There's a danger to guilt for contributors who don't feel like they've contributed enough. It leads to "X deserves this more than Y, because X did this and Y only did that" or "Y deserves it as much as X did because Y's blah blah blah" and it creates a gap in the unity that competitive 6v6 TF2 needs right now. Objectively, yes, some people have blown more money than what was probably worth it. Spiritually? We are all competitive TF2. The reason why it has existed as long as it has was because of the community. I wrote this on Reddit and I'll copy and paste it here:

Thank the players. The casters. The streamers. The league organizers. The cameramen. The programmers. The sponsors. The donators. The spokespeople and frontmen. The article writers. The analysts. The designers. The medal modelers. The contributors. The viewers. The community. Thank each and every one of these people who are competitive TF2. No, it won't fix the financial shortcomings by a longshot. It helps strengthen our online presence though. This was in the other thread before it got nuked but from what I recall:

Was the most important part to read.

There really isn't much to this other than what I've expressed. Like I've clearly stated in that rant:

What I basically wrote is competitive TF2 LANs are expensive to produce. This isn't news to anyone. The production crew of TFTV works their asses and wallets off to make sure everybody can watch some TF2 online and on-site, and sometimes it takes a hit on people's IRL budgeting because of how much they donate to make sure LAN happens. A while back one of our crew said that TF2 has this artificiality about how high its production quality is that exceeds the budget of what we can sustain. There's not a strong enough online presence for competitive TF2, so the justification to go all-out and spoil the LAN productions with nice ass shit becomes harder to justify.

My personal sentiment, that does not necessarily represent every TFTV staff or individual's own personal opinions (which I expressed as "do not take this as event is cancelled, staff is upset rofl"), is that there needs to be more official fiscal involvement rather than having the community continue to burn itself and its wallets out. "Let's figure out what to do" basically translates to looking very at how we can make things continue to happen with reasonable justification financially and practically, or if it's time to just wait and see if Valve can help out themselves or progress.

http://oddshot.tv/shot/sideshow-20160509211119361
http://oddshot.tv/shot/sideshow-20160509211333292

alright which one of you eurolads am I hiring to make my spreadsheets from now on

Hold that thought.

http://i.imgur.com/33lVTvZ.png

http://i.imgur.com/D6dxrgf.png

Bonus:

http://i.imgur.com/aSr1eOY.png

http://i.imgur.com/1ZJU6lU.png

http://i.imgur.com/nsI3i2q.png

Invite Player Gets Deranked: http://oddshot.tv/shot/ma3la-2016043019311016
Prem Memer Gets Memed On Once Again: http://oddshot.tv/shot/sideshow-20160427201559676
Former TF2 Pro Plays TF2: https://www.twitch.tv/a_seagull/v/62781165?t=1h42m50s

http://is.muni.cz/th/396115/fi_b/bk.pdf

I've been fascinated by this for the past hour or so, dunno if anybody else would be. This is Tomas Curda's/LMAOBox's college thesis analyzing anti-cheat programs vs cheat programs and the security of them. He goes into technical lengths of how the engines people target are exploitable, anti-cheat programs vs cheat programs, and focuses primarily on breaking down VAC's inner workings as well as why it's easy to inject shit into wherever the hell.

He also lists off VAC's exploitable areas as well as suggestions for Valve on how to secure VAC. He published the paper, then basically judging from how long he kept LMAOBox up, continued to sell the same exploits he could have helped Valve fix. Valve likes bug finders and rewarding them; I'm guessing he decided he'd make more reward off LMAOBox as an "if the system is broken, then it's not my fault if I exploit it" villain. What he wrote on is probably shit most coders know about and have found out before - they just didn't take monetary advantage of it.

SHOUNIC GIVE ME THE MEDALS AND I'LL PUT TOGETHER AN i58 PROXY AF TEAM DO IT

http://i.imgur.com/1lHKGF5.png

YEAH BITCH
MEDALS
OHHHHH

Also all of the AsiaFortress medal designs are my favourite LFT asiafortress roster ride will make free SFM team posters

http://40.media.tumblr.com/69c9c6d9ee0ff7340642a5b640382c4d/tumblr_n6ubnxS43Y1r2qkzbo1_500.jpg

I am currently the most well-known SFM artist who has publicly made the most 6v6 TF2 SFM artworks. This one was the first one I ever made, and this one's usually the standard 6v6 artwork that gets passed around nowadays. It was used for TFTV's i55 fundraiser backdrop and a lot of other things. When eLevate still sponsored Ronin, they used that for Ma3la's Twitter header. I wasn't asked, I wasn't given credit. I just hoped people knew it was my shit - which for the most part, since I have made the most publicly passed-around 6v6 artwork, I get lucky since most people know it's mine.

I'll tell you right now that there's a lot of artists who don't like their artwork used without permission. Usually, this is where you want to credit the artist if you're using their stuff - or ask. Never hurts to ask.(And of course for God's sake if you asked and they said no don't fucking use their artwork.) It's good to see SFM artists get credited for their work, especially if it gets used without asking first. I know article writers like Jerm and Sideshow will credit SFM artists that they haven't asked.

That being said, that Spy image isn't official artwork - but due to the nature of people being like "lol what's tf2" let alone "lol competitive tf2 what's that" they will copy & paste the first thing they find on Google images. We messaged Nym about it already, I passed her official TF2 Soldier artwork to substitute for the Spy memery because that's closer to me thinking 6v6 rather than a Spy. The image I provided Sideshow for TFCups was a Soldier and Medic, standard classes for 6v6. EZ PZ make lemon grenades.

For the record, for what you're asking? If anybody wants to use a competitive-related image that I've made, go right on ahead unless it's listed as a commission. Just credit my username somewhere. I can easily upload more related images. You want other 6v6-related images? Ygg & Shmagomolova have done some 6v6-related artwork, ask them. Somebody's loadout poster of a Soldier, Med, Sniper, Demo, whatever? Sure, use that and ask them. You need something custom for your tournament? Request or commission somebody. Don't just leave it as an open-ended responsibility.

SMESIXD: HL IS BETTER THAN 6S BECAUSE HL HAS ALL THE CLASSES AND BECUASE I MAIN PYRO THEREFORE HL IS BETTER THAN 6S 6S IS FOR IDIOTS THAT KNOW NOTHING ABOUT REALL TF2 6S PLAYERS SHOULD KILL THEMSELFS :)

http://i.imgur.com/jAfQaOL.png