wm — ozfortress is up to its 8th OWL competition.

OWL is a closed round-robin based competition which is run seasonally and which uses divisions. Clans may apply to join the competition during a signup phase held before the beginning of each season for intense competitive matches. We currently host 6 divisions which each division holding up to 8 teams (seeded).

This year we decided to change the structure of division 1 to being called the “Premier Division”. We also decided to throw $2,000 cash at this division and spread it out across as many teams as we could. Teams will have a chance to get some of the prize pool simply by winning maps.

More on this is located here.

We have reached new records with team sign ups this season as well, over 51 teams have shown interest in OWL8. The majority of the rules will carry over from OWL7 and division structures remain the same. This year we’ll put more than 1 admin to the bottom 3 divisions so there’s loads of coverage for newer teams and it also gives our newer admins a chance to get involved.

This season is spread out between now and first week of December with a nice extra long round towards the tail end of the season, mainly for uni/school exams. We encourage all captains to plan tightly around this time of the year to ensure your games are played following the rules.

The changes to this season should ensure that there’s a stronger focus on competition while ensuring there’s lots of fun to be had. Having the leading division structured this way, we hope it encourages all other teams to aspire to this arena in future seasons and have a shot at the Premier Division – it won’t be easy!

To ensure everyone can catch the action packed season, the guys at GreaverTV will be casting as many games as they can all season (with special focus on finals). Watch the TF2 Casting forum on ozfortress.com to catch the upcoming games.

For those who haven’t really seen much of the Australian TF2 scene, be sure to keep an eye out for more updates here around Finals time. I’ll be sure to post up the big games on VanillaTF2.