I specifically avoid that shit now at UMass.

#TF2Problems

Practices soldier on Gravelpit SOAP DM by standing on the ground and hitting directs on soldiers standing on B.

I think its more about prize pots + dedicated servers + LAN for ESEA. Those things are mostly available in ETF2L (afaik) which is why it does well over the pond. It competes somewhat with UGC EU divisions but ETF2L is way bigger.

The reason players will play in a league are because of the prize pots and support. We like ESEA because it's pretty damn hard to hack in the matches. If you do well, you literally make money. People in ESEA are serious because they paid money to be there and have the opportunity to make money. I've played on relatively highly ranked UGC 6s and HL teams and there were lots of people who played competitive casually in those leagues (even at the very top divisions). That is why ESEA is seen as more competitive than UGC.

I really like infinite's idea of having a combined event for UGC and ESEA. If we could get some sort of unity in the NA scene we could focus a lot more on bringing in more players rather than arguing over 6s/HL or Pay/Free leagues.

I think we need to keep getting people to teamfortress.tv. This site is a lot better of a place for them to be on than reddit, ugc forums, SPUF, etc.

If we got more coaches, I could run newbie mixes any time of day or night. Even when I try to run them from 9PM to midnight people show up and play from 7PM to 7AM. People have the time and want to do this but our community doesn't support newbies as much as we could IMO.

I know Ques from back when we used to hang out with m0nster, definitely a good guy and good group of people.

Your friends list is full, but definitely hit me up somehow.

I've been wanting to get ESEA and Newbie Mixes working together, but last time I talked to Kalkin/Killing (can't remember who) they didn't really want to do anything.

I'm not going to advocate for newbies to get premium for no reason and I'm not sure if there's anything ESEA could do for us that wouldn't cost them money (although I have said multiple times to Kalkin and Killing that if they come and coach or even show up to newbie mix mumble they can talk about ESEA and why new players should make teams and join their league).

If anyone has any ideas for how to use Newbie Mixes to get more people playing TF2 (and hopefully in ESEA) let me know. I always like to get fresh ideas for the group.

Also, I think that the easiest thing to do for ESEA PUGs is to make a Steam group that everyone can post announcements to so that if people want to PUG they can just post there and others will join up. Like Fan said, there are prizes just for playing pugs (he got ~$30 for 3 pugs? How many of us play more than that a week?) and rk has pointed out the numerous benefits to doing so. I've heard there was an ESEA PUG group, but there wasn't any effort to advertise it or reach out the the new group of players constantly entering 6v6/ESEA. I've been playing in ESEA/the community for almost a year and I've been personally invited to like 3 esea pugs randomly. If we want to pug more we honestly just need more personal responsibility for it. All it takes is 1 person putting in a little time to start making head way. I guarantee you if I had the time I could get ESEA PUGs running daily but I think Newbie Mixes are a better allocation of that time. Hell, if someone wants to step up and start trying to organize ESEA PUGs I'd be glad to help out and make that group a lot bigger and more active.

Thinking about starting a team...hit me up if anyone is interested.

hmu

Xen is awesome, and I couldn't believe we had such a perfect back-up in S11. He constantly works on his skills and is a great player for any Mid/High Open team. Would highly recommend.

I like this idea because if someone's friends list is full, it's impossible to get in touch with them. This would definitely help me because my list is constantly full and I want to be able to answer any/all questions people have about newbie mixes.

b4nny

This is so sad...