In less than 24 hours, players from all across Scandinavia will gather in Jönköping, Sweden for DreamHack Winter 2016: Battle for the North. With so much action coming up, we've complied a viewer's guide to help you through the hectic weekend.
The battle horns will blast across the land (picture by yttrium)
Teams
Four teams have been invited to compete at DreamHack, with each of them hailing from the Nordic countries. The teams are:
Team Sweden
- Scout: sjoeberg
- Scout: herr_p
- Roamer: alle
- Pocket: vani
- Demoman: Smirre
- Medic: ondkaja
Team Norway
- Scout: Trimoo
- Scout: FizzY
- Roamer: piggy
- Pocket: fishyard
- Demoman: Traitor
- Medic: KruZiiK
Team Denmark
- Scout: Pot8o
- Scout: Helberg
- Roamer: zen
- Pocket: Thalash
- Demoman: Dr. Phil
- Medic: F2
Team Finland
- Scout: Puoskari
- Scout: Hems
- Roamer: AMS
- Pocket: murje
- Demoman: Setlet
- Medic: Snape
Format
The tournament will start with a round robin group stage, where each team will play each other once in best of one matches, with maps randomly drawn for each matchup. Two points will be awarded for a win, and one point each for a draw. After that, the teams will head to the playoffs, where they'll be seeded onto a single elimination bracket based on the group stage results. All matches in the playoffs are best of threes.
The rules for the maps will be based off of the ETF2L ruleset. 5CP maps will have a 30 minute time limit and a mercy rule if a team reaches a 5-round difference. There will also be no golden caps in the group stage. KOTH maps will have a first to three rounds rule. The tournament will also use the global whitelist.
The map pool for the tournament is a slightly modified version of the ETF2L map pool. An important thing to note is that koth_coalplant_b7 will not be played in the group stage, though it will be available in the playoff stage. The map pool is:
- cp_badlands
- cp_granary_pro_rc4
- cp_gullywash_final1
- cp_process_final
- cp_snakewater_final1
- koth_product_rc8
- koth_coalplant_b7
Schedule
The tournament will kick off with the group stage on November 25th, and end on November 26th with the grand finals. The schedule is as follows (all times are in CET):
Group Stage
Friday
- 17:15 | Team Sweden vs. Team Finland (Bo1)
- 18:15 | Team Sweden vs. Team Denmark (Bo1)
- 19:15 | Team Sweden vs. Team Norway (Bo1)
- 20:15 | Team Norway vs. Team Finland (Bo1)
Saturday
- 11:00 | Team Denmark vs. Team Finland (Bo1)
- 12:00 | Team Denmark vs. Team Norway (Bo1)
Playoffs
Saturday
- 13:00 | Semi Final #1 - 1st seed vs. 4th seed (Bo3)
- 15:30 | Semi Final #2 - 2nd seed vs. 3rd seed (Bo3)
- 18:00 | Grand Finals (Bo3)
Coverage
teamfortress.tv will be bringing you all of the action from DreamHack on Twitch, courtesy of Essentials.TF. Our talented roster of casters and producers will also be onsite to cover the entire event, making sure you don't miss a single frag, meatshot, and airshot (accompanied by a lot of shouting). Our broadcast crew is:
- Beater - caster
- Bren - caster
- TurboTabs - caster
- Wolf Machina - producer
- niceAsh - producer
- BlackOutJon - producer
- Wiethoofd - observer
Prize Pool
A total of €1500 is up for grabs in the Battle for the North, courtesy of Esport United and Razer, along with six Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma headsets for the champions of the North. The spoils of war will be distributed as followed:
- 1st: €900 + 6x Razer Kraken 7.1 Chroma headsets
- 2nd: €400
- 3rd: €200
Conclusion
It's going to be an exciting weekend of TF2, so be sure to tune in to catch all the action! A special thanks to Esport United, Razer, and Essentials.TF.