not really, I was talking to kermit yesterday and they were going to scrim but they were missing tri

and i think all members care equally about the team, it's just that they are busy with stuff

as rick said wats the big deal

i'm sure they'll show up actually, it's just down to a more Darn!-esque conception of a lan as a place to meet your tf2 buddies, become part of the esea-invite social club and get drunk rather than an actual competitive thing to win

(also they are all pretty busy except for tagg who apparently has nothing better to do with his life lOl)

Why would you care to practice if you're going to get 4th no matter what and have better things to do in real life? Unfortunately, real life gets in the way a lot. They are getting the money for LAN because they asked and they received it, simple as that. Everyone that donated should have known they had zero chance of taking anything other than 4th, so I don't see the issue.

giving up is the solution then?

.

i don't really know exactly how busy they are but a lot of other teams put in a bit of time to scrim and such in their scheduled which i'm sure is pretty busy also

1. At the point Chess Club finished 4th, it was either they attend the lan or we have only three teams. ESEA is not going to allow another team to attend or for any combination of player other than the people on the Chess Club Roster. You can offer up suggestions all you want, it won't change anything.

2. Upon qualifying for a lan they are expected to make their way to and from Dallas regardless of the financial implications. They have the joy of looking for flights and hotels, and then either paying out of pocket or looking for donations. It's a lot of added stress knowing that people are relying on you to be there. They qualified and will attend lan, cut them some slack.

3. They didn't make any claims or force people to donate. People donated because they want a successful event. Maybe they'll go out in two rounds, but that's two rounds that wouldn't have been played otherwise. Also you can never rule out upsets in a playoff.

If a team can't attend, ESEA offers the LAN spot to the next team in line, we were able to attend without any donations.

but we're less shitty than you

Didn't realize that this was still the case, I thought they made an exception because it was the first lan.

Just to clear something out, I don't want my donation back, I gave it because I wanted to support the team and that goes without conditions.
But I do want to see this team giving the 120% at lan, as I would expect from all 4 teams. I mean, ESEA lan is the place we all would like to go some day, and people in this community are working their asses off to get there, so having the chance to play there and not trying hard is just wasting a spot that many, MANY other teams would love to take and would put a lot of effort to put up a good show. It's not about "Aw, we don't have a chance, let's just not do anything about it", it's about giving the best of you in every situation, even if you know you can't win. I know that there are no other invite teams that could take the spot, but I'm talking in a general way, thinking about the whole thing that the ESEA league is and the people in it.

Anyway, why would you ask for donations if you didn't want to try in the first place?

I don't understand why people keep talking out of their ass in this thread
The "CAN'T BEAT SUPER TEAMS" is a trash excuse and a fucking joke, why are you playing this game if all you care about is winning some meaningless tournament.
For some reason people in Invite have forgotten that we play this game for fun, so they give up the second they can't make playoffs or win.
Thank god the other leagues didn't take notes or else ESEA would be done for.

The Chess Club could have been a 2nd place contender at LAN, but we have not had a serious scrim since the Snakewater week in ESEA. And even then, we still won enough games to make it to LAN. I thought making LAN would make my teammates more excited for the game and would encourage them to practice more. But I was wrong, and I'm sure its obvious by now but it pisses me off. Why are you wasting your time and money playing in this league if you don't give a shit about the game. Do everyone a favor and don't come back next season. Let someone that actually enjoys the game into Invite so there can be more excitement in the league rather than stagnating the game and ruining the league

Hopefully we can get all the people that only play this game for recognition rather than fun out of Invite next season so we can see a better season overall

You're probably thinking of using people not on your roster Zak, we were allowed to use ringers when people dodged/couldn't attend up until season 7.

why bother competing at all if you are just going to quit when you are near the top

i do not agree with your philosophies thorn, since i feel like even if it seems like there is no chance of winning, you should still give it your all, even if there is only a fraction of a fraction of a percent of winning

i like the chess club players, but it is still disappointing that most of them are not practicing at all for this event

If you want to say something there's a way to go about it. Yours is an example of how not to do it. You are not the first team to have this happen to them and you won't be the last. Most seasons there's at least one team that takes it easy before the lan and they don't have a raging fit about it. Your whole team got you there and is showing up, chill.

If people want to go back and look for lan preview articles you're sure to find mention of teams taking time off before lans and other teams picking up their practice schedule.

i foresee invite drama on the horizon

who the fuck are any of you to tell the members of this team what they should or should not be doing with their time?

We're TF2 nerds, that's what we do

1st seed: mihalys flow
2nd seed: srsly br0
3rd seed: classic mixup
4th seed: quantic legacy

Sometimes good things really do happen if you try hard enough.

After playing with the team for a full season I can say that there have been many times that people have been frustrated by the lack of practice and carelessness on the team. After experiencing them myself I have my own views and opinions on the matter. The Chess Club has changed from being a chill team to a serious team to whatever so many times I can't even tell you how it began.
It frustrates me because I don't even know if they care anymore or not.

Chess Club could have been the most fun team I've been on. But its been the most painful boring team I have been on. Pretty much like a chick that keeps flashing you but won't let you within 10ft of her
(I don't know if that analogy works, someone let me know if it does)

I still love you Tagg

I am double posting but I feel as though this has to be said.

If you are able to go do something solely because of $500 worth of generosity from a community. You could put at least an hour a week into making it a better and exciting event for everyone.

That analogy didn't work to well

Forget the scrim time. Who would want to take off work for 3 days, travel across the country to play in a LAN tournament, knowing that you have absolutely 0 chance at winning whatsoever. I feel terrible for Tagg and for those of you who think it's impossible to win you're wrong. Mixup clearly has the #1 spot but 2-4 are up in the air in my opinion. If they had put in the practice they definitely could've made a run for it. Real life stuff is understandable but that's why people play in IM and screw around for a season until it calms down. If you can't put your all into participating in our premiere division then you have no business being there in the first place.

And it's not as difficult to make it to LAN when 1/2 of invite is dead. Need to be more grateful for the opportunities that arise and use it to your advantage. People donating money should be all the more reason to go the extra mile to do everything you can to ensure you're ready to play.

Pretty sure lan has always taken place during the weekend :>

Everyone has off every weekend? I don't. lol only sundays

you're right in principle, although fuck the uchicago economics department since its all conservative assholes

also, I kinda feel like the LAN environment allows for the lower seeds to be more competitive than they usually are. idk if it's the dedication caused by being at that event in person, the proximity to your teammates, or even pings, but its rare that the 4th seed gets 5-0d across the board.

I do believe that chess club are gonna play their asses off and try to win once they get there. still, it's a BIT of a shame that they haven't practiced much leading up to it. hopefully this week they can change that.

to all the people raging about chess club: next season, donate the money you would have given to a team to get to lan, and give it to esea under the condition that it is used ONLY for the invite prize pot. i bet teams take it serious/find a way to lan without donations if first place paid out 10k