Added yomps to Ascent and wonderland and sash. The players they're replacing will remain in the system while anybody has them on their team.

I've made a quick update which should in most cases solve the blank page problem when someone joins a room, but it will still happen if the editor hasn't made any changes to be sent to the viewing clients yet. But that's to be expected right?

For extracting in 1080p at the moment there's nothing better than opening the viewing window to maximum screen size (it should scale with the window) and taking a screenshot.

Making stickies smaller is probably something I'd have to do globally, implementing resizing handles and so on would be quite a lot of time for a marginal feature but making them smaller is a quick hack.

Improving the editing window layout is a development goal, it's in it's most basic form at the moment.

There's always a key step I miss out in the documentation somewhere. When you make a change in the editor the view window will update as long as it's already open. That includes loading from archive, so if you have a blank window on the viewer's end just add a junk icon or something then remove it and they should see what you need.

I can probably update things so the viewing window automatically loads the current room state when started, that would probably be the ideal behaviour. It's a hang over from the casting setup when being transparent is an important state to default to.

Wouldn't have been done without our Sideshow either <3

Yeah it's a bit small in the editor, it should scale to full browser size in the viewing window. A more flexible/smarter control layout was one of the things I didn't really have time to address. I've got something in mind that may potentially solve that but it would push things back quite a bit, specially with seasons starting, so I went for the immediate release.

After a few requests to make the map analysis tool public (ably demonstrated by my lovely assistants here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r3EQAz1gHSA&t=62m7s) I've made a version that's just about acceptable for public consumption here

http://tactics.tf http://tactics.training.tf http://tactics.tf2stuff.com/

It's pretty bare bones stuff, just enough to get working and provide saving and loading. Documentation is located here http://tactics.training.tf/home/HowItWorks in case the link on the homepage escapes you. There are some limitations so it's worth reading through.

Sideshow did all the map screen grabs and it was for i55 so it has a 6v6 focus. I'm happy to add Highlander maps but I'll need someone who knows what they're looking for and is willing to put some thought into it to grab the best images. Ideally someone used to leading map talks and who has played at a decent enough level to pick good angles. Any volunteers just add me or post here or whatever.

I'm aware there are other options out there but people have asked for this so that's why it exists.

Also although the vast majority already do it's best to use the Chrome browser as the script engines on other browsers can sometimes struggle to keep up with editing.

Edit: example image for those who have no idea what this is
http://i.imgur.com/4Zb8FxZ.png

Last night's ESEA games should now be updated, also ozfortress brought up to date (I think!)

I think the term esports ecosystem covered it, I'm not sure what else I could have meant by that but if there's any confusion I'm talking about major lan events that don't necessarily rely on publisher support for their prize pools. Most major games have them happening fairly regularly.

Yeah I would also expect them to hold a hosted world championship and probably a qualifiers structure. What I mean by engaging with the wider ecosystem is to have third party events with alternative funding sources which, from a player's perspective, genuinely offers the chance to play truly professionally.

If there is enough interest to provide that independent sponsor support (I've seen Geico sponsoring something recently, US car insurance of all things) then that means a major viewership on youtube and twitch is on offer as well as regular prize pools of several thousand every month to the top teams. There's a living to be made there.

All the signs are that Blizzard is working with existing major orgs to produce the big eSports entry and those orgs will then have some kind of stake in marketing the game, which will push that agenda. Every shill in eSports journalism has been knocking out 500 words on why Overwatch is the next big thing and how you as a TF2 player can switch.

In some ways it's weird to see them fighting so hard for a totally unproven esports crowd, the leap of faith is pretty big. Blizzard seem to be sinking a lot of resources in whereas Valve seem to be looking at a fail fast approach where if it fucks up they haven't lost much.

Although I suppose this whole argument is predicated on the premise that there has to be a winner and loser. It's quite possible both will continue to exist side by side.

It's not just Blizzard, it really depends on whether it successfully establishes itself in the eSports eco-system and corporate sponsors take it up, which in turn depends on how well Blizzard manage to inflate that initial interest to produce viewer numbers.

On one hand they may gut the TF2 competitive scene (ESEA seems super vulnerable, but at the same time most likely to retain the hard core), but on the other it's a competitive scene that has very little inherent value so they need to not only steal all the best players, but also make other TF2 players who have never previously given a shit about them care.

Timing will be interesting, whether Valve are trying to reinvent TF2 before Overwatch hits or whether they're happy to let Blizzard make their pitch then try to re-establish themselves afterwards. Given that they have almost no stake in the existing competitive scene it's easier for them to take option b than we might imagine, but I'd like to see them fight for it more aggressively.

Both companies are making a bid to convert casuals and pubbers into competitive enthusiasts, which means strategically perhaps it's better for Valve not to stoke that interest too soon only for Blizzard's preconceived esports strategy sweep them away before Valve gets it's own tournament strategy in place. Valve have the air of amateurs being thwarted by a slick corporate machine at the moment though, the apparent passivity is a concern.

You should be able to access them through your profile, I should probably implement a public archive of finished competitions.

Tagg added as roamer to Attack of the Yomies

Meat Market vs Mad Luxurious has been processed, the season has begun!

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ESEA Season 20 Game is live!

With the first game of the season scheduled to start in just a few hours (if it goes ahead), a crack team of highly skilled analysts have broken all records to produce the prices for the ESEA Season 20 TF2 fantasy game.

As usual this early on rosters are in a state of flux so there is a provisional sense about some decisions, but any inaccuracies or changes we'll just have to live with and let the market correct over time.

Fantasy team owner's have been given double the amount of transfers every week compared to last season (up to 4 from 2) so recovering from ill advised purchases should be that much easier.

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