i feel like people grossly misinterpreted what i meant there, but i guess i worded it poorly.
i didn't mean don't try and make the game competitive, i mean don't expect the game to ever become a big esport, even with huge amounts of effort. theres no community that tries as hard as the TF2 community, except maybe SSBM, to become a recognizable esport. its amazing that we got corsair to sponsor the GXL tournament along with Zowie (who has helped out many times now), and while they might sponsor tournaments again, I'll be surprised if they ever contribute more than a few keyboards/mice/headsets (although those keyboards from GXL are pretty swag.)
Still, the amount of effort that people put into casting/production/promoting is pretty spectacular.
tl;dr - Trying to advance and promote the competitive aspects of TF2 is a great thing, but trying to "make it a bigger esport" is somewhat of a wasted effort.
also, @marmaduke
http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=stats&d=match&id=3362176
http://play.esea.net/index.php?s=stats&d=match&id=3392924