ShearsMouldI don't mean the top level players, I'm talking about the main playerbase. You need a thriving 'lower' scene of people that give a shit about winning to watch the games otherwise what's the point? the people that care about getting better, winning, and are competitive players (not esport players) are playing other games, and competitive changes have little impact on getting them to play this game - nobody is gonna come back to this 10 year old game that they remember as a dustbowl pub to try that competitively
Maybe it's that these players think competitive TF2 is a joke because they've never seen a high-level game of it? A high profile tournament might get people hooked once they see the skill of world-class players on display.
Media is important - I'm pretty sure I got hooked on comp TF2 after I came across the Fragged by TLR clips and was like "I want to do that." This (of course, hypothetical) tournament could help rebuild the 'lower' scene of TF2 in that regard by exposing people to hype plays.
Of course, working in-game competitive matchmaking will need to come first before this has any effect whatsoever, since exposure is useless if people are just going to see the shitfest that is MM in its current form and never come back.
My dream is for all the ex-TF2 pros currently in OW to return and bring money, passion and fans with them.
All this is quite obviously in front of us already too if you just take a look at the player numbers after ANY insomnia event, I can't be the only gamer who had my passion reignited multiple times by these big lans