The game just doesn't appeal to the masses as an "ESport". It's just a "hat simulator", "cartoon game", "casual fest" to 80+% of the player-base.
As much as I hate to say it, that's the truth. The competitive scene can, and probably will, slowly but steadily grow, but there probably will not be any big competitions or surges of players in its lifetime.
Pains me to say that as I love the game and sought out the competitive scene in early '08, and have been playing since I bought it ('07).
Not only what I've said above, but it also doesn't help that, in general, it's fairly difficult to understand what's going on in TF2 when watching a pro game for the first time, especially the intricate things that happen during phase-play (timing by scouts to come in to help post uber, clutch uber flashes mid-fight, etc). Kinda harder to follow opposed to CS, where it's just 5 guys sitting around for half a game until one of them pushes, then it resets to the next round. To be fair, FPS's have pretty much gone out of favor, with the previous mention of CS:GO being the only notable exception.
YodoFor some reason I feel like EU scene is more consistent or am I wrong?
Anyway, we have this site, streams, YouTube channels - all stuff to spread TF2 into masses, and it is done very well and professional. The quality (and quantity) of TF2 support materials is really good. Is not it strange that we have dedicated "frame" but not a "picture"? Some actions to push players in right direction? Or the only thing we can do is to wait for Valve official support?
EU scene has maybe two(?) teams that have been consistent for a few seasons, but the fact remains that it's hard to stay interested in TF2 for a long period of time as a comp player. Look at iM (our team in Australia). We've been practically at the top for our lifespan (3+ years), it's no wonder we've gone through 10+ other players in our lifetime.
tl;dr I love TF2 as much as any other - but it won't get the comp following that we think it deserves
tl;dr pt 2 - need another good arena shooter or something. pls