The third ETF2L Ultiduo Cup, albeit a little later than usual, has arrived! The date for day 1 is Sunday, October 2^nd. Not much is different, except for one thing – day 1 will be groups, not a knockout stage. This means that every team will be put into a group, with the top 1 or 2 progressing to the knockouts (very dependent on signups as to how many groups and how many are promoted). More importantly however, if you ever thought that you’d be knocked out in the first round, you are able to compete by playing all your other matches in the group rather than signing up, checking in for 1 match. Every team should get to play, at the very least, 3 matches.

While the previous cup had best-of-three games, it may or may not be best-of-one this time round. The smaller we make the groups, the more likely it is the games will be best-of-three. All group games however must be played on the Sunday and so we are limited by time. The start time should be around 19:30-20:00 CEST, and the finishing time 23:00 CEST. Feel free to comment if this is an issue, but we really cannot give a precise picture until we get the number of signups. Watch out for a following newspost!

A quick reminder, though – check-in proceeds as normal with a google spreadsheet, except a little earlier to allow for the extra time it takes to manage groups as opposed to knockout. The same two players must play every game in the tournament. For any other rules, check previous newsposts or see the handy quick guide below:

• Setup – Cup of 64/128, single elimination, best-of-three
• Prizes – $ 300 first place, $ 100 second place
• Unlocks – Medic: Blutsauger & Ubersaw allowed. Soldier: all unlocks banned, except the Disciplinary Action (and skins such as the Frying Pan and Original).
• Map – koth_ultiduo_r_b7 (download here)
• Sign-ups open – Now
• Server config – Here

And the schedule:

• Sign-ups close: Sunday 2nd October, 16:00 CEST
• Check-in: 16:00 CEST – 18:30 CEST
• Matches: 20:00 CEST  – 23:00 CEST (approximately!)

Don’t forget about the server for training (London, UK): connect 94.76.215.26; password mission. Good luck to all participating teams!

Just a quick post so that we can announce these. The following players have been found cheating and will be banned:

• Silleh – Wallhack – 1 year ban
• Zero – Wallhack/Triggerbot – 1 year ban

 Excello Invite Starts Tonight!

In other news, our friends at Excello are starting their ZOWIE TF2 Pre-Season – Invite competition right about now. Stay tuned to our other friends VanillaTV, who will be starting off what looks to be a great night of casting with Infused.Tt vs Relic!

You waited long enough and we kept our promise to release the tables today!*  Before you have a look at them we would like to remind you of some changes and rules.

• The first play week featuring cp_badlands and cp_gullywash_pro is starting on Sunday, September 25th. This means you should start to schedule your matches now! Week 1 schedule deadline is Thursday, September 22nd.
• Play weeks no longer last from Monday to Sunday but start on Sunday and end on Saturday now. Schedule deadline is the Thursday before the beginning of the play week. If the match is not scheduled after Thursday, admins will set a default date on Friday or Saturday that is usually Sunday (unless a team states that they can not play on Sunday).
• At any time you can check our calendar to get the current deadlines.
• The maps cp_obscure_remake and cp_snakewater received an update since our first announcement of the map pool. The versions that have to be used for all league matches are cp_obscure_remake_rc1 and cp_snakewater.
• Teams that drop in the first two weeks will be replaced with one from the waiting list. You can still join the waiting list by signing up to the league.
• All servers that are used for league matches need the latest etf2l.cfg and whitelist.
• The only allowed unlockable weapons are the Kritzkrieg, the Ubersaw, the Blutsauger and the Crossader’s Crossbow. Weapon reskins of stock weapons are allowed as well.
• All teams should familiarise themselves with the rules!

Dropped Teams Thread

We got another addition that has already been announced: A public thread for teams to explain why they dropped. You can find the thread here. Only team leaders are allowed to post and only one post per team. Spam and off-topic posts will be severely punished. Once posted, the team can be considered dropped. Teams that do not want to explain their drop can still contact an admin on IRC who will add the team name to the “Dropped Teams Thread”. If you like this idea we will keep a “Dropped Teams Thread” for the upcoming seasons.

Sneaky Admin Addition

We would like to welcome back Buffalo Bill in our admin staff. Hooray!

That should be about it. Oh right, the tables!

*Maybe not in Central European Summer Time, but in Pacific Standard Time.

The ETF2L staff just set a new personal record: Only 24 hours after the sign-ups for the so-called “Season 10!” closed we are able to announce provisional divisions! The seeding has been very difficult for us due to the estimated higher skill level in the upcoming season. We decided to add another division 1 and 2, rather than declining 50% of the applications for said divisions.

>>> Season 10! Provisional Divisions <<<

Please note that the seeding is not yet final. We reserve the right to still shuffle the teams around a bit.

If you are unhappy about your team’s current seeding, please take a deep breath and look at the other teams in your division. Maybe you are in good company? If you still feel unhappy, please contact an admin on IRC or write an email to [email protected] and explain your situation. We cannot, however, fulfil all requests and we apologise for that in advance.

Here are some possible reasons why you might not have gotten the desired seeding although you beat a team from a higher division once:

• The other team earned its spot by promotion.
• You did not send in screenshots to justify your application.
• The screenshots you sent in were not sufficient.

The following teams still have less than 6 registered players on their roster

• Absolutely Flawless
• Die!
• Eccentric kunoichi´s!
• Fools team
• n2o-gaming.TF2
• nervousENERGY BABYBLU
• Shooting Guards
• tabbata
• Team Concrete Est
• Turntable Crusaders
• vier // yellow
• Zombies Ate My Neighbors

 

 

 

 

 

If these teams do not have 6 players or more on Friday, 16th September, 23:59 CEST, they will be replaced by a team from the waiting list – which brings us to our next point! If you did not manage to sign up in time you can still join the waiting list. We expect some teams to drop in the first 2 weeks so the chance that your team will get the chance to play is high.

>>> Sign Up for the Waiting List! <<<

In case your team does not exist anymore or wants to drop from the league, please let us know as soon as possible. This might give a team from the waiting list the chance to play.

And now for something completely different: We added a new advertisment on our page to buy new shoes for ashkan. Please give your opinion here instead of creating multiple threads about it.

Some Extra Season 10 Information

Season 10 is now fast approaching! With over 320 teams signed up so far and only 3 days left until the signups close, it is important to sign up as soon as possible to ensure your place.

Also be sure your server files are up to date:

• An updated whitelist to use on your server is here (thanks go to  Dave).
• The latest etf2l config server file can be found here.

Hats, miscellaneous items, weapon reskins, action items and strange weapons (protip) are all allowed. However, unusual hats can be used to easily identify spies, so if your opponent asks you to remove them you will have to do so. Failure to comply will be punished.

Prizes!

We are very happy to announce that Season 10 will be sponsored with prizes generously supplied by our old friends SteelSeries! The ETF2L Season 10 Champions will all receive the SteelSeries Sensei, the newest release from SteelSeries (check it out!). You can find the full list of prizes below:

Premier Division:

1st: 6x SteelSeries Sensei

2nd: 6x SteelSeries Siberia v2 Green

 

3rd: 6x SteelSeries 9HD

Division 1:

1st: 6x SteelSeries 4HD

For everyone else aspiring some great prizes or gaming gear, check out the SteelSeries anniversary, or use the promocode epic30 for a 30% discount in their webshop.

New to (E)TF2(L)?

For the lovely new teams competing in our league, here is some useful information:

• If you are new to competitive TF2, check this helpful guide.
• To find/form a team, Make a recruitment post here (login first), or make your own team here (helpful advice for team leaders).
• To ensure your team is seeded well, check our guide to division applications.
• Information about ETF2L and the league rules can be found here.
• Contacting an admin for any issue or question can be done through our support page.

So what are you waiting for? Sign up now!