I may be presuming too much about who deserves the credit, but Sami you are a miracle worker. Have you ever tried walking on water?

Warhuryeah playing an Insomnia lan, I feel statistics coming on.

sigafoo you magnificent bastard

Unfortunately the only data you can get that might interest the almighty Valve would be 6 figure stream viewers. Anyone want to chip into a viewbot fund?

In light of the high profile renewal of interest in making the competitive game more noob friendly, I think the time for this proposal has finally arrived. Driller has not yet replied to my email telling me to fuck off, so I think a million dollar prize pool can be easily secured.

Let it never be said that tftv doesn't generate new ideas for pushing the game to the sunlit uplands of a glorious competitive future.

When I was running occasional large scale surveys on the subject of unlocks (which seemed more important because of the global whitelist) it was obvious there was no significant appetite for this kind of change amongst the rank and file, or that the number of people who wanted to go restriction free were significantly larger than those who wanted to ban everything.

Of course b4nny interpreted neutral research into community sentiment as a personal attack on his agenda, and for the most part many of the admins involved weren't particularly interested in the results either otherwise the lists would have been tightened. Popular opinion has always pointed to a more conservative approach, there has never been unanimous or widespread support for these changes. I seriously doubt that has changed.

In the opinion of certain community leaders, no doubt all of these people were and are idiots.

Remember the endgame to this line of thinking is playing vanilla MM rules for literally no reward, unless you buy into some unhinged magical thinking. If it has any effect it'll just drive players away, and there is no horde of would-be competitive gamers waiting for bonk! to be allowed to replace them.

These are interesting if slightly naive comparisons. Competitiveness is the headline PR reason for salary caps, but the far more influential reason is for owners to control costs. It's also worth nothing that dynasty type teams of the past like the 49ers also cheated on the financial rules of the day to assemble their teams, as PSG have done recently in European soccer. Although things like draft systems make it clear that there is a design in the sports to bring losing teams up to a competitive level, it's worth remembering that when it comes to money there are always other interests in play.

The comparison of NFL winners (for example) vs EPL winners has a number of causes. The length of the league in the EPL is far longer, 38 games vs 19-20 games for the Superbowl winner so the quality has more chances to even out random events. The NFL uses a playoff system - the EPL is won in league points accrued, knockout rounds make the tournament much less predictable. And also factors such as the draft, salary rules, etc, help to even out the teams quality, but they are far from the biggest part.

In terms of a given game soccer is an enormously random sport. If you look at the difference between rich and poor teams it's extraordinary that the top teams dominate as little as they do. As you've noted the Champions League tournament, dominated by a knockout format, is much less predictable. The headline EPL example that you've skirted around mentioning of course is that Leicester City won the league with a player budget less than 15% of Manchester City's.

As far as TF2 goes, it's a very predictable game. Players have gravitated towards 5cp that by design softens the impact that random events or unexpected spikes in skill can have. It rewards sustained consistent high level play. Unlocks that create random events are banned. Players prize always having the feeling of the potential to have counter-play. The games mechanics don't really allow for the snowballing of advantages in the same way as something like Counterstrike, and very high skill one shot kills are rare so it's hard for big swings in momentum to happen. Protecting the uber is basically all we have, and in 5cp that's often not even enough for a round by itself. Sometimes not even a point.

The alternative modes aren't much better. Payload has a slow moving cart and is probably worse than 5cp in this regard, nobody plays CTF (although this does have quite a high potential snowballing element but without the mechanics to back it up), AD has been shunned amongst other things because it's too random which probably makes it a pretty good candidate for these purposes, KOTH seems to have an endless dearth of acceptable maps, although the potential for snipers to run rampant has made it potentially more entertaining.

Use of weirdo unlocks obviously hasn't derailed Froyotech in 7s so they're probably not a game changer.

Which leaves us mostly with format changes. Fewer rounds, shorter matches, knockout games, unfamiliar maps, etc. Seeing as Froyo seem to be able to win games 5-0 at will messing with the structure might have negligible effect, and would other teams scrim oddball maps Froyo wouldn't? Maybe. As someone else has mentioned handicapping may be an option.

There are a lot of options to explore here if breaking up Froyotech's hegemony is the goal, and a structural solution is more likely to be of lasting benefit. Regardless, it's been a pretty effective way to generate free publicity and make the league a talked about subject even if it's mostly criticism.

Maybe, but the fact there is a vacuum to fill is the point isn't it?

I have nothing but respect for the people trying their best and putting the work in. The problem is a lack of planning and clear structured guidance from above as well as a failure to keep creative and capable people that want to contribute inside the org.

Competition has happened before and it wasn't the end of the world, and at that time was based more around personal animosity than quality concerns. Then again given how many people qualify for "Wolf has fallen out with..." in the last 12 months maybe this wouldn't be much different.

Edit: Also the fact someone else is being wheeled out to do damage control is entirely predictable.

Regarding the note in the google doc on this, Essentials have actively rejected the use of any of my work in any of their productions despite it being freely available to all (apart from that impossibly high barrier of, you know, asking), so the end of the services will have had no effect on the i63 show. The reasons I've heard are "it's shit" and "it's off brand" (modifying OBS browser instance CSS being too hard presumably), although this is second hand at best.

Generally speaking the production shortcomings are down to a lack of attention to detail. The layouts were only very slightly improved from last year (as far as I could see one caption had better alignment) and there was still poor status information available most of the time, we still have a black curtain backdrop, shot framing was poor, hosts still left to fill desperately for hours on end, etc. Some of the nice novel technologies that made last year interesting are gone, at least partly because Wolfmachina has pissed off the developers.

This isn't to suggest that previous years efforts were perfect, and it's not the fault of the on-screen talent that they're put in difficult situations or that contributors aren't given enough time, but it's obvious that the amount of work put into this year was not enough.

However I would disagree with Uberchain that budget has that much to do with it, it's mostly down to control freakery at the top of Essentials combined with poor project planning and execution. An army of volunteers are there, they just aren't included either because of poor management or for frankly bizarre reasons. From the start Wolfmachina has pursued a course that has alienated established volunteers, but it doesn't matter if he has the protection of being the only Multiplay contact.

If anyone's planning to challenge Essentials for coverage the weak points are obvious and easily exploitable in a rival bid. At the very least some competition might force Essentials to up their game.

Also regarding the 12k, that's roughly a measure of how many website visitors there are on the Twitch homepage at any one time. Think about your own behaviour on the Twitch homepage if you happen to go to it. How long do you hang around watching what's there? Peak numbers from homepage exposure are meaningless (although if you have a clueless sponsor it might be handy), it's consistent numbers throughout the tournament that matter. We've had plenty of homepage exposure over the last few years and the total impact on long term TF2 viewing numbers is zero.

http://www.teamfortress.tv/post/888434/ban-pred-and-degu

http://www.teamfortress.tv/post/888434/ban-pred-and-degu

Too late for that.

I've been on the fence about keeping my various bits and pieces going, and it's just not worth it is it? The unchallenged levels of toxic behaviour make it an embarrassment to admit to being involved in comp TF2 now. This seems as good a moment as any to make that decision.

The login should be fixed. It'll probably still punt you back to the homepage but it should work after that.

Also added Season 30 ETF2L as a public set

Nuze to unexpectedly resolve the previously irresolvable endless conflict that results from our human nature

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.