THEBILLDOZERand this is what bothers me most after looking at the esea tf2 scene from an outsiders standpoint.
Theres something up with team culture in esea tf2. I've looked at other games and its really not normal for every roster except for b4nny and randos teams to be brand new every season. why is it normal to just make a new roster and try again if your sandbag team comes in second place? why not just make a team with people you enjoy playing with?
I don't think many people create teams expecting them to die after one season- most people aim high with teams and its pretty clear when they don't care and just want to play "just because" or to sandbag.
Personally I think that one of the reason tf2 teams often don't stick together is because of the mechanical emphasis in the game. It has two effects where because the game has lots of mechanical emphasis, players on teams will improve in noticeably different rates at least in regards to mechanical skill (however the same can occur in other ways if players demo review a fuck ton but its not as common). High mechanical skill in this game also gives you a bit of a "fudge factor" where you can play higher level games without as much (to an extent) gamesense- the gamesense players wouldve gotten playing with that team they just left. These two things combine to contribute a lot towards players leaving for greener pastures and throwing away a lot of prospective multi-season teams.
Another thing worth mentioning is that esea tf2 has gotten so small that everybody knows EVERYBODY relevant to their skill level, and circlejerking / friend-dynamics changing can impact teams substantially when the player counts are as low as they are.
Finally, I think that the whole concept of "there isn't a reason to cut to the top in this game because the monetary reward isn't there" is kind of a double edged sword. Because the monetary risk doesn't exist, taking risks with teams is encouraged in a roundabout way. Combine that with a lot of players who only play out of sometimes close-to-obsession with blind drives to improve no matter what, and you have a game that does a lot to facilitate the kind of slot machine teams seen so often.
WackyfireballIs the only Faint team not dead the sigafoo league team?
In technicality the rgl season hasn't started yet so it is an unfair comparison, but I think it would be rather hard for us to die considering rgl is treated a match-only league.