Higher fps broadcasts are a really neat idea and one of the reasons during CSGO majors why I choose to have the GOTV on one monitor and the broadcast on another. It also seems like a super neat way to try and innovate something like a VR esports viewing experience. However, due to the current limitations on bitrate, lack of support with most browsers, and the pretty niche viewer market/lack of demand I can see why it's just not a viable option at the moment, especially with the increased bandwidth/network overhead required to have something that looks just as presentable as 1080p60 max bitrate.

I really hope in the future innovations can be made to make 120fps more accessible (i.e. higher bitrate caps, changes to player to make it work outside of chrome?) because it's a really neat concept especially for FPS games broadcasts like CS, VLR, TF2, etc..

think I just found a new prog metal band to sink my teeth into, really love the synth and bass parts

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pBaIu44Uc1w

We've been doing this at every RGB since RGB2 and it's always a blast; we try and get as many people who haven't left sunday morning yet together for the big TF2 community photo and then we organize carpools (or walk) across the parking lot to the Cheeburger Cheeburger that is near the event center. It's always a really feel-good moment after the LAN is over to have one final meal with most of the community and to see people from different skill groups and parts of the community just sitting together, eating, and talking about how great the weekend was. The tradition has been so successful Cheeburger has actually sponsored LAN at some points (I know y'all from RGB3 remember the Cheeburger sales all that weekend) and it's just overall a really nice end to a weekend of TF2 action. I would definitely love to see something like this at iSeries and Copenhagen games, I know iSeries has its huge TF2 afterparty at the venue bar but something a bit more organized and getting a proper meal with all of the people I get to hang out with after a week of TF2 is just a really neat concept which is made easier by the fact that public transportation doesn't blow rat aids in Europe.

Society Has Moved Past The Need For RGL

paging azion

If you think intercontinental competition isn't still hot and ready in modern era TF2 you clearly did not watch the utter back and forth between Ascent, Ascent.EU, and Se7en at i65. I know I'm a little biased because of how exciting going to Europe was as an American in general, but I heard feedback from so many people at the event that it was one of the best iSeries events in a long time, competing right up there with past events and certainly ETF's best since TFTV were the iSeries TF2 organizers. BTS was a fantastic opportunity to take that one step further and I think it's safe to assume that it was beyond the majority of the community's control (outside of 3 people who are no longer associated with this game's organizing scene) as to why that event was actually cancelled. If it weren't for the pandemic I know that global TF2 would be a much different discussion than it is right now.

NY team got themselves a spectator main right here B)

while there are discussions with TheFragile about making RGB a 2 day event to ease the stress on him as an organizer and the teams as marathon players, the main concern I've heard from every euro I've asked to try and fly out to RGB is simply that the money isn't worth it for what's essentially a 1 or 2 day event when euro events like iSeries and Copenhagen are 4-5 days of the community being together.

It is a lot easier to swallow an 800+ dollar flight added to the normal LAN costs when you are getting the same out of what you're paying a fraction to travel within your own continent. RGB has also only had on-site alcohol sale so far at the TMG-partnered event iirc, which makes a difference when you factor in people who want to come to LANs to socialize and see old friends/make new ones, especially when Oaks (town where RGB is held, about an hour from downtown philly) is a ghost town after 6PM.

I love RGB and it is my dream for the friends I made in Europe at iSeries and through teamfortress.tv and ETF to come over and be a part of the LAN that I am deeply in love with, but it's just difficult to justify.

https://www.teamfortress.tv/34957/teamfortress-tv-player-map

TFTV player map (outdated by a few years but probably still helpful if people are lookin to make these lists)

This does indeed work, it's how I point my directory back at my 2TB external if I ever move my pc and forget to plug it in immediately; backup your games to another drive, then go to install one of the games on the drive. Select "create a new steam directory on

drive:\

and select the steam folder on said drive. It'll detect the game already installed as well as any other games on the drive. After this happens you can just cancel the reinstall (or continue since it'll just verify game files for the selected game anyways which isn't necessarily a bad thing)

Redeye's opinion of TF2 has never really been a secret, especially considering he used to be involved in iSeries. His opinions on the game can be seen in the i46 grand finals as well as the Ready Up documentary, there are also other major names in esports like Slasher who have expressed their support for the competitive community of Team Fortress 2. Unfortunately having a bunch of famous esports icons saying "well this game shoulda been given a chance" is a very long call from "This game has an active chance at growing into something massive." or having actual developers touch the game outside of a handful of game-breaking bugs in the last 3 years.

Valve's silence the past few years has been astoundingly bad, even compared to how they used to operate. I remember ~2016 when they wanted to start talking way more with the community; there were many figureheads that visited the Bellevue HQ, there were explanations in blog posts about future plans and reasoning for current changes; It really began to feel like they cared. Then the shitstorm that was the competitive beta launched, released fully a few months later with no changes outside of cosmetic changes, and soon after that and the following Jungle Inferno update a year later they turned into the totally mute company we know today.

Anyone with hope with Valve, while I do respect that there was a time where there really seemed like there was a chance, that time came and went without any real support from the developers. If competitive TF2 is more than a passion project or stepping stone and you have genuine hope that there will be any updates or developer support for the competitive game I really hate to be the one that rains on your parade but it just isn't happening. I think there's a half decent chance that the game could still grow community-side and function better on third party support than it does currently, even without major esports players such as ESL/ESEA/FACEIT, but it'll be a decent amount of time, money, and effort sunk in before that happens.

bump main soldier or div 1/2 medic

edit can pay now

RGL killed our team
Thanks :)

Mentioned this to Hidi but Waves Gaming is another pretty good venue, worked a CS event there in the past and their staff are pretty great, have space and PCs for plenty of players, and have a really good scalable broadcast setup if we want to have games casted (there's a nice spectator area in front of the stage with a projection screen just above the stage).

Bonus points for it being accessible via public transport

Having visited Toronto a lot I think it is an absolutely beautiful city and would be a great place to LAN in terms of things to do outside of game, nice city/not a ton of crime, places to eat, afterparty spots, etc. as well as the relative closeness to east coast gamers and the decent population of TF2 players in Ontario.

The main issue however is that the majority of TF2's NA playerbase is located in the United States, and I'd wager a guess that the majority of players simply don't have a passport (or enhanced license in the case of my fellow New Yorkers) so logistically speaking that adds another 2 months of waiting and 150 dollars of cost into many player's already tight LAN budgets.

Feel free to reach out to me if you want organizing help, just not sure if it'll have enough of a draw for US players. I know back in the day LAN ETS was a thing in Quebec that had TF2 at some point, so maybe I'm wrong or ignorant, just see that being a large road block.