TGBF.tv will be casting the TWL matchup between Inertia and ATF B00Mst!x at 9 pm EST. I believe the casters will be Molk, Schetter, and djfivenine. Be sure to tune in!

TWL Season 5 is still underway, but sign-ups for Season 6 are now open!

We will be using the same "play-in" system that we used for Season 5, although this time around the process will be a little more streamlined and should not take nearly as long.

Teams currently in Season 5 have been automatically signed up for Season 6. If your team won't be participating in Season 6, please contact trainRiderJ on IRC (#twl_tf2) or Steam. Teams who finish the season at the top or bottom of their respective divisions will have a chance to move up or down a division.

If you individually will be on a different team next season, feel free to remove yourself from your team's Season 6 roster; it will not affect Season 5.

Changes for TWL Season 6?

There are a few things I want to open up for discussion regarding Season 6. Please follow the links to a discussion thread specifically for that topic.

- Default match day/time (keep the same as is now?)
http://www.teamwarfare.com/forums/showthread.asp?threadid=451932&forumid=570

- Number of matches per week (1, 2, or 1 best-of-three-maps)
http://www.teamwarfare.com/forums/showthread.asp?threadid=451933&forumid=570

- Banned/allowed weapons (direct hit and buff banner?)
http://www.teamwarfare.com/forums/showthread.asp?threadid=451934&forumid=570

Contact

Email: This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Steam group: http://steamcommunity.com/groups/TWLTF2League

IRC: #twl_tf2 on Gamesurge

Forums: http://www.teamwarfare.com/forums/forumdisplay.asp?forumid=570

TGBF.tv will be casting the ESEA-O matchup between Team Haiti and Rusty Buttholes at 10 pm EST. The casters will be Molk, Schetter, and Wanderr; the cast will be based off of the SourceTV so you can follow along on your own while listening.

(ninja edit by wanderr: to watch the video, simply visit tgbf.tv and spam the refresh button until the broadcast shows up.  once the stream goes live, it'll be there)

Following the incredible success of our December Top 10 TF2 Plays, we have decided to continue the series. If you have a player POV clip (from a match) that you would like to be included in this episode, upload it to filefront, mediafire, or this site's files section and post the link as a comment to this article.  Remember to mention the ticks of your frag so that Lange can find it easily (comments without ticks mentioned will be discarded). The final product will be posted on our YouTube channel.

Continuing my look at community issues, I want to touch on an important subject today: Parents.

This conversation topic was inspired by a particular line in a post about the future of ESEA-O on GotFrag, and my time spent as a Rowing Coach for two years. The line in question: "In other words, people probably don't pay the entry fee because it's a hassle (and their parents won't agree to pay for it), not because they did a cost-benefit analysis and deemed it imprudent."

This sentence demonstrates that we, as in the community of competitive TF2ers, need to realize a couple of things.  

First, if our hobby is to grow and succeed, it needs money. I don't just mean larger pools of prize money to attract players, but money to pay for administrators, league officials, servers, bandwidth, expanded league coverage, and anti-cheat measures.

It’s awesome seeing the good maps come out, and it’s at an important time for many of the Invite teams. The Invite records this season are closer than ever and it’ll be extremely interesting to see how it all turns out. A shot at the prize money and a chance to go to the LAN is what’s on everyone’s mind, and teams will need to work extra hard to obtain it.

Gravel pit is a great spectator map as it often comes down to the last minute and one mistake can easily cost a game/round. This map is less about death-matching as it is about coordination and strategy which is a reason that some love it and others hate it. There are so many different strategies to be seen and every few seasons it seems that teams decide to switch up the norm sentry spot. Almost all classes are extremely important on this map: Snipers get a lot of action; scouts can dominate in the open areas if engineers aren’t present; spies are oftentimes seen in stalemates; demomen sticky traps are a hassle to deal with and soldiers jumping shack on B/C is important as well. Pyros and Heavies are also seen from time to time at the C site. The dynamics and diversity of this map will add to the interest in easily one of the most fun maps to spectate, and for many, to play.

What's up, sports fans? No, really.

The lucky 4 survivors of the Upper bracket in the Alienware Arena Tournament have been granted a free week to relax and go pubstomping, or whatever it is that ESEA-I and TWL Divison 1 teams do when they're not playing in the Alienware Arena Tournament.

Meanwhile, however, the 8 remaining teams in the Lower brackets are raging with eachother, trying to clinch that second spot in the Final matc that will take place in early February and decide once and for all who is truly worthy of a piece of that $2,000+ prize money.  The teams are thinning out now and pretty much everyone involved at this point is either an ESEA-I veteran or a TWL Division 1 veteran.

So without further ado, lets take a look at the results:

Evil Genuises vs. Muscle milk and Moolians (Formerly i7, and Muscle Milk and Moolians before that) from ESEA-Invite Season 5 Week 5, match played on 1/19/2010. I predicted that match 5-1 for EG with a strong showing by i7... I got the prediction right for Pandemic vs i7, see how I do in this one!

In 4 parts due to requests to make my coverage more expansive than brief. Discuss the match and let me know your thoughts. I got more improvments in the work and respond well to good feedback!