Saturday, December 3rd at 3 PM EST: join us in the eXtv Mumble and at eXtelevision for the first Community Highlander Discussion!
Representatives from CommFT, UGC, Vanilla TF2, ETF2L, KritzKast, and more will be tackling the tough questions facing the Highlander TF2 community. Best of all, there will be an open Q and A at the end so that you--yes, you--can join in the discussion!
Ladies and gents, big news has dropped care of the good folk at UGC. They've announced their Season 5 Highlander prizes: awesome trophy medals that you can check out right here!
In addition, I've gotten word that the admins over at UGC are cooking up something--dare I say--something equally awesome for Season 6. What will it be? What sort of debauched brains are dishing out this kind of digital awesome? Find out for yourself. Head on over and tell them Free sent you!
Ladies and gents, toaster bots and goo-monkeys, welcome back to Screaming Eagles.
What's all the hub-bub with Free-to-play players? Where are they? What are they doing? Are they sticking around? Are they wearing funny hats and running the wrong way on Payload maps? Are they adapting to the morass of the global chat? Are any of them sticking around to get into competitive TF2?
I'll tell you what's itching me, folks. I don't have the answers to these questions. I don't have graphs or charts. I don't have fancy Powerpoint slides with dissolving text and funny trumpet noises and pictures of lions. In fact, the last time I used Powerpoint, things got messy. The situation ended with me covered in baby oil and trying (in vain) to talk my way out of several cases of public indecency. But let's not talk about that. Let's talk about FtPers.
Ladies and gents, word has come to me from Infinite over at UGC about a huge Highlander match going down tonight at 9.45 PM EST, casted by eXtelevision!
Tonight, Exodus Jedi takes on Lonely Hearts on the last league match before going into playoffs. Needless to say, this is one match you don't want to miss as these two teams are two of the best in the NA Highlander scene. Where either team goes, pain follows. Pain and gibs. And sometimes Ubers. But mostly pain. Be there to catch every frag!
Head on over to eXtelevision at 9.45 PM EST to catch the stream and remember to tell them Free and CommFT sent you!
Ladies and gents, though I am down with the flu and discharging all varieties of goo, I come to you with great news!
On Saturday, December 3rd, CommFT and eXtelevision will be hosting and sponsoring the first ever Community Highlander Discussion. We'll be bringing together representatives from CommFT, eXtv, UGC, Kritzkast, ETF2L, and more will be coming together to discuss Highlander. What makes it tick? What lies ahead for it as a competitive format? Is it doomed?
Join us in the eXtv mumble as we dig into the ins and outs of Highlander to see what its all about!
When: Saturday, December 3rd @ 3 PM EST
Where: eXtv Mumble server
Who can particpiate: everyone! At the end of the organized discussion, there will be time for questions from the chat channel and guest speakers in mumble.
What questions will be on the table: stay tuned--the questions will be publicly available on CommFT a few days before the event.
Why we're doing this: Highlander is growing in leaps and bounds and there are lots of takes on the format. We're trying to encourage dialogue about it as a competitive format.
If you guys aren't aware already, Schetter is working on a new spectator HUD for TF2. He's posted something about it over on his blog so go on over, check it out, and add a comment on his site with your thoughts.
I've created a site @ http://www.teamfortress.tv that aggregates and updates competitive TF2 twitch.tv streams from both players and casters. The site came about in response to two questions I've frequently asked myself as both a spectator and streamer of this game:
1) Where and when can I watch casts for this game? 2) How do I promote my stream?
As a spectator, I grew frustrated of frequently checking the sites of different casting entities for upcoming cast details only to later wait for the stream to begin on some obscure, ad-cluttered twitch.tv page. This site in conjunction with steam group announcements will hopefully remove these complications.
On the aspect of promotion, this site makes a lot of sense. Why waste effort promoting each stream individually when spreading the name of simple, meaningful URL benefits all parties involved? The more traffic the site receives, the more viewers every stream receives. This also significantly lowers the barrier of entry for any new streamers.
The site itself is hopefully easy enough to use. The status of every stream is updated once per minute (even while you're watching) and the list is sorted according to viewer count. If multiple streams are live at the same time, clicking on one of them will embed it into the main window along with the initially hidden chat on the sidebar. A toggle for the chat linked to the currently playing stream and a button to register for it is located at the bottom of the stream player.
Most importantly, if you're a regular streamer, PLEASE post a comment on the steam group page and I'll get in touch with you ASAP. The success of the site depends heavily on the frequency and quality of content.
Also, if you didn't know already, an excellent ESEA-I week 2 match on cp_warmfront between Quantic Gaming (former eMg) and The Experiment is set to take place tonight at 11:30 EST and will be casted by Salamancer and Trekkie on eXtelevision.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and feel free to leave any feedback or criticism!
This seems to be a great idea and as such, I have added a new button in our top navigation bar entitled "Streams" that links directly to enigma's site. Be sure to check it out!
BEHOLD! A demon strikes. His name is insomnia and, against this ancient and evil foe, I am powerless. Because I have work in a measly 5 hours, I might as well just stay up and take an IV solution of caffeine dissolved in tiger blood with my morning coffee. After all, sleep is a poor substitute for stimulants.
Today, I would like to rant about clients, namely ones that are poorly made, games that are likewise poorly made and maps that are actually made well, if your name is Justin and you like sniping.
This week was warmfront week in every one's favorite league. My relationship with this map has always been sketchy. I take that back. I fucking hate warmfront. I hate every scout filled nook, every easily abuse-able height on middle, every bloody angle that the enterprising sniper can exploit for their own perverse, schadenfreudian pleasure. The map was born the bastard son of complaints about coldfront (an equally terrible map) and a certain invite player named Justin (note, I didn’t do my own fact checking in regards to this, one of my players assures me it is he that made this map). Those who are unfamiliar with Justin need only watch him play any map... ever. He snipes, he pushes the faces of unsuspecting medics in with the giant slug of justice from his vantage point as far away from danger as humanly possible.
Leading a team is hard. Not just sorta hard, not just kinda hard. Really hard. Leading a team, being and feeling responsible for the well being of 5 other people, their in game experience, their coordination, communication, their every move is bloody hard. It has been a long time since I have had to lead a team, and I had forgotten how stressful, how painful, how utterly hair-pullingly frustrating it can be. But leading a team is also immensely rewarding, and this week, I learned that fact.
I think a little explanation is in order. After talking with Graham about there not being enough content, and realizing I basically keep a TF2 journal anyway, I decided that I would keep a blog of the trials, tribulations and celebrations that will follow my team through their season in ESEA-IM. I am Dr.shdwpuppet, medic for Dogma, caster/producer for eXtv and avid gamer. I will be doing this column weekly. If you don’t want to read what I have to say, that’s fine, this probably isn’t for you anyway. I hope I can help at least a few people struggling with their teams and entertain anyone else.
Blaze i made a mentee app (http://commforums.com/scout-cevo-vanilla-pinkushin-t6515.html?t=6515) let me know if u can help me out even if its not an...
