Nor do I really want to replace ESEA. ESEA's basically the biggest thing we've got right now, and I don't see TFCL replacing ESEA any time soon. I mean, if we get thousands upon thousands of dollars in sponsorships, then I can see it maybe having an impact on ESEA. But like, let's be real here, that's not going to happen for years, if at all.

Ultimately, TFCL is a league where everyone can come and play for money or prizes, without any upfront fees or premium memberships. You simply come in, create or join a team, and compete just like you would in another league. Except with TFCL, you get both medals as well as prizes.
Also trying to make TFCL a great introductory place for players new to competitive TF2. Once we get some teams and more support from the community, there will be an entire division dedicated to teaching the newer guys how to play their chosen format and class. A sort of coaching service built into the platform itself.
Then there's also the automated scrim thing, due out this March. Let's face it, newer teams can have difficulty finding scrims each week. Creating a scrim service that's built right into the league itself is my way of hopefully simplifying the whole process for newer teams and players, while also adding an extra convenience for seasoned teams just looking to get their scrim on.

So, to compare TFCL with ESEA really isn't fair, as I'm trying to create something completely new and different. Sure, it's still a league by the end of the day, but if I can offer a service that makes it easier for newer players to jump into the competitive community, shouldn't I try to do that?

Also, if TFCL were to replace any single league, it would likely be UGC. UGC is a pretty barebones league, and they're not really going out of their way to draw in new players, and teach them the ropes of TF2. Their administrators are also said to be rather unprofessional at times, if not outright abusive. It's pretty much a common consensus that UGC isn't the greatest league for newer players to start out in, but there isn't really another alternative aside from a paid league such as ESEA. So, I created that alternative.

Besides, if for some odd reason TFCL never takes off as a serious 6v6 league, I can always just host regulated bball and ultiduo tournaments, with prizes and medals. Those are always popular, and the upcoming second season of Ultiduo already has some big names attending, so it's sure to be a great and fun season for everyone involved. The first season had b4nny and nursey take the title, and the prize. Hopefully this upcoming season will bring with it a bit more competition, largely because of the higher prize and extra promotion on both TFTV and the official TF2 blog.

TFCL is still a bit messy under the hood, given as how it's still technically an alpha right now. But aside from some odd mechanic design choices, we're already offering a full TF2 league, even as we stand right now. TFCL is more or less at the same feature level as UGC, and we're nowhere near being finished. There's just so much more to add, and so much more that we can do to enhance the competitive TF2 experience.

Also, in regards to Faceit. I don't really see them as any kind of real competition for TFCL, ESEA, or even UGC. If anything, Faceit is a potential threat to TF2 Center, or one of the other pug services out there, like mix champ. Though, it is worth mentioning that TFCL will have a similar service, albeit one intended only for smaller games, like MGE or bball. The original intention with a TFCL pug-like service wasn't really to compete against faceit, but more as a way to answer a question we've been asking for a long ass time; how do we host MGE tournaments, and not have them be cancer to administrate? The answer was a live 'channel' or 'room' that automates the entire process, with the help of a server plugin. You join the channel, and it puts you into a server. Once you're in the server, you fight. If you win, you stay in the server, and await your next opponent. If you lose, you're automatically kicked from the server, and your rank on the channel is updated. It just keeps grabbing new players until there are none left. We codenamed this "koth" since that name fits pretty damn well. Kinda figured since we were building this tech anyway, may as well let anyone and everyone create their own channels, essentially turning it into a pug service.

tldr
TFCL is a league designed to help new players into comp TF2, while also offering enough features and services for the more experienced players to use and enjoy. Idea is to fill a niche, while still offering a 'pro' league that has prizes and medals.

Week 1's schedule has been posted to the site.
Also, big ass article here - http://tfcleague.com/2017/02/01/welcome-tfcls-6v6-season/

Season 1 Updates - http://steamcommunity.com/groups/eTFCL#announcements/detail/558845768046520794?tscn=1485904819

In short, Highlander has been cancelled. Also week 1 schedule for 6v6 will be posted tonight around 9 eastern.
Make sure your team is readied up before then if you want to participate in the first match. You can still register your team for week 2, but that lowers your odds of getting into playoffs. So if you miss week 1, you've still got options.

glhf

Well, there goes my childhood. Thanks Disney!

Okay, Purolator just delivered the package today. I asked him why he wasn't able to deliver it on Friday, like he was supposed to. His reason? And I shit you not, this is legit the actual reason.

"I have poor eyesight, and couldn't read the buzzer info."

....

Are you fucking kidding me? The reason Purolator couldn't deliver the package was because the driver couldn't see the buzzer?! Holy scout on a stick, is that the lamest reason ever!

Never. I don't have fun friends :(

How old were you when you joined TFTV?

http://tfcleague.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/UltiduoSeason2.fw_-e1485649379426.png

Soldier + Medic = Love?

The second season of TFCL's Ultiduo is definitely happening, and soon. Just securing some sponsors right now, and will update once I have something more concrete. I'm personally throwing $60 into this, so at the very least, there will be a $60 prize for first place. ($30 per player)

There's about a week left before the start of our first official season. Currently, it looks very likely that the highlander season will be cancelled, since only 3 out of the 23 highlander teams have actually readied up.
As far as 6v6 goes, we've got 11 out of 24 teams readied, so that season is definitely happening. Would love to get 16 teams readied up before January 1st though, so if you haven't readied your team up yet, please do so immediately.

If the highlander season does end up being cancelled, we may host another Ultiduo season. This time, it'll be a 4 week round robin, with two matches per week, followed by a single elimination playoff. Ultimately, I want to have at least two ongoing seasons, for testing purposes. Whether that's highlander and 6v6, or ultiduo and 6v6. Kinda up to you guys.

Our buzzer is completely fine. Even went down there tonight to check, and it's working A-OK. Also, other shipping companies have little to no problem with it, even though they're all given the same exact shipment information / address.
I don't know why Purolator can't figure out how to use a buzzer for an apartment building, but you're right, that's basically what most of the complaints are about.
I'm sure if I lived in a larger city, such as Toronto, I'd have very little to no issues with getting items delivered to me. But instead, I live in a relatively small town, and there's maybe 3 or 4 apartment complexes in the entire town. I'm sure whoever is responsible for delivering packages for my area isn't exactly used to delivering to apartment buildings, so I can sort of see why they'd hesitate to deliver to mine. It's rather stupid to think that they might fear the buzzer, but I can honestly see that being true. Small town, few buildings. I'm basically an alien to them.

When I first moved in here, the super warned us that getting items shipped to our apartment may be difficult. That's one of the primary reasons I rarely shop for physical products online, preferring in-store pickups whenever possible. But like, this is really getting ridiculous. I just wish Purolator would learn how to use a freaking buzzer, so I can shop on Amazon more often. I want to be able to buy the one day shipping option, and actually feel confident that I'll get my item in one day. This was the first time I ever paid extra for express shipping, and unless Purolator is removed as a shipment option from Amazon, I don't see myself ever ordering express shipping again. Too many risks involved, and far too inconvenient in the end. Thankfully though, Amazon appears to blocking Purolator from my account, so I guess in the future, I'll be able to order from them more often. May even get Prime for the Twitch sub and game discount stuff. Prime is gimped to all hell in Canada, so I'm hesitating. But still, it might be useful to have if I can get the bullshit shipping stuff sorted out.

Honestly, I'm having a fair bit of trouble believing that. I don't know if it's because I'm extremely unlucky, or if there's something with this building in particular that they refuse to deliver to. It's almost certainly the building, as I recall the super saying that not all companies deliver here properly. But Purolator in particular has been an absolute nightmare to deal with. Each and every single time, they fail to deliver to my building. Typically they never buzz the first time they're out for delivery, and one time, they didn't even come up to the lobby. Just stayed by the curb, near their van/truck. Tonight though, they didn't buzz, nor make any indication that they showed up here at all.

The only delivery company that I've had issues with, is Purolator. FedEx and UPS are also sometimes troublesome, but they're more hit than miss. Purolator is all miss. They do eventually deliver the package, but typically I have to actually go out to their depot and pick it up myself. If I hadn't paid for one day delivery, I wouldn't be as pissed off about their usual shenanigans. I'd still be pissed, but I mean, I fucking paid for the one day thing, and they failed to deliver to my building once again.
Canada Post never has issues. UPS sometimes has issues. FedEx sometimes has issues. Purolator always has issues. I've received packages from each of those companies, and out of all of them, Canada Post has always delivered on the day they were supposed to. UPS usually did, but some of their drivers didn't buzz correctly or at all. But they always came to the building, and when we called them, they'd almost always come back the same day. FedEx is more or less the same as UPS.
But Purolator? Never once have I had a package from them delivered to this building without some kind of major problem, or bullshit with their drivers being too lazy or stupid to figure out how to use a buzzer.
And according to Trust Pilot, I'm not alone.

Holy fuck, so it's official? It's not some kind of troll account or whatever?

Purolator - The Clean Tide Alternative

Well, shit. That just happened...

Already contacted them about the issue, and they said the package was already on its way back to Mount Hope, which isn't near me. I can go and manually pick it up, or I can wait for them to try and deliver it again come Monday. I'm just going to wait.
Already got a refund for shipping from Amazon, so as far as I'm concerned, I just want my package, and will never do business with those guys again. I mean, shit dude, 0.3 star rating on Trust Pilot? I didn't even think something like that was possible.

Just for fun though, there was another "horror story" involving them that happened last summer. I ordered something from a different website, and they were the guys sent to ship it. I'm home alone, and have the phone (for the buzzer) right beside me the entire time. I'm sitting out on the balcony, and basically go in and out every 5 or so minutes checking for a truck, as I was determined to catch them this time. So, I see a truck that's more or less unmarked. A guy with a clipboard or tablet (couldn't tell from the distance) got out of the truck, stood at the curb for a good 10 seconds, and got right back into the trick, and drove away. At this point, I'm thinking it's somebody else, and the dude got lost finding the actual house, since it was clear he was a delivery guy. But nope, nada. I go online to check the shipment status, and it says I wasn't home to receive the package. I mean, what? No, you fucking stood at the side of the road of an apartment building for 10 seconds, and THAT is how you determine I'm not home? The flubber is that?

I've got similar horror stories for UPS and FedEx, but at least those guys will usually ship me my shit. Purolator? Not a single package was delivered to me, with every single one being late (a second or third delivery attempt), or having me drive out to their depot just to pick up a package they were supposed to drive out to me.

On the plus side though, the pizza place never fails to deliver the pizza to me, and in 40 minutes or less.

So, ordered a wire with 1 day shipping off Amazon. They used Purolator to ship it. Purolator didn't arrive at all, and lied about attempting to deliver to my apartment. Like, an actual fucking lie. No notice was left, even though they claimed it was. Just a full on "fuck you" to my face.
So, I went to Amazon, and they refunded my entire shipping charge. They also added a note to my account to never use Purolator, and only ship with Canada Post from now on.

I've used Purolator in the past, and have never once had a successful delivery with them.
https://ca.trustpilot.com/review/purolator.ca

There's a reason they have a 0.3 star rating

Anyway, I'm kinda pissed right now, and needed to share this bullshit. Purolator is pure trash, and I've yet to have a SINGLE successful delivery from them. Ever. And like, this time Amazon didn't give me a choice or whatever. Purolator, or nothing. What's worse is it was a supposed one day delivery, which I paid extra for. I don't exactly have Amazon Prime either, so no discounts or whatever. Just pure and simple extra money for something that Purolator can't fucking do. Like, holy blue balls on a tinder date, dealing with that company is a total nightmare! I also don't see myself ever subscribing to Amazon Prime, as in Canada, it's just a waste of money. But like, if it means that I can get items on the day they're supposed to arrive, I'm all for a Prime subscription. Just, holy shit. Amazon handled everything well enough, but holy fish nozzle is Purolator bad!

/end rant

Maybe one day I'll get this email too.