Ladies and gents, wrangler whores and assorted sword maniacs, welcome back to Screaming Eagles.

My name is Free and I'm low!

Or low-mid!  Sometimes I'm low-low, but the other night, when I took Sky Wizard to match point in MGE (20-19, his win), I eclipsed some kind of mid-mid-low.  Maybe mid-low-mid or low-mid-mid.

Oh, I'll be honest.  I don't know what the hell I am.  Matter of fact, there's some debate about this very thing going on in the CommFT forums right now.  The question is on the table: are these bizarre, arbitrary ratings valid?  Are they accurate?  Are they bizarre and arbitrary at all, or have I just nipped too much of the homemade mash and listened to the ice dragon again?  Do I have a level 50 sword?  I do?  Well, where the hell do I keep it?

But, dear reader, do not fret.  Do not get panties in bunches or buy panties if you do not already possess the garments.  Do not find self in lingerie aisle at midnight being known by security guards.  Because I got this.  I'm going to sort this out.

Ladies and gents, welcome back to Highlander coverage!  And let me tell you: we emerge from The Week of Terror!

Free, you say, what is the Week of Terror?

Knave!  It is a week of torrential upsets, a week of the pillaging of dreams, hopes, and predictions--a week where Doom Vulture has risen from his thousand-year sleep to spread his black wings over the sky of 2 Fort.  He rises in a shower of black feathers, an infernal squawk bellowing from his throat!  He feasts on the savaged remains of Highlander teams led to the slaughter.

What happened in week 3?  Where's it going in week 4?

Read on, brave reader.  Read on!

Yaaaooooooo... or something like that.

shdwpuppet here bringing you some awesome news about a last minute cast put together by eXtv covering the quite neglected ESEA IM. Tonight's matchup on the big stage is none other than the mighty powerhouses of Avoided vs Red Flag. Avoided is looking to prove to us they have what it takes to dominate the American TF2 scene and make their way to Invite. The team straight out of last season's open has been making waves, not losing a single match all season long, but their recent match on badlands with Kinetic was the closest the team has ever come to tasting the bitter taste of defeat. Red Flag will be looking to capitalize on that trend and bring some noise on cp_warmfront. This is Red Flag's first game against the IM titan and this will be their first chance to prove they have what it takes to win the season.

An absolutely entertaining time is virtually guaranteed as the two mighty giants of Intermediate duke it out. Manning the camera tonight is the always lovely duder and sending the airwaves your way on the mic are the mighty eXtine and newcomer to eXtv casting: shdwpuppet. Tune in at 11pm EST/8pm PDT to find out who reigns supreme.

Lots of events and casts planned for this week, check out eXtelevision.com for all of the info and stay tuned right here at CommunityFortress.com to hear about all of the action.

As you may have noticed, I have been updating a few of the aesthetic aspects of the site this weekend. I have implemented our new header (the image with the bird and the Community Fortress ribbon) and our new background (which actually needs tinkering since the tiling is too obvious). I have also altered the log-in button and its placement.

We will likely be altering the look of the forums to match these changes. Credit to midblue for being our graphics guy since launch and for making these new images. He will be in charge of the design of The Experiment's LAN T-shirts as well if all goes according to plan.

What do you guys think about the look of the site?

Long story short, we have been disappointed with the turnout for the CommFT-Zalman 6v6 tournament. We announced the tournament right after Free-2-Play was introduced and we were hoping that new players would join in droves. Hordes of giggling noobs, eager to get crushed and to learn the ways of competitive TF2. But, alas, they did not and we will get nowhere near the 128 that we were optimistically (apparently foolishly) hoping for. We only have around 40 teams signed up which, I want to make clear, is great but just not what we expected. So, at this point we want to cut our original goal of 128 in half and shoot for 64. As such, we want 24 more teams.

Since ESEA Season 9 is still running and a lot of teams have expressed the sentiment that they do not have the time to be in two events simultaneously, we are going to extend registration until Sunday, August 13th or Sunday, August 20th (or until we have 64 teams, if that happens first). Between those two Saturdays is the final week of the regular season in ESEA. Given that folks will be able to see whether or not they will make playoffs at that point, we hope that either deadline will encourage quite a few more teams to sign up. As for which date we choose, it is up to a community vote on the forums (see HERE).

In terms of other details, we still need more input about weapon bans and a few other rules. To discuss those topics, please go to the section of the forums related to the tournament and let us know your thoughts. We will likely mirror the CEVO/ESEA standard in all of the rules but we want to hear more from you guys about any issues that have arisen in ESEA this season. And, of course, comment on this article with any thoughts.

With a 9-1 record in ESEA-Invite and only seven matches remaining, CommFT-sponsored The Experiment seems to be on a sure path to the ESEA LAN. Attended by the top four teams in Invite, the ESEA LAN acts as the playoffs for the Invite division of ESEA. While the teams of other divisions compete in their playoffs online, the Invite players travel to Dallas, Texas to duke it out face-to-face with lights and cameras illuminating their every error and triumph. With their regular season record, their veteran roster, and their determination to win, The Experiment is ready to take home the top prize at the LAN in front of thousands of spectators. Except there's a catch.

It costs more than a thousand dollars to get a full TF2 team to Dallas.

Although CommFT was able to pay for the team's regular season league fees, we cannot even pretend to have the cash on hand to fund their likely and imminent trip to the ESEA LAN. Recently we have seen an uptick in advertiser revenue but it will be many more months before we have the cash available to fully sponsor a team's trip to the ESEA LAN.

So where does that leave us? Well, given the generosity of the community in donating for the CommFT HL tournament purse, we think that it is possible for the community to fully fund The Experiment's trip to Dallas. With a little bit of cash from dozens of community members, the large sum necessary to send the team to LAN can be realized with ease. For those who want to help out, we have altered our donation button on the top right of the homepage so that all of the donations that are submitted through the button go directly, via PayPal, to The Experiment's LAN fund. We are looking to community members, regulars of CommFT, and fans of The Experiment to lend a hand in getting them to LAN.

Since we know that many folks have little spare cash, we want to give back to those who donate above a certain amount. In fact, we have decided that those who contribute $20 or more to the effort to send The Experiment to the ESEA-I LAN will be able to join members of the team in group lessons. Depending on what class the donor plays, he/she will be able to meet and interact on a personal level with the appropriate member of the team to learn more about how to play their class in the competitive setting.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with The Experiment and the classes played by the members, the roster is stacked with many of the longtime stars of competitive North American TF2. All of the members of the team have extensive professional competitive 6v6 experience. dummy has played Demoman for Evil Geniuses, compLexity, Team Dynamic, and Blight. PYYYOUR has played Medic for iDemise, Eximius, Team Dynamic, and compLexity. carnage has played Scout for Eximius, compLexity, and Loaded. justin has played Scout for Blight and compLexity. TLR has played Soldier for Check-Six (who were the ESEA-I LAN champions last season), Blight, compLexity, and Pandemic. Finally, ww- has played Soldier for Dynamic, Blight, AI, and Frag Dominant.

To be clear, all of the money donated via the button on our homepage will go directly to the team. CommFT will not take any of the donations for any other purpose. Those who donate $20 or more and want to attend group lessons with the team must check the forums for a thread bearing their name in order to connect with the team. Thanks for reading and thanks to all who lend a hand to get The Experiment to the most competitive LAN in North American TF2.

As the first-ever CommFT Highlander tournament concludes, I would like to offer my thanks to all of those who were involved. In particular, I would like to thank those who donated money towards the prize purse which, from donations alone, reached $191. The donors were Free ($100), Mr. Cohen ($50), Mr. Schetter ($20), Mr. McDiarmid ($10), Mr. Kenley ($5), Mr. Boles ($5), and Mr. Yi ($1). Every dollar counts so all of these donations were greatly appreciated and, as a result of these folks' generosity, Kawaii Explosion and SNSD each walked away with $95.50 of hard-earned cash on top of their Valve swag.

I would also like to thank Free, Ashkan, RaCio, Hildreth, Leftism, Hawkeye, eXtine, and anyone who I have forgotten for helping run the event and keeping the matches publicized. Big thanks too to all of those who provided thoughtful feedback throughout the tournament (pala, emb, Lutraphobia, mustardoverlord, dENIAL, riverdude, dasho, MRSLIN, linkzero, Peter, almightybob, Daystar, theduderman, strychnine, shdw, and so on). Three and a half months of insane Highlander has been a blast!

Congrats to the champions and everyone be sure to stay tuned for the next big CommFT Highlander event.

After an epic 3 hour and 15 minute match, SNSD has emerged victorious over Angry German Kids in the European division of CommFT's first-ever Highlander tournament. After losing on pl_badwater, SNSD defeated AGK on both cp_gravelpit and the tiebreak cp_coldfront. SNSD's roster was as follows:

Starters:
Linus
Alx
TheSucker
hurr
Hat
Hurri
Pumaman
TviQ
Setlet

Substitutes:
Shintaz
MikeW
BiG|[½]³
Billykins

Be sure to give these guys a big round of applause if you see them around the site or the community. They will be receiving Valve swag and cash from donations for their victory.

The final standings for the tourney were as follows (the bracket can be seen HERE):

Press Read More to see my notes from the pl_badwater section of the match (I missed the majority of other two due to errands)...

As shdw posted below, the CommFT EU Highlander Grand Finals are going down today at 3 PM EST. Provided by VanillaTV, the coverage will kick off around 2:30 PM EST so be sure to tune in at that time so you do not miss any action. Our friends over at VanillaTF2 have posted a good pre-match article about the two teams competing in the Finals (SNSD and Angry German Kids) and here's an excerpt:

SNSD’s route to the final boasts an impressive record only conceding three rounds in all their games, beating Fap!, Quad Damage before beating tonight’s finalists sending them into the lower bracket followed by wins against 8 Mates and a Ginger and Public Power to earn their place in the final.

Angry German Kids, composed of some familiar names to those that follow 6v6 TF2 such as kurt, klar, BasH, Stefan and Thy – all in the German national team – possess an equally impressive record barring their defeat to SNSD in the fourth round, of course. Having received a bye in the first round, AGK’s campaign started with wins against Hi my name is ![<3]! and Fritzl’s Dungeon before being knocked out of the upper bracket by SNSD. AGK responded very strongly in the lower bracket, however, with no team scoring a single round against them in wins over Quad Damage, Combat Folk, 8 Mates and a Ginger and Public Power to reach the final.

You can follow all the action tonight on VanillaTV with Hildreth and guest-caster Agro from Kritzkast covering the action, the maps tonight will be Gravelpit, Badwater and a Coldfront decider. Remember to join #VanillaTV on Quakenet to get server information and other developments as soon as we get them.

To see the rest of the article and Leftism's interview with SNSD's captain Linus, click HERE.

eXtv will be going live with a big ESEA-Invite match tonight at 11 PM EST. CommFT-sponsored The Experiment will be taking on Check-Six on cp_warmfront. ex is current 7-1 on a seven-win streak while x6 is currently 4-4 and recovering from a 1-5 loss to Area 51 Gaming.

Tonight's match will be the first match for The Experiment with carnage on Scout. He was brought in by the team to replace Reptile and he is already working on his teamwork with his Scout partner justin. Team captain dummy remains on Demoman, ww- and TLR remain on Soldier, and PYYYOUR remains on Medic. As many readers will recall, carnage had left TF2 after playing his last season with compLexity. Previously, he had played for a wide variety of top-level North American teams, ranging from Eximius to Loaded.

I spoke with carnage earlier today and he told me that he returned to competitive TF2 because he was excited about the potential of the roster at The Experiment, he wants to play with new teammates, and he is hoping to visit Texas (via the ESEA LAN) again. He had lived in Texas until recently when he moved to California and he hopes that the LAN will give him a good opportunity to visit friends there. When asked about what he expects out of this season, carnage said that he really doesn't know how the new lineup will work out but that he is sure of one thing...that "there are some healthy meatshots in the future 8)".

Be sure to tune in to eXtv tonight at 11 PM EST to see carnage's return to competitive TF2 after his most recent hiatus. As a former professional Quake player and as arguably the most famous Scout in TF2, carnage will be sure to dazzle spectators in his debut on The Experiment.

Guess who's back?

Carnage has returned to TF2 to ramp up the meatshot madness to sick, sick levels.  Replacing Reptile as a starter, Carnage will be back in the saddle as one of the most dangerous and versatile players in Invite.

We've reached out to the man himself for the inside scoop.  Stay tuned for the update!

Ladies and gents, eXtelevision is about to cover the [51] vs Wha match.  Right now.

Yes, NOW!

Correction: eXtv has moved on to cover an Open double header.  Gaamoo from PubComp is covering the 51 v Wha match here: www.justin.tv/gaamoo

For eXtv Open double-header, check: twitch.tv/extvesports

Source TV, how I hateth thee. Thy demos breaketh, ye be laggieth, and thy delay thwarts my attempts to fixeth games. I’ve been a-playing too much Medieval mode.

Well STV demos seem to be back up so I’m going to present my report on Unibroue’s matches up to now. Matches four and six were forfeit wins for Unibroue, and seven and eight were during the week where all demos were corrupted. Thanks Valve!