Opt out of the Steam Client Beta. For some reason that's solving the FPS issue for a lot of players.

Sounds like you have a bone to pick with them.

I tease. Spamfest is a delight to play with in highlander, I'm sure he's great fun in 6s too.

How is that different from what I said?

My understanding is that they are cutting it. The Highlander subforums are gone and I believe that highlander & everything that isn't Invite and Prem 6s no longer is allowed articles. Not sure about casts, but given teamfortress.tv's relationship with EVL lately, I don't suspect those casts will be highly featured.

I think brooky was referring to the possibility of him doing writeups on UGC, or maybe /truetf.

It's a really unfortunate decision and, as you said, means that competitive Team Fortress 2 no longer has a central hub.

My guess is that it's a set punishment if that particular "offense" is seen, and he'd have gotten in trouble for not taking action.

The admin response on the ban makes it clear that the ban is in regard to "inappropriate advertising". There is no mention of additional trolling in the response.

That's either really clear or incredibly sloppy.

Their rule and, especially, their interpretation of it IS within their rights....but it is terrible, terrible PR. You don't see that type of response from any successful business because rules like that only end up generating ill will and negative PR. The message TF2Center is sending is that they're scared of competition, and they're getting that message across by reiterating that if you want to use their site you have to do things within their ever-limiting rule structure.

What's more, every time something like this happens, it's generating more positive PR for TF2Stadium and other potential competition whilst making the differences between those sites and TF2Center even clearer. It's not as though TF2Center is the only place to share information about TF2 or even a main method for doing so; they're not actually accomplishing anything except infuriating their user base and drawing more attention to their competition.

It's not smart business and it reeks of pettiness and insecurity. I'd say it's like watching a car crash in slow motion, but, unlike with a car crash, TF2Center has had so many chances to hit the brakes and fix things. Every bit of controversy and outcry was a chance for them to slow down and listen to what their players are telling them, but they instead just keep hitting the gas, because where else can their users go?

But now, with actual competition on the horizon, they're nearing the point where they HAVE to slow down and listen or they'll crash and burn.

I don't know which direction they'll choose, but I do know I hopped off that ride months ago.

Organizations make mistakes; I fully expect TF2Stadium and other potential lobby sites to make their share of them. What interests me is how they respond to them. Did they learn from their mistakes? Did they change things so that that type of mistake couldn't happen again? Did they make any amends needed? TF2Center failed me (and all of us) in that regard, but I'm hopeful that TF2Stadium won't do the same. So long as TF2Stadium meets my expectations, I'm on board and looking forward to its launch. TF2Stadium hype train away!

(I guess I've pulled a Doc Brown and traded in the broken car for a snazzy train. Here's to the future!)

Lovely article as always, brooky.

It seems that I don't collect Europeans, but British players (those accents, am I right?). Goreston's been on the roster since before Season 16, but we also had Munky starting for a couple of seasons until he decided that something called "school" was more important than staying up to the wee hours of the night to offclass for some silly Americans.

2 seasons and counting, baby. Who needs the same roster week to week?

*sobs*

I don't think -ww- will get a bye, as they are already down a week's playing time.

To give the admins a break. Five or so weeks between the end of playoffs and the start of the next season three seasons a year is a bit much.

Great article, brooky.

Just FYI, the Loch-N-Load isn't a new ban.

You're looking at it all wrong. This is the top 10 plays of the month, not the top 10 players.

It's not 90% of the people on this forum who made those plays against an Iron team; it's an Iron player who managed to pull it off. That Iron player's 7 killstreak was very impressive (just look at the feedback on this thread) and forcing it below Herr_P's 6 kills simply because Herr_P is Prem would be silly. Yes, Herr_P's aim is as accurate as you'd expect to see from a top tier player, and his wiping out the entire team a great feat, but look at the difference in their plays: Herr_P lands 10-12 meatshots but doesn't come under fire until the 6th kill; the first 4 were busy fighting other players and the 5th was the passive Med. Meanwhile, Murloc Jonny headshots the Med and Pyro, bodyshots the Demo, headshots the Engie, avoids taking damage from the Scout and Sniper, airshot headshots the Solly, headshots the Sniper, takes damage from the Spy and turns and quickscope headshots the Spy. How can you argue that Murloc Jonny's show of skill is based on the other players being bad?

And then there's the #1 clip. In it, a player who has never played comp before Arena:Respawn plays 3 v 5 a group of players who are probably also new to comp. Now, keep in mind that the 3 v 5 was for the entire game; the rest of their team wasn't able to make the first couple of matches in the event. In the clip, this newbie Scout managed to win a 5 v 1 while focused and on fire. Yes, the other team was foolish in allowing the minicrit debuff to linger, but it's still not every Scout who can win a 1 v 5 against players who are of the same skill level and are all focused on killing him/her. It IS a very good play, which is what the Top 10 Plays of the Month are all about. Is it a messy play? Absolutely; it's nowhere near as clean as the #2 and #3 clips. But, at the same time, it's an interesting set of circumstances not seen before on Top 10 Plays and it's hard to blame the eXtv team for wanting to spotlight it.

People are always going to quibble whenever rankings are involved, but it's very unfair to blame the quality of the clips on how a few of them are ranked. Do you really think the eXtv team passed on high level clips because they wanted to be edgy and show mostly lower-ranking ones? And do you really believe top players didn't submit because there was a chance that this month's video could include low ranking divisions over higher divs? Of course not. High level players didn't submit because they didn't take the time to submit. That's all there is to it.

With luck, though, this thread will remind higher division players to submit, and future Top 10 Plays will get to showcase more high level talent.

Since people seem to be unsure about the source of the clips used (lobby/format/etc), here's the breakdown:

#10 June 12th UGC 4s Gold match Bay vs ^DPP^ (only the first half has logs)
#9 June 10th UGC 6s Steel match WRCNE6v6 vs <s.D>
#8 May 27th OWL 13 (OZFortress Winter League) 6s match PlanA vs cbs
#7 June 6th UGC HL AUS/NZ Steel match High9 vs -GC-
#6 June 26th ESEA Open 6s match 5KWF vs Pwnage
#5 June 3rd UGC 6s Steel match GTM vs Yiff
#4 February 20th UGC 4s Steel Euro match Feri< vs SOA
#3 June 7th ETF2L 6s Prem match TLR vs [R]eason
#2 June 15th UGC HL Iron match KAOS vs burdz
#1 June 16th Best Coast Battle Arena: Respawn match Spanish_Inquisition vs East Beasts (note SI were playing the entire match 3 v 5)

Matches 100% Scrims 0% Other 0%

4s 20% 6s 50% AR 10% HL 20%

Asia 0% AZ/NA 20% Euro 20% NA 60%

Plat/Prem/Invite 10% Gold/Silver/High/Intermediate 10% Steel/Iron/Mid/Open 60% Unrankable 20%

Appropriately Dated Clips 80% "We'll Let This One Slide" 10% "Clearly Has Blackmail on eXelevision" 10%

Ultimately, the clips were a good mixture of game formats and regions; it's just very clear that players from the higher divisions need to submit more (although congrats to the newer players who ended up with unexpected glory as a result).

I really think we need to remember that showcases like these are a service to the community; Lucky Luke, eXtine, and Airon aren't doing this for themselves. We give little to nothing but receive solid entertainment and promotion for the game we love, which is completely fine—until we start complaining about it. I'm sure Aesop would have something to say about that. In fact...

Let's grab some apple juice and sit down on the Storytime carpet for a few minutes, shall we?

Once upon a time there was a community of starving artists whose talented work was ignored and unappreciated by the world at large. One day, a few fellow artists opened a small city art gallery/meatball café nearby and they extended* an offer to the starving artist community to showcase its work for free. What's more, the starving artists were invited to visit the gallery for free whenever they wanted, although they were quietly encouraged to buy a meatball or two when they could in order for the gallery to recoup some of its operating expenses.

For a long time the relationship between the starving artists and the gallery was a good one. The gallery owners frequently put together carefully-produced exhibitions which resulted in increasing the popularity of quite a few of the starving artists and, indeed, of the niche market of starving art itself. Best of all, some of the exhibition attendees enjoyed the art so much that they too became starving artists and bolstered the ranks the ranks of the community.

After some time, however, the starving artists grew complacent and many neglected to send new pieces to the gallery. As a result, the gallery owners were forced to include more and more works by beginning artists into their exhibitions. When the starving artists attended these shows, many became outraged: how dare the gallery owners diminish and insult their art with such inexperienced pieces?

The starving artists berated the gallery owners and then vented their rage via negative yelp reviews about the size of the gallery's meatballs—positive that these actions would serve as a lesson to the gallery owners about showcasing "inferior" art. When the gallery owners attempted to explain why they had to use the art they did, the starving artists overrode their explanations with more complaints. "That will teach them," thought the starving artists.

And they were right.

The gallery owners sat down together with a bucket of meatball poppers and discussed what their relationship with the starving artists had become. They quickly realized that they were putting in more time, energy, and passion into caring about the starving artists' work than the artists themselves were. And so, the next day the gallery owners boarded up the gallery windows, packed the truck full of meatballs, and drove off into the mid-afternoon sun** in search of a community that would work with them toward greatness.

That evening the starving artists stared at the closed down gallery in shock. They beat their fists against the locked door, demanding to know where they were supposed to show their art now. The only response they received was the slight aroma of meatballs and better days.

A few of the starving artists attempted to host their own galleries, but the world had noted the bad yelp reviews and behavior of the starving artists and, so, the public stayed clear. Potential new artists steered clear of the community, far too intimidated by the starving artists' reputation and their criticism of new artists. And so, one by one old members moved on to other things until the day came when the community was no more.

The starving artists were gone and their art existed now only in the saddest and hollowest of their memories.

This cautionary tale is brought to you by the following Morals:

• Don't bite the hand that feeds you.
  
• Don't look a gift horse in the mouth.
  
• Woe is the comp TF2 player who becomes the snobbish, free-loading starving artist.***

*my caps lock doesn't stick,
**because it takes time to move, but, since it's mostly meatballs, not that much. obviously.
***because this whole thing was a comparison of comp TF2 players to the starving artists and of the eXtv crew to the gallery owners. mind totally blown, am i right?

Gotcha, thanks. I think we're on the same page now.

I don't understand where you're getting the idea that anyone is forgiving him, absolving him, offering him sympathy, or expecting you to be okay with his actions.

It's simply that he's already leaving in disgrace; why should we take further action, especially action that could cause more harm? There's a reason they say two wrongs don't make a right. Don't you want our actions to be better than his?

I think it's far more of an assumption to state that he's a well-adjusted individual based on watching a few of his gaming streams than it is to suspect something might be wrong based upon his emotional videos, posts, and clearly long-running & detailed obsessions.

No one in this thread is saying that they approve of axio's actions, but some of us are of the opinion that ridiculing him further accomplishes nothing positive and could cause actual harm. He's fleeing the community crying, tail between his legs—why does anything else need to be done? If he one day returns the ball in his court to make things right, but for now we'll all be better people if we just let it go and move on.

I really don't think he's a troll.

He's invested hours upon hours into catching those he believes hacks. If you've ever seen his desktop over the past year you'll have seen that he always has a folder or two of different "hacking" conversations there. He seems to copy and screenshot most chat conversations and record most mumble conversations. He's made countless hours of video "proof" and has spent even more time engaged in forging evidence/conversations/fake accounts in hopes of gathering more "evidence" (and lost a lot of friendships as a result).

That isn't trolling; that's obsession.

If you've ever played against axio you've probably noticed that if he kills you it's because he's the best Sniper in the world (often complete with taunts and relevant chat), but if you kill him it's because you got lucky, your weapon/class is gimmicky or...you're a hacker. Players who are act like that usually do it because they're competitive beyond reason and/or because they need to believe they're the best.

The odds are very, very good that axio has gone and tied his self-worth as a person into how good he believes he is as a Sniper. As a result, he has to believe that anyone who outplays him without "luck" or "gimmicks" is hacking, otherwise he's forced to view himself as an all-around failure. What's worse, he's most likely not even aware that he's doing all this: to him, it's all black and white. So what's happened is that he's blown "purity/keeping out the hacks" in TF2 way out of realistic proportion and lost himself in that fight. In his mind, not only is he in the right, but he's sacrificed a great deal to save the rest of us from the "truths" only he has realized. And he clearly has given greatly to his cause; not only has he sacrificed his time and reputation, but it's pretty clear that he had some good friends humor his suspicions at the start and then back away when they better realized what was going on (and, perhaps trolled him a bit with things they were convinced he'd never really believe)—and I think those "betrayals" hurt him on a level he hasn't begun to recover from (and quite possibly pushed him further into his obsession).

So now, we have axio the hero, who has given his all to a cause that retaliates by pitchforking him. He can't believe the opinions of the majority are right—he'd have wasted over a year of his life and he'd be forced to admit he isn't "the best" that his self-esteem needs him to be; but, at the same time, he can't handle being all alone on his island of righteousness anymore, especially because most of the community throws hate and insults at him the moment they see him. He needs to be the best to preserve his self-esteem, but now his only options are to realize he isn't the best AND that he was wrong about so much, or to weather the erosion to his self-esteem that comes from being despised by almost the entire community of the game he's obsessed with. Mentally, he can't handle his options and so he broke down and filmed that clip.

It isn't trolling; it's a cry for help.

Could I be wrong about this? Absolutely. I'm sure there are tons of things I don't know about the situation. But I do believe there is a significant chance I'm right, and that's why I think it's best if we just let axio go without kicking him further. If I'm wrong, then oh well we missed a few chances to make fun of an easy target; but, if I'm right, then maybe we can dodge delivering a critical blow before he's able to get professional help. We might not agree with his actions or opinions, but we shouldn't forget that's he's still a human being with feelings who is quite possibly in the midst of a serious breakdown.

My mother's reaction to seeing some clips of me playing were "You kill people?And they kill you?...and you're okay with that?!?". I think before she watched the clips she thought I was playing some type of online version of baseball or something.

She has come to understand what a scrim is (always surprises me how uncommon that word is offline) and when she asks me about my plans for a particular night she'll ask if I have a scrim or match. The best part of it is she'll say it with the tone of somebody who is borrowing a term from a language they don't know and hoping that they got it right.

However, I'm 90% sure that if I ask her to tell me the name of the game I play she won't know it. She refers to it as "your online game", and if I say "Team Fortress 2" or "TF2" she'll usually ask me what that is.

Then again, I can't really be certain what she's picked up. She occasionally gets really interested and will ask me in detail about it all, especially in regard to friends and teammates (she doesn't care for aliases, though, so I have to use everyone's real names, which can be tricky). Sometimes, though, she'll make a correlation that I never expected her to make, most notably when I told her about how much money TOTH had raised last year, and her response was "wait, is that real money...or in hats?". I was both a proud daughter and an embarrassed player that day, since apparently I've been contributing to the TF2 = hats misconception without even realizing it.

Edit: I asked her today what the name of the game I played is. Her: "That game that you play all the time?" Me: "Yeah, do you know its actual name?" Her (with a look of confusion on her face) "Team Fortress 2". Me: "Oh wow, I wasn't sure if you knew it. We were talking about parents and TF2 and I didn't think you knew its name." Her (with a look of incredulity on her face): "I'm not dumb and I do pay attention when we talk." Touché, Mum. And thank you for listening to my silly hobby.