Originally posted at: http://www.teamfortress.tv/27635/sweetstakes-tf-zowie-present-gimmicks-guts-glory
With everybody's eyes bulging in anticipation, and everybody's chins drenched in saliva for i55, teamfortress.tvin partnership with the good folks at SweetStakes.tf and ZOWIE thought it best to throw you chaps a delicious titbit to satiate your appetite before the feast ahead. Wouldn't want anyone swooning in front of their monitors. It is our honour to unveil upon the table - SweetStakes.tf & ZOWIE present: Gimmicks, Guts & Glory! Eight teams at the highest level of TF2, playing for $500 courtesy of SweetStakes.tf & ZOWIE hardware!
With everybody's eyes bulging in anticipation, and everybody's chins drenched in saliva for i55, teamfortress.tvin partnership with the good folks at SweetStakes.tf and ZOWIE thought it best to throw you chaps a delicious titbit to satiate your appetite before the feast ahead. Wouldn't want anyone swooning in front of their monitors. It is our honour to unveil upon the table - SweetStakes.tf & ZOWIE present: Gimmicks, Guts & Glory! Eight teams at the highest level of TF2, playing for $500 courtesy of SweetStakes.tf & ZOWIE hardware!
This event is of course a precursor for Insomnia55, the major intercontinental tournament of TF2 being held in Coventry in just 4 weeks from now. This tournament will provide an opportunity for these teams to compete at the highest level against each other before they enter into the LAN arena.
All the action will be cast right here on teamfortress.tv with your favourite assortment of casters from both continents, so you can sit back and get up to speed with the latest tactics and team rosters heading into i55, as well as win some prizes!
Giveaways
Prizes? Oh yes, prizes just for watching! TF2Pickup.net have kindly provided us with an assortment of delightful in-game items to give away during the two-day casting bonanza, along with some popular Steam games we managed to procure from kind donators! You get free entertainment and a chance at winning games to play the one day a week you're not playing TF2 - what could be better?
Tournament
As you might expect from the title of the extravaganza, this is an EU cup and promises to be chock full of gimmicks. Teams expected to attend i55 have been invited, including the NA teams, but this is very much an online cup with all of the associated latency issues. (The NA teams will have to be satisfied with one map on an NY server for their games.)
The tournament structure is a bit different from what we're used to seeing. To start, we have eight teams taking part in the Invitational. The first day, Saturday August 15th, has the eight teams split into two groups and play best-of-two round-robin games. The two best teams from each group will proceed to the double elimination bracket on day two - Sunday 16th August! Fanfares and party poppers please.
More in-depth rules will be posted closer to the date, but the things to take away are: group stages are BO2, all the knockout games are BO3, and the Grand Finals are BO5 with a one map advantage for the team who made it through the Upper Bracket. It should be a phenomenal taste of the real action once these teams get to LAN at the end of August.
Prizes
Just before we meet the teams who are invited to this online tournament, let's take a look at the hardware prizes on offer from ZOWIE - our delightful sponsor whose products were recently reviewed by clockwork,WARHURYEAH and truktruk:
The team finishing in pole position after this gruelling weekend will be the proud owners of 6x ZOWIE ZA Mice + $300 courtesy of SweetStakes.tf. The 2nd place team will receive 6x ZOWIE GSR Mousepads + $200 The 3rd & 4th place teams will have done well to stumble dizzily out from the group stages, but will go home with only a sense of stung pride and a desire for revenge.
Teams
And now the teams! The teams invited are as follows:
- Reason Gaming
- The Last Resort
- nerdRage.tf2
- froyotech
- Danger Dogs by TF2Pickup.net
- Saints
- LEGO
- full tilt
More Information
Look below for more information about the tournament.
If you're worrying because you don't know about any team other than the reigning world champions, not to fear! A further write-up of the teams will be following this post, although given that I'll be writing it and there's nobody worse to take your betting advice from, please do NOT translate my write-up into Saloon.tf wagers.
And with that - off with you! Wash your hands and prepare the cutlery for a morsel or two on teamfortresstv. There are sure to be many gimmicks, a few gutsy performances, and glory for one.
For the teams involved: ETF2L Premiership rules apply where deviations are not specified!
