Just ask people who made these SFM pictures for Tf2 cups/tourneys, the "DreamHack Summer Qualifier" SFM picture looks quite neat, why not use it, for example?

At tftv we have graphics people on our team like uberchain who make the logos/featured images. There are also a plethora of images that people could use all over the web. You can create as many hq tf2 competitive images you like but unless you're a wizard I don't see how you're gonna make companies use them.

The only way I can think of is if there's a load of complaints in the comments about the image whenever a beta pic is used, but we're normally so thankful somebody new has picked up tf2 in some way that we gush instead.

Why not just email the companies? I mean I doubt they want to make articles where the thumbnail is an image everyone has seen before, so pre-providing them with some images for comp coverage wouldn't be a terrible idea. But idk if that's something they'd do.

there's already a fair amount of competitive looking images available, but increasing the amount still causes them to be more common and therefore more likely to be used. If only one or two guys are making them for TF.TV images once or twice a month, you're gonna see a lot less in circulation than if we had 50 redditors making them for fun constantly

Most of the time we have no idea that a company is going to make an announcement featuring a tf2 image before they release it. It would end up with us emailing companies with free "fixes" of their awful graphics after they've already been around for a few hours. Pointless imo.

If you wanna encourage people to make comp tf2 SFMs for fun then more power to you, but it's unlikely to cause any change.

nah i meant more like send an email to the web team for places like multiplay or online mags saying something like

"Hey we represent the competitive tf2 community and have a huge collection of high quality tf2 images. If you're gonna make any articles about tf2, feel free to contact us or use our archive for high quality thumbnails."

like work in an explanation about how every website uses one of like 2 tf2 images and how it helps us and them and maybe it'll get the TF2 articles a higher viewercount. It's just one of those things that might get 5% more people to click on an article and discover tf2, since its a new image rather than the same old beta one they've seen 20,000 times.

Try to get them to the top of the most likely TF2 google image searches is probably the best way

eh that's a bit weird but I guess it could work. Personally I'm not willing to have my first contact with a company be "yo IF you were considering doing anything tf2 related please don't use a shitty pic ty here's some"

EDIT: Aimed at eee, GJon's suggestion will work the best but how do you manage that

I think there's a lot of great stuff out there already. Mostly I wish there was one dedicated gallery somewhere to collect it all, and make it easily/freely available. That way, if someone thinks "Man, I need to get some nice SFM art for my TF2 post/website.", they have a resource for that. I mean, maybe it wouldn't be useful at all, but I still like the idea of it.

Working as tf.tv (the organization) and opening up direct communication with these places is gonna happen anyway if tf2 takes off. Doing it now helps us a ton, and helps them a bit since they have a line to the comp community and access to tf.tv resources. If that's what happened, the images would be an opening gesture for longer collaboration

http://40.media.tumblr.com/69c9c6d9ee0ff7340642a5b640382c4d/tumblr_n6ubnxS43Y1r2qkzbo1_500.jpg

I am currently the most well-known SFM artist who has publicly made the most 6v6 TF2 SFM artworks. This one was the first one I ever made, and this one's usually the standard 6v6 artwork that gets passed around nowadays. It was used for TFTV's i55 fundraiser backdrop and a lot of other things. When eLevate still sponsored Ronin, they used that for Ma3la's Twitter header. I wasn't asked, I wasn't given credit. I just hoped people knew it was my shit - which for the most part, since I have made the most publicly passed-around 6v6 artwork, I get lucky since most people know it's mine.

I'll tell you right now that there's a lot of artists who don't like their artwork used without permission. Usually, this is where you want to credit the artist if you're using their stuff - or ask. Never hurts to ask.(And of course for God's sake if you asked and they said no don't fucking use their artwork.) It's good to see SFM artists get credited for their work, especially if it gets used without asking first. I know article writers like Jerm and Sideshow will credit SFM artists that they haven't asked.

That being said, that Spy image isn't official artwork - but due to the nature of people being like "lol what's tf2" let alone "lol competitive tf2 what's that" they will copy & paste the first thing they find on Google images. We messaged Nym about it already, I passed her official TF2 Soldier artwork to substitute for the Spy memery because that's closer to me thinking 6v6 rather than a Spy. The image I provided Sideshow for TFCups was a Soldier and Medic, standard classes for 6v6. EZ PZ make lemon grenades.

For the record, for what you're asking? If anybody wants to use a competitive-related image that I've made, go right on ahead unless it's listed as a commission. Just credit my username somewhere. I can easily upload more related images. You want other 6v6-related images? Ygg & Shmagomolova have done some 6v6-related artwork, ask them. Somebody's loadout poster of a Soldier, Med, Sniper, Demo, whatever? Sure, use that and ask them. You need something custom for your tournament? Request or commission somebody. Don't just leave it as an open-ended responsibility.

You should go to steam and check screenshots for Team Fortress 2, they still use Beta pics there.

http://cdn.akamai.steamstatic.com/steam/apps/440/0000002578.jpg?t=1457137799

http://store.steampowered.com/app/440/

Rather contact Valve/TF2 Team to modernise the Tf2 screenshot showcase on steam first and while you're on it, ask to update system requirements.

SEO for what you think people might search for, but that is a hell hole and makes the assumption people just search for images on google then use them. Insomnia might be a little more careful about copyright, could put some stuff out that's tagged with open licensing on some platforms, someone serious about those considerations might look for that.

If you do a reverse image search against the picture they're using the first result that includes the image is memegenerator.net, so there's a good chance the insomnia operative responsible is some kind of meme lord and got it from there without searching. So to change that you have to get inside their head and make them think TF2 isn't just a hive of memes.

EDIT: Also eee's idea of having a media pack presented to anyone we think might need it would probably be OK, but present it as media support resources rather than asking them not to use shitty pics. They'll do anything that saves them work and looks decent, just look at how much of many major news outlets' content is copy and pasted press releases

As far as SEO goes, we actually hold some of the cards already. If you search "comp tf2" on google images you get a lot of stinkers but also a couple of decent looking photos (i like this one but its small) and they're all hosted on tf2 sites already focusing on competitive. Main thing is to make sure images we use for things like comp.tf or the wiki are high quality and appropriately tagged as competitive oriented. SEO will really start to work if we get a foot in the door with like PCgamer or something and they make a comp MM news post using a high quality poster or two. Then we'd at least see a couple of more MM styled SFMs near the top of the TF2 search bar