Wednesday Night Weeaboo

Week 4’s Division 1 games come to a close tonight as I Don’t Know? (4-0-2) take on Division 1 newbies The Last Resort (1-0-3).

Idk? will look to continue their stellar form on Gullywash, following recent wins there against TCM-Gaming and Power Gaming. In Week 2, both squads suffered dramatic Turbine losses, idk? falling just short of the line against What Women Want in a 9-10 loss, and TLR were on the wrong side of Turbine’s special sauce overtime rules versus Power, enduring a 10-11 defeat.

I spoke briefly with TLR scout Atreides:

How many points do you guys need from this game to stay competitive in Division 1?

Taking our future games into account, technically, we don’t need any points from this game. I think that, team morale wise, we’re realistically looking for one map win. We’ve had some convincing results on Turbine lately, and we’re fully aware of idk?’s strengths.

What’s the key to beating idk?

They’ve had some impressive wins and outstanding individual performances recently, especially from their demoman, Extremer. The game will totally depend on our ability to limit his damage potential and to take full advantage of his (at times) too aggressive moves. If we concentrate on our strengths, I forecast two close scores on both maps. The team that manages to exploit the other’s mistakes will win.

Coverage

• The game starts at 21.15 CET
• STV information will be posted here as soon as we get it.

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Match Overview
Epsilon eSports vs Marco FTW
Week 4 (Division 1)
Wednesday, March 17th 20:15 CET
SourceTV: fakkelbrigade.eu:27101

ctf_turbine

13 - 7

cp_gullywash

1 - 2

OVERALL
Epsilon eSports [3:3] Marco FTW

Pushing the community forward

Our partnership with EsportsHeaven continues with the 128 team Sapphire Challenge with €500 up for grabs.

While that partnership is strong, it is also a growing one, and we still need your support and participation. So, if you’re able to play on the evening of the 15th of March, make sure you sign-up today!

We’re also very excited to tell you about an upcoming Highlander tournament we’ll be hosting in association with Valve and TF2Lobby for new to competitive play teams. Expect details about how this involves you in the coming week!

Also make sure to check out the second episode of The Direct Hit podcast, “Who the hell decided to go valley?”, where the team takes a look at what’s wrong with competitive TF2 and how we can put a positive spin on it.

Rule changes with immediate effect

• In response to the awesome Fraglander frag movie by Sammage, we have been forced to rule that the kind of turning scripts demonstrated in his video will be banned in ETF2L play.
• After a number of issues with pauses in matches recently, in both ETF2L and the ESH cups, we are changing the pause rule to the following
  

  Teams may request a pause at any time during a match. Reasons for pausing include:

  – Player drop
  – Server problems
  – Your game is unplayable due to network issues

  If you need to pause, you must clearly request a pause and give a reason for it (for example: “Pause please, player drop”).

  The other team is then, by rule, expected to pause on behalf of their opponents in a sensible and sportsmanlike manner. They must pause at the first appropriate time.

  Teams should use their common sense about what an appropriate time to pause is. Try your best not to pause when major engagements are taking place. You should pause within 15 seconds of being asked.

  If a complaint is made that a team was either abusing the ability to request pauses to gain an unsportsmanlike advantage, or a team failed to fairly pause or took excessive time to do so after being clearly requested to pause, the admin team will review the supplied SourceTV demo and assess penalties on a case-by-case basis. Penalties include minor warning accompanied with the forfeit of the round in question, or, in extreme cases, major warning and forfeit of the map.

  A team is only expected to pause on behalf of the other team once per map. After the first pause has been used, it is up to the other team whether and when to pause or not.

  A pause cannot last more than 5 minutes. After 5 minutes have passed, the other team is free to unpause the game without the other team’s agreement, as long as they let the other team know that they are about to unpause. We advise teams to use the 5 minutes wisely: sort out whatever problem you have and arrange a sub from your roster in case the problem cannot be fixed.

  You may not unpause the game under any circumstances without giving proper warning to the other team.

• Following the results of the Obscure poll, cp_obscure_rc2 will be used in all future games until further notice.
• Please also note that several teams have fallen foul of the rule regarding the use of mercs. You must have the other team’s permission to use a merc, and all mercs must be registered with ETF2L. It is your responsibility to check this, not the other team’s. There will be no exceptions.We also advise, as always, that you get your opponent to agree to allowing your merc on the relevant match page. It’s also a good idea to screenshot their agreement (if it’s agreed in-game or through Steam chat/IRC) too.

Changes to the admin team

We regret to announce that we’re removing long-time volunteers Amonsilas and Weqo from the admin team due to inactivity. We thank them for their services to the community and wish them good luck with their future plans.

We have also taken the decision to relieve Anakin from his role in the anti-cheat team. An unfortunate conflict of interest has arisen with his position as ESL admin, and it was, in our estimation, effecting his performance in his duties with ETF2L. We are very grateful for his hard work and wish him all the best with regards to future ventures.

Following Anakin’s removal, the anti-cheat team is seriously understaffed. We are in the final stages of approving new members, who we hope will formally join the team within the next few days.

In response to allegations against anti-cheat team

Following an internal review between the head admins, anti-cheat and league staff, we have decided to uphold the anti-cheat team’s decision regarding Quad’s ban, as detailed on February the 8th. They have fully explained their decision and they have the full support of the head admins.

Due to the seriousness of the allegations made against the anti-cheat team, we have taken the decision to make an exception in publishing details of our anti-cheat team’s report.

Ticks 3000-4000: Unusual movement, microadjustments of crosshair.
4400, 5600, 5950, 6700: Kills with unusual crosshair movements and patterns.
5100, 5800: Also potentially suspicious kills

Please keep in mind that we do not release this kind of information for a reason. While these instances may look innocuous to you, it is the judgement of our anti-cheat experts that they constitute evidence of cheating.

Considering Gryzor’s behaviour towards our league and exercising his personal vendettas against certain members of our staff in the name of “improving” our community, it’s difficult to take his word seriously. Nevertheless, be assured that we took the allegations he made against our league very seriously.

For those reasons, however, and his leak of confidential admin information that he obtained through his previous role as ETF2L staff, we have taken the decision to exclude him from our community for a year.

It’s very important to us that our admins, people in positions of trust, do not abuse their role. Any admin, past or present, caught leaking information will be subject to the same penalty.

Player bans

Gryzor – Leaking confidential admin information – 1 year ban

Hastaloe – Speedhack – 1 year ban

Round 3 of the 5th cup

The live draw for Round 3 fixtures took place earlier tonight in our IRC channel. The fixtures will be input into the bracket as soon as possible, hopefully by tomorrow night. The 32 teams remaining have 2 weeks to play their matches. Good luck to all the teams involved – you’re almost half way to the final!

Dates and details
• Maps are Gravel Pit, Freight and Badlands (decider)
• Schedule deadline: Sunday the 28th of February
• Match deadline: Sunday the 7th of March
• Round 4 draw: late on Sunday the 7th of March

Week 2 of Season 7

Season 7 enters its second week with a couple of challenging maps, Turbine and Well, to test your team’s tactical and technical ability. Will Well continue to throw up surprises like we saw in Week 1 with Team Empire drawing with TCM-Gaming and The Last Resort coming back to dominate Well after losing Badlands to FakkelBrigade, just like infernal Gamers did to Mister?

Dates and details
• Maps are Turbine and Well
• Schedule deadline: Sunday the 21th of February
• Match deadline: Sunday the 28th of February

Using wildcards

We’d also like to ask teams to be considerate of their opponents regarding the use of wildcards. Even though you can take a wildcard any time up to 15 minutes before your match is due to start, that doesn’t mean you should leave your opponents in the dark about whether you’re going to use it or not. Please be considerate and let them know what’s happening in good time.

If, for example, you think that you’re going to have to use a wildcard but aren’t 100% sure, it’s best practise to just use the wildcard rather than wait until the last possible moment to decide. Remember that you have two wildcards for the season. If it happens that you actually can field a team, try and arrange the game for that night, then inform an admin that the game was played and we will give you the wildcard back for future use.

Also please keep in mind that while a wildcard grants you a generous 2 weeks to reschedule, you should make the effort to arrange the match for as soon as possible rather than leave it until the last possible day, risk clashes with other competitions or running into unforeseen circumstances, and incur default losses.

Player ban

It’s with regret that we announce another player has been banned from our competitions.

Sandik – Speedhack – 1 year ban

Obscure vote

Due to the recent release of cp_obscure_rc2, we have decided to conduct a poll to see which version of Obscure you would like to play in the upcoming league fixtures.

As Byte has already mentioned in the Obscure thread, it was a mistake to implement such changes into a release candidate version, but he feels and the majority of players he has spoken to agree that the changes were necessary. However, having said that, we realise that many clans may have already been practising hard on cp_obscure_rc1 and may wish to play this version in Season 7. So, we’re asking you, the community, to decide which version you wish to play in the league.

Please note that any versions after cp_obscure_rc2 will purely be visual and bug fixes. So any further updates to Obscure will be cosmetic and slight tweak changes only.

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If you wish to discuss this further, pop along to the cp_obscure thread.

Admin departures

It is with great sadness that we have to say goodbye to our fellow admins Chocolate, Linc0ln and Jonni due to real life commitments. We thank them for all their efforts down the months and years that they have committed to ETF2L.

We are still looking for committed admins to join our league. If you’re interested in helping to push the community forward, get in touch.

If you are interested in joining our team please send an email to d2m[at]etf2l.org with the following details:

• ETF2L Nickname
• Real name, age and nationality
• Spoken languages (average english required)
• Past admin experience (crucial for AC-admins)
• Motivation: why do you want to join our team?

Ready, set, go!

Season 7 starts today and will see 350 teams do battle across 6 divisions and 35 groups. The divisions have been painstakingly crafted by the admin team and are ready for you to peruse. Make sure to get in contact with the other teams in your group as soon as possible so the scheduling process goes smoothly. Check out the league-wide Week 1 fixtures.

There have been a lot of new teams added from the waiting list, so be sure to check out if you are in the tables. If you are still on the waiting list, don’t worry, there will surely be room to replace more dropping teams. Being active and easily reachable helps your chances a lot.

We’d also like to take this chance to remind teams to use the relevant match pages to record scheduling/merc/unlocks notes and agreements. Doing so will help the admin team resolve any disputes. Make sure that your team has read and understood the rules, especially if this is your first season. They have been updated with new rules regarding hijacking teams, wildcards and unlocks. Ignorance of the rules is not an excuse.

We wish you and your team the very best of luck.

• Fixed maps will be scheduled as follows:
  • Week 1: Badlands and Well
    Week 2: Turbine and Well
    Week 3: Granary and Gullywash
    Week 4: Turbine and Gullywash
    Week 5: Gravel Pit and Obscure
    Week 6: Freight and Obscure
    Week 7: Granary and Gorge
    Week 8: Freight and Gorge
    Week 9: Badlands and Gravel Pit

• Dates in detail:
  • Week 1 starts: Monday the 8th of February
  • Week 1 schedule deadline: Sunday the 14th of February
  • Week 1 match deadline: Sunday the 21st of February
  • Week 2 starts: Monday the 14th of February
  • Week 2 schedule deadline:Sunday the 21st of February

5th Cup Round 2 Starts

Round 2 fixtures have been generated as the Cup moves onto its second stage. Make sure to take a look at the playoff tree!

We’re also happy to announce the following TF2 merchandise as prizes, courtesy of Valve:

• 1st place: 6 t-shirts, 6 signed posters, 5 (!) game-rig mousemats
• 2nd place: 3 t-shirts (you’ll have to fight amongst yourselves!), 6 signed posters, 6 character keyrings
• 3rd place: 6 signed posters, 6 character keyrings

Dates in detail:

• Round 2 starts: Monday the 8th of February
• Round 2 schedule deadline: Sunday the 14th of February
• Round 2 match deadline: Sunday the 21st of February
• Round 3 live draw: Sunday the 21st of February
• Round 3 starts: Monday the 22nd of February

Two more added to the banlist

The following players have been banned for cheating:

• Levela – Aimbot (Caught by Aequitas) -1 year ban
• Quad – Aimbot – 1 year ban

Admin Applications

Today we welcome Anderson to the admin team. Thanks for all the admin applications we have received, there have been more than ever before. We will be contacting people for interviews this week for further positions.

ESH ASRock Challenge Cup needs more signups

Our joint venture with ESH has been really successful so far, but we still need you guys to take part in as many competitions as possible! The latest cup called the ASRock Challenge is still accepting signups. The cup itself will run on Monday the 15th February, starting at 20:00CET. Check the ASRock Challenge Cup page for more details and get your team added before it’s too late!