I was a bit surprised to find someone transcribed all this. But anyway.

I've gotten multiple private messages on Discord in the past 48 hours or so from people involved in various ways with Essentials (or formerly), thanking me for speaking out on this. That just goes to show me that this is a real issue that nobody had really been talking much about, except in private. I hate when everyone just pretends shit is cool, when it's totally not. I have no worries bringing shit into the open when I think it's for the best.

I'll just say that the best possible outcome from this would be for the production to go great, and I said the same thing in my message to Wolf (which I haven't gotten a response to.) I just think that in order for that to happen, there are some big changes that need to happen. Just because nobody is competing with you to cover Insomnia doesn't mean you don't have to try hard. I'm not saying NO work is being done, I'm just saying Multiplay has been majorly concerned in the past, to the point of expecting the production may fail last year. I don't see huge differences in my experience leading up to last year's event, and the lead-up to this year. Just mind-boggling silence, privacy, confusion and ignored messages.

I understand this year (correct me if I'm wrong) we are no longer on the main stage for finals. Multiplay are the ones who host us and allow us to have TF2 at iSeries. I'd hate to see them lose faith in us, and I'd hate for us to lose what we have. Some of the people who have supported us as Multiplay staff in the past no longer work there, and we won't have folks at Multiplay to bail us out forever. Even if our esport is small, we should still be busting our asses, lest we wake up one day and find that no organizer or group or venue wants to host TF2 tournaments anymore.

I just want to see the most passionate, hard working people running the iSeries production, just like it's been for years. And I think most people want that also. If that's not the current people in charge, then let's bust the skeletons out the closet and talk about it. I'm not trying to put past producers/organizers on an unfairly high pedestal, but the list of names who have run this before is pretty fuckin impressive, as has been the quality of the productions. I'm not seeing anything resembling that right now.

I'm hopeful that Essentials and Wolf can adopt more of an open, transparent approach to the organizing, keeping everyone involved on the same page (including talent), and more of a collaborative approach rather than "do it all myself". No man is an island, and broadcasting isn't an industry for control freaks. They can also ignore all this if they want, and continue to do it their way; I'm not trying to say I know everything. I was just sick of nobody talking about this problem.

This was never about "I deserve better", it's about "I think we ALL deserve better."

Consider yourself corrected.

Fair enough! But this somewhat backs up the whole "nobody is kept in the loop" thing also.

chief you weren't supposed to know this until the announcement smh

LOL, I heard 10x worse before behind the scenes of TF2 orgs, hell most of it from me. This is nothing, little bit of criticism thrown by one outspoken person about the main organisation about at present.

Also on a point about TFTV, some of the talent who worked production on it can simply never be replaced, likes of Lange and Sideshow for instance, you just can't replace them and get the same quality overnight - Reason some people gone on to do similar things professionally. TF2 is a non-starter, as a game, as even a Semi-Professional game, nothing more than a hobby to anyone who hasn't worked out a way to trick 12 year olds out of their Mum's credit card - anyone willing to take a year out of work to try and improve it has my respect, no matter how they perform the task. All I know about i63 coverage is it was confirmed and contracts were signed very early with Multiplay, earlier than previous years and that was down to Wolf, what else has gone on I can't comment on.

by choice? i loved u at i58 D:

Why cant we just have both tftv and essentials tf team up and just focus on making i63 the best lan instead of fighting over who will host???

Not by choice. Reached out to wolf repeatedly to offer my casting with no response months ago, asked Heny (while he was involved) and he said he’d talk to wolf, asked him again after more ghosting from wolf and found out wolf did not want me to cast at i63. Small chance I may still go to the event just to see some of those lovely eurofolk again, but it’s fairly unlikely.

getawhale suxxxx

TF2's path is a big circle : leagues, lans, pug sites, lobbies, etc

Last year legitimate criticism was deflected with the excuse that they only had two months to plan before the event.

This year they start planning one month before the event.

what the heck do you mean by 'he seems kinda normie'

dreamboat is literally one of the best casters we have atm why would you not want him to cast wtf

who's fighting over hosting it? did you read anything? wolf is one of the few people in eu willing/able to organise a lan atm, and none of the others are in tftv.

a year on im STILL hearing hate over forming a new org vs just staying with tftv, when personal issues with tftv staff and the overhead of having to get everything okayed would have made a lot of the stuff essentials has done impossible

not true. multiplay being taken over by game seems to have slowed things down a bunch too

why would you insist cornpop is coming when he has said multiple times that he cant
and then reject dreamboat when he volunteers several times and wants to come

wolf are you ok buddy???

That might be a factor, but it really does not excuse the treatment Dreamboat and Getawhale have experienced. They deserve a better treatment than this. It really looks like things have been left too late again. Promotional stuff needs to be planned like, right now in order to build hype towards the event. That can be done mostly independently from Multiplay.

The success of this event determines if TF2 will be at insomnia in the future. If there's no promotion, it WILL flop. Last year, the reason given for the lack of promotion was that TF2 was announced too late. This year it was announced super early, but now it's less than a month until the event and there hasn't been much promotion (if any) at all. This can be done independently of Multiplay.

This isn't quite right. What happend was that the long time admins, Nymthae and Firestorm, that actually organised the lan competition, liaised with Multiplay and worked with production both "retired" at the same time. Nobody else stepped up to replace them so Wolfmachina took the opportunity, but he also used it to take control of the production.

This wasn't really announced either semi-privately or otherwise, it just leaked out slowly as a result of individual conversations effectively setting the tone for everything that has followed. TFTV never had a chance to continue production really whether there was a collective will to or not.

Obviously not everybody was happy with the way this was done, but mostly people got on with the job and judging from the viewer responses none of that really came across.

war+kermit please

edit: i'll take what i can get it

It's me and eepily as a casting duo, WAR and Hildreth are together as another duo.

Though I'd be up for casting at least something with war, it was a good laugh.

Is eepily that guy from The Hobbit that really wants the ring?

Who actually is WolfMachina that he was able to take control of production the way he has? Where does he get the money that allowed him to quit his job to work on essentials full time? Not to be rude but I haven't really heard much of anything about the guy.

Shhh don’t tell anyone, but wolf is actually Elon musk

If you can cast your mind back, way back, to the end of i58, then you'll remember many people leaving the scene. Overwatch became a target for EU TF2's most active organiser, TFTV producers were either abruptly retiring or swearing never to face the vagaries of UK immigration again, it was a time of rapid decline of TFTV in EU.

I'm not sure Multiplay even had a TFTV contact that was saying anything other than "never again" at that point. The decimation of top talent caused by Overwatch made some think there might not be another TF2 Insomnia at all. But then Game announced a profit warning, and forced it's child company Insomnia to sack a load of people (sorry, rationalise it's resources) and slash it's esports budget. If they were putting on tournaments they would have to be cheap.

Into this environment stepped wolfmachina who found himself pushing at an open door with no competition, I'm sure Multiplay were just happy to have someone that would puts bums on seats and run a stream for free. They did get worried because he's as good at communicating with them as he is with staff, but it all worked out in the end thanks in no small part to Swedish communists.

His parents must like him.

I've been trying to figure out how to respond to this thread, or if it's even a good idea. I don't want to bring down people if I'm burnt out myself. It's why I stepped away from TFTV as an active volunteer a while ago. I kept seeing it happen for people I basically grew with in this scene, where we'd just constantly talk about how the new era would never be the same as the good old days and it kept going. We need to be encouraging what things can be at their best, rather than go on and on about what things were when they were good.

Wolf, I've tried to tell people that they should volunteer for Essentials whenever they asked me about it, because it means helping competitive TF2 have a tomorrow. I'm always going to be grateful for how Essentials helped sponsor teams during and after i55. I'm grateful that you gave me a place to stay during i55, and were part of the reason I could do photography for TFTV and meet people I still am friends or co-workers with to this day. Even if I felt like TFTV once upon a time could have done better, I'm thankful that Essentials is providing opportunities for upcoming & current talent for competitive TF2. I trusted you, and I wanted your efforts to succeed.

I'm pissed about the the treatment I've been hearing from other people for YEARS for how you've gotten people to help you, and at this point I'm not afraid of pissing off people in power anymore.

Back when you wanted Essentials to be a hub for everything about TF2, why did it go through so much development hell and web designers? Why was an SFM animator I gave you for i55 when I was too busy to do the trailer due to paid work, with the trailer they made you for free, not credited and their trailer dropped after you said it was fine? Why is the SFM animator who made the newest (now outdated) trailer you last uploaded on Essentials' channel not credited either? Why were the guides I and other writers wrote you back when that was the plan for Essentials not credited either?

Why am I hearing that after Essentials started building their market for competitive TF2 and making sure i61 would be a great LAN, you have so many SFM artists on board making you artwork for future events and yet there still isn't promotional advertising for i63 out by now? Why are you ignoring talent reaching out to volunteer rather than telling them "we are not interested in hiring you/we have people already/we won't be able to afford flying you out, sorry"? Why did it get to a point where Getawhale and several other staff members who worked for you are publicly airing their dirty laundry, because they feel like you wouldn't listen?

Why am I hearing about you not paying players and teams their money from Essentials' monthlies?

Why, why am I hearing about you not paying staff like casters and observers that apparently you said you'd pay?

I want Insomnia 63 to succeed. I want it to be awesome. I want people to watch if froyotech's really going to roll over the competition or if SVIFT will cause an upset. I want people to go to share drinks with their teammates and friends and laugh about old and new experiences after a long day's work or playing games for 3 days straight. I want TF2 to have a show to watch and a tournament to play in that they'll all enjoy.

I don't want people feeling like they have to deal with bad management and mistreatment of their time, talent, and efforts, because they feel like it's what needs to happen, just so everything everyone else wants can happen. I want Insomnia 63 to encourage people who want to keep it going, instead of scare them away.

That way when I'm ready to volunteer again for the next LAN or the next iSeries, I'll see people I worked or want to work with that came from Essentials, that can tell me despite it all, it was worth it - instead of telling me that after it all, it's not worth it anymore. Make sure that the people who are helping you with i63 know their worth and feel their worth.