Hello. How have you guys been? Has it been this long already? Time just flies. I was planning on more updates as the tourney progressed, but I’ve been busy with other things. Also, I figured if you were really interested in how other teams were doing then you would be checking out ETF2L yourself. I checked out ETF2L periodically, but it kind of lost its appeal.

So, just a quick update on the happenings on ETF2L…

Wolfcats did not make it past Round 4 after beating us; they were defeated by the Pink Flamingoes, who went on to the next round. Round 5 was the round where Americans faced Europeans. No American team was able to win in Round 5, and didn’t make it to the playoffs; they were all shut down - not surprising considering that the games were all played on European servers. I’m sure the lag really hurt. After Round 5 there were eight teams left for the playoffs. The final match was played on the 6th of March; Colony vs. SNSD, with SNSD winning.

Early on, Vanilla TF2 did interviews of the eight teams that made it to the playoffs. Some of those interviews are interesting to read. Check them out if you have a chance. They’ve been grouped together in a forum, which you can see here:
http://etf2l.org/forum/highlander/topic-15537/?recent=277406

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So when do you get your participation medal? The answer: soon. Valve is working on medal distribution system for TF2. It’s in beta right now, but they hope to use it not only for ETF2L, but other community projects as well. I don’t have an exact date, but I’ll let you know as soon as they get distributed.

ETF2L has worked out a system on their website for who gets a medal and who doesn’t, instead of manually making a list to hand over to Valve. I am unable to see if participants other than myself have earned the medal or not. You will have to log in to see if you’re eligible. Hopefully you still remember your log-in information. Every one of you should receive a medal. Let me know if it says otherwise, and I’ll contact an admin immediately.

To check if you’re eligible for a medal, head over here:
http://etf2l.org/high/highlander-faq/redeem-medal/

Hit me up if you have any questions.

Hey guys, I just wanted to thank all of you for participating in the ETF2L tourney. I have to admit I was unsure of this team when I first formed it back in August. There was a little drama and strife in the beginning, but we stuck with it and persevered. Most of your guy’s dedication to this team really impressed me. While I never expected to place in the top three of this tournament, I didn’t even think we would make it as far as we did; in the beginning I was going to be happy just to make it past the group phase. However, most everyone was willing to practice, take criticism, learn strategies, and become a better team player. We couldn’t have gotten as far as we did without that kind of dedication. As a result, we made it to Round 3 of the playoffs, or “Round-of-64.” Just put that in perspective: Out of over 900 teams participating in this tournament, we placed in the top 64. I consider that very impressive for a team that consists of players with no competitive experience.

As for Noble Nein, I don’t plan on deleting this group page anytime soon. I feel that it’s apart of our personal history, as ghey as that sounds :). You’re more than welcome to leave this group if you want. However, I plan on updating this page later with the results of the tournament and other interesting things if you want to stick around longer. Expect to receive your badges shortly after the tournament ends. I’ll let you know when that happens as well.

So, what are you guys going to do now? Did you really enjoy this tournament? Do you plan on participating in the competitive side of TF2 more? Are you enrolling in the UGC Highlander Tournament? I know that I’m now hooked on competitive highlander and don’t want it to end; it’s way too much fun. I have decided to participate in UGC, and I’m joining another team (they needed a demo :3). It would be great if some of you guys did the same; there are plenty of teams still looking for members.

So I guess that’s about it. Over the course of the ETF2L Tournament there has been a lot of emotions, stress, and tension over the past several months, and I loved every minute of it. I’ve learned so much and would do it all over again. While I knew it wouldn't last forever, I am sad to see this end. I really enjoyed participating in this with you guys. Thanks again for being apart of that. <3

[TANG] Merple:
"It finally happened
Hey team, your (p)resident merple here! Just wanted to make a note while everything is still fresh in my mind. I’m bound to forget over the coming weeks.
Firstly I just wanted to thank malent for having to deal with all of us :P All bs aside I appreciate how hard it can be to organise and schedule 9+ people, certainly a job I don’t envy. Thanks also to everyone else as well taking the time from irl to play this silly game of hats with us. I’m proud we made it this far. I’ll be honest at the start it was looking sketchy but we got through the drama and played like a team in the end. We took our beatings, came back and pulled together when it counted in our matches.
Also a big shout out to the various friends and players from other teams that have helped sub during our matches/practices. Like they say, practice makes perfect and we couldn’t have done it without you all.
Merry hatmas and see you all in game soon :)"

Hey guys, sorry for the delayed announcement. I had a lot going on last week and was perhaps too lazy to post anything. So, to make it up to you, I’ll make this one twice as long! Don’t you love reading books? You’re welcome.

Anywho, good job on last week’s victory! They were by far our toughest opponents, and I expect to see it get harder still. I wish I could have seen you all in action; but unfortunately the SourceTV demo that I recorded on Badwater crashes 10 seconds into it, and I never had a chance to get the Steel demo from our opponents after playing that map on their server. They had removed me from their friend list pretty quickly. It would have been nice to evaluate how we did, but we’ll just have to settle with reviewing our practices this week.

Speaking of practice, several of you have been missing out on the latest matches. I know it’s the holiday season and everyone is very busy, I can understand that. But if you can’t make it to a scrim then you need to let me know, or post in the event/announcement pages; I do read every single one of them. It starts to become a problem when over half our team consists of subs and mercs, which also results in us delaying the match 30 minutes later. It’s embarrassing and makes the other teams not want to play against us anymore.

So, for Round 3 or “Round-of-64” we’ll be playing against WolfCats:
http://etf2l.org/teams/10798/
http://gtm.steamproxy.vip/groups/Wolfcats

“What the hell is a wolfcat?” you might ask. I’m not entirely sure, myself. However, based on their ETF2L group page’s description, they all smell really good. I feel confident in beating them, though. Part of the reason for my delayed announcement was that their group leader was still trying to see what time was best for his group. Default Date took over because he procrastinated to long, though, and set it to our proposed time. However, he said he was fine with that, and he hopes that everyone in his group can make that time. I hope they can as well.

OUR TOURNAMENT MATCH WILL BE ON SUNDAY THE 19TH AT 8:30 PM EST. We will be playing on Steel and Goldrush, with Viaduct always the decider map. Again, show up 30 minutes before and make sure POV record is working. We’ve never played Goldrush as a team before so try to make it to this week’s practices.

As a side note, UGC is holding a Highlander tournament for North Americans:
http://www.ugcleague.com/home_tf2h.cfm

This tournament starts January 10th and runs for about 15 weeks straight. Prizes are once again medals, with extra prizes for the top three. Scheduling is a lot less flexible, though, as every match is played every Monday at 9:30 pm EST. I’ve asked a few of you about your thoughts on this; it seems that several of you can’t commit to this time, or are pretty much exhausted with the tournament we’re in now. So it would seem that Noble Nein is disbanding after the ETF2L tournament. Being group leader is a lot of work and I have no plans of creating another team to enter in this tournament. However, if you’re still interested in this tourney, I recommend you post on the UGC’s recruitment forums. There are still teams looking for members, and you guys now have a nice resume stating experience in the ETF2L Tournament.

Long story short, Drunkin Buddies are unable to play Thursday. So, Sunday the 5th at 8:30pm EST is the new date and time. So that there is no confusion, I will try and message each one of you to reiterate the new match date.

Other than that, nothing has changed. We're still playing on Badwater and Steel. Make sure POV-record is working, and try to be on at least 30 minutes ahead of schedule. We will be playing on our server.