents the top teams from eliminating each other in the group phase. The size and amount of groups will be determined by the amount of participating nations.

The teams will have one month to complete all their group phase matches, from 1st September to 1st October. After that, the best teams from each group will advance to the playoff stage.

The first prize for this tournament is 6x SteelSeries Kinzu Optical Mouse, the second prize is 6x SteelSeries 4HD Mousemat!

Schedule

• Signups open: TODAY, 20:00 CEST – [Sign Up]
• Signups close: 30 August, 23:59 CEST
• Group stage starts: 1 September
• Group stage ends: 1 October
• Playoff stage starts: 2 October

Rules

The normal ETF2L rules I’m sure you are familiar with will apply for this competition. If not, you can read them here: [Link] Note: rules on spy/sniper unlocks, as well as the Force-a-nature are subject to change, pending the current polls on the subject. These will be updated before the competition starts.

The special rules and guidelines of this competition can be found here [Link]. Below you can find the most important ones.

• During a match, a national team cannot field more than 3 players from the same team.
• A national team has to consist of at least 7 players.
• The played maps can be changed to include the winner of our mapping contest. Any changes will happen before the competition starts.

Season 6 & Nations Cup: Prizes by SteelSeries

We are back from the summer break and happy to announce our partnership with SteelSeries, one of the leading manufacturers of gaming peripherals and accessories, will continue. Our main sponsor will provide high quality gaming hardware for the winner and runner up of our two upcoming main tournaments!

The best national team out of 32 possible participants will win 6x SteelSeries Kinzu Optical Mouse in our Nations Cup. The Vice-Champion will gain 6x SteelSeries 4HD!

The 6th installment of our regular season will be in the sign of SteelSeries lately released high-end gaming mice Xin.  The winner of Division 1 will get 6x SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse. Besides, the Runner Up will win yet unreleased 6x SteelSeries 9HD. Good luck to all teams in Season 6 presented by SteelSeries Xai!

Mapping Contest: Poll Phase

Almost 4500 players tested the Top 5 Mapping Contest maps in the first 4 weeks after our public server was published. We have reached the poll phase of the content which will decide the Top 3. Every Top 5 map has its own rating poll, every registered user is able to rate a map from 1-10 (10 = perfect, 1 = waste). See below for link with all polls.

Top 3 rated maps will be put on a final cup. Eight top teams will meet each other in a group phase and a following playoff phase. All participants will rate the top 3 maps again to decide the winner. The winner will be part of Season 6 and the 5^th Cup final.

-> Mapping Contest polls <-

General polls: Sniper & Spy weapons, FaN and freight

Also it’s about time to clear up the future rules for next tournaments. The start will be decisions about the lately released Spy & Sniper weapons, the tweaked Scout weapon FaN and which version of freight should be played. Take your right to vote!

All polls are listed on the separate poll page below the Mapping Contest polls.

-> Weapons & freight polls <-

Recent winners: Season 5 “Player of the Season” & Pyro Paintball 3on3 Cup

Last but not least a big congratulation to Extremer [Profile] who gained the Player of the Season award in Season 5. The demoman from I Don’t Know? is the first Division 2 player who gained the most valuable award of our regular season tournaments.

Also the Pyro Paintball 3on3 Cup is finished. Super Gut [Profile], the favorite due to excellent match results in further rounds, beat Division 2 team Game Control in the final (10:7 – [Match Page])and won the first Pyro cup title!

Seven days of voting are over; thanks to 879 users who took part and decided these award winners:

• Most Surprising Team – rockit (Division 2a)
• Fairplay Award – CantFitMyN (Division 6f)
• Division 3 team of the Season – Oh My God It Is
• Division 4 team of the Season – Northwave
• Division 5 team of the Season – dA-Gaming
• Division 6 team of the Season – nicey-tf2.
• Most Underrated Player – BERSERKER (Resistansen)
• Demoman of the Season – Extremer (I Don’t Know?)
• Heavy of the Season – Pace (jAgarna)
• Medic of the Season – kyynel (Crack Clan)
• Scout of the Season – Shintaz (I Don’t Know?)
• Sniper of the Season – Jh (Born2Die)
• Soldier of the Season – punpu (Crack Clan)

Congratulations for this special achievement in world’s biggest TF2 league!

Every winner of a Player Award is automatically nominated as Player of the Season. Which player should win the most valuable award? Of course it’s up to the community to decide:

Poll will close next Wednesday, 23:59 CEST.

With the Soldier 1on1 and Pyro 3on3 Cup ending soon, we have almost reached our official summer break. The complete August will be used for detailed discussions and organizing regarding the Nations Cup, Season 6 and some new stuff of course.

In the meanwhile, we will keep you updated with our upcoming Mapping Contest polls, the following tournament, weapon polls and maybe a special summer competition…!

SteelSeries today introduced the SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse, SteelSeries Kinzu Optical Mouse and the SteelSeries 9HD hard plastic surface. The technology, shape, size, weight and feel of the SteelSeries Xai was designed with one purpose: to create an immediate advantage for gamers by enhancing a user’s performance during game play.

“We spent three years methodically perfecting the SteelSeries Xai by researching mouse grips used by professional gaming teams such as Fnatic, SK Gaming and Evil Geniuses in order to create a level of performance that gamers have never experienced before,” said Bruce Hawver, CEO of SteelSeries. “The SteelSeries Xai’s High Definition sensor offers a huge improvement over the current highest-end gaming mice and it is designed with technical specifications that increase the level of performance results, especially during the most frantic and fast-paced games.”

Research and development of the mouse was done in close cooperation with full-time professional gamers from the U.S., Europe and Asia to ensure that the SteelSeries Xai is a tool with a purpose – not just a gadget. The 10.8 megapixels/second sensor offers a huge improvement over the current generation of gaming mice by processing 12,000 frames/second at 5,001 CPI at movement speeds of 150 inches/second providing the user with High Definition tracking for unparalleled precision. Furthermore, the SteelSeries Xai offers unprecedented levels of personalization for the user, with unique SteelSeries sensor innovations like SteelSeries ExactAim, SteelSeries ExactRate, SteelSeries ExactSens, SteelSeries FreeMove and automatic lift distance calibration. SteelSeries Xai can be fully configured via a LCD menu system on the back of the mouse, where settings will be stored on the mouse thus eliminating the need for drivers and providing configuration capabilities on-the-go.

Some of the features of the SteelSeries Xai include:

• Ambidextrous shape
• 7 Programmable macro buttons, 200 strokes per button
• Driverless plug-and-play, with 5 profiles
• Fully configurable via LCD menu system
• 100-5,001 counts/inch

The SteelSeries 9HD surface was designed to fully support the enhanced tracking capabilities of next-generation High Definition gaming mice. The finely textured surface consists of tens-of-thousands of light reflecting microscopic points, enabling the user to perform exceptionally precise mouse operations, including minimal movements as well as high velocity “slingshots.”

In addition to the SteelSeries Xai Laser Mouse, SteelSeries is also introducing the SteelSeries Kinzu Optical Mouse. Based on the same shape as the SteelSeries Xai, but 7% smaller in size, the SteelSeries Kinzu processes 9,375 frames/second at 3,200 CPI and is compact, lightweight, and is in a league of its own when it comes to reliability and stability.

SteelSeries Xai, SteelSeries Kinzu and SteelSeries 9HD will be available August 2009.

Yesterday, SteelSeries unveiled a new line of gaming surfaces featuring art from Blizzard Entertainment’s highly anticipated StarCraft® II. The QcK Limited Edition Terran Marine and Kerrigan vs. Zeratul editions are designed with a non-slip rubber base which prevents the pads from sliding, no matter what surface the mousepad is placed on, and is optimized for optical and laser technology providing an overall more reliable gaming experience.

“StarCraft and its expansion have together sold more than 11 million copies worldwide, and we believe StarCraft II will prove equally influential and popular, making this a great opportunity to provide gamers with surfaces that help to improve performance and game play,” said Brian Stech, SteelSeries President of the Americas. “We are incredibly excited to have an opportunity to continue our partnership with the designers from Blizzard Entertainment and develop surfaces that we know StarCraft players will enjoy.”

The SteelSeries QcK Limited Edition Terran Marine and Kerrigan vs. Zeratul gaming surfaces are made of high quality cloth material and optimized textured surface which guarantees both smoothness and glide. The special surface graphic on each mousepad depicts characters from the upcoming StarCraft II, which will pick up where the events of StarCraft: Brood War left off, following familiar characters and new heroes through the next chapter of the series’ epic story.

The gaming surfaces will be available in July 2009 and will be sold for $14.99.

–> SteelSeries StarCraft II Gaming Surfaces <–