Continuing my look at community issues, I want to touch on an important subject today: Parents.

This conversation topic was inspired by a particular line in a post about the future of ESEA-O on GotFrag, and my time spent as a Rowing Coach for two years. The line in question: "In other words, people probably don't pay the entry fee because it's a hassle (and their parents won't agree to pay for it), not because they did a cost-benefit analysis and deemed it imprudent."

This sentence demonstrates that we, as in the community of competitive TF2ers, need to realize a couple of things.  

First, if our hobby is to grow and succeed, it needs money. I don't just mean larger pools of prize money to attract players, but money to pay for administrators, league officials, servers, bandwidth, expanded league coverage, and anti-cheat measures.

As we come along to the third year since the release of VALVe's star team-based shooter Team Fortress 2, we are starting to see the expansion of the competitive community. Although as of now, the game's competitive community can be considered small compared to other premier e-sports games like Counter-Strike, we are starting to see the start of a community that will soon be able to cater to players of all levels. While some players at the upper tiers of the TF2 world might not be as agreeable with the newer players, with community-created tools such as PUGs, Deathmatch servers, and Mentoring programs, we are finally starting to see ways for those fresh to the competitive scene to ease into it. However, in the beginning, it can get pretty confusing for those that aren't experienced with competitive gaming, so here are some tips to get better at the game and get more competitive.