we premier MDL now boys???

this is fuckign AMAZGINGG

https://emojipedia-us.s3.amazonaws.com/thumbs/120/apple/96/thinking-face_1f914.png

interesting how the season after literally like 7 sponsors show up to pay league fees they decide to lower them

if it's signups related that's kind of irrelevant

Does this mean a lower prize pot or will it stay the same? I dont play esea and im on mobile so i cant watch the clips

woops nvm

feel like b4nny/froyo should take the long view and realize this will keep invite going longer so in the short term they won't be making as much per season with a guaranteed first or second place finish, but in the long run it's a good thing

implying b4nny/froyo had anything to do with this decision

...is not what i did, yes

The league fee was what hindered past players / teams from playing Invite so this should be a good thing for all involved.

im sure they'll be fine with it because rewind is a thing now and froyo is basically guaranteed third place so they'll get money from there as well

its a catch 22, the lowered fees are good for keeping the divisional competition but the lowered prizepot hinders the incentive for upper teams to compete at the highest level and therefore the general growth or exposure for the game.

lowered entry fee = longevity
high prize pot = growth/exposure

so its good and bad

i think that would be more attributed to not wanting to lose to banny over and over again and/or the struggle that is grinding out of low invite, or the fact that you can just sandbag open or IM and get a check
in the past there have been plenty of people who have gotten help from the community for help paying fees (i.e., the season the billdozer sponsored a team) but now more than ever it's possible for teams to find orgs to sponsor them

not really sure how i feel about this

i mean yeah sure, it costs less to play invite now, but there's also now less incentive to try and win it

i dont think the decrease in winnable funds is worth being able to sign up for less, honestly

for like eight seasons the incentive has been to get third or fourth, so this basically just lowers the risk for teams who think they might make playoffs but aren't sure. now they have to gamble only $40.

the point is this negatively affects froyo and ascent the most because they were always guaranteed a paycheck. but this could help invite last longer, which will help everyone in the long run.

assuming the prizepool is decreased proportionally to the league fees (i.e., roughly halved) and the distribution is the same, 4th place would get ~$165 each (down from $350), and making the total prize for the team a little less than $1000 (from $2,100)
to put that into context with past seasons, the prize for 1st place in open and IM have been $1000 and $1500, respectively (~$166 and $250 each)
if open prizepool stays the same, this would mean that there is even more incentive to sandbag lower divs and get a guaranteed check that way, than to play invite and risk not winning anything at all (for example, if you get fucked out of playoffs by literally 3 rounds for, as my team did this past season -_-)

Both the decrease in prize pool and the decrease in entry fees have led to 1. A lower interest from third party orgs 2. A disinterest of invite players in playing under a 3rd party org.
Yes this will probably be good for the longevity for the league, but IMO it decreases the presence of TF2 within the ESEA community and the competitive esports scene. Sorry for being pessimistic :(

does anyone actually know how much the prize pool is getting reduced

i dont think they would halve it, here's some quick math

at $85 per player, 6 players per team, and 9 teams, that adds to a total of $4590

at $40 per player, $2160

the invite prize pool last season was $14000 and the total amount of invite fees is only decreasing by about $2500

idk but it seems crazy to halve the prizepool to $7000 when esea could still save money from last season by reducing it to $10000 or even $11000

Anybody know if this is just for TF2 or if other games supported by ESEA are also getting their prize pools and entry fees reduced?

From our perspective in CSGO main, fees haven't been reduced, and I believe open fees are still the same so I think only TF2 was changed. (Csgo and TF2 being the only 2 games supported on ESEA)

the only way to make money off that lan for almost all of them is to finish first

froyo splits prize money after everyone's expenses are paid

@bear i'd agree if i thought they were halving the prize pool, but that would be pretty strange for all the reasons trippa outlined

This seems really fucking stupid to me but whatever.

With the reduction of fees, teams are starting to pay the fees themselves instead of relying on orgs. In some cases, it does make sense for the players to play individually

The disinterest from invite players might make TF2 more interesting to watch for new players actually. People might push more, and go for riskier plays if they didn't care as much about winning.

idk if youve ever actually watched invite games but we're not europeans; we know how to push and since we play with two first to 3 or 30 minute halves we are incentivized to go for plays rather than stalemating up 1-0 for 45 minutes

I've always wondered why this was such a common trend in EU tf2

it's just the best way to play the 5cp gamemode. it's more popular in EU because our best team popularised it, but that doesn't mean it would be less effective in NA. if se7en played on NA ruleset, then they would still play the same style, but it would be more boring because you have to stalemate for 45 minutes instead of 30.