MisterDannyWe're stuck at theorycrafting because most of the people in communities like these have been pushing back on trying out other formats, there has yet to be a MM 6s cup in EU, etf2l seems to not be interested, even mocking the idea of having such a cup during april fools, rgl has tried mm 6s and has been a success, their statistics even prove that round times are FASTER (https://pbs.twimg.com/media/D1ounszWsAABDUH.jpg) , so i'm not basing my optimism for the mode on pure guesswork, its been tried, stuff that was complained about before wasnt an issue and yet nothing has changed.
I feel like I should mention that rgl MM 6s is hard to call a definitive success, because you'd be hard pressed to find anyone below invite who took it serious in any form. It's an organized pub and not a great one at that, because the game's variety of weapons and playstyles get's overshadowed by the teams' interest in winning, which usually means the more annoying strategy wins. And as far as those in invite, I was one of them and we were paid off to attempt new strategies that might be the next meta. It was the only reason we tried to avoid forfeit losses because we wanted our free keys lol. That said, I think something the majority of people who advocate this sort of thing think about, but don't internalize the significance of is that if no restriction becomes the main competitive format, the best meta will eventually appear and I guarantee you, it will both slow down round times and be unfun. Both teams running the same thing means a reasonably even tug of war, which is further emphasized by the layout of most maps (many of which will have to be changed to fit the new meta, including valve standard maps), and that means waiting for a player to switch to some other class or weapon to look for an advantage that is likely less important than a standard uber, since now you can have as many medics as you want on the field. And of course, this is all theory crafting, but the point being that unless things change at the development level, a meta will come and dominate the playing field for as long as the next update takes. Also, I hope you realize that there are so many factors involved in a round time shift and it doesn't automatically translate to a better competitive experience, much less a fun one. I have to laugh at that graphic because there are so many things wrong with it and it generalizes and assumes many things in order to act as if no restriction sixes is inherently better than standard 6s because of the shorter round times. And even if those generalizations and assumptions were cleared up, it still wouldn't be a clear winner if one came out with a shorter round time. The main takeaway from all this is that no restriction 6s isn't necessarily better in a competitive sense and making major shifts in the established scene is cause to make people leave and the uncertainty in it's capacity to bring new players is not to be ignored. I'd be happy to see TF2 with pubbers in love with its competitive scene, whatever form that may be, but I only hear competitive players telling others what casual players want. I rarely ever see casual players say they specifically want a more casual oriented format. The majority I hear is that they just want to keep playing the game the way they like, which is pubs. I'd buy that some amount of pubbers will play as a result of the changes, but that amount is so uncertain that, to me, it's not worth doing at the expense of our current competitive community and format.