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We’ve reached the halfway point of the season, and this week’s map is the one every Highlander player has a love/hate relationship with – of course, it’s cp_steel! All 6 Premiership teams are in action tonight, with key points available in the battle for playoffs…

Firstly, early league leaders Feila eSports slim shady edition come up against kiti s bakenbardami looking to extend their unbeaten start to the season. Highlander’s resident power couple Hutchy and Leila have finished runner’s up in the past 3 seasons, but look the early favourites having dropped only 1 point in the opening fixtures. They face a rejuvenated kiti who managed to take the full 6 points against former champions SDCK in Week 2. Will the legend of Russian superiority on Steel produce another upset here?

A battle closer to the bottom of the table sees GRAHAM GAMING up against Tourettes Chessclub. Both sides have struggled so far, just picking up a point each from the first two fixtures. The pre-season qualifiers saw the teams face each other in the Upper Bracket Final, with Steel being one of the maps played – and GRAHAM GAMING coming out as the victors. Recent roster changes have seen Demoman Yxxo leave TORPEDO, while former Pyro of the Season Synrise is switching from Pootis and returning to his roots. Will we see another 2-0 sweep for nubbi & his crew, or will these changes swing the odds?

Finally, we have our showpiece game – unbeaten inVision, who find themselves in 2nd place so far, come up against Super Dickmann's KANNONEN! Returning after a 2 season hiatus SDCK has seen mixed results so far, dropping points in double-koth week to kiti without winning a round. inVision managed to overcome their eastern European couterparts, and a victory in this match would get them with one foot in the playoffs. Will SDCK return to form, or can inVision signal a changing in the guard at the top of European Highlander?

Join CeeJaey, chando & Wiethoofd live on KritzKast tonight at 21:00 CET to find out!

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THE THEORISTS vs Professional Disney Fangirls

Tonight, S31 draws to a close for Division 1, as Professional Disney Fangirls square off against $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG in the season’s Grand Finals.

In anticipation of the match, we spoke with both teams’ leaders, to find out about the seasons they’ve had, their experience playing together, and their thoughts ahead of Wednesday evening’s series.

CEEJAEY: ‘WE HAVE THE POTENTIAL TO WIN, WE JUST NEED TO PLAY OUR BEST’

Few teams in ETF2L history have been around for as long as Professional Disney Fangirls, with a Disney-obsessed core dating back as far as season thirteen.

“Myself, Toast and Villdjack have played together for a few years now’, said CeeJaey. ‘It’s the first season since this team was made that Seal hasn’t been playing – he is team owner, coach, mascot and the original Disney fanatic”.

However, despite playing together at Copenhagen Games and at i63, this season’s been a whole new world for the fangirls. With yak, Seal and Der_Milchmann leaving the team, “we had to find three new players, and work out what kind of lineup we were gonna have”, CeeJaey said.

Though time was of the essence, they made three excellent pick-ups, as ekkelund, neon, and koling_pendejo entered the fray.

The group was initially a little unsure of their prospects for the season ahead. “This team was put together in the days leading up to signups, and there was talk of whether we should go for Div 1 or 2”, CeeJaey said.

Nevertheless, it was all change once regular practice kicked off. “As the season started and we began playing, I felt winning the division was totally possible, [and reaching] the final was definitely the aim”.

“We have some really strong DM players on our team, ekkelund has a great maincalling style that everyone is on board with, and we play in a way that suits what we want to do. Communication and coordination have been something we’ve really worked on all season, and I think it’s improving”.

It’s been a season to remember for CeeJaey and friends. In fact, there’s only one team that they’ve been unable to beat – their opponents in the final, $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG.

MAK: ‘I THINK WE HAVE THE STRONGEST CO-ORDINATION AND CALLS IN THE DIVISION’

While $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG lack the vintage of Professional Disney Fangirls, does it really matter when you lose just one map in the season?

“Our team is aph and Nicky Scouts, Jordy and Collaide Soldiers, myself on Demo and Doughy on Medic”, mak FP began.

“As a group of people we’ve been playing since about S28/29”, he continued. “Last season our friendgroup was split among two teams, and it didn’t work out very well for anyone. We decided to put it together when we realised that we were playing well in the Essentials cups against Prem teams”.

As a prospective hypothesis, $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG anticipated that their new experiment would lead to largely successful results – which they delivered in style. “My team was confident and always had ambitions of playoffs”, Mak said, “which is fair because they’re all powerful fighters”.

“Going into the season, I personally wasn’t very confident, though that was mostly in my own play and because there were still eight teams. After week three/four, I stepped up my play to the point where I am about as confident as the rest of the team”.

After a near-undefeated season, Mak told us that the team’s success comes primarily from the high skill and coordination of its players. “Our team has very strong overall DM, with the largest contribution being made by our Scout combo. However, at this point in the season I feel confident in saying our Soldiers and myself are also more than adequate”.

But will it be enough for the Grand Finals?

THE MATCH

Despite beating Professional Disney Fangirls in both the regular season and the first round of the playoffs, $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG are too wise to rule out their opponents so early.

“‘The opposing team has a good mix of playmakers and then people with very strong discipline”, Mak said, “with several strong and unpredictable offclassers”. This includes toast – one of the most dominant Spy players in TF2 history – while Villdjack is also highly proficient at various off-classes.

“It means that they get free reign to attempt to do stuff for their team without having to worry about others on their team feeding”.

Meanwhile, there’s a quiet confidence in the $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG ranks that tonight they can go the distance.

“We’ve played $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG a lot”, CeeJaey said. “They were our Week 1 opponents and deservedly beat us. Throughout the season our scrims results have been pretty even, we’ve been winning more than most, but when it came to the upper bracket we lost again. They’re a strong team but I feel we have the potential to win, we just need to play at our best”.

Will $HADOWWIZARDMONEYGANG outsmart the Fangirls? Or will Professional Disney Fangirls finally get down to business with a season win?

Catch all the action on TF.TV on Wednesday night at 21:15.

P.S.

CeeJaey: “Just a shoutout to my team, it’s been a really fun season and I’m proud of how we’ve managed to get this far!”

mak FP: “Shoutouts to everyone in my Mumble”.

Written by joe the brave

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Ascent.EU vs Faint Gaming

ComedyShortsGaming and Flush Agency Headquarters are crossing paths for the third and final team this season, and this time a spot in the Grand Final is on the line. Their previous encounter saw Faint put up a decent fight, but ultimately losing to Ascent’s aggression. Now, a do-or-die situation can bring out both the best and the worst in any team, so perhaps Faint will be able to match Ascent’s pace, or maybe the latter will get disorganised. Anything could happen.

Ascent was not able to replicate the relative success they found against Se7en in the regular season, as they weren’t able to challenge them on the unorthodox Product. Gullywash was much closer however, ending in a golden cap. amppis and associates usually have a much better showing on the ‘classical’ maps, so keep an eye out for that.

Meanwhile, Faint was looking to bounce back after their fourth consecutive defeat, and they were able to do so against Faint Gaming, proving that their week seven demise was most likely a fluke. Taking Process in a very convincing 6-2 scoreline and winning Granary after a golden cap surely has helped the confidence of the team.

So, will Faint show overcredulity over Ascent’s shenanigans? Or will Ascent overcome yet another opponent in their pursuit of glory? Tune into Teamfortress TV tonight and find out!

Play-by-Play: Ombrack | Analysis: Beater | Production: gemm | Match Page | ComedyShortsGaming | Flush Agency Headquarters | Written by Aelkyr

ETF2L’s partners:

Make sure to visit our sponsors STN.tf and Copenhagen Games!

ETF2L on social media:

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Se7en vs SVIFT EU

To kick the playoffs off, it’s the old versus the new as the recently-formed Faint Gaming takes on the most successful team in ETF2L’s history, Se7en.

While this might look like it will be a routine victory for Se7en, SVIFT EU have a knack for upsets, as their presence in the playoffs is already thanks to their last-minute triumph over third place Flush Agency Headquarters. SVIFT will be surely looking to keep the momentum going, and it would not be the first time that a fourth placed team is troubling the top seed, like in Season 28 where eventual champions SVIFT had to play 3 maps to get rid of top5rocket.

Se7en has not played any officials recently, but seeing how the last official between those two teams went, they are looking like strong favourites. While SVIFT had their moments, they ultimately could not deal with the coordination of Se7en and were also missing their clinical execution and Se7en looked in control for almost all of the match.

That was in week two however, and SVIFT are looking like a different team by now. Will they be able to keep their current velocity and squeeze by Se7en, or will the veterans knock them a peg and a bracket down?

Written by Aelkyr.

Ascent.EU vs Faint Gaming

Next up, it’s last season’s Div 1 winners Flush Agency Headquarters vs ComedyShortsGaming.

S31’s been one to remember for Ascent.EU, whose towering lineup of established gamers saw out the regular season in style. Originally starting out as a revival of Sauna Slayers with amppis at the head, the team’s lost just two maps to date: a close defeat to SVIFT on Granary, and a 4-1 loss to Se7en on Sunshine.

It’s been a slightly different story for Faint. Though alle et al began their first season together in the Prem with two successive victories, they then lost three on the trot against Se7en, SVIFT and their opponents tonight.

Will Ascent continue climbing through the rankings? Or will Faint deliver the bold performances we know their players are capable of?

Written by joe the brave.

Both of tonight’s games will be cast by Team Fortress TV, so head over to the site for play-by-play commentary, analysis, air-shots and more!

ETF2L’s partners:

Make sure to visit our sponsors STN.tf and Copenhagen Games!

ETF2L on social media:

Follow us on twitter!
Like us on Facebook!
Join our Steamgroup and invite your friends!
Use our Discord

Welcome everyone to the conclusion of the 31st season of ETF2L 6v6 for Open, Low, Mid, Division 2, Division 1 and Premiership.

We hope you enjoyed the matches, and for the teams that made it through, congratulations.

All tiers will have playoffs, all playoff matches will be using the Map Elimination system. Note that all dates are estimates and teams are able to negotiate other days by scheduling with their opponents.

If you find yourself on the list of these teams expect an admin to add you and request your availability if there is no information or insufficient information is given we will have to decide your match dates for you. Keep in mind that we will try and accommodate both teams, but the match date may still vary from your provided days if for example none of the days matches with your opponent’s, but your opponent offered more days than you did. Deadlines listed for the matches are flexible and may be changed in certain situations if admins are contacted about allowing extensions on these.

Schedule

For Division 2, Mid, Low and Open tiers, the schedule for the playoff matches will be the following.

• Quarterfinal matches will be played from 11th – 17th November.
• Semi-Finals will be played from 18th – 24th November.
• Grand Finals will be played from 25th November – 2nd December.

For Premiership and Division 1, the schedule for the playoff matches will be the following.

• Upper Bracket Round 1 matches will be played from 11th – 15th November.
• UBF/LBR1 will be played from 16h – 20th November.
• LBF will be played from 20th –24rd November.
• Grand Finals will be played from 25th November – 2nd December.

Premiership

For Premiership we’re going with 4 teams in the playoffs with double elimination. All matches except the Grand Finals, which will be a BO5 with a map pick advantage for the team winning the upper bracket final, will be played as BO3.

1. Se7en
   • 26 points
2. ComedyShortsGaming
   • 24 points
3. Flush Agency Headquarters
   • 12 points
4. Faint Gaming
   • 11 points – 5,5 Tiebreaker Score
5. Ora Elektro
   • 11 points – 3.366 Tiebreaker Score

Matches:

Upper Bracket Round 1 matches will be played from 11th – 15th November.

Semi Final 1: Se7en vs Faint Gaming
Semi Final 2: ComedyShortsGaming vs Flush Agency Headquarters

Winners of these matches will face off against each other in an Upper Bracket Final match, while the losers of these matches will play against each other in a Lower Bracket Round 1 match.

UBF/LBR1 will be played from 16h – 20th November.

LBF will be played from 20th –24rd November.

Grand Finals will be played from 25th November – 2nd December.

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