Shitposter or not, he writes an interesting blog. Look forward to seeing what you pump out for comp.tf

I need my co caster @smashsonian added. @brodogstf2 would be solid too. Or me, @dreamboattf2

My only thoughts on that is that im hoping/guessing Metal/Sunshine will be the "official" maps they add during the update (in the same sense that Suijin/borneo was in the other) when they have their huge "matchmakings out for everyone" update.

no, the timing is uncommon.

While the textures look nice, i'm not a fan of making every map look the same. We already have sunshine/process/product with similar textures, why change one of the few maps whose textures are good and remove the differentiation in the map pool?

The changes themselves dont seem bad though. If you kept the original textures, you might see valve adopt them as changes. The new textures unnecessarily increase the divide between our maps and their maps. Pitching fixes is good, especially by making a fixed version, reskinning whilst making a fixed version is not.

Please dont go through with the reskin.

Same.

This looks cool!

Added about casting.

Super sad Dignitas got eliminated :/

YOUPORN_DOWN

I enjoy them, people who make puns are a hoot

you change this but you dont take my advice and change the summer cup we just finished to the winter cup smh

The first 8 games of the season are randomly scheduled, you're a low open team (because you're all new players), did you honestly think that you'd be able to beat people who have played 6s much longer than you? Sure the odds were that you'd get a winnable match or two in the first 8, but that can not be the case. Objectively you got a hard schedule, as you played a lot of experienced players.

Lets break down your schedule so far:
Match 1: High Impact 5-3 loss. Close game, I remember playing against Zabi last season when he was on a solid Disney Jam team meaning they had at least one person with more than one season of ESEA experience. You played a good close game though.

Match 2: Hurricane Watch 5-0 Loss. While it's each players first ESEA season, I played gold with Snow 3 seasons ago, and was told the queyh and loot have played a few seasons of UGC. While it is only UGC, it is still competitive experience and theyre a solid team.

Match 3: Wood Pig Black 4-0 Loss. Ex Invite players vs newbie mix team, I'm sure you expected a 4-0 here.

Match 4: Tune Squad 4-0 loss. Aiera came into open the same time I did 4~ seasons ago and some people on that team like sleeping have been playing since S12/13/14 including sleeping in IM as recently as last season.

Match 5: Thats so randal 5-0 loss. Core of the team is in its second ESEA season TOGETHER, rest of team has 3-4 seasons experience. Of course the team that has played more than a season together beat the team of new players, it happens. A lot.

Match 6: Blasty Blast 5-1 loss. Lydi and nmz are ex IM, Kapoww ex invite, others have played open playoffs. Super experienced players. Good job taking a round.

Match 7: My B 5-0 loss. Bunch of DM lords with multiple seasons of open. They've beaten hot dads (8-1), and lost to not around bears(6-4) and astotzka(9-1) via close 4-3 and 5-3 losses

Match 8: Portland Burnsiders. Flethcher is a god, team has solid DM, Good indicator is they took 2 rounds off tunesquad who 4-0d you, probably should have expected it to some degree.

Match 9: Chex offenders 2-0 FFL. Forfeit, ignoring it.

Anyways my point is, you had a hard schedule, teams with a lot more experience have lost to these teams, over half of them have winning records. Yeah it sucks losing, but everyone has been through it. I had 1 win my first season.

Benk put it best in the version of this thread from my first open season:

You put in the low open grind, lose a lot, but learn a lot. You've got a very good coach in Marxist, I'm sure you've learned a lot and improved, dont focus on the match results.

I cant speak for the team forming process, but it cant be more last minute than my team last season which formed less than an hour before the deadline!

And lastly, you play at least one dead team to end the season, so at least you're guaranteed to not go 0-16!

Based on this, it appears unlikely.
http://backpack.tf/stats/Unique/Competitive%20Matchmaking%20Beta%20Pass/Non-Tradable/Non-Craftable
http://backpack.tf/overview/Competitive%20Matchmaking%20Beta%20Pass

It sounds like you seem to be (mostly) enjoying your time, which is awesome. Best of luck during badlands week!

I want to give a huge shoutout to my boy conner. He was med for me my first season of open, saved my old team for a match last season, and is once again bailing out my team this season as an emergency stand in.