I would probably fall into the "played for a while and still slightly below average" category but let me clarify. I'm not saying I don't want to play with beginners, the issue I personally have is I'm a medic main who wants to improve. TF2Center is the worst place for me to improve as a medic player because frankly, there is no organisation, there is no strategy and there is no cohesion hence why I described it as aids, probably not the most diplomatic of descriptions but that's what I used to convey a point. Pugchamps also suffer from this occasionally as well but all the players there at least have an idea of what the meta is and (mostly) attempt to conform to this.

I actually have been playing quite often on TF2C lately even though I described it as aids because I don't always care about winning or losing. Sometimes I just want to chill out in a casual TF2 semi-competitive clusterfuck environment and sometimes I want to take things more seriously in which case I play pugchamp. However this really is besides the point and my original post was not about what I want, it's about what we need as a community and as a competitive scene.

Trust me I'm well aware that I'm not good enough to qualify for having an elitist mentality and lately I have been getting picked more on pugchamp but this is about where can someone who is interested in the game go to practice/learn the meta and get enough attention to get into more competitive environments. Trying to improve your gamesense on any class is hard to do when you can't rely on your team to do their jobs and this is the problem with sites like TF2Center. That's not to say TF2C doesn't have a place in the community but its scope doesn't cater to the whole scene and right now there is a gap between those who want to take things more casually on center and those who want an open but more serious place to practice but aren't good enough or well known enough to get picked in Captain systems.

Also to respond to your last points.
a) I'm never (knowingly) rude to beginners but honestly every time I suggest something I get ignored, mocked or brushed off by 90% of players on that site and I can't imagine I'm the only one. There is definitely a mentality on the site that what you want to do and what you ought to do are not always the same thing. Again nothing inherently wrong with that unless you're using the site to improve your gamesense.

b) Cloning pugchamp code has already been done but it's not exactly upstanding behaviour and it further fragments the competitive scene into individual groups which then makes it even more of an obstacle for new players to enter the scene as this takes players who would otherwise notice them away from more public forums. (again this isn't about what I or any other individual wants it's about the community).

c) I do get invited to mixes but this doesn't solve the problem of being known about in the first place and again, it fragments the community.

I wonder what happened to this. That was posted 2 months ago (#613) in response to the concerns raised by #609 - any word from the devs about this major update?

That's quite the resumé you have there. Have you tried looking for a team in ETF2L? I'm sure somebody who has the experience you have could find a decent team. I don't know your circumstances or whether or not you have the time/will to commit to a team but honestly that is the best way of building up a reputation and getting actual practice.

Failing that though all I can say is keep playing your best in the pugs you do get picked in. Try playing later at night where there is less competition. You may only get one game but it's better than none and you may leave a lasting impression on one of the regular captains on the site.

Anyway, I wish you the best of luck but I think you'll get out of this rut eventually :)

Well if you brought it back I would use the site. I made a post in another thread that is relevant to this one which explains why we need a viable alternative to captain picking websites like pugchamp.

Hiipfire has the best idea about what to do in my situation, maybe I should give this a try. http://prntscr.com/fsynvw

I've heard about it but I've never personally tried it. I've been told by other people that it's a bit of a clusterfuck with one person describing it as "...like TF2Center but without the classes."

As I say, cannot speak for it and I probably will give it a go sometime because I like to form my own opinions but it's definitely not the same thing that Pickup used to be.

Please excuse me for hijacking this thread a little bit but this is sort of relevant to the original topic.

I've just come back to the game after a long break from TF2 and as a result, I'm even worse than I was before (played mid-ETF2L 6s and High in Highlander) and a lot of people won't even know me.

I was saddened to see that, my regular haunt, TF2Pickup is dead for now and mixchamp EU doesn't have any games running at all. As far as I know (please correct me if I'm wrong because I'd like to play vidya games), the only EU sites where you can play 6v6 games that aren't either dead or dying are Pugchamp EU and TF2center.

Pugchamp EU is a great site but the issue is it's a captain picking system. I sympathise completely with the captains on that site but it is depressing when you don't get picked for several games in a row and this does happen quite often. TF2center is aids, I don't think I really have to explain why.

My point is though is that I feel that it's difficult to get into some proper games of TF2 if you're a newer player or a player who is old/inexperienced like me and that is never good for a gaming scene as small as ours.

We wanna be doing everything we can to encourage new players into our community. I'd love to see another site that is all about providing a more realistic 6s (or HL) experience for people who are bored of the same old nonsense on TF2center but aren't good enough or well known enough to be picked on Pugchamp. This is what TF2Pickup used to do and now that it's not there, I really miss it.

I played medic in ETF2L (mostly at mid level in 6s and high in HL) for a while but I had to force myself to quit the game several times and try to stay away. I love the competitive side of the game and I really like the awesome community that plays it.

The problem is that I have some problems with self-confidence and being competitive with /comparing myself to other medics.

No doubt I have improved at the game from when I first started but my progress has been super slow because every time I play in a team for any significant length of time I end up having to quit because it's just too much stress and then that means I take it out on my team which isn't fair on them and it just makes me hate myself more when I do it. I haven't been able to stay in a team for more than a season which sucks and I've tried managing my own teams but I'm just not very good at it. As a medic this is fatal because playing in a team is really the only really reliable way of improving imo.

So I moved on to doing projects and trying to get involved that way. I've done so many different things in so many different orgs I've written articles for thespire.tv, administrated for TF2C, organised casts for maincall.tf (I wanted to get into casting as well but could never pluck up the courage even though my practice casts were well received) and started TF2Stadium. I wanted to start a coaching scheme for up and coming casters to try and encourage more people to get into the casting scene with another famous caster who I won't name but sadly that never happened and I quit the game entirely soon after.

All of this was because I wanted to be involved with this community but ultimately the same personal problems get in the way of everything that I do both in and outside of the game. I couldn't even bring myself to watch i58 streams because I knew that would tempt me back into the game like i52 did and so I went to the extreme lengths of spoiling the outcome for myself...

At the same time all of this was happening, I was going through a really hard time at university and that ended really badly partly because of the issues I mentioned before and partly because the university fucked up really bad and my life and career hasn't really recovered since and it makes me really angry.

I watched the whole of Bojack Horseman for the first time a few weeks ago and there are elements of that show which really sums up how I feel. I would recommend it to anyone by the way the show is amazing regardless of whether you can sympathise with it or not.

But yeah I'm just trying to fill the hole in my life that used to be TF2 and yeah there are other things I can and will do but TF2 was special to me despite all of the bad experiences I had with it. So to see this game in the state that it's in and to see what people are writing on TFTV about the game's state and valve really makes me angry. If only I could bring myself to do something about it. :/

TL:DR - Self-esteem issues fucked up my life and any chance of me ever getting involved in TF2 in any capacity or for that matter get on with my life. Yay, fun times.

I'm not surprised - eventually all admins either get fed up or end up on the wrong side of Masternoob somehow. It's just not a very pleasant place to work in because of all the drama and of course watching a bunch of staff members getting kicked or leaving and wondering if you're next.

It was never about us sticking it to TF2C though as I and others have said before and even in the early stages before we had any idea if it was gonna work out or not. Here are a few examples:

http://www.teamfortress.tv/post/560578/tf2center-vs-tf2stadium
http://www.teamfortress.tv/post/455049/why-it-s-time-to-say-goodbye-to-tf2center
http://www.teamfortress.tv/26829/why-it-s-time-to-say-goodbye-to-tf2center/?page=8#236

Now I'm not gonna lie and say that the TF2C vs DeutschLAN thing wasn't a catalyst for me and the others starting this but I'd wanted to start my own project in comp TF2 for a while having previously been involved with others. I wanted it to focus on being open source code and be as open/transparent to the community in it's operations as I could make it because I felt that was the future for community organised sites such as ours. We wanted to make something that would help the community and be useful, we were not at all concerned by success. We knew it dying immediately from lack of players was a distinct possibility but I like to think everyone involved got something out of it.

For me personally I just enjoyed the challenge and I like the fact that our excellent programmers left a legacy in the open source code that now anybody can use for their own purposes. Others in the dev team wanted to learn the GO programming language and create something the community can use even after we're long gone.

Of course it's a shame that it didn't work out and a lot of people's work (including pretty much all of mine) will be wasted if we close up shop but hey - that's life and given the chance I would do it all again albeit slightly differently of course. Hindsight is 20/20 after all.

But yeah I think I've derailed this topic enough - I just don't want people to get the wrong impression of us, we're not that petty.

ETF2L Highlander Season 10 High Division grand final preview

So this is it! The final article for this fascinating season of highlander. From a pool of 18 teams, 2 emerge victorious. Who will take home that coveted crown; champion of ETF2L High?

Join me for my swan-song where we'll be looking at the last standing contenders for the title as well as looking back on the season's predictions by yours truly.

Just posting this here for the people who don't read etf2l forums (full discussion from the relevant post).

Hello again, sorry for the double post. I always seem to get a huge variety of opinions on whether or not I should include dishonorable mentions / bad players, so I decided to settle this matter once and for all.

Personally I see no issue with it and I feel it’s only fair that if I cover the best, I must also cover the worst as well.

However I always strive to give the readers what they want, I agree that readability is an issue (which I mentioned in the comments of my previous article) but it’s not something that can’t be fixed.

Therefore I’m hopefully gonna settle this matter once and for all. I’m posting a poll on my latest article, on TFTV and on ETF2L in the hope that it'll reach as many of my readers as possible

It’s multiple choice, so if you like several options then pick as many as you want.

http://www.strawpoll.me/10176034

Thanks again for your viewership :)

ETF2L Highlander Season 10 High Division semi-finals preview & week 7 retrospect

It's the semi-finals and congratulations are in order for our 4 flourishing squads, bursting with talent as they are, who have made it! But with a 3 way tie for that all important final 4th place spot, it's only fair that we acknowledge the achievements (and the failures) of the 10 others who made it all they way to the end of week 7 without folding.

So join us as we take a look at the semi-finals, the previous week's games as well as the weeks before that as we admire the view from the top of the spire.

nuze?

ETF2L Highlander Season 10 High Division week 7 preview

At last, it's the final week of the group stages! For 10 of our 14 teams their match this week will be the end of the road for them. However with 3 playoff spots still contested by as many as 7 teams (albiet with varying chances of success) this week could make for an interesting finale to the group stages.

Some come along as we take you through the beginning of the end.