KanecoPrem this season is dismal, it's really really weak, probably the weakest I remember it. And to be honest your team isn't helping either, having a HL team basically in prem, out of the blue, without having to prove themselves, with a pyro main as a prem medic only adds insult to injury. Nothing against him obviously, but this detracts a lot from the "prestige" or "status" prem used to have. A few seasons ago, one team like yours would struggle in div1 or even div2.
I partly agree with this as I mentioned in the article, though I can tell you as I played in Division 1 and 2 a lot the past couple of years, my team is definitely better than Division 2, no matter how many seasons ago it was, perhaps 1-2 years ago we'd be around low/mid Division 1, can't argue with that but I am a much better player than I was 2 years ago, people improve over time. I agree about the prestige, to be placed automatically in Prem without a playoff after I spend best part of 3 seasons fighting to get into Prem and then staying in it takes away from it a little. Also Steve is actually amazing at Medic, when you got the right attitude it isn't hard to improve at a class like Medic.
KanecoBut not everything is bad, I have talked with a lot of people in the recent weeks, and I have come to the conclusion that we can take this as a blessing in disguise. Sometimes you need to take 1 step back to take 2 steps forward. If the community plays their cards right, we will have a wave of fresh upcoming talent showcasing in prem/div1, particularly this season, but much of it will stick for more seasons, and I think thats a great thing. As slin mentioned, I think this is part of a natural cycle, players leave, quit, have a break, whatever it is, life goes on, and so does prem, someone will have to replace them, while that will cause a bit of a "dark age" for eu tf2, I think in the long run it will be beneficial for us.
Well like every "dark point" in the scene, so to speak we have seen recovery and more and more amazing TF2, after i46 ofc all these amazing sides reformed/formed and come i49 EU scene was flourishing. For Season 9, few remember but Tt/FB played TCM and won one of the most amazing finals I ever watched, only games that beat it for me were TCM vs Infused Lower Bracket final at i43 and Mixup vs LG/eMg at S12 LAN. A great game can do wonders for the scene, get everyone hyped and even a crushing defeat can make people motivate themselves (i46 was best thing to happen to EU TF2).
KanecoEu tf2 is not stagnated, etf2l itself is stagnated, take a look at zoob logs.tf thread and check the unique players statistics and weekly/monthly players since i49, and you will see it's steadily increasing, tf2 is a f2p game, so there is always going to be an influx of new players, whether or not they are converted to the competitive format thats another story. But you still have the competitive community steadily increasing according to zoob's stats.
Yeah, it is an issue that is starting to be addressed - get these new people into competitive leagues. I've met a few people lately who are brand spanking new and been talking about their motivations to play, I find there is a lot that could be done better by ETF2L to get them into competitive leagues, but they're already starting to address it with the Highlander Open and I will give them a break as I used to try and do this sort of promotion, but now I am too lazy to admin and I know how stressful/time consuming admin work is.
KanecoWhat we can't afford is to lose the hype, I have been so detached this past 2 seasons, I don't even watch the streams anymore when I used to love them. This is because there is really no interest. There's no hype, no epic rivalries broder vs epsilon vs crackclan, I don't feel like supporting any team in prem. And thats a bad sign. You need people to get interested and attached to it, start supporting teams. And how will that happen? First, have stable teams (that dont fold after 1 season), teams with good players, interviews so you can get to know the teams and players, more preview articles, etc etc... Eventually people will grow to love some prem team and feel attached to it. And it will increase stream viewers as well. VanillaTV dying was also not very good for us, but I am glad it is coming back.
I agree, hype is huge, there are few people who try to create it. I mean getting all these comments shows there is still interest/hype of some sort, but we want to see hype from top Prem teams. Commenting in general on articles btw is the best way to motivate people to play more. When you write a great preview for a match/season and get less than 10 comments, you feel you haven't done much but when you got 50+ commenter's it's a really good feeling. So comment please! It helps. (shoutout to Enigma and Mana btw) :D
And regarding Hype, having my HL people in Prem could be good for getting people from 9v9 to play 6v6. If you're an average HL guy, like some 9v9 and not a fan of 6v6, you might enjoy seeing some of the best HL people battle it out in 6v6 Prem, like Street Hoops in invite are doing, lot of people are rooting for them in HL community. I don't pretend to be the most likable guy in this community, but it could be a good thing for 6v6.
KanecoAlso I wouldn't count on an international iseries this year, nothing was started yet and the americans seem too focused on their own community lan to even bother with it, which is a shame but oh well.
Don't hammer the nails in the coffin until pronounced dead officially. :P
KanecoBy the way Hildreth you got kiler's name wrong, like horribly wrong, I don't know where you got that 4 from but its kileR4fuNN. Also isn't it stefan instead of stefen? Other than that great article.
Hildreth - highlanderopen.org: i got your name wrong on my article, I beg for your forgiveness
kileR4fuNN' :P is now Online.
kileR4fuNN' :P: ahh no worries
kileR4fuNN' :P: :D
Thanks for the comment Kaneco btw. :)