enigma already mentioned the reasons we can't do it right now; that's not to say it won't happen later, but all it boils down to right now is that we don't have enough staff to run it (one person volunteering to admin it is not nearly enough), program it (someone mentioned "programmers"; it's JUST enigma) and we're unable to form the prize pool as of yet. It's just not feasible to run a tournament right now.

If you want to keep running ideas, feel free, but without a realistic prize pool, honestly, it's incredibly difficult to build a tournament around it where people will play and care (example, CEVO, right now). Not to mention we really, really, really don't have the staff to run it.

GUYS I'm sitting in Tucson Airport at 4:50 AM-ish while being super excited omg omg omg how do I sleep

Oh, and regarding what to do for TF2; here are my suggestions. Not in any order.

* MvM
* 6s PUG, HL PUG if we actually have enough
* DM mad fest?
* MGE of course
* blasphemy, but, playing other games together and sucking horribly because all we know how to do is point and click
* b4nny giving away all of his secrets

Okay, admittedly I want that last one to happen.

I'm flying in on Friday; SEE YOU @ LAN.

Also, if you're free for Friday dinner, CGC002, capnfapn and I will be having a go at Pike Place, as I've never been. If you're nice, feel free to join in. I have no idea how far away it is so if there's transportation required, you may be on your own.

Will I reveal all of enigma's secrets and strategies for TF.TV and mix^? Come by to find out!

I completely agree; that entirely depends on the donation manager. There's a couple ways to go about it, and I would expect that any donations manager would state what to do in that case. I certainly wouldn't donate if there wasn't a contingency plan.

EDIT: make more clear WHAT I MEAN

I'm a bboy/hiphoper so I've got a TON (trying to be like them!).

That first vid might not be impressive to the untrained eye, but she was quite impressive for a 6 year old. Airflares and then a headstand into a freeze is pretty difficult, and she did it surprisingly clean, too.

This is one of my favorite videos since I'm really into syncing up moves with beats.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i99ON51ADW8

This guy is one of my favorite bboys (he's performed for some famous people, too).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eDSLLIi-2NI

A SICK battle between some Japanese bboys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DDkkXD5Z9oM

I had the pleasure of meeting "Amigo" of Flying Steps while in Berlin; same guy in this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snD6SmcZXjo

One of the most creative battles I've ever seen.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTFgKOBSPc0

This was a Kpop choreography by a friend of mine; I'm only in the beginning and end because I'm pretty bad at memorizing choreography.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSxe2e2oUy0

Lancer was my first mentor and friend; his crew (The Calamities) just won a trip to Japan to compete. Big, big step for them, really exciting stuff. This is one of his old solo battles.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVWaYbgDotc

I have a bunch more videos that I like here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLFB6C287F5873920E

I was also planning on practicing on stream. Gotta get my ISP sorted out first, though.

EDIT: Apparently YouTube embeds are broken so I have to make some of them just links.

The team itself would manage it. And if there extra funds, it's up to the team, really. They might feel generous to donate it to the other team going, but I don't think they would have an obligation to do so. It sounds like you personally want to see two teams go, but the teams themselves are going to want just themselves to go as first priority.

Unfortunately, I don't think an official TF.TV fundraiser is going to happen.

The actual link has PM. Ignore the link name; it got moved back 2:30 from 1.. http://blog.twitch.tv/2013/03/scheduled-downtime-wednesday-1pm-pst/

Okay, to elaborate, I could see a fundraiser going two ways:

1) Team specific. The advantage of this is that it can be more personalized for the team. Teams manage their own fundraisers (and can enlist help from the community, of course). The goals can be set by the teams themselves. The disadvantage is that if the team disbands, there's not necessarily a clear condition for what is to be done with the money. Also, it doesn't necessarily cover the parts of the community that just want to send a team, rather than their "favorite" team.

2) Community specific. One fundraiser, send up to two teams depending on how much money is collected. The advantage is one united fund, certainly something the community needs. The disadvantage is that it doesn't let people really ramp it up for their favorite teams, as seen in (1).

There are ways to mitigate the disadvantages in both; personally I'm favoring (1), as is enigma.

The risk I'm talking about is investment of time. TF.TV staff could be devoting it to whatever else projects we have going on (which we do). However, I personally would not object to an i49 fundraiser; I'd probably run it myself, even. I love that kind of stuff. To spark more ideas, I see two ways about doing this (if it happens). 1) Teams do it themselves. 2 and more likely) we setup one community fundraiser to send up to two teams. Hmm, I could certainly go into more detail but I'm eating a delicious Sonora style hotdog at the moment. Also I'm waiting to hear back from enigma because I would love to do this kind of thing too.

He has people to count on to run this kind of stuff; it's really matter of if something this high of a "risk" would succeed and be worth the "cost".

But if Australia is going...

I kind of do, as I have friends that worked on IPL (David Ting and I talk every so often). I'm not sure anyone has the exact details, but from what I can tell from my contact, the IPL division is getting laid off or relocated; I think they're still figuring it out after the purchase of IGN from News Corp to Ziff Davis. I think it's likely the same team will come back with an IPL-like event, just under a different name. They're all great people that are really looking forwards to eSports established as a legitimate (and large) form of entertainment in today, and in fact, I'll probably play a part of that whenever they decide to come back. And I think they will.

Okay so enigma found out SimCity is releasing tomorrow.

So, like a week. Sorry. @_@ We're also trying to integrate that Guide section at the very top with it too.

It would be great to send an American team against a European team, for sure, especially against the new Epsilon. But, I think maybe focusing on our own tournaments is a wiser decision for now. The community is (well, some of it) expecting TF2 to grow with that much money being spent. Going international is an inevitable part of an eSport, but it's not necessarily the best first step (although I think i49 would be a great investment with proper promotion and, hey TeamFortress.TV!).

I do have a "secret project" loosely related to tournaments. Let me just leave it at that. :)

You already have one. WITH SLIN.