GameArena's eighth proper season of the Battlefield 2 ladder is set to commence this Friday 25th September 2009 and is scheduled to run for 12 weeks, and with this new season the stakes are higher than ever.

The BF2 10v10 ladder is in it's last season now, with formats being close enough with the two BF2 ladders again to consolidate them into one. All teams in the 10v10 ladder will need to join the 8v8 ladder if they haven't already, and wish to continue competing.

This season brings with it a few format changes, lowering team sizes from 12 to 8, commanders and their assets being allowed, grenades being limited, and unlocks will be turned off for all matches.

With the release of the 1.5 patch and the Euro Forces and Armored Fury booster pack maps being included for free, as well as the new Operation Blue Pearl and Highway Tampa being included, we've decided to run the ladder with these eight maps which haven't been used in GA ladder play, as well as two old favourites chosen by the community - Jalalabad and Mashtuur City being thrown in for some familiarity.

First prize will be a 32 player ranked BF2 server for the season champions for three months. This will be hosted on GameArena's rental server environment, with the winning team having full control over the server in their own domain on GameArena. We will also include for the winning team a 20 slot Ventrilo server for the same three months which will also be on the winning teams own domain in the GameArena server rental environment.

Second prize will be a 16 player ranked BF2 server for three months, as well as a 20 slot Ventrilo server in the GameArena server rental environment just like first prize, with the second placed team having full control over their own servers.

The team that places third in the ladder finals when they are complete will receive a 20 slot Ventrilo server for three months in the GameArena rental environment.

The winning teams will need to comply with the standard BF2 RoE set by EA and DICE if they wish to keep their servers for the full three months.

You'll need to download this small mod to play in the BF2 8v8 ladder this season.

Tell your friends and get your team signed up here if you aren't already, and have a go at winning your own BF2 ranked server.

Good luck to all the teams!

We have kicked off new seasons in the 16 v 16 and newly created 10 v 10 ladders. We've been amazed by the level of interest in the new 10 v 10 format, with over 80 teams registered and ready to go. For those looking for some extra carnage, the 16 v 16 ladder has over 30 registered teams.

You can check out the current standings for each ladder using the following links:

• GameArena 16 v 16 Battlefield 2 rankings
  
  
• GameArena 10 v 10 Battlefield 2 rankings

After waiting for the new 1.4 patch for so long it is finally here and the BF2 ladder has reopened. With the finals only weeks away no one knows who will be the top 8 as all the teams fight for those positions.

Season 2 looks to be an interesting one, with talk of having 2 ladders; one with smaller teams consisting of 8, 10 or 12 players and another for teams of 12, 14 or 16. Keep an eye on your mail box for further details, after which you can give us some feed back regarding the team sizes you're most interested in.