Says the guy who responded to my 15 minute vlog with an hour long video.

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Just wanted to clarify this section, otherwise Dashner's post is well said and very agreeable.

More than trying to satisfy a particular section of subscribers, A:R is an attempt to create a more appealing competitive format for the TF2 population at large. It's clear that 6s only reaches a small percentage of TF2 players and eXpanding that number has been a struggle for us. The popularity of Highlander has shown there is a market for viewers interested in seeing more of the 5 classes whose presence is minimized in the 6s format.

A:R is also an attempt to appeal to Valve. 6s can still be great without Valve support and maybe Valve can be brought around to support 6s, but based off of my several trips up to Valve I feel like they really want to see a competitive format with all of their weapons in play. The lack of in-game systems for 6s is a huge hindrance for the community, but we've obviously come a long way without them.

This Vlog wasn't me trying to argue that A:R is superior to 6s in all ways, just trying to state that I feel the need to focus on developing A:R/PBL over other community organizing efforts. I've been on self-imposed eXile from covering ESEA 6s, which is a whole 'nother topic, but would cover UGC 6s if I had more time available.

Time is a big factor for me. I've been wanting to do this full-time for 5 years and throughout the entire history of eXtv my availability has been a challenge. PBL might be able to secure that for me within 3-6 months. As Dashner said PBL is still looking at working with 6s. If I'm full-time then there definitely is the possibility I would have some spare time that could go to casting 6s outside PBL or working on tutorial videos.

I'm not ready to quit TF2, but that is probably an eventuality for eXtv as an organization as we are an eSports media production company. I hope if we ever have to leave TF2 it's for TF3.

I understand people doubt A:R but I very much believe in it's potential to have a major positive impact for the TF2 community at large. We'll see.

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This guy is pretty cool.

But don't use the FAN.

Yeah for sure.

Glad you had a great time!

I know this timeframe made it tough for people to get out here for this, but we've had a blast with those that have shown up.

Martin from Intel was really pleased with our efforts and he's eXcited to work with PBL/eXtv again for an event in 2015 taking place either in Las Vegas or in SoCal.

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That's the plan for all of it. Getting A:R to put in as a matchmaking format is definitely a stretch right now, but I think we all can agree that regular Arena sucks. Having Valve setup some of their pub servers into the Arena:Respawn format doesn't seem like as much of a stretch to me and I'll be trying to pursue that in 2015.

Keep playing players, I really do hope that 6s can continue to grow and get through this difficult period.

We won't get any form of legitimate support for a new or adjusted competitive format unless we eXperiment with it. That's why I've also supported the eXperimentation with 6s in regards to Open Whitelist.

Robin Walker wants to see some sort of pick/ban system implementated so that every match features unique and fresh strategies. How we implement that is up to us. I believe that the class ban system in A:R is a good way to do that. Maybe 6's with Open Whitelist + item bans is better, still to be determined.

Arena:Respawn works perfectly in a pub setting. It scales from 2v2 up to 12v12 no problem. While more chaotic it is the same principles as playing the game in an organized 5v5 setting.

Doubts are welcome and we hope we can dispel them over time.

As I said in the video, the two main things Valve would like to see integrated into our competitive scene are a closeness to their meta/balance/pub-play (however you wanna phrase that) and SOME sort of pick/ban system that creates freshness in each match. I don't think that starts with Valve, I think it starts with us.

Lemme pull out just a couple things from your post. A lot of it is opinion you're welcome to hold.

Valve eXplicitly told me they'd like to see a competitive format more in tune with their meta.

We take 5 people we put them up against 5 people. How is that not a competition? You're welcome to the opinion that 6s is MORE competitve, but A:R is definitely a competitive format.

That's pretty much what I was trying to say with my Vlog and dispel the idea that I'm trying to force everyone to adopt A:R over 6s. I'm hoping we can build up passion for TF2 and establish local groups through A:R, I'm not trying to dictate how you should play the game.

Keep playing players.

We're about to stream some dinosaur action at LAN Vegas, ttyl.

Yyyaaoooo. Just wanted to share this video here and get some discussion from the TF.tv community. I hope this video helps bring some clarity to what I'm hoping to accomplish by pushing Arena:Respawn and what ProBattleLeague is hoping to accomplish for the community.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKOzEUkC8JI

What might be my most controversial phrasing in the video is what I say regarding ESEA not providing enough for the community. It was a long video and I might not have phrased that particular part the best. I'd like to clarify that I appreciate everything ESEA has done for us, but it's becoming clear (even if they do move forward with their season) that we need to seriously assess our structure if TF2 is to keep growing.

I'm at Las Vegas for the Nerd Years Eve LAN at the moment and will check in on this thread when I can.

Attendance here is a bit dismal, but we've had some great conversations with people and PBL is eXcited to keep working with TF2 and the eSports community at large. We are hoping to be involved in the planning and eXecution of a major LAN (200+ byoc seats) in either SoCal or Vegas in 2015. We'll give everyone a more advance notice than we did for LAN Vegas.

We know that the East Coast has a large population of gamers and TF2ers, but with ProBattleLeague's limited resources at the moment we will be maintaining our focus on building up the West Coast. We have a lot of ambitions for 2015 and are eXcited about what we'll be able to accomplish with local events.

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You forgot about Vaccinator, it's actually quite strong.

As has been discussed thoroughly, the open whitelist will bring us much closer to Valve's balance. I think its undeniable that BFB Scouts are pretty strong. What Robin wants to see (based off my conversation years ago) is to see us accept that fact and either figure out how to counter it or just deal with it while we wait for Valve to nerf it into the ground.

Valve's previous hesitancy to balance items off our feedback is tied into limited item pool and not giving things a proper chance. If we suffer through a few months of super strong BFB scouts we will be stronger in the end.

What are people's thoughts on integrating some sort of per map pick/ban system? Besides utilizing a more open whitelist, some sort of pick/ban was the other major piece of feedback from Valve.

Won't be able to watch this live, but I hope everyone has a good time and enjoys it. I know a lot of people disagree with myself pushing Arena:Respawn but it comes from my feeling that there is a better way than 6s with a restrictive whitelist.

If open whitelist allows for more class versatility throughout the game and more creativity with item loadouts, I think it'd significantly help 6s reach the wider TF2 community.

Please play/watch with an open mindset and push those strategies to the limit!

p.s. can we get open whitelist as an option in TF2Center?

Sounds awesome.

I want to see Heavy/Pyro/Sniper all whipped to mid. Together.

It'll make heads eXplode.

Yao.

An offer I've thrown out in the past is that eXtv is more than happy to distribute other people's content to help it get more viewership.

Huge shoutout to TF.tv but building a Youtube following isn't easy work. We got 107k+ subs and if you want to have open discussions that reach a large chunk of the community, we'd be very happy to share that with our subscribers. I won't take offense if you want to push it through the TF.tv channel or anywhere else, just thought I'd re-state the offer.

I'm going to be shooting a vlog myself to share my feelings on the topic, though that will just be my opinion. Looking forward to hearing people's responses to that.

There's been a lot of positive energy lately which is great to see.

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Thanks to support from Intel this event is now FREE!

Registration will flip over to free in a few hours time, if anyone wants to book a seat in between now and then send me a message and I'll have Tom from PBL reserve you a seat.

Please help us make this a TF2-centric event by showing up and playing TF2! Our stream will definitely be on the casual side and we'll be jumping around between the different games people are playing.

Edited eXtra notes: No SkillCon pass is needed. The LAN Venue is a skyboX overlooking SkillCon so you'll be able to see whats going on down there from a distance. We will have 10 computers setup that people can jump on but they will primarily be used for Primal Carnage: Extinction