CATEGORY: Competitive

The last of its kind in the Team Fortress Classic scene, Final Fortress League is nine weeks into its Season 3. After its 6-team debut season primarily played in 5v5, and a second season with 4 teams successfully achieving 7v7s, its third run is again having 4 teams competing against each other in 5v5 or 7v7 settings, depending on the map and circumstances. According to the organizer KingOfPests the current player count could support a 6-team season again, if two more players stepped up to captain teams.

The flexible match format leaves room for adaptation and experimentation. For larger maps teams may jointly decide to play 7v7, or they may agree on 5v5 for small maps. Unlike the active pick-up game systems like ETFC‘s or NoNamePickups, FFL’s usual game mode is ADL (Attack/Defend League) rather than CTF (Capture The Flag). When CTF is played, however, FFL adds its own twist. Depending on the map and the player count, teams may decide to allow offense and defense simultaneously for both teams, instead of the common practise of taking turns in offense and defense for an equal amount of time.

For now it’s all North American teams including some South American players, however, there are plans for the next season to attract European participation by playing the matches at 16:00 EST. Rosters are not locked, and one of the teams, Second to none [220], is currently said to be open for recruiting.

Before the Finals to be held in Week 13 – 15, there are three more weeks left to be played. All matches are scheduled for 20:30 EST by default. One of the two matches in a week is always played on Pip’s Server [Aron’s Classic CTF], and the other one on Old School TFC (OST) which can be watched live in their respective HLTV servers. Aside from these, individual players also stream live on Twitch. The default match times and scheduling are subject to change, so anyone looking to catch some top TFC action should join the Discord server and ask around to stay up to date.

📺 Live in-game TV
Pip’s HLTV: connect 162.248.93.191:27020
OST HLTV: connect 192.169.81.61:27019

🔴 Live Twitch streams
MightyMouse -FOOC- Twitch channel
KingOfPests .rQ Cpt. Twitch channel
KuKu [220] Twitch channel
Nookie -5picy Twitch channel
Asie -FOOC- Cpt. Twitch channel
PurpleGoose .rQ Twitch channel
Nomad [220] Twitch channel

The last weekend of spring 2026 is bringing Team Fortress 2 fans top-tier live action for the game mode and time zone of their choice.

The first one is the ETF2L Highlander (9v9) Season 35 (Spring 2026) Grand Final between 3AM and GANJA. The backbone of 3AM is the 16 times ETF2L highlander champions SDCK, who had broken up in the near past. There was not enough written coverage on the topic at the time, and it’s never too late to learn more about it.

We broke up in 2024, but not because we wanted to, but because we felt there was no other choice – several members of our squad refused to continue participating in ETF2L for as long as people we strongly believed were cheating were allowed to continue playing in the league with us. I took up an offer to offclass for a div1 team the following season, and the season after 3AM was created by former SDCK members laiky and mezzo and they asked me to play engie for that team with the single goal of trying to beat the team that had a cheater on it, the goal we managed to achieve in our first season together. – Clark

If ETF2L Highlander AFA (All F*ckingFun Autumn) 2025 is counted, which also had solid competition, 3AM is going for its third consecutive championship. GANJA, on the other hand, is no easy bite either. After being formed three years ago and winning the league over SDCK in their first season, GANJA was disbanded after playing a second one, for reasons similar to those of SDCK. They are back this season, after almost two years of not touching the game at all. Now let’s hear the final thoughts from the members of each team.

Recently we all hopped back in for “one game” and somehow it felt like old times again. Same trash talk, same chaos, same late night sessions. We realized we never really quit because we hated the game — we quit because the game stopped being fun for a while. Now we’re back to remind people why ganja was feared in the first place.

Only difference now is there’s a new mountain to climb. Everyone keeps talking about Clark and his squad 3AM like they run the scene. They’ve been farming wins while we were gone, and apparently nobody’s been able to shut them down. So now the comeback story ain’t just about returning — it’s about proving the old kings still got it. If we want the crown back, we gotta go through Clark and 3AM first. – blank

We are looking forward to tomorrow’s match. Ganja is a good team and SDCK actually lost a final against them back in 2023, but we are as prepared as we can be and having beaten them already in the upper bracket final, we are confident we can do it again. SDCK players like myself, laiky and mezzo have a 100% winrate on Upward, a record that’s been held by SDCK for over 10 years now and we fully intend to keep that record going for longer, and Upward will be the 1st map we play tomorrow. – Clark

This great grand final will be streamed, and commentated on, live by Fireside Casts at 21:15 CET (19:15 UTC) on Saturday. 🔴

The action to be watched a few hours before that is of the main competitive game mode of TF2, 6v6, and from AsiaFortress’ Grand Final of Spring 2026 season.