DuMmTmalso serious question to all the long time EU players, how different was the atitude of people to LAN before i46, before it went intercontinental, considering how that seems to be the number one reason for lan slowly dying rn
It's also likely the reason tf2 is still alive at all. i46 Mixup was a huge gamechanger for even the NA scene alone - between their playstyle, and the playstyles of the teams that emerged as a response (b4nny's HRG, and eventually froyo), there was crazy meta progression... and that's not even getting into what it did for EU.
At the time of i46, EU was in the dark ages, as evidenced by their best team getting dumped on by a team with a dude famous for offclassing engi and another dude who probably did more damage to himself than to the other team in some fights.
I46 rekindled EU's fire, and gave way to teams like ESPI, Broder, and the lineage of the top teams that play today. International i-series lans even gave Aussie superstars some exposure. The community had never been closer. Players weren't just myths anymore. New rivalries were formed. i49, and i52 were probably the most hype tf2 lans I've ever watched.
None of that hype would exist if the players were just going to "hang out and get drunk." The quality of matches would suffer tremendously. Why is everyone so keen on wanting the players to go somewhere to "have a good time?" lol.
Oh wait, they aren't. No one actually gives a fuck about whether the players have fun or not. They just want to see an i-series with certain players there. If i-series lans were some strenuous, grueling, completely un-fun experience, people would still be like "SUCK IT UP AND DO IT FOR THE COMMUNITY."
There's sure a lot of talk of "duty to attend lan for the community" coming from people/players who have never been in that position.
The players aren't the ones being selfish. The people bitching at players to go to lans even though they don't want to go - those are the selfish people.
corsaI have no words to describe how dumb it is to think a team should uphold a standard of going to lans in a video game that has 0 money and extremely little competition. You guys are acting like tf2 is a real esport. If a team doesn't want to go, that's enough reason to not go
DING DING.
I was even sympathetic to Mike/Epsi not wanting to go to that one really short notice lan (dreamhack, I think - 'gonna be honest, I don't really know much about it, and I didn't even watch the lan, but it's more on principle).
You're gonna tell me, this dude, who's given thousands of hours of his time, and unquantifiable amounts of dedication and resolve to this game should go to lan with a paper version of his team, with ringers, that he doesn't even want to play for, take a probable financial loss, take a definite tf2 loss at the lan, disgrace the team name he and his comrades (some of which aren't even gonna be there) slaved to build - you're gonna expect someone to do that just to keep up the delusion that someday, valve is going to get a clue/give a fuck? That sponsors are gonna jump all over a 10 year old game with cartoon characters and goofy hats?
Rofl. Good god. These players are better people than me, apparently. My blood boils a little just thinking about it. If I poured my soul into this game and then some random people who haven't done shit for tf2 other than populate a server/watch a stream came at me with that bullshit, I'd fucking lose it. I'd be dropping bars for days on these boards. No thread would be safe, lol. I'd show people what a toxic community really looks like. Real Talk.