Had epic games on both days (online vs lan servers) in the real tournament vs "fun" tournament. As well as in dmixes.

Mad respect for getting stuff working. Talking to people we played vs, seemed most teams had a good time playing.

Shoutouts to organisers and admins like blackout jon (set up so much stuff day 1, and he was shattered).

Twikuu, kermit, gemm, sim, warhuryeah, aoshi, drhappinness, eepily and anyone else I missed.

Shoutout to my team, especially kimo and bubbleman (top osu player) for saving our asses and playing in the main tournament with like 5 mins before it started. IF ANY ADMIN SEES THIS, PUT THESE STEAM IDS ON LIST TO GET PARTICIPATION MEDALS:
https://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198045641126/
https://steamcommunity.com/id/gidro1998

Shoutouts to everyone I met (too many to list).

Shoutout to security and the ninja cleaning people that helped out anyone who puked after drinking too much. Real nice people.

https://clips.twitch.tv/PlumpWimpyCrabsLitFam

The big thing I notice is that things go from a one time joke (which can be funny) to months being a meme. It grows old over time, and at one point, when it doesn't stop because it's just so set as a meme, you either end up just blocking and muting everyone who says it until you give no reaction; or you pop off and yell at them to piss off which results in being made fun of further. At least from my point of view, this is how it was handled when being a meme angered me too much. Some people are still blocked from months ago since they offer nothing other than these memes in conversation.

I definitely agree that the harassment definitely does drive people away from the community. It's why I'm a member of my current circlejerk, because people in it don't just meme me constantly.

Real talk, idk why b4nny is in the ufo, so many better things you coulda done there.

I don't deserve this.

https://clips.twitch.tv/AltruisticPerfectSrirachaDBstyle

edit: streamer legit deleted it 1 second after i posted here. Shame on mak77

edit2: got a new one from vod https://clips.twitch.tv/BillowingOpenPartridgeBuddhaBar

Mak upfragged his own post, nuke his shit

Unstoppable, except by our dead team, gg ez beating high/drunk/completely out of it gamers

If the first cup doesn't happen, then why would sponsors pay money towards a prizepool for a non-existent tournament? I doubt essentials.tf get the money and are able to invest it in future months.

It's mostly the time commitment that prevents people from playing anyway. Shortening to 45 mins for rounds over an hour was a good start, but it's still a 4 hour commitment of time. Most scrim sessions and post game talks are completely over within 3 hours, so this should be the target, maybe making 40 minute rounds.

Another point is the time it starts. Starting early (17:30 cest) is really fuckin early for EU players. A lot of people do things like eat dinner with their family, are out during the day, just living their lives. The second target should be to time the tournaments around standard scrim times, and people who do stuff during the day would still be able to play. Start the tournament at 19:30 instead, and try to do 4 rounds with 45 mins. Just try some new stuff each month instead of trying the same stuff for multiple months before changing it. I get that it can be confusing for players doing it like this, but tf2 doesn't have the lifespan to take time with it.

Final point is that the lack of lower level teams is actually astonishing. I personally didn't realise it, but there is as many prem teams as open teams that apply to these tournaments. Pretty weird if you consider there are 6 times as many open teams as prem teams. A lot of the time this is because "we aren't going to win anything, so why bother getting 5-0'd by prem teams" or w/e. Which is fair, so why not try offering something to players similar to how faceit does it. Like all the teams who played their matches without ffing any get put into a raffle, and at the end of the sunday stream, the winner of the raffle is called. All players on the team can win a key or something (just given over steam trade). Just a bit more of an incentive to play.

seriously can admins/mods ban the likes of starkie, AMS, etc. they are derailing every thread ever and their circlejerk jokes are not even funny

cu@

Here is a diagram made by Anguish to show mirrored maps vs symmetrical:

https://i.imgur.com/hellOfo.png

https://www.strawpoll.me/15948999

In the middle of a hot debate, primarily about product being competitively viable. The two sides are:

Yes, it's a fair map because rocket jumping/spam angles are player preferences, which makes it a fault in the players skill that red vs blue side makes them play differently. The differences between the two sides are also negligible in terms of affecting player ability.

No, it's not a fair map as two players of equal skill can do different things based on the side of the map they play on (red vs blue), and any difference in a competitive setting that affects red team vs blue team is significant.

Share thoughts, answer strawpoll, downfrag me, whatever floats your boat

Interesting developments:

- Negligible differences between the two sides are unimportant when it comes to competitive viability.

- Any difference between sides is significant in a competitive setting. Both teams if equal skill level should have a 50% chance of winning the game, however any differences between sides may offset this, making the map not competitively viable.

sage is a pillar of the community, i demand an unban

shut up yeehaw... i can't question cat though.