Can I get a link to the raw results?

Are you sure you don't want to go with warhuryeah.gg?

The difference now is that those broad numbers are all being exposed to a competitive format directly in the client supported by Valve infrastructure, including the casual mode. We might not think of it as competitive TF2 because we've been in this self made bubble for nearly a decade, but there are probably more people than ever playing a competitive format and it's the one Valve is pushing.

I expect (assuming Valve are happy with the way it works out) that what we consider to be competitive TF2 now will die off and be replaced by the Valve format in time, a format that is being directly promoted to more players every few days than have likely played a full season in any competitive league past or present, the people in those steam graphs.

If you accept the Valve format is a legitimate competitive game then this is like pugchamp, tf2pickup, tf2center, tf2lobby or any other mix site or service hosting thousands of games a day. Something none of them ever achieved. Competitive is bigger than it has ever been right now, it's just that we're now the ones outside.

Support withdrawn from England due to choice of team avatar.

Deutschland, Deutschland uber alles...

I think this is debatable. For a start you always get something with a crate, also to go into a crate opening frenzy you have to acquire them. They drop pretty slowly, a slot machine is ever present and it's perfectly happy to accept your cash at any moment. That's an important distinction. You can acquire crates from the market but you have to go and do it, they don't just endlessly refill.

There's also the sensory feedback element, slots are designed to give high intensity sensory feedback which has been shown to alter user's conscious state and to create a sense of winning when losing. Last time I opened a crate it was a pretty unremarkable affair, except for the rather muted countdown. It's disingenuous to liken crates to slot machines, they're on an entirely different level of manipulation and destructive behaviour in my view. I think something like Hearthstone card packs are closer to slot machines in this regard.

The crate and item system in TF2 can have upsides, things like grasping the basics of economics, trading, understanding value, etc. None of these are present in gambling, you simply stake your money and you win or lose. I can see where your coming from and "problem uncrating" is possible, but I think the seriousness of the case is overstated in this instance.

But that debate is even wider, there are all kinds of manipulations used to sell children products they don't need which are equally pernicious and to which they are particularly susceptible. How far do you want to take it?

The point is that you don't get to choose your definition. The whole issue is clearly legally motivated so the only definition that matters for any practical purpose is the legal one.

Valve weren't the first and won't be the last to use random rewards to lure in kids. Panini have been flogging sticker albums + packs for decades, to say it isn't new is putting it mildly.

This has everything to do with the letter of the law and nothing to do with mindset

It's not. Buying and opening a packet of football stickers or ccg cards or a kinder egg (all of which have after markets of varying degrees) all contain a random element and are all clearly not considered gambling in any legal sense. Buying a crate is much more like this. It takes more than a random element to amount to gambling.

Betting on sporting outcomes or in casino games is clearly gambling. To extend your own comparison, buying a random number of casino chips (or an in-game item of random value, or a football sticker, kinder toy or ccg card) is not gambling. Using your chips in games of chance is gambling.

You may not like the distinction and find it hypocritical but it exists in law. Nothing about this will change.

It's possible to detect unexpected hooking into game functions regardless of where the original process is running, I've seen cheats that try to hide in "protected" anti virus memory but it's more of a gimmick really. Vac could be more aggressive and effective than it is.

It's like a credit note when applied to people who sell items on the market, looking at all this I get the impression that it's required because it's all part of the same system that also pays devs and item makers and as you say they haven't separated the distinction between user steam wallets and "real" business transactions. I've no idea if the IRS would be interested in credit notes in the way they're applied here, through trading you can certainly acquire more of them than you put in.

The complication with something like points instead of $ for users is that exchange rates become a source of real difficulty, if currency markets move in a certain direction you can end up with more points in the system than there is real cash to cover them, and somewhere a real business transaction has to take place when a game or item is purchased, so then they become a kind of bank that is potentially technically insolvent. Scary stuff.

e: Although I suppose if you forced all incoming transactions to be in $ it would eliminate that risk. It's also slightly brain melting stuff.

Viaduct snow (and snow in orange box source in general) is a well known eater of fps

I think the ladder grind is the replacement really. Their judgement must be that players motivated by MvM type rewards aren't the type to play a lot of competitive games, and they'd have the data to make that call.

I can see the logic but it's only really gambling if you can directly get your money back. Crates are more like football sticker packs or kinder eggs.

Hentai hud with competitive links in it. Been sayin it for years