diff --git a/lib/EssentialsChat.jar b/lib/EssentialsChat.jar
deleted file mode 100644
index 6cbffac4..00000000
Binary files a/lib/EssentialsChat.jar and /dev/null differ
diff --git a/lib/EssentialsChat_2.8.1.jar b/lib/EssentialsChat_2.8.1.jar
new file mode 100644
index 00000000..88246d6e
Binary files /dev/null and b/lib/EssentialsChat_2.8.1.jar differ
diff --git a/src/com/massivecraft/factions/Conf.java b/src/com/massivecraft/factions/Conf.java
index 789b7e69..ce03cd19 100644
--- a/src/com/massivecraft/factions/Conf.java
+++ b/src/com/massivecraft/factions/Conf.java
@@ -56,7 +56,7 @@ public class Conf
 	public static boolean chatTagEnabled = true;
 	public static transient boolean chatTagHandledByAnotherPlugin = false;
 	public static boolean chatTagRelationColored = true;
-	public static String chatTagReplaceString = "{FACTION}";
+	public static String chatTagReplaceString = "[FACTION]";
 	public static String chatTagInsertAfterString = "";
 	public static String chatTagInsertBeforeString = "";
 	public static int chatTagInsertIndex = 1;
diff --git a/src/com/massivecraft/factions/integration/EssentialsFeatures.java b/src/com/massivecraft/factions/integration/EssentialsFeatures.java
index a0901a48..a642f8a1 100644
--- a/src/com/massivecraft/factions/integration/EssentialsFeatures.java
+++ b/src/com/massivecraft/factions/integration/EssentialsFeatures.java
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package com.massivecraft.factions.integration;
 import org.bukkit.entity.Player;
 import org.bukkit.event.player.PlayerChatEvent;
 
+import com.massivecraft.factions.Conf;
 import com.massivecraft.factions.P;
 
 import com.earth2me.essentials.chat.EssentialsChat;
@@ -26,10 +27,17 @@ public class EssentialsFeatures
 				}
 				public String modifyMessage(PlayerChatEvent event, Player target, String message)
 				{
-					return message.replace("{FACTION}", P.p.getPlayerFactionTagRelation(event.getPlayer(), target)).replace("{FACTION_TITLE}", P.p.getPlayerTitle(event.getPlayer()));
+					return message.replace(Conf.chatTagReplaceString, P.p.getPlayerFactionTagRelation(event.getPlayer(), target)).replace("[FACTION_TITLE]", P.p.getPlayerTitle(event.getPlayer()));
 				}
 			});
 			P.p.log("Found and will integrate chat with "+essChat.getDescription().getFullName());
+
+			// As of Essentials 2.8+, curly braces are not accepted and are instead replaced with square braces, so... deal with it
+			if (essChat.getDescription().getVersion().startsWith("2.8.") && Conf.chatTagReplaceString.contains("{"))
+			{
+				Conf.chatTagReplaceString = Conf.chatTagReplaceString.replace("{", "[").replace("}", "]");
+				P.p.log("NOTE: as of Essentials 2.8+, we've had to switch the default chat replacement tag from \"{FACTION}\" to \"[FACTION]\". This has automatically been updated for you.");
+			}
 		}
 		catch (NoSuchMethodError ex)
 		{