I got in touch with the guys at Splyce, which is a sick website listing all big esports games happening and also features brilliant articles. After a bit of persuasion they agreed to feature TF2 games on their website! Check them out and give them a follow in places to show we appreciate it: https://splyce.gg

Should help viewers see that TF2 is getting more legitimate and has a competitive base.

I haven't seen any recent meta-analyses that indicated aspartame is unsafe for consumption, don't throw individual studies at me and cherry pick (some from 20 years ago). Reviews of lots of different studies have all concluded that at human doses aspartame is safe.

EDIT: And ya I did read them before you ask. Meta-analyses and systematic reviews are what matters, not a handful of studies you found by googling "aspartame bad".

There's been a shit-ton of testing done on this and nothing concrete, if there were catastrophic negative effects to aspartame I'm pretty sure we'd know about them. And yeah Hallow they think the flavour from the sweeteners causes your body to react as if it was getting sugar and carbs in, but without the actual calorific input it drives you to get it elsewhere. Search on pubmed if you wanna find studies on this stuff. And w/ regards to sodium, 0.1g tends to be on the low end, other diet sodas can be up to 0.6g and if you're drinking them as a substitute to water then yeah you're just increasing your sodium intake for no reason and it's gonna mount up. There's increased risks among soda drinkers of all sorts of long-term systemic problems, these might be due to associated lifestyle choices but it's likely that there's a link.

Looking forward to casting this AU match from EU with my NA co-caster.

Ya but they do contain a load of salt which isn't good for you in the slightest and trigger your insulin response which isn't great if you're wanting to lose weight, just drink water.

Surrender option would get abused and deny the opportunities for comebacks most of the time in mm. A better option would be the windifference for mm, although for leagues we don't need that, can just use a "surrender" option of calling gg to end the game. Stops dead time, nice timelimit, cool time-pressured plays, still opportunity for comeback.

I really really hope they're not gearing towards winlimit 2 in mm. Or even winlimit of any kind - without a timelimit these games will be either a stupidly small amount of rounds or last a ridiculously long time. Timelimit is such a better option but they seem to be going the other way.

I think you should leave the mid under the bridge. It provides the map with a unique element that also changes how teams have to approach the fights on mid.

It's easier to re-push as they're capping, and backcaps are pretty effective from mid to second. This should make it easy for teams to push into second and reduce mid-2nd stalemates, as the attacking team knows that if they beef, mid will be easier to recap for a while. It also means that you really have to lock out mid while capping, and ensure you have the fights on mid done before capping. I like it, more maps need to deviate from the norm a little to add some map diversity.

I think this map is good to test in a tournament setting already, and you'll only get accurate feedback from competition here on out.

Of course, thanks.

New article covering the important Invite fixtures this week: http://www.thespire.tv/esea-i-s21-process/

Did not predict the incredible 5 pootis play from last night, but I am only human.

Previous seasons we always had one of Bulle, Knoxxx, or Mirelin. Even Byte popped his head in every now and then. If we exclude Nursey given she's actually an ESEA med, it's the worst medic season looking at the very top for a while. Overall it's probably improved though, as we have newer medics that don't blow fat dick compared to previous names that shall not be mentioned.

I think the issue with the ramp is that it looks like you should be able to walk up it from the defenders side, but the angle makes it difficult. Perhaps making the props more plainly show how you can get up it?

EDIT: My main point is that this ramp change will change almost nothing about the last, which needs a tweak or two to make it easier to attack. I don't see the ramp having p much any effect, as teams rarely use the ramp during a fight anyway so will be happy to position themselves in the same place as before.

Please keep the train how it is now. Being able to shoot rockets between the cracks p much never has a positive effect - it certainly doesn't outweigh the frustration when you shoot in there by accident and you lose all of the damage to the portal to the nether world.

Also re: the ramp on last - if you want to make the last harder to defend passively, just decrease the cap time. There's no need to mess around with props that are clunky to navigate around, just make it easier for the team attacking to play the point and you've got a point that you can't defend by running into spawn for 10s. Or you could make a "room" outside the spawn, basically a set of choke points similar to sunshine last or gully last, which would bunch people up as they fall back or come out of spawn. This will also stop them holding as far back because they'll be sat in a fat choke. Both of these would be better than messing with the ramps and making your nice map all clunky and clumsy.

Yeah you should be able to if you're winning, and your team doesn't care that it's taking longer than it should. If you do this and you're losing then you're retarded.

Who the fuck cares if you tilt the other team? They were obviously bad. You can't complain if you're losing to dumb shit like this, get good. Don't enforce rules that stop people using entertaining or even actually good strategies just because the losing team is bad and might tilt. Get a grip people.

slemnish has been playing really well all season, pressure on highfive in playoffs