Unleash the tiny angry marsupial

In all seriousness, his last season did wonders to his experience, both as a player and as a leader.

Thank you very much for this service! There are some... plans possibly in the works for revitalizing the playerbase for this community, and this was one hurdle we won't have to tackle anymore.

Don't get me started on that. There's an intersection a block away from my apartment that's the only non-4-way stop in the neighborhood and it's like fucking nobody knows how to drive through it. You either get the mongos blowing through it at 2x the speed limit (there's a playground across the street, buddy, and it's on the crest of a hill which means you have no fucking idea what's going on over it, so... maybe slow the fuck down?) or people who stop and wave/gesture at you, the one waiting at the stop sign.

I bought a car so I can have more opportunity to practice driving other than relying on my mother to give me her car (she's running her own business and is balls-busy all the time) or my partner's parents car who just bought a new expensive bloatmobile which makes me uncomfortable to drive it. Since I bought it two months ago I have driven my car three times, and have gone to drive with my mother twice. The last time I went in my mother's car, I got middle fingers and got screamed at for following traffic laws (sorry man, I don't care how much of a hurry you're in, I'm going to go the speed limit because if the popo pulls me over, I have to test for my license again, and start the 3-year long process again. Also I have no intention of not following the speed limit even after I have a full license because, quite frankly, this whole "you can go this much above the speed limit" is retarded. 50 km/hr in the city and 80km/hr on the highway is plenty fast to get where you're going in a decent amount of time, and if it's not, either count the drive as part of the experience or consider the fucking airplane). Then I also nearly got into an accident where I had a right-of-way and the idiot bitch in the other car, again, screamed at me even though it was on her to yield to me and I expected her to use at least a portion of her brain to realize that she should let me pass before stomping on the throttle. Last time I went with a licensed driving instructor in a car that's literally labeled "student driver" on every exposed surface, I also got honked and yelled at multiple times. Every time I drive as a passenger there are at least 2-3 instances in a 20 minute drive where we almost get into a collision that ISN'T our fault, and at least 5 instances of someone clearly looking down at their phone on their lap/passenger seat/propped up against the steering wheel with their hands <---???

And I'm honestly just so fed up with literally everyone who drives right now. I think re-testing should be absolutely mandatory, people should lose their licenses for a significant amount of time at first offense of distracted driving, and ignition interlock devices should be standard on every fucking car. There are so many of these fucking idiots who either grew up in a time when driving tests were non-existent or came from somewhere where driving isn't the privilege that it clearly is, but some kind of a god-given right, and they expect that everyone else around them will just accept that it's their right to do whatever the fuck they wanted because their time is just SO much more precious than everyone else. GOD forbid they lose 2 minutes of their life following the speed limit, or 5 seconds to yield at an intersection! No, if you're an inconsiderate and ill-informed asshole you SHOULDN'T have the right to drive a 2+ ton vehicle that could seriously maim or murder someone, not to mention destroy expensive and well-loved possessions.

On the flip side, I would absolutely love to be able to take a comprehensive course on driving in all kinds of hazardous conditions, gaining better control over my car, skid control and defensive reactions in unpredictable situations, but the only way I can do that is if I take up rally racing (or pay for instruction on a track), which costs thousands of dollars that I don't have (and also won't really protect me from the other idiots on the road).

TL;DR: People suck at driving, they are not tested nor punished anywhere near enough for being discourteous and literally destructive on the roads, and driving instruction or expectation of basic competency is woefully inadequate.

So, as a UGC admin I clearly don't have a lot against the league. I played my first season of 6s in UGC while getting carried by some of my really good friends, and then next season decided to try ESEA, which landed me on literally the worst team in Open (we won a total of 8 scrim halves + 1 match (at a scoreline of 2-3) during the course of the entire three months of scrimming four nights a week, two scrims @ 2 halves each night.) So... I know a little bit about getting rolled.

Since that season, I haven't really gone back to UGC. Maybe it's because as an admin I get a taste of the bad shit, but it feels like a much larger proportion of the UGC playerbase is exhaustively chasing the win/loss ratio on the side of their team page instead of actually playing matches and learning from them. Rule-lawyering, post-match ringer denial (i.e. they'd allow a ringer, lose, and the suddenly start looking into the ringer more and suddenly not being ok with it), collecting alts of shitweasels like pokemon, you name it, it has happened. Perhaps the reason it doesn't happen in ESEA is because ESEA simply doesn't care about any of those things, but as a player and a team leader I find that it makes people much more rational and inclined at actually working on creating fair advantages (i.e. player skill and team chemistry), which makes winning and losing a considerably more straight-forward experience. I realize that some of it comes down to just more experience overall (ESEA players tend to have a number of years of competitive experience, vs. UGC players who frequently have little to none and thus have different attitudes towards the meaning of a single win), but I find that ESEA just... teaches players to lose better than UGC does, and in the long run it's more beneficial to both the players, and the scene that they create. Perhaps that difference is partially also on us admins and the rule-set we created, which I readily accept is not flawless. But nonetheless, of the atmospheres of the two leagues, as a player I prefer ESEA, just because of the people involved (and yes, Tri is a treasure and I have no idea how he manages to do it all solo).

On the flipside, yes, the client is an absolute piece of garbage and anyone who's only had issues with it rarely is lucky. I had a teammate one season that would get locked out of the client every match night due to high traffic from his area. When he contacted ESEA they admitted it was a bottleneck on their end and then told him tough titties. I don't think I had a season were at least three matches were not somehow impacted by client issues (on my end, as a team leader - including either client issues for my players, or client issues with the game). That's almost a fifth of the matches, and really isn't acceptable. Unfortunately as a playerbase we don't really have any plausible recourse for the quality issues. If we boycott ESEA, it would be only for ESEA to drop TF2 entirely. I don't necessarily think that has to be disastrous, and I think a good solution will arise rather quickly should that occur. But I don't think anyone wants to attempt it either.

To end the essay, however, I do believe that new players should be given some special considerations when it comes to setting them up for an enjoyable season. I think a lot of us who have been jaded by enough seasons and losses forget how each of those first few wins felt (I'm gonna be honest, my first win in Iron I didn't even realize we won, so focused was I on playing the game), and how important they are to someone who is still shaky and lacks the awareness and experience to pin-point their own mistakes. Learning to lose is crucially important, but... I don't think it's something most people can learn in their first season :x

I bought my first car a month ago and I am still in love. Sometimes I go and sit behind when I feel down. It’s also usually parked right outside of my house (because it’s small enough to fit in whatever scraps of parking are left) so whenever I leave for work or come back, I see its face smiling at me. I expected my family to kinda poo-poo on it for being an impractical car but they seemed to either genuinely like it, or respected my decision-making enough to be happy for me.

I also can’t believe it still, but I finished the second draft of my book. Like a month ago I finished the first, after 7 months of work, and I couldn’t bring myself to begin the edit and re-write but one day I just... sat down and plowed through a third of it. Now comes the third edit, but it looks like I might be able to get some alpha reader feedback before the submission deadline of July 15th (which I honestly didn’t think I would make this year).

I miss playing TF2, but there’s no denying that it freed up a lot of time for me to do other things.

I will earn my roster spot and sub in for michael during demo reviews.

I might have no hands but I can still unzip files pretty good. :)

Honestly yeah, google calendar ftw. I’ve tried a few different apps for productivity to manage my illustration/writing job working from home and I ended up settling with google calendar + just a notepad app/literal scraps of paper if there was a lot of stuff I needed to do in a single day. Putting things in your calendar takes time to get used to, but once you do you can’t imagine what it was like without one.

Nice kind gamer and person, very reliable, was super great having him as my scout when I played medic. Stayed calm, didn't take tilt out on anyone when it did happen, was quick to point out and work through issues. He's a mature person as well who will talk to you about healthy eating habits and LiFtInG and his poor ol' grandma car that doesn't like tough Canadian winters.

Pick the boy up and don't let him play more christian gamer servers :(

Grumpy and I go a loooooooooong way back - I originally got into HL because of him. He's got over a decade of playing various first-person shooters on a competitive level so he's a really smart player who understands aggression, understands reading and anticipating opponent player's movements and who's got good mechanics and awareness. He will also talk relevant things and is a good maincaller.

His one weakness currently is a lack of experience in 6s. He makes solid decisions but they're not always grounded in the typical pace of this game. If he can figure that out he can be a solid bubble team medic and will only get better. Mid-open soldier for now, but only because he's not an MGE lord.

Honestly these dudes are super awesome and I wish I had the physical health to actually main and not sub. A fun group of guys who can control tilt and be hilariously funny at the same time. Plz play with them really quick so I don't feel the temptation to undo my recovery and volunteer as tribute. :{

Telescrubbies

:(

Very nice man, is a little special when it comes to technology, but he has gotten the handle on how to use a personal computer device to a) pound and b) watch pornographic material, so what else could you possibly ask for in a video game teammate.

In all seriousness, he's a fragger and a smart player, will do big (like, massive) damage for your team if you play around him and get those trap drops when you most need them. Please get him on a good, aggressive team, he is a beast.

That match was in the middle of being rescheduled because we actually didn't have a player (two medic subs notwithstanding). If this was a misunderstanding and you guys still want to play and thought you didn't have to show because we wouldn't, plz let me know, I like video games. I think most of the team is fine with actually playing the match, we were just kind of confused and the server was about to shut down.

I like voice activity and I probably won't use the service if I had to use push to talk because I specifically spent money on a set-up so I don't have to.

Just make bad microphones something someone can be reported for, like any other thing that ruins the enjoyment of playing the game.