ETF2L opening an NA section is much more likely

Stats nerd here. Dpm reflects a number of things, and one of them is aggression. Whenever you get into a fight your dpm goes up, win or lose, which can obviously include taking idiotic fights. It's much more important to send people to the spawn queue than it is to rack up damage, particularly for scout. Damage stats correlate poorly with match results because there are so many ways to get them that don't actually help you win the game, it's as much a matter of getting the right damage as getting high damage.

If both your kd and your kill rate are good then being more aggressive may get you more opportunities to boost those stats, but it might be out of character for your team and leave you isolated and ineffective. Methodical teams often post lower damage numbers because they pick and choose when to fight instead of putting on constant pressure. It doesn't mean they're worse, it's a style choice - what counts is winning the engagements and achieving the objectives. Low dpm can be a sign of good discipline in the right situation.

Instead of worrying about the stats directly look at how you're playing with your team. Around 30 to 40 percent of a player's stats are determined by the rest of their team so a huge amount depends on the context.

It won't be that important, ESEA thrive on a tiny percentage of CS players, a few flecks of froth on the foam of the seething mass, that are so dedicated they will accept the computing equivalent of a full rectal examination in return for a more effective anti cheat. Players who are at that level of fanatical dedication will find a way.

Nobody is making that assumption, this is hyperbole, another straw man for you to knock down.

That was always going to be the case, they'd be stupid not to. What's disappointing is that there's no confirmation that they'll put something into competitive to boost the profile of matchmaking. Doesn't mean it won't happen, but it maximises the chances of success if they dip their toes in the water.

You're obsessed with the age of the game and it's irrelevant, completely. Valve never want TF2 to die, you will just have to get used to that idea.

Valve have made their development investment decisions and they're developing competitive systems for the game. It's happening, making stuff up about how no company with any sense invests development time in it's assets that still make it millions of $ a year (that would be really stupid obviously) doesn't make that go away.

They've stated in conversations with players designed specifically for public consumption that they want to make competitive a core part of the game with all that entails, with the expectation that they change the players who are currently pubbers into competitive players, and to create a stream ecosystem around that new skill based focus. Out of the mouth of Valve employees, updating the game to the current landscape. I'm going to take their word for it over yours.

Tournament wise it's possible that they wait and see how it does and historically that would be true, but what they did for comp TF2 in the past is from before the age of Twitch, before CSGO and before Dota 2. There is no reason to expect history to repeat itself as the landscape has changed so much and their attitude and experience as a company has grown massively in that area. There are good reasons to accelerate some competitive tournaments early to hype up adoption and grow that stream ecosystem, it's not hard to find another example of that happening right now: Overwatch.

Nobody is talking about million dollar tournaments or massive investments in events. Those are straw men, feel free to knock them down. What's happening is happening and it's indisputable, they're doing the work and investing in the game. Valve only own a limited number of major IPs and TF2 is one of them, it would actually be sheer idiocy to not invest in it to keep it relevant in the current gaming landscape, and fortunately that's not what they're doing.

I can't fathom why you'd write so much that's so obviously divorced from reality.

I'd just take issue with all the business brains saying it makes no sense for Valve to fund competitive events for TF2. The world has changed, Twitch is now the key promotional platform for any game, and the competitive events (as can be seen by which game is in the top spot at any given time) are what pull in the viewers, who become customers, who make publishers money.

Dota and CS are currently far bigger games but that wasn't always the case and it's in an environment where they receive vast publisher support. The fact that those games are the ones in the ascendancy is down to a big slice of chance, their moment in the sun coinciding with the rise of Twitch, and the game experience so closely matching the competitive format.

The end game to the competitive developments Valve are making must be to fund events for promotional purposes otherwise there's no point doing it. They're rebuilding the player base from the ground up to play MM in a lan viable small team format, and promotional events on Twitch will help that transformation too - there's a case for it happening sooner rather than later and I hope internally they're having that discussion.

Simplified but the gist of it is largely right, although saying someone posted a POV so they can't be hacking is pretty ignorant.

At this point hacking Overwatch requires some hard core knowledge of hacking techniques and a lot of work. Later on as they become better known techniques will become more common place. There's no doubt that commonly used engines will be more hackable, and the proprietary nature of the engine will be some protection from mass hacking. Having said that there are some things that a game engine just has to do, so it's not that big a mystery.

Blizzard's legal approach will stop industrial manufacture and distribution of hacks, but not private and underground development.

They're all Spanish?

No, it's the opposite. It's people outside the spotlight who don't want it or need it, and decisions and events passing Valve by that will see talent that may be very productive in the future gone for good - talent that has given 100% for years and would clearly be an asset. In a period when Overwatch is stripping TF2 of it's top players they might want to reflect on that.

OK, I'm out

I can see your point, but there is a counter consideration and it is important. If they give b4nny patronage like this they're entering scene politics which is something they very much don't like to do for obvious reasons. Fact is there are some people with low morale who are getting fed up of Valve's choices, some that everybody knows about, some that not many people know about.

There's a good chance some familiar faces will be moving on soon, whether with a big splash or in silence. It's a shame because the game is reaching a critical point and gathering the troops could lead to some really good things being prepared, and some of the talent and experience that's around now won't be there when Valve's ready. Sure they might come back, but they might not.

It would be good if they could throw a bone to some of the people laying the groundwork for this stuff, and I don't mean a hat.

When you look at the guides and support Dota has in client and how they relate to the game, i.e. they actually do relate to the game, it's kind of ridiculous you have these vague and misleading class definitions of attack/defence in TF2 and that's pretty much it. Because the game development went in the direction of items, f2p, micro transactions and eventually community contributions providing the engine for all of that it seems to have been left with a skeleton crew of developers. There's a long way to go but hopefully they'll keep pushing it, and resource it properly.

Yes, this is what MM needs to be about, providing that ladder experience so you get a sense of progression and learn the competitive formats, and sometimes test yourself against the best. That needs to be coupled with some visible support for competitive events.

The competitive scene is almost as invisible as it has always been, but the way things have developed with Twitch having big events has become a big part of promoting a game, better promoted competition targetting the same audience (*cough* Overwatch) will eventually bleed the scene, and the game as a whole, dry.

Can we stream his reaction to getting it?

IIRC this is the rationale behind putting matchmaking in the game, changing casual players into competitive gamers and establishing the base for a different TF2. It's a long road though, MM is still in beta so it's not even open to everybody yet.