Observe, adapt, overcome.

Well I didn't lie did I? broking was out of line on irc hivemind, he was talking extreme amounts of shit for no reason him and a few other trolls since his ego was inflated majorly after beating us with pt and spadez ringing on metalworks. And we put him back in his place. I'm sorry I had to include you into that. But everything posted on ESEA turned out to be pretty true wouldn't you say? If you don't know what broking said on irc then you shouldn't have any problem with me unless you knew the whole story. Like I said in the original post I said gg and just shut up. I went on irc the next week looking for scrims and broking was there talking major shit for no reason, and a few others. The match was on the 15th, I said gg and shut up. The following comments came a week later because of your leader. "Even if he was out of line, which I doubt he was, this was just uncalled for." You really doubt your fearless leader could be out of line? At least now I know why you have such a bug up your ass. So it worked! Don't make me the bad guy because he was talking shit initially on irc and we finished it in game. That's the way it should be.

Nothing more than an ego on the internet proving time and time again I need acceptance or to prove i'm good? I could've ffw the finals vs budsquad or forced them to play without seanbud, we waited 2 hours for seanbud to fix his computer, THEN we rescheduled and played it out fair and square. And yeah we lost. Does that seem like an ego-maniac driven by winning with no sportsmanship to you? I said gg and moved on the same way I did with your team. Difference is budsquad didn't talk shit afterwards like little kids. It was a good fair game. I told you we were down 2 people during that match on metalworks, you talked shit like you just won open, I told you come playoff time just for doing that we would embarrass you, and we did. I pity you because it bothered you that much. Competitive video games I love it. Sometimes you need a little fire to get the real competition/rivalries flowing? Is it really any different than people at LAN calling eachother the N word? Actually it's probably not even as bad. Now go tell daddy broking to get his 50 alt accounts and cronies to start -fragging!

I'm glad we cleared this up though even if it was in public. Now we can spread the love! You guys are seriously going to be good if you stick together. I actually like your team. GL HF this season.

The difference is you come off as having this really self-promoting vibe. I'm not saying you do, but that's definitely how you come off.

Whatever your motivations, thanks for your willingness to donate money to the open cause.

Also, If you two are gonna continue this forum beef, do it on my stream and make it rhyme. Every time I stream, someone asks "why no rap battles?" and I have to explain that people never follow through/always chicken out. Break the trend.

Blink vs Hivemind - shitty forum beef? or rap battle that entertains the masses and maybe makes me want to give another 120 to any non sandbagging open team that finishes 2nd or higher? The choice is yours.

So it's just a vibe? It's the way I write my thoughts into text? Seems legit.

Lets not get silly here. Click on my name and go read my posts if you care that much. I don't look to come off as anything nor do I want to talk shit for no reason. Sometimes i'm looking for information, sometimes i'm giving information. That's what a forum is for. Public discussion. If people who don't even know me want to judge me based on my internet texting then so be it. Can't control ignorance. Ever hear the saying "actions speak louder than words". If you're one of those people who think I give off a bad vibe I extend an open invitation to add me on steam and lets game together before your final assessment of me. That's what i'm here for. Gaming. Not looking for popularity votes on a forum or +frags.

yo i think a hivemind/blink rap battle would be really good can we make this happen

I'm a white guy from NY.. Which means I talk real fast and have foul language but I can't rap for shit. I'd be up for it though, during a game of MGE only! And I want it streamed.

One of the most renown battle rappers in the world is a "white guy from new york." And, you better believe that shit will be streamed. All that remains is for hivemind to accept, and the for us to discuss the format.

I'll agree if I can be supa hot fire

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IDZCZeVaaKE

#35

I think I can explain, in my opinion, why that policy is there and why it really is needed. It's for three distinct reasons I can think of. One reason is that just because you have players who can play in a higher division individually, it doesn't mean that said players have the cohesion and teamwork to do so together. Often times(almost always) successful teams are moved up into the higher divisions because of the success they found based on their teamwork. It's the same concept as taking 6 random players of any division and sticking them to face an organized and cohesive team in that same division, they will get slaughtered.

There's another reason that I actually find more important for the sake of the league and the other teams in your division. It's proving that your roster is committed and in it for the long haul(full season). One of the reasons open isn't as fun to play as IM and Main(played my fair share of open and IM) is that you get way more forfeit wins. So many open teams(unproven teams) die off as the season goes on. I've played two seasons of esea open in tf2 and one season consisted of 5 forfeits and the other one had 6 forfeit wins. In a 16 match season to get 6 forfeit wins is kind of a joke. That's almost half our matches we payed for we don't get to play because so many teams died off and we still get scheduled to face them before their team is officially declared dead. That is multiplied even further in the higher divisions where there's less teams and a higher fee(which is what we're discussing, higher divisions.)

Third and final reason is that who is the ultimate judge of skill? It's very subjective. Whose to say these 6 guys are good enough for IM/Main but these 6 guys arent? Based on what? Opinion? That wouldn't fly and you would see a huge amount of backlash from people not happy with esea's assessment of their skill levels. I think if you really have a stacked roster, go and prove it, go show everyone you can win open and develop the teamwork you will need to compete in the higher divisions along the way.

Just my two cents on the issue anyway

People who've been around the game should be able to move teams directly up. Like Killing. The only question mark though is just because a team is sand bagging doesn't mean they'll definitely win because a lot of times they half ass it. So when you do win it's even more of a victory. Last seasons main final was an awesome game to watch because of that.

So, this was nice thread with good idea started by Plat and suddenly another blinK thread. dammit.

Actually the sandbag death squad came out before I posted. Still a good thread though.

Main goal here was to get ESEA to have a season. Seeing 31 teams in open right now makes me feel good.

He's like a reverse indust

Remember when blink stopped playing
I miss that

that investment with ulterior motives. you remind me of the people who donate to churches and then use it as a tax write-off. yeah, very genuine...

remember the thread about ESEA and CEVO where harbleu essentially stated that lower level matches are not interesting to watch due to the lack of skill involved, therefore ONLY invite matches should be casted throughout the season. And if need be, when playoffs come around, the lower level players can be casted. You can view that here (read page 12 as well): http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/14139-esea-and-cevo/11#post-329

It's very convenient that the arrogance of "invite" has suddenly turned into generosity and consideration for the "lower level" players. You continuously bash on them daily, rebuttals consisting of "I don't know you, therefore what you say is not important." - But now that your precious toy might be taken from you, it's "NOW" time to actually "recognize" these players as, hmmmm, important? Disingenuous, manipulative, disgusting...

these people's lives mean nothing without their competitive tf2 invite status #108, give em a break

rofl shocka is entirely right and yet the FRAG BRIGADE COMETH

casting is a limited resource and given that invite matches garner by far the most viewers, it absolutely makes sense to give priority to the games that the most people want to watch

you really can't argue numbers

+1, spread that truth like butta on bread

"but the fact that they act so entitled to think they deserve to be casted over invite games is beyond me" -harbleu (talking about open teams) circa Nov 2013.

To be fair, you weerrrree being an anti-semetic dummy on irc, and broking definitely didn't do anything out of line... see http://pastebin.com/BgMDeyJy

And how many invite matches would be casted this season if Open players decided to stick with CEVO and not be 'swayed' by the fake generosity? Mhmmm.

I don't buy the "limited resources" excuse. Plat and harb, along with many other "well-recognized" players could create their own twitch account and start casting lower-level games. This is where power rankings and talk of "who's the best of the worst" comes in. You do not have to cast every open game, but choose games that are supposed to be good according to the team's skill level. Even though Open is a lower division, there are still good games to watch. And IF people like Plat or harb were to cast these games, they could EXPLAIN what is going wrong, how to fix it and give people better insight.

Bottom line is, stop trying to act like you care about the lower divisions, because you don't.

shocka, I can definitely assure you that casting IS a limited resource and there's no hatred or conspiracy against the other divisions. If you want to criticize invite, casting is not it.

From what I've heard both Plat and harb are very busy people (I'm pretty sure harb has both a job and school), and I know personally from having that kind of schedule that doing regular reviews is pretty difficult not to mention really taxing mentally (I've tried). At least they're trying to do SOMETHING about bringing up numbers for Open. From hanging out with them at LAN (and this goes for literally every invite team and any player I've met, which is the majority from seasons 13-15), they've always been nice and encouraging to lower level players (there's a good reason that there have been more and more spectators coming to LAN even though it's not normally a spectator event...).

I think you're drawing something they probably said offhand a bit too much out of context.

http://strawpoll.me/1223699

I'm all for bettering the community and higher level players helping lower level players out, but it's really not their responsibility to do it, or anyone's for that matter. It's a bit absurd to suggest that players who are already participating in higher divisions should also cast low level games and mentor teams. That stuff is time consuming.

whatever the "new" invite would be (main?)

you'd still be complaining

i've managed casts for seasons and can tell you that there's always a surplus of games and a shortage of people (fog, extine, etc can back me up on this)

plat and harb have casted games in the past at the expense of scrim time. demanding more to satisfy your wants is a bit hypocritical given that you just accused them of being selfish.

bottom line whatever contempt you seem to hold for the tf2 "bourgeois" is sorely misguided. the top of the scene will always exist, whether it be the players there now or the players that replace them (or one day maybe even you).

What invite illuminati....

these are fun

http://strawpoll.me/1223765

To go back to these prize pots...

Would anyone be willing to split them up a bit more evenly? By that, I mean definitely keeping Plat's prize pot for the top 2 (and whoever else wants to pitch in), but also have smaller pots for individual players or new and upcoming teams in Open. I know from being in Open that anyone starting in their first season usually doesn't have the goal of trying to win but trying to improve, and I think that should be rewarded for playing in Open.

I think shocka's point was really a call for action. A lot of players would benefit from invite players doing more to give back, whether it is in the form of casting, reviews, demos, or simply acknowledging aspiring players. We all play the same game, there needs to be more appreciation coming from the top for the things that fellow players do for them.

that was rhetorical, but sure...

@Mana & @Enigma, you are missing the point.

My point was never to imply it is anyone's job to help out 'lower level' players. The point of my post was to point out the hypocrisy. It was to point out how much they have NOT cared about lower level players, but now they do care when they NEED them.