https://www.teamfortress.tv/33886/breaking-news-phorofor-cut-from-ronin

I think this whole scandal is a lot more interesting than the unlock discussions and players in open saying slurs and calling eachother bad. Agree with the gameplay part tho

Yeah I love the new design, but also hold no qualms to the older one. The medal itself looks much better, but if it had the band of the older one (where it showed the placing) then it'd be the perfect medal imo. Whoever worked on it did a great job.

An update about the snakewater spot in kitchen:

don't use it

if you see anyone using it please tell them that it is now considered an offense

if they do not comply then please report it, if you don't and there's no admin around then do not be upset if no action is taken

thank you

ESEA SEASON 24 GRAND FINALS, FIRST BO3 ON PRODUCT

PURPLESHIRT/GARBUGLIO JUST -173'D MY TEAM THE ENTIRE TIME

I highly doubt there's anyone currently playing this game that thinks there's a miraculous event we can make occur to make us a relevant esport. I also highly doubt even b4nny believes that. That's not the main source of these concerns, at least not for me. For as long as I've been around, the feeling of hopelessness is driven too deeply into our scene. People are content playing the same game until there's no one around wanting to play it anymore. The most spoken mindset you hear anymore is people saying "enjoy the game while it lasts." I agree with the sentiment that people should enjoy it while it's around, but the main point of people saying this seems to come from the source of "why should we even bother doing anything?" I'm not gonna ignore the efforts that people put into this scene. The people behind the scenes of TFTV I appreciate greatly. I also appreciate anyone behind the scenes of any competitive league.

The feeling of hopelessness in this scene worries me. I've seen many players plateau in skill simply because they see no point in getting better. People were content for a while now just sticking to their same maps despite how we have plenty of offers from people trying to give us better alternatives. The game has been running its course for a long time now. Those that put in all the hardest work to make up for our lack of effort are drifting from this scene. We're truly running out of options at this point to get anything done. I'm completely willing to deal with the very minor negatives of unlocks that will barely scratch the meta of our game if it even means it'll help out even the tiniest of bit. It feels like I'm trying to stay optimistic while most of those around on this site are trying to take any enthusiasm away.

I also completely understand I have more free time to play this game whenever I please compared to many others. I understand I will be able to find enjoyment in the game more often - with unlocks or not - while those that do not have my same level of free time won't have the same opportunities. I'm very sorry to these people. I 100% do not believe these unlocks are going to take your enjoyment from the game in anyway. I'm still advocating for bans of certain unlocks that I posted about earlier. Those are the ones I 100% understand taking enjoyment away from you, but not these ones. I just do not agree with the theory crafting stacked on top of the pessimism.

I also been playing casual for a very huge amount of time. I have been playing highlander and 6v6 for years. I also play most other competitive formats. I know I spouted this junk before, but I really wish for people to believe in me when I say these weapons won't be nearly as harmful as people think they'll be. I'm pretty certain which ones will be extremely harmful and as far as I'm aware they are remaining banned. I'm also not a stubborn person, if these unlocks prove to be extremely broken in the next couple weeks of scrims I'm completely willing to listen to any of those reasons. The biggest thing I'm advocating for is against the hopelessness of the scene. I'm well aware there will not be an overnight major, but just to give up on any chance of trying to make any progress in our scene is quite sad of us.

As time goes on, people have came to the general conclusion that things should be more centered around higher level play. It wasn't always that mindset but it has became a pretty popular opinion for games in general to be based around the top level of play. This isn't just a TF2 opinion.

For any european that missed the ESEA meeting last night, there were whitelist pugs last night which ran into the discussion for the whitelist. The weapons that have been discussed to be unbanned (bonk, solemn vow, soda popper) have PROVEN to not be nearly as busted as people thought they were going to be. I heavily believe that unlocks that prove to have no impact on the game shouldn't be banned, if they prove that we have nothing to lose and only things to potentially gain (no matter how small that gain is) then there is literally no reason to be so stubborn about keeping them gone.

Things have also came to the conclusion that talking about what could possibly happen with unlocks 'in theory' is not a proper way to discuss things. Do not ever forget that 'in theory tf2' that direct hit is the most overpowered weapon in the game. Sniper is the most broken class. Force 'a' Nature is a much better weapon than the stock scatter. Only bringing up hypotheticals when these things were PROVEN to not be as good as anticipated serves no place in this discussion anymore.

I'm also not an advocate that everything should be unbanned. I still heavily believe crit-a-cola, Vaccinator, Disciplinary Action, and Wrangler/Rescue Ranger should remained banned no matter where this discussion goes. Those things will have a VERY negative impact on the game. I'm just saying if things are proven to have no major effect, I see no reason to be so stubborn to keep them out.

It's pretty obvious that in theory the unlock would be extremely busted. Depending on how you look at things this could effect your optimism, but people have taken much better measures currently to see how busted these unlocks are. Apparently the bonk was not nearly as good as people anticipated. What unlocks are allowed next season won't ever stop me personally from playing the game but I also understand others won't share the same sentiment. My opinion may also be skewed because I play a lot of the other comp formats and still play a lot of casual. I believe extremely unlocks aren't half as annoying or as good as people believe.

On top of this all unlock decisions aren't final. Any higher level players are greatly encouraged to keep testing these weapons out. The more opinions the better, and people are looking a lot better with giving output this season compared to anyone prior (for at least for how much I've been around).

Also bonk was unbanned for a while in PugChamp. I personally ran it a few games and tried advertising others to try it. The thing was awful (but I'm not a good scout) and no one wanted to run it. It's currently banned.

You got banned for cheating which means you were banned for 1 year (yes, despite how obviously stupid you were being, you only got 1 year).

However you decided to keep making alt accounts to circumvent the ban, played with yoona and just started throwing slurs around in the mumble. If you think for any possible reason you should be unbanned, I would love to hear ANYTHING to justify why you were being this dumb.

I literally think it's mentality only. I hate to be the one to make the argument that hours don't really mean much, because I'm someone who can put in the time anytime they want, but I think with some fair logic it's pretty easy to conclude the amount of time invested doesn't mean much either. It's literally what you do with the time. A player like me has over 10k+ hours in the game, and plenty of invite players and IM players could out DM me and they have a total of less hours than me. This is simply because the hours they actually invest to the game is towards contributing to their DM (where mine has mostly been somewhere else). I think hours is a grossly over rated concept and people use it as a demotivating factor, which leads more into mentality.

I've seen plenty of 'up and coming' players that I believe have the ability to be top level players. I heavily believed - and still do believe - talent exists in Invite that could topple froyotech. The problem is the determination and the optimism. I feel like optimism is so out of place in this scene. People are so used to accepting the fact that this game isn't going anywhere, the time is useless, and all that yadda yadda. Yet they still continue to play, and most of these people for the sole purpose of enjoyment of the time. Most players of this game have a good basis for optimism, which is enjoying themselves. However I've seen these same players constantly find excuses for why things aren't in their favor. Dying because the enemy team was dumb and not them, getting 'unlucky' with the game, they don't have 5 ping, etc. Every single player that has ever been at the top has almost guaranteed gone through same shit as these players, yet they reached the top while most don't. I heavily believe it's because they don't let these factors hold them back from wanting to improve. I think most up and coming players let their natural talents develop them, but when it comes to putting in any actual effort, they let these factors hold them back. I think that pretty much separates the top level to the bottom level.

If you want another example (that I love) you can look at our first match against Froyoblack in the most recent season. I dropped 6 times and we lost the match. Now I can go on that was literally the worse match I have ever played and how many things came into affect my mentality that day, but that's pretty irrelevant towards why mentality can make players good. It's pretty obvious we lost that match solely because I was having an extremely bad game. Do you know what Froyotech did compared to what any other team on the planet might've done? Instead of just writing off the loss on me having a bad day and going on with themselves, they looked for any other reason they could for why they loss. They analyzed the game and didn't include any mention of the drops I've had, they made it a nonfactor. A mentality like this is why some people are better than others in my eyes. Any other team in this game would've looked at my stats, and just wrote it off.

I do believe there is such a thing as natural talent. I also believe that anyone with the proper mindset can overcome someone who happens be more naturally talented than them yet have a poor mindset. One thing people should remember is to also remain optimistic. Being optimistic doesn't mean you have to be disappointed that you lost, it just always mean you have room for improvement. That's a good thing.

FYI, there always has been a 'no class switching' rule but every admin on the site (including me) have been extremely lenient on it. This was to the point where it was practically never enforced. The rule is being enforced much more heavily now due to some pugs lately being complete blow outs from people changing to their main classes. Please do not switch off the class you were picked on.

what did he do

I think anyone would say "WTF IS HAPPENING" if they saw someone kill another player with a bottle and got away with 5 health regardless of division

Remember, in 'theory craft TF2' The Direct Hit is the most broken weapon in the game, sniper is by far the best class, and ambassador is still the best spy weapon.

Disciplinary Action, Vaccinator, and Crit-a-cola still def gotta stay out tho

I agree with you wholeheartedly that it is thankless work and this was not the best way for me to approach this. However if TFTV ever needs help with anything like this I would be way more than happy to oblige.

ALSO THE MATCH IS 11PM EST TONIGHT, NOT TOMORROW.