Edit 2: For legal reasons I have decided to edit this post and take down all other posts regarding this issue.
Reserving post for later, already helped proofread for Ness but would like to add some things
Alright post time, home from work.
Over the past month, with uberchain coming forward with her story, BTS going from the most promising LAN the game seemed to have potentially in its history to a few people picking up the pieces and trying to salvage a LAN, and several major community figures being outed for engaging in inappropriate interactions with youths, I have heard the same question, over and over:
Is it finally dead?
No. No it is not.
Faith in the community is at a bare minimum right now. Bad people have been exposed at the very top of our scene's hierarchy; North America's home for the past 10 years is long gone, replaced by a league that many have wavering confidence in.
Instead of hating the fact that many people hailed previously as community heroes have had their flaws exposed, we need to stay tied to those who push this community the furthest and help teach new talents and interested players to climb to that level, while trying to keep past lessons learned about incidents involving the community and others in our minds when making decisions about working on future events and leagues.
For those who think that those expunged from the scene recently are just further evidence that the community as a whole is garbage tier and the game deserves any sort of decline it has coming, I would ask them to look again. In the past few days, Uberchain and I have received support from all OVER the TF2 community. Content creators, members of competitive organizations, teammates, friends, and even complete strangers that just happened upon my tweet or forum thread or have recognized us in pubs have almost spammed us with truly heartwarming support. Even those who have had questionable opinions in the threads about these issues have been trying on some level to dig from the bottom of their heart and at least try to make a statement about the current affairs of TF2.
We need to encourage each other that the game can live, and encourage anyone who is interested in stepping up in the best way we can; be it giving tips to a new caster, teaching new observers/producers how to set up a cast, encouraging friends and teammates to participate in major community PUG platforms and leagues, and attending local LANs to bond with friends over the same game we all love so much.
For the community's sake, please don't see this statement as the beginning of the end; see them as the beginning of a new era.