If Marxist says it I reverse my opinion. Ban it

How about leagues including a "flex" spot in their map pools that can be any of the other game modes as long as it's not 5cp? Or maybe not 5cp and koth? Map makers need the incentive that their maps will actually be played.

If for example there was a guaranteed payload slot and a guaranteed AD spot there would definitely be more incentive to make maps for those modes, as anything competent pretty much takes the slot. It would require leagues and players to commit to playing game modes and maps they have voted they would rather not though until those maps were made. Who jumps first?

Mate, the crossbow is a cracking unlock. Being an upgrade on stock is not a reason for banning.

It adds so much to the medic without negatively altering the game balance and it works great in comp and pubs. Most importantly it adds a load of ways for medic to outplay the opposition because there is a big skill cap in terms of awareness and mechanics. This is the heart of a good competitive unlock. It would probably survive being nerfed a bit as well.

You see Valve, you can design good items if you try.

Valve created the promod Slin. They could have worked harder and made unlocks work for everyone but they didn't want to.

Slin, where do you think the line should be drawn between Valve's MyM and what currently exists? I feel like the ultimate logic here leads to adopting the MyM ruleset because those are now - whether people like them or not - the "official" competitive TF2 rules with the "official" competitive TF2 map list.

Obviously if someone tried it there would be uproar... but where else can this path lead?

I ask because if we're talking about minimum friction for new players that is where they will come from. Talking about pubbers as such is now outdated. There is another official competitive mode in the mix that presumably a lot of players potentially interested in competitive are using.

At some point in it's development there was, and possibly still is, an entry for "strategy time" in the game's code. I always thought this might refer to an unlock banning phase or something similar, that would at least give the opportunity for them to gather structured feedback on the unlocks people least want to see used. Shame they never bothered with something like that.

You've left me no alternative

But who will volunteer for an hour of scoreless Gullywash?

Watch this hour of riveting 1-0 gameplay and decide for yourself. I wouldn't call it arbitrary

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5kJie5tG_t4

It's banning was met with widespread jubilation

As far as the changes to the unlock go they probably aren't strong enough but who knows?

A conversion! Testify!

Yeah... you're sad b4nny left and the thread went quiet and you're trolling on his behalf

Hard to say if this is serious given your username but.... there is no new opportunity. If you think b4nny or slin's experience is markedly different to the one I outlined above think again. Nobody has a telephone straight to God here. Valve don't talk to CSGO players - think of the difference in profile and importance to the game and consider that.

Fucking around with some unlocks isn't going to make a difference and it isn't the reason that the entire competitive scene is such a small part of the overall player base. People aren't going to start playing our mode because bonk is unbanned.

What I can guarantee you is that if Valve made a move then all bets are off, game mode, maps, unlocks, fuck it; we are playing ctf_doublecross with the Pomson at the TF2 Valve major.

Flawless logic. Obviously they don't have this level of commitment

You email eric, driller, jill, or any other number of TF2 people or even the whole team. You get a reply saying thanks for your email. Except on the rare occasions that your email has immediate practical application it disappears without trace. They will do stuff like schedule in-game notifications if you're running an event and ask nicely, or add stuff to the blog if you provide most of the content, or do medals (eventually) as long as you provide the models.

Everything about competitive support is "we'd like to but we're not quite ready for it yet". That sounds promising, but really they're not going to tell their customers to fuck off without hope are they? Once you've heard it for the 10th time it becomes clear that particular train is never arriving at the station.

e: you can add them on steam as well, but the results are basically the same

e2: Just to provide some balance to the negativity, they'll be interested when the community becomes important in it's own right as a share of their TF2 customers or it gains a high profile through other means. If you want to pursue the path to majors the best thing is to promote what is still a great competitive game however you can and get people into leagues and systems that can expand it's profile, faceit and esea for example. The voluntary leagues unfortunately lack clout in that regard. Bit harder to achieve from the grass roots with the arrival of the recent competition though.

Which goes to the heart of why the current unlocks situation and Valve's whole approach is so flawed. (The following rant is not aimed specifically at you kaidus btw)

When it happened they had a design choice to make. To continue to make TF2 a casual game and introduce items based around fun mechanics with no thought to the competitive scene, or to work a bit harder and design items that also had competitive play in mind and consider the needs of those players. They chose option 1 - ban what you don't like and they'll design the game how they like. They created the situation.

That's why MyM represents such a half hearted attempt at "embracing" competitive. Because they haven't gone back to that point and looked at the fundamental design direction of the game and why so many unlocks are banned.

It's not hard to get detailed feedback on these items, they've been discussed endlessly here and elsewhere over the years. It doesn't take long to find the definitive reasons for banning items. That's why the idea that they have to be revisited forever by current players is absurd. If Valve wanted to do something about them they would have. If they had a vision and wanted to enter into a dialog about them they could have.

I could rant around this subject for hours, the extent to which they've beefed it in the face of the competition is staggering. If you won't listen to their loud and clear messages on this then it will never get through to you. Do what you like with the unlocks but don't do it with the idea that it will change anything about the game other than your experience of playing it.

Dropping the med for free at random from a lost mid will happen