logjam :)
sunshine :)

i have the same issue, don't know if it existed pre-codec because i didn't need it before faceit

This is the thing with your argument. You keep telling people about this promised land of a flourishing competitive scene but there is absolutely no evidence, not even a hint of that. Valve had MyM in beta for ages being tested by the top players in each region and then realeased it with litttle to no change at all. Most of their weapon rebalances in the last 1-2 years show that none of them can even be bothered to playtest the weapons or play the game at all. From a business standpoint it also wouldn't make sense for valve to use any of their resources on tf2's comp scene. A lot of members in our community have come to the (realistic) opinion that there is no chance for tf2 to become more than a hobby. And if you just accept the game as a hobby, it doesn't make sense to make it less fun by allowing the jarate or rescue ranger in the hope of a miracle."

really informative content and well layed out!
i think you should keep the player introduction / lan interview stuff, because even though newer players might not understand some of it, older players will appreciate it for the nostalgia :)

good teams should still try to win rounds in garbage time, especially when it's a bo3 or bo5
if you're down 4:0 and there are 4 minutes remaining you could possibly walk out of the map with 4:3 which gives a completely different team morale and momentum for the next map as opposed to automatically ending the game there.
nothing to argue against the option to forfeit though

sounds a lot like the old crack clan concept
i hope this one flourishes and doesn't end in drama though

play with friends

subtitles can be really humorous, especially if you get more routine with them cause you can get very creative, just look up sovietwomble on youtube and watch one of his vids, subtitles are all the editing he does and it's hillarious

I suppose with this you mean that that defensive and slow playstyle would prevail if players at the highest level of competitive TF2 were playing not only for fun, but also for money. I personally think this statement is wrong. In a world where that is the reality and top level teams but play to win and only to win
In reality the only reason a very slow and methodical playstyle of keeping a lead and forcing mistakes is considered the strongest is that there is literally no incentive for top teams to put in the amount of hours a proper csgo/dota/ow team does. IMO there are a lot of undiscovered options within the game already that can easily shake up the current meta and break a slow and defensive team (different banners, offclasses and unlocks). Not all of these options in all the possible combinations have been tried by top level teams and not in the scale necessary to find the best synergies and formulate strategies. If there was a reason for the best tf2 teams to put in as much time as cs teams then they would try all of these, otherwise they would have to give up the game after losing the first round with the enemy parked in a defensive hold and I'm sure they would find new playstyles that work even better than what is considered the strongest now. There is a reason i49 Epsilon is considered the best team of all time. Credit is due to Kaidus here, because a lot of my thoughts have been sparked by his opinions and what he has said on his stream in the past.

Despite my view on the above subject i have to agree with Hildreth though, a renaissance of competitive tf2 will never happen, it will remain a grassroots esport as there isn't a half-decent base for a successful esport for valve to invest into.
That said I'm happy to keep playing the game i have loved playing for the past few years with the ruleset we have come up with until the game eventually dies off completely. The only chance for a competitive Team Fortress IMO is a sequel built with competitive in mind, a state of the art game engine (at least source 2), a lot of hype around launch and an infrastructure in place to funnel players into competitive from the start. No casual stigma, no horrible performance, attractive visuals (not for comp players, but there is a target group that judges games by their looks) and devs that play the game actively. We have absolutely no way to predict the probability of this happening and if it will then only far in the future but it would be a missed opportunity for valve not to create it. If they don't I'll be sad but I'll find something else.

stockholm syndrome

off-topic, why is it that i most often see people with english as their mother tounge using "would of" and "should of"? Is it just slang?

slin argues tf2 devs are better at balancing the game than anyone else, sure, just look at the last year of tf2 updates and unlock changes...

SAVED

edit: didn't see the new thread for this

btw big earner has been allowed in etf2l for a while and hasn't made a huge impact, even though i personally always used it