Unfortunately, the technical issues from ESEA, including the day delay for and STV not being available until late in the deciding maps, resulted in this recap being significantly delayed. I apologize heavily for this and hope that it doesn't happen again. The LR1 summary should be available today.

Thanks to Insomniuhh and Jerm for assisting me with the summaries of these games!

StatusSpec 0.25.0 is now available.

Yep, I just uploaded it. Thanks for reminding me.

It's been a long time. Too long.

CompCtrl 0.3.0 is now available. Unfortunately, it doesn't have any major additions, being mostly an update to get in line with the changes made in Gun Mettle, including removing the functionality added natively in the update and updating the gamedata. The new additions do include status updates via the HUD (depending on your HUD - you have to have minmode disabled and have a certain element enabled and visible), and live-on-x-restarts functionality like you see in ESEA.

Unfortunately, the PUG module mentioned in the works for this release was scrapped; it needed to be updated to the new SourceMod syntax and I didn't feel too great about how it was designed in the first place. That means it's shelved for now, but I am open to working on it again if there is interest.

On the bright side, I have thrown together a script which takes the hard work out of checking for any gamedata changes when an update hits, so it should be much easier to get this plugin working again when Valve inevitably breaks it again.

That's all I have for now - if you have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to express them per usual. Thanks again.

It appears to be the same as previous seasons (i.e. lower bracket winner must win two series while upper bracket winner only has to win one). They have listed maps for two series.

Thanks to omni for helping me catch the key moments of the game while it was going on, and congratulations to Reason!

They may be different, but ultimately the point is to not reinvent the wheel as far as infrastructure goes. If the major difference between PUGs and lobbies is the picking process, why not try to add in lobby functionality on one of the existing sites instead of starting entirely from scratch?

As far as I know, it's not actually an overlay, so you wouldn't be able to use it even if it was publicly released.

I'm not saying that nothing should be done whatsoever, I'm saying that it might be worth considering extending existing PUG services rather than creating a new site. In the end, TF2center really just hosted lobbies, and the biggest difference between lobbies and PUGs is that in PUGs captains have to pick players.

It may not even be a paid ticket, either, but something given out to selected participants for the beta. We don't know anything other than the fact that the beta will be closed.

A new MM site could definitely be viable - after all, Valve MM isn't the end-all be-all in CS:GO. However, it really depends on how good Valve MM is on launch and what other competitors jump in (ESEA/CEVO/others). Considering that, it has to be decided whether trying to make a new MM system is worth it, especially if it likely won't be ready before Valve MM hits.

If MM is not a priority, it may be better to expand on one of the existing PUG services as they have most of the framework to support basic lobby functionality already.

Pretty much have to echo the cautionary tones above. It's definitely a very major undertaking and not something that's simple enough to be built and fully functioning within a short period of time (speaking as someone who's tried and still wants to build something similar in scope).

As anticipated, froyotech has received the forfeit against The Five Dollar Club, confirming the standings and matchups listed above. Hopefully ESEA will release the official brackets and allow matches to be scheduled very soon, considering that playoffs start in 3 days, but you never know.

Again.

It's good that we have a whistleblower to expose the secret of the TFTV Illuminati. Admirable and his fellow robber barons must be stopped!

At the very least an unofficial tournament could be organized. Anything more depends on what happens between now and May.