Either way I don't think it matters who regulates it as long as somebody punishes you for betting against yourself.

The more important part is that this doesn't mean that spread betting on ETF2L is bad. At all.

Yeah I didn't think Yuki ran it heh

dont think zebbo did tbh but might be wrong there...

I don't think it's ETF2L's place to ban people for betting on or against their own team. It's not their site. The only thing you should be banned from ETF2L for is if you throw games or are betting on teams with the knowledge that games are gonna be thrown. As for people just betting against themselves (which is normally gonna happen in ignorance of the rules by a player on a bad team) just let cherry warn them, nullify the bet and if necessary ban them from saloon.

If your scouts are good and you're in the habit of taking one in almost every uber then it's a good thing imo. If your pocket wants to try it by all means give it a go.

I don't think the demo nerf really made that much difference to this discussion either, because the demo's short-range pocketing ability wasn't really hurt that much. It's still as viable as pre-nerf imo, and a good strategy to try out if you want to play with two more aggressive soldiers and a real pocket scout.

kaidus would just go on about how he's gonna smash everybody at lan, then when they come 5th place it'll be mad awkward

just saving him from himself

ETF2L's stance is more that they don't think it's up to them to regulate the betting, and it should be done by Cherry. I think that's sensible and Cherry's view that betting on your own team but not against is a good idea.

However I don't agree with removing the spread bets. Every point matters in a season and saying that there is "no incentive to play fairly" and expecting people to throw games now that ETF2L is not going to ban you for betting against yourself is dumb. 3 reasons why:

1. A ban from saloontf is enough of a deterrent to stop people betting against themselves openly. It would be stupid, they know you check the games to make sure it doesn't happen, so that changes nothing.

2. If they were going to throw beforehand it would have been with an alt account, throwing the game for massive amounts of ecurrency. The deterrent was, and still is, that in Prem all the points matter. You can't throw a game even if there was spread betting and you only lost 1 point - that single point could be the difference between you getting into playoffs, or getting 1st or 2nd seed etc. The deterrent for throwing has not been removed.

3. A lack of spread betting this season means that only 4 games all season will be allowed as far as I can see. That's really dumb imo for engaging with a european audience for your website, especially when spread betting works so much better than it does in ESEA. Yes they get banned for throwing in ESEA, but let's take the Froyo vs. Cafe Monsters game for example: it wasn't a throw for skins, but if you had made that game spread betting and the result was the same with froyo messing about, it would certainly look that way. They can throw rounds with no penalty and no way of telling whether they really did throw or not. At least in ETF2L there is a penalty if you throw in a spread game.

The last game I can think of in Europe that was DDOSed was the High Final in Season 20, when the outcome was already evident. There weren't a lot of bets on saloon iirc, and it could have just been a dodgy server. Equally here, it could have just been scrab's internet bugging out. I don't think it's really a big problem in the scene, nor is it likely to get bigger.

The highlander grand final happened yesterday which ended in an upset causing people to lose a fair bit of ecurrency. Nobody got DDOSed. I am inclined to believe that there is no link between saloontf and DDOSing; people did it before and will do it again, but it makes no sense to blame betting or even consider removing it. Just gotta try and make it as hard as possible for people to do it.

I'm hype, this is the first test of TLR to see if they can consistently perform against bottom prem. In a way it's more important than how they do against reason and zizi; if they drop points to these shitlords they'll only make the playoffs by the skin of their teeth.

Its also time to see if dogs' bark is worse than their bite aka can the meme team reach their dreams

He has Down syndrome not autism. Well I mean he might have autism too but it's unlikely. That would be quite unlucky.

He can't risk endorsing me, I'll steal his Caster of the Season award.

That's awesome! Teams in ESEA only? Hope you guys get a great team to work with!

wonderland are using silentes on scout instead of forsak3n?! RIP SKINS

Whether or not the AC works for TF2, whether or not you benefit from a prizepool directly or not, whether or not the client is a piece of shit doesn't really matter.

It will always be the best option overall because it's a professional league with a good prizepool, and gives NA TF2 legitimacy. If you drop ESEA now in favour of something that benefits you in the short-term, it's a signal to all other leagues that might be interested in TF2 once MM comes out that we're not capable of sustaining an actual league. Gotta look as attractive as possible so that when (if) TF2 ever becomes a bit bigger after MM, we have a position to work from.

bet on yomies for both games LETS GO BOYS

I don't know who will win. I thought it'd be easy for 4-25 before the season. Now I just don't know.