SD_Doomsday. It was flawed but I really enjoyed it. Nothing quite as tense as trying to cap the intel, and having rockets and pipes fly past you as ascend the elevator. I do wish people had made other sd maps, but I guess that void is filled by pd a little.

Hey, a little bump. Going to be interviewing some more teams at LAN so if there are any questions you want me to ask them, let me know!

I agree that especially at higher levels, the time commitment (scrimming 2hrs+ every day) is often draining. Add in mgeing/jump maps or whatever you do to practice before scrims and it can be such a large chunk of time you have to dedicate to TF2.

However, I also really doubt the cups are the answer either. Everyone always says they want cups, that they'll play them, but after the 2nd one, people rarely sign up. I remember Essentials used to do a monthly cup that had 1000$ prize (it may have been more or less, I can't quite remember) but after 3 there were only like 8 teams signing up. FaceIT had something similar and people were barely signing up for them. I don't think there's been a case of a regular, consistent cup series having a regular/consistent signup amount, which probably makes it hard for organizers to accurately create good schedules.

The schedules themselves are often equally draining as well. You might be playing 4+ hours of TF2, interspersed with an hour to 2hr wait in between, where the whole schedule can get delayed from one match/team. Maybe the answer is multi-day cups, you play a group bracket during the week and then playoffs on the weekend, but at that point, it just starts looking more and more like a shortened season.

Additionally, the skill disparity (even in cases where invite is separated) is often so gigantic that most matches are 5-0 rolls. And when the signup rate is low, as it seemingly inevitably will be, that discourages lower-level teams, cause they'll know they'll get steamrolled by whatever adv/main team that's playing.

I'm not saying cups aren't good or can't be fun, but they have not proven themselves to be a good replacement for seasons at all.

Apparently, Riccardo wanted to wait until 2024 proper before he came back, so if he declined, then it would've gone to Lawson. And I agree that with Ricciardo in the seat, it puts more immediate pressure on Perez than just getting Lawson, as Ricciardo has realistically a higher shot of either A. getting the 2nd redbull seat himself, or B. proving that Tsunoda deserves the seat if Tsunoda does beat him soundly.

The Hungarian Grand Prix is going to be wild, I am surprised they didn't wait until at least the Summer Break though.

That spot has been a bug/feature of metalworks for a while. It also works on the other wall on point. The stickys hit the person on the other side of the wall, though it doesn't work in the area where the arrow is as that blocks it. I thought it had been patched out in the refresh series of metalworks though so either they weren't using the correct version, or maybe they didn't patch it out in the refresh series.

Edit: Judging from that previous video they probably didn't use the correct version then

Sage is a great guy with amazing dm and coms. Plus he can beat box, so you gotta pick him up.

Mobe is a great player. He's both super super chill and has a good vibe, but also has cracked dm. Give him a tryout at the very least.

Probably unlikely, but I wish they changed the Quick Play system back to something like it was before. Or fix it in a way that promotes community servers again. I think a lot of people (myself included) got introduced to competitive tf2 or had their first experience through community server organized events (community teams etc...). It would actually benefit valve to do something like this as then, each community server is responsible for dealing with bots.

Maybe a bit more likely is that I hope they bring back the con-tracker and do something with it like they did in Jungle Inferno/Gun Mettle. I don't think this is too unrealistic considering they already update the Halloween one yearly to include the new maps so it isn't like they haven't touched it for 6 years or something.

A bit late but huge shoutouts to Dolphin, Jarret and SpaceGhost for doing all the production this weekend and for the whole season! One of the best series of casts I've seen, and I can't imagine how their voices were feeling on Saturday after casting four bo3 back-to-back.

One of my favorite instances of team comms being displayed in a match.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAyNpqushkc

While I wouldn't mind going to team comms in casts, I do think that overall it would be a lot more effort for production and teams than it would potentially be worth, due to how last-minute TF2 production normally goes. I think there could be some worth to doing it on LAN for GFs where sometimes the 90s stv isn't used, but you're asking a lot of from (usually) a sole production member who has to already organize everything/contact teams for regular season matches.

My favorite part about this is watching all the pubbers getting confused when they see snakewater repeatedly updated. I think most of them believe valve updates the map themselves lmao

It was an interesting Grands, especially from a meta pov. WG play style is reminiscent of 7, in that both never pushed unless they had a guaranteed opportunity to do so (esp from last), though maybe thats just the Kaidus coaching. Each had different reasons, but the result was still the same.

Gonna Stream IM Grandfinals on twitch.tv/gr4p3 with me grape and omar

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn9970dxQ2g
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDkbC6ItYzg
first instances of gunshot bride

Having known mariomanz for many seasons now, I can truly say this guy is dedicated to the game. Many people say they are willing to do the things he's listed, but I can assure you that if you pick him up, he will. Incredibly hard working, motivated and goated, let this guy make your spaghetti and meatballs.