I didn't know this until I saw the tweet so I thought I would share:

If you have a copy of Left 4 Dead or Bioshock: Infinite, then you currently have Evolve beta sitting in your library. Just download it and play, it will be free through the 19th (Monday).

Awesome writeup! Froyotech quote was top-notch :D

Should be a feature on the Classic. This was the scope in tfc.

Pics or riot.

Classic buffed. Game's not dead.

NCBGD

MGE is super effective so long as you do it to practice and not to win MGE. By that I mean you need to use it as a way to enhance 1v1 skill and class proficiency as opposed to trying to win the mod. SoapDM is also very good, but the same considerations must be made.

Just a reminder that our beloved skill-skyscraper of a game shipped with random crits locked on.

Nearly all of what you guys are saying in this thread was said By TFC players and other gamers in response to seeing TF2 material. Yet here we all are. Overwatch might be overhyped, and in the end it might just be an rpg in first person, but until any of us play it we can't know that. I get the same feelings looking at Overwatch that I did when seeing TF2. Looks cool, some really cool mechanics, a bit gimmicky, but has an awesome core concept. It isnt going to be TF3. But it might offer a unique and fun experience, and since it is a Blizzard game it will have a huge audience, be even more hyped—and since it is their only FPS—might recieve some tender love and care in the comp/support department.

You guys ever think "expelliarmus!" right as you push one out?

taken

lol thanks, dance

I have a CD key for either Farcry 4, Assassins Creed Unity, or The Crew. About $60.00 value.

These games do not really interest me, so I thought I would check if anyone here might want to strike up a deal. Talk to me in STEAM or send me a PM if this interests you. I'm looking to get Bioshock: Burial at Sea Ep.2 ($15) and Metro Last Light Redux($25) in return. I also like CS skins. :D

That really is the linchpin. But it seems stubborn considering they haven't tweaked premium to accomodate TF2 since they decided to host TF2 at all. Their stance might be "we won't give away our product." But their product for this game isn't the premium service, it is the assurance of competition and the LAN that Tf2 players are buying.

I agree with you. But if ESEA is in the business of milking cows, and they're starting to run out of cows on the farm, it makes monetary sense to open up the gates, let the cows in, and allow them to see how awesome your farm is. You don't even have to feed them. Enough of them will decide what you have to offer is right for them. Then ESEA can milk away.

You don't need to be forward thinking to see this. Not doing this seems more like laziness or a genuine indifference to the future of this game in the league (dumb for reasons in above cow nonesense). TF2 isnt CS and doesnt have a growing and surplus supply of comp interested players. This isn't news to anyone, but if your in the business of making money off those at all interested...you have to bring them to the farm first. This policy should just be the default for a game with less numbers particularly when there exists a free option elsewhere.

I hate to spread the "esea just doesn't care" warcry, but what is the excuse? I'm certain there must be a complicated financial explanation I just don't understand that differs from "must haul as much $$$ off the Titanic while we can." Or to keep the other metaphor "lets milk these drowning cows while we can, our other farm is doing fine."

Hmm. I suppose I could see that. Yet, if the idea is consolidation (as mentioned in the other thread) it seems to me this would be a good thing.

Only the non-serious and weak teams would decide to play in a free division, as there would be 0 motiviation to do well in that division other than bragging rights (UGC model). If the weak teams from open went to free, current paid divisions were consolidated, and UGC players had a reason to join the league (loss free entry), I smell a much healtheir league as a whole.

In this scenario, the bottom of IM could meld with the top of open (teams that stayed), and the top of IM could meld with invite. That gives you 3 divisions, two of them with prize pools where the talent is much closer than the doomsday scenario posed with invite and IM being broken down into open...and the new divisons will be more competitive.

In fact...why isn't "open" free to begin with. Don't they keep telling us the money goes right back to the players? Take the prize pool away. Literally open it up for any team to try, allow the weak teams to sandbag all they want there (they get nothing out of it), and use a fee-less/prizeless open division to advertize the product. For NA tf2, ESEA is the top product on the market, but to get it will cost you. As proved by UGC there is clearly a market for a free divison. It makes smart business sense for ESEA to use its "luxury" status in the market to attract these players with a free division. The league as a whole recieves fresh blood, who while arent paying yet, will certainly yeild a portion of players who want to try their hand at greater competition and a prize. Hence more customers.

What am I missing? This seems too obvious to not have been thought of already, so what am I not seeing here?

This seems to me a way to avoid having doomsday deadlines at the start of every season. The model as it stands now only sees people wagering whether or not they want to stop paying for the product, there is no welcome mat enticing people to start paying.

Edit: I know this probably belongs in the other thread, but somehow the topic was brought up here.