The reason invite players think 'it isn't a problem' is because the tools exist in game for you to go kill that guy and it's not the fault of the game for your failure. IT WAS JUST YOU. So there's no balance that needs to be done there because otherwise you're just limiting the game for the sake of bad play, which does not result in a good game with fun mechanics and a lot of depth.

Your point about malicious activity has to do with the people that play the game and NOT how the game functions.
So not really a good comparison but yes that is a huge problem if someone is cheating

https://clips.twitch.tv/ShortTalentedHorseradishJebaited
https://clips.twitch.tv/SpeedyFancyBaguetteOSkomodo

removing xbow would nerf the shit out of soldier which is really not necessary

if someone is damaged and has to get bowed then shoot the people who would otherwise be getting tanked because the crossbow can't heal buffs (and a team with buffs vs team without buffs is a huge difference)

it also gives medic solo carry potential which the class desperately needed

it doesn't slow down the game at all, fights actually end even faster because you have to get onto weak teams quickly so they can't heal and in transitions people reach max health faster because of it

also if the person you were fighting got crossbowed, you got outplayed. if you're angry about that, that's like being angry that someone directed you

ban laser gun 2018

I fully disagree with lucrative

Our decisions about the whitelist should not be motivated by things we think valve could be doing. It's not the place of the community to do a dance so that the developers do stuff. Even if we were to ban dumb unlocks completely that would still give valve data, as it did for years, that there is something wrong with the weapons even if they're not overpowered. We don't only have to ban things because they break the game or are just straight up better.

Having said that

I don't think anyone gives a shit about any of these bans aside from cow mangler
and in what you've described your view to be implies that it probably should be banned

It completely removes ammo management and just adds spam to the game, which the game doesn't need.
The only place that cow mangler adds and "alternative strategy" is charge shotting the doorway people walk into mid, which is not actually alternative because you should be doing it every time and all the other team has to do is make sure their medic doesn't get hit by it because no one else should really be getting hit by it either. Hitting charge shots does not take skill, it does not take game knowledge and it is not an alternative strategy. On top of all this, getting essentially randomly hit by a charge shot is not fun at all and as much as some people like to think, that's actually a pretty good reason to have it be banned.

Like I said I don't think people really care about most of the items. From what it seems a lot of people are annoyed cow mangler is unbanned because it's just a dumb weapon with a dumb mechanic but also about the process by which all of this was unbanned which did not represent the community and was not a fair process towards the people playing in the league.

having to play qualifiers is not going to stop people from making new teams

lol
the preseason invite meeting that only people you bothered to message knew about

please remove thank you

delpo demo laz soldier

miles and miles and miles better than that

a lot

this is a bit awesome for lower invite teams

not tf2 but
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RoAmuBo2fJo&feature=youtu.be

let me in on this