I'm not try to bait out an argument here, I'm just a little confused about what point you are making here. The stability of IM is shaky right now, the lower tier teams break up and won't play because they are in over their head and the upper teams break up for a number of different reasons. In the case of most teams the reasons result from personality conflicts which are compounded by losing. If you narrow the skill level to more equal levels in a division, positive team building results would occur. A team that enters open together, makes it to im, and so on and so forth, has a better chance of NOT breaking up than a team of im players that just play with each other because there are no better options. Personality conflicts happen in all games, the biggest phenomena in tf2 is the mixing up of players every season. I'm just simply suggesting that a four division league might help lessen the extent of that problem.

In the end though, you are the captain of the ship, you make the tough decisions. It is futile for me to argue, so I will stop and understand the choice you make. I hope your announcement doesn't disappoint

and fyi, I do understand that the lack of numbers in tf2 really does limit the way you can design a league. It was more of a hypothetical solution than a practical one.

Couldn't the stability of im be affected by the current layout?

A main division would benefit the community a lot more than making a larger invite division. I understand that invite players would welcome a more diverse player base in invite to prevent the stale nature that playing against the same people over and over tends to result in. I get that. However, there is a divide in the top 5 teams in this game and the rest.

There is also a huge divide in IM. Unfortunately the top teams in IM are not even close to the level of the top invite teams (Madmen is the obvious exception, I have no doubt that if they were moved up this season they would be attending lan). A main division would have results that would not only impact IM but also Open. Instead of the new generation of players fighting through re-roll teams in open just to make IM and encounter teams that are well beyond their immediate reach, why not move the upper tier of IM into a main division. It would make the open division what it should be, a beginner league, with players either too casual to compete at high levels, or newer players that need to be seasoned longer against more equal competition.

This model has worked in the past with the other valve games, and I understand the obvious flaw of player/team base with making a parallel to cs. However, just because we have a smaller player base doesn't necessarily mean that the same model wouldn't work. It would just mean aninvite and main division that separates the top tier players from the great players and the great players from the good players and the good players from the new players.

An invite poll would still work, new teams reforming or putting back together a team with the intention of competing at a high level should be put in the same skill bracket. The winners of the poll get moved up, the losers get put into main.

Keep the invite division the same size.
Create a Main division a similar size, maybe a little bigger than the invite division.
Turn the intermediate division into a developmental division, with the top tier teams getting moved to main to keep the cycle going.
Keep open the same in turns of move ups.

Having a four league tf2 season would enable us to have leagues that are more defined in their cumulative skill level.

I'm not a high level player, this is my opinion, it is obviously a little biased based on my tier on the ladder.

The biggest problem with our current design, is that IM isn't actually intermediate. It is a competition between eight or nine teams for the rights to get stomped in invite, most likely reform in open, and continue the cycle season after season.

ryzor you look like henrik lundqvist

I don't know if you've heard.. but jav beats yz50 in mge, show him some god damn respect.

they obviously threw it so they wouldn't have to suffer through the eventual embarrassment that madmen is going to drop on the unlucky team to play them on viaduct

and just to clarify, frio was not getting cut.. he just pulled a houdini.

caber is awesome

whoa

http://sphotos-a.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-prn1/23964_1300961808915_518943_n.jpg