STV demos are usually made available after the event. Depending on how much time the admins need to recover, it can take a few days.

Would be nice to have some information on the next cast + ETA on screen instead of just crowd shots during down time. Rest was awesome from what I could see, great job :)

Did anyone notify Valve about the ESEA LAN? Because I know it happened for i49.

That is not what BoneS said. He suggests that TFTV.eu currently relies on only one regular caster and if that one caster is not around, there is no cast. He did not mention quantity or quality at all.

Sal will be there, Lange will be there. I don't know if the Australians will bring someone with them who can cast.
I would say, the options are very limited and ultimately, it is VanillaTV's call anyway, who they want to reward with a finals cast.

Jah Sun and Clear Conscience are both pretty good, although not roots.

https://twitter.com/LuckyLukeTF2/status/360507013706424320

While I personally completely agree with you and think the Quick-Fix can be a good tool to shift the meta game and make medic play more exciting, it looks like most of the EU TF2 elite do not. Check the comments over at VTF2 http://www.vanillatf2.org/2013/07/esa-tf2-ozone-open-cup-4/ or the post-game interviews on VTV or TFTV to see what I mean.

Removed the Quickfix from the allowed unlocks list. It will only be readded, if it receives a nerf.

Going and teamless. Looking forward to the beer.

You only have to be 18+ for tournaments with entry fees (P2P). The rest is free for everyone.

Those are allowed anyway and so is Boston Basher, Pain Train, Escape Plan, Overdose, Übersaw and Crossbow, I just listed the extra unlocks that are not allowed by default in the current EU TF2.

The TF2: Ozone Open Cup #4 with 32 slots kicks off this Sunday, July 28th, at 16.45 CEST. The shorter schedule seemed to be more convenient for most teams so I’ll keep it that way.

The schedule is tailored for European teams and all matches have to be played on European servers. I will not reject any signups from other parts of the world but please bear in mind that time- and ping difference can cause huge issues that you will have to deal with.

The signups are open NOW. Please do not forget that you need to check in your team. Check-in will open 2 hours before the tournament start (at 14.45 CEST) and remain open until about 16.30 CEST, after which the brackets will be created. The times on the tournament page are in GMT by default and in your local time, when you are logged in.
I personally had a lot of fun watching last week’s tournament and how teams adapted to certain unlocks. Unfortunately, the feedback I got after the cup directly from players was scarce. At this point I want to give a huge shoutout to Epsilon eSports, who are doing a very good job at giving detailed feedback regarding specific unlocks. My ears are always open, I would love to hear feedback from more top players on last week’s unlocks as well as more suggestions for unlocks to try out.
One thing that became apparent is that the Short Circuit in its current form can be used to completely shut down soldiers and demomen due to its low cooldown. The item will be banned from all ESA tournaments and will only be tried again, if it receives a significant nerf.
The Scorch Shot of the pyro was barely used. For this reason, it will be replaced with the Detonator.

*Update: Removed the Quickfix from the allowed unlocks list

The full list of allowed unlocks for all following ESA tournaments is:
- The Quickfix
- The Black Box
- The Winger
- The Gloves of Running Urgently
- The Cozy Camper
- L’Etranger
- The Detonator

More unlocks will be added (or removed, if they turn out to be horrible) in future ESA cups.

Premium Payout Explanation

The prize pool for this tournament is £100 (top 8 payout) and uses Premium payouts, which means you are only eligible to win a money prize, if you have an ESA Premium account. The prize pool is based on the number of Premium subscriptions and can be increased by simply buying a Premium subscription for yourself. If you do not have a Premium account, you can still compete for the Ozone Gaming Gear hardware, that is up to win for anyone, Premium or not.

Check-in

ESA tournaments are using a check in system. Only teams that checked in will be added to the tournament bracket. The check-in starts on Sunday, July 28, at 14.45 CEST (I've extended the check-in time to 2 hours) and lasts until 16.30 CEST, after which the brackets will be generated. If you miss this deadline, you can not play in the tournament. Only one member of the team has to check in the team.

ESA AntiCheat
Over the past months, ESA has developped its own AntiCheat tool, which will become mandatory soon. It was already tested in for CS:GO and many bugs have already been ironed out. The requirements to hardware and internet are minimal and should not mess up the game's performance. To optimize it for TF2, it needs to be used and bugs need to be reported.

To improve this tool, ESA needs your help. This tool won't become mandatory for at least another 2 weeks so please use this time to test the tool in cups and report any bugs or issues to ESA staff (if possible with screenshots). If it is absolutely not working for you, please get in touch with an admin and explain your issues as good as you can (if possible with screenshots). This tool runs on Windows systems only.

ESA AntiCheat requires no installation, you can just download the tool, start it up, log in with your ESA login credentials, enter your match ID (which can be found e.g. in the URL of the match page) and click "Start Scanning". Please make sure to make yourself familiar with the tool and what it does. For example, you should not leave any confidential or sensitive information open while the tool is scanning, because it takes automatic screenshots of your screen. Only run it during matches.

More information and the download link can be found on the AntiCheat information page.

For questions, pop in at #esa on Quakenet or just ask in here.

One Night Cups

Kuferl and I are hosting a series of short 4- or 8 slot one night cups for low- and mid skilled teams only on most evenings. The reason for this is that ESA will start hosting tournaments with 3 skill tiers in August that replace the open tournaments every Sunday. Each bracket will have prize money but to participate your team needs to have a ranking of either low, medium or high. To get a ranking, a team needs to have a certain amount of matches under its belt. While the higher skilled teams usually survive the first few rounds in the open tournaments and can easily get the needed amount of matches to get ranked, lower skilled teams get kicked out in the first round most of the time and have a hard time getting the needed matches. All tournaments will be using the same set of unlocks as the Sunday cups.
If you would like to play in the skill tiered tournaments in August, please consider signing up for a few of these cups – or create community tournaments and play in them. All matches contribute to your team’s ranking. Check out the tournaments page over at ESA, it will be updated frequently.

Tournament link: https://esagamer.com/tournaments/66/TF2-BBall-P2P-1 (you need to be logged in at ESA to access the tournament page)

The schedule is tailored for European teams and all matches have to be played on European servers. I will not reject any signups from other parts of the world but please bear in mind that time- and ping difference can cause huge issues that you will have to deal with.

Schedule:
Wednesday, July 24th
20:00 Round of 16 (bo3)
21:00 Quarter Finals (bo3)
22:00 Semi Finals (bo3)
23:00 Final/3rd place match (bo3)

Slots: 16 (with the option to increase to 32 while keeping more or less the same schedule)

Entry fee: £3 per team

Maximum prize pool: £48 (top 8 payout) [£96 with 32 teams, top 16 payout]

You do not need ESA Premium to sign up but the person signing up the team needs to be 18 years or older.

You can find help in the ESA IRC channel #esa on Quakenet.

The TF2: Ozone Open Cup #3 with 32 slots kicks off this Sunday, July 21th, at 16.45 CEST. By changing the semi finals to a "best of 1" maps series, it is possible to start the tournament later than the previous ones, which seemed to be an issue for many teams. Please let me know if this is better.

The schedule is tailored for European teams and all matches have to be played on European servers. I will not reject any signups from other parts of the world but please bear in mind that time- and ping difference can cause huge issues that you will have to deal with.

Following last week’s Team Fortress 2 update, which included balance updates for several weapons, the following weapons will be added to the unlock whitelist (no love for the scottish cyclops, sorry):

- The Quickfix
- The Black Box
- The Winger
- The Gloves of Running Urgently
- The Cozy Camper
- L’Etranger
- The Short Circuit
- The Scorch Shot

More unlocks will be added (or removed, if they turn out to be horrible) in future ESA cups.

Premium Payout Explanation

The prize pool for this tournament is £100 (top 8 payout) and uses Premium payouts, which means you are only eligible to win a money prize, if you have an ESA Premium account. The prize pool is based on the number of Premium subscriptions and can be increased by simply buying a Premium subscription for yourself. If you do not have a Premium account, you can still compete for the Ozone Gaming Gear hardware, that is up to win for anyone, Premium or not.

Check-in

ESA tournaments are using a check in system. Only teams that checked in will be added to the tournament bracket. The check-in starts on Sunday, July 21, at 15.45 CEST and lasts until 16.30 CEST, after which the brackets will be generated. If you miss this deadline, you can not play in the tournament. Only one member of the team has to check in the team.

ESA AntiCheat
Over the past months, ESA has developped its own AntiCheat tool, which will become mandatory soon. It was already tested in for CS:GO and many bugs have already been ironed out. The requirements to hardware and internet are minimal and should not mess up the game's performance. To optimize it for TF2, it needs to be used and bugs need to be reported.

To improve this tool, ESA needs your help. This tool won't become mandatory for at least another 2 weeks so please use this time to test the tool in cups and report any bugs or issues to ESA staff (if possible with screenshots). If it is absolutely not working for you, please get in touch with an admin and explain your issues as good as you can (if possible with screenshots). This tool runs on Windows systems only.

ESA AntiCheat requires no installation, you can just download the tool, start it up, log in with your ESA login credentials, enter your match ID (which can be found e.g. in the URL of the match page) and click "Start Scanning". Please make sure to make yourself familiar with the tool and what it does. For example, you should not leave any confidential or sensitive information open while the tool is scanning, because it takes automatic screenshots of your screen. Only run it during matches.

More information and the download link can be found on the AntiCheat information page.

For questions, pop in at #esa on Quakenet or just ask in here.