Alright. So I arrived back to the U.S. yesterday, which marks the end of my Asia TF2 tenure. I spent 7 months playing in various environments like lobbies, pugs, pugscrims, scrims, and matches. All of that good stuff. Now, Asian TF2 uses the "EU ruleset" with a 30 minute time limit and / or a 5 win difference. I wanted to bring to attention the aspects in the EU ruleset, which I feel is superior to the NA.
* Passive play is less desirable. Yeah yeah, this is funny coming from me haha, but with a very real and very threatening time limit, you can't just play passive the entire match. If you wait for 15-20 minutes only to lose the round, you've just severely handicapped yourself. Nothing is too different in terms of playing aggressive anywhere, since if you win 5-0 in 10 minutes the ruleset is irrelevant (but more on that later). But passive play wouldn't be as common assuming teams are going to try and you know win.
* Games are better paced. Piggybacking off what I said above, there's less passive play meaning more risks, more aggression. 90 minute matches on LAN would be something of the past. A match drawn out to maximum on the EU ruleset is 30 minutes. That's a good amount of TF2. Not ridiculously lengthy but still healthy. On a sidenote, NA having this ruleset would be quite godsend for scheduling doubleheaders, whether that is an ESEA doubleheader or if you're playing ESEA + CEVO (would be amazing if their map lists were synced). Actually doesn't this make the entire scheduling process for matches and scrims easier anyway? There's no “extending” scrims so if you're asked to scrim mid-scrim you simply tell them how much time is left.
* Momentum is real. In NA, 4-3 is pretty much the same thing as 4-0. If the leading team wins another round, it's over. But if you're down 4-0 and you win a round, the leading team now needs 6 rounds, maybe even more if you win another. There's no "we only need 1 more round" cushion. Might still be bleak, sure, but there's certainly more chances / opportunities to climb back with a 5 win difference. Also, 30 minutes of TF2 to get a 7-6 or 8-4 game is pretty goddamn FUN regardless of outcome (and let's be honest, how many 5-4's in NA conclude in 30 minutes). Another sidenote off this would mean rounds have more impact in a league because losing 5-0 is completely different than losing 7-5. In fact it could put a meta of sorts regarding drawing out rounds or something to influence the RF / RA shenanigans I dunno.
* Non-ESEA LANs already use this ruleset. If I recall correctly, FITES used the EU ruleset and the upcoming GXL (which you should TOTALLY be attending) will also be using this. Now, I would guess that having the NA ruleset at a LAN could cause matches to drag on, and having the EU ruleset would speed up the process, but it's just evidence that we (NA TF2) have had some form of experience with this ruleset and aren't completely alien to it.
So my question is: why is NA not adopting this ruleset?
Now this isn't to say that the NA rulset is straight up bad. Halftime can be a real blessing for teams to talk over strategies or cool down, stuff like that. And I'm sure everyone has used a halftime to go the bathroom regardless of how long the first half was. At the same time though, not having halftime / chances to talk about things rewards those who are quick on their feet with strategies and counterplay since they're able to address and adapt to issues on the fly.
EU TF2 uses this ruleset, Asia TF2 uses this ruleset, AU TF2 uses this ruleset. (I'm not sure what the Brazilians use sorry!) If NA adopted the ruleset we would have the "universal ruleset." Sure different leagues and continents will disagree on certain unlocks and maps but that's another step closer to bringing better TF2 to NA.
I made this post primarily because I wanted to spark some discussion and gather opinions from people. Particularly players who have experienced both rulesets first hand. People like alfa, who has played in ETF2L, Platinum and Shade / members of the NA teams that went to iSeries, even Fragile, who's running GXL and the various players who attended FITES / GXL. I don't expect everyone to suddenly want to lobby for NA to change their ruleset after so long, but have some food for thought.
Apologizes for any mistakes / mumblings. I have had approximately 3-4 hours of sleep in the past 3 days. The jetlag is real. Thanks for your time.