Oh yes, I remember Ruskey telling me about the polarizing/IMO perfect 2016 FLAN medal.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9GUMduW7R3g

In general, some of the charity/non-competitive contest medals like the Random Acts of TF2, Rally Call 2018, Jump Jam, or Winter Wonderland medals (shoutout to the Special Snowflake for cheekiness, and the Charitable Heart for inclusive pride subtlety) are pretty fun.

I remember when the 2018 ones were posted to Twitter this year and somebody got mad about why they had to go and break TF2's art style with the rainbow shit - when it's literally three Valve games all combined together into one and we have medals, let alone items, made by even Valve that already broke the style.

I have similar feelings about the Rally Call 2016 Participant/Helper medal, but it's because I think blue and white go really nicely together, which are also colours present on ESL's participant medal.

I actually really like the hugs.tf medal - primarily because the heart's design is meant to be two halves of a heart hugging, which was what one of the coordinators had pitched to me prior to me making the drafts of the 2017 medal concept. That being said it's not easy to pick up on and I can understand if it's very plain or doesn't look as outstanding as others though.

Seconding AF medals. The AsiaFortress medals probably have my favourite medal designs. I do think Ruskeydoo's cobra and wolf/lion? models are smoother than iridescentFUZZ's dragon/phoenix which look less polished but I still really like the designs. Chapelaria's medals are also really nice and I like how they incorporated TF2 elements.

LBTF2's S9 Brazil-shaped medals were always my least favourite up until recently. They looked tacky to me and I wasn't a fan of the colours they picked. Now, I really don't like the Newbie Highlander Cup or RGL Prolander Cup medals. I think the designs are boring and the modeling is lacking, but I'm almost certain the modelers have the skill level to improve the designs while staying under the tri limit if given a chance.

I do a lot of concept art, consultation, or outsourcing for people who want medals done for their TF2 events - whether it's for charity streams, contests, or tournaments. Medals as an incentive to offer people to get them interested in their event, or offer a reward for participation that isn't (just) a cut of a prize pot, was what arguably caught casual and competitive players' interest back in the day, when competitive TF2 was still in growth. Now, mostly every tournament, leagues, competition, or charity event will almost always offer medals, and I think it's pretty cool.

https://i.imgur.com/MEWhOY3.png

This post wasn't made to talk about what worth medals really have to offer when money > medals, or things like optimization issues / gradual disinterest due to oversaturation of medals. This post also isn't to talk about how to change medals' functionality to be more worth it (e.g. what if medals' equip region was Action slot instead of a cosmetic? What if we could pick what medal we wanted to show off when people hit tab, like CS:GO?). This also wasn't a post made to talk about how you'd like medals to expand being offered monetarily beyond just charity events - which as of this day is a strict rule, and only once was this rule ever made exception for.

All of the above are valid issues for discussion but I honestly just want to know what medals in TF2 you guys like (if you care about medals) after the new ETF2L medal backlash a while back. Which medals have you liked the most? Likewise, which medal designs do you think are just not good? How much do you care about how a medal looks, and do you think design is important for attracting players to a competition/event, or getting them to return?

https://i.imgur.com/61jPmCl.png

Some background stuff for shit like "this medal is literally the same model with the same skin it's lazy": as time has passed on, Valve has shifted their guidelines: it's now preferred to have one model / multiple textures for tiers rather than different models per tier, but you're still allowed to do the latter. If you're a league or regular tournament, you're encouraged to recycle your medals that were already added into the game. If you're only annual / not running events constantly throughout the year e.g. charity events, you get more wiggle room on adding new medals per year. Also, the highest limit you can go for modeled tris is 1400, which means sometimes you gotta cut back on details.

You're probably still bi. You just have a personal preference for girls compared to guys, of whom you're also attracted to but not as much as women, whether a current or longstanding preference.

The idea that bisexuality is some 50/50 thing is a misconception and isn't really true; you can be bi and lean more towards one side or the other, as well as have it shift around based on who you like, what you're feeling into at the time in terms of attraction, etc.

EDIT: You can by all means be bisexual 50/50 but it's not the only defining ratio for bisexuality.

Buy some fuzzy pipecleaners, some wire (for the frame of the body), and some wire cutters if you already don't have those or strong ass scissors, and make pipecleaner dolls/characters. There's a lot of cool examples of this on the internet like this dude who makes a ton of stuff with pipecleaners.

https://78.media.tumblr.com/4137187142ba2011700a45b2468980da/tumblr_n8ns706SAB1su0g22o1_1280.jpg

I have no doubt in my mind that you never meant to deliberately demean players. But the way that statement was worded, let alone this action itself, does demean players. Even if you didn't mean for it to come off that way, pushing this decision means you haven't listened to the players that have, for the past several years, constantly spoken up against people who have whined about froyotech disbanding to make things more fair and interesting "in the name of competitive Team Fortress 2" - of which I am just as guilty for doing. These players speak up not only to defend themselves, but to defend froyotech and their place in the ladder for the integrity of competition, even if they acknowledge that with their hard work and practice, they will lose dozens of times before they finally see progress.

I'm never going to understand that integrity as much as those players do. Based on your competitive experience in Plat a few years back, you probably understand it more than I do too. That's why I can't believe you pushed for this.

I apologize for accusing you of belittling players' efforts since you said you didn't mean it that way, and I believe you. I retain my opinion that a lot of what was written in that statement was very personal rather than professional, and could be/will be interpreted in unfortunate ways worse than how I first read it. I also retain my opinion that the salary cap against froyotech STILL will not turn out to be the right way to motivate players, but I understand you're willing to take that gamble regardless, as you always have been.

This sentence is incredibly insulting. It is not only insulting to Ascent S28 or any teams in Invite past or present who have worked hard to at least put up a good fight against froyotech (and players from S28 Ascent after the GF went on-record saying despite the results and joining froyo S29, they still busted their ass), as well as any other team that has won or closely fought against froyotech (Se7en at i63, who basically spilled blood in the water and influenced even retired NA players like sharks to swim back to Invite), but it's insulting to the players and teams participating in RGL 7v7.

I used to think this shit about froyotech too, I'd like to think that I don't think like this anymore, and I, like Console, am waiting with baited breath for the day froyotech loses. If you had banned froyotech for anything else like if that "no personal stream" rule is still in effect, or BM inside/outside of matches, that might have actually had integrity - in comparison to this. Not only did you ban froyotech for winning, you banned them because you implied your players are bad.

This sentence shouldn't have even been in the RGL post. It's not professional, it could have gone on a personal Twitter as a Twitlonger, it could have whittled this down to just say "due to froyo winning too much we decided to enforce this policy" - still would have had the same reaction, but is cleaner. But in it being part of RGL's statement, it devalues the effort that teams have been attempting to put into sigafoo's league. Consider that some teams are also investing effort into things other than RGL. That means they have put shit to the side, to make the time to participate & invest commitment into RGL 7s.

If sigafoo wanted more teams to take your league seriously and invest in it more in terms of commitment to getting better, demeaning teams and saying them improving "hasn't happened" because froyotech has not lost yet, then banning froyotech for being a super team and adding a salary cap, should be taken as a slap to the face to RGL's competitors.

To those of you from RGL 7s who might be reading this: you might think it's easier this time around to win money and everybody to have a fairer chance, and at least it fosters a friendlier environment than dat elitist toxic TFTV 6v6, which might very well be fair too. But your league owner also basically implied it wasn't worth waiting for you to get better anymore - regardless of how much you may have actually improved or committed to playing - and that's why he himself decided only he could bring about change. And I personally don't know if that's worth your time or support.

Their anniversary single was sexy smooth. I should have put an orange instead of a basketball but then that would have defeated the purpose and only you and I would have gotten it.

There was also this option:

https://i.imgur.com/VGI0Kpj.png

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nYUKiMLL1C0

Here's the temp track I used while working on the promo before I settled with Korean pop (it's arguably better)

I've deleted the old thread and adjusted the title of this thread to remove the version extension, please bump this thread for future updates.

It's been 5 days and all I can still think about is how Turbo and Grumpy looked like they were gonna smack-talk throw down WWE-style introducing the players on that Grand Finals stage

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Dl05X6cVAAAOrEs.png

IT'S TIME FOR THE CHAMPION'S RETURN

https://i.imgur.com/Yv5Xrn3.png

Thanks for taking the time to respond.

Upon retrospect, I realize a lot of what I said is deconstructive and did come off presumptuous & entitled. It stems from an older era that people praise as higher quality and will continue to do so, but it's insensitive and unfair to those who are working in different circumstances with less than what I had, and comes off as a form of grumpy retired grandpa mentality that I told myself I can't be a part of if I want to keep doing TF2. I overworked in the name of passion and quality to make things the best they could possibly be, beyond limitations, in subpar conditions - because that was what was expected from me back then. That doesn't mean this era has to go through the same thing, because it's still possible to make something the best it could possibly be with less.

Volunteers who did i63 are upset and demoralized about how harsh the feedback has been, and I'm truly sorry for tearing you down rather than building you up constructively. It was a good LAN with great gameplay and fantastic people, and my approach to criticism was not what TF2 needs after a LAN like that. This LAN in this era was the best in terms of people making the most of what they could with what they have, proving that regardless of their limitations or what was missing that they could still create something incredible out of something so small and keep it going - which always has been the point of TF2 and was expressed so well in the outro. That outro hit me emotionally in a way that no outro has hit me like before and I don't know if I could ever really explain why publicly.

While I and others do think there was a lot that can be improved, hearing what limitations arose means I shouldn't continue to downplay what efforts were put in if they were really out of people's control. Am I upset about the production mistakes or organizational issues? Yes, but I shouldn't have been as cold and breathe down your neck, nitpicking every little tiny detail that I scrutinized, because it's not fair. Again, I have no real idea of what went down and what they were dealing with. I have no idea what's going on or what did go on, and if I think it's really bad, I don't know how much that matters to the people who were actually involved. I might think I know what's best for them but I don't; I don't know shit in comparison to the people who volunteered their time and efforts willingly.

I should have seen it from how hard the hosts tried to keep engaging in conversation during ridiculous downtimes and delays and how much work people were trying to commit to doing certain roles they weren't used to. And the casters and talent who basically blew out their vocal chords close to the end of the event, and the admins and the media people trying to make the most out of the limited time, equipment, and manpower they had. And how hard a main stage was fought for to make sure the finalized teams could play at their comfort and best, and give TF2 what is arguably the best NA vs EU iSeries finals to date. I should have been more considerate of that, and I'm sorry.

Other people will have more issues to raise with Essentials' treatment of this LAN. But in terms of suggestions I could give that are not as harsh and actually constructive - a lot of it just goes back to, other than Multiplay, higher-up organizational things that should have been planned earlier, communicated better, micro'd more than spread out, or put together more cohesively. All of which are criticisms that have been brought in the past since i61 by others and are redundant at this point, and I hope they're listened to. But with that as your biggest limitation - with that considered, the i63 volunteers all did very well. Thank you for this LAN, and thank you for TF2.

The first thing I want to do is thank the people behind the Essentials production. I have no clue how bad it actually was and how much was within control/out of control. I do know they worked very hard to make sure that shit worked, and with whatever they were able to do while everything was on fire, they did their best and they made a show happen, and I bawled like a baby when the outro rolled. I can say lots of positive things about this LAN - the casters, the teams and players, the spectators and community, the Twitch connections so we got 12K views, the talent available - and I will later.

Production quality felt worse than i61. There was effort and good work put in by the volunteers that got downplayed due to how cheap and put together last minute everything seemed. I could sense their tension from all the disorganization from across the transatlantic. The only exception is the Grand Finals stage, which felt better than i61's. Crowd noise was hype and audible due to actually being near the casters, the stage was cool, and it helps that both teams played fantastically and so evenly. It was almost therapeutic how satisfying the grand finals stage production was, because of how rough Day 1 and 2 were, after hearing about production people who probably fought tooth and nail to get shit working.

Feel free to not answer me ever if something sounds presumptuous or entitled, or feel free to correct me if I don't know what I'm talking about.

This is a long bullet-pointed nerd essay of my gripes with details. Meanwhile, here's the condensed list:

Now here's the thing - some of these complaints might actually be just the budget TF2 can maintain. From what it seems like, and I could be wrong:

1. There wasn't enough production equipment that people needed actually there like prod or social media PCs, limiting what the social media/photojournalism/video editing/admin team who needed them could do
   
2. People spread themselves out too many roles and a lot of different things at once, which made it hard to keep track of things or stay on the ball
   
3. Somebody didn't step up as much as they could have or got lazy, and if it's a repeat offender, should not come back next year to do their responsibilities if they under-performed so badly after feedback, that it affected the show

I was around Dashner's production team around i55 for 2 or so years, which was post-Lange and fairly similar in quality, hard work, and professionalism from talent. Dashner's era was fantastic-looking and high budget but it absolutely spoiled TF2. It was very micromanaged, and people who had specific roles were flown out rather than asked to multitask: the audio engie focused on audio, the live graphics operator controlled NodeCG, the roaming camera people focused on video, and the photojournalists took photos and edited them to post to social media and to TFTV's gallery. People like War and Sideshow both have stated that it wasn't sustainable to have that high quality of production. It exceeds the budget of what a small grassroots seed is capable of, let alone can sustain, without really generous sponsors.

Before i61, TFTV held open communication channels for people who wanted to volunteer and learn more about what was happening at the event, unlike what I've heard about Essentials. Additionally, TFTV would talk to dedicated Multiplay admins who were coordinating the TF2 tournament months, MONTHS earlier (not 2, not 3, a bit more than that) to talk to higher-ups to get what they needed. We're talking the moment the project is signed. Those admins are retired now. It might be a harder struggle. Thing is, whatever was not available was actually brought into the LAN's country or rented out - high-end video cameras, cables, mackey, industry standard commentator headsets. These things cost up to thousands of dollars.

Because Dashner and Lange used that stuff outside of TF2, it makes some sense that some of the shit that was really nice on-stream was due to that money in their own equipment they contributed, and completely optional - but we might perceive some of these things like player cams as mandatory when they are bonuses.

I don't doubt this is what some Essentials staff also had to do with whatever sponsor money or money they had available and bring some of their own stuff. I don't actually have a decent camera or equipment; my stuff is sponsor-rented or rented from somebody's pockets. There was an instance a camera lens and body was bought from a store, then returned after LAN. This sounds common, but it's money that can't be afforded to be spent when you need to consider which production people you're going to help pay for flights and hotels. There was already a saturation of fundraisers this year and production fundraisers don't make that much to send maybe more than one person out.

With this being considered, I'm not sure if I'm just spoiled based on being used to the old days, and expect more than what the budget provides due to these paragraphs above - or if I feel like Essentials with the equipment they had, could have helped their volunteers better in providing them what they needed, or have brought on people better suited for certain roles. Based on this thread as well as other places i63 feedback was left, I'm going to lean towards the latter opinion.

This is not how I wanted to cross out the 5-0 spot to get a double bingo god damn it gg

https://i.imgur.com/y0KkGa9.png