All I'm saying is that a lot has been promised on these forums (either by people in the know or regular posters who claim they can say ____ is happening) yet until now I had no idea CEVO had any interest in a paid league, a LAN, etc... I guess what I am asking is whether these proposed changes are things that CEVO was interested in before the community decided to ditch ESEA, or just stuff they are coming up with now with ESEA seemingly failing and when they see an oppertunity to bolster their numbers.

In all honesty, I am not for ditching ESEA right now, if CEVO is seriously interested in garnering a paid TF2 league, I believe we should be getting people to sign up for both CEVO and ESEA with ESEA being the main comp league, and see how far CEVO has come in another 2-3 seasons before making the switch.

Because my choice is to stick with ESEA right now. In the past two seasons (or however long the reinvented CEVO has been running?) I have not seen much from them. If CEVO is not serious about drawing in resources and creating all these great ideas. I do not want to be the one saying, "I told you so" when in two seasons time everyone is asking "Where is the LAN finals, where are the prizes, where are all of the ESEA-I teams?"

Reminder, under a half an hour before it starts.

going live

Thanks for your time Pipher, you made a good impression.

Not a problem, thanks for having me. As we get closer to the official start of the season I'm sure that we can organize another "town hall" type meeting to discuss any other pressing issues that come may come up before registration begins.

Honestly if this doesn't turn the community support even more towards cevo I dont know what will...

The representatives of a league that has 7 active teams of tf2 in the current season took their time to answer most of the community and allowed their voices to be heard.

These guys truly care about esports, even if they dont specifically care about tf2, you can see they are very dedicated to providing a good service for everyone across all games. And the b2b projects they worked on got me even more convinced, it would be a bad mistake to ditch a league that has strong connections with events like those.

THat being said, having no current lan plans is kind of a bummer but I bet if there's enough support it will happen. It's not the most critical aspect right now IMO.

While it shows that they have good pedigree, I believe that this side of CEVO is more like "Red Bull comes to CEVO and says 'hey we want a starcraft tournament'" not "CEVO goes to Red Bull and says 'hey sponsor a starcraft tournament for us'", so the games played at the events are probably not picked by CEVO.

I was in class and missed it. hopefully the audio is posted promptly :)

That's actually a very good thing that Redbull comes and talks to CEVO instead of vice versa. Redbull sees CEVO as a good company that knows what they are capable of so they hire them to do these events. Who's to say Redbull won't be the sponsor for CEVO tf2 lans if the two companies become more and more acquainted and the CEVO tf2 scene becomes more popular.

I basically cannot see the downside of having your team join CEVO. You'd just be replacing a night of scrims with a night of matches. If you want to continue playing in ESEA, go ahead and do that too. But everyone, from UGC Steel to Invite, has virtually no reason not to explore this league for at least a season or two. It is obvious that the more we support them, the more they will support us. I'm no longer asking "Why should I play in CEVO?" I'm asking "Why shouldn't I?"

Thank you everyone for showing up and giving us questions/feedback. We will pick this up after the Thanksgiving Holiday. Watch for more future posts and steam group announcements. Thanks again to Lange for streaming, Flow and London for mumble admins and of course all of you! Cheers

This. When the switch was made from CEVO to ESEA, we didnt just drop CEVO one season and pick up ESEA in it's place. We did both and saw which one was better and worth more time. CEVO has a grand opportunity here and was handed the ear of every comp TF2 player free of charge. If they are smart they will present the community with a reason to play in their league. No harm, no community divide. Just another alternative.

I have to say that I am feeling a bit better about CEVO right now. I mean, I don't know if I see it as a dominant league, but I'm definitely interested in playing it alongside ESEA

"there will be more meetings" I like to hear that.

really, why not play? it's not like it's gonna be much more time dedication, plus it's probably better practice for you too

The fact that CEVO has connections to other companies was an awesome mention of them. The fact that they can put up a quality service like that sc2 tournament makes me think that a tf2 LAN isn't to far from reach if we support this league. I am prety sure this is also intresting to those who argued that CEVO does not have a LAN.

Sorry I couldn't be there for the meeting.

Thanks for recording, I fell asleep right before the meeting.

"but I'm definitely interested in playing it alongside ESEA"
^^^
i.e. playing both

This is where great players are born. CEVO
http://www.twitch.tv/metawe/c/3305976

Questions that were not asked or addressed:

1) How does the Anti-Cheat work? Without "injection" into the game, how does CEVO approach the problem of catching cheaters who play in their league. I know demo reviews were brought up, but what is the client doing to help aid the process?

2) Which admins are doing demo reviews? Game specific admins? Anti-Cheat specialists of some sort or what? Furthermore, are these admins trained to any degree to be able to recognize cheating and if not how can demo reviews be a good method for detecting cheating in the league?

3) How are game specific admins chosen and what is the main function of these admins? Who are the current TF2 admins and what experience do they have with TF2 or gaming in general? What qualifies them for the job?

4) Are the admins compensated? Are they required to work a certain number of nights per week? If these admins are conducting day to day league operations for their specific leagues, how can the players in the league contact the admins to get issues handled? Will there always be a league admin online to handle issues that may arise?

5) In the event that an admin is ineffective, how are admins replaced or reinforced with more staff to handle league administration?

6) How is match rescheduling handled? Will matches be required to be played during the current week or will there be leniency in terms of when matches are actually played? How will the league address the issue of unplayed matches in either case?

7) When will we know more information about the potential pay to play divisions and prize pots for s4, obviously depending on team enrollment in the league. Would a prize breakdown be available prior to s4 registration ending, potentially in the form where a certain prize pool is guaranteed for certain amount of league enrollment.

8) Does CEVO require Social Security Numbers to distribute winnings?

9) How is CEVO ensuring that it makes good on paying out winnings this time around? Has CEVO made an effort to make good on past debts to players who did not receive their winnings? (I dont have specific examples however I have heard this about CEVO in the past)

EDIT TO ADD THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS:

10) Where are the CEVO provided servers hosted? Are there options available for a wide variety of locales, i.e. East coast, west coast etc? Is the number of servers available at one time such that servers available is an issue, as it is with ESEA? Will CEVO's server provider accommodate every match no matter what the time?

11) How are scheduling disagreements handled? Is there a default match time / location that is set if teams cannot agree? If teams do not play a match, how is the victor decided? (coin flip as in ESEA?)

12) What is required on a personal server to play a CEVO match? How will the stats system on CEVO's website be implemented if people are playing on non-CEVO servers? Is it a possibility to REQUIRE all matches be played on CEVO servers for paid divisions such that there is consistency in server quality and SourceTV availability?

Assuming your winnings are paid in cash, this would almost assuredly be yes.

I would just like to second this one

If it's cash then they have too, since it's taxable income. In fact, even prizes are supposed to added as yearly income.

I'm curious to know more about this. Never worrying about TF2 updates would be amazing, but how effective is it without injecting into the game? Demo reviews are nice, but I'm afraid of having an NA powah. I guess I'm asking whether or not it's worth the tradeoff.