Season 5 map pool

To decide which map pool we are going to use in season 5, we’ve thought about some public polls for you to help us make the decision. First we have the season 4 mappool for you:

• Primary (each map can be chose 3 times): cp_granary, cp_fastlane, cp_badlands, cp_gravelpit, cp_well, ctf_turbine
• Secondary (each map can be chosen 1 time): cp_dustbowl,  cp_freight, cp_labor, ctf_2fort, ctf_mach4, ctf_well, pl_goldrush, pl_badwater

This was the map pool as we used it in season 4. We want to incorporate some changes for season 5. We’ve chosen 2 of the least played maps in season 4: ctf_well and pl_badwater, and nominated them for removal. Also, we are considering moving cp_freight to the primary map pool. You can vote for, or against these changes in the polls below.

Also, in season 4, division 1 played exclusively with maps from the primary map pool, on their request. We are considering expanding this to division 2. Every division 2 team has the right to cast a vote: whether they solely want to play maps from the primary map pool (= like division 1 in season 4), or also those from the secondary map pool (= what it is now for most divs) . Each team can vote 1 time in the topic found here [Link].

Another thing we’ve heard some people ask for, is fixed maps, set by the league, instead of maps chosen by the players themselves. These calls came especially from the higher divisions. Therefor we have decided to hold another set of polls for this: 1 for division 1, and another for division 2. Again, each team can cast 1 vote, for or against fixed maps. Division 1 teams can vote here: [Link] Division 2 teams can vote here [Link] .

We will decide over the fate of the mapping contest maps once the mapping contest has ended.

Fun cup status

Highlander cup

We are already at the semi finals of our second highlander cup.

At the one side we have Jari Litmanen vs  FakkelBrigade. And in the other semi finals it’s  Hey that’s vs  LOL Team highlander. These 4 teams will be fighting on  pl_goldrush, pl_hoodoo and possibly cp_dustbowl. Let’s hope they schedule these matches soon, so we can enjoy some fine action before season 5 starts. The match deadline is Wednesday the 22nd.

Instagib CTF cup

This cup is also at the semi finals.  You can see  ripulipimpsat vs  impressive and   [GC] vs  Superior Cows. Maps for this round are ctf_greystone, ctf_turbine and as possible decider ctf_impact2. Enjoy the action! The match deadline is Wednesday the 22nd.

Bball cup #2

This cup is also almost finished. Haircut and Sailor have already made their way to the final, while   .pt and  Blackxploitation are fighting for the other place in the finals. Let’s shoot some hoops! The match deadline is Wednesday the 22nd.

Scout 2on2 cup

After some delay, when the arena mode became unusable, this cup is resuming its course.Round 2 is over, and we’re going into round 3. Here are the details:

• Schedule deadline: Sunday 19 april
• Match deadline: Wednesday 22 april
• 3rd round maps: 1. cp_granary, 2. cp_badlands, 3. ctf_well

Season 4 playoffs reminder

With Season 5 drawing close, we don’t have much time for the season 4 playoffs left. Please remember that the initial deadline for all playoff matches is wednesday the 22nd.  If you are having problems with these playoffs, or think you’re not able to make this deadline, please contact an admin soon.

Season 5 full

The first 250 teams signed up for season 5 after only 3 days of signups. For now, every new team signing up will remain on the waiting list.

There are a few teams on the waiting list who haven’t entered their skill level. Teams without a skill level set will not be admitted into season 5. If this affects you, please set your skill level in the team admin menu [Link]

Another one banned

Sadly, we had to ban yet another player, but this time for another reason.

Javilee has been banned for 2 months for racism.

50 € Soldier 1on1 Cup: Sign-Ups starting

Finally our first prize money competition is starting today! Who is the best duel soldier in Europe? Up to 256 players will fight for the golden icon trophy and a total cash of 50 Euros! Don’t miss the Sign-Ups, starting today at 20:00 CEST!

Details

• 50 € prize money for the winner
• Slots: 256
• Gamemode: Best of 1 Round, Winlimit 30 (first one reaching 30 points wins; if tied @ 29:29 you have to keep playing until one player has +2 points to his opponent)
• Map: duel_duel2_pro
• Schedule: strict 1 match per week rhythmus

Sign-Up Instructions

1. Create a team here. Choose 1v1 as team type.
2. Enter at least two contact methods
3. Sign Up here

ETF2L Mapping Contest: Submissions

With some delay I am happy to announce 12 maps have been submitted for our Mapping Contest. The amount and quality of the maps is amazing! A very big thanks to all mappers who put much effort in their work. Hopefully some maps will bring some freshness in competitive TF2 gaming.

A judge of known players (like F2, nvc, Renegade) will reduce the submissions to a Top 5 which is hopefully done by coming Sunday. After that there will be another phase (which isn’t decided yet) to decide the winner. The winner map will be part of upcoming ETF2L competitions and will get its own 1-Day-Cup – also some other sort of prizes are in the discuss…

Submissions

• cp_trainstation_a7 by NameLess [link will follow]
• cp_generator_b1 by M@sters
• cp_worselands_b8 by Arnold
• cp_yukon_rc by MangyCarface
• cp_fool_hill_a5 by Randdalf
• cp_waste_b2 by Icarus
• cp_energy_b2 by The_Pwnisher
• cp_follower_rc1 by Vilepickle
• cp_greenvalley_b4a by tarmo-
• cp_afterdusk_b2 by ForgottenCake
• cp_resonance_b8 by Scorpio Uprising
• cp_outlaw_b1 by jaaksa

Season 4 awards: Poll Phase

The nomination phase ended last Sunday, thanks to all people who took part and made their nominations. Now it’s time for the official public poll phase which will decide the award winners. All polls will close Sunday night – winners and player of the season poll will be announced on Monday. Have fun voting!

• [Public Polls]

Season 5 starts here

Yes that’s right. This might come as a surprise to most of you. Let me explain the details.

Originally, we had planned to host the 5th cup before the summer, but such a cup generally takes up a lot of time (2 weeks per match, 7 matches with 128 teams = 14 weeks). We wouldn’t have been able to finish it properly before the summer kicked in. We’ve also noticed there is a bit of a gap league-wise in the last period before the summer, with only a bit of league action. We have decided to fill that gap with our 5th season.

The League is the ETF2L’s main event. Teams of 6 players fight each other in a division-based system, with teams grouped in division by skill level. Our last season, season 4 had 250 teams signed up. That sure made for a fun and interesting league. Will we be able to repeat that this time?

So, what can you expect from us for this season? It will in great lines be the same as the last season. There will be a few changes. The following details will be addressed:

Rule changes for season 5

• Gravelpit: Change to ABBA style. This means, if team A starts attacking on the first round, then team B will start attacking on the second round.
• Map Pool changes: Some redundant maps will be removed, perhaps there will be some shifts in between the primary/secondary mappool, like freight. Also, if the mapping contest ends in time, the winner will be at least added to the secondary map pool. The final map pool will be announced later.
• 1st/2nd mappool:  Division 1 will continue with choosing only maps from the primary mappool as they requested last season. We will hold a poll for division 2 about this as well. For the other divisions, the primary/secondary mappool structure will remain as it is now.
• We will introduce a new winlimit: If, during a game,  the difference in points is 5 or more, that map is over. This is with scores like 5-0, 6-1, 7-2 etc. This rule is in effect on linear cp maps only (cp_badlands, cp_granary etc.). Capture the flag maps, payload maps and AvD maps (dustbowl, gravelpit) will not be affected.

Of course if you have any other ideas/suggestions for the coming season, feel free to speak your mind. We have taken in account the suggestions posted in this thread, but if you feel you have anything else to contribute, don’t hesitate to let us know.

Season 5 dates

• Signups open: 12-04, 20:00 CEST (today)
• Signups close: 26-04
• Provisional divisions: 30-04
• Final divisions: 04-05
• Map picks start: 05-05
• Matchweek 1 start: 11-05
• …
• Matchweek 9 start: 06-07
• Matchweek 9 end: 19-07

This will also mean we probably won’t have time to play playoff matches at the end of the season. If necessary, playoffs will be held after the summer, somewhere before the start of season 6.

More details and polls will follow in the coming week.

>>>[Signup page]<<<

(every team, once signed up,  will end up on the waiting list untill his team is checked by an admin)

5th cup canceled

With season 5 starting, we can’t have the 5th cup starting at the same time, as it would get a bit busy. So this competition is canceled until further notice. We will probably start the 5th cup after the summer.

Impersonating admins

We have recently noticed  some people impersonating members of our admin staff. For those people: consider yourself warned. We take this very seriously. If we see this kind of behaviour after today, it will be punished as we see fit.

Jokes were made throughout the community about silence around the anti-cheat team. It took us a bit longer this time, because we uncovered a new way of tracking cheaters and stumbled upon a lot more than we could have expected. All playoffs and season places affected by this will be adjusted accordingly, as soon as possible. I will keep it short because the list itself is quite long. The following players have all received a ban of 1 year from all ETF2L activities.

• Kondor – Aimbot
• Tack – Aimbot
• Abra – Aimbot
• Blow – Aimbot
• Duracell – Aimbot
• Pikalash – Wallhack
• Nighthawk – Aimbot
• Sraam – Aimbot
• Berg – Aimbot
• Hohenheim – Aimbot
• Fyr – Aimbot
• Vicii – Aimbot

While researching one of the above mentioned cheaters, we ran into this guy who was using a very blatant aim bot. He is not registered at etf2l (yet), but we decided to be safe in this case and ban him in advance.

• “cN exzntrc” STEAM_0:0:20225226

We sincerely hope this is the last time we have to act on cheating, but we will definitely keep our eyes open.

Happy Easter to everyone & have fun reading these announcements from our official Season 4 sponsor SteelSeries – maybe you will win WoW!

SteelSeries partners with Team Evil Geniuses

COPENHAGEN, April 7th, 2009 – SteelSeries, the leading manufacturer of gaming peripherals and accessories, today announced its sponsorship of Evil Geniuses (Team EG), North America’s premier professional gaming organization.

First founded in 1999, Evil Geniuses is North America’s premier professional gaming team. With more than 50 players from both the United States and Canada, Team EG truly consists of the finest gaming talent North America has to offer, in a wide range of games such as Counter-Strike, DotA, Guitar Hero, Quake, Unreal Tournament, and World of WarCraft. Over the years Team EG players have accumulated numerous podium placements at the world’s most prestigious eSports tournaments.

“No other gaming organization in North America has accomplished as much as Team EG; add to that an ever-growing global fanbase, and it is a logical choice for us to sponsor them,” said Kim Rom, VP of Marketing for SteelSeries. “We’re really happy to expand our operations in North America with professional gamers experienced enough to help us shape, design and develop gaming products, something that will be evident in our upcoming gaming mouse, which has been developed in coordination with such players as fRoD, Storm, and Warden.”

“We are very excited and grateful for the opportunity to represent SteelSeries, both in North America and around the world,” said Alexander Garfield, Executive Director of Team EG. “Based on past experiences, our players prefer SteelSeries products and are thus very excited about this partnership. Not only will our players receive the advantage of that extra competitive edge that SteelSeries’ professional gaming products provide, but also, the experience and wisdom of such a valuable partner will be crucial to the continuing evolution of our brand. We’re also looking forward to coordinating with SteelSeries and helping to develop cutting-edge professional gaming products.”

SteelSeries’ sponsorship of Team EG will be effective immediately, pairing up the professional-grade engineering and design quality from SteelSeries provides with the top eSports professionals in North America. Team EG players will be equipped with SteelSeries mice, mouse pads, keyboards, and headsets for both practice and tournament competitions. More information about Team EG at www.myEG.net.

SteelSeries announcing Facebook Contest

SteelSeries is announcing an exciting four week contest on our Facebook site together with Brady Games, Jinx and Upperdeck, giving away the Ultimate World of Warcraft Prize Pack to one fan once a week during April.

Each package consists of:

• World of Warcraft MMO Gaming Mouse
• SteelSeries Zboard Limited Edition Keyset (Wrath of the Litch King^TM)
• Zboard Gaming Keyboard
• SteelSeries 5C Limited Edition Mouse Pad (Frost Wyrm Exclusive)
• SteelSeries Qck Limited Edition Mouse Pad (Lich King Exclusive)
• Wrath of the Litch King Strategy Guide (www.bradygames.com)
• World of Warcraft® Atlas Set (www.bradygames.com)
• $100 World of Warcraft® Apparel Gift Certificate (www.jinx.com)
• World of Warcraft® Trading Card Game – Drums of War 2 Player Starter Set (www.upperdeck.com)
• World of Warcraft Miniatures Core Set Booster (www.upperdeck.com)

To enter, simply become a fan of SteelSeries on Facebook. Our page is located here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SteelSeries/6132634021