Also minor note - I'm looking for the best SFM of a 6v6 character for our weekly poster. Winner might get it featured next week :-)

https://i.imgur.com/S4WM6Wr.jpg

ESL Community Cup #3's signups have now opened! This cup is available for the EU region only but there may be openings for other regions in the future.

This will kick off Sunday 24th of February at 4pm CET and will continue throughout the night.

Map Pool

• cp_process_final
  
• cp_granary_pro_rc8
  
• koth_product_rc9
  
• cp_gullywash_final1
  
• cp_snakewater_final1
  
• cp_sunshine
  
• cp_prolands_rc1
  
• cp_logjam_rc10a

Prize Pool
1st: 30 days of ESL Premium
2nd: 14 days of ESL Premium
3rd: 7 days of ESL Premium

Format
This cup will be using the Swiss system, which is a mix of both SE and DE but also has its cons. You're eliminated after 2 losses. You will play every round with a similar skill leveled opponent to yours. The team with the most wins at the end of the cup will be crowned winner. This is good for time periods (cup takes ~4.5-6h with 17+ teams) but doesn't have a grandfinal unlike the above two - More details here: https://play.eslgaming.com/swiss-cup-faq

For people new to ESL Play, here's a quick guide on how to signup to the cup: https://play.eslgaming.com/guide.

Live support will be provided during the event via this Discord: https://discord.gg/2T4MJjJ
Signups are now open on ESL Play!

Signups | Cup #2 | ESL Play Help

Glad you enjoyed it!

We're currently in talks about our next step going forward... but it looks like ESL could be here for the long haul. :)

Due to some internal changes with ESL rebranding, announcements were delayed. But as TimTum said it's been up since the first cup started.

It was my fault for that. Hopefully this time though it will be easier as we've decided to change the format again.

------
FORMAT CHANGES
This cup will be testing the Swiss system, which is a mix of both SE and DE but also has its cons. You're eliminated after 2 losses. You will play every round with a similar skill leveled opponent to yours. The team with the most wins at the end of the cup will be crowned winner. This is good for time periods (cup takes ~4.5-6h with 17+ teams) but doesn't have a grandfinal unlike the above two - More details here: https://play.eslgaming.com/swiss-cup-faq

https://i.imgur.com/oPtU6nv.jpg

ESL Community Cup #2's signups have now opened! This cup is available for the EU region only but there may be openings for other regions in the future.

This will kick off Sunday 17th of February at 4pm CET and will continue throughout the night.

Map Pool

• cp_process_final
  
• cp_granary_pro_rc8
  
• koth_product_rc9
  
• cp_gullywash_final1
  
• cp_snakewater_final1
  
• cp_sunshine
  
• cp_prolands_rc1
  
• cp_logjam_rc10a

Prize Pool
1st: 30 days of ESL Premium
2nd: 14 days of ESL Premium
3rd: 7 days of ESL Premium

Format
We're currently collecting the data submitted by everyone to determine what format the cup will be run in. Information will be released in the ESL Team Fortress 2 discord when decided.

EDIT: This cup will be testing the Swiss system, which is a mix of both SE and DE but also has its cons. You're eliminated after 2 losses. You will play every round with a similar skill leveled opponent to yours. The team with the most wins at the end of the cup will be crowned winner. This is good for time periods (cup takes ~4.5-6h with 17+ teams) but doesn't have a grandfinal unlike the above two - More details here: https://play.eslgaming.com/swiss-cup-faq

For people new to ESL Play, here's a quick guide on how to signup to the cup: https://play.eslgaming.com/guide.

Live support will be provided during the event via this Discord: https://discord.gg/2T4MJjJ
Signups are now open on ESL Play!

Signups | Cup #1 | ESL Play Help

Tune into CappingTV's open coverage of chop shop vs. rinsed for ozfortress Season 24 Week 2.

Match will be casted by snazzy and Dubious with Mundane on production.
Broadcast live at 8:00pm AEDT - about 7 hours from this post.

chop shop | Match Page | rinsed

We'd like to collect some feedback to improve the quality of our cups. The main topics are bracket format, duration of cups and the date/time.

Vote here!

caffeine kept me awake for the ESL cup, I'm sure it will save you too :~))

Congratulations to Se7en for winning the first ESL TF2 cup in seven years!

Thank you to everyone for participating, we will be returning next week with more testing. There will also be a poll later on to collect feedback/discuss alternative formats.

On a side note, I'm now a proper ESL admin. If anyone has any issues relating to TF2 feel free to PM me.

You might've not read the ESL Discord but we said that this was purely testing the waters, and we understand there are a few issues that we're going to look into.

We'll be posting a quick poll for people to fill later after the cup to collect people's thoughts. We're currently talking about either a Double Elimination or Swiss so that teams get to play more than one match.

I believe Kritzkast will be providing some English coverage, with Ga_da bringing Russian coverage!

This cup is seeded. I know not having divisions is optimal but this is more a test of the waters for ESL and will be a temporary system.
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ALL TEAMS PLEASE MAKE YOURSELF AWARE OF THE CUSTOM MAPS
- cp_logjam_rc10a
- cp_prolands_rc1
- koth_product_rc9
- cp_granary_pro_rc8
Downloading the map is not an excuse for delaying the match and will be treated as such.

Not this time, but there is discussion about bringing back the very old but prestigious ESL medal! This will all depend on if we can get teams playing in this cup.
----------

Two days remaining till the cup! Sign-ups will cut off 30 minutes prior to the cup with check-in starting promptly after. We will be offering support in the ESL Team Fortress discord only, please make sure you've joined it so you have easy access.

We've also put out a tweet if anyone would like to send it around ;)

We're looking into this at the moment, depending on signups we may run a swiss. If not it will be a single elimination bracket.

As I said back at the start of this, it wasn't going to be an easy journey. All ESL games start with community cups, and as we go along more will be integrated, like medals or new formats etc.

I understand that cups for the long term aren't very popular, but if people keep playing them for enough time we can say "okay we're seeing a stable number of teams in these cups, I think it's time to add a league (or something of the sort)."

These cups unfortunately can't be rescheduled, as this is a one night cup.