DOUBLE RAINBOW, OMG. CEVO AND ESEA RAINBOWS. IT'S SO INTENSE.
Right, now that the meme is out of my system, I do want to put some thoughts down on the imminent CEVO Season 6 and the questionable ESEA Season 7. While both leagues are in the sign-up stages still, I somehow feel super psyched up for this next season. Perhaps it has something to do with being able to help out TGBF.tv for this upcoming season, but perhaps it's just because I liek mudkipz—I MEAN—teh TF2. YOU DECIDE!
Hit the jump to get the low-down of the current state of affairs in CEVO and ESEA.
CEVO S6 Deadline This Sunday
CEVO TF2 manager CEVO|Clay announced last week, when signups were supposed to terminate, that registration would be extended one week so that teams who were considering to apply to the league's Main division would commit to an application. He also noted that the response for the league's Professional and Amateur groups were substantial enough to warrant praise in the same news post.
CEVO-M presently has nine teams registered, with five teams listed as not ready. CEVO-A has a whopping 158 teams at the time of this article, with plenty teams not marked as ready. CEVO-M comparatively has only eight teams listed with only two of them marked as ready for S6.
Teams interested in applying for CEVO-M need to have experience in the competitive scene and should be able to commit for the whole season. Prospective teams would need to create a CEVO-A roster, have at least five players join it, and complete the application in the CEVO control panel. If the application isn't showing up, contact CEVO|Clay via email (gclay [at] cevo.com) with a reasonable application.
I'm very hopeful that CEVO S6 will be a great success, especially with the raw number of teams currently registered in the league… which brings me to the sad state of affairs that is…
The ESEA Season 7 Dilemma
I'm not going to even attempt to beat the dead horse that is essentially ESEA's lack of faith in the competitive TF2 community, but I'll just stick to the facts at this point.
The fate of the entire league rests on wether or not its Open division can garner the 50-team ready mandate that ESEA owner lpkane gave with the announcement of S7. At present, this fate seems more overwhelming than it does possible. Compared to previous seasons, the requirement isn't that unreasonable, but the drama and subsequent flamewar between lpkane and members of the community hurt the relationship between ESEA and the competitive community as a whole.
With this understanding, and two weeks left until ESEA's deadline for registrations, only 16 teams have bothered to register for ESEA-O and none of those teams have met the league's requirements to play in the upcoming season. Making the whole situation more difficult is the ineligibility of teams seeded in S6's postseason playoffs to rejoin the Open division. Instead of bolstering the likelihood of S7 coming to pass, they are forced to remain in the newly-established Intermediate division.
Unless something picks up in the next couple of weeks, I think it's safe to say that what could be argued as North American TF2's premier pay-to-play league will be no more.
In summary…
ESEA's chances of being held for a seventh season are very slim, most notable by the sheer quantity of teams lining up to participate in CEVO S6. While some teams seem to be double-booking themselves for both leagues, the lack of interest in one of the cornerstones of NA TF2 appears to be all but departed already.
Do you think CEVO's massive amount of sign-ups valid ates that the community is over with ESEA? Do you think ESEA is bluffing about axing its TF2 divisions? Keep the discussion happening by leaving a comment below or via Twitter by mentioning @CommunityFT in your tweet. You can also find me on Twitter as @bcarr.
Originally published on CommunityFortress on Tuesday, 10 August 2010 10:29 by bcarr.
Archived from CEVO and ESEA Pre-Deadline Update as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of CommunityFortress's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and CommunityFortress; reposted for historical reference.