Valve servers are known to just kind of suck. Are you sure it's just not the latent terribleness of Valve servers?

Awesome! Looking forward to seeing you around again man.

We are usually pretty short. I believe it's been better recently than in the past, but I/ other admins still hit up our friends list a lot to beg. And sure! It'd be great to have you around.

Yep, really this. I'm thinking when a team picks up a night, they'll probably send 2-4 players and coach ~2 per team. I've got some ideas/ suggestions for coaches on how this would play out, but really they could do it however they'd like.

My thinking is 2 coaches per team, with one coach watching the combo (or playing med in it) and one coach watching the flank. The coach in the combo would maincall and provide the brunt of the feedback, while the coach watching the flank would be a bit quieter and more generally watch play for feedback and criticism after the game.

Hit me up on Steam and let's talk.

9 PM EST
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/na6v6newbiemix

For newbie mixes: http://teamfortress.tv/thread/24999/a-quick-word-on-newbie-mixes-this-friday

If you're a regular dude that wants to help out this Friday, you can.
If you're a skilled gamer that wants to help out this Friday, you can.
Better yet, if you're a skilled gamer with a team you can convince to coach with you that wants to help out this Friday, you can. Read the post above for more info.

reserved just in case

So a couple days ago, I got word from KevinIsPwn about Muselk imminently pushing Comp. TF2 and with that, NA 6v6 Newbie Mixes. Kevin immediately knew the numbers his video would bring (I personally had no idea who he was lol), I really didn't understand. Regardless, we now have over 300 new signups in the newbie mix group. With this in mind, we started to think of ways to improve the drafting/ playing experience both to improve mixes in general and to smooth things out with huge player numbers.

A few "beta" changes have been made in the way newbie mixes will be run. Depending on how they work out, and the sustainability of our impending large player numbers, the changes may or may not stay.

1) The first change is the mumble layout and overall drafting system. Previously, all newbies, admins, and coaches chilled in the same linked tree. I've added a second linked tree (as of this writing) and I plan to add more tonight when I'm not busy. Essentially, this means multiple drafting "areas". The idea is right now, one or two admins will have their own drafting zone they have control over, and newbies can pick between drafting zones to add to based on their preference. In theory, multiple zones will alleviate some issues when 50+ newbies scream to be picked in one area. 400 slots / ~30 newbies per channel = ~12-14 drafting zones. We'll see how this works out and develop the idea further.

To add to this, if you are free this Friday night and would like to spend some time drafting games, we would really really really appreciate the help. Add me, tell me you wanna help with drafting, and I'll get you set up with your own drafting area where you have the perms to drag nerds around. (A word: you will literally only have the power to drag nerds in your drafting zone. If you think you're gonna get quick admin from this and troll around, you won't.)

2) The second change is a change to the way we get coaches. If you show up randomly to coach, SWEET! We need you. You're super. But not a lot of people do this. A large number of our coaches comes as a result of what I like to call "coach-begging". If you're on my friends list, chances are you know what this is. A new system I've been pushing around in my head is "team-sponsoring". Basically, the idea is that ESEA teams pick newbie mixes nights to "sponsor", and as many of the players as are interested from that ESEA team come out and coach a few mixes that night.

The major problem with coaching is that (unless you really like teaching), it's just not fun to do. Some reasons why:

Some newbies show up to play, and ignore your advice (IF THIS HAPPENS PLEASE LET US KNOW AND WE WILL TALK TO THEM)
You have no friends to coach with. Most coaches fly solo vs 5-6 newbies, and after just a little while this can be excruciating. Especially if you're having to say the same things over and over again (an idea is in the works to prevent this, too)

I'm hoping this team sponsoring/ coaching thing will help with that. For future mixes, we will try to work with existing Invite/IM/high open teams in organizing nights for specific teams to come coach together. IF THIS IS SOMETHING YOU OR YOUR TEAM WOULD BE INTERESTED IN PLEASE CONTACT ME ASAP WE WILL NEED SERIOUS HELP THIS FRIDAY NIGHT. (Also just contact me in general if you're interested in coaching and I'll invite you to the coaching group.)

So yeah, that's about it.

TL;DR: more ares to be picked for games, and the idea for sponsoring nights in newbie mixes.

I know the sponsoring thing is confusing, and I probably didn't explain the idea fully well in this post, so please ask me here if you have any questions.

(sort of) post mix edit: shoutout to all who showed up to coach. it was a big help. thank you to all persons who drafted and administrated in any way possible. thank you to Sideshow for forcing me to switch the coaches lounge token twice. thank you to tragicservers.com for providing an obscene amount of servers for the event, and huge thank you to all the players who showed up to play. I hope y'all learned something. also shoutout to myself for not actually implementing any of the changes talked about in this post for this week. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

right where you belong

sorry, this thread's about young mature gamers

1) no
2) yes, once my voice dropped ~14 I was never asked my age and people were surprised to learn I was ~15
3) no. I'm sure I was/am a bigger retard than I like to think, no one ever realizes how stupid they actually are

the problem with being a "young mature gamer" is that once you realize you are one and mention it you actually become a young immature gamer because talking about how mature you are makes you look like an even bigger idiot than if you were just a young immature gamer in the first place. acknowledging maturity, no matter how mature you really are, makes you look immature.

absolutely. I'm a big fan of eric's design styles but he never sends me shit he makes. I would love to play around with that hud.

good luck to all teams signing up this season! to all new-to-esea players, keep in mind: you WILL lose, it WILL suck, but you WILL improve. keep at it!

fight the powa

whats wrong with the blue snowball?

yes sir there are mixes! I'm just a goober and forgot to update the event listing this week. sorry about that mate.

lucrative said it all

great attitude. dude improved crazy fast and is only getting better. could definitely rise more after playing on a good IM team