Rare picture of killing and the ESEA team at work:

http://blogs.vso.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/Moving-the-goalposts-300x2402.jpg

This is clearly a curse from the TF2 gods. We cannot imagine a game with Uni in IM, so there must be no IM.

Cum is the obvious choice... Not being able to swallow is a mental block :p

8 if you count my team, we will be fully paid up by end of the day

very frustrating to play against.

And he is going to have the fucking time of his life.

the NFO box is handling everything just fine, they advertise their product as being designed for hosting game servers so I think their product is a little different.

Uni I will cut you

we moved server providers after I learned that tragicservers VPS solutions aren't meant for running game servers on.

Hey all!

For my team this season, we decided to switch to a VPS provider as it fit our and my needs better. As such, I have WAAAY more hardware than I need (except when I am at LAN events as an admin like FITES or GXL) and I would like to offer ONE team comprised of players that have never played ESEA before the opportunity to offset league costs by not having to worry about mumble or a server.

To qualify, your team must:
*Be serious about competing in ESEA this season for the FIRST time.
*Have at least 4 of your starting members be brand new players to ESEA.
*Have the minimum number of players paid up by the deadline to play (preferably this Friday)

Bonus points to teams that have at least one full season of UGC experience together and are planning on sticking together as a team.

Message me here on teamfortress.tv (or steam) if interested!

I know most people have been commenting on the AR thing, the problems with 6v6 and the valve aspect of tf2, but that horse could be substituted for burger meat in European countries by now.

It's true that ESEA has kinda screwed the pooch in a lot of ways over the last 8 years, but they are a BUSINESS. They are only interested in making money, and while I am sure they care about esports, and would like to see TF2 continue to have the support it gets out of ESEA, they are not going to do so if the profit margins aren't there.

ESEA has consistently said the same thing to us: get more teams. Could they be doing more to advertise and reach out to potential new teams? probably. But we have the most to lose by not reaching those numbers.

I said this in the last "prominent community member pontificates about the future of our game" thread, but 6v6 competitive TF2 has a marketing problem, we need a marketing solution. UGC had a TON of teams play last season (16) in 6v6, or at least that's how many are listed on the final results page. I don't know how many of those lived through the season, but there were still at least like 300 NA teams. If we got just a quarter of those teams to take a chance on ESEA, we would never be having the discussion of having to think of replacing ESEA. But we as a community have done an abysmal job of reaching out to the UGC newbros and guiding them into the higher levels of competition. Sure, many of them don't want to or cant pay, want to just have a chill time etc, but we could definitely help get some more teams in.

So what do we need to do? I propose a re-invigoration of the mentorship program. Older, experienced teams from mid-top of open to mid IM tier should adopt a new/ugc only team every season and help them get used to the flow of life in ESEA. Help them navigate practicing, teach them some strats, provide some generic mentoring and help them be lifetime members of the community.

Also, post about ESEA everywhere. Be active on the various subreddits, proselytize to your newbie friends on steam, get involved with UGC a little more and start seeing it as the breeding ground for new players that we all say it is.

More on topic: stop with the bullshit about unban this, ban that, 5v5 instead of 6v6, lets get new gametypes. Competitive TF2 is interesting, varied, strategic, fun and fast paced. Is it as varied and strategic as DOTA? Nah, but it doesn't need to be. What we need to do is stop trying to fracture the community and advertise all the things that people /do/ get when they play the game the way we play it. WE DONT FUCKING NEED VALVE SUPPORT. Robin Walker can go shove all the hats in the world up his ass sideways for all I care. We can keep this game alive and kicking all by ourselves. But all I see is apathy from the main player base about new players and new maps. Instead we want to fundamentally change the game? Change the formula that has brought all of us so much enjoyment and community over the better part of the last decade? Knock it the fuck off with this AR and other formats and lets work on making the game we actually play the best it can be.

nah, you can get both soldiers to 300 and to mid at rouuuughly the same time as with an escape plan if the rollout is properly practiced and thought about. Otherwise everything you have said is spot on. I <3 u pls marry me

My team is waiting on a payday before we pay up, but you can count us among the playing teams this season.

It is a 12 month long class and we have the whole year tentatively scheduled out.

I would love to go and help out again, but it looks like I have a big midterm the following monday and I cant do that to myself so :/

If that changes though, bet yo ass I will be there

I am pretty sure literally everyone who has commented on Lange and his video over the past couple days is fully well aware that he has done a shit ton for the community and hasn't said a word different.

bad troll is bad

Lange, I get how you feel here, I really do. You are mad about CEVO signups, CEVO was kind of your baby last season, you did a lot of work for them. But the reality is that CEVO dropped the ball in a big way last season. For significantly more than half of the season, none of the servers worked, the client didn't work and we ended up playing a ton of games off client, despite not wanting to. But this isn't the problem, this isn't your problem.

You are frustrated, and its easy to see why. You will never get back, financially, what you put into TF2. But that isn't why you started being involved behind the scenes in this community. You started it for the game you loved, for the community you loved, for the people you loved playing with. You spent all those hours because you wanted to, in spite of the expectation that you wouldn't get remuneration for your dedication.

But part of me can't help but be hurt by your words in that video, on a personal level. What you got out of TF2 is a community that believed in what you believed in, a starting point for the career you want so badly. I thoroughly enjoyed every event we were at together, just seeing you do your thing. It is clear you have passion about videogames and broadcasting them. So instead of mourning that TF2 hasn't brought you fame and fortune, rejoice that, at least for a few years, we as a community could make all the hours spent reading, tooling, staying awake, travelling across the country, programming, playing, making graphics and herding cats well worth it. Because God Dammit Alex, you love this community.

Maybe this community doesn't have anything left to offer you. In that case, maybe it is time for you to move on. Go forth to the games where there is potential for income, for the life you want to create for yourself. We won't have hard feelings if you move on to greener pastures. But do stick around, throw another Windy City Rendezvous, do the things that made you love this community so much. You are an incredibly talented young man in the prime of his life, don't squander that.

On the topic of valve, we all knew a long time ago that the support we would get from them would be minimal at best. We need to stop expecting it from them. We are saying the game is dead, the game is in decline and, maybe from a numbers standpoint that is true. But this year we had 6 major tournaments (3 ESEA LANs, an iseries and two at GXL), reached more eyeballs than ever before and made enormous strides in everything from stream production quality to server side plugins to teamfortress.tv itself. We didn't do that with valve, we did that with ourselves and the incredibly talented and industrious individuals that make this community what it is.

So what we need to learn from that is FUCK VALVE. We got this. Will we ever be playing for hundreds of thousands of dollars in front of a huge audience? No. Reality check time: it wont happen. But we can attract new people to this community, work hard at spreading the good word of TF2. We have a marketing problem, we need a marketing solution. Let's cultivate a community that we want to live in.