Spike Himself, our site coder, decided to quit the admin staff because he has lost interest in Team Fortress 2 (again) and with that also lost motivation to dedicate his spare time towards the league. We wish him all the best and are grateful for everything he did. You are welcome back at any time, buddy.

On the bright side, we are saying hello to no less than 3 (!) new admins:

• Miek, who will take over as webmaster
• Phife, who will mainly support our 6v6 staff
• Maniac, who has joined as a highlander admin

The best way to contact them (or any other admin) is through IRC.

Ban:

VAC has claimed another victim. As a result of general rule 6.5,  Thalash is banned for 1 year. If the VAC ban turns out to be false, the ban will, of course, be lifted.

You waited long enough for this and it is now time to finally announce it: The third ETF2L 6v6 Nations Cup will kick off in July 2012. As usual, all players from all countries are welcome but please note that the matches will have to be played on European servers at European times. Here are some basic information for the team captains-to-be.

• For the eligibility to play for a country we are looking separately at every player on the rosters. We may ask for proof of the eligibility of a player when in doubt (e.g. a scan of the ID)
• The rosters have to be finalised about one week before the tournament starts and will be approved by the admin staff (more information on this when the exact schedule has been decided)
• Rosters will be locked during the tournament, adding new players is only possible with admin approval
• Mercs will not be allowed and all rosters need to consist of at least 8 eligible players
• If you have doubts if you are allowed to play for a certain country please ask an admin
• If a player does not have approval from the admin staff and is considered ineligible to play for a country he or she risks a league ban and disqualification of his or her national team

The setup is not final yet. All team captains will be invited to work out the details with the admins in a separate forum in early June. We have, however, given thought to some points already.

Team captains can apply from now until Saturday, June 2. We are aiming to announce all captains the day after, on Sunday, June 3. Only applications via email to staff@etf2l.org will be considered.

 Highlander Nations Cup Updates

Here are the last missing captains. They have now access to the Nations Cup Captain forum and are welcome to participate in the discussion on remaining issues.

•   Switzerland: octochris
• Latvia: atomic
• Norway: Bungle
• Poland:  Mikki
• United States of America:  sherman_gluck &  Br0nze
  
• Canada:  jabu69
• South Africa:  Pynklùùùnningen

 Highlander Admin Call

With Beef taking things a bit slower in the next weeks/months/years (he is not leaving, just switching to more of an “observer role”!) we are running a bit short of highlander staff. If you ever wanted to help maintaining and improving the Highlander competitions at ETF2L do not hesitate to apply via email to staff@etf2l.org.

Your application should include the following information:

• Name
• Current residence
• Age
• Spoken languages
• Previous experience (optional)
• Short letter of motivation (Why do you want to be an admin?)
• ETF2L profile link

Claim your prizes!

There are still two teams that have not yet claimed their prizes for competitions such as the Saffron Cup and 6v6 Season 11, both sponsored by Tt eSPORTS. Namely, we are talking about  Crack Clan and  Perilous Gaming. They have time until June 3 2012 to send the shipment info (one name and address) via email to staff@etf2l.org or the prizes expire.

Just some reminders that we think are helpful and necessary, for both new teams and teams that are playing their 13th season.

• Teams will receive minor warnings for unplayed matches after the deadline unless they requested an admin on IRC for an extension.
  • The warnings can be removed if one team leader contacts an admin after the results are submitted and verified.
• Missing status screenshots are worth one minor warning at the first occurrence and a major warning if your team fails to add status screenshots to a match a second time.
  • These warnings can, again, be removed by adding a correct status screenshot and contacting an admin on IRC.
• Status screenshots need to be uploaded as jpg, gif or png but under no circumstances a bmp file. We suggest to use the command “jpeg” instead of “screenshot” and to set  jpeg_quality 85 before you take the screenshot.
  • Do not alter the screenshots (mark anything or cut out the steam ids). From the publication of this newspost on any status screenshot that can not be read by our parsing script will be punished with a minor or major warning.
• Missing screenshots can be added via the Add Screenshots tab in the admin panel.

S12 Prizes Update

Our anonymous donor has struck again, this time putting up £300 for the winner of the Premier Division playoffs this season!

Highlander Tie-Breakers

Congratulations to SNSD for winning the ETF2L Highlander League, again! Congratulations as well to the runners-up!

1. SNSD
2. 27
3. May Contain Nuts

Tie-breakers are needed in a total of five divisions to determine which team advances to the higher division or is relegated to the lower. The matches are listed below. Please play all matches within two weeks (Deadline May 26, 2012). Also, the coloured rows showin who is promoted and who is demoted have been added to the tables (better late than never, right?)

All tie-breakers are played in a best-of-three series. This means that if Badwater, Upward or Barnblitz are picked you only play these maps once as attacker and once as defender (best-of-one), not in a best-of-three series as during the season. The map pool for the map elimination process is:

• Badwater
• Foundry
• Lakeside
• Upward
• Barnblitz

Maps will be chosen using an elimination process. Both teams eliminate a map. Then both teams select 1 map from the remaining pool of 3 that they wish to play. The last remaining map will be the final map to be played.

Division 1

• colony vs Chior Tai

Division 4F

• WeWantFun vs haylander

Division 5D

• Division of Justice vs FUS RO DAH

Division 6D

• Derpalicious Mentalmen vs Ok, dobra.

Division 6P

• itsallgood vs mods.de Community-Team

Saffron Cup Final

After a lot of hesitation, the two finalists of the ETF2L Saffron Cup managed to play their match within the given deadlines. HmtraHreH`s won, and are now going home with six Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-UNIT Keyboards. Runners-up Perilous Gaming get six Tt eSPORTS Battle Dragon Bags. To claim the prize one representative of each team needs to send an email to staff@etf2l.org, containing the shipment information (one name and address). The prizes for both finalists were donated to the cup by Season 11 winners  Team Infused.

Highlander Captains

The application deadline for the Highlander Nations Cup captaincies will be met on Saturday, May 19. If your country has no captain yet and you feel you are the right person to represent your team, make sure to apply until then to staff@etf2l.org.

All matches with a missing result after this deadline will be nullified.

ESH Action Tonight

The Velociraptor Challenge is nearing its final stages over on Esports Heaven. Tonight’s main game is the best-of-3 Upper Bracket Final between  Team Infused and  Crack Clan. As usual, our friends at VanillaTV will be casting the match, featuring  Comedian on the stream and fan favourites  Arx&Beta providing the commentary.

Tune in from 21.15 CEST onwards for what should be a thrilling encounter!

Rule Change

Inactive teams have always caused an upset for teams that were eager to play their matches. Unfortunately, we could only remove the inactive teams from the league when they collected their third default loss, because many did not bother to tell us they were folding. We have decided to reduce the disappointment now by removing inactive teams earlier. From now on, the second consecutive noshow of a team will lead to a drop. The rest of Rule 1.5 remains untouched, teams with one or fewer noshows will still be dropped with their third default loss. As usual, you should read the General Rules as well as the Season 12 Rules before you play your first match.

The reworked rule reads:

1.5 Teams with more than 2 Default Losses or the second noshow in a row will be expelled from the Season

If a team receives a third Default Loss or does not show up for a match twice in a row, they will be expelled from the league for the running season.

Prizes

As last season, Tt eSPORTS again generously provides us with hardware prizes for our 6v6 Season 12 powered by Tt eSPORTS. The distribution is as follows:

Premiership winner:

6x Tt eSPORTS MEKA G-UNIT Keyboard

6x Tt eSPORTS Battle Dragon Bag

Premiership runner-up:

6x Tt eSPORTS THERON mouse

6x Tt eSPORTS LADON mousepad

Premiership third-place finisher:

6x Tt eSPORTS SHOCK headset

Division 1 winner:

6x Tt eSPORTS DASHER mousepad

More Highlander Captains

Some new captains have been decided for their national teams:

•  DRookie
•  Tarkus
•  Kardanadam
•  punct
•  M2R
•  Sabr
•  Poop
•  (Egypt) WildEast
•  pl0
•  atmo
•  userid_ivan
•  mortiii
•  PingWIN
•  Flippy
•  wrock

All the captains have been given access to the NC forum and can help us decide the specifics of the cup! We’re still accepting applicants for nations that have not been decided in this or the previous post.

As you probably already know, tonight sees the Highlander Showmatch featuring the players of  Team Infused, Epsilon eSports and Crack Clan. This crackling infusion of epsilonic bravery is going to be casted by VanillaTV, starting at 20:00 CEST. Tune in to see which motley crew will earn themselves a handsome £450, and keep an eye out for the viewer competition to be in with a chance of winning £50 yourself!

A few changes to the teams:

• Team A – TviQ replaces KnOxXx on Heavy and TheSucker replaces Royze on Sniper
• Team B – Thy replaces Retshock on Sniper

Highlander Nations Cup

The following players have been approved as captain of their national team:

•  Hildreth
•  beef
•  Haunter
•  TheSucker
•  Zoob
•  Thy
•  skeej
•  irfx
•  erebus
•  esk
•  Netsky

Applications for these countries are now closed.

We have also received applications for following nations, but they are still being reviewed: Belarus, Estonia, France (2), Poland (2), Latvia (2), Israel (2), USA (2), Romania, Croatia, Turkey & Italy. We still accept applications for these countries and all the others that are not listed here. Send yours to staff@etf2l.org

Please note that only national team rosters of captains approved of will be considered official. All other rosters created to this point will not be considered national team rosters. To decide the remainder of the details of this cup, the captains will be invited in a private etf2l-subforum where they can take part in our discussions.

As for the setup of this cup we will not be allowing mercenaries, there will be no restriction on the amount of players from one team and the matches will be played at fixed dates or at semi-fixed dates where only a limited amount of time slots will be available for scheduling. This should ensure a timely finish of the cup and make for a better experience for the spectators. Additionally this will make the combination with the 6v6 nations cup feasible. We therefore encourage the captains to make a large roster and will probably set a high minimum player count (15) on the rosters. These rules are all not set in stone yet, feedback is welcome in the feedback thread.

Most likely we will only be running the group stages in June, with a playoff stage at a later time.

Dignitas Alienware Cup!

This Sunday, 29th of April, marks the start of the cup. £100 will be given to the winner, followed by £50 for the second place and third and fourth both receiving £25 each. Signups are open for everyone. At this moment 14 teams have already signed up. Up to 32 teams can take part. What you have to do exactly and other relevant information can be found here.

The Season 12 division tables are live! You can find them here.

Week 1 starts this Sunday, April 29th. Default dates will be handed out on Friday April 27th, so please start scheduling your week 1 match right away!

Highlander Nations Cup Captains – We Need You!

We have in fact contacted some people we considered the obvious choice to be captain. But we have yet to make a final decision on any captain, and applications for most countries are still open (some captains have been chosen, we will announce them later). You can apply by sending an email to staff@etf2l.org, explaining who you are, which country you represent and why you think you are the right choice for captain.

Those interested in the 6v6 Nations Cup fear not, we should have some details soon! We are currently considering a similar captains system, and will announce the final setup when we are happy with it.

Also…

We have a Facebook page, give us some love!

Highlander Showmatch

Last but not least we have the final rosters for Wednesday’s upcoming Highlander Showmatch!

• TEAM A
• TEAM B
• randa – Scout
• Mike – Scout
• longas – Soldier
• dunc – Soldier
• flisko – Pyro
• schocky - Pyro
• Pescanova - Demoman
• F2 - Demoman
• KnOxXx - Heavy
• matnuN  – Heavy
• GeaR - Engineer
• basH - Engineer
• numlocked - Medic
• wltrs - Medic
• Royze - Sniper
• Retsh0ck – Sniper
• Greg – Spy
• cookye - Spy

First of all of course the topic everyone was waiting for: The provisional divisions! Complaints should be directed to an admin in private, praise can be posted in our public forum, as usual. Please also note that the divisions are still subject to change and the final divisions will be released on Sunday, when more information about the upcoming season should also be released.

Season 12: Map Schedule

Week 1: cp_badlands & cp_gullywash_final1
Week 2: cp_gullywash_final1 & cp_granary
Week 3: cp_granary & cp_snakewater
Week 4: cp_snakewater & cp_gravelpit
Week 5: cp_gravelpit & cp_badlands
Week 6: cp_ badlands & cp_obscure_final
Week 7: cp_obscure_final & gullywash_final1

Staff Changes

ETF2L has always tried to have more than one active Head Admin on staff, so that no important decision could pass with just one person’s approval. Sadly due to RaCio‘s ongoing inactivity it has become time to assign a new Head Admin to fill the gap. It is no secret that CanFo has been crucial in keeping the wheels of ETF2L turning, this very post announcing him as the new Head Admin is a testimony to that. He had to be the one pushing for someone to write some kind words about him, to quote himself: “[...] and someone needs to write a little text that praises me in an appropriate manner”. Congratulations on the promotion!

500 Pound Sterling for the Highlander Showmatch

You may have heard about the Highlander Showmatch on April 25 that features all players from Europe’s top 3 6v6 teams  Team Infused,  Epsilon eSports and Crack Clan. If you have not, you can still take part in the decision process for who plays which class.

As a little incentive to take the match a bit more seriously, a generous anonymous (and most likely mystical, maybe even a bit shadowy) person has donated £500 towards this match. We do not want to betray too much for now but we will include a viewer competition. More on the use of the prize pot in a later post!

Highlander Season 2: Catch-up week

We are approaching the last play week of the second ETF2L Highlander Season. With many matches still unplayed (ಠ_ಠ Division 1 teams) we are giving everyone one extra week to schedule and play their matches if both teams agree. The final deadline for all matches is May 6 06:00 CEST. Please note that no default dates are set to any day after the week 5 deadline (April 28), if you want to use the catch up week you need to schedule the match(es) yourselves.

As usual, wildcards are not allowed during the last play week, which starts this Sunday (April 22nd). If your opponent uses a wildcard, please either agree to a reschedule on the match page or make them aware that the old schedule is still valid, and that they should contact an admin to sort out the situation.

Highlander Nations Cup!

Some of you have noticed that we have added a new team-type, the National Highlander Team. The rumours are true, we are planning a Highlander Nations Cup that will most likely run in June. We are, as always, willing to experiment with this cup. For example we are thinking about running this with fixed playdates, so as to run similar to a real world cup – and make the combination with a 6v6 Nations Cup possible. Please direct all your comments on what the map pool, the unlocks ruleset and scheduling type should be to our feedback forum.

At the moment, we are looking for volunteers to become Team Captains of their respective countries. To be considered the true representative of your nation, you will need the approval of the Highlander admin team. Candidates should drop an email to staff@etf2l.org to claim captaincy. Players who have proven themselves in previous Highlander seasons as reliable leaders and have a good reputation in the scene will have priority over those who do not.

Wireplay 9v9 Season 1

Still not enough Highlander? The Wireplay Team Fortress 2 League is opening the signups for their very first Highlander League. Maps and unlocks are still to be decided and your feedback is appreciated.

• Deadline for signups: May 4
• Start of week 1: May 14

For more information visit the Wireplay page or ask the friendly admin staff around b0nes (not the one from the movies but not less awesome) on IRC in #wptf2l.

The Teams:

Team A	vs.	Team B
Greg  flisko  numlocked         knoxxx  Gear  randa    royze  pescanova  longas	Team Infused              Epsilon eSports               CrackClan	cookye  mike  dunc    wltrs  schocky  F2    Retshock  matnun  bash

Some of you may now be wondering how the classes each player will play are decided, well they will be decided by you the ETF2L user base, there is a poll in this post where you can vote for each player to play any of the 9 classes, my only plea is that you look at the 9 players in each team and select a starting lineup for each team (don’t vote everyone to play Spy).  Each players class will be chosen by the highest number of votes, however if that players highest is lower than anothers, then none of those votes will count and we will look down the list to see which class is next appropriate.

As for maps the match will be run as a best of three, on badwater, viaduct and an undecided 3rd map.

The Votes:

Team A:

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll. Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

Team B:

The vote will end at the end of week, so please get your votes in.

The poll has been closed, the Season 12 map pool is as follows:

• cp_badlands
• cp_granary
• cp_gullywash_final1
• cp_snakewater
• cp_obscure_final
• cp_gravelpit

And for those who are interested, the full poll results are as follows:

• cp_obscure_final (the snowy one) – 496 votes (49.7% of voters picked this)
• cp_gravelpit – 428 (42.9%)
• cp_croissant (latest version) – 345 (34.6%)
• ctf_turbine_pro (rules tba) – 300 (30.1%)
• cp_foundry – 284 (28.5%)
• Total voters (and votes) – 997 (1853)

While we are relieved at avoiding the work of creating turbine rules, a number of us are surprised to see obscure make such an emphatic return to ETF2L. Stay tuned for the full Season 12 map schedule, we should have that finalised by tomorrow.

ESH Reminders

Signups are still open for the Velociraptor Challenge, starting tomorrow night. We are delighted to see that 39 teams are now signed up (with a further 4 pending steamids), which means that even if we don’t meet our target of 64, we will still run the cup! For more details on the cup, click here. To ignore those details and just sign up(!), click here. For  huhy‘s handy how-to-sign-up guide, click here.

Stay tuned for our next post, it should be enough to satisfy even the biggest poll addicts…