UPDATE: Dave will now be joining the casting team to add some beautiful banter and awesome intelligence to the proceedings this evening, and if we’re lucky and he gets in from work in time, JimmyBreeze may be dropping in too! See you later!

ETF2L radio brings you action from tonight’s premiership fixture, Epsilon eSports vs Team Dignitas!

With Epsilon just winning first place in the premiership division by 1 point this (you would think) would give them the upper hand! So they’ve elected to play the mighty mummy agron Team Dignitas. It has to be said that Epsilon have had an impeccable season, being the most active team in the season and it shows with their results!

Team Dignitas have managed to stay afloat and still compete at the top of the premiership despite the lack of activity from certain members. Taking this into account this match, you have to only admire how they can win and compete for the European title in Team Fortress 2! With the roster change of their medic from dunc to agron, will it be too little too late for agron to bring up his ‘big guns’? Will it mean darn will finally stop being a kamikaze bomber? and will it finally mean Dignitas will come one step closer to retaining their immunity into being the top again?

Expect nothing but Shintaz’s name/avatar changing, Extremer crying like a 11 year old (<3) and Slick being sexy tonight. Whoever wins this match will be playing versus Blight/PwR gaming.

Follow the action live on ETF2L Radio

• Starting Thursday, January 13th at 21:05 CET
• Hosted by Byte Dave and  SeriousCat
• SourceTV: 145.92.203.100:27020 , relay.toaster.fi:27020 , tf2world.net:28001
• Mumble cast: 85.236.100.59:6687
• Join #etf2l.radio on quakenet to show your support/for shoutouts

Match Overview
Epsilon eSports vs Relic
Playoffs (Premier Division)
Thursday, January 13th 21:10 CET

cp_badlands

3 - 2

cp_granary

4 - 3

OVERALL
Epsilon eSports [6:0] Relic

See you tonight!

ETF2L Radio brings you action from tonight’s division 1 fixture, Paroxysm vs VYE.tf2!

With both teams ending up on 28 points, there is nothing to separate these two teams. Paroxysm have won 1 map more than VYE but VYE have come up with some important wins/draws versus higher opposition in the league! Interestingly enough VYE’s only full 6-0 loss was versus MTF.Gaming – Paroxysm, will VYE let this stand? Will they want to get revenge? YOU BET THEY DO!

It has to be noted that Paroxysm are on a roll with their current win streak of 5 matches unbeaten, after a nervy start to the league, the team managed to find their feet and excel towards the latter stages. Leaving them in a prime position to compete in the play-offs.
VYE on the other hand have had a very mixed season, winning their first 2 games then drawing and losing a couple of key games. It’s hard to predict how this team will perform but with their latest new member WalKeR will he make an impact tonight? Will randa show the TF2 community that he is a demoman to contend with? Or will he crack and melt like a slush puppy (strawberry flavour!)?!

Expect nothing but tears, blood and RAGE tonight (oh and the occasional trolling!)!!!! Whoever wins this match will be playing in the premiership promotion play-offs.

PLEASE NOTE THE MAPS PLAYED TONIGHT ARE cp_badlands, cp_granary and decider is cp_gravelpit!!

Follow the action live on ETF2L Radio

• Starting Wednesday, January 12th at 21:10 CET
• Hosted by Byte and  Mr. Admirable
• SourceTV: fakkelbrigade.eu:27101

< UPDATED!!!!!!

• Mumble cast: 85.236.100.59:6687
• Join #etf2l.radio to show your support/for shoutouts

Match Overview
Paroxysm vs vye.tf2
Playoffs (Division 1)
Wednesday, January 12th 21:15 CET

cp_badlands

4 - 5

cp_granary

5 - 2

cp_gravelpit

2 - 0

OVERALL
Paroxysm [6:3] vye.tf2

See you tonight!

Last night we had yet another successful Monday Night Cup, taking place on cp_snakewater_b9. Thanks to all the teams for showing up at the start and giving us a relatively smooth tournament. All 32 teams managed to show up for their first match, a first in Monday Night Madness history!

Congratulations to the winners of each bracket:

Low Bracket
Dr. Buzzard’s Original Savannah Band
Game Over Tactics
BACON!
Drunken Angels Unstoppable

High Bracket
Blight Gaming
Team Fruit
The MIPC Organization
Twisted Play boX? Squad 2

Many thanks to Chojje for making cp_snakewater – be sure to give your feedback on it here!

The brackets for the Monday Night Madness cup have been generated and we are ready to have a good look at the new custom 5cp map Snakewater!

>> Snakewater B9 download <<

High Bracket: Click here
Low Bracket: Click here

Round 1: 20:00 CET
Quarter Final: 20:45 CET
Semi Final: 21:30 CET
Final: 22:15 CET

STV highlight: Team Fruit vs. Twistedplay BoX2 – connect 85.236.102.65:27315

TF2TV will cover some interesting matches of this cup, be sure to check it out if your team is not participating!

The teams that have been so unlucky not to get a spot in one of the brackets should nevertheless stay tuned in #etf2l. In case a team drops we will announce it in IRC and the first team to query us will get the free spot.

Some reminders:

Please contact your opponents in #etf2l on IRC, so ensure at least one of your team is in there at all times. If you have any problems with contacting your opponents, please talk to an admin. There will be servers with sourceTV’s (hosted by Multiplay) available for you to play on, request them by talking to an admin.

• All teams must have 1 player ready on #etf2l (quakenet) to find their opponent and schedule the match.
• If your match starts more than 10 minutes late, please reduce the map time to 15-25 minutes, depending on how long you have left before the next round starts. Bear in mind that if the map finishes in a draw, there will be a golden cap period to follow.
• If your match finishes in a draw, you must play a golden cap round to decide the winner. Please reset the config and play a 5 minute golden cap round. The first team to cap in this round, wins. If neither team caps within 5 minutes, the team that holds cp3 at the end of the 5 minute period wins.
• The regular ETF2L Season 8 rules apply. Use of polycount/Australian christmas weapons is not allowed.
• Teams can use 1 merc by default, multiple mercs are allowed if the opponent agrees.

Season 8 playoffs

The main weeks of season 8 have passed and we can look back at some exciting weeks with lots of close action in every division. But before season 8 comes to an end it is time for the playoffs and tiebreakers. Epsilon eSports gave the best performance in the Premier division which means they will get to pick their opponent from the top 4 teams going into the Premier division playoffs. Other divisions will have plenty of action as well, with tiebreakers and several promotion playoffs. Be sure to have a look at the schedule and matches below.

Tiebreaker Matches / Premier playoff round 1: (map elimination)
Schedule deadline: 09/01/2011
Match deadline: 16/01/2011

Playoff Matches / Grand final: (map elimination)
Schedule deadline: 17/01/2011
Match deadline: 23/01/2011

Tiebreakers

• Premier division 7th place:  FakkelBrigade vs. Gamerzone vs. Yoyotech
• Division 1 3rd place: MTF.Gaming – Paroxysm vs. vye.tf2
• Division 4F 2nd place: Team OS vs. Team Versus
• Division 5A 2nd place: Pointless vs. Team Colonslash
• Division 5C 2nd place: GFM Clan vs. Elite nile Gunners
• Division 6F 2nd place: Racked.eu vs. moustache Gaming

Playoffs

• Premier division playoff #1: Team Refuse vs. Eternity
• Premier division playoff #2: Loser of Prem div tiebreaker vs. Division 1 3rd place
• Division 2 promotion playoff: knock0ut vs. n2o-gaming.TF2
• Division 4 promotion playoff #1: Anger Management vs. Blood is Good
• Division 4 promotion playoff #2: renoB vs. Flai Gaming
• Division 4 promotion playoff #3: Winner of div4F tiebreaker vs. Casus Belli
• Division 6 promotion playoff #1: Harmful Hamsters vs. Vier – A. M. Edition
• Division 6 promotion playoff #2: Elite Nile Gunners #2 vs. Who Dares Wins
• Division 6 promotion playoff #3: Loser of div6F tiebreaker vs.  Cant Shoot The Medic
• Division 6 promotion playoff #4: Green Syndicate vs. Nineteenth Century
• Division 6 promotion playoff #5: Team Extreme vs. Who Dares… Grins
• Division 6 promotion playoff #6: New Kids vs. Colorz.mTx

Highlander Community Challenge

The Tournament moves on and we have already seen some exciting matches. We have now arrived at round 4, the last round before the top seeded European and American teams meet. Be sure to check out the Cup Tree for an exciting endgame with matches like wat? vs. TwistedPlay. You will find the round 4 deadline and deadlines for subsequent weeks below. Good luck to those still participating!

Round 4 (1. Gravelpit 2. Upward 3. Viaduct)
Schedule deadline: 09/01/2011
Match deadline: 16/01/2011

Round 5 (1. Steel 2. Goldrush 3. Viaduct)
Schedule deadline: 23/01/2011
Match deadline: 30/01/2011

Quarter finals (1. Gravelpit 2. Badwater 3. Viaduct)
Schedule deadline: 06/02/2011
Match deadline: 13/02/2011

Semi final (map elimination)
Schedule deadline: 20/02/2011
Match deadline: 27/02/2011

Final (map elimination)
Schedule deadline: 06/03/2011
Match deadline: 13/03/2011

Monday Night Madness #8 – Snakewater

For those of you not playing in the playoffs or the Highlander challenge there is a nice surprise in the form of the Monday Night Madness Cup #8. This time the one day cup for custom maps will feature cp_snakewater by   Chojje. He spent quite some time on fine-tuning the map for competitive play, so be sure to check out more about his map in this forum thread.

>> Snakewater B9 download <<

The Eighth edition of the Monday Night Madness will be held Monday, 10 January at 20:00 CET. The signups will open on Sunday, 9 January at 17:00 CET. We will have several servers (provided by Multiplay) available to play on. the cup will use the familiar format: Teams will be seeded into groups of 16 according to their skill. When signing up, you will be placed on the waiting list at first, and then seeded into the correct group. The finals of each bracket will be held at 22:15 CET. Be sure to check them out.

Happy 2011!

And finally, the staff at ETF2L would like to extend our best wishes to you, your family, and your teammates this New Year. Thanks for a great 2010, and let’s work together to make 2011 an even better year for Team Fortress 2!