CATEGORY: ETF

Fortressmen of the Month #3 brings together two competitive veterans who were rivals across two different Team Fortress games, yet companions at the same international LANs, 15 years after standing at the top of the European scene. Coinz competed for ECA in Enemy Territory Fortress and later for YoYoTech/TCM Gaming in Team Fortress 2, while Moose played for Clan United (ETF, TF2) and then for Crack Clan/Power Gaming (TF2). Both came to TF2 from the short-lived but competitive tournament scene of the still-young ETF, joining a wider migration that saw entire clans from games such as Team Fortress Classic make the same transition.

For Coinz and Moose, however, the move was far more than a passing fad. They remained at the forefront of TF2 as the game’s competitive domain evolved from humble beginnings into a major scene with multiple leagues featuring several hundred teams each season.

In this interview, they look back at the online ETF competitions, discuss TF2’s unique gameplay and their adaptation to it, revisit the major European TF2 LAN tournaments where their paths crossed, and recall TF2’s early prospects as a major esport—including the first attempts to engage Valve on the game’s competitive future.

TloFly from European TFC community and pick-up game (PuG) server compiled twenty minutes of Team Fortress Classic action from numerous top players, and named it The Wizards of TFC. It is a free masterclass in conc-jumping and flag running, topped off with an elite frag show. European players from ETFC PuGs make up the majority of the footage, with North and South American and Australian players featured as well. Last year, Manu’s Joga Bonito and rk’s 22^nd in the editless montage series, summer air, made their impact. This year, TloFly’s The Wizards is arguably the best release so far.

Another great movie of the year has come out of Team Fortress 2. deli’s montage showcases frags performed at poLANd.tf 2026, a top-level invite LAN in Łódź, Poland, organized annually since 2018. Just as Fireside Denver 2025 in Colorado hosted the best teams from Europe and Australia, and brought the three-continental LAN competition back to TF2 after eight years, poLANd 2026 brought an intercontinental competition back to Europe after four years, with an American mix team flying overseas to challenge the winners of Denver. The frags, as well as deli’s editing, match the quality of the competition.

Although they are not stacked montages, Enemy Territory Fortress recently produced some valuable media as well: recordings from the EU vs. US matches held on 27 July and 5 August. Thanks to the initiative of the European players who still queue up for the pick-up games every day on the Discord server, ETF is played again after several months. grome has recorded his POV from etf_schtop and etf_japanc maps played on 27 July, while Tulkas has full stream replays from both 27 July and 5 August. If you missed some ETF action, have fun watching them.

If you’ve been around the Team Fortress timeline long enough, you know the DNA of this game runs incredibly deep. Before there was TF2, there was Enemy Territory Fortress (ETF), which evolved straight from the legendary Quake 3 Fortress (Q3F). For decades, its community has kept the spirit of fast-paced, high-skill, bunny-hopping Fortress gameplay alive. Today, ETF and its dedicated engine project, ETe (Enemy Territory Engine), are still pushing forward–but to get this classic codebase exactly where it needs to be for the modern era, we need your help.

Lately, our primary development pipeline has been heavily Windows-focused. We are looking to expand our team to truly make ETF cross-platform, easily accessible, and stable for the modern era. But this alone is not the whole scope of reviving and refining ETF. We are aware that we are in dire need for people with soft skills to gather the playerbase. We are also looking for level designers to expand mapping and gameplay styles; and artists to polish where necessary. Following is the full list.

ETF isn’t just another mod; it’s a direct link to the golden era of arena shooters. Q3F and ETF paved the way for the mechanical depth, speed, and tight team dynamics that defined the class-based shooter genre. By contributing to ETF and ETe, you aren’t just working on a side project–you are helping preserve video game history, keeping a legendary engine alive on modern systems, and giving a dedicated community the platform they deserve. If you want to jump in, write some code, build some maps, test some builds, or push some pixels, drop a comment below or reach out directly via our GitHub repository or Discord! | GitHub: ETF, ETe – Discord: ETF

x-term from QWTF.RU (“.NET”) community has recently been uploading 20+ years old Q3F and Enemy Territory Fortress (port of Q3F to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory) footage to https://vk.com/etfortress. The content varies from the old 8v8 clan match days of Q3F and ETF to the recent 4v4 gathers (pick-up games) of ETF v2.0. The goal is to document the legacy, to showcase it, and to lure more people into playing Q3F and ETF.

The last time Q3F played was in 2024, according to x-term, at a game night organized by QWTF.RU. Interested players are encouraged to follow the vk page (especially the East European users), join the QWTF.RU Discord server and say hi in the #q3f channel.

I don’t have anything particulary new. I just like to play ETF, Q3F, sometimes even QWTF. And I want to help bring in new players, so I’m trying to show them the game and get them interested. It’s not an easy task, since I can’t compete with Valve and EA. – x-term

While he desires to offer some old-school Q3F games for the beginners, the main and the more realistic focus is to revive the live ETF Discord server, which has been struggling to run its gathers lately. Anyone willing to help make it happen can join and queue up, and ping sharky (@eLSharko), bill, x-term, Güven or Toes for a 1v1 soldier deathmatch in the meantime.