I interviewed Free, of MFU, and b4nny, of eMg, about the Uber Update. This first tidbits from Free are the result of a Mumble conversation, so I typed down what I could and paraphrased a lot. Free, if you'd like to clarify anything, shoot me an email or a message.

Mutated: Do you see yourself using the Reserve Shooter seriously?

Free: (again, paraphrased) The Degreaser, being the first weapon in the game with faster weapon-switch, completely changed the game for Pyros. The rise of Pyros, particularly in the highlander scene, came with Degreaser play, popularized by people like TMP. This could completely change Soldier play, but it doesn't offer any "fix" to the class like the Degreaser did. Soldier's based on airshots, spam, and zoning targets - this new shotgun shuts down jumping Scouts entirely, including the new triple jump. A pocket Soldier traveling with protection will be able to rock the Reserve Shooter. If Solid Snake can use the Targe, maybe Soldiers will be able to use the RS.

After announcing the event late last week, we have officially opened registration for Community Fortress's first ever 6v6 tournament. We have made a special section of the forums for the event and all registration will be handled on our forums in this thread. If you are registering your team, make sure to pay attention to the instructions at the beginning of the registration thread and be sure to get your team in before the 128-team limit is reached. And remember that if we do not have 128 teams by the beginning of August, we will close registration and no more teams will be allowed in the event (though there will be an announcement prior to this occurring).

Sponsored by Zalman, the tournament will consist of a group play stage and a single elimination bracket stage. If 128 teams sign up, we will have 32 groups of 4 teams each. Teams will be seeded based on their experience, skill, and accomplishments in past events or randomly placed into groups if they lack competitive 6v6 experience. The teams in each group will play one another once, like in the World Cup, and once all of the matches are played in each group, the two leading teams of each group will proceed into a single elimination bracket. This single elimination bracket will have 64 teams and will progress until a champion is crowned. The top teams will receive prizes from Zalman and random tournament participants will have a chance to win prizes as well.

Schetter will cast two more ESEA-I S9 matches this week. Check out the promo posters below (click one for a link to his coverage center):

After receiving applications for the position from competitive TF2 community members, I have decided that shdwpuppet will be CommFT's new Head of ESEA Coverage. In this role, he will manage all of our content that pertains to ESEA. Shdwpuppet will help hire new ESEA writers for the site and make sure all of the important ESEA Season 9 events are covered. And, of course, he will write articles of his own when his time permits.

Please welcome shdwpuppet on board here at CommFT and be sure to contact him if you are interested in helping him cover ESEA this season.

ITS PAAAAAART TWO TIME BABY!!!!

Last time on Strategy With the Strategos, we went through the first three steps to making a strategy. If this were a print publication or something archaic like that, I would recap what we went over, but here, just go read the article. It is super important that you understand the first part because otherwise, you will end up testing a strategy that you don't have. Which would be like baking a cake you didn't make. So without further ado, part two. (I'm like dr. seuss, someone gift me that hat!)

Last night, CommFT-sponsored The Experiment took on eMazing Gaming in their first match of ESEA-Invite Season 9. The match took place on cp_snakewater and although it ultimately ended 5-3 in favor of eMg, it was a great match for The Experiment. Since I watched it myself, I thought that I would throw down a match review for the readers. Let's start with the rosters...

The roster for The Experiment (ex`) was as follows:

dummy - Demoman
PYYYOUR - Medic
TLR - Soldier
ww - Soldier
justin - Scout
Reptile - Scout

While the roster for eMazing Gaming (eMg) was as follows:

b4nny - Demoman
CB - Medic
tyrone - Soldier
mackey - Soldier
cyzer - Scout
clockwork - Scout

Round 1

In the first round, b4nny got to mid earlier than dummy and started laying down a lot of pressure on ex`. cyzer went down early just as Mackey killed dummy. The tide seemed to be going in favor of eMg until CB was taken down by justin. ww got three kills during the mid fight but died right before ex` captured the point. PYYYOUR survived the mid battle with the help of TLR, who got two kills during the battle, and barely escaped from a recently-respawned cyzer.

Next, ex` pushed easily into eMg's second point, took it, and prepared themselves to push eMg's first point. Mackey attempted a pick on ww but got killed, leaving ww with 9 health. ex` took advantage of the death and pushed last only to have TLR die early and dummy take too much heat. It appeared as if eMg was going to be able to push back to their second but then justin came from behind for a backcap on eMg's first point.

ex`1 > 0 eMg

Player of the round - I give the award to justin for the first round since he got a clutch kill on CB during the mid fight and managed to get the backcap to take the round.

Community Fortress is proud to announce that we will be hosting a free-entry 6v6 tournament for the North American community this summer. The tournament will feature hardware prizes for the winning teams and giveaways for random participants courtesy of Zalman. STV relays for big matches will be provided by CommFT through our server sponsor, EOReality. We are limiting registration to 128 teams and registration will be on a first-come, first-serve basis. The tournament's format will be group play with the top two teams of each group moving into a single elimination bracket. Thus every team will have the chance to play at least three matches, no matter their skill level. Top level teams will be seeded and distributed amongst the groups.

Registration will open this weekend and will extend until we have 128 teams registered. Casting for the event will be provided by our friends over at eXtv. Stay tuned for more information and the opportunity to register for this big event!

It was a wise man that once said, make a man a steak and he will have a great meal, teach a man to grill and he will get laid.... or something like that. To that end, I am going to write a small series of articles based on the concepts that a team (especially its leaders and callers) need to keep in mind when making strategies, watching demos and other things that they need to remember while doing the things that keep a team improving and running.

In this edition, I will be going over the basics of making a strategy for your team. When I am mentoring, one of the biggest things I hear is “SHAAAAADOOOOOOOOWWWWWW, wee suuuuuuck, share with us your eternal glory and mind numbing brilliance. We need a strategy.” And they are right. Without a strategy, a team is only going to descend into chaos as it meets the enemy on the glorious field of battle. So today, we will be going over the ins and outs of making a strategy for your team. Get all the goodness after the break.

Well, the third time's a charm ladies and gentlemen, and hopefully on the third day of the ESEA season, we'll actually have some matches played.

eXtv will be casting this match between two ESEA-Invite titans, The Experiment and eMazing Gaming. Earlier in the week, on Monday, The Experiment went head-to-head in an exhibition match on cp_granary against Classic Mixup with Classic Mixup coming out on top. With eXtine and Vhalin commentating and Peter Mansbridge handling the production, tonight's match on cp_snakewater between ex and eMg is guaranteed to be a great showdown.

We think that the match is currently scheduled for Wednesday June 29th, at 11:30PM EDT, 8:30pm Pacific, 5:30am CDT so tune in to the eXtv casting channel at that time.

http://www.twitchtv.com/eXtvESports

Breaking news! Double Header? It looks like Mix^ will be playing ex immediately following the first match between ex and eMg. Be sure to come out and support the CommFT-sponsored ex as they try to start their season with two big wins!

Our friends over at TF2Demos.com have re-designed their site and they launched the new version earlier this week. The new version looks absolutely great and it features demos and community-submitted news. The site already has a number of great demos on it, including one from the much-publicized Classic Mixup vs The Experiment match of last night. It is from the perspective of Platinum, a Soldier on Classic Mixup, so be sure to check it out if you are an aspiring Soldier or just love watching airshots from a pro!

Also, make sure to add the site to your bookmarks and always remember that you can find it from our top menu bar. We added it under "Demos" six months ago and we definitely want to continue to support this effort to store and catalog important demo files.

Ladies and gents, gather!  Hearken!  Put ear to ground and hear the distant thunder, the bass thump and growl of top-level Highlander teams preparing to clash!

Yes, folks, the CommFT Highlander Tournament is going into its final weeks!  Want to know what's gone down so far and what's coming up?  Get the updated scoop after the break!

After conferring with team leaders, Community Fortress has decided to sponsor the newly-formed ESEA-Invite S9 team The Experiment. We will be providing them with a top-notch 1000FPS server from EOReality and covering their league fees for this coming season of ESEA-I. Given the talent of the players and the experience of the roster as a whole, we know that they will succeed throughout this season and we hope that they will benefit from our support.

The starting roster of the team is as follows:

dummy
PYYYOUR
Reptile
justin
ww-
TLR

Be sure to give these guys your support and we will keep everyone updated on their progress.

Remember, if you're interested in watching their first match Monday night, you can watch it on SourceTV, on eXtv, or you can listen to Schetter's audio cast. See the posts below for more details.

EDIT: The ESEA match did not happen, but the two teams played an eXhibition match! - VOD LINK

Classic Mixup versus The Experiment! (ESEA Match Link)

Monday June 27th 11pm EDT 8pm PDT 5AM CEST

Two new teams filled with old faces go toe to toe on SnakeWater_RC3! This match-up will showcase the potentials of both teams and will be an incredibly important early season victory for one team. Mix^ or ex? Who will take it?

Prior to the start of this match, eXtine will be streaming the UGC All-Star game which takes place @ 9PM EDT, 6PM Pacific.

Both casts will of course take place on our Justin.tv stream, and make appearances after the fact in our VOD section and most likely our secondary YouTube channel, eXtvESports.

As noted below, Schetter of Keekerdc.com and formerly TGBF.tv will be performing a radio style cast of this match as well. TF2's top level of play will be getting the level of coverage it deserves this season! Good luck to Schetter with his coverage.

The whole eXtv staff is at work trying to improve everything about our coverage and what we're trying to do. That includes our scheduling and communicating that schedule to our fans and fellow casters. Another cast is in the works for this week, but teams are still juggling their schedules.