Yeah but it's nice to start it as early as possible so we make sure we have enough donations to send them. last couple times it was iffy and some people had to donate a lot more than others to make it happen

No reason not to start it early. As long as it's held by a trustworthy individual you can figure out who to send later.

possible conflict with toth? obviously the causes are totally different but the community can still get "donor fatigue"

that wasn't an issue last year

I'm surprised half the TF2 community isn't dead from starvation after the ridiculous amount of money raised last year.

mix^, reformed epsilon and the aussies, make it happen

eXtv would like to film a new documentary at i52. Myself, Luc, and Airon will be discussing plans on how we can make this movie the best it can be. Feedback is always welcome - eXtine@eXtelevision.com

Part of that decision is that we will be primarily focusing our i52 efforts on this documentary instead of organizing a fundraiser campaign to get a team there ourselves.

We hope similar efforts are launched, which we'll support and collaborate with, but most likely we won't be launching such a campaign ourselves. That is subject to change of course, but we want to be able to completely focus on making an awesome documentary.

I'd love to see a second effort of a documentary from you guys, and I can imagine you've learnt a lot from the i46 doc and the feedback it received. I'd love to see a premise to this one, especially if it centers around the players as well as the game. Get lots of footage asking players about their experiences and thoughts on other players, see the Smash Brothers documentary for a decent example of what I mean.

Also, I watched the entire Mackey interview and Qun couldn't keep the camera still. Let's not have that again please, it's hard to watch :(

EDIT: also, perhaps consider making it a documentary about competitive TF2 as a whole, rather than just about i52 as an event. Borrow footage from Shade/Rays/etc from ESEA lans to give it a more personal feel that we, as the community, can relate to and remember, as well giving it that touch of how close we can be as a community to open it up to newer players who may consider comp TF2 as a hobby of their own.

I think you should model it after the Smash Brother's documentary. Cover the game not the event.

We're definitely trying to figure out which way to go. I think there are three basic approaches that could be taken: Cover the Game, Cover the Event, or Cover the Game at the Event.

... :D

it... begins

the real tragedy is that seagull isnt gonna be there

please go again

please come again. we didn't get to play you guys enough and all I really want from i52 is more competition.

We'd love to come again! Before i49 we were all pretty much feeling done with the game - and while we've had something of an extended break since August (only really playing matches) we're still pretty set on turning up at i52 for more of the best the game has to offer.

One of my biggest regrets is definitely only playing you guys (Epsilon) on gullywash - heading into the event we knew you guys were going to be the team to beat and really wanted a shot to test/prove ourselves in our first real lan event in a bo3 against the top contender - which is one of the reasons that choking so hard in the TCM game still makes me a little unhappy... :P

Anyway - expect to see us there if all goes well. If everything doesn't go as planned, I'm sure I'll make an appearance even if the team doesn't, as I'll be in Europe with the gf anyway :D

Echoing Brad pretty much here. Never have I had such an experience at a LAN where we're not the home crowd, yet the crowd is cheering for our team just as much as the 'home teams'.

Would definitely love to go again - competitor or not. After all, I still owe Extremer a drink. Assuming he shows up, I suppose

i've never seen the ozf community as close as it was during i49. Or as proud as they were of the iM boys. Defs hoping to see them play at i52, i know i'd donate again if needed

(also as i haven't seen any mention of it in a long time, anyone know how far along the i49 frag vid is?)

dooooooooo it

I remember a very long time ago I used an older version of TF2 to play back demos, is there a chance that method still works?

asian teams?

Dunno why but i keep watching the VODs for all the i49 matches. Always keep me entertained. Bring on i51 then i52 :D

Man I hate that. Why can't people just pirate games just for the sake of it? COME ON PEOPLE!!!!

when are we starting the fundraiser unless i'm dumb and i missed it

you should bring me along for color commentary+beer ambassador of america to our euroland brethren+amazing balance discussion+sound effects

if its because of toth i understand but i feel that we should start the donations early so no disappointments when we have to send the team(s)

I'm hoping this time I can win more than one game vs. a div4 team!

Good to see a thread about this already. Some of us are still kicking about...somewhere.

I'm happy to help in anyway I can, whether that's with eXtine & Co. or some sort of community effort. Though I echo what was previously said, I won't personally be able to lead anything right now.

I still live fairly close to the venue (45 minutes), I studied in Coventry Uni and worked at the stadium for about a year whilst studying, so I know the area pretty well. If anyone has any questions, let me know and I will try my best to get some answers :)

I'm not entirely sure what our plans are tbh. I've done some pre-writing on the documentary and the scope of covering the game as a whole is actually much grander than just going to i52... Also, while we have Patreon money about to come (1st month just sitting in balance, 2nd month otw), we've spent a large chunk of eXtv's bank on gear in recent months as well as funding my trip to FITES.

A plane ticket for just me was looking at around $1500, we'd also have to fund Luc and Airon to be in attendance, as well as housing for the event (we'd show up early and leave late). My work and my wife okay'd the trip, but I'm not sure if that's really the best way to spend our money, or if we'd actually be able to accomplish our goals in that time.

Considering that America's team in i49 was screwed by the Quick Fix Fiasco, it'd be awesome if we could take another shot.

Also, I'm really curios to know who booked i52, I mean, TFTV is alot more active than VTV and the last time I saw VTV stream a match was 2 months ago, a 6's match was streamed 4 months ago.

I know, I know, it should be an everyone together bonding to make this event bigger and better, but theres always one group that books those events, and this time, after TFTV putting so much effort in streaming almost every game possible, making new tournaments, and doing so much to the game rather than VTV that posts 'stats' posts once in a while.

TFTV deserves this time to cover the event and, I can't see any reason why they shouldn't, imagine cbear & sal (they've stopped casting games, I know) casting the grand finales over there.
Magical, just magical, and even though sal and cbear aren't really in the game anymore, I bet cbear would (hopefully) be up for going over to Europe to cast some matches there, and Sal..well, isn't he going anyway?

P.S: Forget this post if VTV already booked i52.

VTv has been a bit inactive, but i52 is their cornerstone and I'm sure Byte is gonna be organizing coverage again with Arx/Beta casting it. They have a long lasting relationship with Multiplay and came through huge with their coverage last year.

They'd have to have a pretty compelling reason to switch to TF.tv and I can't think of anything that actually would convince them to do so. Yes TF.tv is doing a lot for the scene and cbear and Sal are great, but you're talking about them working with someone across the Atlantic Ocean vs working with someone in their own back yard who has been doing their coverage for years.