from a business perspective, it doesnt make sense for valve to put money into this game because there would be no return on investment. money isnt just handed out for free.

https://i.imgur.com/ydPdwaL.jpg

There is no guaranteed return on investment no. But that doesn't necessarily mean Valve can't openly advertise competitive 6s instead of ignoring it for years.

I've thought about this quite a bit and changed my opinion (which used to be this) a few months ago.

They don't have to go as far as DOTA/CSGO to boost competitive TF2, nor do they need to do much in the way of actual work to have a return on investment.

Consider the following:

Insomnia75 Mercenary Handbook:
* 10 USD
* 2.50 USD of each book sold goes to prize pool / help each team get there if needed.
* Buying the book gives you access to an exclusive all class hat that can only be earned by buying the book for this limited time. (this hat can be made by the community - Valve does nothing)
* You can spend money to level up the book (with again 25% of all money spent doing this going to prizepool) or complete Contracts (system they already have implemented just fine) / correctly guess match out comes to help level up the book.
* Book levels improve the all class hat (including an unique unusual effect), and unlock more hats / exclusive taunt / noisemaker, etc. All of these can be made by the community (so again, Valve does nothing).

So Valve does nothing except attach the already existing Contract system to it, add the item, and make the image of the handbook. Community makes literally all the items inside of it. They could even add a competitive crate with more items that help contribute to your book levels if there was enough community stuff there for them to go off of.

This costs Valve practically nothing to implement, doesn't require them to spend any money beyond the small man hours of picking whatever items get associated with it and putting them into game, and because everything is time limited to buying this and TF2's community is all about cosmetic stuff it should print money hand over fist - putting more money into the game with minimal investment of their own, they'd see return on investment immediately basically.

IMO, there isn't a compelling reason to not do this other than no one at Valve actually wants to do it.

That said I agree that them putting money into the game directly (e.g. here have 100,000 - 1,000,000 USD for this tournament guys!) would not be worth their time / too risky. But there's no reason to not approach it from a very safe avenue and see what the reception is like.

yeah I agree with adding competitive crates or whatever that the community funds is a good idea, but expecting a company to give you money because you like tf2 (like the guy I replied to) is unrealistic and shows an entitled mentality

It seems that my one month old thread has turned into discussion about business.
Thanks Alfa

People polarise it too much.

Players stop playing for a vast range of reasons. People get bored of games after a lot of play time or when no more new challenges are available. Repetition is dull. Not everyone views TF2 as a lifelong hobby like you would a sport.

people still link me threads every now and then