You need to realize that you need to decide right now about ESEA based on ESEA and nothing else. We guarantee nothing as we cant (neither can any other potential league). CEVO's TF2 division is only as successful as the TF2 community gives support. This is a meeting to answer some and hopefully all of the community questions. Again, this is not a ESEA replacement. CEVO is a "community" option for you to make the league the community wants to see. This take time and cooperation people. See you at the meeting.

Hello everyone. So here is the run down for the CEVO/community meeting. I went through and gathered questions that you had and emailed them to CEVO. CEVO will come forth and will give answers to the follow questions. Please see google doc link

Your text to link here...

Now the other thing that will be presented is a “Draft Proposal” of a money pot prize to start off CEVO Season 4. There are some issues in regards to licensing that CEVO has with valve, which CEVO will also explain, that influences the prize pot. In addition, this is only a “guide” at this point as I have not 100% secured the funds for the first pay to play season but I am working on it. People know that I will never promise on something unless I can 100% deliver which is why I am making it VERY CLEAR that these numbers are only draft and not final. I also want constructive feedback from the community. In addition, keep in mind that this needs to be a 100% fully sponsored community league, therefore the community needs to be able to support it.

Here is the mumble information for you to join the community meeting November 26th 6:00PST/9:00EST. Address: dal.eoreality.net Port: 64767

Now just in case we get hit by a DDOS attack we have a backup plan to counter. So the meeting and information will still go ahead either way. The meeting will also be recorded so people who miss it will be able to hear what was said. I will also have admins in the mumble. We only have a short time and we want this to be constructive. When people join mumble you will go to the gallery channel where everyone will be muted. Once the welcoming and the questions are answered by CEVO then people who have specific questions can move into the microphone channel where they can ask questions they have to CEVO. I ask this is done in a respectful manner. Anyone who presents themselves in an “out of line fashion” will be asked to leave the channel. If they refuse they will be kicked and banned by mumble admins.

If you have any specific questions that are NOT in the question document above then please add them in posts below and I will add them to the list of questions. Please make them short and to the point. Unlike my posts…lol. Cheers!

It is an interesting point of view that TF2 needs invite. No offense but if it wasn't for the support of OPEN, IM and MAIN teams there wouldn't be an invite with a prize pot of over 14k+. The lower brackets dont get the respect they all deserve. They are the foundation to invite. Isn't this the really big elephant in the room? I have always told new invite teams (new ones going into invite) that I have sponsored and all of you who know me should remember these words, "Dont ever forget where you have come from and who supported you getting here." If ESEA really does care about TF2 and Lan ect I guess they will keep things going! Hmmmmmmm funny how the world turns.

Stop saying that CEVO is "replacing" ESEA!! That is not the goal or the focus!! ESEA can be here and is an important piece for invite. Again I think everyone recognizes that. CEVO needs to be supported for a community based league that ESEA is not currently giving. Period. If people want ESEA lan and ESEA then play it! No one is stopping you here. There should not be any reason why the community should be able to support CEVO in having a league they can call home. Invite needs ESEA and lan as CEVO at this point cannot compete with the ESEA lan and prize pot. At least not at this point.That does not mean it wont be able to in the future.

All this bickering back and forth because people have it in their heads it is one or the other. If teams choose CEVO over ESEA because of what happened then great. If they want to play both to keep ESEA going and help support CEVO then fine. If people just play ESEA and not support CEVO then I don't ever want to hear again how TF2 doesn't have a good community league and how ESEA is shit ever again!!!! CEVO and I are giving you an opportunity to build a league that is "community based and supported". It is simply up to the community to now step up to the plate, show their support and help us make it happen. If ESEA lives then great, our invite players can still fight it out for the lan that ESEA provides; then go for it guys! I wish you luck! I wish none of you any ill will and still hold you in high regard.

Crap sorry. I did a post but quoted it all wrong...lol. Trying to fix it. Sorry I will edit this in a few when I find the right quote again....my b! Well at least there is a bit of Nahannni comic relief here....right?!! <3

I would eXtine but I have enough on my plate already. I would like to discuss Community vs Pro's and some other things to help out. Can I join up a bit later? Thanks!

My dear community. Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. Please listen to what is happening here. Please stop the attacks on each other and calm down. This is not helpful for anyone.

I want to make something very clear. If people still want to play in ESEA then go for it. This is not a “one or the other” situation here. I have never said that I don’t want people to play for ESEA. I simply stated that as a sponsor and AG as an organization I will not support ESEA. Do I agree with what ESEA did 100% no! I could not sleep at night knowing I was giving money to an organization that did such a dirty move. The simple fact is that no league can compete with the dollars that ESEA has. It is a monopoly and one that is pretty much unreachable. Does that mean that we just have to settle for JUST ESEA? Hell no! For the invite division ESEA is the best option. I think we can all agree to that. HOWEVER, it is not the best option for OPEN and IM teams. People seem to forget that invite and the prize pot is supported by open and IM but yet those divisions do not get what they deserve. They are the majority of this community. These are facts. ESEA teams are listed below.
Open Teams 50
IM Teams 16
Main Teams 10
Invite 9

We have a plan that can 100% be supported by the community and not “sponsored” by one single dollar. So even if Pine Beetle and myself “kick the bucket” (as Squid suggested) CEVO will absolutely live on and so will TF2. What about highlander division? We should be supporting that division it has grown very well. I frowned at Pine Beetle’s choice of words and I hope people recognize that those are Pine Beetle’s words/views and not CEVO’s or mine.

We should be encouraging other leagues and play other leagues. If ESEA was so bold they would let teams play only once a week instead of two so teams can play in other leagues? Having different leagues doesn’t split the community. People having a tunnel vision and an “I know it all attitude” does. Everyone has their opinions and rights to those opinions and everyone here should be respected. We all play the game we love and we all as a community have been through a lot together. We sound like bickering children and this needs to stop. It doesn’t help any of us come up with solutions.

Our community needs a league that is 100% for us. ESEA tells what we need to and how to do it all the time. We have to play on the client, we have to put down a $600 deposits for invite teams and the list goes on and on. The fees keep going up and ESEA has threatened to leave us almost every season.

Well CEVO hasn’t left us. It won’t be perfect especially in the beginning. But if this community wants a league to call their own and to listen to what we want…well CEVO is here with open arms and ears. We will hold a community/CEVO meeting on Tuesday November 26th at 6PST/9EST. I have made a private mumble for this meeting to happen. I will be posting soon about the rules and agenda around this meeting to keep it productive. The mumble information will be posted the day of the meeting in the steam group.

Ok I want to clarify. With all respect this was a discussion and not a concrete decision as of yet. These types of discussions are not final until we speak with CEVO. For example, when I met again with CEVO this morning it was brought to my attention that they do not have a pay n play format system set up as of yet. Some ideas to get around that is to have the first season free to play while CEVO gets organized and build what we want. I respectfully ask that no one takes random posts as a final decision. Everything needs to be discussed with CEVO and we will be holding community discussions with the community. Now some decisions the community wont have any say over and again not everyone will be happy but lets try and work together. Even though I am the lead between CEVO and the community that sure does not put me in any position to make decisions for the community as a whole. We would be missing the whole point of going to a community league if that was the case.

Good morning everyone! I wanted to make a quick post to update you. I have been working as hard as I can to organize, speak to people in the community, CEVO and sponsors. I am very excited to see our great community of ours so pumped! I am respectfully asking all of you to please be patient with me and this process. There is a lot of necessary planning and work that is involved. Many of you have asked me what they can do to help. Thank you so much!! The best thing that everyone can do to help right now is give your support and trust the process.

Let’s remember that everyone is going to have different views and opinions based on a variety of factors like experience in the game and knowledge of the history of this community. Not everyone is going to be happy with some of the decisions made but let’s also remember that we have the ability to make changes in the future as a “community”. I do not want to get into specifics right now but I hear you all. I am reading the post on a regular basis. I am writing all of your questions and concerns down so everyone is heard. I have some answers to your questions already but I want to answer them all at one time or things may get missed. Organization is key when doing a product such as this. Trust me in my experience of organizing a movement or project. (ie 6vs9 and Community vs Pros is no small task…*wink*)

We will be holding a “community meeting” with CEVO on Tuesday November 26th at 6PST/9EST. Now I know that this gets into prime scrim time and I do apologize. This is the only time that certain key players were going to be available. I got a new mumble especially for Community meetings and I will post hopefully by tomorrow, Monday at the latest, the agenda. CEVO only has 30 minutes for us at this time because of the short notice. However, there will be more meetings and discussions so please understand that we are doing our very best to move this forward.

One little leak I will give you is that CEVO has already met with Technosex and SizzlingCalamari to discuss the stats. I give you this piece so you are aware that there are concrete things moving behind the scenes to build a good solid foundation for a league that we can “sustain” not just now but for many future seasons.

In regards to myself personally I want to apologize to those who I had to remove of my friends list. I simply don’t have the room I need for everyone. I am trying my best to add people so I can hear their views and concerns. To those people who I have missed in adding you (as some have now given up and deleted the friend request) please feel free to add yourself back. I am not ignoring you I am just extremely busy and adding a new person means that I give my time to speak with you right away. I want to be able to give you that time in a respectful and productive manner.

Very well written Lange. It was to the point and had a sincerity to it. I agree and I am impressed by this direct move. *respect*

Let's try to stay positive here people. We are looking at a solution as a whole community. I'm not saying that people shouldn't support other leagues and in fact they should. The problem that happened in the past is that we let one league be the center of it all. Play the other leagues too! I just support CEVO as they have been around the longest (before ESEA in fact) and a few other factors. I did not speak with the others because it wasn't what I was looking for to support. Nothing against the other leagues it is what I feel would be best for the TF2 community as stated in the original post. Thank you for bringing up the point though.

Note: TF2 wont die because everyone here loves the game and for me I love this community. Let's focus on the positive and more forward anything less then that is just not helpful or productive.

Can you add me to steam pine beetle? I think we need to join up resources here...=)

I have asked Tagg if I could post a link to my post in regards to AG fully support CEVO. Here is the link. Thank you Tagg.

Please show support for CEVO

http://teamfortress.tv/forum/thread/14064-ag-supports-cevo-in-expanded-league

So I want people to know that I have spoken to CEVO admins in a long meeting earlier this morning. I want the TF2 community to know that in my opinion of speaking with CEVO and other TF2 players who have been in the game a long time, that CEVO is our best option. I will be volunteering my time directly with CEVO to help build up their TF2 division. I will also financially back up prize pots for the TF2 division. Here are the reasons for why I am looking for support from the community:

We want a change from ESEA and in my opinion a good solid change/choice would be CEVO.

CEVO used to be what ESEA is now. The only reason why people started to go over to ESEA was the prize pot increase and LAN. CEVO only had 7 teams register this season and they are still here!! No way would any other league be as committed to TF2 as that.

CEVO has the infrastructure that has already been tested and proven to work. It is from what I hear also very easy to use.

CEVO has owners that have an “open door policy” that anyone can speak to. That in my opinion something you may not find anywhere else.

CEVO has the same values as AG. They help the little guy to move up and not a top down organization.

CEVO is willing to give and work with the community on what they need/want. Please see below.

CEVO does not rely on leagues to make money. They have another section in the business section that does this. Therefore, the majority of the fees would go directly to the prize pot if we do a pay to play option. If we want the prize pot to grow we will need to pay fees and do a pay to play. ESEA did it and we took a huge hit in fee costs. No reason why we can’t give CEVO even half of what we paid for ESEA fees to get a hell of a lot more back. As a sponsor I will announce right now that I will pay any CEVO fees to cover team costs when a team is sponsored under AG.

CEVO is willing to look at lan options in the future. This may mean that they may attach themselves to an already existing lan. This means the lan’s will be in different parts of the country rather than one spot.

Someone also brought up the issue of the lack of divisions in CEVO. It would only make sense that CEVO carry over the divisions and layout that was brought about by the varying skill levels of the players. For example, an ESEA open team would be in the CEVO open division. This is up for discussion.

Concerns that need to be addressed and discussed are:
1. Stats with a possible live feed like ESEA
2. STV download from the match
3. Experienced casters and writers in the TF2 division. Discussion with CEVO about
bringing over committed volunteers who now the players and the game would be of a
great assistance.
4. When using the CEVO client we want to ensure that:
1) The client is not up and running when the client is not supposed to be enabled or working on your computer.
2) The client, when uninstalled, is 100% uninstalled from your computer.

I am asking the community for their support in going with the CEVO option. More discussions will happen and I want to hear from you. I am going to propose to CEVO that we have a community meeting so people can ask questions themselves to CEVO. CEVO wants us to come and have been waiting to get the TF2 community support. They have been more than patient with us and are willing and ready to welcome us with open arms. I have already been greeted by them in this fashion and I will support and work with CEVO to the best of my abilities.

In regards to any past history with CEVO. If anyone has any ‘concrete examples’, not a 3rd party account, of any incident that had a negative impact on them personally or their team while in CEVO, CEVO wants to know about it. CEVO wants to make things that happened in the past right. I encourage you to take your complaints directly to them rather than to the TF2 community to complain because for one, the issue won’t get resolved, and two, it only spreads ill will against an option and a business that is willing to make a great league that is for OUR community.

I had a huge response from people who support me and AG since this happened. People wanting me to lead and bring up a league ect. I have appreciated the faith and commitment you have always shown in me and in AG. I ask you all now to trust me in saying that CEVO is our best option to make a league that is what “WE WANT” and what “WE DESERVE”. I believe that in speaking with CEVO that they are wanting and willing to work with us. Please join the steam group to updates on meetings and the movement. Come to the next scheduled meeting to hear from CEVO yourself and have the ability to ask questions. You are the TF2 community and we can make a change for the better by doing it together.

EDIT: Please join our steam group for updates and meeting times
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/CEVOL

Thank you so much for clarifying...lol. I take any task I do and put in 110% so when I first read that, the 1000 ton anvil fell on my computer...<3 Thank you for the kind words and faith in me and AG. It means a lot.