You may also notice that i dont capitalize properly, nor care about general grammar, punctuation, etc, on this prestigious internet forum. I realize now that i may not let this persist, since it is damning to my public image within this community. You can find my full posts list on my profile page http://teamfortress.tv/profile/user/milehighmilitia and if you could go through and fix them all i would appreciate it.

if theres one way to ensure your team dies, its to make a looking post saying you're sure your team is going to die.

I like it when shwan and i use the same one, simply for the reason that if an enemy soldier is jumping around with the other launcher i will instantly know that its not shwan being a moron or charging with our medic or whatever. Obviously this doesnt help when the other soldiers use the same rl as us, or when i need to run the original based on the map.

To be a good 6s team in ESEA you have to play 3 scrims a night, 5 days a week, over the period of a year or more. To be a good highlander team in UGC you have to play 3-4 scrims about 2 times a week. I'm sure that things are the same for UGC 6s as well. Thanks for helping me make my point. And if thats the upper limit on what it takes, many teams put in much less effort. You must know that this limited commitment helps both UGC highlander and 6s to amass a greater player base than is realistic for ESEA. Obviously highlander is a bit different what with people who play pyro, spy, heavy, etc feeling somehow alienated because the class they like is actually really shitty.

The point though is that people look at ESEA and see a league that takes effort, skill, and resolve to get anywhere. UGC 6s and highlander both are much more forgiving and as I said, easy. People dont take it as seriously, which lets more people get into the game for their first time.

UGC prospers at gaining lots of teams/players, meanwhile ESEA prospers at having the best TF2 in the world being played on a regular basis.

The only point i was ever trying to make was to point out that comparisons between the leagues accomplishments are nonsensical. UGC gets more players because most players are bad/new players. Most players are pyros, heavies, snipers, spies, engineers. Most players dont want to commit to 6s in a way that makes playing in ESEA enjoyable. ESEA's small numbers have never been about unlocks, only about the number of people willing to commit to taking tf2 seriously at any given time.

Its time the UGC admins stopped using ESEA 6s small team pool as evidence that there is inherently something wrong with the the game mode and that we are too prohibitive with our bans on weapons and classes. Including more weapons or "allowing" more classes to be played will never improve the number of teams competing in ESEA 6s.

The fact is, it actually takes work to be even moderately competitive in any division of ESEA, along with no small amount of skill. This might be an alien idea to the UGC admins -infinite in particular- but the real barrier to ESEA gaining larger numbers of 6s teams is in fact this skill and work barrier.

Teams/players that have the skills and desire to put in the necessary amount of work play in ESEA. New/bad players who may or may not want to commit to scrimming hard to improve play in UGC. There's nothing wrong with this! These players need a place to start. When I was bad I myself played in like TWL Div 8 and Cevo-A.

The real kicker however is that UGC admins now look at these growing amounts of teams/players as some sort of justification that they are doing something right, where other leagues are doing something wrong, when in fact the only reason their league "prospers" is because of the much lower skill level and work required. People dont join UGC because wrangler is allowed, they join because its easy.

what are we talking about?

- agreed
- where do you see royalty not make playoffs?

gpit is won or lost on a single push/hold a lot of times which is why a lot of intelligent people dislike it.

I think its really important to establish mutual understanding within the team about where the team is headed and what people should expect. When shwan and i started vector in season 9 open we did so with the intention of setting up for the long haul and making the progression to where we are now and beyond. For us it has never been a question of, "Hey guys so uh, stick around for another season???" since everyone understood and accepted the commitment from the get go. Sure, we have had people lose their drive, conflicts between players, real life force people to quit, etc, but it has always been a given for us to keep on trucking. Playing with a bunch of legitimately good friends has obviously made this easier for us, so if you're not already try to grow those relationships beyond the game.

I unbound slot2 because lets be honest, i never run the shotgun anyways.

To what extent does having a good cameraman have an effect on the quality of a cast? What is the proper mix between first person and third person action throughout a cast? What is the single most important thing for producing a very enjoyable cast for people to watch?

i just think that willing IM teams who have been working towards invite and are to the point where they would be a fine addition to the league should get the go ahead over a newly forming/reforming team that died the previous season, and will probably die again when said team doesnt make lan.

DM in a real game is a lot more than just shooting at people.

Oh, you're definitely right. If the likes of these Invite teams die, certainly IM teams will die if they ever get moved up. After all, you're so much better than them in every way certainly they would fail long before the point at which your team did.

Every IM team that is poised to make the jump into invite has been playing together in some form for over 3 seasons. As they have fought to become the best in the IM division, so too will they fight in Invite.

Allowing Invite pugs to constantly take the remaining Invite spots from legitimate teams who have been putting in the effort only puts up more barriers between everyone else and the league that they all work towards a spot in.

EDIT: and to lansky...

Every team at the top of IM has potential... In fact probably everything you said could also apply to the top IM teams. The only difference being that instead of dying when they have no chance to make LAN they might take simply being in the best division in the world as an opportunity to grow their game instead of simply an opportunity to attend LAN.

Honestly what seems to be killing invite teams is not making lan. The league is structured such that if a team doesnt make lan they can simply quit now and start again next season. Its a method where getting new players into invite is extremely difficult. I think there are some IM teams that are more worthy of invite than another reformed invite team that will die when they dont make lan again.