A seven year history shaped by warring ideas on what was best for the game season after season has brought us to the present day on the timeline of competitive Team Fortress 2 -- every protracted debate on unlocks, maps and team sizes has been a step on the journey so far.

The received wisdom of balance through whitelists and class limits goes largely unchallenged; if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it... right? However, in late 2014 persistent rumours of official ranked matchmaking have got us all thinking what exactly that might mean for current competitive formats...

What would Valve’s Game look like?

I certainly don’t have the answers, but it would seem counterproductive for the developers to ban the very weapons they wish to sell in the Mann Co. Store. So I would proffer a fairly safe assumption that whitelists would not feature in the official vision of competitive play. You will most likely have some preconceptions about which items are unsuited to competition. I mean even highlander, a game mode which prides itself on being all-inclusive, refuses to play with a few particularly unpopular weapons.

Fuck all that. Unfurrow that nerdbrow and resist the urge to theorycraft. We are here to bring you a bunch of unrestricted showmatches featuring a pool of Europe’s top players... actually just the ones that didn’t relinquish control of their bowels at the mention of the Quick-Fix or the Gunslinger.

The team size will be six and the current ETF2L class limits will apply -- you can have two of any class that begins with ‘S’ that isn't Australian. Why 6on6? Well, as anyone that plays MvM can tell you, six is the only team size officially endorsed by Valve’s matchmaking. Kappa. That and to maintain some level of familiarity. Baby steps.

Teams will be drafted by two captains and pitted against each other in best-of-three series, with team comms available as Twiggy & Admirable cover the whole thing on the back-to-back Sundays of December 14th and 21st at 21:00CET / 15:00EDT in a live TeamFortress.TV edutainment spectacular.

Want to see kaidus as the Loch-n-Load Demo Knight from hell? Or lick the tears from IPZIE’s face as his medic gets stunned and dropped courtesy of a moonshot from MGEMike’s Sandman and Baby Face’s Blaster combo? Tune in! Anything is possible in the season of goodwill...