New official config

Our poll on using the new variable to eliminate random damage has won the vote with a decisive 77% for implementing it. So we have updated our config accordingly. Everyone please download this and put it on your server.

The following things were added:

• tf_damage_disablespread 1
• tf_tournament_hide_domination_icons 1
• mp_tournament_allow_non_admin_restart 0

ETF2L Config: Download here

Default dates

This week, we had to hand out quite a few default dates again. Please take note of this and play these matches on time. Also, try to schedule your games on time, it makes it easier for both you and us. The default dates are as follows:

Season 4: week 4 default dates

• Division 2a: northwave.gaming vs Clones-Inc – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 2a: FakkelBrigade vs eL Diablo’s Brigade – Thursday 12 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 2b: LOL Team vs FOG – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 2b: Nervous.tf2 vs [dT] – Thursday 12 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 3a: n2o – gaming TF2 vs mine is BIGGER than yours – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 3b: iClan vs Cavaliers RED – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 3b: warriors of Legend vs HerbsArmy – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 3d: ReVival vs enixe – Thursday 12 February – 21:30 CET
• Division 3d: klan:fader vs Crit Rocket – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 4a: Distort Reality vs clickNplay – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 4b: SpecialAttack vs They Kick Ass – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 4c: Special Air Services vs Unterwasserpyromanen – Wednesday 11 February – 20:30 CET
• Division 4d: [BloodMeat] vs Team Renovation – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 4d: Immortals vs Smart Move – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 5a: Maximum^2 vs Erdnuckels – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 5b: it vs GoV – Sunday 15 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 5c: 69ER Gaming Community vs Chancy Team – Tuesday 10 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 5f: boX?1 vs Die Philosoffen – Thursday 12 February – 21:00 CET
• Division 6a: Presence vs Xenomorphs – Thursday 12 February – 21:00 CET

Bball cup #2 week 1 default dates

• Zorkk & Toad vs 2Kings – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• veAre.silver vs pink panther – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• insAne vs Sex on a stick – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• Team Englian vs Dashing along them streets – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• cvx bball vs BlackHawkDown1.bball – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• 19% + 27% vs GumiFreak – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• FLB_Bball vs Starship Troopers – Wednesday 11 February – 19:00 CET
• Renovation ball vs Tarasbukta – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• DansTonKnux vs chill.bball- Wednesday 11 February – 18:00 CET
• Paz y amor, y el Plus pal salon vs Nau – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• M ‘n M vs MholKan – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• Kab00m vs the.TEAM – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• The slashing Slash0rs vs Holy Mace-Wielding Minotaur Kings – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET
• -.-‘ vs Zeves – Sunday 15 February – 19:30 CET

Instagib cup round 1 default dates

• cool clan vs Split – Thursday 12 February – 20:00 CET
• Pul Kai Arena Team vs InstaX – Thursday 12 February – 20:00 CET
• Polgar JenaH vs PPB instagibbers! – Thursday 12 February – 20:00 CET
• TEAM SdX’08 Instant Gib vs Team FLB – Thursday 12 February – 20:00 CET
• Conquerors vs execute – Thursday 12 February – 20:00 CET
• dhrystones vs Crazy Suicide 4×4 – Thursday 12 February – 20:00 CET

Scout 2on2 + Highlander #2 Cup: Sign-Up Phase starting

Our next two Fun Cup Sign-Ups finally open tonight, at 20:00 CET! We invite all interested players and teams to get together, sign up and have fun in these special competitions. Up to 64 teams will be able to play in the upcoming Scout 2on2 Cup; our 2^nd Highlander Cup will have 32 spots available. If you want a safe spot, sign in as early as possible!

Dates for both cups

• Sign-Ups open: Sunday, 8^th February, 20:00 CET
• Sign-Ups close: Sunday, 15^th February, 23:59 CET (or earlier when all spots are filled)
• Round 1: Monday, 16^th February till Sunday, 1^st March

Scout 2on2 Cup – Details

• Slots: 64
• Gamemode: 2on2, Scouts only, Best of 3 Maps, Arena Maps (exact Gamemode and Map-Pool will be published in the next days)
• Sign-Up Requirements: At least two players registered + at least two different contact methods entered

• Note: You will have to register a separate 2on2 team first. [Register Team Link]

• [Sign Up Link]

Highlander Cup #2 – Details

• Slots: 32
• Gamemode: 9on9, General Classlimit 1, Best of 3 Maps (exact Map-Pool will be published in the next days)
• Sign-Up Requirements: At least ten players registered + at least two different contact methods entered

• Note: You will have to register a separate Highlander team first. [Register Team Link]

• [Sign Up Link]

ETF2L Mapping Contest

To help promote awareness in our community for competitive maps, and to increase interest in mapping, ETF2L are announcing their first Mapping Competition!

Rules

1. It must be a 5 control point map
2. It must contain rotational symmetry
3. Submissions must contain brief documentation discussing likely tactics that the attackers/defenders can use for each area
4. Submissions must contain a suggestion of how an attacking or defending team might use an alternative class effectively on this map (spy, heavy, pyro, engineer)
5. All submissions must be based off of your own work (no re-hashes of existing maps may be entered)
6. Map must follow valve like conventions to support good navigation (red: wood, hay blu: steel, concrete)
7. Submissions must be entered in by 8th March

All maps must be made with competitive play as a priority. Intelligent design of the areas, item placement, spawn locations/times and capture point times are all crucial.

System

After the 8th all submissions will be judged by a player panel including various high level players. The maps will be judged on: potential gameplay, unique area design, navigation. Note that at this time aesthetics are not priority and will be weighted very low on judging, that said, appropriate placeholders for future updates and appropriate textures to make the map playable are required.

After this judging period the top 4 maps will go to a selected 8 team round robin league. Where each team plays one map versus each team. This ensures a lot of official play testing is performed. After the league has finished all teams are able to score each map: 4 points, 3 points, 2 points or 1 point. A community vote will also go out via a poll on ETF2L to garner the community the possibility to allocate points to each map, with the majority vote getting 4 points, then working its way down.

The map with the highest score will then have a 1 day cup hosted for it in the following week which will have media coverage. However all four maps will be considered as a possibility to be in the map pool for ETF2L season 5. Any candidate maps for this will have their authors requested to continue development of the map for rigorous play testing and finalizing aesthetics.

Demoman + Scout 1on1 Cups finished and archived

In the last days the finals of our both 1on1 cups were played. Amazingly Tumpel from Division 1 team Delirium managed to reach the final in both 1on1 cups with 128 participants each. But in the end, he weren’t able to get both titles: after losing against Shintaz from I Don’t Know? in a final over 3 maps last week (well 10:9, badlands 4:10, lumberyard 5:10 – [Match Page]) he probably were afraid of not even getting one title. He had to handle a pretty close match against his demoman cup final opponent, AnAkIn from Division 1 team redLine, but again after three maps and a theoretic overall score of 27:27 (well 10:9, badlands 7:10, lumberyard 10:8 – [Match Page]) Tumpel won the title! Both cups are archived now and can be found in our Hall of Fame [Link].

Big Congratulations to Shintaz and Tumpel for being the best in their class out of 128 players from all over Europe!

Instagib CTF 4on4 Cup: Instagib 1.1.3 released + Config Updates

A new update of Instagib has been released [Announcement]. The new version got some new added cvars which have been added to the official cup config. Please note all Instagib servers have to be updated with the new version + config.

Config changes

• instagib_enable 1
• instagib_dj 0
• instagib_flagh 1
• instagib_physprops 1
• instagib_elim 0
• [Updated Cup Config]

New Admins: Amonsilas, Goarstl, Kop and jonni!

After our announcement of searching for new motivated people to join our staff we are happy to announce the current search is over. Thanks for all people who wrote an applications and sorry we couldn’t take everyone in.

Anyway we would like to welcome four new admins to our ETF2L staff: Amonsilas, Goarstl, Kop and jonni! Welcome to the team and we hope you will have a great time working for the biggest Team Fortress 2 league worldwide!

Season 4 Week 4, Instagib & Basketball Round 1: Schedule Deadline

Tonight is the official Schedule Deadline for all matches of the 4^th Week in Season 4 and for both 1^st Rounds of the Basketball 2on2 and Instagib 4on4 Fun Cup. All matches which aren’t scheduled by tonight, 23:59 CET, will get a Default Date. Currently affected unscheduled matches are listed below.

Season 4: Week 4

• Division 2a: northwave.gaming vs Clones-Inc
• Division 2a: DCSB Red Team vs veAre.black
• Division 2a: dmg. vs Envision
• Division 2a: FakkelBrigade vs eL Diablo’s Brigade
• Division 2b: LOL Team vs FOG
• Division 2b: Nervous.tf2 vs [dT]
• Division 3a: Gathering of Tweakers Team 1 vs Galacticos
• Division 3a: n2o – gaming TF2 vs mine is BIGGER than yours
• Division 3a: Mafia vs Blood Pressure
• Division 3b: iClan vs Cavaliers RED
• Division 3b: Oh My God It Is vs Execute
• Division 3b: warriors of Legend vs HerbsArmy
• Division 3c: Totalitarian Brigade vs Nameless TF2 Squad
• Division 3d: ReVival vs enixe
• Division 3d: klan:fader vs Crit Rocket
• Division 4a: Distort Reality vs clickNplay
• Division 4a: *B@D* vs failure as Gamers <3
• Division 4b: SpecialAttack vs They Kick Ass
• Division 4b: Double D vs Cryoemia
• Division 4c: Special Air Services vs Unterwasserpyromanen
• Division 4d: [BloodMeat] vs Team Renovation
• Division 4d: Immortals vs Smart Move
• Division 5a: Maximum^2 vs Erdnuckels
• Division 5a: #RofL vs Team Effort
• Division 5b: it vs GoV
• Division 5c: 69ER Gaming Community vs Chancy Team
• Division 5d: Red Eyed Jedis vs Red Brigade
• Division 5e: Who Dares Wins vs S4Y-Multigaming
• Division 5f: boX?1 vs Die Philosoffen
• Division 5f: eXplosion C4 vs Gaming Masters Falcons Squad
• Division 6a: Presence vs Xenomorphs
• Division 6a: Black hawk down 1 vs dA-Gaming
• Division 6e: GoV Blu vs Team-Xplosion

Basketball 2on2 Cup: Round 1

• Zorkk & Toad vs 2Kings
• arnold eats shit vs peter pan & tinkerbell
• veAre.silver vs pink panther
• insAne vs Sex on a stick
• Failed Clan Name 2on2 vs cool clan
• Team Englian vs Dashing along them streets
• cvx bball vs BlackHawkDown1.bball
• Mishanya Team vs gBall
• 19% + 27% vs GumiFreak
• FLB_Bball vs Starship Troopers
• Renovation ball vs Tarasbukta
• DansTonKnux vs chill.bball
• Paz y amor, y el Plus pal salon vs Nau
• M ‘n M vs Mholk
• Strait vs Team Dropfruits
• Kab00m vs the.TEAM
• Hacemos el TF2 bello. vs Haumis
• The slashing Slash0rs vs Holy Mace-Wielding Minotaur Kings
• GLC vs Lethargy
• SALT & PEPPER vs ScArYsUcKeR.bball
• -.-‘ vs Zeves

Instagib 4on4 Cup: Round 1

• cool clan vs Split
• Pul Kai Arena Team vs InstaX
• Gathering of Gibbers vs Squad Killer 10
• Polgar JenaH vs PPB instagibbers!
• Piggy Bankers vs osos amorosos
• The Church of Tetris vs TKA.IG
• TEAM SdX’08 Instant Gib vs Team FLB
• Instapoints vs Imperox Instagib
• Instant LOL vs impressive
• Forever-Gaming.TF2 vs guinneX.fox
• Conquerors vs execute
• #false.flag vs Blood Pressure Fun
• bandytka w chuj vs #hobbygaming
• Keine halben Sachen – Arena vs Mr. Taytos

The leading manufacturer of innovative professional gaming gear, SteelSeries, today announced new gaming surfaces in cooperation with some of the best professional gaming teams in the world. The teams, Meet Your Makers, Fnatic and Made in Brazil, are comprised of championship gamers who collectively won more than USD 650,000 in 2008.

SteelSeries QcK+ Limited Editions are limited edition super-sized mouse pads made of a high quality cloth material, featuring an eye-catching design created in cooperation with each individual team. The combination of the high quality cloth and an optimized textured surface, guarantees both smoothness and glide while the specially designed non-slip rubber base prevents the mouse pad from sliding. With a height of 4 mm (twice as thick as standard QcK+ pads) the SteelSeries QcK+ Limited Edition products are unique, created to help SteelSeries partners generate some extra revenue for their gaming teams.

SteelSeries QcK+ Limited Edition highlights:

– Smooth cloth surface

– Heavy thickness reduces problems from uneven surfaces

– Steady rubber base

– XXL sized

– Team artwork

“Since our inception in 2001 SteelSeries has been working closely with professional gamers and teams, to develop, optimize and create products that help them win. Their feedback has been instrumental to our growth and has helped us create products that live up to the professional gaming standard,” says Kim Rom, Vice President of Marketing for SteelSeries. “Our new line of mouse pads are the first wave of products that will hit the market in 2009, which will generate cash directly for our trusted partners, allowing them to continue what they do best: attend tournaments, compete and win.”

“The co-operation with SteelSeries has exceeded all expectations and it is great to work with such an enthusiastic company which shares the same visions as we do,” said Mark Peter Fries, COO for Meet Your Makers. “The mouse pads not only look amazing, but are also top notch when it comes to the little details that gamers want when they choose their mouse pads, such as the glide of the pad, feel, size and grip.”

“Made in Brazil is very proud of having their brand stamped on a product that has all the preferred conditions for professional and casual players,” says Paulo Velloso, CEO for Made in Brazil. “It combines quality, excellent functionality and importantly, a very pleasing appearance.”

“At Fnatic we pride ourselves on two important things, 1. we want to be the best at everything we do, 2. we want it to be fun and look cool in the process. With the Fnatic pad we think we have nailed both, a pad that helps our performance but also is true Fnatic style at the same time,” says Sam Mathews, CEO for team Fnatic. “We are extremely excited to be working with SteelSeries on this new product, which I know is just the first of a series of new gaming products in cooperation between SteelSeries and Fnatic.”

The SteelSeries QcK+ Limited Editions are compatible with all types of mice and are now available in North America, Europe and Asia.

With the last Valve update, there came a few interesting new server variables. The ETF2L config will be updated accordingly. However, for 1 variable, we’d like your opinion. This variable decides whether random damage will be used in the game or not.

If tf_damage_disablespread is activated, the amount of damage every gun can do will be static. By default, this is turned off. This (off) means a weapon’s damage output can randomly vary. This varies by around 10%. When turned on, every single shot fired by the same weapon will do the same amount of damage. (not taking into account random spread). This can make the game more predictable, you’ll know more precisely how much damage you will do.

For comparison, we will list the damage of some of the most common weapons with this variable turned on.

• Sticky: directly under your feet: 114 damage, damage up to around 130 damage, (with ideal placement directly in front of you, damage will decrease fast if you’re standing further away. )
• Pipe: 98-104 damage (direct hit; depends on place of impact.)
• Scattergun: 104 damage (point blank, when fired from further away, damage will decrease)
• Rocket: 112 (point blank, damage will decrease when fired from further away.)

Please vote whether you want this static damage to be enabled or not.

 Loading ...

This poll will run until Sunday 23:59 PM, after which will be decided whether we turn it on or off and the config will be updated.

Note: other variables that will be added at that same time are: mp_tournament_allow_non_admin_restart 0 and tf_tournament_hide_domination_icons 1.

Basketball and Instagib cup start

The basketball and instagib cups start today! As we did not reach our maximum number of teams for both cups, everyone who signed up is entered in these cups. Please contact your opponent and start scheduling and playing your matches. The first round details are as follows:

Both Cup deadlines

• Round 1 schedule deadline: 8 february
• Round 1 match deadline: 15 February

Basketball cup details

• [Cup tree] – [Rules page]
• Used map: ctf_bball2 [Link]
• Match conditions: best of 3 maps, Soldiers only, 2on2
• Winlimit: 20 captures, or 30 minutes (whichever comes first)

Instagib cup details

• [Cup tree] – [Rules page]
• Match conditions: 4on4, best of 3 maps
• Winlimit: most captures with timelimit 20 minutes.
• Round 1 maps: 1 ctf_turbine 2: ctf_greystone_b2 (3. ctf_geothermal_b2)
• This cup needs a special config. Download here: [Link]

Instagib instructions

To play instagib, you have to install the instagib mod, which runs on sourcemod. Follow these instructions if you want to install the mod on your server:

• If you don’t have it, download and install sourcemod, installation instructions can be found here [Link]
• Download and install Dukehacks extensions [Link] Copy the files from the addons directory in the zip file to the addons directory in your server. Use version 0.0.1.9
• Download and install the actual instagib plugin [Link] Copy the addons and the materials folder to your server main directory.
• Because we’re running with sv_pure on 1, you need to add the materials (i.e.: the unzoomed dot) to your server whitelist in order for it to work. Download the following file, and place it in your server game folder (keep the filename the same): [Link] To check the whitelist of a sv_pure 1 server as a player, simply type sv_pure into the console; the pure status will appear along with the current whitelist. The whitelist should contain the same as the file posted above.
• Note: once installed, this mod cannot be deactivated. To deactivate, remove the instagib mod files from the server (There is no need to remove the file instagib.smx from the /addons/sourcemod/plugins/ directory. To reactivate the mod, put the file back.

Season 4: week 3 default dates

As usual we have had some default dates to hand out for teams who failed to meet the schedule deadline. I want to remind you: if you can’t agree on a date with an opponent, maybe because they won’t respond, leave a matchcomment with (a) suggested date(s). We will keep these in mind when setting default dates. Anyway, the default dates for this week are the following:

Division 1: Die Doppelnullen vs weapons of the rebelion – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 1: 4 Kings vs redLine – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 2b: FOG vs iCon-eSport.TF2 – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 3a: Mafia vs n2o – gaming TF2 – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 3b: equilibrium vs Oh My God It Is – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 3b: iClan vs HerbsArmy – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 3d: klan:fader vs ColorZ – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 4c: Special Air Services vs platinum – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 4d: Team Renovation vs Smart Move – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 5a: Erdnuckels vs imPerial – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 5d: fight club united kingdom vs .point Guards – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 5e: Forever-Gaming.TF2 vs S4Y-Multigaming – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 5f: FPS-Arena Team vs Timmy And The Fratellis – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET
Division 6f: Team Ratchet vs Argo – Sunday 8 February – 21:00 CET