It was 3 minutes late. Calm down.

I think the fact that Valve nor any really big name leagues are going to support TF2 is more of a problem then being a few minutes late.

LoL matches are delayed pretty commonly.

22 minutes late from the advertised time of 11:30 EST. Pregame should be before the advertised game time.

This is why TF2 is not a major esport.

Thanks invite....thanks.

#3 Maybe, but being late sure isn't going to help.

I don't understand how hard it is to make a set time to play a video game. If someone is busy use a sub, if someone is late maybe they shouldn't be retarded.

I believe it was delayed because STV wasnt working on the scheduled server :/

I think what's most annoying is watching two top invite teams go at it in a really close game, then suddenly staring at your computer screen for 15+ minutes at a demo suspended mid-stickyjump with his stupid fucking unusual special fancy turd sandwich hat with the special effect, "doo doo butter waterfall" surrounding the hat, gripping some dumbass melee weapon that is just another reskin of his bottle because one of his team mates forgot his wallet at the CVS 10 minutes into town.

seriously, if i ran a league, the time you schedule for would be the time after which you're allowed to report a forfeit. If you know you have players who won't be there at that time, just schedule later.

fucking video game drama

Guys, TF2 just isn't as popular as MOBAs like Dota or LoL. The reason isn't that games are only delayed in TF2, games get massively delayed in LoL sometimes, but still retain high view counts. Regardless, it fucking sucks, and STV not working is not a valid excuse. This kinda stuff should be tested well in advance.

tf2 is dead

Evening roundup:

TF.TV did a great job on presentation, promotion, and logistically it was done right. In the future, a backup streamer should be on call, ready to go immediately.

1,300 before frontpage
2,006 with frontpage
1,750 after frontpage

Essentially we reached around 300-400 new viewers because of frontage.

When Lange's power went out 900 people moved over to Cbear's channel.

Factor in that our largest inner community stream will get is around 400-450 (Lange, Seanbud, etc). It is safe to assume we increased our "continue viewer" number by around 200 last night.

That is a huge accomplishment. 200 fresh new eyes on the website and ready to watch again next week!

ESEA was good at switching servers and dealing with STV issues, thanks Killing Kalkin.

The only thing that could have been improved is all 12 being on the server quicker to determine issues and fix them before start time. But that changes based on which teams are playing.

Call me crazy but every time I have played an 11:30 match, FOR SOME ODD REASON, it always ends at 1 AM. Start earlier.

It's a little different when you just need 2 people to start the game... With 12 people there's a lot of real life randomness. My team has a sub for every single position and we still have problems getting 6 people come match time. It happens... As much as it seems preventable all it takes is one out of 12 people to delay the match.

How about considering playing your games sooner. Maybe an hour. Probably it would give more euro viewership. Wouldn't that be good?

The fact that there are periods of stalemate for a good 2-10 minutes on some maps such as process is a reason why TF2 doesn't catch on as much. That's why games like SCII and Counter Stike are more popular because of the constant action in SCII and in CS there is a short time limit to force action. Delays just factor in when people stream if they want to watch it or not.

no

This is what posts like #3 are saying. Whataboutism.

There are plenty of hurdles that TF2 needs to overcome to get closer to the center stage. Starting headline matches on time, every time is one of those hurdles. It's also a hurdle that we, as a community, have complete control over. So quit your goddamn bitching about Valve in threads where it's completely fucking irrelevant.

????

Complaining about this game and what-it-takes-to-be-an-esport makes the fact that there is a lack of dev or league support pretty pertinent.

OP was complaining about the match not starting on time. Valve has absolutely nothing to do with that. That's a completely different reason for us not yet reaching our "legit esport" goal, and not what OP was talking about at all. There's no reason to turn this thread into a discussion about Valve when it's meant to be a call to the players to start headline matches on time.

He was pretty blatantly complaining about it as part of something larger. Should we try to get matches started on time? Sure. Assuming that we have total and absolute control over matches starting on time is also a complete and total generalization. As someone that's had to re-schedule, play with 5, or forfeit matches altogether because of completely uncontrollable circumstances, I can dispel any ideas you might have otherwise. STV was fucked and they had to change servers, don't pretend that delays like this are isolated to TF2 and always controllable by the players.

While this threads still alive, I guess I'll ask: Why do invite matches always have to be so late?

Seriously, not everyone can stay up so late to watch people play video games. Real sport games generally start at 8-10, which is a good time. Almost everyone would be home, but no one's gone to bed yet.

Because TF2 players have jobs outside of their hobby?

they are west coast

so when they start for midnight for you they are starting at 9 for them

i dont think ive ever played a match at 9pm est, its just how timezones work

"Complete control" was exaggeration, yeah. But I wonder where you get the idea that I think this problem is isolated to TF2? That's not something I wrote.

At the very least, we should always be improving what we have some level of control over. What #3 seemed to be saying is "oh well because of some OTHER reason, let's not even bother worrying about getting players to play on time." When someone like waef raises an issue that we can work on fixing, it just makes no sense to shut him down with a tu quoque line of garbage about Valve.

Because the OP clearly said that this issue never arises in SC2 or LoL, which is complete and total bullshit by the way. Unless DotA2 just doesn't count because I'm watching the starladder games right now and there's been probably 10~ minutes of pauses in empire vs virtus game 3 alone.

I'm pretty sure Kirby was responding to the OP's allegation that THIS IS EXTREMELY UNPROFESSIONAL AND ONE OF THE REASONS WE DON'T GROW and in no way meant to be taken as a dodge. If you'll notice defiance said pretty much the exact same thing.

How many people work late, every single night? I understand, maybe working an over shift at a restaurant, I used to have to do that. But in that case it's never every single night. It can be scheduled around. I can understand if players are west coast and working.

If they are west coast however, and don't work, but rather choose they don't want to play video games until later then that is their fault. And it is something that will hurt stream views, IMO.

I'm sure people don't want to play their matches at 6 pm because they're west coast and they just have to do it for the stream viewers. You do realize that things arise after matches have been scheduled and for some reason once a match is scheduled almost every team suddenly says that THAT WAS THE ONLY THIRTY MINUTE SLOT THE ENTIRE WEEK WE COULD HAVE DONE IT. Scheduling is a pain in the ass, RE-scheduling is hell itself.

Any one that says "just get a sub" or "just start earlier" hasn't been a scheduler recently or at all in most cases. Especially when you consider that no one wants to "just play a match" without their starting six and without having scrimmed beforehand.