With week 2 commencing, we felt that some teams could need a little reminder on the gravelpit rules as well as on some other rules.

Gravelpit Reminders

The following is a full quote from the general rules page.

4.4 Gravelpit and Gorge: 2-3 Rounds using ABBA format

cp_gravelpit and cp_gorge have to be played with 2-3 rounds (possible overall results: 2:0, 0:2, 1:2, 2:1). In the first 2 rounds the ABBA format will be used.

In the case of both teams taking one round (1:1) there will be a decider round. In the first 2 rounds the teams should note the final cap time of the first team attacking. The team that has the best cap time (or more caps in the case a team did not cap all points) can choose if they want to attack or defend first in the 3rd round. Remember to reload the config between rounds, so teams can be switched.

Example: Team A attacks and sets a time of 4:56. Team B then attacks and caps the last point faster then Team A did, setting the score 1:0. Next team B attacks first and sets a time of 5:28, team A then attacks and caps faster. The score is then 1:1 and a decider round will need to be played. Since Team A’s attack time of 4:56 was faster then team B’s 5:28 they can choose who attacks first.

Golden Cap rules do NOT apply to cp_gravelpit. Whichever team wins the map will receive 3 points in the League standings.

• On gravelpit, you will have to upload at least 2 screenshots of the scores at the end. If you play a decider round, you need to upload 3 screenshots. For an example how the screenshots have to look like, see this match page.
• If you forgot to upload all screenshots, you can still add them through the “Add Screenshots” page.

Other Rule Reminders

• All players are required to record Point-of-View demos during all matches. Failure to provide a requested demo will be punished with a minor warning per player whose demo is missing.
• If you ever wondered why an admin set a default date for one of your matches, the schedule deadline has been exceeded. You can see all deadlines on this or this page.
• None of our admins is a master in mind reading. We can only know what is written on the match page. For some useful tips on how to get a convenient default date, check out this thread.
• Did you know that wildcarded matches get a default date 7 days after the wildcard was used?
• To reschedule a match you do not necessarily have to use a wildcard. If both teams agree, you can simply propose a different date and ask your opponent to accept the new schedule. In case he does not agree, you can use a wildcard up to 15 minutes before the scheduled time. It is polite to inform your opponent of the use of a wildcard in advance.

AC Updates

The ETF2L Anti-Cheat IRC bot has a new AC command. The old command, !acrequest, will not work anymore. From now on if you want to talk to an AC admin type !acadmin in #etf2l.

Excello and Albert’s Bball cup!

In other news, on Wednesday, 5th October, Albert and Forsak3n will host the first TF2 2on2 BBall tournament over at our friends of Excello. If you have not signed up yet do not waste any time and create a team on Excello.net. You can sign up on this page. Please be aware that you are required to check in from 19.30 CEST to 20.00 CEST. The first round will start right after the check in at 20.00 CEST. For more information please see the original newspost.

Update 19:00 CEST: Groups are up here! Play your games as soon as you can – week 1 does not have to be played first! Top two from the groups go through, a team in first will play a team in second from another group (hence different colours).

After it became clear that Sunday is too problematic during the season, we’ve decided to give all teams 1 week to play all their matches. You can play as many, or as few, matches as you like in one night, as long as you complete them by Sunday 9th October, 23:59 CEST. That gives you a week – and a day – to play all your matches.

Given, though, that you may only play 1 ultiduo in a night it wouldn’t be worth all the effort for scheduling for a best-of-one, or even a best-of-three since it could be as little as 10 minutes. This means that we’ve decided to make each match two best-of-threes. It is effectively 2 maps, and you can win each map. If it is 1-1, that is the same as the 6v6 league; it counts as a golden cap (played as a normal round). This means the scores can be 6-0, 5-1, 4-2, 3-3. The top two will advance from the bracket, probably meaning that there will be 16 groups and 32 teams in the knockout stage (cannot be certain!).

There will also be no check-in, since you do not have to play on sunday. Therefore, there’s no need to make sure you’re here on the Sunday. So a schedule:

• Signups close: Sunday 2nd October, 17:00 CEST
• Groups up: Approximately 19:30 CEST
• Groups finish: Sunday, 9th October 23:59 CEST

Ultiduo Servers 24/7 located in London, UK:

• connect 94.76.215.25
• connect 94.76.215.26; password mission

Good luck to all teams!

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.