Compromising on the ruleset is such a stupid idea and is completely the wrong way to approach the situation. I'm not even saying that one region should adapt to another region's ruleset. It's much better to have a ruleset that most of the community can agree on than a compromise that makes nobody happy.

The rational way to approach the problem is to:

1. Make a list of many possible rulesets
2. Set up a list of priorities (e.g. works in online matches as well as cups, doesn't require plug-ins, etc.)
3. Choose the best ruleset based on how well they satisfy the priorities

This is a time consuming solution, but it's so much better than tunnel visioning on either the ETF2L or the ESEA ruleset, because there are so many more unexplored options out there. It's time for the leagues to take initiative and make this happen, in a transparent manner so that everyone in the community can be a part of the decision. In the end, a unified ruleset would benefit all of the leagues, so it's a common interest for all of the community.

Halftime is good for teams but it sucks for spectators. You take away from gametime and in 90% of the cases it won't actually change the outcome of the game. In CSGO you need to have halftime and it doesn't actually cut short of any action so it makes perfect sense to have it there, but in TF2 you stop the game for no real reason except to give the underdogs a chance to make a plan, which can be achieved with a tactical pause anyway. 40 minutes per map + a pause inbetween is also impractical schedule wise, especially at LAN.

The time between rounds is longer in the ETF2L ruleset and you also have the right to a five minute pause, although it has to be for technical reasons but it's completely unenforcable so a tactical pause is de facto allowed.

There's nothing wrong with the ESEA ruleset gameplay wise, but it's extremely impractical to schedule cups and LANs around it. If you had the ESEA ruleset at insomnia, you would have to make every match a bo1 because it simply takes too much time to do a bo3 if there are more than 4 teams involved at LAN. Even if the full 60 minutes of the match isn't being played, you still have to schedule around it because otherwise it's very likely that everything will be delayed.

Study at the library, there's literally nothing to do there so all you can do to pass the time is to study.

The machina is actually perfectly fine. In 6v6 noscopes are actually extremely useful to protect yourself against people trying to kill you. Scoping with Machina slows you down and you can't protect yourself unless you hit a headshot. You lose that ability to protect yourself to do slightly more damage on fully charged shots. There's a reason why EU snipers don't use it (except Dennia).

i'm not saying that you can't be good if you don't go to lan. but it's meaningless to compare player vs player in an online environment when matches don't really matter as much. the real test of skill is in a LAN environment, against the best teams in the world, this is the only time when the pressure is truly on.

nobody cares if you are good when it doesn't matter... onliners smh

Most people competing are really good at their roles but are not excellent in anything else, so if we are talking players overall and not just in their roles: Stark, Mike, b4nny are probably the top3 because not only are they the best on their mainclasses, they are versatile players who can compete even outside their usual roles and classes. That being said I think alle is the closest to these players atm, he is a versatile demoman and he can call pushes pretty well. Don't know about a 5th, probably one of the Australians, but haven't followed them long enough to make a conclusion.

Shoutouts to the people in production who came and did some actual work. I basically just showed up and pressed some player spec binds. You guys are the real heroes <3

It definitely does if your bag is at the size limits. Source: brought computer to insomnia LANs 3 times.

Keyboards and headsets are pretty replacable if you can find a keyboard with the same switches to borrow and headset with noise cancellation.

It would be worse if it was his mouse or mousemat, because they get your personal wear so replacing them, even with identical stuff, can feel quite different.

Follow up questions

How many words of Swedish do you know? Favourite type of Swedish food? Have you tried surströmming?

How is life in Slovakia?

The shotgun itself is mostly fine, the biggest downside with running shotgun (or anything else than gunboats) is that you become an immobile damage sponge who needs a lot of heals. Buffing the shotgun will not change this.

Make shotgun viable again