Ladies and gentlemen… The 6th Cup! & Ultiduo #4 Updates
November 7, 2012
ETF2L 6th Cup
Let’s do a quick head count here, shall we? Raise your hands, those who remember our grand competitions graciously labeled “Cups”. If you did, you might be positively surprised by the news – we at ETF2L would like to revive the tradition we’ve been developing until May 2010 when two of the strongest teams of those times had clashed in the finals of the most recent, 5th Cup. As a league-wide competition, it’ll be a great opportunity for the top tier teams to further strengthen their dominance, but also for the underdogs to rise, shine and undermine the confidence of the old guard. It would also serve as a testing ground for us to give all the new maps a try in a competitive environment to bring in some variety to the scene. And by variety, we also mean *cough* unlocks. Whether you are a group of tryhards or just laid back casuals, it’s about time for you to buckle up and sign up with your 6v6 team for some action!
Important note for all teams that have not played all of their Season 13 matches yet: The rosters will be unlocked to allow teams to add new players to their roster for this tournament. All new players can be used in the 6th cup but still count as mercs and need the opponent’s approval for all remaining Season 13 matches, including tie breakers and playoffs.
Prizes
The winner of this tournament does not only win bragging rights but as well €300 cash.
SETUP
With the last cup reaching the limit of 128 signups, we decided to push even further, with a maximum number of 200 teams. Why 200 and not a power of 8? Read on to know why! The top teams in the first round will be seeded so they can not knock each other out too early. The best eight teams (based on the Season 13 ranking) will get a “bye” for the first three rounds and join the competition for round 3, in order to allow everyone starting from the beginning to get a chance at advancing further and to allow more exciting top matches. The cup will be held in the single elimination format, with all rounds until quarters being played as bo1 (map elimination system) and quarters, semis and finals being played as bo3 matches (map pick system). While we will try to host the cup during off-season, the schedule will still be quite tight this time in the year – keeping that in mind, the default dates will be set to Thursdays every week, with the option to reschedule and weeks lasting from Sunday until Friday and the results being submitted until Saturdays of the occuring week. As such, allowing the extensions will not be possible and failing to submit the results will result in a coin toss to decide the winner.
Schedule
- Signups close: November 17
- Round of 256 (56 byes): November 18 to November 23
- Round of 128 (24 byes): November 25 to November 30
- Round of 64 (16 byes): December 1 to December 7
- Round of 32 (top 8 teams join the tournament): December 8 to December 15 (extension possible)
- Christmas break: December 16 to January 5
- Round of 16: January 6 to January 11
- Quarter finals: January 13 to January 18
- Semi finals: January 20 to January 25
- Final and consolation final: January 27 to February 1 (extension possible)
MAP POOL!
After a fierce discussion that ensued as an effect of lowering the number of people deciding on the maps being played in the league, we decided that it would be the best to let the experienced teams shine on some of the solid, well-known maps as well as bring in a few yet to be mastered ones to allow the cleverness to ensue. With that said, your map pool for the 6th cup will be:
- cp_badlands
- cp_gullywash_final1
- cp_process_b10fix
- cp_quay_a18 (or newer, if available)
- cp_croissant_rc6 (or newer, if available)
With Croissant (by 
Arnold, creator of Gullywash) being the community’s favourite and Quay (by 
chojje, maker of the popular map Snakewater) as the great unknown , we hope to allow the creators to further develop their pieces and bring in some fresh air to the map pool, with Process being the best example that it cannot hurt.
THAT’S RIGHT… UNLOCKS!
When we published the unlock announcement for Season 13, we promised to host a cup with a handful of various unlocks some time after Season 13. To keep that promise, we would like this cup to be an opportunity for the community to take a closer lock at a few selected weapons and gadgets we decided to keep away from our staple 6v6 competitions. With almost countless possibilities, we’ve agreed upon letting in a few of them to be tested and analyzed thoroughly.
Unlocks’ whitelist for this competition will be:
Soldier and demoman
- The Pain Train [Wiki page]
Scout
- The Boston Basher [Wiki page]
Soldier
Medic
- The Overdose [Wiki page]
- The Blutsauger [Wiki page]
- The Crusader’s Crossbow [Wiki page]
- The Kritzkrieg [Wiki page]
- The Übersaw [Wiki page]
Reskins of stock weapons or the weapons mentioned above are allowed as well.
Ultiduo #4 Update
Due to the high interest in this tournament, we extended the slots from 80 to 128, while still being able to keep the schedule. The number of groups will be doubled but each group will now only hold 4 teams instead of 5. One round from the group stage is removed and the round of 64 is added to the knockout stage instead. The updated schedule is below.
- Group stage: November 11 to November 20
- Round of 64: November 21 to November 24
- Round of 32: November 25 to November 27
- Round of 16: November 28 to December 1
- Quarter finals: December 2 to December 8
- Semi finals: December 9 to December 15
- Final and consolation final: December 16 to December 22
The default dates remain the same.
- Group stage week 1: November 11 (Sunday)
- Group stage week 2: November 14 (Wednesday)
- Group stage week 3: November 18 (Sunday)
- Knockout stage round of 64: November 21 (Wednesday)
We would also ask all teams that signed up but will not be able to play to inform the admins and make way for one of the currently 23 teams from the waiting list.
Additionally, we would like to bring your attention to the following special rules:
- A team that does not show up for a scheduled match will be disqualified from the tournament
- Mercs and backups are only allowed during the group stage (maximum one) and have to be approved by the opponent
- You need to play all matches in the knockout stage with the same two players, one of them must be a player who played in all group stage matches. Teams violating this rule will be disqualified from the competition.
Posted by ETF2L Staff in 6v6, Cup
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<33333 gunboats
ETF2L have been doing a cracking job over the past few months!
Feels good to hear, Russian Guyovich.
I just hope the partially tight schedules won’t make any problems.
Shit, etf2l, got, their, have, together.
Something like that anyway, great idea, good job again guys.
Good to see this coming, hopefully teams will take a few moments to check out Quay and give me some feedback before the cup kicks off!
nice!
From the quarters on, you have to use the map PICK system, so you can force your opponent to play quay or croissant. Practicing one of these two maps like mad and picking it is the easy way to the final!
Finally the gunboats and escape plan allowed! Soldiers, rejoice!
Fantastic news!
“From the quarters on, you have to use the map PICK system, so you can force your opponent to play quay or croissant. Practicing one of these two maps like mad and picking it is the easy way to the final!”
Ahahah.
Good idea but there is a major flaw to it : who are we supposed to practise against? (this is obviously a rhetorical question).
surely more teams will be reasoning the same way; it’s your loss if you haven’t played it when it gets forced upon you in the quarters. I’m sure most teams will at least want to try the new maps out beforehand!
ETF2L cups were always the most exciting part of the league. But please please please PLEASE keep it to random draws, and not seeded stages.
One of the best parts of the tournament was the IRC cup draw to determine who you are playing in the cup. It was great seeing the big names pop up, as well as some cracking matches.
I’d even commentate the draw if it’s needed!
It’s fine, and smart to have the top seeded teams join later in the cup, but please make it random draws after each round, and just add the top seeds in when it comes to round 4. You can have a single draw, which builds into a bracket (drawing the top 8 teams in predefined spots after round 3), or you can do a fresh draw after each round.
I would actually prefer a fresh draw after each round, because otherwise it means those top 8 teams, are probably going to make it through to the quarter finals, with maybe a single upset somewhere along the lines. Random draws could mean you find two top teams playing each other in round 4, and any round could be exciting depending on the draw, rather than just having a cool semi and grand final.
Phew… This makes our job a but more complicated with the tools we have… I do not know if we can reseed each round somehow (if it was in previous cups, it probably is, I do not remember) but I can find that out, I suppose.
Because only the winner gets a prize, having the top teams clash in the quarters is no big deal. You have to beat all teams anyway to get a piece of the cake.
Anybody else thinks random draws for each round is a good idea?
Awesome news!
oh no
no no no no no no no no no
NO
NO
god no
fuck
damn
escape plan :'(
CanFo, having completely random draws gives everyone an equal shot at winning the prize, which also has an element of chance, making the competition more favorable for lower teams. I don’t think that the top teams should get an advantage because of where they are positioned in a separate competition, but adding the top seeds in later is a good idea, purely to give at least 8 teams a better chance of going on a ‘run’ in the cup, and not just getting eliminated in the first round.
Another way you could do it, would be to have a random draw in the first round, and when you get to the round where the top seeds are added, just re-draw all the remaining teams, and have it in a regular cup bracket. While this isn’t as exciting, it does mean a lot less work for the admins (having to re-draw each week would be a bit of a pain).
It’s more for the excitement than anything. Watching the draw, seeing some even teams matched up against each other, and random draws each round adds even more excitement, as you never know who you are going to be playing next. While the best team will ultimately win it, sometimes it’s fun to see the division 6 team go on an 8 game win streak, and get all the way to the quarters to fight it out against a top prem team.
Oh and you don’t re-seed them. You just random draw.
Stick all the team names left in the competition into a hat.
Draw 1 plays Draw 2.
Draw 3 plays Draw 4.
You could even add a random map from the pool, to make things interesting ;)
(Draw 1 plays Draw 2 on cp_badlands).
(Draw 3 plays Draw 4 on cp_quay).
Teams that get knocked out are removed from the pool.
For teams left in, you repeat the process.
Top seeded teams get added in after week 3 has finished.
If there are any gaps, you can draw BYE’s from the list to make up the numbers.
(Draw 1 vs Draw 2) = (Epsilon vs BYE). Epsilon progresses to next round.
moar ultiduo slots!
@ARX Apologies in advance for my stupidity but when you say “don’t re-seed them, just random draw”, what exactly would be the difference?
Arx: I am not arguing against your idea, I am just thinking out loud if and if yes how we can pull it off with little extra effort from a technical side ;)
merc rules for the 6th cup?
What are the chances these unlocks will be allowed in s14?
Whether any of these unlocks will be available in S14 depends on feedback from the cup.
Pls allow fun team :(
extend ultiduo slots to 200.. :/