CEVO has just announced their first ever TF2 RUSH event, hosted by NZXT. Check out the details below:
CEVO is proud to announce the opening of its first Team Fortress 2 RUSH Tournament with over $2000 worth of prizes for the top 6 teams, courtesy of NZXT (www.nzxt.com). The tournament is open to the first 32 teams to register. There is a registration fee of $5 per player. A player is considered @ready when he/she has paid the entry fee and has correctly entered their SteamID into their CEVO Account. Once a team has 6 players @ready, the team will be considered ready for the tournament.
Registration for the tournament opens Thursday, January 21st and will close as soon as 32 teams are fully paid. This tournament will last just over two weeks with matches starting on Monday, February 15th and ending with the finals on Thursday, March 4th. Teams are to make sure they can make the listed schedule before signing up. There will be no extensions during this tournament and no refunds once matches begin. Teams are encouraged to have at least 7 members on their roster.
Tournament Details:
- Double elimination RUSH tournament - 32 team maximum - $5 entry fee per person - All standard CEVO rules apply
This is an important announcement for the competitive TF2 community for two primary reasons:
- It's the first ever CEVO TF2 RUSH event, a new fast-paced tournament format. This is CEVO's attempt to remedy the problems associated with long 128-team tournaments that always seem to drag on forever. - CEVO Season 5 will have three divisions - Professional, Main, and Open. It signals CEVO's continued support for the competitive side of this game despite the failures of the Main teams last season.
Important facts to note:
- Teams placing 1-3 in the RUSH tournament get free entry into CEVO-P for Season 5. - Teams placing 4-8 in the RUSH tournament get invitations to play in the free CEVO-Main.
This means that Professional will be open to all teams willing to pay the season fee, Main will be free but invite or application only, Open will be free and open to all entrant teams.
As we come along to the third year since the release of VALVe's star team-based shooter Team Fortress 2, we are starting to see the expansion of the competitive community. Although as of now, the game's competitive community can be considered small compared to other premier e-sports games like Counter-Strike, we are starting to see the start of a community that will soon be able to cater to players of all levels. While some players at the upper tiers of the TF2 world might not be as agreeable with the newer players, with community-created tools such as PUGs, Deathmatch servers, and Mentoring programs, we are finally starting to see ways for those fresh to the competitive scene to ease into it. However, in the beginning, it can get pretty confusing for those that aren't experienced with competitive gaming, so here are some tips to get better at the game and get more competitive.
As much as I'd hate to bump down the awesome articles about the TF2Lobby Project and the Robin Walker Interview, I feel the need (read: my boss says either I do it or I'm fired) to interject with an update on the Alienware Arena Tournament that has, as of late, narrowed itself down from about 150 teams to just a mere 12.
We are still a few weeks away from the final match at the beginning of February, but we've seen a select few of extremely close games in this final leg to break the seemingly endless pattern of 5-X wins (where X is less than 3) that had been so prevalent in the beginning of the tournament. I thought I'd take a moment to mention them here before I get to the meat and 'taters of the article, which are collectively results of this past weekend's matches.
Perplex 4 > 3 Double Negative on cp_badlands the terribles 5 > 4 TONY HAWK PRO SKATERS on cp_granary Tribune 5 > 4 Businessmen on cp_badlands
Teams that are crossed out have unfortunately been knocked out of the competition. Their families will be contacted and we as a community will make note of their sacrifice and never forget their struggle for a share of that $2,279.94 USD as well as one of their very own fancy, high-end network cards.
Although players have been playing Team Fortress 2 pickup games through venues like IRC since the game's launch, the numerous barriers to entry have resulted in it being a more closed system. TF2lobby is a new site which aims to remedy this by providing a system that is more accessible to new players. Through TF2lobby, anyone can create their own game lobby, either public or private, and select a match config and game format using a simple menu. Once the lobby has filled with 12 players, everyone can then connect directly to a game server to play. Although lobby leaders are free to use their own server if they have one, players can also opt to have the system choose a server from TF2lobby's map pool, consisting of over 40 servers generously provided by Valve and various communities.
If you haven't had the chance to try TF2 pickup games, now is a perfect time to start. Go to TF2lobby to sign up and start playing or visit the website's about page for more information.
Definitely no disrespect meant to Robin by posting these, he did a great job answering the questions he did and we appreciate the time he put into them. It's tough to say with some of these questions why he chose not to discuss them, omg new maps soon? Although with others its more apparent, such as the X-box/Microsoft dispute remaining untouched. Either way, Jinn and I thought it'd be good for you guys to see what else we asked that wasn't included in the interview...and to feed some speculation.
eXtine: Its been great to see the debut of the TF2 comics, which alongside the “hidden” web-pages have done quite a bit to expand the story of the Team Fortress world. When did this back-story start coming together, and what can we expect in the future in terms of integrating storyline with TF’s multiplayer gameplay?
Robin:
eXtine: A new format for recording and playing back demos has been in the works for a while now. Its long fermentation is surely indicative of more expansive changes being included. Can you let us in on how that work is going, and what features will be included initially and in the future?
Robin:
eXtine: Will Valve’s upcoming maps incorporate more story elements? Is it possible we will see objective oriented maps ala Enemy Territory? Is R.E.D. ever going to get to attack? Any updates you can give us on maps in development?
Community Fortress is proud to present its second interview with Robin Walker. We discuss the WAR! update, future updates, competitive play, and community involvment.
eXtine: Robin, its great to chat with you again. Let’s get right into it and talk about this WAR update. Valve introduced limited time events with the Halloween special, and then kicked it into high-gear with this new event that sparked a gigantic inter-class war. Can you describe how this event came about, and some of the difficulties Valve faced and overcame in starting this War?
Robin: After the Sniper & Spy update, we knew everyone would be disappointed if we went back to a single class update strategy. We also thought that you would all be disappointed if we rehashed the same trickery we did with the Sniper & Spy update. We felt that trickery had made sense for the Spy, but it wasn't what the Soldier & Demoman are about. When we asked ourselves what kind of update the Soldier & Demoman should be, it seemed obvious that it should fundamentally be about combat. We also wanted to try and get the pre-update excitement into the game this time, instead of it just being on the web like previous updates. With all that in mind, we sat down and kicked ideas around, and the WAR! was the one that excited us the most.
eXtine: What aspect of the War surprised you the most?
Robin: It's a tossup between two things that amazed us. The first was that the war was so close all the way through, and that it ended so closely that the propaganda contest actually became a factor. We really hoped it'd be close, but it worked out better than we ever dreamed it could. The second was the insane number of submissions we received in the propaganda contest. We've run contests in the past around user submissions, and they've never come close to this in volume. We had to improve our submission viewing system, and rope in a bunch of others in the company to help us get through the entries in time.
eXtine: The TF2 Halloween Special was a rousing success and the 12.5 million+ casualties of the Demoman/Soldier War clearly demonstrate the power of limited time events in TF2. Is this something that we can continue to expect out of TF2?
Robin: I think so. The technology behind TF2 is collecting features with each update we do, so each time we have a new idea, it's often easier to do than the last. As a result, I think we'll continue to try to do something new with each update, even if it's a small twist on a previous idea. The time limited events, like the Halloween update, are often easier to design because they're time constrained. We were able to focus a little more on fun in the Halloween update without having to worry about game balance, because it only lasted a week, and it was contained within a single new map, ensuring competitive matches were unaffected.
We have seen an influx of new faces around the site in the past month so I thought it would be good to highlight our Twitter account and our Youtube Channel. If you have Twitter, be sure to follow me if you are interested in keeping up with competitive TF2. I tweet about the latest posts on the site and anything else of merit. I largely use small blurbs and then links in my tweets to bring folks to the site; I don't use the account in the classic manner (involving text versions of thoughts, happenings, etc). Our YouTube channel has great videos supplied by eXtine, wand, and Lange. All of eXtine's videos are highlights of recent competitive matches while wand works on vocabulary and strategy for a wide variety of competitive maps. Lange is focused on the Top 10 plays series (we will open submissions for the January version shortly) and in case you missed it, here is December's:
The famous VinnyTheBoss provided commentary for December and I think it added a lot to some relatively generic frags. Hopefully we will get more submissions for January's version so that Lange has some more to work with.
It has come to my attention that we have had a dearth of mentors volunteering for the CommFT TF2 Mentoring program in recent months. Fish#641 has handed over control of the program to Fzero who has been pleading for people to join and help the cause. Fzero says that we have 10-15 mentees per mentor given the current count. If you have any spare time in your schedule, consider volunteering to help newer players get a handle on competitive TF2. With that said, if you are in need of mentoring, be patient and remember that we are overbooked.
forsaken : graham my series and whatnot is still being typed and prepared, just financial aid for college business has taken my time from under my feet
bcarr : Crap! I'll message you in the morning, Graham.
Graham : If you're a writer on CommFT and you see this, PM me on Steam.
