Season 26: Playoff-schedule, Discord, Looking for Sponsors, Staff Changes

Week 7 is already well underway, it’s about time we let you guys know how the playoffs will work this season! The post turned out to be a wall of text but we promise it is worth reading all of it!

The schedule for the Season 26 playoffs looks as follows:

Premiership Tier

The first four teams will qualify for a double elimination bracket:

• 1st round: 13th – 15th march
• UB final /LB semifinal: 16th – 19th march
• LB final: 20th – 24th march
• Final: 26th march*

The Grand Final will be played as a BO5 maps contest, with one map advantage for the upper seat (Upper Bracket finals winner will start leading 1-0). It is highly recommended to play the Final on the given date. Every other playoff match (in every division for that matter) will be played as a BO3).

High/Mid Tier

The first six teams will qualify for the High playoffs, the first eight teams for the Mid playoffs. High Tier seat 1 and 2 will receive a bye in the first round.
The bracket will be played as a single elimination, BO3 maps contest.

• 1st round: 12th – 16th march
• Semifinals: 19th – 24th march
• Final: 26th – 29th march

Open tier

The top sixteen teams will qualify for the open playoffs.
The bracket will be played as a single elimination, BO3 maps contest.

• Round of 16: 12th – 15th march
• Quarterfinals: 16th – 19th march
• Semifinals: 20th – 24th march
• Final: 26th – 29th march

For potential tiebreakers we will, as always, rank the teams according to their Sonneborn-Berger Score. Please note that your rank in the tables could differ from your actual placement, as our system does not automatically apply the tiebreaker. We will inform you in a separate newspost, what team made it in (or not) should there be a tie.

ETF2L goes Discord

We are happy to announce that the European Team Fortress 2 League now has its own Discord server! Click here or use the invite link below to join!
It can be used by anyone in order to discuss about the league and the games, to find 6v6 and Highlander scrims (!) or to simply hang out.
Our goal is to eventually replace our IRC support with this Discord. However, at this point of time we do not have a bot to automatically forward requests to the admins like we do on IRC. Thus, until further announcements, please keep using the IRC support for immediate queries.

We are looking for new sponsors!

As you may or may not know, our contract with Tt eSPORTS has expired. As a result of this, we cannot guarantee any prizepools going forward until we have found a or multiple replacement(s).
If you have contacts, ideas or suggestions in this matter, please do not hesitate to contact us! Details about how both ETF2L and our sponsors can benefit each other can be exemplified in a personal conversation.

Staff Changes

Last but not least: the window to apply as a league admin has closed. We will not review any further applications going forward. Should we decide to look for fresh blood once more, we will let you know in a newspost.
For now, though, our new trial admins are Ignis, Hildreth and Exze.

As new staffmembers are joining, we find ourselves saying goodbye to some of the “old” ones from time to time. Effective immediately, kKaltUu is resigning from his duties as a League Admin of ETF2L after 4 years. He asked us to forward this message to the community in his name:

Just a few days after the fourth anniversary of my ETF2L adminship it
is time for me to say goodbye. Over the years, the ETF2L has given me the opportunity to develop
myself while hosting some great events for the community.
There have been highs and lows, and I’ve met several life-long friends
along the way.
I would like to give special thanks to the following (ex)admins for
helping me throughout the years:
CanFo, Sonny Black, DCS, Permzilla, Aoshi, emb, JohnnyBambo, Lazybear and DeNeusbeer.
There are others I have forgotten to mention, I’m sure I’ll get flamed
for that soon. But now it is time for me to step down from these responsibilities and
let actual competent admins take over.
balancing studies and ETF2L became tougher for me to do, hence the
difficult decision to leave my post.
This community is really amazing and it is not hard to imagine myself
in due time helping with TF2 related projects. Hopefully, you have enjoyed the cups I have hosted and problems I might have solved. If not, I dare you to apply for admin and show me how it’s done.
kKaltUu