I like unicorn!
Hildreth — Welcome to part two of my three part article series documenting and reviewing the calendar year of 2011 in the world of competitive TF2. I would like to apologies to the Aussies, Africans and Asians for not really featuring you in these articles but I prefer to focus on the two main scenes which I actually know a something about. Anyway without further ado, I present to you the months of May to August of this year.
TL:DR – TF2 dies, gets born again and we have an awesome LAN.
Hildreth — 2011 was a great year for me personally; being the year of the ‘panda’ in the Chinese calendar – might have made that up, it could be a smaller animal with a likeness for orange vegetables – and has been one of the most eventful years, dare I say ‘THE MOST’ eventful year in our competitive scenes history. We have had the biggest LAN to date, TF2 going Free-2-play, launch of a new casting organisation and many, many great matches. It has also been a year of doubt and controversy. The slogan ‘TF2 is dead’ being printed on TF2 discussion boards everywhere and still being typed by many there has been dispute and frustration over unlocks, LANs and growth in the TF2 scene. There has been more gossip, controversy and drama than you’ll ever see on Maury. TF2 has changed – rising stars of TF2 have gone ’pro’, old pros have gone on the Brink of losing interest and leaving the scene. Coverage has changed and developed with new people writing articles, making videos, volunteering to cast or stream and hell we have even seen a new game mode start to become accepted in Team Fortress 2. To start it off I found a gem of an old-fashioned TF2 rant/commentary by 
Foster with an actual positive outlook for 2011 and to steal a quote from it made by 
Darn:
“Unless TF2 gets a proper LAN tournament in 2011, it will be the last year.”
Make of that what you will.
It’s been a long year. I intend to go over it month by month highlighting the memorable matches, the big dramas and the key events that defined our scene this calendar year. To avoid a TL:DR fest I will split it up into 3 parts, one to release now, one of New Years Eve and the last part in 2012. I would like to apologies to those who do not follow the Gregorian calendar, if for example you are Jewish please re-read this again in 9 months.
SeriousCat —With the holidays right around the corner most of the competitive scene has taken a break, with a few notable exceptions! Scheduled for tonight Dec. 26th is the Div 1 Highlander match between Comunidade Portuguesa TF2 and turbopoop eSports:
Comunidade Portuguesa TF2
turbopoop eSports
ETF2L Highlander Season 1: Week 4 (Division 1)Who will win this match?
Total Voters: 19
Loading ...At VanillaTF2 the unicorns never sleep either. We present you with a new (beta) feature: an aggregate RSS feed of all the TF2 community’s news, as well as our matchticker & matchresults. Point your RSS reader of choice to http://rss.vanillatv.org/. If you have visited us on IRC before, you will recognize it as the RSS version of our VanillaTV bot’s output.
Additionally, our VanillaTV bot is now available on the GameSurge IRC network: contact me for details.
Happy holidays!
Comedian — While it has mostly gone unnoticed to the European community, CommFT and eXtv are organising a community highlander discussion at 21:00 CET.
Attending will be 
Free and jinn from CommFT, eXtine and Mikal from eXtv, 
Bubblebobbler, INF, hein and forn from UGC, Comedian from VanillaTV, Hildreth from ETF2L, Agro and Ruskeydoo from KritzKast, 
wm from Ozfortress and last but not least, dubel from CEVO to discuss the fine points of Highlander and everything surrounding it.
The plan is to have around 1 hour talking about the various questions, after which it will turn into a public chat where we will be taking from you, the community. Of course, like always, there is the risk of overtime, so dont take this schedule too closely to your heart, especially not with so many people attending.
you can listen to the discussion in the eXtv Mumble Server (dal.eoreality.net:64760) or tune in to eXtelevision for the stream. Read more for the The panel questions and details.
Crasp —Tonight we bring you some big battles from ETF2L!
Update: Join Salamancer and Comedian right now as they are covering the rest of the ETF2L One-night cp_croissant cup!
Leftism — Tonight you lucky spectators will be spoilt for choice with three different high level highlander casts going on tonight. VanillaTV Open Mic will be casting be providing one of those. Join Comedian and Farah as they cover some high level ETF2L highlander action. Starting at 21:00cet will be the game that may potentially have a major influence on the inaugural season’s title: 
SNSD take on 
Comunidade Portuguesa TF2.
SNSD
TviQ, droso, CUBE, Hurri, Cyber, TheSucker, Hat, ALX, Linus
Comunidade Portuguesa TF2
Reaper, t0dA, Coinz, Alphazen, K3, Haunter, stuntz, XiuUu
ETF2L Highlander Season 1, Week 2Who will win this match?
Total Voters: 104
Loading ...More information on other casts after the jump.
Trell — Tonight is shaping up to be a highly exciting spectacle for TF2 fans. ETF2L’s inaugural Highlander season kicks off, with arguably one of the most exciting matchups, Colony vs May Contain Nuts. Hildreth and Agro will be casting on VanillaTV Open Mic from 19:00 CET onwards.
More TF2 action follows, at 21:15 CET as the ESH Semi Final between Epsilon eSports and Infused.Tt decides who goes through to the final and a shot at the 300 GBP grand prize! In a shocking turn of events, numlocked informs me that dunc isn’t playing tonight – and that anty will be stepping in to cover medic duties. Will this lead to less dropped ubers? Tune in to find out! This will be casted by VanillaTV by two, as yet, unnamed casters.
Information on how you can enter the competition after the jump.
Torden — It’s starting to gain foothold this 
Ashkan‘ian monkey business. The latest installment features a new height of impressive names on the roster of invited celebrities to play 9v9 TF2, including a soldier showdown between former quakers Notch (creator of Minecraft), and TF2′s own Robin Walker. The game is commented by Nvc and Salamancer, with part 1 already racking up half a million views on facetube after a couple of days.
The bros at KritzKast made a dedicated site a while back, with all the details, demos and everything (including the 2 former matches). It’s at TF2mixup.com. Part 1/2: Badwater:
Hildreth — From the Dawn of Time we came, moving silently down through the centuries, living many secret lives…or so we were until ETF2L announced its inaugural Highlander season! Now we are all out there proudly, with our chests pumped outwards with vanity and our thoughts entwined on the purest form of Team Fortress 2 – Yes my fellow TF2 players, I am talking about Highlander; with cart-pushing festivals played under the sombre tune of Spy knives and Pyro flames, wearing unusual hats and packing unlockable weapons so absurd you would think us deranged to have not disallowed them. Welcome to ETF2L Season 1 of Highlander, I am formally inviting every single TF2 player on the planet to join in and play your favourite class with your best e-buddies because in all honesty, nothing is more important than just playing the game no matter how good you are. Read on for a preview of the first season.
* for Highlander.
Torden — Harhar, my first proper tabloid headline, bet you’re disappointed now. But over to the real story, ETF2L’s follow up to last year’s highly successful Highlander Community Challenge – The biggest league in TF2 history with 850 signed up teams, won by SNSD who decided to stick around as a 6v6 team in the shape of a top10 team called Yoyotech. New this year, there is no longer a maximum restriction on experience, anyone can sign up, and looking at the list, there are already a bunch of premiership players involved. If you’re completely new to highlander, it’s the competition format of 9v9, 1 of each class.
Sign ups end October 30th, with the league starting a week after.
Announcement post with all the details
Reddit announcement (upvote that shit)
Leftism — It’s finals night here at VanillaTV with two huge games. First up tonight will be the Community Fortress final between SNSD, winners of the ETF2L Highlander Challenge, and 
Angry German Kids, hoping to topple SNSD’s place as the top highlander team in Europe. Later tonight will be the ESL Final between 
K1ck eSports and SG-1 – details for that game in a future post!
| more matches | ||
|
eQ. vs qn. | 2 - 4 |
|
 Infs vs Broder | 2 - 0 |
|
decerto. vs Girafe | 5 - 1 |
|
Yoyotech vs exotic | 2 - 4 |
|
LDLC.com vs Cido | 0 - 2 |
|
Os' vs Inso. | 30/01 |
 |
iM vs Bulk Brogan | 29/01 |
 |
Mayhem. vs YouMust | 0 - 2 |
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