The Highlander Community Challenge
August 9, 2010
Oh boy, it’s really happening. The rules have been rewritten, the ladder has been climbed (it works) and we nearly created our very own version of Valve Time, but now we are thrilled to announce that the Highlander Community Challenge is a go!
And what exactly is this, we hear you ask? Well check out our fantastic and visually pleasing Highlander Community Challenge Page! It contains all the basics about what exactly the Highlander format is, and essential (light) reading for all who want to get involved.
This tournament is meant for people who are new to competitive play, a competition to find the very best pub team. That said, we understand that many Division 6 teams are community teams, so they will be eligible to take part. Much like the World Cup, the tournament will kick off with a Group Phase designed so that all teams involved will have the chance to play some exciting games. After the Group Phase the best two teams from each group will engage in a straight knock-out cup as we progress on in our journey to discover, and reward, the very best Pub team in Europe.
But wait, there’s more! To launch the Highlander tournament, we’re offering a once in a lifetime opportunity to team up with some of the very best competitive players and some of the Valve TF2 staff to play in a special exhibition game, in what will be a thrilling example of the many exciting matches that we’ll see in the competition.
So When Is It Starting?
Good question! The tournament will start in September but the signups are open as we speak. These signups will be open for a month so there’s plenty of time to create and enter your team. The exact dates are as follows:
- Signups open: Now (Your team leader will have to sign your team up – for more info check out the FAQ)
- Signups close: Thursday 26th of August
- Final divisions announced: Sunday 29th of August
- Schedule deadline for week 1 matches: Sunday the 5th of September
- Week 1 start: Sunday the 12th of September
You said something about a Ladder?
For those of you who can’t wait to play some Highlander games we have created an exciting ladder competition where you can find and play all kinds of opponents. Of course you can organize practice matches against future opponents for the Highlander challenge, but there’s also the option to challenge the very veterans of competitive TF2 as every team will be free to join the ladder. Sign up now everyone!
Update: We’re thrilled to have received such a fantastic response from the public community, thanks! The 160 slots we had for the competition filled up so quickly that we’re looking at expanding the tournament so more and more teams can play, so please keep signing up! Check back on ETF2L for more news coming shortly.
Huh, ETF2L?! How does this work?
For those of you who are new to ETF2L and our community, please allow us to introduce ourselves! We’re a friendly bunch of players who all share a similar love of playing TF2 competitively. The ETF2L is run for the community, by the community. We hope our website is intuitive to use, but let us help you get started.
To sign up for the tournament you will need to be part of a complete Highlander team of 10 to 14 players. Your leader can then sign your team up for the tournament. For detailed information about the website and ETF2L or Highlander rules please head over to the Rules Page. The FAQ section will explain everything about making accounts, teams and signing them up for tournaments. On the Rules Page you will also find the full list of maps you will get to play, and includes all time favourites like Badwater, new maps like Upward and solid competitive maps like Gravel Pit.
The Forums are great way to talk about TF2, competitive play and the upcoming tournament. To discuss anything about the tournament you can check out the Highlander Section of our Forums. Don’t have a team yet, or are you looking for more players to join your team? Be sure to check out the Highlander Recruitment Section.
Even though this is an European league we will welcome players from other regions with open arms. We will even try to place you into the same groups to ease the process of scheduling matches with your opponents. Against European opponents however, you will have to play on European servers at European times. The usual playing time for ETF2L matches is Sunday’s from 20:00-21:30 CET. Make sure you are willing to (and can!) play at such times and on European servers before you sign up.
If you still can’t find the answer to a question or if you have any problem, then the quickest way to get into contact with an admin is to join our IRC channel #etf2l, and type “!admin highlander” to get hold of someone who will help out. A guide to using IRC can be found here.
A word of thanks
Many people have assisted in making this great tournament possible by supplying us with translations, advertisement and many other things. We would like to express our thanks to all of them. A special highlight goes out to the following people who have put a lot of time in realising this tournament:
Populus89 – Creator of the medals
Flsh – Designer of the Highlander Landing page
Ashkan – Manager of the ‘Highlander Team Leaders‘ steam community group
Joe – Co-writer of the landing page
That’s all for now, be sure to keep checking ETF2L.org for the latest updates on The Highlander Challenge and many other interesting news posts. You can also get all the updates by subscribing to our RSS Feed and by following us on Twitter!
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content rss
WOOOOooo
Yes FLSH
Great looking highlander page! A lot of work has clearly gone into this.
Good luck!
Finally, I hope best of luck to everyone participating!
weee
awesome!!
very nice gl to all involved
gl
The medal is kind of disappointing, but I’ll still fight for it.
Awesome work guys! TF2 is growing as we speak, time for it to conquer the world!
Nice . GL to all teams
Good job flsh + joe
Stage 1 of the peoples republic conquest is now Complete ehehe
Is this real or am I dreaming?
Nice initiative! Good job Racio and the admin crew!
NICE. Good job ETF2L and Valve.
eXtv will definitely be looking to cover matches from this tournament. out collaborative powers are increasing so it shouldn’t be a problem getting fairly quick turn a round on some Highlander highlights.
Though I’m a lil sad the highlander page has the capitalization completely opposite ExTV instead of eXtv. MUSTA BEEN THAT DAMN CAPSLOCK BUTTON.
Glad this is finally happening. :)
It says on the rules that no div5+ people can play, does that include AFS?
Great to see this finally happening.
team with shintaz will win
wooo0000 nice :) gl ;)
nice :)
2.1.1 Participants: Only players that are new to competitive play or playing in division 6
nooooooooooooooooo :<
[…] tut sich endlich mal wieder was in Sachen ETF2L-Highlander-Community-Challenge. Es wird Ernst. Die Signups sind offen, die Maps und Regeln […]
Woooot :)
Pha-pha
@Kira! (kipa): xen
2.1.5 Each team is allowed to have one Buddy
Just read the rules properly!
“It says on the rules that no div5+ people can play, does that include AFS?”
No, that only applies to season 5, 6 and 7. Copy from the rules:
“The tournament is meant for new and casual players. Players that have played in division 5 or higher in season 5, 6 or 7 (or the equivalent in any other league), are not allowed to participate, other than as a buddy. Breaking this rule will lead to penalties for the whole team.”
What happened to the cool medal designs? :(
Did someone say Highlander?
Proscreenshot, wonder who gave the idea for that angle :P .
Also we’ll need some rules for upward, what with it being rather exploitable at the moment.
[…] http://etf2l.org/2010/08/09/the-high…ity-challenge/ Geit HellJack You are a: […]
>>xerxes: n2o said:
>>2.1.5 Each team is allowed to have one Buddy
>>
>>Just read the rules properly!
lol i saw that, i mean that we can`t create/use our highlander+ team
Why cant sign in i wanna join!
“lol i saw that, i mean that we can`t create/use our highlander+ team”
Of course you can’t, i guess being raped by a group of pro player isn’t a good introduction to competitive play.
Good job etf2l on that event and creating your “own” valve time give you some credits from pub players :)
Btw 160 slots is not enough, with some advert on tf2 blog and jabber on all pub forums till the 26th you can have waaaay more than 160 teams.
[…] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Balazs Rosta, ETF2L. ETF2L said: The Highlander Community Challenge: Oh boy, it’s really happening. The rules have been rewritten, the ladder has b… http://bit.ly/akxY8u […]
This is niiiicccee
<3
wooop :)
cool 8)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lgoXUzIwXk0
Question for you folks: are Americans such as myself allowed to partake in this challenge or is it exclusive to Europeans?
“Even though this is an European league we will welcome players from other regions with open arms.”
Yay, was worried it would start while I was on vacation., but Sept start is great. Looking forward to the competition.
BTW, can we change the team roster after we sign up? Our team is a bit fuzzy currently, but there is already 86/160 teams on the comp and we don’t want to miss it. Thanks.
Yes you can modify your roster as you like. The important thing is get signed up and join the ladder for some practice games.
This looks awesome and huge props to all the guys who help made the promo page.
good medal
good medal respect for men who made this
Woohoo, we gonna do some pr0 Team Fortressin’
160 slots is not enough
+1
There’ll be much more teams!
Hey will be on a server or something. Please tell me IP.
FPSItalia(.org, NOT .com) offers itself for the italian TV AND News coverage. Is Jimmy still the reference? Please let us know who to speak with.
167/160 at time of posting
Open two days and its already over subscribed. GJ admins :D
“160 slots is not enough”
+1 (if its possable to sort over that many into groups)
Too bad us Australians will miss out.
Where did Highlander originate from?
Joilet, contact me. You’ve already had replies from me so check your inbox, otherwise pm me on IRC :)
When will the signups be open again?
Mentalistic, just continue to sign up as normal.
Improve it to 320 slots, and this’ll cause only plus one round at the playoff phase.
@Dave thanks, will do.
I bet there will be a scottish clan in this league. TCM: The Connor MacLeod clan!
Shit, that would have been an amazing idea!
i want highlander
Can a player play this cup if he was in a div5 team but did not play any game? (He joined the team between the seasons)
Я русский и не знаю как зарегестрировать кооманду скажите мне пожалуйста ;(
I’m Russian and i don’t know how to registred my team, help me plz!
[…] 8 members for the Highlander Community Challenge by VALVe and ETF2L. Details – Team Fortress 2 The Highlander Community Challenge | ETF2L If you are interested, please post your STEAM Community Page URL and the CLASSES you can play with […]
I really Wish I could Sign up!! But I don’t know how to. Nothing will tell me how to sign up for this AWSOME event. Can someone tell me how to sign up? I really want to sign up for this event.
Mr. Alien you can follow the instructions here to set up your account with a steam ID. Once you have done this, follow the instructions on the same page that tell you how to register a team. Then you will need to get the rest of your teammates to sign up, or you can post in the Highlander Recruiting forum asking for a team or for more players if you don’t have any. Please also check out the Highlander FAQ, it contains answers to many frequently asked questions about the tournament.
AWzUM!
Ok hold up, when i’m trying to enter my steamID it says must be X:X:XXXXXXXX what does that mean?
Sucks that signups opened instantly without any kind of preparation. Lots of people were maybe away and did not get a chance.
Could have been an announcement now and signup open in a week.
Weyzer: They still have 2 weeks left to sign up, and they’ll get to participate. I don’t see any problems.
[…] Highlander Community Challenge FYI, signups end 8/26 (13 days) so stop talking and get serious updated info Also, one team can consist of 14 teams. […]
heya!! lets play!
what is name server or iP
This will be fun!
i will be there :S when it will be?!?
I lost permisson to the signup page :O
How do I sign up?! D:
how do i add players and register a team for the challenge? BTW i’m still available for a team if anyone wants a good spy, scout, engineer or soldier talk to me.
Thanks,
ykane
[…] up for tf2, which I think would be great fun. It is called The Highlander Community Challenge. The Highlander Community Challenge | ETF2L We require 2 more places, One main and one reserve. If you would like to join post an app below. […]
Good job everybody for organizing this amazing event.
I am here for any team who wants to play with a Medic, Engineer, Heavy or Soldier :)
Pro MEDIC here!
[…] promozione dell’highlander community challenge di […]
team NPG 9 player
Hi it says i not eligible to sign my team up know PLZ HELP