I wouldn't mind helping out on the server side, although I'm busy for the next week or so trying to push an Android app out the door at my current job...

Looking through the code, I'd bet that your crash probably comes from your very conservative use of memory when it comes to strings. Things like make me nervous:

char *buffer = (char*)malloc(1 + 4*2 + strlen(weapon.ToCStr()));
int length = sprintf(buffer, "%c%d:%d:%s", WSPacket_PlayerDeath, victim, attacker, STRING(weapon));

Don't forget, this plugin is running on a server that's using hundreds of megabytes of memory. Don't hesitate to allocate 1k here in order to prevent a buffer overflow. Better yet, find out if Valve has their own blessed string class that you should be using to prevent this sort of thing, or see if you can use the string class in the standard library (http://www.cplusplus.com/reference/string/string/) and call c_str() whenever needed.

Gaming rig is broken so I can't try, but in a lot of programming languages you precede the inner quotes (around "their name") with a backslash. So try:

"spec_player \"their name\""

Sorry if this doesn't work. Worth a shot.

Regardless of the colors, having the main page showcase the latest VoDs uploaded to YouTube is a huge improvement, especially when you're frontpaged on Twitch and sending them to this site for more.

Also excited about the lurking "Guide" link at the top :)

Casts of matches on Twitch and popular streamers are always plugging teamfortress.tv as the home of competitive NA TF2, and encourage players who are new or interested in competitive TF2 to go here. And there really are a lot of good resources here -- Sigma's Intro to Competitive TF2 and Momentum in TF2 guides, FT's ongoing Map of the Week series, etc. But a newbie told to visit here probably won't find these, because he or she won't even know what to be looking for, or what articles even matter.

Maybe after telling new players to go to teamfortress.tv to get started with competitive TF2, there should be a clear "call to action," or link on the page for them to follow next, that leads them to these resources.

I guess the first thing would be to identify all the new-to-competitive resources on the site, or which can be linked to. Then organize/ categorize them somehow (by difficulty, medium, class, or something). Finally, determine the call to action. Maybe a link or section on the homepage in a color that pops, or that's in a prominent position like somewhere to the top and left.

Thanks for the insight everyone, it's very helpful. I guess one idea that I had in mind was that a caster could log into the site (you can sign in with Twitch) and specify which matches they're casting (which could be as simple as putting the URL to the match page on ESEA), and then the match is automatically added to the guide of anyone who starred the match, either team, or the caster. Totally aware that this puts the burden on the caster, but ideally it would take all of ten seconds, and hopefully people would tune in who wouldn't normally search VanillaTF2/OZFortress/AsiaFortress/etc.

I'll just throw this over the fence soon. Totally aware that I mostly built a prototype before soliciting much feedback. If there's no interest or it's the wrong solution, all good :) Thanks again.

I've only seen TF.TV and ESEA MOTW on the left side, but I know eXtv, blank, and MR SLIN also cast. Down the line I'd like the site to include different leagues, Highlander games, and even games other than TF2. But the goal is not to overwhelm the user, so on the site you follow/star the matches/teams/casters you care about, and only matches for those things fill your guide.

My competitive "experience" includes all of a few dozen lobbies long ago, and a SPUF 6v9 vs Xensity even longer ago. I don't have the time these days to take a stab at playing competitively, but I enjoy watching competitive 6s. And I'm convinced that there are a lot of casual players out there who, like me, love watching competitive TF2 but may not be on this site frequently. The site is, hopefully, just to be an easier way to find streamed TF2 matches online and grow the community.

I totally understand any skepticism though. I'm just eager to know when a few matches happen so I can throw it over the fence and get any sort of feedback.

Are there any upcoming matches this week that are going to be cast by the usual suspects on TwitchTV? I built a web site that I want to be like a TV guide for upcoming streamed matches, but before I launch I need some to add. Thanks!

http://teamfortress.tv/favicon.ico returns a 404. Putting it there should be sufficient for it always being displayed. See http://www.google.com/favicon.ico, http://facebook.com/favicon.ico, http://espn.go.com/favicon.ico, etc.

If you're seeing one, I assume it's because you're using Chrome and it was working one time in the past. There's a bug where once a favicon is downloaded by Chrome, it always appears, even if it's deleted from the server and you clear your local cache -- see http://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=85806.

So when you use the Twitch API to get a user:

https://api.twitch.tv/kraken/users/seanbud

There's a profile picture link in there:

http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/seanbud-profile_image-8feca52a40c892ad-300x300.jpeg

I just learned that if you rewrite the URL, you can change the size to 600x600, 300x300, 150x150, 70x70, 50x50, 28x28. So this:

http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/seanbud-profile_image-8feca52a40c892ad-50x50.jpeg

Shows

http://static-cdn.jtvnw.net/jtv_user_pictures/seanbud-profile_image-8feca52a40c892ad-50x50.jpeg

Strictly cosmetic, but it might be nice and make it easier to spot out a streaming user on the list.

NewT
for "new team"

Gotta change it next season though.

I have a 6770 that's not being used :-/

This is a unique form of foreplay.

limacine

To find the FLV file for the highlights (URLs that end in /c/[number]), access http://api.justin.tv/api/broadcast/by_chapter/[number].xml and look for the <video_file_url> element.

So http://www.twitch.tv/misterslin/c/1707695
becomes http://api.justin.tv/api/broadcast/by_chapter/1707695.xml
which leads to http://media12.justin.tv/archives/2012-10-20/live_user_misterslin_1350763250.flv

(I lied, there are actually six FLV files in here, all of them full-length. Hmmm...)

You should be getting married with the person you want to spend the rest of your life with. Sit down and ask if you're getting married to escape a crazy/abusive household. That's a short-term solution, but not a long-term one. Don't spend the next two years resting on your laurels -- do what you can to get out of that household. Take any job you can and ask friends if they have any leads. Look into scholarships so you can get off to school. Wake up tomorrow morning and write a resume. But don't use marriage, which is supposed to be a lifetime commitment, as a crutch to get out. Believe that you can do that by yourself. Achieve it, and your feelings about the relationship and its worth may be much clearer.