Top teams from across the world will return to England to contest for the one and only intercontinental title of the year at Insomnia58. Here's a guide to help you get acquainted with the action this weekend.

Format

Insomnia58 will feature a slightly altered format as compared to Insomnia55. Instead of a large sixteen-team bracket, the playoffs will feature only eight teams in a double elimination bracket to determine the ultimate champion. All matches in the bracket will be best-of-three, with the exception of the grand finals which will be best-of-five.

Similar to last year, six invited teams will face off in their own group, with all earning a seed in the playoff bracket based on performance. All other teams will participate in a Swiss open qualifier, and the top two teams will earn the final two spots in the playoffs. All matches in these preliminary stages will be best-of-one.

Schedule

Open Qualifier

Friday, August 26th

• 17:00-18:00 BST: Round 1 (best-of-one)
• 18:00-19:00 BST: Round 2 (best-of-one)
• 19:00-20:00 BST: Round 3 (best-of-one)
• 21:00-22:00 BST: Round 4 (best-of-one)
• 22:00-23:00 BST: Round 5 (best-of-one)
• 23:00-00:00 BST: Tiebreaker Round (best-of-one)

Saturday, August 27th

• 10:00-11:00 BST: Tiebreaker Round (best-of-one)

Invite Group

Friday, August 26th

• 17:00-18:00 BST: Round 1 (best-of-one)
• 18:00-19:00 BST: Round 2 (best-of-one)
• 19:00-20:00 BST: Round 3 (best-of-one)
• 21:00-22:00 BST: Round 4 (best-of-one)
• 22:00-23:00 BST: Round 5 (best-of-one)

Playoffs

Saturday, August 27th

• 11:00-13:00 BST: Upper Round of 8 (best-of-three)
• 13:00-15:00 BST: Lower Round of 8 (best-of-three)
• 13:00-15:00 BST: Upper Round of 6 (best-of-three)
• 15:00-17:00 BST: Lower Round of 6 (best-of-three)
• 15:00-17:00 BST: Upper Final (best-of-three)
• 18:00-20:00 BST: Lower Round of 4 (best-of-three)

Sunday, August 28th

• 13:00-15:00 BST: Lower Final (best-of-three)
• 17:00-20:00 BST: Grand Finals (best-of-five)

Prizes

Insomnia58 will feature a £8,500 prize pool provided by OCZ and Scrap.tf.

• 1st: £4,250
• 2nd: £2,100
• 3rd: £1,450
• 4th: £700

Teams

Comfortably Spanked

• Scout: Dennia
• Scout: Hank
• Roamer: vani
• Pocket: T0m
• Demoman: adysky
• Medic: skeej

On the outside looking in (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)

Statistically speaking, every Insomnia LAN has to have a "worst European team" heading into the tournament. With this one, though, it's weird to call Comfortably Spanked the worst European team heading in, because they're just not that far behind looking at the results.

The team started out in ETF2L Season 23 under Team Infused, where they finished a disappointing second-to-last in the division. After this season, they left the organization and made a few changes heading into DreamHack Summer, where they finished last place after a very close series against Crowns eSports Club (now Team XENEX). During ETF2L Season 24, they would have finished tied for fifth just outside of playoffs with Crowns eSports Club had it not been for a penalty for not providing STV demos.

Coming into Insomnia58, Comfortably Spanked will likely be closely competitive with Team XENEX and with just as much potential. The formal switch of soldier roles for T0m and vani may help solidify the team and give an extra boost desperately needed as it looks to climb to the top.

Crowns eSports Club

• Scout: Stark
• Scout: Hafficool
• Roamer: Drackk
• Pocket: kaptain
• Demoman: spudd
• Medic: Raymon
• Coach: kaidus

Capping off a dominant year (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)

After a long stint in Reason Gaming, a brief splash as nerdRage.tf2, and a period with no organization as nameLess, the European titans have finally found an organization suiting their performance over the last year. Their roots begin with Reason Gaming after a narrow loss in the lower final at Insomnia55. Brilliant captain kaidus took the roster and shuffled around a few players, and the team began with a respectable second place showing in the Challengers Cup, defeated by the ever-powerful Epsilon eSports. After that, however, the team gathered its strength, vanquished Epsilon eSports to their new home in Overwatch, and took the title of best team in Europe.

The team wasn't without changes as it made its dominant run, though—most significantly, kaidus himself decided to step down from active play and take on a role as a coach due to his wrist injury. The team was briefly in disarray, allowing contender Perilous Gaming to match up to them at DreamHack Summer, but a 2-2 tie in the grand finals before play was cut short prevents us from knowing whether they were truly overtaken if only for a short moment. Regardless, the allowance of in-game coaching at Insomnia58 means that the great former captain can bring order to his team and help guide them to victory.

Many people, most notably Sideshow, have decried Crowns eSports Club's glacial, grinding style of play, but nobody can deny its effectiveness. Many people have thus pinned their hopes on this powerhouse to restore glory to Europe, and it certainly can be considered the best contender to take the title. However, the non-European teams always tend to disrupt the established order, and Crowns eSports Club must be wary not to crash in groups as Reason Gaming did last year, especially with group placements meaning much more this year.

froyotech

• Scout: Freestate
• Scout: b4nny
• Roamer: paddie
• Pocket: TLR
• Demoman: Muma
• Medic: phorofor

b4nny looks for a third with an entirely different team (picture by Austen "tagg" Wade)

It's been an incredible year, but once again b4nny & co. return to Europe in search of an intercontinental title to add to the collection. It's somewhat of a momentous occasion, as he'll have the chance to definitively prove himself the best captain and froyotech the best franchise in TF2 history. Not the best team, though... this isn't your father's froyotech, the one that swept aside all contenders and built the most dominant LAN record in the game's history.

After the old froyotech's disastrous loss in the ESEA Season 20 playoffs, it scattered for the ashes, leaving b4nny to rebuild with rising talents instead of a roster deep with experience. It wasn't the first time he's done this (though iT is but a faded memory at this point), but many would question whether the new team could claim a place at the top. With some help However, the team did indeed prove itself by winning ESEA Season 21. Near the end of ESEA Season 22, TLR, former rival and one-time Insomnia champion, returned from retirement in preparation for their Insomnia58 run. With him in tow, froyotech proved it was the best in North America heading into the intercontinental LAN by winning Season 22 recently.

The team's grip on the North American scene hasn't been the best, however... in Season 21 froyotech once again lost to Ronin in the upper bracket final before storming to a flawless victory in the grand finals, and this past season it won the upper bracket final, but lost three maps to start the grand finals and were facing a total defeat before somehow clawing back and winning the next two to barely secure the championship. Factor in the other fact that the team has a distinct lack of LAN experience, and froyotech definitely has question marks heading into Insomnia58. However, b4nny has proved he can work miracles before, and his ability to pull another one out should not be in doubt.

Full Tilt

• Scout: Astt
• Scout: Thalash
• Roamer: Mike
• Pocket: Silentes
• Demoman: alle
• Medic: kos

Seeking to return to form (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)

For most of the past year, Full Tilt has played second fiddle to Crowns eSports Club. Most recently, however, the team suffered defeat to LEGO and took only third in ETF2L Season 24, a far cry from their highlight of the year at DreamHack Summer when they had defeated nameLess 2-0 in the upper bracket final and were tied 2-2 in the grand finals.

Like every other top team, Full Tilt has certainly evolved over the year as well. The lovable Sideshow was the face and soul of the team for quite some time, but for the good of the team he stepped down and allowed the legend Mike to take over roaming duties. Tek was part of the team for some time, including the team's brilliant performance at DreamHack Summer, but Silentes has returned to his original duties on pocket. spudd was also poached by Crowns eSports Club after kaidus's injury, leaving the team to use alle for their future campaigns.

The team played with its Insomnia58 roster during ETF2L Season 24, so a narrow loss to LEGO there has to be worrying for their prospects, especially with international teams now in the mix. However, they proved they had potential at DreamHack Summer, and if they can recapture some of that magic, they will be a frightening opponent for any team participating.

Jasmine Tea

• Scout: Madness
• Scout: Yui
• Roamer: Zaka
• Pocket: Geoh
• Demoman: Paulsen
• Medic: Dave

For any Australian team, competing at an intercontinental LAN like Insomnia is a major task in itself—just ask the former members of Team Immunity. What's incredible is that Jasmine Tea has recovered well enough to do it.

The stage seemed to be set for them to do so without any trouble, after top finishes at OWL 14 and the ozfortress Summer Cup 2016. In order to help out, ozfortress announced the winner of ozfortress Season 15 would be able to choose between taking all of the prize pool and committing to an Insomnia58 trip or splitting the pool as normal. During the playoffs, however, disaster struck. Jasmine Tea lost the upper finals to rival team ego, leading to the dramatic departure of medic and in-game leader Brutalix. The team was forced to bring in Dave and narrowly won the grand finals to keep the dream alive. After a significant community fundraiser, they've made the trip and are now ready to compete on the global stage.

Now that they're here, they need to perform. As with Team Immunity, Jasmine Tea has arrived early to begin bootcamping in preparation for the tough competition. Their early results haven't been impressive, but they've been rapidly improving—something they'll need to do if they hope to meet and improve upon the fourth place finish Team Immunity received at Insomnia52 and Insomnia55.

Team XENEX

• Scout: Schocky
• Scout: Funs
• Roamer: Thaigrr
• Pocket: AMS
• Demoman: Smirre
• Medic: Flushy

AMS will look to lead the team to victory (picture by Ness "uberchain" Delacroix)

Just recently this roster had a much different roster and a different organization to represent, but the inexorable march towards LAN changes all teams. Once known as Crowns eSports Club, the team had competed at DreamHack Summer where they finished third and with a similar roster during ETF2L Season 24 where they barely missed playoffs.

The lack of results was reason enough for the organization to drop the team and pick up a much stronger team in the run-up to Insomnia58. Briefly going under the name NASA, the team reformed for LAN, trading BeaVerN, p-rez, and ondkaja for Schocky (of Epsilon eSports fame) and Funs and Flushy (who both were part of the second-place team in High Season 24). Shortly thereafter, they were picked up by Team XENEX, giving it a proper name to represent at Insomnia58.

On paper, this team is the third best European team heading into Insomnia58, although quite a distance away from the top two. However, the recent changes make this team a bit of a wildcard heading in—while schocky can be expected to perform, Funs and Flushy are a bit more unknown. As with any other invited team, if Team XENEX can find their stride, it can make a deep run into the tournament.

Coverage

Matches will be broadcasted live on Twitch for the entire weekend, courtesy of an on-site production team generously funded by Marketplace.tf and Essentials.tf. In addition, written summaries of the event will be brought to you by us here at teamfortress.tv.

Get ready for an exciting weekend of the world's best teams and players!

Thanks to Jerm and Snivy for their help in writing this viewer's guide.