Really great event guys! Here's my thankyoos!

- Firstly, a massive thanks to Beta for even making it to the event. He's got a new 3 month old Son and has a lot of things going on at the moment.

- Secondly, thank you to all the TF.TV guys for putting up with my pre-event communication. I know I'm a pain but at the end of the day I just want what's best for the game. I hope you all understand :$.

- Next I want to give a huge shout-out to the ENTIRE production crew. Seriously, as casters we may be the ones who sit in front of the camera and do some talking but the amount of effort we had to put in to make our casts a success was virtually zero.

Usually I've had to have some involvement with the setup, whether that is getting the casting area how us casters want it, sorting out audio levels, working out a method of communication between production and casters etc... This time, my input into the production was less than zero. The entire setup was absolutely perfect and I genuinely can't think of an improvement that could make my life as a commentator any easier. Every request I've ever had from previous events was incorporated into this setup. We could see the a stream preview (very important so we know what you guys at home can see), we had great (minimal) communication from the production crew that let us know what we needed to do, without being intrusive or distracting.

Airon was on it with the audio adjustments. From a production point of view, Beta and I are a nightmare to work with. Our voices go from a very light whisper to an absolute scream very quickly. Airon was constantly making 'on the fly' adjustments to the system to keep our voices in check and sounding beautiful!

Dashner was an absolute star of the production crew. The amount of hours put in really showed and while at previous events he has been quite stubborn with his ideas, I think the collaboration with the rest of the team and the experience s of the previous events have allowed him and the crew to raise the bar far higher than most people expected. Nothing but respect and admiration coming from me.

DavidTheWin was awesome on the Camera for us. He took into account some points that I made on the Friday and Early on Saturday and I think that really helped with the quality of the stream. I won't go into the fine details but I'm sure most of Production know what I mean. I've loved watching back several of the games so far and look forward to watching the rest! Quick tag on shoutout to Arie as well for being there when we had some PC issues. Always a star mate!

Web updates... Jesus. Another major factor that allowed a very rusty Arx and Beta to look well prepared. Honestly, more preparation has gone into this forum post than I personally put into the event. Even though we were sitting in the event, right next to the games that were happening we still had no idea about the brackets or previous results. The guys in charge of putting content onto various websites are some of the real heroes of this event. I actually don't know exactly who was responsible (we were only there for a few hours on Saturday so didn't properly meet you all), but whoever it was, thank you. It's this kind of stuff that is frequently overlooked and often doesn't get done (the web writers usually go and get drunk and don't do anything... I'm looking at you Ads). This time the team was on completely on point.

Sideshow and Gecks were legendary. Massive thank you for the prep notes. We used them frequently for the pregame talk and even during the casts. You were another reason why we didn't look at rusty as we actually were. Great job on casting the final and the rest of the games throughout the event. There can be a lot of pressure on the commentators to really do the whole tournament justice and when you've had a tournament of this quality, the pressure is ramped right up. It was incredibly important to put on a final show of the highest quality and you guys pulled it off. Well done!

The other commentators / stream 2 production at the event were also great. Again, I didn't get much of a chance to speak or listen to the casts, but the bits I did catch were fantastic. The quality wasn't any different from the primary stream and that just goes to show the depth of 'entertainers' we have in this game and at this event.

There's definitely more of the production to thank (sorry), but I couldn't go without saying a massive thank you to all the people / organisations who sponsored the production. It made a real difference to not just the event, but TF2's future. It would be very easy for the community to abandon these international LAN events but each time there's a success story, it inspires people to continue forward to the next one. People who sponsor these events are really not only sponsoring the current event, but they are motivating people for future events as well. Maybe one day the community will give up on the game, but right now there are many people who are buzzing from this event and already making preparations for the next one. The funding is a HUGE part of this that makes it all possible, so I can safely say a massive thank you from all of the production crew, and even the players considering additional funds went into the prize pot.

- The Players. The TF2 at this tournament casted itself. We could have just sat in silence with an auto-directed camera and people would have enjoyed the games. The tournament was THAT GOOD. TF2 commentators are more like cheerleaders. We try to help narrate the game, get people cheering and make the spectators feel involved in the match. We really didn't have to do much and you made us sound much better than we actually were. We didn't have to fake any excitement as it was all genuinely exciting. Congratulations to all of the teams that participated, not just the invite teams, but the open bracket as well. You don't realise how important it is that the open teams pay their way and enter these tournaments... without them we may not have gotten this far in the first place.

Whoever made the outtro, get that shit online please, that is seriously epic. The little segments between the games and features were also fantastic.

I could write so much more, but I'll get fired from my job. All that's left to say is that this was some seriously good shit, and thank you for letting me be a part of it. These experiences are why I've stayed in gaming this long (I've commentated at least one TF2 game every year for 8 years! #realisation), and why I can never truly leave the TF2 scene, even though I've been trying to for years. I did say in my TF2 song that "I won't stop until my name's in lights, on the hall of fame with my friend Mike (Beta) on the European teamfortress 2 website" and well... I'm not there so I guess I better keep showing up to these things. ;)

Thanks!

If no organisation shows up to cast, Beta and I will sit down and commentate the games for you.

Otherwise, good luck with the event! Hopefully TF2 can keep up the quality it's thrown out there in the last few years!

I tried this approach about 4 years ago. I wouldn't bother if I was you.

There has always been this belief in this community that Valve will one day provide ample support to make TF2 into a top tier, well funded, competitive eSports title. This is despite the fact that Valve makes money from TF2 solely through unlocks, hats and other purchasable customisations... something which the competitive community has restricted, banned and flamed for years.

Valve used to listen to our suggestions with unlocks. They made a number of changes to weapons based on our feedback, but ultimately they were still shunned. I would have done the same as Valve at that point and focused on the money-making side of the game... the casual pubbers who embrace their changes and make them money.

People just don't look at the business side of it. There's a reason games sponsor tournaments or leagues and I promise you they aren't doing it out of the kindness of their heart. They are very much looking for a return in their investment.

Anyway, I've been staying out of things recently as the community loves to argue with me and if I'm honest... I've seen some very positive steps being taken recently. I wouldn't want to show my support for any of it as siding with Arx's views revokes e-cred.

But yeah... don't bother, just enjoy the game.

Well, I haven't even seen the mode. So I can't comment too much on it. I gather that like everything Valve release for TF2, it isn't of particular interest to the competitive scene. I'll trust your judgement on this one :).

I think that actually, part of what you're saying is the reason for TF2's current state. The community has always argued that too many unlocks mean you can't plan for the weapons on the other team. This frustrates players. Also people like to keep things simple. They would rather be outplayed in the DM side of the game in its current form rather that be outstrategised. I guess there's nothing wrong with that.

I guess my opinion is that actually, I believe that not knowing what the enemy team is running until say, a mid fight, or even at any point of the game adds a huge skill element. I believe it's much more skillful to be able to produce the correct reaction to present circumstances than to come up with a predetermined plan before the start of a round. Unlocks in this game aren't really hard counters to the point where a round can instantly be decided based on the unlock choices of the two teams. Sure, some unlocks may be advantageous over others, but I think identifying this (or even concealing this until needed) and then reacting accordingly is a great skill that should separate top teams from the rest.

On the other side of the coin, predicting your opponents lineup and attempting to guess a strategy to counter it can also be skillful.

Class limits are really more about promoting diversity, reducing spam, and keeping the game flowing (enjoyable to play). They could always be tweaked about. I'm sure two medics might actually be kind of fun and take reliance away from strategies such as suicide bombing, but again, it doesn't really matter. There's a million combinations of class limits that could also produce a fun and entertaining game to play, but we came to a choice that most people accept and enjoy.

I agree. TF2 would need matchmaking to be viable as an eSport. But to a public player, the 6vs6 rules don't really make sense. Imagine if someone wanted to play full time engineer in a matchmaking competitive game. Do you ban engineers altogether? Well no, they aren't banned in 6vs6. But we know to use an engineer in just some circumstances. We have a bunch of unwritten rules that aren't enforcable which means players simply do not have to play the game that we want them to play it. There's also no motivation to play differently. Look at CS:GO. Players aren't forced to take any specific weapon. They can buy anything they can afford. Players aren't forced to work for objectives, but if they don't then they don't get any money or kills and lose the game. Timers, money, and objectives control that game with pretty much all the rest being decided by the players. They don't have to work exactly as a team, but it benefits them personally with mid-game character development (bigger guns), something TF2 doesn't have. A CS:GO game generally plays out to the same conclusions each time with a few exceptions where people are deliberately trolling.

Some sort of short Arena mode game, where all classes are viable and players are forced into action could be great for TF2. Maybe some sort of reward in the middle of the game that gives you motivation to play objectively. Sometimes I think the only motivation for TF2 players to push for objectives are for the critical killing spree at the end of a round. A brief moment of enjoyment melee killing the helpless enemy team!

Casters would just have to get better ;). I couldn't cast a game with all the unlocks in the game at the moment, but I'm sure there's a number of public players who adora unlocks that could probably name them all from just hearing a sound or seeing the corner of a model.

The thing is. Valve will be the first to admit that when TF2 was designed, competitive TF2 wasn't even thought about. The community had to make rules for a competitive game to exist. I get that.

But after Valve noticed TF2 had a competitive side, they started working with our community. They added variables that helped the competitive scene, such as removing crits. They added a tournament mode to make match starts easier. They tweaked unlocks as requested by the competitive scene. They even added an arena mode which would have been perfect for the growth of competitive TF2, but sadly we already had refined our own version of the game at that point and a switch over wasn't really appealing to those who were playing.

I guess it's the same with this mode. People wouldn't want to switch to it as the primary competitive version of TF2 as it's 7 years too late, but I guess I'm just frustrated thinking of 'what could have been...' when it comes to all the attempts by Valve to give us a tournament viable game mode that works for both public and competitive play, and we just try to rewrite all their work, pass custom rules and restrictions that would never exist in the public environment, putting us back in the same situation we've always been in... a separate community from our public players.

People should realise the importance of casual players for any game title to make it as a successful eSport. They provide the funding through purchases and advertising that attracts competitive players and then competitive players make the game more visible which can attract new casual gamers. Watching high skill players can sometimes drive others to play more than they normally would as they want to emulate something cool they've just seen which leads to more play time, more purchases etc... But they need to both be playing the same game.

Anyway, sorry for another rant. Just wanted to vent an opinion that maybe with a game mode that plays 'quite well' when left vanilla, it might be a good idea to just play it like that rather than making small changes, even if we deem those small changes to enhance the mode. Maybe the developers would listen to the changes later down the line without the need to create another divide between public and competitive. I'll go back to my corner now and observe the TF2 scene from a distance like a good little arx :D.

Get your downvotes ready.

Why can't the TF2 community ever play a game mode or style without the need to add its own rules to it?
I've not been around these parts much recently, and I haven't even looked at this game mode. But it hurts me to see people try to manipulate a game mode into the game they want it to be, rather than playing the game how it currently is and let a meta evolve from that.

People talk about not allowing the banning of a medic, or forcing different bans each round. People talk of limiting one unlock per class or team or whatever. Can't you just stop? Play a game mode in the exact same way that a group of public players would play it so that people can relate. Stop alienating competitive play from the public community who feeds you. Games like League of Legends, Dota, Starcraft2, CS:GO, Fifa share two things in common. 1) They are or have been popular esports titles. 2) They have public modes are almost identical to their competitive modes.

There is a huge market for casual / competitive gamers. Those who want to play the competitive game but for some reason might not want to commit to a team (but might once they get into it). In CS:GO the ranked play is awesome, it allows random public players to try their hand at a competitive game, straight after watching some pros on a stream. They can immediately copy the strategies used by those players. Same goes with league of legends, dota etc... Now try that in TF2? A gamer watches Banny pull of some crazy move in a 6v6. They go onto a public server and realise they can't do that stuff because there are engineers everywhere. They can go into a pickup, but they have to learn 500 unwritten rules or they get banned. I get that by design, TF2's standard game can't have a public mode simmilar to the 6vs6 we enjoy. A competitive scene evolved from a game that simply wasn't designed to be played in small team sizes, at LAN events. It was meant to be fun and chaotic mass carnage with objectives to keep that carnage from stalemating; But when we do get given some sort of Arena mode, that is meant to be played in a semi-organised fashion, can't we embrace it?

I know AR isn't competitive TF2 and I know this post is an unnecessarily long rant that is completely pointless. But come on. Can't you just play something vanilla, exploit any fundamental issues with the game mode and let the developers adjust the game accordingly for once?

You fit bastards. I'm trying to get my 5k time down to 30 minutes :P.

I'm okay by the way. Productive day at the office, except for these last 15 minutes which I've obviously spent browsing TF.TV. Looking to go for a run later. Found out my phone has been counting the number of steps I've been taking each day since I got it, which is kind of cool.

Also, I quite dislike the cheat cam sometimes. It makes fights predictable to watch as the person you are spectating usually is the victor in a 1v1.

Sometimes it's nice to see the POV of the guy who was air shotted... rather than the one firing.

I don't see why you think third person camera shots do anything but enhance a cast?
TF2 has a unique style of play that partially resembles MMO / Moba games. This aspect of the game is better viewed in third person. You can see all the players better, you can see all their positioning better and you can follow the entire fight a lot better. The only thing you miss out on is seeing how an individual aims. Even then, with most weapons being projectiles anyway, you still see the incredible skill involved in some shots.

You can track that initial crit sticky across the map better in third person.
Sometimes kills can't be seen in first person as the player moved out of view or spam rockets can't see the target.

Sure, third person cameras need to be controlled well or they can look tacky. There needs to be a real effort in making them smooth. But a static third person view that can see both teams at a choke point that slowly pans around and then switches to first person when a push is made does nothing but make the game look better.

Mostly from a caster's point of view:

Replays need to have a longer transition between them allowing casters to speak about what just happened. Out of nowhere, about 8 replays were fired off in quick succession. A fade out followed by 2 - 6 seconds of blackness would be ideal. It would be even better if casters also got a pre warning about what replay was about to be shown (see below).

Ideally replays would have a text label on them. There's several moments of a TF2 game that look very similar, but even a heads up like, 'Clockwork's double'... 'War's Kritz Sticky' can really help both the viewers and commentators.

Stick the crowd cam ontop of a standard desk fan that rotates. That way when you switch to the crowd, it pans left and right which looks quite sexy! It also keeps your audience cool 8).

Add a count down timer. I know TF2 at these events can be hard to schedule, but even adding a 1 minute - 5 minute count down timer before going live really helps the audience know what is happening. It means casters can simply say, "We will take a quick 2 minute break before this game goes live!"... production then starts a 2 minute countdown timer. Bah... you know what I mean.. just too lazy to properly explain it right now. Even if you get the timing off and you have another 10 minutes to wait, you can get on the camera, have a quick two minute chat to the viewers to remind them what is happening and then pop up another timer.

In game camera man should use some third person. TF2 has appeal for not just the aim of a player, but team's positioning and third person can show this incredibly well.

Give commentators a way to see twitch chat. It provides a higher level of interaction with the online audience (I just grabbed my phone and went on there, but it would be nice to have a little ipad or something with the stream open). That way commentators can ask for viewer's opinions on who will win etc...

That's all I can really think of right now. Production was top notch at i52. The people who attend these events are only getting more and more experienced and with new talent arriving to help out at every event, I'm always excited to see how the bar is going to be raised again!

A few things here.

Firstly, you guys have to realise that the insomnia events have never really been about the competitive side of gaming. Sure, they have tournaments on, but the core principle is the social side of gaming. What has happened over the years, is the fun tournaments have gained sponsorship and turned into competitive events. It is not a super serious event. Of course that isn't an excuse to interrupt players who are playing a competitive game, and the player(s) in question should know better, but worse things have happened at these events. I myself have had paper airplanes and beach balls hit me while playing in tournaments... but that's the kind of event these are meant to be.

Secondly, about the cheering the Euro teams and not the American teams.

You will actually find a lot of the players at the event are very neutral with regards to who wins the tournament. Yeah sure, there's a bit of EU vs USA banter that goes on, especially online, but actually, most people don't care.

However, the reason why most of the time people were cheering for the non-USA teams, it was because virtually everybody wanted an intercontinental final. With Froyotech going through early, it meant that keeping Epsilon and iM in the tournament for as long as possible meant that we could still have either an American Europe final or an American Australian final. In fact, even before Froyotech went through, people wanted iM to take down the Americans as that kept it possible to be an Australian Europe final.

When it came to the final, sure you had the home crowd cheering on Epsilon, but this simply wasn't because Epsilon are European... it was because they were the underdogs. From the games the day before, Froyotech were looking unbeatable. It was a bit like the i46 final... people were cheering for the underdogs... it was nothing personal against the other team.

I do think this post is a bit of an overreaction. I get that we as a community put a lot of effort into these events to make them the greatest spectacle we have in TF2... but you have to be aware of the history of this LAN. They give us a stage, they work with us because of how relaxed this event is in general. Try walking up to the dreamhack staff and telling them we want to have a community run stage area at their LAN... er.. yeah.... Dream(on)hack!

Sure we can go find a different event, in a different location to host our tournament... but we will be casting from standard BYOC desks or if we are lucky... a press room filled with other commentators or coverage staff who need the noise to be kept low.

Gotta take it a little less seriously... A little bit like TF2 as an eSport in general.

Freecam is pretty much necessary in any decent camera work. It shouldn't be used full time, but in my opinion pretty much any minute where there isn't a direct fight should use freecam to show team positioning (unless there is a sniper or spy, then first person is better to capture the action).

Ideal camera work for me, is to have freecam on at a choke point during a stalemate, and when the first team starts to make a move (let them begin the attack for a few seconds), switch to an offensive target in first person. Unless there's something like a kritz in play, then you will want first person from the start of the play.

Watching the occasional fight in freecam is also acceptable, as it shows a different perspective to the viewers. Rather than looking at an individual talent, you can see the way an entire team works together as a unit. TF2 isn't the most impressive FPS game out there (in terms of looking through a player's crosshair) so it's nice to showcase a medic changing targets, and the movement of the entire team through the map. This is best captured in third person.

Wish I could get there earlier, but I'll be at the event on Friday evening. Can't wait for this one!

I do actually agree with the audio level on the voices being too low. If you're listening on speakers where the music is at a reasonably low level, you can't hear the voices really well. When I turned up the volume to hear the voices, the music was then too loud and I had to turn it down again (it was late at night).

It's only fractionally out, but I guess it's down to preference. If I was listening on a high volume (the level where you would normally enjoy music when there's no one to disturb) then it might be fine. The mix in general was amazing.

Other than that, this is the greatest thing I've seen in TF2!

(hit char limit).

This is what worked for me. The science might not be entirely accurate, but I don't want anyone to correct me, because it worked and that's all that is important.

Good luck with your quit attempt. It's hard, but honestly, try to laugh at what your body is going through as it is so ridiculous that it's kind of funny. You're just craving a chemical and it can make you feel that shit about everything. It's hilarious.

Also, someone linked to Alan Carr's book.
http://web-profile.com.ua/wp-content/uploads/allen-carrs-easy-way-to-stop-smoking.pdf

I only scanned through it after I'd quit smoking at yes... it's a very good resource to use.

I quit smoking on January the 4th 2013 and it was the best decision of my life. I know exactly what you mean as it was exactly the same for me. People don't realise how much of a downer being a smoker that wants to quit can put on your life and some people have no idea how hard it is to stop. Anyway, I'll try and explain how I managed to pull it off. This might be a typical Arx essay.

Firstly, my quit date. I didn't actually decide in advance when I wanted to quit. I could lie and say that I didn't want to quit on January 1st because it's too mainstream (oh|so|cool). Simply put, I walked out of work at 5:30pm on a Friday and decided this would be the moment. I through my cigarettes and lighter into a bush and stopped right there. Around 8 seconds later I was so desperate for a smoke, but anyway... that's where it started.

Before this moment, I had done a lot of 'prep'. Firstly, I had wanted to quit for a long time. I had tried methods such as nicotine gum, patches, and the most enjoyable of all, e-cigs. Electronic cigarettes are great, but they are simply an alternative to smoking (they are fun, and a great hobby and quite an effective substitute). I wanted to not have my life dictated by a nicotine addiction. That was my biggest problem. To give some non-smokers a sense of how powerful this addiction is... if a true soul mate of mine asked me to drive to the shop at 11pm on a weekday to get her some chocolate, I'd probably question it and make an excuse to not go, but if I'd run out of cigarettes, I'd walk 3 miles down to the nearest garage at 3am in rain or snow to pick up a pack.

After a number of quit attempts I decided to do a bit of research about smoking and addictions in general. I realised there's two parts to smoking that need to be beaten:

1) The addiction
2) The habit.

To break the nicotine addiction, I needed to understand it. Now it doesn't matter if this is exactly correct or not, the principle still applies.

Your body has nicotine in its blood. When the amount of nicotine drops below a certain level, your body craves more and pesters you to go and top it up. Once you've hit that satisfied nicotine level, your body will stop bothering your nicotine level will slowly start dropping again.

It takes 72 hours for all nicotine to leave your body (meaning the level hits 0). As soon as your nicotine level hits zero, your body will start to forget what nicotine even is. I'll tell you what this means in real terms. This is the important part.

If you go 72 hours without putting any form of nicotine in your body (no gum, no ecigs, not a quick pull on a friend's cigerette), your body will start to gradually forget what nicotine is. When your body starts to forget, the addiction becomes MUCH easier to manage and your battle becomes with your smoking habit rather than the addiction. If you have even a single pull on a cigarette, or a nicotine gum, or use an ecig, you will be putting nicotine back into your body. This means your body will remember and will now really start to bother you so that you top it back up to that nicotine level that it desires.

Simply put... survive 72 hours without nicotine and you're half way to quitting. 72 hours of absolute hell. After that.. no more nicotine.. ever. Not even the SMALLEST amount, because as I mentioned, if you have anything at all... your body will tell you to get it back up to the desired level. If you have 0 nicotine in your blood, that's when the healing process starts. One pull means another 72 hours of hell. You're back at the beginning.

The habit was hard to beat. After doing something for so long it becomes your way of life. I would have a routine where I would wake up and almost immediately have a smoke. It took several weeks to break this routine. Every single morning when I woke up, the reaction embedded in my brain was to look on my desk for my tobacco. When it wasn't there, I'd get frustrated, but gradually this association would be altered. That's the next phase of quitting... breaking the associations with smoking.

Having a beer? Oooh I'd like a smoke!
After dinner? Ohh yes please, light me up!
Walking somewhere or waiting for something? Oh go on then... just one!
Smoke breaks at work? I'll meet you outside!

These are all day-to-day associations with smoking and there's only one way to change them and that is by replacing them. You're changing your routine and eventually your new routine will be one without a cigarette in your hand. You don't need to go find a ball to play with, or chew a gum or anything. It doesn't actually matter what you do, but the more times you experience these association moments and don't have a cigarette, the easier it will be next time you encounter it.

So now cravings and anger.

Oh my god. The stress and anger when quitting. In those first 72 hours, I wanted to kill a guy for driving round the wrong way into a McDonalds car park. It wasn't even the action of driving the wrong way... it was the smug look on his face when I signaled to him that he was going the wrong way, and he gestured as if to say, "Meh, I don't really care...". It's lucky my car windows didn't work or I'd have shouted so much abuse at the guy over something so trivial (he wasn't even in my way).

The thing about the stress and anger of smoking, is that having a smoke becomes your 'go to' when you're stressed about something and there's a huge concern that when you quit, you will not have this method of release. Sure, that is true while your addicted to nicotine but actually, once you've broken it, you find that you get less stressed at things and more importantly, you get stressed for less time. What happens when you're a smoker, is you get mad about something and you stay mad at it until you've had a smoke. When you're a non-smoker, you get mad about something and then you get over it much faster (probably about the same time as it takes a smoker to grab their lighter and light up). The difference is if a smoker doesn't have a smoke... they will stay mad about it until they do.

As for the cravings. They get much easier over time, but it isn't as quick as you might like.

When I quit, I wanted to smoke every hour.... in fact every 30 minutes! It was sooooooo hard! Especially in those first 72 hours, but honestly, just assume those first 72 hours will be absolute hell and that you will constantly want to smoke, kill everyone you meet and generally hate the world.

So what about afterwards? Well here's the time scales I'd say I got really strong cravings (the kind you actually had to fight against).

First 72 hours: Constantly. Be a warrior.

After the first week: Randomly 10 times a day (plus one for every regular association).

Weeks 2 - 4: Maybe 4 or 5 a day (plus a mild one for every regular association).

After the first month: Around 2 a day, but most regular associations at this point has been broken).

After 3 months: A couple every week.

After 6 months: Maybe once a week.

After a year: Maybe once a month.

After a year and a half: Hmmm I can't remember my last one. I think I just had a thought of "Oh, it would be nice to enjoy a smoke right now!" but that was about it.

The key is that if you have some nicotine, you're probably going back to step one. If you're lucky you might only go back a few steps but it's not worth the risk. Quitting smoking is so fucking hard that you wouldn't want to move backwards and put yourself through that previous step ever again. That's my motivation for not even trying it again. I'm curious to see how my body would react if I had one... but what if it resets me back to step 1? All that hard work gone. Fuck that.

Treat it like a game. You have a 72 hour grind ahead of you. It's going to suck so much, but it's a challenge. Thrive on it. Once you get through those 72 hours, you will be in a much better place to decide if you can continue.. but you won't want to go back.