ANNOUNCING SEASON 28!
First of all congratulations once again to Season 27 winners European Arctic Foxes and UnitedKingdom Se7en for winning insomnia61. However there is going to be only a short break in the TF2 calendar with Season 28 signups open until 15th of September at 21:00 CEST. Due to the lack of time between insomnia61 and Season 28 there will not be any preseason cups.

Premiership signups will close on the 9th of September at 21:00 CEST

>>>> SIGN UP NOW! <<<<
UNLOCKS AND MAP POOL
The whitelist will remain unchanged from Season 27, if/when any rebalance updates occur we will provide updated information in a news post.

The map pool however is undergoing a few changes compared to Season 27. Cp_badlands is being replaced by Sweden Collaide‘s cp_prolands_b2b. This version brings in a few tweaks designed to make the last point easier to push out of, you can see a full changelog on the TF.tv thread. The more major change is the removal of granary and welcoming back an old friend, cp_sunshine. We have taken this decision because sunshine has had a few changes since we last ran it in a season. This combined with the lack of popularity with regards to granary and its divisive nature have led us to make the change for this season.

This change does not mean that granary is gone for good, we will be looking out for feedback regarding this decision.

Map pool
cp_process_final
cp_prolands_b2b
cp_reckoner_rc2
cp_gullywash_final1
koth_product_rc8
cp_snakewater_final1
cp_sunshine
Map Rotation
Week 1: cp_process_final & cp_prolands_b2b
Week 2: cp_prolands_b2b & cp_reckoner_rc2
Week 3: cp_reckoner_rc2 & cp_gullywash_final1
Week 4: cp_gullywash_final1 & koth_product_rc8
Week 5: koth_product_rc8 & cp_snakewater_final1
Week 6: cp_snakewater_final1 & cp_sunshine
Week 7: cp_sunshine & cp_process_final

SIGN-UP PROCESS
Make sure to choose your desired tier when signing up to the season in the sign up process. If you created a new team, feel free to apply for the tier you believe you deserve you should be in. To prove you are capable of the tier you applied for, we require you to submit screenshots or logs of results from your recent practice matches or tournaments where you scored decent results against teams that play on the level you aim for, send an application to staff@etf2l.org (details listed below) with a suitable subject. Emails with subjects like “Hello”, “Hi” or anything else that cannot be identified as a team applying for a tier by mail may be ignored.

Additionally since it happens time and time again, you do not sign up by mail, you sign up on the site and apply by mail if you are a newly formed team playing in anything higher than Open.

The quantity of screenshots or logs is not the most important factor in this case, it’s more of a helpful measure for us to figure out if your team will be able to keep up with the pace. There is no magical, minimum or maximum number of screenshots or logs that you have to submit.

When sending links to logs on logs.tf or similar it is highly recommended that you include a short explanatory comment for each linked log, e.g. who your opponents are supposed to be and where they played last season. Also helpful for us, but not a must however, is adding who the opposing team is in each screenshot or log (and maybe even the division they played in the last time). That makes it easier for us, because sometimes it can be quite hard (especially in the lower tiers) to figure out who the teams in the screenshots are. We will not accept plain lists of logs without any comments!

Please note that the success of your request also strongly depends on the free slots in the tier you aim for. Established teams will be favoured over new teams or teams that request to jump a tier. The screenshots have to be uploaded to an online image storage service (for example, you can use imgur or Dropbox). Keep in mind that if you opt for a zipped archives with tons of pictures attached to an e-mail, your application will be ignored. Keep it clean.

If you are applying for Open tier (which is our entry division), you do not have to provide any proof that you are capable of playing at that level.

Please send your application to staff@etf2l.org. The tier assignment request has to include the following information in order to be considered. Incomplete applications will be ignored!

Do not use HTML in your e-mail. If you want to add a link, just paste the link in the e-mail as you would enter it in your browser.
Team name
Team link on ETF2L.org
Tier you are applying for
Link to the online photo album with comments
Reasons why your team deserves to be placed in the tier you applied for (optional)
SEASON 27 PROMOTIONS/DEMOTIONS
Due to the lack of interest in the Fresh Meat Tier, and internal complications with its running we are reverting back to the more familiar four tier system of Open, Mid, High and Premiership.

All Low and Mid playoff teams as well as the winner of High will receive a promotion to the next highest tier, unless their starting roster changed by more than half of their players. Open playoff teams may still play in Open this season if they wish however they may also play in Mid if they send in an email in accordance with the section above.

The bottom two teams in the Premiership will be demoted and will have to compete with any potential premiership teams in the preseason playoffs if they wish to stay in the Premiership.

SEASON SCHEDULE
Signups: September 02 – September 15th, 21:00 CEST (Premiership signups will close early, on the 9th of September at 21:00 CEST)
Publishing of Provisional Divisions: September 15th
Publishing of Final Divisions: September 16th
Pre-Season Premiership Playoffs: September 10th -16th
Main Season: September 17th – November 2nd (7 Weeks)
High/Mid/Open Playoffs: November 3rd – November 26th
Premiership Finals: November 26th
If you intend to sign up for the Premiership Tier we encourage you to do so as soon as possible. Due to the Pre-Season Playoffs happening while signups are still open, we will only consider teams for the Pre-Season Playoffs that signed up before the 9th of September at 21:00 CEST. Additionally we expect teams without a guaranteed Premier Division spot to be able to compete on the provided Pre-Season Playoff dates.

We expect all aspiring Premiership Tier teams to send either us an email or directly contact a league admin on steam or discord with at least your intended roster. You must also include evidence of your ability to compete with premiership level teams.

Teams that do not send an email risk losing their spot in the Pre-Season Premiership Playoffs.

PREMIERSHIP PLAYOFFS
We are running Double Elimination as our format of choice for Premiership Playoffs again.

The games will be played between the 4th and 26th of November. We will allow some flexibility with dates, but the grand final must be played on the November 26th at the latest.