Signups have opened for the fifth season of Electronic Sports League’s 6on6 league. Bold moves are being made but can they deliver what the community wants?

It beggars belief that one of the biggest and most respected names in European esports have struggled to make an impact with one of the most fanatical communities around, but despite the success of the Major Series, which has installed itself as one of the most exciting events in the Team Fortress 2 calendar, the ESL has so far failed to galvanise our community with their league offerings. Where is it all going wrong?

It’s not entirely easy to put a finger on the perceived failings of the previous iterations of the 6on6 league. Obviously, every league has an uphill battle against the ETF2L monopoly, which established itself as the best place to compete against the widest selection of teams and debate the intricacies of the game. Yet, as newcomers Esports Heaven have proven, there is definitely room for more competitions, events and expansion within the scene.

One of the major problems from previous seasons has been the distribution of teams throughout the divisions. Over time the standard of play has risen consistently as players have become more experienced, teams more organised and tactics more refined. As you might expect this has led to a widening gap in skill levels which always seemed very pronounced in the ESL, partly due to the lower number of participants, partly due to the promotion system. A few seasons of badly mismatched opponents were enough to dampen the spirits of many teams with a notable exodus of top teams over the last few seasons as other competitions, such as the doomed UKeSA, seemed to hold more promise.

Historically, the ETF2L has been the standard-bearer for the game, establishing the popular formats, rule sets and divisions that define competitive Team Fortress 2 today, yet many feel they have not done enough; particularly with regards to wishy-washy decisions on unlocks, the premiership proposals and anti-cheat systems. The growing unrest has left the door open for the rejuvenated admin team at ESL to win over the competitive playerbase with some decisive action. Adopting a laudable top-down approach, they have set out on their mission by polling the top ten teams on what they wanted to see changed and then set about implementing these suggestions. Whilst the ETF2L community has been fearful of the “Division 1 Dictatorship”, doing their best to sit on the fence, the ESL have grabbed the bull by the horns and are making things happen.

We can expect to see a raft of changes in the upcoming fifth season, with no-nonsense bans on unpopular unlocks and the implementation of a six team premiership grabbing the headlines, and a revitalised mappool featuring the popular additions of Gullywash and Obscure also on the cards. All this wrapped up in the reliable ESL framework which includes pro-active anti-cheat measures and it seems like they are on to a winning formula to salvage the integrity of the competition and lure the punters back.

Whilst the unlock bans will go a long way to appease the growing number of purists who are dismayed by Valve’s scattergun approach to balance and updates, I think the new premiership could possibly be the best thing since sliced bread. It has long been recognised that there is a glass ceiling in top division, with only a handful of the ten teams managing to compete at the top level and the remainder making up the numbers. Generally the outcome has been that half of the games scheduled in a season are cut and dried before the first shot has even been fired, denying the fans of games worth watching and denying the players of a real challenge. The proposed premiership will go a long way to rectify these issues and potentially herald the dawn of a renaissance in the top tier competition which has never really recovered from the lazy Summer.

Intrigued by the exciting new direction the ESL are taking and being a notorious bluffer myself, I tracked down ESL Admin and TCM-Gaming rocketman, António "Haunter" Rodrigues, to find out what was really happening.

Q&A with António "Haunter" Rodrigues

I think it’s fair to say ESL 6on6 ladder has been in a state of decline over the last few seasons. What do you think the main problems have been?

I think I can highlight several reasons for that; To start with, most of the teams can’t play in many leagues at same time mainly because the lack of time and since ETF2L is the biggest one whenever it comes to pick a league the choice is obvious. Another thing that I can point out its the fact that ESL doesn’t have an easy interface and the restricted rules weren’t appealing to make players join. A fourth issue was the old aqueitas that has had a long reputation of needing a fix, with many players reporting in game performance decreasing to having the client crash altogether.

Very true! You have implemented a lot of interesting new rules for Season V. What are your main goals? What do you hope to achieve by the end of the season and beyond?

Our main goal is to give a new option to the TF2 community, and hopefully a good one. Our admin team discussed what was wrong on the previous seasons, followed up with a survey on the top teams including some rules discussion and finally decided to implement them on the league. As for the end of the season we hope to have a good feedback and more signups for the following season. ESL is well known in the gaming community and TF2 only has things to win with ESL sponsors.

Not going for world domination just yet then? Couldn’t you coerce them in to support TF2 LAN events? Pro Series? Extreme Masters? I want it all!

I think it’s too early for that, as you mentioned before ESL has never been strong in TF2, so we have to start from scratch and build it up. As my personal motivation I won’t stop working on the TF2 section, and I am sure that the other admins will do the same. Lots of the community voices says that 2010 is the TF2 year, let’s hope so.

Ah that must be the famous Portuguese sense of humour! OK we can stay humble for now. Build it up. Tell me then how are signups looking so far and who will be the lucky six premiership teams?

Last time i checked we had around 70 signup and its still going strong. More teams are building up rosters on the site that hopefully will also signup. As for the premiership even though there is still some discussion around it the initial proposal will be: TCM, Power Gaming, idk?, Teddybears, R@ts and Fakkelbrigade.

No Team Dignitas? Undoubtedly those are still six worthy teams but that is disappointing. You have a platform here right now, will you call them out for the big jessies they are?

With the survey we did, dignitas also gave their share and we're thankful for that. I am also disappointed for them not joining but the only thing I can say is that it’s a shame and I hope they join for the next season or change their minds until the signups for this season close.

Very diplomatic! It's good to know we have some level heads in charge. Thanks for your time and best of luck with ESL.

Thanks for the interview :)

Whether you are a fresh-faced newbie or a grizzled veteran I wholeheartedly recommend you support the ESL and signup for Season V before the deadline on 18th February 2010. If everything goes according to plan you can expect to see the new season kicking off from 24th February 2010.

If you play it, I’ll cover it!

ESL Season V