While this is a major issue, it’s not the sole reason competitive Team Fortress 2 isn’t growing. The competitive scene was put in a rut by Valve. It wasn’t a chasm or an abyss, though. The community has been quick to blame everything on the developers without thinking critically about what they can do for the community. In this way, Valve's lack of support for community hits the community in two different ways: Primarily, it doesn’t support the community, which means some aspects of the game might be broken or unbalanced. Secondarily, the competitive players are able to use Steam's apathy as an all-encompassing excuse to not do anything for the community. This mentality is not one shared by everyone, but by many.
What the competitive community needs now to stay sustainable in the long run is an organized combination of community leaders, event sponsors, recruiters, and devoted players. If this small subset of the very large TF2 community pulls together, they will have no issues staying relevant for the foreseeable future. Timing is critical, as the community is slowly nearing a tipping point where there will not be enough competitive players to attract sponsors and tournament organizers. If it reaches that point, the game will die. The best way to organize this plan is to have short term, medium term, and long term goals.
Over the next few months, the community will need to organize events, both big and small, to introduce casual players to the more competitive side of the game. Small events with this purpose, called “Noobie Mixes” happen every Friday night and attract around five to ten totally new players each week, on top of the roughly fifty players that are relatively new to the scene that go as well. This type of event is a critical replacement to Valve’s lack of a system that does this for players. There are no official tutorials that they provide for the competitive game modes. So, beginners either have to learn by trial and error, watching youtube tutorials, or going to events like this. These “Newbie Mixes” have the ability to host a lot more than just fifty new players.
On top of that, there will have to be at least one big event within the next month. The community needs to be able to see the potential of the game before putting 100% effort into it. Otherwise, many people would be hesitant to put forth all the effort that organizing this community will require. If they see the ability of the community to be great, whether through a tournament or some in-person event, they will naturally want to be a part of that community. This event, like all others in this community, would be livestreamed to between a few hundred and a few thousand people. The production would have to cater to the casual players and also keep the competitive players entertained. This event could act as a major recruiter for the Newbie Mixes and other events like it.
Over the next year, it will be important for the game to have several large tournaments with third party sponsors. The larger the prizepots, the better. Not only do large prizepots create more serious competition between the highest level players, they create a buzz for the event. For example, an event with a $25,000 prizepot is much more attractive to both casual and competitive players than one with a $2,500 prizepot.
Over the next two years, the very gradual decline in the size of the community will have to either turn into a steady increase in size or at least break even. To accomplish this, active recruiting will have to be done by as many people as possible. Through the figures in the casual scene, the competitive scene will have to spread the knowledge of its existence. Individuals in the competitive community should also encourage other players they interact with to try out competitive. This gesture would be both flattering to the player and beneficial to the competitive community.
Over the next five years, serious talks with Valve will have to happen. If the community can prove that the competitive formats are, in fact, a fun way of playing the same game but with a higher skill ceiling, Valve may consider helping the game out more than it currently does. The goal would be to have Valve point users towards competitive Team Frortress 2. Simply pointing users towards competitive will seriously increase the playerbase.
Also, it will be important by the five year mark for sponsors to come in and fund the top level teams to sponsor. If a team gets a sponsorship, several things happen. The scene is taken more seriously, as is the team. The players make at least a small amount of money to subsidize how much time they’ve put into the game. Fans can get attached to more long-term teams.
The competitive Team Fortress 2 community is easily sustainable if effort is put towards the cause of sustaining it. Sustaining the community that many players have been a part of for several years is not a selfless act. These players want to keep doing what they’re doing, and with very minimal troubles for he majority of players, they will be able to. Simply by recruiting, donating a few dollars to prizepots here and there, and supporting the community by playing, watching, and discussing the game will be more than what the game needs. It won’t ever be 100% Valve’s fault or 100% the community's fault if the game as a competitive shooter dies out, but we as a community should stand up to where we never have to figure out whose fault it is that our community is dead. It should be out goal to just keep it going alive and strong through powerful leadership, broad recruitment, and open minds.
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