Sorry the link was a bit hidden. Join the discord here: discord.gg/8JzsRzN

After only a handful of hours we've already raised $295! That includes one signed shirt claimed, so only 2 remain as of this post. Please remember to visit the discord to reach out to us to organize the perk fulfillment.

A couple other clarifications are also in order. First, weapon signing is included in all perks, not just the $5 level. Second, we will gladly accept Mann Co Keys for merch items. Key prices vary based on your region, and are as follows:
Tshirt (Mens & womens cut) - 16 USA, 19 CAN, 22 International
Hoodie - 24 USA, 27 CAN, 30 International
Sticker - 5 USA/CAN/International
Mug - 11 USA, 14 CAN, 17 International
Tote - 14 USA, 17 CAN, 20 International

If you are interested in using keys to purchase merch, the way it will work is you will send me the keys then I will place the order for you. Thus, you will have to be comfortable sending me a shipping address along with your desired size/color of merch. Again, we can figure all of this out on the discord so make sure to ping me on there if you'd like to set something up.

Our total team costs for i61 are about $4500. As stated in the OP, this includes travel, lodging, PC rental and event tickets.

Completely unrelated topics really. Members of your team have a history of scamming (dingo + yight) which I believe is relevant information when it comes to organizing projects that are built upon community trust like a fundraiser is. Regardless, I don't see a Gnomercy announcement, roster, or fundraiser anywhere yet so being cautious about sending money their way until that happens would probably be wise for anyone.

We intend to compete regardless of what other teams confirm their attendance, but of course we hope the level of competition is as high as possible.

I am happy to announce an intercontinental LAN roster for i61 that plans to challenge for the gold medal: Team SVIFT.

http://i.imgur.com/ZYS0GXy.jpg

(It’s pronounced swift, but alle insisted)

Roster
Pocket: b4nny
Roamer: Silentes
Demoman: alle
Scout: astt
Scout: SVMZI
Medic: Raptor

After it became clear that froyotech would not be able to attend i61, I quickly looked at other options and discovered that this group of EU contenders was still looking for a pocket soldier. Naturally, I jumped at the opportunity to join up with them for the LAN, especially after seeing some familiar faces (hopefully you recognize 3 from the i58 Full Tilt core) and hearing that their intentions were to take home the championship title. While it is still disappointing not to have a full NA team of top players at the event, I am hoping there can still be a touch of NA flair and rivalry with my solo participation. Despite the distance and ping between me and the rest of the team, we still plan to prepare online together in the coming weeks to build our chemistry. While we expect the in-game side of things to go smoothly, financial struggles from the squad mean that the team will be looking for some community support to help make this event an all around success.

Fundraiser
We are looking to raise $2000 for this event to help cover the team’s costs which include expenses for travel, lodging, PC rentals and BYOC tickets. Any help is greatly appreciated.

Fundraiser concluded, total raised: $1765
Supporter perks: https://goo.gl/mCr9cJ
Join the SVIFT discord to coordinate fundraiser perks here: discord.gg/8JzsRzN

Thank you all for your time and any support you can offer. We will be monitoring this thread closely to answer any questions and provide updates on the progress of the fundraiser. We hope to make the competition interesting for you all, so here’s to a great i61!

You're going to LAN down the street not across an ocean. It changes literally everything about what would be considered "reasonable planning." If you really want to prove me wrong, go ahead and book everything for your entire team for Rewind LAN right now despite the fact that no information about an official TF2 tournament happening there has been confirmed.

https://twitter.com/4G_b4nny/status/871094611359416320

:thinking: (For future reference: I'm not an emo child, I don't delete tweets lol)

I don't think asking Multiplay to provide the most basic tournament information (that should have been public months prior) and them finally following through really obliges anyone to go to LAN. Only after that point should any team even reasonably start planning to go. Then there are the million other factors that come next that could prevent someone from going despite being initially interested. For that very reason we were extremely careful never to officially confirm we were going to i61 even after the tournament was confirmed. I'm just as disappointed as anyone that i61 might not be a top tier competition, but as for this thread I'm still skeptical that Se7en wouldn't go, based on the convenience factor alone.

For now, the point of the beta test is mainly bug fixing and stress testing. Once the hubs are fully fleshed out I'll be working to make the kinds of experiences you described a thing of the past through administrating, clearly defined skill tiers and join limitations. Hopefully when that time comes you will reconsider.

You're trying (and failing) to reference these posts from 5 months ago to call me hypocritical, but I plainly stated that until we have the captain system up to standard, PugChamp will continue to serve a purpose. Yes, I still use PugChamp, but don't misunderstand. It's still in the community's best interest to let PugChamp (and MixChamp and TF2Center and TF2Stadium and anything else) die in the name of consolidation just the same as it was 5 months ago. Several posts in this thread outlined further flaws of PugChamp that I never concerned myself with, but they only reinforce that idea. Thankfully our patience is starting to pay off and those FACEIT changes are nearly here (Join the beta hub btw: https://www.faceit.com/en/inv/n5WJnty). If the hubs are built the way I envision them then PugChamp will be easily replaced, but if not then it won't be, just as it hasn't yet for the last 5 months. Pretty simple. But even when FACEIT's development is complete and is proven to be objectively the superior platform in all ways it'll all be okay for PugChamp as long as they come up with a marketing plan that will treat people really nicely, right? :3

I will preface this again by saying I hope we can sustain more LANs in the scene and we are still hopeful for attending i61. So that said, there's no denying that Rewind had some issues so hopefully we will have someone from ESA confirm how those will be addressed for future events. If those were fixed, though, I could not see any reason why Rewind wouldn't be considered the best LAN in the world for TF2. Furthermore, I feel like dealing with ESA is a little bit more straightforward and community based compared to what you see at Multiplay (unless your community is the comment section of a Minecraft YouTube video). After the last TF2 admins left Multiplay it seems there's a huge barrier of communication which has contributed to the situation we are in right now with attendance being uncertain. Plus, the prizes offered for i58 and Rewind were nearly identical, so I don't see that being an issue. We tend to find a way to make the events we care about big. Prizes aside, from my understanding, one of ESA's priorities is to make their events worth attending for top level teams which could come in the form of other travel accommodations instead of prizes, which is just as valuable in my opinion. Bottom line is we should have a solid TF2 LAN to rely on either way as long as we maintain our relationships with Multiplay and ESA, which is a good position to be in.

Hoping this will be able to serve every competitive community from Newbie Mixes to Invite pugs. Could finally be able to consolidate everyone onto one platform which would be huge for our scene.

Join the new beta test here: https://www.faceit.com/en/inv/n5WJnty
(NA only for now)

Hey guys, today we are testing the new FACEIT beta for TF2 (on NA servers for now). This system includes a private 6v6 solo queue that includes a captain draft and a leaderboard. The next version should include many more changes including an integrated voice server, improved UI and more robust admin controls. We'd like to get as many tests going right now as possible to make sure everything is working and to gather feedback from you guys. I'll be streaming and playing more later in the afternoon and evening to help guide things along, but the queue will be open all day.

Join the hub, queue up, and play here: https://www.faceit.com/en/inv/n5WJnty

I'd like to take froyotech to i61 still. The tournament announcement came just in time for it to be feasible. We will be making the decision this week most likely, but a couple loose ends need to be tied up. You'll know when we know.

That being said, shade's sentiments in the clips above are still probably right anyways. In almost all respects, Rewind is a far superior LAN for the TF2 community (PCs provided, production provided, stage provided, free live spectating, cheap travel to LAX, etc). Because we've had nothing except Insomnia for our annual international LANs people have naturally become quite attached, but I think we would be just fine if we had to replace it with an annual international Rewind type LAN. It's kind of similar to the ESEA discussions lately, except in this case there is an actual viable alternative available. Of course, the more the merrier and the healthier our scene is if we can sustain them both, so I'm still hoping we can make them both successful.

Until the tournament is confirmed it's hard to confidently plan and organize these kinds of things. Hoping the verdict comes soon!

Rather than making such extensive changes in the first version I think you should take a more incremental approach. There were only like 3 things that were universally agreed should be changed (forward spawns, ammo, clipping) but now you've introduced a bunch of new little features throughout the map and most of them are entirely unnecessary (new props/ledges, eliminating hiding spots, changing cap time, etc). Take it slow and respect the original otherwise you're only going to introduce more things that upset people.