Excello Bigfoot TF2 Challenge II – Open and Invite

Tonight the first ever Excello Team Fortress 2 Tournament, the Bigfoot TF2 Challenge, will come to an end. The finns from SG-1 (former Power Gaming) and the European all-star team Epsilon e-Sports will meet at 21:15 CEST on the maps cp_badlands and cp_granary (decider map: cp_gravelpit) to determine who will get six Bigfoot Killer 2100 network cards.
There will be at least three casts for this match. One in English, one in German and one in Russian. Do not miss it!
Even if the finals have not yet been played it is safe to say that this tournament was a success! I want to take this opportunity to thank all participating teams, our Sponsor Bigfoot Networks, VanillaTF2.org, ETF2L, VanillaTV, n2o-TV, TF2.Pro.Ru, Martndemus’  TF2 and all casters and viewers for their great support.
tomahawk, managing director at Excello, agrees: “I’m here – I want TF2 to become a mainstay at excello.net as long as you wish to do so“. Looks like a bright future lays ahead of competitive Team Fortress 2.

Bigfoot Networks decided to sponsor another cup and is donating another 6x Bigfoot Killer 2100 network cards (each worth around 80-90 €) so it is now time to announce the next tournament. To create a better competitive atmosphere, we will host two tournaments this time – One Open Tournament and one Invite Tournament.
One new rule for both tournaments is, that you can use one mercs if your opponent agrees but you are not allowed to add new players after the seeding is published. Also, please note that you have to reduce the timelimit if you are starting late.

In the Open Tournament, a maximum of 32 teams can sign up and every team is welcome. The first 4 rounds will have fixed maps (cp_snakewater_rc4, cp_gullywash_pro, cp_granary and cp_badlands) and have to be played on the 8th August. The final has to be played until the following thursday and is a best of three match (map pool + cp_gravelpit).
The winner of this tournament wins… nothing. However, he will be allowed to take part in the Invite Only Tournament on Sunday, 14th August and gets the third best seeding (behind the two finalists of the running tournament).

In the Invite Tournament, only teams that are invited are allowed to play (obviously).
The following teams are hereby invited. Every team that reached at least the quarter finals in the last tournament is invited. Because the tournament will only have 8 slots and the winner of the open tournament wins one, we can only take 7 out of these 11 teams:

– SG-1
– Epsilon e-Sports
– Dignitas (Mix?)
– Infused
– Monster Munch
– SNSD
– Anexis eSports
– Famestars
– Team Thermaltake
– K1ck eSports
– TCM Gaming

Teams that played in the last cup, will be treated preferential. The better they were – The higher their chance of getting in. This means, that SG-1, Epsilon, Dignitas and Infused have a secure spot (if they choose to sign up). The rest has either to be better than the other teams that are signing up or have to sign up faster than their competitors.
We are asking these teams to let know an admin as soon as possible if they wish to participate.
If the invite cup is lacking teams, the next best team (or teams) from the Open Tournament can consider themself (or themselves) lucky. They will get a chance to play with the Big Boys in the Invite Tournament.
This tournament will be played in the “Best of three” format from the first to the last round with map elimination from the previously mentioned map pool. The quarter- and semi-finals are played on Sunday, the finalists have time until the following thursday to play the final match.

The original newspost can be viewed here. In order to sign up for this cup, all of your players need to have an account at excello.net and need to enter a valid steam id in the format STEAM_X:X:XXXX. Then, the teamleader can create a team and invite the players. Before the players are members of the team, they need to confirm the invite in their inbox.
Admins for this cup are CanFo, Crasp, huhy, ipz and SonnyBlack. If any questions arise, feel free to contact one of them at #excello.tf2 on quakenet.