Hmm, if only somebody was trying to make a new league. Then if ESEA ever does drop TF2, we'd all have somewhere to go to. Somewhere other than UGC, cause.. uh, do I even need to explain why? :p

I can't wait to be the worst scout in ESEA again. Wish me luck, guys!

The ultiduo test is coming to a close. The two remaining teams are End Game, with Nursey and b4nny, and Komeback Kids, with Energy and Storm Warning.
More details here - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/eTFCL#announcements/detail/585863462551071995

Also, please be sure to sign up for our 6v6 alpha test. Signups close in about 15 days. Test info here - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/eTFCL#announcements/detail/585862749595793477

I'm mid open. Wanna make my dream come true?

ps. i'm semi-serious.

Er, forgot to add this to my response above.
We'll have some internal playtesting first, and then a bigger map test tournament to get more people playing on it. So basically, once we feel like the map's ready to be tested by a wider audience. That' when it'll be available. :)

The development cycle is based on priorities. There's very limited team sorting right now, but the goal is to eventually have a fully featured search system in place.

As far as league setup goes, with things like placement and divisions? The current idea is to have something like this.
Invite and/or S Rank - Highest level of play.
Intermediate and/or A Rank - Medium level of play.
Open and/or C Rank - Entry point.
Starter and/or D Rank- Learning point.

Starter is the only division that wouldn't have any prizes, and is designed entirely as a way to ease new teams into their desired competitive format. Teams can request to be placed into either Open or Starter, and Starter teams may be moved into Open if they're found to be experienced. Lower ranked Open teams can also go down to Starter.
The general divisional setup is more in line with the way ESEA runs and manages their divisions. So, Open is like a mix between Iron - Plat, where only the top teams get moved up to Intermediate. The idea behind the Starter division is to coach and guide newer players into TF2 competitive.
Now, if a team such as Froyotech were to all join TFCL? They'd be moved up to the highest division, given their record elsewhere. But for most teams, starting in Open and having the system determine your proper ranking, is likely the best way to go about this.

As for a players past experience? We're going to take everything into consideration when figuring out placement, though most likely, they'll just go straight into Open. If they're good, they'll win Open, and climb the ranks fast. You gotta remember though, it's not just individual player skills here, but team skill as a whole. That's a lot harder to filter and determine just by looking at logs and stats from other leagues or services.

Scheduling around holidays is technically already being done. I mean, there's a reason we delayed the start of the alpha season by a couple of weeks. Wanted to avoid the risk of having fewer signups and players due to the holiday season. Plus, with the flexibility of the schedule system, where teams pick their own playtimes, it leaves everything pretty open.

Oh, and don't wait for the beta! There's a sixes alpha test launching soon, with signups open now. The prize isn't great, but there's a prize regardless. So sign up, and provide feedback when you can.

Yeah, expanding to Europe is definitely not a huge priority right now. I'm not completely ruling it out though, but for now, the most presence we'll have in Europe is by hosting or otherwise being a part of LANs. Maybe lending our tech so lans can properly run their tournaments without having to worry about managing or creating their own tournament structure.

Uh, I don't wanna be sued. :p

The next alpha test, which is for 6v6, is now open for signup.

http://steamcommunity.com/groups/eTFCL#announcements/detail/585862749595793477

There's a base prize of $30, with the potential of more being added mid-season via community donations. More or less testing this community donation thing, and will figure out if we should keep that as an option moving forward, to further increase the prize pool. If no one likes this idea, then we'll just rely on sponsors and advertisers, as well as out of wallet stuff. (currently everything is out of wallet due to the alpha stage not really being all that impressive for potential sponsors)

Also know that this alpha test will be critical to us being able to acquire high value sponsors moving forward. We'll more or less use the numbers and stats from this test as a way to attract sponsors, and already have two potential sponsors on board. They're all just waiting on the numbers. So, help us out, will ya? Sign up, play the season, and get your friends to do the same. The more teams and players we get during this test, the more sponsors we'll have by launch.

Is anyone out there experienced with source plugin development? Could use some help making a server plugin for TFCL. Current dev is working on the web side of things, making sure everything's ready and awesome. Reply, pm, or message me on Steam if you'd like to help out. This is a volunteer thing, though I'd be willing to pay once TFCL actually launches. We can discuss that privately.

http://steamcommunity.com/id/sidular

Here's a recent Steam announcement I posted. Sorry for not posting it here straight away too.

Ultiduo/MGE Mixes
Moving forward, we will be turning Ultiduo and MGE into a weekend mix tournament, rather than the previously announced seasonal structure. The technology behind this new tournament type, which we've codenamed KOTH, is exclusive to TFCL. It's sort of like a mix between a lobby and a pug. This tech will also be used to power our upcoming Heavy Boxing tournaments. We'll have more information for you guys as we get closer to launch. This does not affect our current alpha tests.

6v6 Alpha
This test is a full 8 week season, for a total of 16 matches. There will be two matches per week, with bye-weeks enabled for the test. Details below.

Signups: December 7th - December 31st
Tournament Start: January 1st
Tournament End: February 25th
Default Times: To Be Determined (vote here - http://www.strawpoll.me/11755495 )
Playoff Start: March 5th
Playoff Bracket: Single Elimination
Playoff Teams: 8 Teams
Divisions: Single Division
Prizes: To Be Determined
Rules: Coming Soon
Whitelist: Universal Whitelist

4v4 Map Test
We will be hosting a single day event designed to test koth_avalanche for eligibility within TFCL's 4v4 rotation.
This event will take place on Saturday. Team registration is open now.
To sign up, go to http://dev1.sidular.com/ and register a new 4v4 team. Get 4 players onto your roster, and then ready your team up. You'll be scheduled automatically on Friday, and must play your match on Saturday at the same time as everybody else. This is a set schedule and cannot be changed or altered, so be ready. :)

Date: December 3rd, 2016
Time: 8:00 PM Eastern
Map: koth_avalanche (TFCL version)
The map will be available to download tomorrow. We'll post an announcement when it's ready. (note, this map is different from the public version of avalanche)

Payload & Sixes
We are developing our own payload map designed specifically for 6v6 play. The map will be far smaller than your typical payload map, and should provide a fair and balanced competitive structure that's good for all levels of play.

We'll have a public test in the near future. So stay tuned for that.

Whitelist
We plan to use our own custom whitelist for both Highlander and Fours, and will use the Universal Whitelist for Sixes.

LAN Tournaments
This has been a constant request. We hear ya, so shut up about it already. :p
TFCL will host or otherwise sponsor LAN tournaments hosted throughout North America and Europe beginning early 2018.

Speaking of Europe...
We hear you loud and clear on this too. For now though, we cannot expand TFCL beyond North America, as quite simply, we don't have the capabilities to do so. However, launching into other parts of the world is definitely something we're interested in doing. Just hold on, alright? We're not even out of alpha yet, so give us time to further flesh out our league before we consider going international. :p

Prizes
Unlike ESEA, TFCL will prioritize physical products and digital goods or services, instead of straight up cash prizes. We will be working with some well known brands, though can't announce anything specific just yet. We will ultimately end up experimenting with different prize types based on player feedback, so if you want to see cash prizes, let us know. It's typically easier to get product sponsorships though, so do keep that in mind. We can't please everyone, but should be able to at the very least offer something of value, for every competition and tournament that we host.

Spring Beta
After we're done with the two alpha tests, we will launch a large scale beta test in the spring. This is essentially a soft launch of TFCL, and will include all of our leagues and divisions. The beta will also be hosted on our official tfcleague.com website, and the current development site will be wiped.

Alpha Medals
We'll begin distributing alpha medals at the start of our spring beta, or after our alpha test has fully finished. In the mean time, we ask that you remain patient.

UlarHost & TFCL
We're going to be launching our own internally operated TF2 server hosting network, which will act as both a source of funding for TFCL, as well as a way to ensure that we'll have a network of servers to use without having to rely on third parties. We'll still be working with third parties, and UlarHost will in no way be a major sponsor of TFCL. It's just an extra service that we feel could add value to TF2 clans and communities looking for a low cost hosting solution.

TFCL Casting
Casting will play a very big part in our league, but I feel as though we haven't been very clear on our intentions here. So here's the general gameplan TFCL will be using as far as TF2 casting goes.

- We will be using our TFCLeague Twitch channel to cast high level matches and events within TFCL. https://www.twitch.tv/tfcleague
- A fair amount of marketing will go towards our Twitch channel, both as a way of advertising TFCL, and promoting TF2 as a serious eSport game. We strongly believe TF2 has the potential to become something truly amazing, if marketed properly. Valve's not doing, so we decided to do it ourselves.

Server Pool
TFCL is working on acquiring several servers throughout North America to add to our pool. This will allow for anyone to select and reserve a server for their matches or scrims. Everything is going to be more or less automated, and it's being set up in a very similar way to ESEA. However, if you don't want to use one of our servers, or if none of our servers are available for reserve, you're also entirely welcome to use your own server instead. You've got the freedom to play how you want, when you want.

Automatic Scrimming
This service may not be available in time for our spring beta, but it will be available in time for our summer launch. Not much information can be provided at this time, as we're still figuring out the best way to implement an automated service.

Week 2 schedule has been posted.
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/eTFCL#announcements/detail/585861478923381248

Best of luck to everyone that entered.

Damn, not Canada from what I can see.
Well, rip me I guess.

Well, if anyone needs a scout, I'm available.

Yes, the third most popular game on Steam is very clearly dying.

Can you provide some more info on your system? Specs, any peripherals you've got plugged in.
And when you say crash, are you talking about the entire computer (like blue screen or something) or just TF2 crashing to desktop? Does your computer just turn off without displaying a blue screen, or an error of any kind? Like it just loses power?

If it's TF2 crashing, are you running any kind of configs, or custom huds?

I'm super excited to announce that TFCL will provide full medal support for all of our leagues and tournaments. How medals are going to be distributed is still undecided, though we're thinking about offering participation medals for everyone.
So yeah, medals are happening. :D

As for the current alpha test, everyone that participates will receive an alpha test medal. It's our way of thanking you guys for being so freaking awesome, and helping us to shape TFCL in your vision, to further enhance and improve this fine community of competitive gamers.
So if you're currently competing in our Ultiduo test, or if you're going to be competing in our upcoming 6v6 test, you will receive a participation medal.

Not sure on when these are going to be distributed. We don't even have them designed yet, so it could take a fair while. But rest assured, it's happening.

We're still sorting out some of the details, and will provide updates when we can.