Not sure why the -frags, there aren't that many great pub servers out there running competitive maps. Added to favorites

All the content in the world doesn't matter when the teams don't help... Not discrediting all your work of course. I love jon's articles and hes been one of top content producers lately, as well as the weekly recaps etc... But it just doesn't cut it when there's still epsilon wrecking everyone. I dont feel the urge to watch any game as I did when I first started watching competitive tf2 (where Infused won the final of s12? against epsilon), or when there was the big broder vs cc vs epsilon rivalry.

Last season had the potential to be really interesting until they decided to put mike back on MiG's roster, and not happy with it went further to get byte onto the team, I don't really blame them for being keen. But all these agglomerations of the best players might work against us in the long run. Now they just brought the best european scout imo (kiler), onto epsilon, to assert their dominance even more.

Also kaidus I agree with you definitely, it's not inherently bad to have a weaker season, it will allow new talent to emerge. But this div1 for example looks to me the worst I have seen in the last 7 seasons at least. When was the last time you saw 6 div2 teams and 1 div3 team get promoted to div1?? Yeah, it never happened. Ffs even konr's team got put in div1 without any screens whatsoever and not even a full roster, that says it all.

I do agree that the teams currently in div1 seem much more stable and keen, and it might actually benefit us in the long run, but in terms of "hype" itself it doesn't contribute anything at the moment.

I also think that something like csgolounge would incredibly benefit the community both, US and EU alike. Stream numbers would increase even more, and people would grow attached to teams easier when theres money or at least some value on the line.

I really hope it gets done. But I don't think cherry alone can do it all.

What you saying is very true, your perception of it changes a lot. I played last season on div3 and I was thinking the whole time how the level dropped, where any of those teams I played last season on div3 would have got wrecked in any other sesason's div3, but its a lot due to your own perception, and tbh the skill level even tends to increase over time as the metagame gets more refined and "studied"

Having said this, you still can't deny the skill level for prem/d1 has dropped a lot when there is a 7 team prem, with 2 teams from div1 and 2 teams that didnt prove anything (saints + lazy pandas). And when there is a div1 where all the teams there but lego were div2 teams last season. Thats 7/8 teams in div1 that were div2 last season. And one of them was actually div3 (K-RNAGE) altough they changed their roster a bit

Prem this season is dismal, it's really really weak, probably the weakest I remember it. And to be honest your team isn't helping either, having a HL team basically in prem, out of the blue, without having to prove themselves, with a pyro main as a prem medic only adds insult to injury. Nothing against him obviously, but this detracts a lot from the "prestige" or "status" prem used to have. A few seasons ago, one team like yours would struggle in div1 or even div2.

But not everything is bad, I have talked with a lot of people in the recent weeks, and I have come to the conclusion that we can take this as a blessing in disguise. Sometimes you need to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. If the community plays their cards right, we will have a wave of fresh upcoming talent showcasing in prem/div1, particularly this season, but much of it will stick for more seasons, and I think thats a great thing. As slin mentioned, I think this is part of a natural cycle, players leave, quit, have a break, whatever it is, life goes on, and so does prem, someone will have to replace them, while that will cause a bit of a "dark age" for eu tf2, I think in the long run it will be beneficial for us.

Eu tf2 is not stagnated, etf2l itself is stagnated, take a look at zoob logs.tf thread and check the unique players statistics and weekly/monthly players since i49, and you will see it's steadily increasing, tf2 is a f2p game, so there is always going to be an influx of new players, whether or not they are converted to the competitive format thats another story. But you still have the competitive community steadily increasing according to zoob's stats.

What we can't afford is to lose the hype, I have been so detached this past 2 seasons, I don't even watch the streams anymore when I used to love them. This is because there is really no interest. There's no hype, no epic rivalries broder vs epsilon vs crackclan, I don't feel like supporting any team in prem. And thats a bad sign. You need people to get interested and attached to it, start supporting teams. And how will that happen? First, have stable teams (that dont fold after 1 season), teams with good players, interviews so you can get to know the teams and players, more preview articles, etc etc... Eventually people will grow to love some prem team and feel attached to it. And it will increase stream viewers as well. VanillaTV dying was also not very good for us, but I am glad it is coming back.

Honestly, I think this season is going to be horrible, both prem and div1 are a given basically, lego and epsilon are gonna wreck their way into first place imo. Im not even sure which div is more of a joke, but the skill level has dropped significantly in both. But I hope the community plays their cards right as I said and next season has the potential to be one of the best of eu tf2. Also let me add that historically the season before summer is always the worst season of the year, and the winter season is historically the best one, so I have no doubt things will improve next season, and I hope we can finally invert this signups decline we have been seeing.

Also I wouldn't count on an international iseries this year, nothing was started yet and the americans seem too focused on their own community lan to even bother with it, which is a shame but oh well.

You did a great job with this article, its more and more content like this we need for eu tf2. I wish I could help a bit more in this department, but my projects already consume so much of my time so its not feasible for me.

By the way Hildreth you got kiler's name wrong, like horribly wrong, I don't know where you got that 4 from but its kileR4fuNN. Also isn't it stefan instead of stefen? Other than that great article.

The VODs of the cup are now all available on our youtube channel and on this playlist

I think I haven't finished a single player game since the Call of Duty 2 single player campaign. Multiplayer games are so much more engaging.

Grand final going live in a couple of minutes

The third round is already about to start, we should start streaming from the semifinals onwards, in about 30-40 mins

Final brackets and scheduling info available on the official cup page here.

Pls don't spread misinformation, it has nothing to do with tf2 nor it targeted tf2 specifically...

THe most logical reason is that youtube messed up on their end with the suspension system. If they don't explicitly revert all the changes then you should use the Suspended Account Review Form provided by google

Last 2 day for signups and by the way as a warning, this cup won't collide with the ETF2L turbine cup, it is on completely different times and our cup finishes before the turbine cup starts.

We have a few more item prizes, courtesy of our partners / sponsors Whitelist.tf and tf2pickup.net

The prizepool atm looks like this:

1st Place: 60% of the total signup keys
Soldier: Strange Disciplinary Action
Medic: Specialized Killstreak Crusader's Crossbow Kit
2nd Place: 30% of the total signup keys
Soldier: Specialized Killstreak Disciplinary Action Kit
Medic: Specialized Killstreak Ubersaw Kit
3rd Place: 10% of the total signup keys
Soldier: Killstreak Escape Plan Kit
Medic: Killstreak Ubersaw Kit

We also have decided on a map pool for now, the official maps for the cup are gonna be koth_ultiduo_r_b7, ultiduo_baloo and ultiduo_gullywash_b2, all 3 are gonna be in rotation through each round.
I would like to test one more ultiduo map in the first round but I haven't found any that really stood out or had really good feedback other than these 3. If you have a recommendation for the last map please let me know.

I like it :)

I prefer the full group format (its only 1 more game) but I understand your concerns that it might be too many games for a group phase

other than that this is what tf2 needs

I would love to try this out in our ultiduo cup but unfortunately a lot of people are complaining you can easily run through choke to avoid fights amongst other things. Would be possible to get this "reworked" for future cups?

Ever since the Newbie cup I won't get into organizing mixed cups. As everyone knows there were some problems with that. Besides different offseasons each scene also has its particularities and I would prefer to remain things separated.

This doesn't mean NA won't have its cup, but not now.