Edit: In-person part of the study is likely not happening and will likely be online only. Recruitment for the study is planned to take place late Dec/early Jan. Details to come soon.

Hello all, I need a favor

I'm looking to do some research for my thesis in late Jan/early Feb which would be a couple of PUGs/Scrims with six people playing online and six in-person in Portsmouth, UK. Basically what I really need to know right now is how many people locally (or are willing to commute) can play in-person when I make a formal request for participants. A full team, or one with 1-2 mercs, would be ideal but mainly looking for people that can make it down without assistance.

If you need more information etc, its probably best that you reach out on Discord (drhappiness) or in here. I'll try to answer any questions where I can right now.

Shoutouts to Arch, Kirsty, and Jon for another great event under our belt
Shoutouts to eepily and bum for helping organise this event with Essentials
Shoutouts to all of the crew for a smooth event and production
Shoutouts to Sodium for being my admin buddy for the weekend
Shoutouts to AMS, Loris, and Beater for all of their offsite content
Shoutouts to all the players who competed in both the main and casual tournaments
Shoutouts to Player1Events for having us for another Insomnia
Shoutouts to High Viz for a great stage production
Shoutouts to Valve for giving us some cool stuff to give away

If you are playing in the TF2 Tournament or are interested in playing in our TF2 Zone at all this weekend, please come over to the entrance to TF2 Zone tomorrow (Friday 8th) at Noon (12:00pm). Gather around the big red sign saying “Team Fortress 2 Tournament Zone” in the Esports Arena (Hall 4).

We will be running through how to use the TF2 Zone, some general guidelines and rules, and then all relevant tournament information, as well as give players the opportunity to ask any and all questions.

Rules etc will be posted in front of the TF2 Zone, but tournament players must attend, as that is how you will officially check-in for the event. If you are looking for a last minute team, please try to turn up, we're going to try and match people up there.

See you tomorrow!

Players looking to use the TF2 Zone for both official matches and otherwise, in order to make sure people can get on and off PCs as efficiently as possible we ask that you follow some key steps and guidelines.

• If you are using your own peripherals, please swap them after your match(es) with the original hardware.
  
• Prepare your configs/HUDs/etc in advance - use a USB stick or Cloud Storage so you can install things quickly.
  
• Make sure that any installed configs/HUDs are correctly removed after your match(es) so other players can set up their own quicker.
  
• Any non-config changes (like changing resolution or DXLevel) should be reverted before you leave.
  
• If you log into any platforms (Steam, Discord, Websites, etc), it is your responsibility to log out.
  
• If you have a scheduled match, please be on time. Lateness will not be tolerated.
  
• Admins will inform you when you are scheduled to come off your PC, make sure you are finished on time.
  
• For non-tournament matches (PUGs etc), if Admins ask you to stop the match do so immediately with console commands.
  
• If there are other player's configs on the PC not within the game folders, DO NOT TAMPER WITH THEM. You are free to remove any files in the game folders when installing your own configs/HUDs. Anyone caught tampering will be disqualified, removed from the TF2 Zone and/or the Venue, and banned from future ETF events.
  
• Obviously PCs are not to be used for unauthorised purposes (hacking etc.). Additionally, avoid playing other games in the area - its a TF2 Zone (Warmup games like Aimlab/Kovaaks are fine)!

In the event that you finish your tournament match early (quick 5-0, for example), that doesn't mean you will be booted off your PC immediately. You have the PC for the whole of the match slot - if your slot is an hour you have that whole hour. You can fill up that time with anything else: Scrim, PUG, whatever!

As a spectator, if you see there are available spaces in the area and you wish to play TF2 on them, that being anything like PUGs, Scrims, Pubs, MvM, etc. please speak to the admins at the entrance of the TF2 Zone. You must be assigned a seat, don't just sit down. They will inform you of which PCs are available and for how long. Admins will be available all weekend to answer any questions you may have and will ensure everyone has an opportunity to play. Follow all instructions by the admins at all times.

Given that we have a few days left before the event starts, I would just like to remind teams that have yet to signup to do so. If we have a better idea of how many teams will be attending, the smoother the event will be. We have a split between those playing in the BYOC and those in the TF2 Zone, so there is plenty of space right now to play.

If you have a weekend ticket and are just looking at coming to spectate at the moment, I would encourage you to try and look for a team. You will only have a few matches with plenty of time in-between to relax, hang out, and spectate. You can use our LFG/LFT channel in the Essentials Discord if you need some help finding people.

There will also be more casual competitions happening on the Sunday after the main tournament so if you want to play something more informal there is plenty of ways to get involved. We're currently looking at our options for non-tournament usage of the TF2 Zone during official matches, but this will depend on availablilty of those PCs.

For those playing in the TF2 Zone, I will be posting tomorrow some guidelines of things you may want to prepare in advance to make sure your time on the PCs are as smooth as possible. One of the things I want to prioritise this event is that the TF2 Zone is as active as possible throughout the event to ensure that we can keep a similar system in the future if this is well recieved.

For those that have BYOC Tickets are were looking to rent a PC for the event, rentals will be going live Friday at 12:00 UK time (BST).

Details on Rentals here: https://insomnia.seetickets.com/event/i71-pc-rentals/nec/2741805

A reminder that weekend tickets are available to win in the Online Open starting this weekend. It has an open schedule meaning you can choose when you play your matches within a two week period. Details can be found in this thread: https://www.teamfortress.tv/63364/i71-online-open-tournament-5-6th-august

Rescheduling & Reformatting
Its clear from some feedback that some teams are unable to commit to this weekend, or a weekend cup in general. Because of this, we will be postponing signups till next weekend (Saturday 12th) and will be running a tournament with a much more open schedule, meaning you can choose when you play your matches - so long as results are submitted by the deadline.

More details on how the tournament will look will come shortly, keep an eye on this thread in the meantime. Signups will still be open if you wish to register.

Its funny that a lot of the pugging sites end up being platforms for top div players to play, when they are the group most able to reliably put together in-houses. Then on the flip side newer or lower division players, who are far less connected with one another, are the ones who rely on in-houses to even play a balanced and fun match.

As a washed middie who would like to still play comp TF2, but unable to commit to a season, my options for dropping into a match of comp TF2 right now are minimal - even nonexistent. Its just TF2Center at this point and the quality of those matches are through the floor and are only slightly better than Valve Comp. This is not a new problem as this kind of thread is almost an annual tradition at this point; every attempt at trying to fix it either ends up being yet another in-house, dies immediately like FACEIT, or just becomes PugChamp with a new lick of paint.

The solution is not another in-house or PugChamp, but a genuine matchmaking site for people of average skill to drop in and play. Given the track record over the years of attempts at this, I don't hold much faith. Always happy to be proven wrong, though.

A reminder for teams to start signing up to this tournament soon if they are interested. If you have difficulties with signing up, please do reach out on Discord. Also, please make sure your usernames are consistent to make sure registration goes smoothly.

COMPETITIVE SEAL MAP!

For clarification, the tickets that players can win in this cup will be for the TF2 Zone and will be guaranteed access for the Zone.

FYI, there will be a cap of 16 teams total competing in the TF2 Zone. This is for logistical reasons to ensure a full and fair bracket can be played. Whilst the space will be accessible for people with a Weekend ticket, during Tournament hours only players competing in the TF2 tournament will be able to access. People wishing to compete beyond the 16 team cap will have to play from the LAN hall. Two teams will be able to confirm their slots in the TF2 Zone from the online tournament, meaning that 14 slots will be available.

Details on how to confirm your TF2 Zone place will come shortly.

Just a heads up for people who are planning to attend but have not yet booked accommodation. EA recently announced that the ALGS Championship (a major Apex Legends event) will be taking place on the same weekend as Insomnia over in the Resorts World arena - adjacent to the NEC.

Therefore we highly recommend that you sort out your accomodation ASAP, as tickets for ALGS go live 21st July and Hotels etc will get snapped up rapidly.

Team Fortress 2 Insomnia 71 Online Open

Dates: 12-25th August
Tournament Link

REGISTRATION CLOSE: Saturday August 12th

Full schedule will be published soon.
Map pool will be published soon.

This is the event thread for the Team Fortress 2 Insomnia 71 Online Open by Insomnia Esports, organised by EssentialsTF. Teams will battle it out with the top two receiving 6 x Weekend tickets to Insomnia 71.

All matches are played using the ETF2L Config & Whitelists.

When adding a Team Fortress 2 Game account on Challengermode, all players must enter their SteamID64, instead of "in game name". Your request to join the tournament will be denied if any players on the roster do not have this set correctly.

Team cap is currently 16, but can be expanded with additional interest.

EssentialsTF Discord

Important Update:
Due to some changes in operations, the TF2 Zone will not be available for players on the Thursday and instead can only be accessed from Friday morning onwards. Only LAN ticket holders will be able to get into the Venue on Thursday. To address this, we are changing the tournament format to ensure that people playing from the TF2 Zone only will have ample opportunities to play both in the main tournament and in PUGs. So to reiterate: the TF2 Zone will only be available on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. We are working to ensure that the zone is available on Friday as early as possible, specific entry times will be confirmed sometime soon.

In other news, later today we'll be putting out a seperate thread for the Team Fortress 2 Insomnia 71 Online Open, a tournament before the main event with 12 weekend tickets up for grabs. The dates for this tournament are the 5-6th August. Signups and format will be discussed in that thread.

More details about i71 will continue to be relayed as and when information is confirmed. Please do reach out in this thread or in our Discord for more information. The main post has been updated to reflect this change.