Everyone is excited about i52 this weekend, and it wouldn't be possible without all the fans in this community and outside it coming together to make it a reality. Most of you already know this story since you lived it, but I thought it was one worth telling everyone, so I put together an article for the Daily Dot highlighting effort the community has made.

I interviewed Carl "Enigma" Yangsheng for the piece, and he graciously allowed me to post it on here.

I've included an excerpt below, but you read the whole thing at the Daily Dot.

Nowadays esports is no stranger to crowdfunding, especially for Valve's esports. The International, the company's annual tournament for Dota 2, boasted nearly $11 million in prizes, thanks largely to fan contributions. But the Team Fortress 2 community pulled off [i46] in the summer of 2012, a full year before The International’s first crowdfunding attempt brought the phenomena mainstream esports attention.

“I'm not sure if there was any sort of precedent in the esports scene for something like that happening,” Yangsheng said. “Raising that amount of money from the community for a relatively localized cause, that only directly benefitted very few.”

That it worked out was a “pleasant” surprise, and Classic Mixup and Leviathan Gaming delivered for their donors. Mixup won the tournament without dropping a game to a European team, besting a similarly dominant Leviathan Gaming in the finals. America, it seemed, had proven their Team Fortress 2 dominance.

That crowdfunding drive served as a blueprint for the following years. At Insomnia 49, Leviathan, now calling itself High Rollers Gaming, joined Australian squad Team Immunity in Europe thanks to another crowdfunding venture. But Europe took back the title, as Epsilon Gaming and Team Coolermaster left their globe trotting brethren in third and fourth place.

This year, Yangsheng and his peers pulled in nearly $15,000 to partially fund Classic Mixup and Froyotech’s trip to Insomnia 52, which runs this weekend. (If you're wondering about the gap between tournament numbers: There are multiple Insomnias every year, but Team Fortress 2 only features at the summer event.)

They’ll seek to bring the championship back to America, but competition will be tough. Epsilon put together their own fundraiser to make sure they'll be able defend their title, while the Australians of Team Immunity paid out of pocket to fly to Europe and stay there an extra week to train before the event. They're hungry to take what they learned last year and turn it into a title of their own.

Yangsheng is the captain of Classic Mixup, i46 champions and three-time winners of the ESEA league, the most prestigious competition in America. He runs community website teamfortress.tv and has competed in the game since 2007, earning a reputation as the best Scout in America thanks to his smart and consistent play.

The i52 tournament, he says, will be the closest competition yet. For one, there will be two American teams and an Australian team. That’s more top quality competition from outside Europe than at the past two events.

Plus, the stakes are higher: America and Europe have both won a title. This tournament could break the tie.

Many of you probably know me for my TF2 days, but since quitting the game I've become the Daily Dot's first full-time esports writer. I'll be sneaking more TF2 articles onto the Dot, so I appreciate the support!