Insomia 43

Tapley asked us to post the following summary of the Insomia 43 LAN in August. Remember to buy him (and your favourite ETF2L admins) a beer @ LAN!

Hello Friends.

With 3 weeks left till LAN I thought I’d get a big post put up to alert you to the fact that the Lan in the UK I43 looks set to be the biggest TF2 lan in the world. Ever. With roughly over 250 TF2 players having bought tickets and the number slowly rising its looking to be an epic tournament!

We’re trying to get as many to buy tickets as possible so I’ve started a new thread for people who just want to chillax and be sure of a team for lan and dont care who you play with! I’ll organise you into mix teams, all you have to do is add the others to your friends list and decide a team name :] – please only add up to this if you’ve bought a ticket.

For anyone who doesn’t know LAN is not just sitting at your pc playing TF2 in a massive hall – In fact theres plently of other games to play at lan – also a massive exhibition hall with free stuff to grab – playing the latest releases on consoles and pc. Then theres meeting your bestest E-Friends and hanging out with the rest of the solid TF2 community! Having a drink at the bar or in the camping area (yes, you can drink outside area in the outdoor area now!)

Please see and post in the thread list below if you need any info/help.

Organised Mix/Mercs Thread – Find Players/Teams
Automatic Mix Team Thread – Dont really care who you play with? Get added here!

Questions Thread – General I43 Questions
Accomodation Thread – Tent/University Rooms/Hotel
Seating Thread – Seating Requests Questions?
TUP – Pc Rental Info (Euros Given Preference)
Transport Thread – Need A Lift/Can give a lift?
Equipment Share Thread – Need a Monitor/Got A Spare Monitor?

I Love You ♥

Tapley

Summer Assembly

The Insomia series is not the only LAN that hosts its traditional TF2 tournament! This year’s Summer Assembly LAN will take place from the 4th to the 7th August. Do not miss the  VanillaTV coverage!

Year after year Team Fortress 2 has risen among players and guest to be one of the favourite games in Assembly. High-speed matches and colourful personas in the community have ensured countless memorable moments. This year the grand prize will be a whopping 3650 euros.
Each year ASSEMBLY Summer has been the gathering point for Europe’s finest players in Team Fortress 2. This year ain’t gonna disappoint us, because intrest towards this tournament has been huge. Team Fortress 2 will again deliver us nice matches and hot spiked balls.

Tournament rules & more information

Tournament type: NON BYOC: Groups + Single elimination
Team limit: 8 teams of 6 players each
Prizes:
1. 2100 €
2. 1050 €
3. 500 €

After the easy victory for virile unhumen in the last cup (final’s VOD was unfortunately removed, quarter-final is here), the challenge is to beat the now 4-time champions for yet another cash prize. The next cup will be on Sunday 14^th August, with the finals on Sunday 21^st August – nicely between Summer Assembly & i43. The times are similar to the last cup, with 4 rounds to be played on the 14^th, the last three on 21^st.

The format will be broadly similar: single-elimination & best-of-three. There will, however, be seedings based on the last cup and previous ESH cups. There is also extra time allocated for check-in so there is not a manic rush in IRC like there was last time (even if it just about worked!), as well as more time to let the bot do a live draw on #etf2l again.

The check-in will also be more transparent and easy to see if your team has been registered as checked in. We’ll be making a google spreadsheet (which only admins can edit) which will list teams and a column next to it saying if the team has checked in. We do urge, however, for teams to be patient with this and also to spread out over the check-in period – we don’t want all teams checking in at the start!

A couple of final notes:

• The Disciplinary Action will continue to be allowed but not mandatory.
• Any team who misses five (e.g. missing screenshots for up to 2 matches) or more screenshots will be disqualified. You can automatically take scores screenshots at the end of the match in multiplayer advanced options in TF2. Status screenshots do, however, have to be done manually before the match starts when all 4 players are on the server (type ‘status’ and ‘jpeg’ in console). Results can be submitted here. For default wins, take screenshots of yourselves on empty servers, with status.
• No mercs allowed. Two players which start to play 1^st match must play to the end. If one of your players cannot play, add the other player to your squad (and then use the same 2 players each match).
• Places are first-come, first-served. If there is a few more than 128 teams who check-in, priority is given to the first 128 and those higher up on the waiting list.

A quick schedule:

• Signups close: Sunday 14^th August, 16:00 CEST
• Check-in: Sunday 14^th August, 16 – 19 CEST
• Bracket draw: 19:40 CEST – 20:00 CEST
• Round 1: 20:00 – 20:40
• Round 2: 20:40 – 21:20
• Round 3: 21:20 – 22:00
• Round 4: 22:00 – 22:40

A quick recap of the key points for the cup:

• Setup – Cup of 128, single elimination, best-of-three
• Prizes – $ 200 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 don’t forget about the server for training (London, UK): connect 94.76.215.26; password mission (now with Replays – just press “F6” for save your amazing killstreaks).

Excello Bigfoot TF2 Challenge II

 SonnyBlack left us with the following piece of information on the Excello Bigfoot TF2 Challenge II.

With the start of the Bigfoot TF2 Challenge II coming closer and closer, we decided to include 2 more teams to be added to the list of teams for the Invite Cup, those being  Team Refuse and  Mister. In addition to that we have made little changes to the golden cap rule, as well as introducing a deadline for invite teams.

With the Open Bracket starting on the 8th of August and the Invite Cup starting on the 14th of August we felt we should remind teams that have not signed up yet that there are still 9 spots to be taken in the Open Bracket as well as 4 spots in the Invite Cup.

As already stated in an earlier post teams that participated in the first cup will be treated preferentially. With  Epsilon e-sports, SG-1 and  SNSD already signed up and the addition of our newest invite teams we are left with:

•  dignitas.rndm
•  Infused.Tt
  
•  Monster Munch
• Anexis eSports e.V.
• FAMESTARS

Those teams will have time until th 7th of August to sign up. After this deadline it is pretty much first-come, first-served for those teams:

•  Team Refuse
•  K1ck eSports
•  Team Thermaltake
•  TCM Gaming
•  Mister

 Team Refuse will have the edge of having played in the previous Bigfoot TF2 Challenge I.

Concerning the golden cap rule we decided that during the bo1 stage the Golden Cap time will be 5 minutes and during the bo3 stage it will be 10 minutes, no big deal.

All information about the Open Bracket as well as the Invite Cup, with rules and all teams signed up so far, can be found here:

Open Bracket

Invite Cup

The original newspost can be seen here.

Albert’s #tf2cup #5

Albert’s weekly cups have become quite a success. Congratulation to the winners of cup #4, Defiant Gaming! The next cup is happening on Monday, 1st August. Unfortunately, the cup is already full but watch out for casts and provided STV IPs at #tf2cup on quakenet.

For more information see here.

The event is going live now,  head over to www.vanillatv.org to follow the action!

The final event, taking place tonight (Thursday the 28th), is the Free-2-Play Invitational Tournament! Four top teams from other known competitive games will battle it out on cp_badlands in an action-packed one-night tournament, with all teams playing each other once to decide which team can handle competitive TF2 best. The teams will be supported by a TF2 top division medic. The teams are CKRAS from CSS (mentored by  F2), Xotic from L4D2 (mentored by skeej) and the Epsilon eSports teams from both Brink (mentored by  Admirable) and CoD4 (mentored by  KnOxXx).

You can also follow things from the ingame SourceTV by entering the following info in console:
STV 1: connect tf2.team-thermaltake.com:27102
STV 2: connect tf2.team-thermaltake.com:27100

Round 1 – 20:00 CEST:
CKRAS CSS vs Epsilon CoD – STV 1
Epsilon Brink vs Xotic L4D2 – STV 2

Round 2 – 20:30 CEST:
CKRAS CSS vs Xotic L4D2 – STV 1
Epsilon Brink vs Epsilon CoD4 – STV 2

Round 3 – 21:00 CEST:
CKRAS CSS vs Epsilon Brink – STV 1
Xotic L4D2 vs Epsilon CoD4 – STV 2

Final – 21:30 CEST:
(top 2 teams with the most wins) – STV 1

The champion will get to play a team with the endbosses of TF2, at a later date:

• Robin Walker (head of TF2 development)
• Jon Lippincott (TF2 Replay system development)
• TotalBiscuit (of YouTube commentary fame)
• Dr. Gonzo (Editor of Cadred)
• TheSucker (medic for ETF2L highlander champions, SNSD)
• Macisum (top division demoman)

ESL Country Championship Grand Finals

With 3 competitions drawing to a close and another just beginning, the next two days will have some truly exciting matches!

The first match provides an all-too-familiar country rivalry, from world wars to world cups, in the ESL Country Championships grand final: United Kingdom vs  Germany. The German team has taken a 2-1 victory against the UK earlier the cup and are still on a undefeated streak in the tournament. That does not mean the result will be predictable though, as Team UK’s has a strong record in this tournament as well, beating many favourites and proving their critics wrong.

The match will be played tonight at 21:15 CEST.

Casts are available in English (VanillaTV: stream and mumble comms), German (ESLtv), French (HiScore.tv) & Russian (Team-Fortress.ru).

I43 Online Tournament Moving To The Next Level

Before that (as in now), however, the i43 online competition to win tickets for the upcoming I43 LAN is taking place, with the lower brackets concluding today! You can find the tournament brackets here (in the TF2 section). For more information on I43 and how to be a part of it go here!

20:00 CEST – Lower tournament semi-finals (on cp_gullywash):
UV-Gaming EU vs  illegal. SourceTV: connect 188:138.56.35:37415
RAGE.eSports vs Vier RED. SourceTV: connect 188:138.56.35:37515

The finals between the winners of the 2 matches will be played at 21:00 CEST on cp_gravelpit (SourceTV: connect 188:138.56.35:37415).

Tonight the first ever Excello Team Fortress 2 Tournament, the Bigfoot TF2 Challenge, will come to an end. The finns from SG-1 (former Power Gaming) and the European all-star team Epsilon e-Sports will meet at 21:15 CEST on the maps cp_badlands and cp_granary (decider map: cp_gravelpit) to determine who will get six Bigfoot Killer 2100 network cards.
There will be at least three casts for this match. One in English, one in German and one in Russian. Do not miss it!
Even if the finals have not yet been played it is safe to say that this tournament was a success! I want to take this opportunity to thank all participating teams, our Sponsor Bigfoot Networks, VanillaTF2.org, ETF2L, VanillaTV, n2o-TV, TF2.Pro.Ru, Martndemus’  TF2 and all casters and viewers for their great support.
tomahawk, managing director at Excello, agrees: “I’m here – I want TF2 to become a mainstay at excello.net as long as you wish to do so“. Looks like a bright future lays ahead of competitive Team Fortress 2.

Bigfoot Networks decided to sponsor another cup and is donating another 6x Bigfoot Killer 2100 network cards (each worth around 80-90 €) so it is now time to announce the next tournament. To create a better competitive atmosphere, we will host two tournaments this time – One Open Tournament and one Invite Tournament.
One new rule for both tournaments is, that you can use one mercs if your opponent agrees but you are not allowed to add new players after the seeding is published. Also, please note that you have to reduce the timelimit if you are starting late.

In the Open Tournament, a maximum of 32 teams can sign up and every team is welcome. The first 4 rounds will have fixed maps (cp_snakewater_rc4, cp_gullywash_pro, cp_granary and cp_badlands) and have to be played on the 8th August. The final has to be played until the following thursday and is a best of three match (map pool + cp_gravelpit).
The winner of this tournament wins… nothing. However, he will be allowed to take part in the Invite Only Tournament on Sunday, 14th August and gets the third best seeding (behind the two finalists of the running tournament).

In the Invite Tournament, only teams that are invited are allowed to play (obviously).
The following teams are hereby invited. Every team that reached at least the quarter finals in the last tournament is invited. Because the tournament will only have 8 slots and the winner of the open tournament wins one, we can only take 7 out of these 11 teams:

– SG-1
– Epsilon e-Sports
– Dignitas (Mix?)
– Infused
– Monster Munch
– SNSD
– Anexis eSports
– Famestars
– Team Thermaltake
– K1ck eSports
– TCM Gaming

Teams that played in the last cup, will be treated preferential. The better they were – The higher their chance of getting in. This means, that SG-1, Epsilon, Dignitas and Infused have a secure spot (if they choose to sign up). The rest has either to be better than the other teams that are signing up or have to sign up faster than their competitors.
We are asking these teams to let know an admin as soon as possible if they wish to participate.
If the invite cup is lacking teams, the next best team (or teams) from the Open Tournament can consider themself (or themselves) lucky. They will get a chance to play with the Big Boys in the Invite Tournament.
This tournament will be played in the “Best of three” format from the first to the last round with map elimination from the previously mentioned map pool. The quarter- and semi-finals are played on Sunday, the finalists have time until the following thursday to play the final match.

The original newspost can be viewed here. In order to sign up for this cup, all of your players need to have an account at excello.net and need to enter a valid steam id in the format STEAM_X:X:XXXX. Then, the teamleader can create a team and invite the players. Before the players are members of the team, they need to confirm the invite in their inbox.
Admins for this cup are CanFo, Crasp, huhy, ipz and SonnyBlack. If any questions arise, feel free to contact one of them at #excello.tf2 on quakenet.