https://d1fj4sro0cm5nu.cloudfront.net/global/images/users/425158.5.png

As an aside, I do feel that the best service ESEA provides for competition is the opportunity for a level-playing field by having identical PCs, monitors, and low-ping. That alone is a pretty high incentive for anyone from open to invite. I would not have even tried this game competitively if the game didn't have a professional LAN.

LAN DREAMS BABY

Bit of a tangent but I really don't understand this "peak" competition argument. Do you believe players and teams don't consistently improve over time as they put in more hours of work?

If I took any american "dream team" from the past and stuck them in a time machine to play the same game with the same rules against a modern 2013 "dream team" the older one would get absolutely destroyed. As much as I respect the hell out of the i46 American teams we sent to that LAN, I think if we stuck them in a time machine fast forwarded to the next europe LAN they would get destroyed by iT or whoever is top in Europe today, and i46 wasn't even that long ago.

My point is, the game evolves and so do the players who put in the time. As long as there is an outlet for competition there will be those seeking that consistent improvement; the grind is arguably the fun part of any competitive sport or game. If every cream of the crop invite player quit there'd be large shoes to fill, but they'd be filled eventually, assuming the entire scene didn't die in their wake.

there's a shitton of truth to this

ETF2L might actually be the best bet for an alternative considering that they are a well-established league that seems to work well for all skill tiers. A lot of that will come down to who gets chosen to be admin.

The argument that without money the skill would wither is really bad. I can think of a dozen counter-examples of games where money dwindled or never existed at all and skill went up considerably every year as players gained more experience.

Instead, I believe that the 12 players who play TF2 for the money right now would stop playing. Not a big deal.

Competition, bragging rights, and DRAMA always exist in vidya games without the need for a cash prize.

Well, like any tightly-knit comp community, threads like these get a bit long-winded on the drama side of things, but in the end we seem to get it right. Cheating in any MP game is unacceptable, and it's something to be taken seriously. Any cheater should expect their reputation to take a massive hit and to become a massive burden to their team. Pretty straightforward. I think most here appreciate the importance of keeping cheaters in check.

To follow up on your comments, eiz0, for better or worse here in NA we play in a rigid league, concerned more with a business approach to competition than, one might argue, the greater good. This allows any player in poor-standing a chance to continue playing, unless they get caught by ESEA client. Any kid worth his salt is bound to be picked up by a team eventually if they are good enough, despite reputation. You see it in CS community all the time, not to mention that almost all of the american pro sports leagues offer pretty lax penalties for first-time offenses.

There's countless examples of players who have redeemed themselves through skill, which is kinda cool when you think about it. Some people will disagree, but I think what we have in NA is decent system for a difficult problem.

I recently upgraded from Windows 7 SP1 to 8.1 after installing a new SSD and it has grown on me. The desktop and compatibility hasn't changed much from 7 besides the start menu. The metro interface is easy to learn if you take an hour researching about it. If you're familiar at all with any cell-phone UI it is pretty simple even with a mouse.

I wish the metro UI integrated a bit better with my Google cloud stuff, but it looks like there are a lot of third party apps on the Microsoft Store that bridge that gap. For example, I found one called gMusicW that streams my music from Google Play and scrobbles it automatically to my last.fm.

My latest benchmark is ~16 fps difference since my Win 7 sp1 tests. Not sure if the difference is due to the OS or due to TF2 updates, but it's pretty significant. I also lowered my overclock by 100mhz, which would also make some sort of contribution.

2639 frames 17.565 seconds 150.24 fps ( 6.66 ms/f) 6.595 fps variability

CPU and overclock: 2500K @ 4.5 GHz
Graphics Card: GeForce GTX 650 Ti

Windows 8.1
Driver version: latest as of date
dxlevel (default is 90): 95
Resolution: 1920x1080
Full-screen or windowed: Full
FPS configs enabled: Chris dx9frames
Shadows enabled/disabled: disabled

Additional notes: let 3d application decide for driver settings in nvidia options

Try comparing settings and doing some experimentation using my benchmark demo.

http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/7598-tf2-benchmarks

I recently switched to Win 8.1 and lost about 16 avg FPS since my last update there. I'm not sure if it's the OS or the halloween update, but it's possible everyone has suffered a similar penalty after the update.

the best streamer ever

"hey tri what's your favorite kind of sandwich?"

"onion sandwich. i really like onions"

I appreciate your honesty, but do not bullshit me and tell me you love competitive TF2. Players who love competition can understand the intrinsic value of being able to abide by the basic rules of fair play, which, by cheating, you clearly do not understand. Your disregard shows a complete lack of empathy for the TF2 community.

Boredom and curiosity do not explain such a massive lapse in judgment. I hope you take this as an opportunity to learn and to remove your head out of your own asshole.

i want to tap dat rogue legacy

Is he running firewall, proxy, or filtering software? ESEA client really seems to hate those things.

you might take comfort in the fact that wormy was a complete trashcan back when I was active in the Warsow scene in the CAL days. I'm talking UGC scout using a Wacom tablet to aim instead of a mouse level of bad. But a lot of us took him under our wing and dueled him despite the disparity in skill, and his persistence made him good

sad he forgot what it's like to be a completely new player, but i don't think he's that bad of a guy. don't take it personally when dudes from dead communities tell you to 'go back to cod'. they're just being ignorant because they can't see past the past

curious if we're gonna see a moveup to fill the 9th spot

very awesome, and I hope moving forward this becomes the norm for all displays

considering the 2D lightboost hack requires a continuous 120hz this would break it in its current form, but I have a feeling that lightboost might become a vendor feature in upcoming gaming monitors