In less than 24 hours, team from across the globe will battle at Esports Arena’s Rewind LAN in Santa Ana, California. With two TF2 tournaments at the event, everyone’s eyes will be on the Invite Tournament, where the best teams in the world will fight for the $7,000 prize pool and the title of world champions.
To prepare you for the weekend, we’ve composed a viewer’s guide for all that you need to know for North America’s first international event.
Teams
Six teams have been invited to the event, with teams from North America, Europe, and even Australia battling for gold and glory. The teams are:
- EVL Gaming
- froyotech
- Jasmine Tea
- Meat Market
- Se7en
- Street Hoops eSports
Format
The Invite tournament will start with the round robin group stage, where each team will play each other once in a best-of-one. After that, they’ll head to the playoffs, where they’ll be seeded into a double elimination bracket. The top four teams from the group stage will be seeded into the upper bracket, while the bottom two teams will be placed in the lower bracket. All matches in the playoffs are best-of-threes, with the grand finals being a best-of-five.
The bracket that will be used for the Rewind LAN playoffs
The ruleset for Rewind LAN will be a slightly modified version of the European ruleset. 5CP maps will have a 30 minute time limit and a 5 round win limit. KotH maps will have a 4 round win limit. All teams will also be allowed to use two 2 minute pauses for each map.
Finally, the event will be using a slightly modified version of the Global Whitelist, which can be viewed at here.
Map Pool
The map pool for Rewind LAN will be a slightly modified version of ESEA’s map pool. The map pool is:
- cp_badlands
- cp_granary_pro_rc4
- cp_gullywash_final1
- cp_process_final
- cp_snakewater_u13
- cp_sunshine_rc9
- koth_product_rc8
Schedule
The schedule for Rewind LAN is as follows (all times are in PST):
Group Stage
Saturday, January 21st
- 10:00 AM | Round Robin Round 1
- 11:00 AM | Round Robin Round 2
- 12:00 AM | Round Robin Round 3
- 1:00 PM | Round Robin Round 4
- 2:00 PM | Round Robin Round 5
Playoffs
Saturday, January 21st
Upper Bracket Round 1
- 3:00 PM | Match A1: 1st seed vs. 4th seed
- 3:00 PM | Match A2: 2nd seed vs. 3rd seed
Lower Bracket Round 1
- 4:00 PM | Match B1: 5th seed vs. Loser of A1
- 4:00 PM | Match B2: 6th seed vs. Loser of A2
Sunday, January 22nd
Upper Bracket Finals
- 10:00 AM | Match UBF: Winner of A1 vs. Winner A2
Lower Bracket Round 2
- 12:00 PM | Match D1: Winner of B1 vs. Winner of B2
Lower Bracket Finals
- 2:00 PM | Match LBF: Loser of UBF vs. Winner of D1
Grand Finals
- 4:00 PM | Match GF: Winner of UBF vs. Winner of LBF
Prize Pool
A lion’s share of $7,000+ is up for grabs at Rewind LAN, courtesy of Esports Arena, marketplace.tf, and Weedmaps. The prize pool is also expected to grow via crowdfunding, so the final amount is not determined as of yet. The prize pool distribution however is confirmed, with the distribution being as follows:
- 1st: 45%
- 2nd: 25%
- 3rd: 17.5%
- 4th: 12.5%
- 5th-6th: 0%
Broadcast Talent
Some of TF2’s most well known personalities will be bringing you the broadcast of Rewind LAN throughout the weekend. The talent list is:
- Getawhale - Host
- eXtine - Interviewer
- Bren - Caster
- Dreamboat - Caster
- Ma3laa - Caster
- MR_SLIN - Caster
- TheFragile - Caster
- truktruk - Caster
- kaidus - Analyst
- mathsad - Observer
- Tino - Observer
The tournament will be streamed on Esports Arena's Twitch channel, and we will also keep you updated throughout the weekend on our Twitter.