Russian, why don't you solve all of this and have Blackout TV crush both tf.tv AND vtv with BBC Olympics quality coverage of TF2 :)

Airing your dirty laundry in public makes you all look like a bunch of fucking children and does none of you any good, TF.TV or VTV. Man the hell up and at least attempt to conduct yourself in a professional manner, if that is indeed what you want to be seen as, professionals. Right now it all looks like amateur hour and it reflects badly on the community as a whole.

I was originally called HoTWire back in my QWTF and CS days... then playing LAN games at work I was the only guy sat between two other people and that is where the name comes from, look it up :)

Skyride you'd be the person that may know this then ,.. can you use something like VidBlaster and stream into this from say Huhy's stream output, mix audio (commentary) over it and then stream out of that for the Live stream.

The modules available for VidBlaster home can be set up in such a way that instant replay is possible. Other smarter people may well be able see the further implications of this as well.

I think it would be possible to do the replay idea by putting the power in the hands of the caster for the current size of production teams (ie 2 people),.. but they would be getting the video from the streamer, not connecting to the STV themselves. It is relatively easy to find video technology that will allow book marking and replay type things as an extension. My question was more around quality, lag/timing etc.

I suggested this elsewhere before, is it possible for the cameraman (or cameramen) to stream video to a director who then chooses the video stream to play, which the commentator is then commentating whilst viewing. This would allow for instant replays etc. by simple video manipulation rather than relying on in game tools. My initial thought is that there could be some serious lag or quality problems with this, but greater minds than mine would be able to better answer that.

Could also introduce some Big Plays style stuff to half time and post match show times.

I'd also add that EU got burned at i46 for the exact reason and are going into this even better prepared from what I understand.

This hype thread for Aus will be great to rile them up and hopefully they will be able to bring their A-game with something to prove and make for an awesome tournament.

Maybe we can throw in an Asian team for i52 :)

inb4 broder vs. Epsi final :)

I know that Splash Damage are aiming Dirty Bomb at competitive play. Will have to play it first to see how well they have done.

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For a bit of history, predating all of this (in the UK at least) we had Wireplay TF league and Multiplay TF leagues ... that is TF as in Quakeworld Team Fortress. My memory is hazy but I believe it was 9vs9 (or 10vs10 5 offense, 5 defense?), I do remember there were no class limits and running a 3 Engineer flag room hold on Aztec that was unbeatable. However that may have been one league, because I also remember only being able to lock one lift on Well flag area in the up position with a dispenser because we only had one engy (me).

I also remember that one team would pick one map and the other pick a different map, so everyone had their home maps.

Looking forward to more TF2 history lessons.

Surely there is mileage in submitting the spawnfix for granary back to Valve, it is a fix for a clear asymmetry in their map. Similar to the way the community submitted kill notification icons.

The shadow thing is a pain, however if it is an engine level fix then I'm not sure how likely it is to get done as I suspect most of the developers are working on next gen engine at this point. Then again CS:GO uses the same engine as TF2 now doesn't it? Is it a problem there too??

I always thought that map billboards should be skinable.. I've seen some servers with custom stuff in maps advertising their servers rules and things, so this should be possible??

I liked in the old Experiment video when the point changed to blue and had the experiment logo spinning,.. would be nice if that was a thing that could happen in game too with team logos.

I think a teaser would go down well right now.

Yup preferred the format, nice to have the time limit on starting discussion and good that you didn't have the stream open, meant you weren't distracted. I wonder if maybe it is an idea that you and cbear don't have it open, and then you have djc, or someone as stream representative. So it keeps things nice and smooth.

Keep up the good work :D

Will ESEA ever look at what actually makes money for TF2 and adjust their business model to suit? Or will they continue to blindly think that the things they've been doing in other games and with TF2 will suddenly magically start working,... faith in magic is not the sign of a good business mind.

On the other hand, looking at the items economy on TF2 and realising people love that stuff and seeing how ETF2L grew their league by offering medals would be a good start. Say everyone that pays fees gets an ESEA Badge/Medal/Hat/Whatever that ranks up with the more Pugs they complete, which gains effects for various 1st 2nd 3rd placements in the league, which is not tradeable, plays to the strengths of what is making money in TF2 right now.

---*Controversial idea underneath this line*---
How about you then throw in the same thing at a new Highlander league (growing format, large player base, sensible business move). Even if they get half the numbers that UGC got this season (sure it may take a couple of seaons to build even that), thats $15,000+ a month... (is the monthly fee still ~$7?) .. which seems reasonable to me.

But I just came up with that idea in the shower,... so it may be a bad one.