It's not the winning that counts...it's the taking part.

Joking, I cry myself to sleep every night clutching those medals dreaming of a 1st Place Platinum medal.

I watched segments of Byte's stream, I am surprised tbh to see TSE won, he didn't have a single sentence the time I watched without swearing.

Here is some - they're better known than you.

Interesting updates? DJC on Demoman? When they can just get the master Demo, "Better than Collide with 130 ping" in their roster?!?!

You got some explaining to do Max!

No.

What's going on in NA Platinum? I haven't followed too much lately

Xalox left Ginyu? Ruwin on Demo?
mTs might finally win UGC?
Huey Lewis hasn't quit his team yet?
BPM haven't cut Cygnus for TMP yet?
Mustardoverlord did not do 10k Damage per minute?

Happy thanksgiving, especially to the European division.

What's going on next Season? Ginyu folding? Polk back in Platinum as Heavy? GOSSIP.

I-series is an example of the power of community in TF2, it's a worthwhile comparison to any community driven project. The differences in continent act only as barriers, a big community LAN with an attractive prize pool, a selection of invite players + a good amount of players attending AND ESEA LAN? Those two things together would be amazing.

Also why didn't you answer my questions for HL interview, I worked hard on them. :(

National community LANs are only comparable in a way that say a North-Eastern US LAN, there are many of those.

But an event comparable to the Summer I-series? Where people come from all over Europe and for the last 2 years, all over the world to attend? A different prospect altogether, US is bigger than Europe and slightly more expensive, but for a country that prides itself for doing things bigger and better than any other nation on earth, it shouldn't be a problem right? Remember, I-series is to, a community LAN based in the UK in which during the summer, the European TF2 community has turned into the best TF2 event of the year.

The NA community wants this but just by saying "it can't be done" seems to me like a defence mechanism out of fear of losing the one prestigious event that the NA scene has. Don't get me wrong, here in the EU we'd love a LAN comparable to ESEA, rather than online playoffs for ETF2L due to happen over the next 3 weeks, we'd have a LAN finals to crown the champion? That'd be amazing for the players and even more appealing to the spectators. And to be honest, I'd hate to see ESEA LAN's die, they're great events and I always look forward to viewing them.

It can be done, don't delude yourselves that is can't. It just requires people to actually pull out the stops and sacrifice things, even if it is mostly focusing on one side of the country to begin with, the others will flock in. For i-series, majority of people in attendance are from Western Europe but we do have a lot of Eastern/Central/Scandinavians attend. Only the community can make it happen though...

The absolute sad thing about this is none of you Americans are daring to dream.

You just say something is impossible and dismiss it based on theories, yet in Europe people continue to make tremendous efforts to attend I-series and community LANs. you have had bigger and bigger LAN events every year, the last one that happened at the start of October had a good turnout, 60+ TF2 players or so? That to me is a LAN scene growing - The I-series actually has Spring/Winter events dying over time but the Summer one remains stronger than ever, and that tournament didn't get good overnight, it went from small scale to large scale over time.

I compared prices of flights around Europe and America, on average it's slightly higher in US, cross country flights from coast to coast are pretty expensive, (£600+) though your closer (couple hundred miles) flights aren't that much more expensive than say, flying from Sweden to Birmingham, UK. I'll admit on average it's at least 20% more expensive, especially long distance.

However extra expense....isn't an excuse to just say "we can't do it, not possible" and compare Europe + US size. IT IS VERY POSSIBLE, it just requires hard work, committment and effort to make it happen and to many people here it feels like no-one is willing to be a Tapley or a Firestorm and make it happen.

The cost shouldn't even be a factor, isn't one of your favourite national movies "Field of Dreams" (or something). The famous quote being "If you build it, they will come" - Start small, like the LAN you had in October, build on it, build on it and start garnering interest for larger prize pools, Invite teams attending and eventually people will want to dish out $1,000 to attend.

And defy, considering the amount of logic Emilio gives you, you're one rude man to insult his intelligence when he makes very good points.

Great stuff

In Europe we call some things slightly differently:

For Badlands yard:

"Cliff/Pride Rock" - We call it "Launchpad."
"Patio/Porch" - Can also be called "Haunter".
"Battlements" can also be called "Balcony"
"Diagonal" can also be called "Wooden Bridge"

Other places on maps as well differ slightly, such as Gullywash mids, the "Elbow" bit can also be called "Diagonal", "Closet" and "Shithouse."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iu6jO_cxiqQ

You have to take pride in some aspects of your life, but yes National/Ethnic Identity is a pretty sombre choice in comparison to things such as taking pride in your own achievements, or your families history or how well you tolerate others in this world.

The absolute worst thing on the internet in my opinion is when I watch something like a Cricket clip (I like Cricket) and admire the video then suddenly I see a bunch of people in the comments section arguing about historical facts behind British Empire dominating the world, or 1857 Uprising in India and the murdering of civilians, blah blah blah. All I wanted to do was watch a sport's clip.

Squid has some very good points, but ultimately the majority of this game is community based and no matter what you say Squid, Snowy's point will always, always mean more.

Here, we have a great education system in comparison to what it used to be but the attitudes of society, individuals and teachers really impact your response to the tools at your disposal. It could be a lot better than it is...

I don't care that mix^ off-classed, when my team played Epsilon I like to think we gave them enough of a game that they took it seriously enough to have to try hard to win. If you're winning and you're barely trying, yeah it's boring I get that and if you're losing to a team that is off-classing with huntsman snipers, you're not doing it right (you should in theory be able to win the game from that point).

My only problem with this is Platinum wants to justify his off-classing merits with the argument - "there is no incentive because the community wants to quit a league which steals from it's own customers and disrespects their community." Sorry but who are you to judge what the community wants? They've dished out thousands of pounds for you to play TF2 in Europe and spent money on ESEA even when they know they won't get a return so that you can have a LAN and prize money to play for. Every season these LANs happen, even the best teams barely make a return on their money minus travelling costs so I don't understand the "lack of incentive" without prizes?

Explain it to me. Off-classing itself in a game you're rolling? No biggie in my eyes, but justifying it because the community wants to ditch a Pay-to-play league? Yeah that needs an explanation.

What are you on about? Not making a decision to reschedule the game is as tough a decision to make as rescheduling the game. I can't really say whether or not it was the CORRECT decision without the details but every choice made it for a good reason, a game like Sweden v Germany would have had a long in depth discussion involving the decision.

ESEA's zero tolerance policy is part of the reason why:

1) One of the best teams in NA Invite dropped from the league.
2) Why some European teams have dropped.

Zero tolerance for particular rules is necessary, but common sense needs to apply. For example why do you think we have warnings in ETF2L? To keep teams in check and on schedule but if a team cannot remain on schedule they have a safety blanket of a Wildcard and at worst, they will get a minor warning (accumulate 3 per season and you lose a point). If ESEA had run something similiar, Watch This would still be in Invite.