I am not sure if you guys have heard about it but there is a LAN going down in Montreal this spring with TF2 as one of the tournament games. The event goes by the name of LAN ETS and the operators are offering $2000 for the top three finishers in the TF2 tournament. There will also be tournaments for CS:S, CS 1.6, COD4, Quake Live, DotA, NHL2010, and Guitar Hero. Lopert, a moderately well-known name in the competitive community, has suggested a map rotation for the event on their forums:

Je commence ce thread pour savoir quel maps vont etre jouer dans le tournoi de TF2. Pour donner une idée du standard, cet derniere saison de ESEA, la liste etait :

Semaine 1 - koth_viaduct
Semaine 2 - cp_follower
Semaine 3 - cp_freight
Semaine 4 - ctf_turbine
Semaine 5 - cp_badlands
Semaine 6 - cp_gravelpit
Semaine 7 - cp_yukon_final
Semaine 8 - cp_granary

Mon expérience me laisse l'impression que les maps en ordre de plus populaire à moins populaire est:
Top3 / Tier 1: cp_badlands, cp_granary, cp_gravelpit
Tier 2: ctf_turbine, cp_freight, koth_viacduct
Tier 3: cp_yukon_final, cp_follower

Donc ma question est, quel maps seront dans le tournoi de TF2?

En passant, si il y a qqn qui suggère 2fort, je vous étrippe

Of course if you can't speak French, you can probably only get the gist of what he's asking. Translation, courtesy of moi, below:

I will start a thread for discussion of which maps should be played in the TF2 tournament. To give an idea of the standard, aka the last season of ESEA, the list was:

Week 1 - koth_viaduct
Week 2 - cp_follower
Week 3 - cp_freight
Week 4 - ctf_turbine
Week 5 - cp_badlands
Week 6 - cp_gravelpit
Week 7 - cp_yukon_final
Week 8 - cp_granary

My experience leaves me with the impression that the maps, in order of the most popular to the least popular, are:
Top3 / Tier 1: cp_badlands, cp_granary, cp_gravelpit
Tier 2: ctf_turbine, cp_freight, koth_viacduct
Tier 3: cp_yukon_final, cp_follower

So my question is, what maps will be in the TF2 tournament?

Btw, if someone suggests 2fort, I will strangle you

So this event is on the same weekend as the ESEA-I LAN so we probably can't expect the very top teams to attend but the competitive community still needs to make a strong showing. It looks like there are only 3 teams signed up so far and they are looking for around 20. If you live in the area, you must attend this event and represent the competitive community. LANs are vital to the game's continued growth. If you are planning on attending, please contact me because I want someone to cover it for the site (along with the ESEA LAN).

An update was released today...

Engine

• Enabled Steam Cloud support for key bindings and custom spraypaint images
  
  • Added Options->Multiplayer->Advanced option to toggle off/on: default is on

Team Fortress 2

• Added new Highlander mode
  
  • 9 players allowed per team
  • Restricts each team to 1 of each class
  • Use mp_highlander (0/1) to toggle off/on: default is 0
• Added "bots" to the server's sv_tags convar if the server is running bots
• Fixed a weapon name localization issue
• Fixed the "tf_teamtalk" server convar not controlling text chat between living/dead teammates
• Updated the map CTF_DoubleCross
  
  • Fixed the map not ending correctly when using mp_timelimit
  • Changed to prevent Engineers from building on top of the shack in each base
• Updated the map Arena_WatchTower
  
  • Fixed a case where players could open and get stuck on the starting gates before the round start
  • Improved clipping to prevent people from getting out of the map
  • Optimized the map for better performance

It’s been a while since the last post about the Compubbers team, so I’m gonna start off with a quick recap:

Competitive TF2 is often seen as “a chore, not fun, you don’t play for fun, not the real TF2” and more things like that. To clear up these and many more uninformed views, Up and I have taken 7 random European pubbers from the steamforums, given them a Mumble + server and had them play and go through strategies with Wildcard and mentor sessions with Byte, A Seagull, Torden and Predz. As a team, they’ve signed up for Division 6 in ETF2L Season 7 and play the whole season while relaying their opinions on competitive play.

The provisional divisions were announced a few days back, and we can now truly say we’re signed up for Division 6 and got a spot. They’ve finished the whole pre-season of practice, the actual season will begin Monday the 8^th of February. We asked the team and the leaders for their thoughts:

Team:

CmP| LehFreakshow: We're going to get rolled to hell. We'll have a shitload of fun along the way, though. Definitely looking forward to it though.

CmP| Techyworm: We're gonna get rolled. We haven't practised nearly enough, we might win a few matches if we're lucky, but we're not gonna do well.

CmP| dawn: Going to get rolled most likely. Hopefully win a few and it should be good fun.

CmP| GraPh 'a)<3: Gonna Roll them? Well, that's the aim. If Up's pep speech is to believe we have a decent, if not a good chance to at least win some games. Gonna get rolled? Is quite possible but the amount of practice we have put in should serve us fairly well. Gonna be fun? Fuck yeah!

CmP| Dappy (Klash): Wow that's awesome :D... I'm looking for a mid place finish, but we're probably gonna be around bottom since we need as much practice as we can get. It's gonna be alot of fun if we get enough people on every match :p

CmP| TRIPOD :O: I bet we are gonna have loads of fun, but I think we gonna end up in mid/last places because we played other div6 teams and we got rolled at most of them. But I don't play for a good place in the division, I play for fun so I don't really care where we will end up.

CmP| Jeebus[NT]: Should hopefully be fun. I dont see us doing brilliantly, but I dont see us being trashed.

Leaders:

Up: Right now, they're playing fairly strongly. I'm hoping that they'll achieve a low-ish/mid position depending on what the strength of the other teams with them are.

²¹ | WildCard: I can’t see any reason why they won’t enjoy primarily playing in season 7 (which is the idea of the project anyway, which I think we have achieved). Now how they will fair vs the teams? I think they stand a chance of doing well, all depends on which division they get placed in.There are soem good div6 teams in comparison to them. but if they get a lucky draw they are quite capable of finishing top or near the top of their league as long as the team steps up and puts in practice time as a team

cc//Buffalo Bill =HKC=: I think they can do pretty well. Not likely to end up top in their Div, but place 5/6 should be manageable depending on the teams they get bunched with.

The team itself seems to be less than optimistic about their chances than us, but at least they all expect it to be fun which was obviously the main goal! We obviously wish them the best of luck and let’s hope they do well!

Complexity takes on Muscle Milk and Moolians on CP_Yukon tonight. Match starts @ 11PM Eastern / 8PM PST. Commentary by eXtine and Wanderrful, w/Schetter running the Camera/Hosting.

MmM are currently in 3rd place with an 8-4 record. With only 4 matches left, all against serious opposition (coLx2,Pandemic,Loaded), MmM needs to ensure they get some wins here to keep their spot, I'd say at least 2.

Complexity is coming off of a fantastic win over blight in the Alienware Arena finals (watch the eXtv coverage if you haven't yet), and are looking full of confidence. Complexity is at it's weakness on the odd maps like Freight or Yukon, but this late in the season I don't think MmM can overcome Complexity's strengths. At 8-3 w/5 matches left, nothing is assured for Complexity. Surely they know that and won't be cutting MmM any slack.

Hang out and chat about the match in #tgbf