It did.

It failed.

But what would happen if they would bring the TF2 back to ESL Play?

1) Get a bunch of initial interest first.
2) Lose a large majority of players because system isn't good and teams get rolled by experienced teams so they avoid the setup so they can lose less games elsewhere.
3) Eventually loses too much player support and dies in a few months.

Case in point, Razer Cups and probably faceit at this rate.

Why do most tf2 players hate to lose that much? I loved getting rolled by a prem mix full of people I looked up to in a razer cup and making this horrible video. If razer cups didn't die I'd still be doing my best to make teams and get rolled. I must admit that I kinda forgot about them along with everyone else :/

only losers like losing

Most teams/players would rather lose against teams they know are playing the same Division as them as they then will be committed to making changes. When said team loses to another team they know are much more experienced the team that lost 99.99% of the time will disregard that game and basically conclude "They are playing in x division compared to us so of course we're going to lose/get rolled and there was nothing we could do etc." Therefore the more possibility there is of playing against higher div team or getting rolled constantly makes them consider platforms such as Razer Cups and FaceIt a waste of time.

It's not about losing as much as it is about learning (at least for me)

What's getting rolled by a prem team going to teach a bunch of low open players? Nothing. They don't know what to change about their playstyle. Both their DM and gamesense still wouldn't be good enough to win a round even if they make the right changes. So basically they just have to sit there playing for 30 minutes (or occassionally 15 minutes if the stack decides to not BM them and run permanent offclasses and never push last)

Instead they could play mixes/pugs against other low-mid open players. There teams would be more even and they'd slowly but surely improve because making the right decisions would actually have positive outcomes for them

You learn a lot if you want to learn. You definitely won't learn anything if you don't even play.

I played in cups vs. prem/div 1 teams when i was div 6, and it was actually fun even though we got stomped every single time. Wish more people would sign up to these cups so they would keep happening. The reason why we don't have cups is because people rather play mixes and PCWs than play in a cup and get actual experience.

I just feel like when you are supposed to lose (open vs prem match) you can try different tactics to catch them off guard or whatever without having the feeling that you're throwing a game. It gives you freedom to do stupid stuff and see what sticks without giving you the feeling that you're missing out on good practise. Since there's no actual chance of winning by meta anyway.

The thing is: I'm just surprised that people don't take any opportunity they get to play for money.

If you go into the cup expecting to get rolled by a prem team you'll then be knocked down into a lower bracket where you get to play teams of a reasonably similar skill level.

I like farming FACEiT points. There's a huge lack of high+ players so it's actually very easy.

Good idea, you're going down buddy

You're far from stopping me mate.

Because not enough close level competition and that comes from a pure lack of numbers. I, like you, enjoy testing myself versus better players but not everyone does, that is why the Divisional system worked so well, yes it was harder to play teams within 7 tiers of skill rating but with it you at least guaranteed teams felt as if they were in the right skill bracket and could challenge. This is more true of other types of contests that came to TF2, cos ESL failed for a different reason - ESL Wire. Top teams had a great time but it was hard to persuade a lower level team to go and play ESL when ETF2L offered more suited competition on a more user friendly platform with closer skill brackets and without an Anti-cheat system that ruined the gaming experience for a lot of players.

Arguably the only way to keep people coming to ESL instead of ETF2L would be for ETF2L to stop running competitions - Though that is dangerous as many people may simply just not migrate. And with a declining competitive scene with slowly reducing numbers it's harder to justify anything.

jacklylegs has a 95% winrate in his 148 matches. Rofl.

Things like the razer cups are not really an opportunity to play for money. Faceit works because you can gradually farm up points and then spend them, but systems like the razer cups don't work for people because there's only 1 prize pool and it's impossible to get for 99% of the playerbase. It's like I told you that I'll give you money if you climb Mount Everest in the next 72h. Sure, technically it's an opportunity to win money, but in anything resembling reality, it's not feasible