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Ready Up: An Appreciation
1
#1
0 Frags +

Bravo Dashner.. bravo Uberchain. This was well and truly wonderful.

In the wake of this documentary, I am compelled to share my appreciation for what this game means to me and I would encourage any and all of you to do the same.

I will also be touching on the past, present and future of competitive gaming.

I have come to terms with the fact that Team Fortress 2 has been a cornerstone in my life and that it may never be replaced. The impact that it has had on my life is long-standing and the memories I have are many and fond. The players and community are unrivaled in their passion, as evidenced tonight and over the past decade.

I want to talk a little bit about why, and how TF2 came to mean so much to us as a community. Game development is an ever-evolving art. It is not concrete and there is no book with all the answers. As we know, TF2 was not designed to be a competitive game and there was no way for Valve to predict the emergence of a competitive scene within their game with as much vigor and die-hard passion as ours. At the time, it wasn't a developmental standard to have a competitive mode (or queue) baked in to a game. Professional competitive gaming was only eclipsing the horizon of real-world viability and game developers approached (sometimes too) cautiously.

We forged our own competitive community and through blood, sweat and tears, we kept the smoldering embers of competitive TF2 alive. In the face of Valve who refused to acknowledge us, we soldiered on. We accomplished incredible things. Through these accomplishments, we became a brotherhood, united by a single goal-- to keep our passion alive. To anyone who partook in our passion, they quickly became a member and so our family grew. Fostering one of the most accepting and inclusive competitive gaming communities.

Gaming has since become more mainstream. Games were once primarily developed by passionate people who just wanted to play the games they made. Now, it is a massive industry. Big enough rival the struggling film industry to attract the attention of real-world investors like Kraft and Jack In The Box. If gaming is to attract the amount of eyes necessary to maintain a fiscal relationship with large corporations, it needs be streamlined. With that, comes a cold, corporate grasp.

Enter the era of KRUSHER99 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aSZQnZz_fQ). Small communities become large. You once knew everyone's faces but now there are too many to recognize. The quaint, down-home feel of a community-driven game that should and could have been competitive fades into obscurity.

If you are here, on this site, you are not a casual gamer. You went out of your way to seek resources to become better at a game that you enjoy. Unfortunately, what we want is no longer relevant. We want a game with a high skill ceiling and no hand holding but that is no longer marketable. The market is oversaturated with casual-friendly games. Why painstakingly learn how to aim in TF2 when I can press Q on Soldier 76 and get a downloadable play of the game? Casuals pay the bills-- and where the casuals go, the money goes.

That's enough doomsaying.

TF2 changed the course of my life. I made friendships that are still maintained because of it. I moved to Canada for three years because of it. I traveled the world because of it. I'm a game designer because of it. My life has been molded by this wonderful game and one day I will pay it forward.

What we had and continue have is special. Small, ardent communities like this will not last forever. Cherish it until its flame is snuffed.

This is to you, TF2.

Bravo Dashner.. bravo Uberchain. This was well and truly wonderful.

In the wake of this documentary, I am compelled to share my appreciation for what this game means to me and I would encourage any and all of you to do the same.

I will also be touching on the past, present and future of competitive gaming.

I have come to terms with the fact that Team Fortress 2 has been a cornerstone in my life and that it may never be replaced. The impact that it has had on my life is long-standing and the memories I have are many and fond. The players and community are unrivaled in their passion, as evidenced tonight and over the past decade.

I want to talk a little bit about why, and how TF2 came to mean so much to us as a community. Game development is an ever-evolving art. It is not concrete and there is no book with all the answers. As we know, TF2 was not designed to be a competitive game and there was no way for Valve to predict the emergence of a competitive scene within their game with as much vigor and die-hard passion as ours. At the time, it wasn't a developmental standard to have a competitive mode (or queue) baked in to a game. Professional competitive gaming was only eclipsing the horizon of real-world viability and game developers approached (sometimes too) cautiously.

We forged our own competitive community and through blood, sweat and tears, we kept the smoldering embers of competitive TF2 alive. In the face of Valve who refused to acknowledge us, we soldiered on. We accomplished incredible things. Through these accomplishments, we became a brotherhood, united by a single goal-- to keep our passion alive. To anyone who partook in our passion, they quickly became a member and so our family grew. Fostering one of the most accepting and inclusive competitive gaming communities.

Gaming has since become more mainstream. Games were once primarily developed by passionate people who just wanted to play the games they made. Now, it is a massive industry. Big enough rival the struggling film industry to attract the attention of real-world investors like Kraft and Jack In The Box. If gaming is to attract the amount of eyes necessary to maintain a fiscal relationship with large corporations, it needs be streamlined. With that, comes a cold, corporate grasp.

Enter the era of KRUSHER99 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5aSZQnZz_fQ). Small communities become large. You once knew everyone's faces but now there are too many to recognize. The quaint, down-home feel of a community-driven game that should and could have been competitive fades into obscurity.

If you are here, on this site, you are not a casual gamer. You went out of your way to seek resources to become better at a game that you enjoy. Unfortunately, what we want is no longer relevant. We want a game with a high skill ceiling and no hand holding but that is no longer marketable. The market is oversaturated with casual-friendly games. Why painstakingly learn how to aim in TF2 when I can press Q on Soldier 76 and get a downloadable play of the game? Casuals pay the bills-- and where the casuals go, the money goes.

That's enough doomsaying.

TF2 changed the course of my life. I made friendships that are still maintained because of it. I moved to Canada for three years because of it. I traveled the world because of it. I'm a game designer because of it. My life has been molded by this wonderful game and one day I will pay it forward.

What we had and continue have is special. Small, ardent communities like this will not last forever. Cherish it until its flame is snuffed.

This is to you, TF2.
2
#2
50 Frags +

My doggie you DAMN right.

It's just so fascinating looking at the size of the TF2 community, to be honest it's just so... intimate?

Rivalries mean more, as silly as it sounds being in cliques was so fun.. I got to experience a few over my time in the game and it's just exactly what you would want in a game. Everyone knows everyone just well enough to be friends but also well enough to enjoy watching them destroy one another at lan or in playoffs.

How TF2 plays are designed and how the competitive ebb and flow work involve so many intangibles that only other TF2 players would get, it was so fun always being around people who 'got it.'

I have zero idea what I'm trying to get at here but I hope it makes a bit of sense, I've always said I wanted to write a book about how this odd but super lovely community works but what more can you ask for than that in exquisite video form.

I'm sitting here at 31 years old and every time I think about casting matches, playing in matches, the immaculate events that are TF2 lans and to be honest most importantly making lifelong friends I get goosebumps. And uhhh personal shoutout to cute girl medi.. wait what?

Thank you so much for this project.

Fuck, I love TF2.

My doggie you DAMN right.

It's just so fascinating looking at the size of the TF2 community, to be honest it's just so... intimate?

Rivalries mean more, as silly as it sounds being in cliques was so fun.. I got to experience a few over my time in the game and it's just exactly what you would want in a game. Everyone knows everyone just well enough to be friends but also well enough to enjoy watching them destroy one another at lan or in playoffs.

How TF2 plays are designed and how the competitive ebb and flow work involve so many intangibles that only other TF2 players would get, it was so fun always being around people who 'got it.'

I have zero idea what I'm trying to get at here but I hope it makes a bit of sense, I've always said I wanted to write a book about how this odd but super lovely community works but what more can you ask for than that in exquisite video form.

I'm sitting here at 31 years old and every time I think about casting matches, playing in matches, the immaculate events that are TF2 lans and to be honest most importantly making lifelong friends I get goosebumps. And uhhh personal shoutout to cute girl medi.. wait what?

Thank you so much for this project.

Fuck, I love TF2.
3
#3
65 Frags +

Cheers to TF2 and its unwavering community! much love

Cheers to TF2 and its unwavering community! much love
4
#4
24 Frags +

come back

come back
5
#5
8 Frags +

.

.
6
#6
35 Frags +

https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S-Ztd5x4k_0/V8_WffJRgzI/AAAAAAAAKHE/41_ZKTlDG8Av0PkIeILXJqPESbTAs15FQCLcB/s1600/mancrying.jpg

[img]https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-S-Ztd5x4k_0/V8_WffJRgzI/AAAAAAAAKHE/41_ZKTlDG8Av0PkIeILXJqPESbTAs15FQCLcB/s1600/mancrying.jpg[/img]
7
#7
11 Frags +

thanks for making a video that helps explain to my irl friends why I don't leave my house anymore

thanks for making a video that helps explain to my irl friends why I don't leave my house anymore
8
#8
5 Frags +

<3

<3
9
#9
25 Frags +

My god seeing Buick, yuki and, ruwin one after another made me so happy.

But yea, This game helped me through high school and every since I started play tf2 comp in 2016 it's been my favorite hobby ever since. This game will stay will me and I will never fall in love with another game as I did with tf2.

My god seeing Buick, yuki and, ruwin one after another made me so happy.

But yea, This game helped me through high school and every since I started play tf2 comp in 2016 it's been my favorite hobby ever since. This game will stay will me and I will never fall in love with another game as I did with tf2.
10
#10
Momentum Mod
18 Frags +

i loved the valve roast
also cried many times! i miss the game and sad i cant go to lans :<

i loved the valve roast
also cried many times! i miss the game and sad i cant go to lans :<
11
#11
7 Frags +

I'm not a big name like these guys but the doco perfectly captured what I loved and always will love about tf2. The reason I don't play the game much anymore is because whenever I boot it up it makes me so incredibly sad about what could have been -- I wonder if that's true of anyone else?

I'm always striving to become a better gamer and that can't happen when my state of mind constantly shifts between enraged and incredibly sad. Perhaps tf2's time has passed (although the quality of play at Rewind 2 seems as high if not higher than ever) but if Valve ever throws it a bone, I'll be there, and I think a lot of other people will too. If that never happens, we can still remember the game and its community for what it is and was, and keep in touch with everyone at lans, local or international.

<3 to dashner, uberchain and everyone else who helped make the documentary. I hope it reaches a wide audience and gives you the recognition you deserve.

I'm not a big name like these guys but the doco perfectly captured what I loved and always will love about tf2. The reason I don't play the game much anymore is because whenever I boot it up it makes me so incredibly sad about what could have been -- I wonder if that's true of anyone else?

I'm always striving to become a better gamer and that can't happen when my state of mind constantly shifts between enraged and incredibly sad. Perhaps tf2's time has passed (although the quality of play at Rewind 2 seems as high if not higher than ever) but if Valve ever throws it a bone, I'll be there, and I think a lot of other people will too. If that never happens, we can still remember the game and its community for what it is and was, and keep in touch with everyone at lans, local or international.

<3 to dashner, uberchain and everyone else who helped make the documentary. I hope it reaches a wide audience and gives you the recognition you deserve.
12
#12
11 Frags +

Is there a vod or yt link of this somewhere?

Is there a vod or yt link of this somewhere?
13
#13
11 Frags +

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/230370460?t=07h25m30s

7:25:30

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/230370460?t=07h25m30s

7:25:30
14
#14
0 Frags +

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/230370460?t=07h24m27s

time stamp
shit theres some ads before but whatever its around that time

https://www.twitch.tv/videos/230370460?t=07h24m27s

[s]time stamp[/s]
shit theres some ads before but whatever its around that time
15
#15
9 Frags +

This was and is so incredibly great, I cannot express how much I enjoyed and appreciated it. I was really looking forward to this for over a year and boi, you still managed to surpass my expectations.

Also, the uberchain speech on stage made me cry like a little baby, much love to everyone involved! <3

This was and is so incredibly great, I cannot express how much I enjoyed and appreciated it. I was really looking forward to this for over a year and boi, you still managed to surpass my expectations.

Also, the uberchain speech on stage made me cry like a little baby, much love to everyone involved! <3
16
#16
6 Frags +
marmadukeGRYLLSIs there a vod or yt link of this somewhere?

Double post, but anyway, iirc they said that the whole documentary will be released on youtube within the next week after they fixed some goofs

[quote=marmadukeGRYLLS]Is there a vod or yt link of this somewhere?[/quote]
Double post, but anyway, iirc they said that the whole documentary will be released on youtube within the next week after they fixed some goofs
17
#17
8 Frags +

Love you, uberchain!

Love you, uberchain!
18
#18
5 Frags +

<3

<3
19
#19
14 Frags +

watching this makes me said as i am really getting up there in age and due to real life commitments i cant really take part at lans anymore, which honestly seems like the only reason to even play this game in a serious team environment

watching this makes me said as i am really getting up there in age and due to real life commitments i cant really take part at lans anymore, which honestly seems like the only reason to even play this game in a serious team environment
20
#20
14 Frags +

As a fellow member of the 30 club, I can say sometimes it's hard to find the time - but I love this silly hat game and many of the people who play it too much to ever countenance leaving it. My goosebumps come when I think about playing again. I know I never really could because I can't commit the 4-5 nights a week that I would need to to feel OK with what I was doing, but damn it was so much fun.

As a fellow member of the 30 club, I can say sometimes it's hard to find the time - but I love this silly hat game and many of the people who play it too much to ever countenance leaving it. My goosebumps come when I think about playing again. I know I never really could because I can't commit the 4-5 nights a week that I would need to to feel OK with what I was doing, but damn it was so much fun.
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