TL;DR Casual Mode sucks, Quickplay sucked a bit less, Valve dropped the ball.

I agree with him that Casual mode kind of ruined the sense of community where people could hop in and out. But I do think he's looking back with rose-tinted glasses a little bit. Quickplay wasn't exactly newbie-friendly and its 'wild west' nature meant that your experiences could vary wildly. Can you imagine the current day bots with access to sprays? Although at least with quickplay, you weren't stuck if the server wasn't your thing; you could just leave.

Casuals not great, but Quickplay wasn't either - people just point at everything in and around MYM as the reason TF2 as they remember it died, when that wasn't the case. Valve's failure came with not developing Casual further and making finding alternative ways of playing easier (Community Servers). The server browser is ancient and really needs a rework.

In my view Casual was supposed to bring a 'standard experience'. "You playing the game for the first time? Here's the basic way to play TF2". From there, people wanting something different could look towards community servers. The intent is fine, but the execution was bad and no attempts at fixing the issues it created were made.

No one thing from an update 'killed' this game, its just that MYM was a turning point where it was clear that Valve as a whole (not the TF Team) stopped giving a shit.

Honestly, anytime I've stood behind players on the stage for an Insomnia Final has been pretty damn memorable. The one standout moment is i63 with Se7en winning Granary in the last moment. Watching a wave of people in front of you leap up and cheer like that was something to behold.

Its pretty cheesy to say, but seeing people having a great time at LAN and making their own memories is the most gratifying feeling for me. When you can say to yourself that "I helped make this happen", that feeling of accomplishment is a huge reason why I keep doing this, years after I thought I'd stop.

LAN is awesome.

TBH its impressive how Zesty Jesus can consistently put out bad takes. The man (and this is genuinely true) believes random damage spread should be left in the game because theres enough randomness in the game that it doesn't really have an effect. Bruh.

Also welcome back King.

It was planned to be a one day thing, but I'm running into a bit of difficulties with the University regarding finding a place on campus to do this/equipment to do it with.

At this point, the study is likely to be conducted purely online. I should be able to confirm this and make a formal post sometime in the next couple of weeks.

Thank you to those who have mentioned interest.

TL;DR: I don't want to play TF2Center nor another version of PugChamp. Please keep an active list of In-Houses. We NEED a proper pug site for new players.

Forgive me for being pessimistic, but my experience in trying to play regular competitive TF2 outside of league/tournament play has been miserable. Most In-Houses have been fine for a while and then either some circlejerk joins and pretty much takes over or it dies after a month. TF2Center is Valve Comp with the proper ruleset but you have to wait 20-30 minutes for people to play medic. New pugging platforms end up like PugChamp with the same circlejerks, and whilst TF2Pickup is far better it still has the same issues.

The closest someone or something has gotten is Faceit. The old system (Before Pro League) had the right idea of clicking on a "Play" button; once you have 12 it puts people in a lobby with an 'attempt' at balancing the teams and lets the players figure it out. But that had a whole host of problems from everyone starting at the same ELO meaning balancing was awful, arguments over who played what, and because people didn't play it often the platform became inactive and degraded . Matchmaking platforms need enough players for balance and sustainability, which is one of the MANY reasons Valve Comp didn't succeed.

Finding the right solution is tough because everyone wants different things. Its why In-Houses are the way people do things right now; people have a lot more autonomy over how they want to play competitive. But that makes it harder to engage for less active or newer players.

I would like to see a proper platform/system is for that gap between Casual and Third-Party Competitive that Valve Comp was supposed to fill. Somewhere like Faceit where you can queue and play competitive in an environment with similar players without having to jump through many hoops to play. For more inactive players like myself, an active list of In-Houses with some descriptions like "Chill", "Serious", "Low-Div" and "High-Div" so one could choose what places suited them best.

FEEDBACK FORM

Its been 2 months since Insomnia 71 and we would like to hear from you! Whether you were just watching online, played in the tournament, just hung out in the viewing area, or couldn't attend but wanted to (if you didn't attend, why?). Any and all feedback is welcome, so don't hold back - we can take it.

You can either put your feedback in the form above, or talk about it in this thread.

Some areas of interest for us that you can help us with your feedback.

• New TF2 Zone
  
• Tournament Format
  
• Viewing Area
  
• Livestream
  
• Insomnia as a whole (We'll try to send that to the organisers)

Edit: In-person part of the study is likely not happening and will likely be online only. Recruitment for the study is planned to take place late Dec/early Jan. Details to come soon.

Hello all, I need a favor

I'm looking to do some research for my thesis in late Jan/early Feb which would be a couple of PUGs/Scrims with six people playing online and six in-person in Portsmouth, UK. Basically what I really need to know right now is how many people locally (or are willing to commute) can play in-person when I make a formal request for participants. A full team, or one with 1-2 mercs, would be ideal but mainly looking for people that can make it down without assistance.

If you need more information etc, its probably best that you reach out on Discord (drhappiness) or in here. I'll try to answer any questions where I can right now.

Shoutouts to Arch, Kirsty, and Jon for another great event under our belt
Shoutouts to eepily and bum for helping organise this event with Essentials
Shoutouts to all of the crew for a smooth event and production
Shoutouts to Sodium for being my admin buddy for the weekend
Shoutouts to AMS, Loris, and Beater for all of their offsite content
Shoutouts to all the players who competed in both the main and casual tournaments
Shoutouts to Player1Events for having us for another Insomnia
Shoutouts to High Viz for a great stage production
Shoutouts to Valve for giving us some cool stuff to give away

If you are playing in the TF2 Tournament or are interested in playing in our TF2 Zone at all this weekend, please come over to the entrance to TF2 Zone tomorrow (Friday 8th) at Noon (12:00pm). Gather around the big red sign saying “Team Fortress 2 Tournament Zone” in the Esports Arena (Hall 4).

We will be running through how to use the TF2 Zone, some general guidelines and rules, and then all relevant tournament information, as well as give players the opportunity to ask any and all questions.

Rules etc will be posted in front of the TF2 Zone, but tournament players must attend, as that is how you will officially check-in for the event. If you are looking for a last minute team, please try to turn up, we're going to try and match people up there.

See you tomorrow!

Players looking to use the TF2 Zone for both official matches and otherwise, in order to make sure people can get on and off PCs as efficiently as possible we ask that you follow some key steps and guidelines.

• If you are using your own peripherals, please swap them after your match(es) with the original hardware.
  
• Prepare your configs/HUDs/etc in advance - use a USB stick or Cloud Storage so you can install things quickly.
  
• Make sure that any installed configs/HUDs are correctly removed after your match(es) so other players can set up their own quicker.
  
• Any non-config changes (like changing resolution or DXLevel) should be reverted before you leave.
  
• If you log into any platforms (Steam, Discord, Websites, etc), it is your responsibility to log out.
  
• If you have a scheduled match, please be on time. Lateness will not be tolerated.
  
• Admins will inform you when you are scheduled to come off your PC, make sure you are finished on time.
  
• For non-tournament matches (PUGs etc), if Admins ask you to stop the match do so immediately with console commands.
  
• If there are other player's configs on the PC not within the game folders, DO NOT TAMPER WITH THEM. You are free to remove any files in the game folders when installing your own configs/HUDs. Anyone caught tampering will be disqualified, removed from the TF2 Zone and/or the Venue, and banned from future ETF events.
  
• Obviously PCs are not to be used for unauthorised purposes (hacking etc.). Additionally, avoid playing other games in the area - its a TF2 Zone (Warmup games like Aimlab/Kovaaks are fine)!

In the event that you finish your tournament match early (quick 5-0, for example), that doesn't mean you will be booted off your PC immediately. You have the PC for the whole of the match slot - if your slot is an hour you have that whole hour. You can fill up that time with anything else: Scrim, PUG, whatever!

As a spectator, if you see there are available spaces in the area and you wish to play TF2 on them, that being anything like PUGs, Scrims, Pubs, MvM, etc. please speak to the admins at the entrance of the TF2 Zone. You must be assigned a seat, don't just sit down. They will inform you of which PCs are available and for how long. Admins will be available all weekend to answer any questions you may have and will ensure everyone has an opportunity to play. Follow all instructions by the admins at all times.

Given that we have a few days left before the event starts, I would just like to remind teams that have yet to signup to do so. If we have a better idea of how many teams will be attending, the smoother the event will be. We have a split between those playing in the BYOC and those in the TF2 Zone, so there is plenty of space right now to play.

If you have a weekend ticket and are just looking at coming to spectate at the moment, I would encourage you to try and look for a team. You will only have a few matches with plenty of time in-between to relax, hang out, and spectate. You can use our LFG/LFT channel in the Essentials Discord if you need some help finding people.

There will also be more casual competitions happening on the Sunday after the main tournament so if you want to play something more informal there is plenty of ways to get involved. We're currently looking at our options for non-tournament usage of the TF2 Zone during official matches, but this will depend on availablilty of those PCs.

For those playing in the TF2 Zone, I will be posting tomorrow some guidelines of things you may want to prepare in advance to make sure your time on the PCs are as smooth as possible. One of the things I want to prioritise this event is that the TF2 Zone is as active as possible throughout the event to ensure that we can keep a similar system in the future if this is well recieved.

For those that have BYOC Tickets are were looking to rent a PC for the event, rentals will be going live Friday at 12:00 UK time (BST).

Details on Rentals here: https://insomnia.seetickets.com/event/i71-pc-rentals/nec/2741805

A reminder that weekend tickets are available to win in the Online Open starting this weekend. It has an open schedule meaning you can choose when you play your matches within a two week period. Details can be found in this thread: https://www.teamfortress.tv/63364/i71-online-open-tournament-5-6th-august

Rescheduling & Reformatting
Its clear from some feedback that some teams are unable to commit to this weekend, or a weekend cup in general. Because of this, we will be postponing signups till next weekend (Saturday 12th) and will be running a tournament with a much more open schedule, meaning you can choose when you play your matches - so long as results are submitted by the deadline.

More details on how the tournament will look will come shortly, keep an eye on this thread in the meantime. Signups will still be open if you wish to register.

Its funny that a lot of the pugging sites end up being platforms for top div players to play, when they are the group most able to reliably put together in-houses. Then on the flip side newer or lower division players, who are far less connected with one another, are the ones who rely on in-houses to even play a balanced and fun match.

As a washed middie who would like to still play comp TF2, but unable to commit to a season, my options for dropping into a match of comp TF2 right now are minimal - even nonexistent. Its just TF2Center at this point and the quality of those matches are through the floor and are only slightly better than Valve Comp. This is not a new problem as this kind of thread is almost an annual tradition at this point; every attempt at trying to fix it either ends up being yet another in-house, dies immediately like FACEIT, or just becomes PugChamp with a new lick of paint.

The solution is not another in-house or PugChamp, but a genuine matchmaking site for people of average skill to drop in and play. Given the track record over the years of attempts at this, I don't hold much faith. Always happy to be proven wrong, though.

A reminder for teams to start signing up to this tournament soon if they are interested. If you have difficulties with signing up, please do reach out on Discord. Also, please make sure your usernames are consistent to make sure registration goes smoothly.