Hey guys! Just wanting to throw out a quick word about TWL starting up, I know we are a bit late (due to some admin issues that have been talked about to no end) but Season 7 is ready to go! Full information after the break :D

The preseason is starting next Tuesday, after labor day. Matches will be scheduled over the weekend, but we do not expect any teams to play until Tuesday evening. You will have both weeks to play these matches (this will not be true in main season) and you do not have to play either. Teams will be assigned to other teams in their division. Week one will be played on cp_prolane and week 2 will be played on ctf_deliverance. I have one request to those playing on deliverance to upload a srctv demo that I could share with the map maker so he can see what needs to be changed to make this map more suitable for competitive play. Both maps are non-standard and should be a good way to shake off the off-season rust and get ready for an awesome season.

AG and blight are going to face off on cp_well tonight in the first week of CEVO S6 competitive play! Schetter and I, bcarr, will be bringing you the play-by-play via SRCTV+Mumble (mumble.tgbf.tv:64742) or streamed online at tgbf.tv.

The match should be starting at midnight EST! Sorry about the short notice, hopefully we'll have a better schedule to go by as more games become scheduled? Or something like that?

Anyway, come watch the season opener and have some fun!

1. Businessmen
Just glancing at the roster, this team appears to have the most experience in higher level play compared to the other teams. Their success will depend on how seriously they take their matches. Assuming they practice and play well, I can see them breezing through this season. If not, then they would probably still be a top 5 team.

2. Incestual Princesses
The princesses have been playing together for a long time and have improved significantly. Infusions is one of the stronger scouts in open and coupled with a very solid demo in Ferret, I can't see many teams who are going to give these guys trouble. They did just pick up a new soldier in SizzlingCalamari, if he can mesh well with the team then they should be good to go.

3. Apocalypse Gaming
After winning CEVO-A last season without losing a single match, AG has finally made the move to ESEA. Fortunately for them, I can't see them having that much harder of a season in Open. They have the DM ability to keep up with all of the teams, however they are going to need to build some team chemistry with their new roster in order to compete with the other top two.

4. Big Nads Gayer Dads
Like the Businessmen, the BNGD roster has a lot of players who have quite a lot of experience and could most likely compete in Intermediate. However they don't scrim and according to Raheem, they're not taking this season too seriously. They have the potential to beat the top three, but I'm not sure if they're going to be able to pull it off without practice. Shoutout to Raheem ;)

5. Intensive Care Unit
ICU has been suffering from some roster issues as of late, but if they can stabilize their roster and start scrimming together, they should make playoffs quite easily. They have a good sniper in Kaleidoscopic which will help them on sniper friendly maps like viaduct.

6. Unrestricted
I don't know much about this team, but I'm pretty sure they're Immigration Enforcement, who have been together for a decent amount of time.

7. Carnal Gaming
Like unR, I don't know much about this team. They did come second place in TWL d2 last season, playing against a lot of other teams who happen to be in open this season.

8. Treason
After constantly changing their roster every 2 weeks, I think Treason has finally stabilized their lineup(hopefully). They have some solid players and as long as they take their season seriously, they should easily make playoffs.

9. Misfits
The Misfits have been together for a very loooooonnnnnnnnnnnng time now. I'm pretty sure they were already a team when I first got into competitive tf2. That being said, they've had plenty of time to build team chemistry but at the same time, I don't think they've grown much since they first formed.

10. Magnolia Thunder Kitty
Although they did win TWL d2 last season, they also lost weeble who in my opinion, really helped them on sniper friendly maps. I also believe they've been having some roster issues lately. If they get all of this sorted out, they'll definitely climb.

hindsight's previous post

Something is wrong. Although seemingly warm, the sunlight does not nourish them in the same manner that it nourished their predecessors. Throughout their sapling years, they had grown distant from the ways of their parents. They sought the bright light rather than that which most furthers their growth. They sought appearance rather than substance.

The community is unable to resist the entreaties of money. Whether it is prize pots or the legitimacy provided by entry payments, money is inextricably linked to gaming in the minds of the gamers. The children say: if a league doesn’t have a prize pot, why play? The children laugh: if a league doesn’t have entry fees, why play? Despite the meager income provided by the largest TF2 prize pot and the lack of a correlation between entry fees and legitimacy, the children repeat these questions. Yet the true irony lies in their demands for a community-run league.

The saplings continue to grow but their growth is stunted. The brightness of the light has led them to seek darkness; they cannot find their way except in the shade. It is only getting worse.

From the CEVO site:

In light of our small Main turnout, we have decided to change the division in a number of important ways:

- Lower the matches per week to 1
- Remove the entry fee (if you already paid, submit a ticket to support.cevo.com under the Accounting division to get a refund)
- Remove the prize pot
- Force-move up teams in Amateur that would dominate their opposition

If you are in Amateur and you feel that you should now be in Main, send me an email at gclay [at] cevo.com. I will make all of the move-ups this Friday, August 27th (whether they are a consequence of my own judgment or a consequence of the team's volition).

Sup guys? Travis “-tC” Chapman here, a few of you might know me as Falco. I'm your average TF2 baddy who thinks he's good, and you'll have to bear with me as I'm new to this coverage thing, but I wanted to help CommFT out. I'll be writing for CEVO-A this season, trying to keep giving the lower teams of the game some love. Due to some technical issues, this article is appearing a little late, so I'm combining it with week 2.

Regardless of what people are saying about Team Fortress' decline, this season boasts just over 100 teams in the Amateur division, more than twice as many it ended with in Season 5. It's great to see so many new teams looking to get into the game, so shining the spotlight on them every so often should be just the boost we need to keep this game going.

Pre-season for Season 6 of CEVO started last week, and the map was a new KOTH addition made by none other than eMg's mackey: koth_ashville. For those of you who haven't seen it yet, you can check it out on GotFrag. Though it does leave a bit to be desired visually, the map plays rather well. It's nice and open like viaduct, but provides a few more routes that are defined better, allowing more varied pushes and flanks. There's also a large area underneath the point, so keep an eye out while your team caps!

For week 2, the map was cp_coldfront. This map made a strong appearance last season, playing a large part in the ESEA Open rankings. It plays a lot like granary in my experiences, with the last point being similar to badlands in that the point itself is pretty much exactly the same. It's a good map that adds some much needed variety to the rotations.

Also, I got the chance to show off my terrible interviewing skills by sitting down with Jehuty of Team Fallback, a team that's been together for well over a year now and has consistently performed, losing to Mainline in CEVO-A last season by just one point in the second round of playoffs.

rk of ESEA News has just posted a massive article about Blight Gaming on his site. Check out part of it below:

From the aftermath of the ESEA Season 6 LAN to the audio interview with Nick “TheFragile” Leon and Justin “justin” White to the recent push to get ESEA-Open to 50 teams, the eSports organization Blight Gaming, headed up by one James “blackfoger” Larsen, has been hip deep in rumours and controversy over some ridiculous and highly questionable practices. Like the Lindsay Lohan celebrity train wreck, it’s been impossible to turn away from such an interesting and confusing man, who continues to meddle in the TF2 community to this day as the registration clock counts down to zero.

While there has already been a great deal of talk concerning Blight lately, ESEAnews was approached by Ben “TheWhiz” Sholes speaking on behalf of both players and partners of Blight’s, to publish one last article he had prepared in an effort to set the whole matter to rest. Here now are the personal accounts of not only Ben, but of Fred “virulent” St Onge of the Blight CSS squad, a collective message from the Blight TF2 players, and a critical account from Adam "Nonsense" Handwerker of End of Reality concerning the business practices of James Larsen.

Staff - Ben "TheWhiz" Sholes of Blight Gaming

I first got involved with Blight when they absorbed Dustin "soduk" Haney's (gotfrag.com/portal/user/394509/) org, Essentrix. At the time, I was a mediocre player that thought it would be fun to use my business skills from my day job to get involved in the gaming industry. When Essentrix was absorbed into Blight, Foger and soduk agreed to be co-CEO's. Dustin made me COO and a friend of mine from Cognition Gaming (even before Essentrix), Spencer "SupagreeN" Weston, CFO. These titles didn't mean much. We just did what we needed to in order to get things done. I was just excited to have the opportunity to start working in the industry.

Click HERE to read the rest of the article.

The Pain of Creation Part 1

All right, let’s continue on this epic journey, part three. Now, as I’ve stated in the last article, I chose to create a team from the members of my old Pub community. I highly recommend doing this, as you probably know each other (at least from in game), and thus will be inclined to be more civil with each other, then if you create a random team with random people. Also, since you’ve been playing in that pub for a while, you’d know a sort of feel for how everyone plays/does work.

Also, people will be less inclined to quit your team at a drop of the hat, and find another team. Next, if you’re good enough to move on to competitive, then it would imply you’ve been in the pub long enough to get support – perhaps in the form of a server? It may be good publicity.

Lastly, is the problem of scheduling practices. That is a problem I still haven’t quite figured out. Some of us barely get on, so I have trouble getting everyone on board at the same time. I guess I’ll have to rework the roster a bit (putting people in sub position, etc…), but this sad tale will be continued in The Pain of Creation Part 2

->> As a side note here, though I know I haven't posted in a while this series will now probably go into hiatus for a while due to real world issues I have to deal with, and that's been whittling down on my devotion to tf2.  I can't keep a cohesive team going with a hectic schedule, and that's why I made on of my scouts go medic and lead the team.  I personally stepped down to "sub/ringer" level.  That said, I'd like to thank Forsaken from 2 Finger Gaming (visit their server~) for all his help and support.  So lesson learned here.  Life can throw a big wrench into your gaming career.  I hope to see some of you on various servers/lobbys that I will be getting on when I have time.  Thanks again to everyone.

Well then, til next time (when things calm down a bit)~

Alar Ensis (Pronounced Ah-Lar Ehn-cys, NOT Uh-Lar En-sus)

Here's an official statement from ESEA's lpkane:

"Assuming, once we remove partially paid teams, that we have more TF2 teams in Open than last season, we'll play on due to the fact that we had to move more teams than anticipated from Open to Intermediate."

So, go ahead and laugh because I didn't idle #tf2.pug.na like a normal comp TF2 player and missed the big news. -frag away!