Sidular is a company

The page that manlatino62 took the first image from, is this one - https://sidular.com/projects/
It highlights the four current projects that Sidular (the company) operates. There are a few not mentioned on that page as well, but those are the primary four.

DoRoyal

DoRoyal is a website hosting service that I originally started back in 2012. It currently has customers in 90 countries, and is hosting thousands of websites. It is also partnered with Automattic, the makers of WordPress.
DoRoyal is one of the primary sources of revenue for my business.

As for the negative review that manlatino62 highlighted, I'm afraid to say that the issues Graham had are indeed real. (aside from me working out of a frozen garage part - it's actually a shed)
During the time of that review, as well as a few others (representing 19% of total reviews), we had two primary issues.
1. A massive ddos attack.
2. Domain registration and renewal issues.

Both of the above issues were resolved, and we've been pretty smooth ever since. 75% of all reviews are 5 stars.

PSX Extreme

This is the oldest PlayStation news website in the world, dating back to February of 1999. Being a media website, its main determination of success is in the form of traffic. During the last 30 days, PSX Extreme had 1.16 million unique visitors. It is a very successful website, and is also one of the primary funding and marketing sources for TFCL.

eFiction

I sort of acquired this by accident, and have not done much with it. The eFiction community has opted to fork the software on their own. I should honestly remove this from the Projects page, as it's not something I'm actively working on.

Ularthia

This was an ambitious project that failed to meet initial funding back in 2020. It is still something I wish to do eventually, but there are no plans at this time to start a new development studio.

I will be doing a proper Q&A within the next few days, week at most. It will be hosted via the TFCL Twitch channel - https://www.twitch.tv/tfcleague

While some of what we're doing already exists in RGL and with third party tools, most of it does not.

There's actually a company behind this, with a decent financial backing. It's not my personal money.
I can't get into the specifics just yet. but plan to have a financial transparency post out soon just as a form of public reassurance.

While we're using open source tools when and where applicable to speed some aspects of development up, the majority of what we're doing is fully custom coded. This includes our server network (custom, not a fork of serveme), and logging / analytics service (again fully custom, not a part of more.tf, demos.tf, or logs.tf)

While our server network is using cloud containers, we had to develop our own provisioning tools from the ground up. Though admittedly, we had initially considered using a fork of serveme, what we're doing would require so much additional development time, that we opted to just go for a custom solution instead.

We're aiming for a minimally viable product by end of year. This means that the core of TFCL will be ready to go.

Also my usage of "will have" instead of "we do have" is more to do with the fact TFCL doesn't exist yet. We're still developing things up, and are now at the stage where we can publicly announce things. We are still on track for a MVP launch this year, with closed testing later this month, or sometime next.

This whole thing is a major concern of mine, specifically in regards to splitting the scene. I'm doing everything that I can to try and avoid having this happen, including going so far as to make TFCL as different to RGL as possible. You don't need to actually play in our sixes league to play in TFCL. The goal is to give the player as many options as possible, and to encourage daily activity by doing more than any other league. You don't even need to play within TFCL to use a TFCL server. Want a server for your ETF2L match? Just reserve one like you would with serveme. Admittedly, we're more or less a clone of serveme at that point, but still. If you want a server outside of North America, you can freely reserve one.

We're also far more focused on marketability, which I'll get into later as well in a separate article.

We are a direct competitor to RGL by technicality, in that we're both operating a TF2 league. We both have divisions (or ranks), we both have a pay to play structure, we both have prize pools, and we both have the core seasonal structure that everybody is already quite familiar with. That's what defines RGL. Historically, that's what defined competitive TF2, as well.

We're different though. While we will still obviously have the seasonal stuff you're familiar with, that isn't actually our focus. It's not our bread and butter, so to speak. We're here to provide a unified, all-in-one competitive platform that does pretty much everything you'd ever need from a league and tournament environment. My focus with TFCL is in daily active users. We want to give you a reason to login every day. RGL doesn't really offer that, nor has any league throughout the history of TF2.

So yeah, we're competing against RGL, but not in the ways you may think. To say that we're a direct competitor? I mean, if all you want is a seasonal sixes league, then sure. I suppose we are a direct RGL competitor. But the hope is that you're not just going to use TFCL for our sixes league.

As for the "history" I've had with RGL personally, I don't agree with everything that they do. I don't agree with some of the decisions of their higher ups. This of course acted as a key motivator for bringing TFCL back from the dead. However, why just make a better RGL, when we have the ability to do so much more?

So yeah, we're competing against RGL, but not in the ways you may think.

Appreciate that! Not necessary though.
If you'd like to instead subscribe to our Patreon, you're more than welcome to. This will more directly support our dev team out.
https://www.patreon.com/TFCL

We're working and consulting with a few invite level players, including b4nny.

We'll have the core of TFCL running by end of year, and build things more with proper user feedback and engagement. This will include cups and tournaments, of course. Unsure about massive prize pools for this year as the main goal is to just ensure that things are stable and secure first. Wouldn't want to invest thousands into something that might have a risk of breaking. So yeah, starting with the core, and build upon that. (and we're of course doing private and public tests as well, first starting in a month or so - just waiting for dev approval)

We'll have our server network basically run globally from day one. This will allow for you to join pugs, and even participate in a few regional tournaments.
However, our immediate focus is on North America. We're just making sure the servers are there for when we do eventually expand internationally. (which may not be for years)

I talked with Taylor for a bit, and then later on arcadia. I'm open to working with RGL in some capacity, but it's just not a main goal or focus as of today. I also very highly doubt that they would be open to a full acquisition. (though I do have plans if that talk should ever happen)
Trying to work together with sigafoo back in the day was not exactly a fun experience. Lots of stuff got said between us, and while I thought we were on solid grounds, he and I parted ways on rather bad and improper terms. This soured my view of him significantly.

We actually have a few streams planned for exactly this.

Similar to the extent that a pug system is still just a pug system. We're doing things a bit differently by hooking it into the league at a very core level, but yes. It is still a pug platform by the end of the day.

Yes, actually. Finding scrims at or below Main is pretty difficult, and relies on Discord and manually asking TLs if they want to scrim. You need to schedule it, grab a server, and configure everything yourself. It's just not a very welcoming experience for newer players, especially when you take into account the risk of having an inexperienced TL scheduling against another team that is far beyond your skill level. It happens a lot, and this platform would effectively eliminate that risk.

As for playing a higher div, or a team that you know for a fact will 5-0 you? You can do that using our platform, and manually choose to scrim higher teams. Plus, there's absolutely no requirement that you must without a doubt rely entirely on TFCL to host your scrims. You can always just do what you do right now and manually get things organized through Discord. So really, this is just there for those that want or maybe need a more streamlined experience. To take the weight off, so to speak.

We're mostly doing this platform for newer teams and players, with a heavy focus on ease of use and growth. Relying on multiple services and platforms to get a scrim going really isn't ideal. If anything, it just adds extra unnecessary steps to what could otherwise be a very simple process.

As for the advanced analytics stuff, our main goal here is to track as much stuff as possible. Stuff that goes beyond demos.tf or logs.tf. We're basically creating a dynamic ELO system based on your player performance at a class and even weapon level, and using this to assist in sandbag prevention and divisional placements. There are a few other neat things that we can do with this as well, but it's too early to make them public. Let's just say there's a lot of potential here, both for providing basic stat tracking, as well as offering up something that could be used to legitimately assist in a players growth.

Also the service is free. No paywall or anything of the sort, we want this data to be publicly accessible.

The exact breakdowns aren't fully finalized yet, but essentially yes. It would work out to something like that.

There's a bit of a history there, and an offer was made back when sigafoo ran things. It didn't work out.

I'll have a proper article out regarding funding and how we can actually afford all of this, but in short; TFCL is a product of a business that I run. My other assets are relatively profitable, to a point where I can more or less just throw money at TFCL and still make a profit overall. League fees help as well of course, but even if every single person in TF2's comp scene played in TFCL, we'd still lose a fair bit each season / month. Currently estimating a loss of $100k per year.

It's best to think of this more as an Uncletopia sort of thing, rather than Faceit, though I suppose the premise is the same. I can't actually guarantee that this will be successful, as that sort of depends on the size of TFCL and how many daily active users we end up having. I know this isa bit of a non-answer, but to be honest, I don't have a full and proper answer at this time.

Primarily through extensive marketing efforts. I have access to a promotional network (internal) of between 1.3 and 3.5 million monthly. Beyond that, I have a fair number of media connections with some major news websites and organizations. Promoting TFCL (and with it, competitive TF2) is one of my primary goals here, and I'll use every possible method I can to ensure that TF2 itself can grow as an esport.

The Team Fortress Competitive League (TFCL) is once again, and officially this time, announcing our plans to bring the league back from the dead. Consider this thread a sort of info-dump + official TFTV announcement of our revival.

Here's an article we published last month with more information - https://tfcleague.com/news/are-we-still-dark/
We will also be writing up a more official article on the site in the coming days.

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Features
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TFCL has a number of notable features and functions, many of which are exclusive (or done first) to TFCL.

Pick up Games
We're building a custom PUG platform that is very heavily integrated into the core of the TFCL experience. You don't need to rely on Discord to host and manage PUGs, nor will you need to go to a separate website. It's all done at the league level.

Automated Scrim Scheduling
We're creating a custom scrim automation platform, allowing for teams to automatically get paired with other teams of a similar rank. As the Team Leader, you can define and set multiple criteria for the scheduler, ensuring that you always have a fair and balanced scrim at any hour on any day of your choosing. This may especially be useful for lower level teams who may not have the connections with other team leaders built up quite yet.

Global Server Network
If you're familiar with the days of ESEA, you're likely going to find that our server network is relatively similar, in that every match is hosted by the league, allowing for you to simply hop into the server and play. No more need to manually record match scores, or fiddle with rcon commands. That's all done for you. Of course, we're not ESEA, and our server network isn't restricted to the United States. (don't even get me started on the Texas server routing issues)
TFCL will automatically provision a server for every single activity that we provide, whether it's an official match server, a scrim server, or a server for your PUG. We host it all from our end, in any of our global server locations. From Toronto to Sydney, and Los Angelas to Tokyo. Plus Europe too, for good measure. TFCL is a truly global platform.
As a bonus, our server network is free to use. You can even reserve a server for third party leagues and tournaments, or just to have fun with a few friends.

Cups, Tournaments, Seasons
Due to the size of our seasonal prize pools, TFCL's primary focus won't actually be on the traditional seasonal structure that every other TF2 league has historically used. Instead, we're focusing on smaller cups and tournaments, such as a 32 team weekend cup with a $6,000 prize pool, or a single-day Ultiduo tournament with a $2,000 prize pool. We want for you to have something to compete in, at all levels, at all times.

Prize Pools
We are opting to run TFCL at a loss, so that we can do our very best to offer the highest prize pools in the history of TF2 esports. Each and every sixes season that we host will have a minimum pool of $40,000 dollars, which doesn't even account for the previously mentioned cups and tournaments, with most of them having their own individual pool and prize system.

Match Making Service
If you just want to play a round of 12v12 Upward, we're also providing a match making service, similar to Valve's own service built into TF2. We're still playing around with TFCL MM, and are aiming to offer a consistent server pool at all hours of the day.

Host Your Own Stuff
Whether it's a small thing for your Discord group, or a large YouTuber cup. We're making it possible for everyone to host their own competitions through TFCL. You define the rules, the maps, and other tournament criteria, and we'll take care of the heavy lifting. We may even provide you with access to our in-game medals, assuming a certain criteria is met.

Advanced Analytics
We're building a very detailed analytics platform, one that tracks pretty much everything you do within the world of TF2. TFCL AA (name pending, of course) goes far beyond something like demos.tf or logs.tf. But how is this going to be used? Why even bother with advanced tracking to begin with?
Simply put, we will be using our analytics to create a playstyle profile on every single person that competes within TFCL. We will track every bomb, every kill, every shot that you make. We will track your positioning, your accuracy, and even have the ability to offer up feedback on why a certain play of yours didn't work as expected. Are you the problem, or is it your team? This is a common question, and the current mentor and coaching system that we have today just isn't capable of answering that.

League Structure - Divisions, Fees, And Pools
TFCL's competitive ranking system can be broken down into five ranks.

S Rank = ESEA Invite, RGL Invite
A Rank = ESEA Intermediate, RGL Advanced
B Rank = ESEA Open, RGL Main & Lower
C Rank = RGL Intermediate & Amateur
D Rank = RGL Newcomer

We also charge seasonal or event fees, with the amount varying by rank.

S Rank - $80
A Rank - $40
B Rank - $15
C Rank – No Fee
D Rank – No Fee

And of course, we have the pools. The below prize pool breakdown is for a typical sixes season within TFCL.

S Rank - $23,000
A Rank - $10,000
B Rank - $6,000
C Rank - $1,000
D Rank - $0

Fees and pools for cups and tournaments will be different.

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I think that's it for now. We'll of course announce more stuff at a later date.
Oh, speaking of dates.

Release Date
We will be launching later this year, and will begin public testing of some of our core systems within the coming months. More on that later.

Listening to music, creating stuff, and hanging with friends.

I am legitimately excited for the revival of ramjam. Was talking about this map about a week ago, and then boom, Jusa outta nowhere.

GLHF everybody! Should be a fun season, especially now that there's some casting coverage. :D

You really outdid yourself, Recurse! Great article!

Not even kidding, if you add 50 more chainsaws (and entirely new areas so those 50 chainsaws have homes) I'll host an entire tournament on it with like, idk, 50 keys or something as a prize pool. And yes, I will count the chainsaws.

edit; if you can also add raining chainsaws, all the better. Maybe some lasers, too... and chainsaws that shoot lasers.

The league (in the past) has had more than a fair share of problems, and I've made promises that were quite simply far too early to announce, or just not realistic to do at the time. (like the $100,000 S Rank pool, where I said up to. It was a questionable way to market it)

Regarding LAN. I originally approached the Toronto LAN organizer to help out with that as a way to gain experience with organizing large venues. TLAN unfortunately never got around to happening (organizer couldn't do it), though I still most definitely have an interest in helping out if she were to ever start the project up again.

As for UberJam (our own lan) I'm still not counting that out, but am no longer including it in the overall grand plan for TFCL. It's still possible that we'll host it, but it's not a priority anymore. If we do end up hosting it, travel benefits will still be included. The top teams from the highest level will be given free or discounted travel to the lan. Again, if we host one. We also announced the lan alongside our pay to play structure, all the way back in 2017. The pay structure didn't happen then, and neither did the lan.

Everything else on the article you provided is a part of our league as it stands today. The ranking structure, the pick up game system. The only two things from the article you linked that didn't actually happen, were the lan, and the weekend tournaments.

What was said back then might have taken a while to actually happen, but for the most part, it was all truthful. The structure (hell, even the pricing for it) was announced all the way back in 2017. The fact everything was rebuilt with this structure in mind, and expanded upon in various ways, should show that there's longevity, and that the plans and features I announce, I stick to.

May 13, 2017
(bball never launched, though team creation is possible)

This might be an exception
That's where I announced the hiatus. Things started breaking well before the hiatus itself went live, which is why I decided to start over from scratch with a new developer, and a new platform entirely.
If I were to update that article, it'd look like this.
Will my play history carry over?
No, it will not.

Tournaments & Cups?
We hosted one cup, and cancelled the rest. It didn't go well.

When's next season
I was told initially that it'd be ready by fall. I said fall. It wasn't.

What does this mean for UberJam
Cancelled, with possibility of future support.

TFCL has been expanded a lot since then, and things have shifted rather significantly between 2017 and today. Though a lot of what was said is still valid and a part of our current league.

If you have any specific concerns over what the league (or I claim the league) provides, let me know. Running TFCL has been a learning experience. I've made mistakes. Hell, when I first announced it, I straight up acknowledged that I didn't expect for it to ever succeed. That I was inexperienced, and quite simply not good enough to run a league. That was three years ago, and we've gone through a handful of revisions. Multiple developers. Multiple business plans and strategies. We've gone through a lot. I've gone through a lot on a personal level. And yet TFCL is still here. It has a new developer. It has a new website. It was literally remade from scratch. The problems with the old league couldn't be fixed, so we rebuilt it. So if the question is dedication, or lying, or making grand promises that I don't keep? Honestly, just look at the history of the league, and look at what we have now. (well, in two days).
We have a release window for the pug/lobby platform. We have a server network. We have semi-automation (auto match reporting isn't ready yet). We have the divisional structure and even the same prices announced in 2017.

I'd be open to talking with you directly about me and TFCL. I honestly don't like it when people hate or dislike me, so if you want to talk about it and work out whatever differences we may have, I'm open to the discussion.