VanillaTF2

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.

Galant — TF2World.ru LAN #3 ending tonight with great 4-maps (possibly) Grand Final, where extremely excellent cegth[etw team will need to win only 2 maps, while their opponent Crab People or Y U NO WIN? will need to take 3 map earlier than cegth[etw.

This Grand Final will be streamed by VanillaTV. At this moment you can watch 3rd map in low-bracket final between Crab People or Y U NO WIN? on gullywash.

Full play-off brackets can be found here.

Greg and  Comedian Will be casting for VanillaTV, and you can check out the russian stream at TF2World.ru TVwith  lollapalooza casting, and another stream at brainmeup with  Gideon casting

Galant — While most of you will still be sleeping this Friday – here, in Moscow, russian TF2 community will start playing group stage in first day of TF2World.ru LAN #3 starting from 10 a.m. (7 cet). Some key information about main participants can be found in this post on VanillaTF2. Now I want to give you all necessary information how to follow this event.

At first, here are groups for today: link. Play-off brackets for tomorrow will be here. Full schedule with time, maps and results can be found here (note that Moscow time = CET + 3 hours).

STVs and relays:

• relay.vanillatv.org:27100
• relay.vanillatv.org:27101
• relay.vanillatv.org:27102

http://tf2world.ru/?page_id=10804

Lucky Luke — September’s top 10 plays is here. Featuring some ESEA LAN clips, go check it out! Video produced by yours truly, hosted by eXtine and sound mixed by Airon.

This series is based upon user-provided demos. If you don’t submit it, it won’t be in here!

Galant — The last Russian offline tournament happened this April in the scenic city of St.Petersburg – you can refresh your memory with this post on Vanilla and re-live the LAN by watching these highlights brilliantly produced by bon. Half a year ago RAGE.eSports took the 1st place prize by defeating O’RLY in epic 3-map-with-golden-cap grand final on freight, granary and lovely “Russian map” cp_well.

Now it is time to tell you about our upcoming TF2World.ru LAN #3. This time we have moved the venue to Moscow and it will run from 4-5th of November. Once again 16 teams will fight during the two days; first during the group stage on Friday, and then the top 2 from each group will make up 8 teams, who will play double elimination in bo3 format during all the Saturday.

Torden — Update: Congratulations to Dashner, for taking the victory!

It’s been smooth sailing for favourites, the Prophets featuring Dashner (previously eMazing Gaming), on an unbeaten way to the finals. The same can’t be said for Classic Mixup, who managed to turn finalist at the 11th hour, beating the Experiment in the lower bracket final. This sets Pyooor’s boys up with a 3rd place, a respectable position, albeit an upset with the team having plowed through Mixup earlier the same day, and being predicted a coin toss showdown with Dashner. Area51 already landed a 4th place earlier in the evening.

Martn — Just a quick reminder, our  American brothers across the pond are about to kick off with one off the most eXciting LAN playoffs ever.  The first game to be played will be  Area 51 vs  Prophets ft Dashner (ex-eMg).

The second game that is going to be played is The Experiment vs Classic Mixup. Starting at 8pm CEST, this one is being casted on the official ESEA stream, with eXtine as main caster.

Update: Both games have finished, will update when new games go live. (If I’m not asleep).
Update: mixup vs 51 right now!

Ritalin — Now that the dust has settled after the absolutely amazing Multiplay i43 LAN event in the UK, it’s time for our North American brothers to step up and show us what they can do. Starting this Saturday 24th September, the top four teams from the ESEA-Invite regular season will be fighting it out over the weekend for the chance to be crowned Season 9 champions at the ESEA LAN finals in Dallas. In attendance will be  eMazing Gaming,  Classic Mixup,  Area 51 and last but not least  The Experiment; the latter of which will be familiar to those who tuned in to the recent Communities vs. Pros Summer Sizzler Showdown.

ShoX — According to the StageLAN website there’s less than 10 days left for something (Registration at a guess – it’s not that clear) and a little over 2 months until it’s supposed to happen proper. Seems odd for a LAN that was met with huge enthusiasm and energy when it was first announced several months ago.

What’s going on? I spoke with ‘staff’ member Qun some weeks ago and Hofven just today, neither have any information to report. So is that it? Get everyone’s hopes up, launch a website and disappear? Has there really been nothing to update the community with since the one and only post in June?

Even if it does go ahead I have my doubts; will players from the top teams actually buy flights to the Ukraine? Or will all the energy and good intentions fritter away when it comes to keying in a credit card for a flight to an unproven event in a far away land? Time will tell.

* Update – Catman was kind enough to answer a few questions.

Leftism — Fresh from his i43 adventures, dunc has been kind enough to share with VanillaTF2 his thoughts on the biggest TF2 LAN event to date. With much to discuss, dunc’s not holding back any comments as he dives straight into the talking points. Hope you’re sitting comfortably – this is a good, long read!

dunc — ShoX and I travelled down to Telford on Friday at 10am. The 3.5 hour journey from his place of work in Darlington ended up taking (including a stop) 7 hours. Jesus Christ, I hope this LAN is going to be worth it…