Admirable: Hello and welcome to another Season 13 ETF2L Premier Division interview. That’s right Season 13… ugh… running a bit late and I’ll tell you what, I normally prepare for these things.  I usually have a set of questions, do my research, but the guy I’m interviewing today he’s like a brother of mine. I know him like the back of my hand, it’s none other than Crack Clan’s Retsh0ck… or should I say formerly Crack Clan’s Retsh0ck… what’s up, Asaf?

Retsh0ck: I’m great! Feeling good. A bit nervous.

A: You should be nervous! This is a big deal… this is like a job interview right now because you’ve got no team.

R: Yeah definitely…

A: What happened, Retsh0ck?

R: Hmmm I guess uh… Read the rest of this entry »

Season 14 powered by Twitch – Division 1 Qualifier Updates

We received the sad news that The Potentials have folded. With one of the three contenders for the last two spots in Division 1 gone, the qualifier has become obsolete. Both remaining teams,  logs.tf and OutSiders, have been seeded into Division 1 and the gap in Division 2C has been filled.

P-REC Update

You may have noticed that the P-REC plugin, used by many to automatically record their personal demos for leagues and fragmovies, had been broken since Christmas. Orange took the time to rewrite the plugin, despite being retired from TF2, and got it signed by Valve. What a hero! You can find the latest version of the plugin (2.0.4) on his Bitbucket page and say Thanks! on the forums.

• P-REC 2.0.4 for Windows Vista or higher
• P-REC 2.0.4 for Windows XP

In case you are experiencing problems with the plugin, installing the Visual C++ Redistributable for Visual Studio 2012 Update 1 may fix your issues. More questions can be asked in the P-REC thread in our customisation forum.

Staff Updates

Seasonal staff changes are inevitable a volunteer organization. Our long-term Highlander admin  Hildreth has decided to move on and concentrate more on playing (and his job). He will remain on staff as a Honorary Admin and advisor. We are grateful for the countless hours and passion you put in promoting Highlander, and hope you can still enjoy this game as a player.

Pretty much the same applies to Buffalo Bill. After 15 months of active admin duty, it is time for him to move on. Thanks to you as well for the countless hours you invested into this league during our two tenures as a 6v6 admin – you will remain listed as a Honorary Admin.

 schocky decided to resign from the Anti-Cheat staff, because he can no longer commit time to AC work. Thanks to you as well.

We have some promotions to announce as well.  DeusVox has proven himself as a keen helper with a lot of good ideas and is joining our media staff. His most recent work is the Season 14 powered by Twitch banner.

 Admirable originally wanted to join the ETF2L staff as full league admin (“I am happy to do all the admin tasks“), but it seems it was a bit too much for him. However, he did a great job with the Premiership interviews last season and gathering feedback from our top players, which helped a lot to further develop our league. We are more than happy to keep him around as our Premiership Ambassador (Yes, we made up that position just for him).

 ipz-  has been removed from the staff for public misconduct. We appreciate the 4 months of work he put into ETF2L and are happy to hear he plans to continue to support the scene with his expertise, even if outside ETF2L. However, we cannot tolerate admins abusing their position and violating our rules of conduct.

Site Update

No doubt, many of your are still waiting on updates from the Banner Competition. We have decided to aim beyond the original goals of the competition (new banner and color scheme) and proceed with a complete overhaul of the site. Our newest asset to the media staff,
 DeusVox, took over the redesign of the site and has produced a preview of what the main page would look like:

Please note that this is an early preview and does not feature all of the planned changes, however it does showcase the general style we want to proceed with. Constructive feedback is always welcome.

TeamFortress.TV

Do you livestream Team Fortress 2 and want your channel to reach a wider audience? TeamFortress.TV is the place to go, in that case. You can submit your stream to TF.tv’s livestream widget. Make sure you go through all of the rules and requirements which can be found here. Once you get on the TeamFortress.TV stream list, you are automatically invited to the TF.tv group on ETF2L’s partner Twitch page as well. To accept the invitation, go to your Twitch page, then Settings, where you can accept the invite under the “Teams” tab.

TeamFortress.TV welcomes Europeans on the forums as well, where you can catch up on all the latest news and gossip from the American scene. It is a good source for news from ESEA and other leagues, TF2 streams from North America’s top players, latest maps, player interviews, and even mentors!

ETF2L 6th Cup Quarter Finals

With only 8 teams remaining, the ETF2L 6th cup is on the cusp of a startling crescendo and as the competition hurtles towards completion, only 3 rounds stand between any one of our contenders and €300 cash. Epsilon eSports, Crack Clan, Team Doctrinal, Lutuset, myDGB.net, Team Reverto,  BFF and logs.tf have already proved a lot by fending off the other 112 teams to reach the quarter finals, and their progression into the semi and grand finals is purely down to how they perform as a team in the coming weeks.

After tonight, there will only be 2 more semi-final spots available as the critically lauded  Lutuset will be facing off against the reputable Team Doctrinal and the div1 minnows with potential,  logs.tf, will play host to ETF2L’s very own whales, BFF; two of these teams will be declared at a sufficient level to be worthy of playing in the semi-finals, however for the other two contenders, the dream is dead.

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Season 14 powered by Twitch – Division 1 Qualifiers

The Division 1 Qualifiers are a round robin tournament between  The Potentials,  logs.tf and  OutSiders. All matches consist of two maps, each team gets to pick one from the Season 14 powered by Twitch map pool. Because two spots are up for grabs, the team that comes last in this round robin tournament will go down to Division 2, the other two will get a place in Division 1. In the event of a tied round robin, capture point difference, total points captured and pistols at dawn will be used to rank teams.

The schedule for the three matches is as follows:

• Tuesday, January 15th (today), 21.15 CET:  logs.tf vs  The Potentials
• Wednesday, January 16th, 21.15 CET:   logs.tf vs   OutSiders
• Thursday, January 17th, 21.15 CET:  OutSiders vs  The Potentials

Season 14 powered by Twitch – Division 1 Qualifiers Match #1: logs.tf vs The Potentials

Today we have the first match of this seriues coming up-  logs.tf vs   The Potentials.

Since  The Potentials lost yesterday’s Premiership Qualifier in an exciting match against the stunningly well playing  Pyro|Gen, we now have 3 teams hunting for only two spots in Division 1 this season.

 The Potentials certainly don’t want to play in Division 2 this season, after being so close to gaining promotion to the Premiership Division, so you will most likely see them fighting  logs.tf with brute force today.

We asked  Gubbins from  The Potentials for a statement on this match, here is what they had to say:

Ummm, they’ve had some really interesting results but I think under the pressure of an official we can bring the goods and it’ll take something special for  logs.tf  to keep up

Update:

 The Potentials have disbanded due to roster issues and the other two teams have been seeded in Division 1.

Preview

Online leagues always have two very interesting and important moments – the playoffs to see who wins the season, but also the playoffs to determine the last participant in the Premiership. Tonight sees the start of the new ETF2L season by looking at the new teams who have a shot at playing with the big boys in the next eight weeks.  While some of these teams just recruited new players, others have been around for a long time. It’s a big mix of talent, teamwork, individual skill, communication and map specific tactics. Either way, tonight’s contestants AVENUE eSports , Pyro|Gen , logs.tf and The Potentials will do everything in their power to secure themselves that precious last spot in the Season 14 powered by Twitch Premiership! Find the tournament tree here and head over to VanillaTF2 for the full preview of tonight’s games by  Pledge.

Coverage

Watch live video from VanillaTV on www.twitch.tv

The entire night will be covered by VanillaTV, from the very first to the very last second. They will bring you all the action as it happens over at the VanillaTV stream over at our Season 14 head sponsor Twitch! The commentators  Pledge and  Skully will make sure that you miss absolutely nothing and they will keep you up to date with the all the scores, even if you tune in a little later. The stream will be live from 19.45 CET / 18.45 GMT / 11.45 PST / 14.45 EST onwards, so make sure you are in time, because tonight’s games are something you really don’t want to miss!
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