Thank you for writing up something as concrete and well researched as this, i need my time to recover from the comment sections at this point tbh as it's drawn all of my spare attention so I'm taking a mental health break on this topic myself; i hope the post gets the attention it deserves and helps clear the air to others and that we find other ways to bring awareness to it. Really good job Nick, and sorry for how scrambled my own video was.

No worries at all and I wouldn't say you came across as antagonistic, I just wanted to be very upfront because that is the position I am putting myself in by deciding to make a video on the topic, I appreciate what you're doing and non comp players are probably going to be seeing this sort of stuff; it's a healthier look.

Yeah fair enough, I want to apologize in advance because I probably did botch it a bit here and I think you're more likely to be in the right than me on it without going into any debating. I kinda tunnel visioned and wanted to emphasize directly how Tooru is facilitating hostility and interacting with the competitive community as present beyond what I think as a person, and in my mind directly going after his comments and what essentially displays his own intent was the way to go. I think much of what's been said here is valid, but I do feel that it's kinda being written off by his audience under the guise of just being hostility directed at Tooru, and I explicitly wanted to avoid that.

I didn't especially want to delve into a debate over what is/isn't true over what he's said as I wanted to try to convey to a wider audience predisposed against us that Tooru may not be seeking truth himself, and I thought it to be the perfect example of how exactly he is operating, along with the other comments I grabbed. I was thinking that a full on debunking response to his video and trying to convey what is and isn't truthful altogether as a whole may be in poor taste as I don't think this is the sort of topic for drawn out video essays at the expense of others, nor that it'd be something that'd appeal to the wider masses as much, already struggle with rambling myself. I really think someone else would also be better suited to doing so frankly than I.

I do think it's good for you to bring this up because there are just a lot of narratives being spun around on how we're responding to this, and to onlookers it introduces a slight bit more nuance if anyone sees comments where we are in fact having disagreement. and conflict

I kinda just wanted to put something out there in voice because I feel that the main people spewing animosity our way are treating our perspectives collectively as some dehumanized hivemind of evil and that's a lot easier to do when there isn't a voice to it, it's going to be flawed but I wanted to get the ball rolling to draw pressure off of anyone else who wanted to speak up more directly. If you want to go ahead and give further context on the chipmunks anywhere and talk on my faults on the matter assuming the video has any relevancy beyond the forums, I think that'd be a good thing. I just didn't see how he wanted to interact with the chipmunks as being genuine in the slightest and this is all I wished to convey to stay consistent with the spirit of my video, not to speak anything on the context beyond that.

I can't think of any singular thing more indicative of Tooru's motives than including claims and discussion on the subject, and then immediately backpedaling in the comments when reached out to, and this is all I'd mean to say. It's either an important part of the discussion when you're making this to begin with, or it isn't. Any admission otherwise, is it's own proof towards a dramatic narrative intent used when it suits your own purpose imo.

https://imgur.com/a/UItuORq

Obligatory disclaimer that I am former rgl staff, take that as you will, I assume it'd be brought up to debunk me if I don't so there. I feel compelled to bring this up as it seems this video is getting wider coverage within the community, as a result of what you (Tooru) are doing to the community.

The above being said: not to go into the finer details of the context behind the forums as I am no longer staff and don't wish to throw anyone under the bus based on faulty memory and with incomplete truth.

But I think as an aspiring content creator it may be beneficial to you to atleast attempt to engage with the community and staff that you wish to portray in a negative way for topics as severe as this. Rather than picking and choosing what parts of the narrative are and aren't important, after you've already began to make claims on the pedestal you've put yourself on as an arbiter of truth and justice. The ball was in your court on this one, and I find myself disappointed with what you did with it.

like frankly yes, there are more important things to be discussing here, but I have two tips for you to consider:

1. Don't include the unimportant things in the video if that's how you truly feel about the situation, it's kinda disrespectful if you go around making all these claims only to refuse to engage with the community on them. I think it's much more understandable from the position of an individual player with disagreements over what's been done by staff, but you are putting yourself in a position of responsibility here; and it is neglectful conduct to not live up to that obligation and atleast engage with the staff in this regard, if you wish to paint the community as a monolithic shield for pedos.

I would think you don't have the right to pick and choose what truths you do or don't shed upon the claims you're putting forth in the video if nothing else, not for a topic of this severity.

In the worst case, you just get proof of how corrupt the administration and human beings behind it are, and you can touch on that topic and the importance of it further in followup videos, shed more light on the community, but realizing this may require any level of care and passion towards the community you're trying to protect. This would actually be good for the community believe it or not, if you cared enough to establish truths and this truly ended up being the case, but I don't think we'll be seeing any research on the matter from you. I would appreciate being proven wrong on this, and the community would be better for it regardless of the outcome, if you even so much as tried to explore the possibilities here.

2. From a more cynical perspective, it does not conceal your intent very well if your immediate response to staff outreach is to redirect the conversation and be hostile. Again, understandable on an individual level as a player, but if it's not just pr speak from the staff/is an actual attempt at outreach and you're putting yourself in a position of authority, it helps to conceal intent if you'd atleast try to act the part, and this would atleast be a bit better for the community still. You are doing yourself few favors here to put it bluntly, and I think you've failed as a content creator in either case, not to mention as a human being.

It'd likely be best if the discussion remained more on the victims and the context at hand and it's possible that I feel the need to speak on this angle due to being former staff, but I do feel it's fair game to remark on the meaning behind this interaction and throw out an observation or two on a perspective I do not feel is covered at present regardless.

https://imgur.com/a/eWlMhHh

I've cycled through these 3 songs for a good while now

The Saltwater Room- Owl City [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8AllgoKzRA8]

Sunburn- Owl City [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4aArJMHqVU]

Hello Seattle- Owl City [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qBtdQNPG3jk]

Dungeons and Dragons/other roleplaying games; a lot of the people I've met through D&D are really interesting and passionate; hoping to find some people interested in the Battletech roleplaying games in specific at this point though.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/677301429190262795/1070030453911855124/IMG_6476.jpg

just ordered my new glasses, i can look even goofier now.

As another autistic person, allow me to overthink for you.

Yes too clinical, but more so though it comes off as a bit too, assuming per say of your understanding of zheep's identity and the situation in question; and is also a bit offensive.

But also: trying to tie the usage of a slur to one's identity upsets other people; and can kinda comes off as an attempted justification of it, rather than a well intended explanation. and regardless, it's not really something that one
would necessarily want to try and justify using what you think as a baseline.

Simply put, It's a battle that the person using the slur/term in question should have to answer for, if others are judging them. You're not really gonna win that fight for them, and you're just going to open yourself up to judgement regardless of what your intent is. Morally speaking it's probably for the best that they have to deal with it, and not you.

Also the phrasing and way the post was structured is very memeable and seeing how others use your post as a template can kinda be an indication of what upsets them or what makes it easy to mock; by looking at the core of what followup posts are based on.
IE : "the context of the post (speaking strangely about black people)", somewhat indicates how it's received, and with that wording you can look back at your own post and see what could be interpreted that way by comparing.

Best thing you can do is just learn from it and not to try to further explain it here tbh, sucks but it's a good learning opportunity.

Allow me to frame it like this, as a certified Rahmed Interpreter.
Rahmed is eccentric and plays in multiple regions, cares a lot about the game
Rahmed wants you to play in or know about teams and players from multiple regions, and tries to get a project going to list this all in one centralized place
Note the line "This is for EU, NA, Asia and Ozfortress teams (can also do SA teams if the demand is there)"

The hypothetical reason to use this over etf2l is because this isn't just about etf2l
It is important to note that division spreadsheets are not an uncommon practice from higher division to division in na or eu, atleast with hl as an example

Now I'm not saying that this is going to be a project of any significance nor is it a realistic venture per se; but I'd prefer to give my brother the benefit of the doubt here.

As someone who has played in multiple regions, I'd find it interesting to think about and it isn't really hurting anyone by it's existence. I do think it's a bit unrealistic to expect this to have that much impact or need for existence, but imo the best results come from people who are willing to invest a large amount of time into things without much gain in sight. More interest and awareness across regions is never a bad thing, and it's something that might only come meaningfully from such people who don't really care about practical returns. I mean the man has spent half his life force on pugs ffs.

Yeah the man is over his head tho, you're on planet Rahmed now. you gotta assume that he kinda knows that himself when coming into this i'd think. don't know what sort of eldritch sorcery he has planned to force people to cooperate with him on it tho.

I don't use the tftv forums much but I am greatly expanding the scope of my project. I got kinda inspired by the
pinguefy video; and on the side of the normal interviews I want to collect video/audio submissions to tackle specific topics. That being said, the form I've made should help manage the series as a whole a bit better. I have a witness interview going live on friday talking a lot about witness gaming, and I did get around to interviewing vanxi, arcadia and nabla as well. honestly though i've been a little lacking on my 6s game and that's something i'm still looking at covering more of along with eu.

So anyways, the first of these side projects I want to delve into is one covering caffeine. I like overthinking things and I think caffeine usage is something that everyone's gonna have a lot of drastically differing opinions and experiences with. I'm not looking to come across as objective or anything, regardless i'm super excited to see what the commonalities are, and I think these questions give a lot of room for personal takes. I get they're not all encompassing and a fair few of them aren't really applicable to everyone; but I'm wanting to see the perceived impact caffeine has here; and feel free to answer whichever questions out of the bunch you want. if you really want to you can leave text responses on the form ig.
also if i made any errors lmk all of this has fried my brain rn

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/907424893417709582/1002302287433187328/unknown.png

Accepting submissions along with many other things in the following form.
https://forms.gle/E6QC5paVyRBR2bFf6

This was a good lan.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/623433454872428544/990824024563150898/IMG_6132.jpg

A lot of people end up cringing out and will grind this game while trying to say they don't care about it and the community. while the whole save tf2 notion might not persuade valve, it'll certainly have the potential to inspire people to actually do things as a community instead of being emo and hopeless while still clearly involving themselves in the community.

As to that I'd point to how many content creators there are getting behind this. While that may not mean as much to us, it's much more likely to mean something to more casual audiences and their fanbase. Regardless of how well it turns out on paper, it shows us what we can do as a community when we come together and unite rather than letting ourselves continually fragment.

In all fairness it's probably more about getting closure, and a potential lack sense of closure from valve responding/continuing to not respond to all of this is what's needed to get people to realize that we have to become self reliant as a community, it's absolutely a good thing. Games without dedicated servers or official casual scenes are able to live on their own, as the community does their best to keep itself alive.

It really is just time for people to ask themselves why they're still here, and to find their own answers. If yours is to state that we're doomed and to point out the meaningless of this all for the sake of realism, that's fine but telling the people who do care to not care goes nowhere. It's never going to be about the practicality of things; as is the case with the majority of online communities.

i mean idk if making less than the minimum wage from competitive is your prerogative, that's cool tho. it's just always about the unique social opportunities that being involved with these games are, and it's infinitely more cringe to show that you don't care than it is to admit that you care in some form and to show that's why you're still here. the fact that we all partake in these discussions and or play the game shows that we still care in some shape or form, and that's the only realism to be found here.

And even if this does nothing in a social sense directly, the content creators aren't gonna just stop milking this. however valve responds is gonna give them fuel, and they're gonna redirect the lack of a response towards their own community servers and advertising them; stuff like that. I mean look at most drama focused content creators and how they like to keep revisiting topics. there's attention and profit to be made from seeming like a person who's doing good is all i mean to say. and now there's the opportunity for them to do it in synchronization with dozens of other content creators all with their own audiences; and that's another angle for a bit of our issue to get alleviated at some point.

All i mean to say, is that these people are giving us a chance to do more things ourselves. if you don't realize that, the only person you have to blame is yourself. it doesn't have to mean much to you, but you gotta see what it might mean to others here. with all the goodwill, discussion, and cohesion around, it's basically the best time one can have to spread awareness about whatever they want to.

TLDR: Be as realistic as you want, but don't act like you're being more realistic than anyone else here lmfao. look for the good and you'll find it together, look for the bad and you'll find a thousand more things to try to critique to the help of absolutely no one.

how do we feel about potential in person interviews at the upcoming philly lan btw? still working out the details atm but i feel like it could be super interesting to do that with a higher quality mic

yeah for sure, i have some adv-newer inv hl players scheduled atm, do you have any recommendations for 6s players?