Interview with Enigma from TeamFortress.tv

With the growing popularity for competitive Team Fortress 2 and rising numbers of players we would like to introduce you tonight to a man who gives a home to all TF2 streamers. It is a platform for promotion and interaction between streamers and their viewers but also developped into a forum for TF2 players all over the world. Ladies and Gentlemen, this is Enigma, scout for ESEA-Invite team  Classic Mixup, and TeamFortress.tv. The interview was conducted by ETF2L’s ipz-.

 ipz-: What is the idea behind Teamfortress.tv and who are the people behind it?

 Enigma: The original concept blossomed from talking with Twitch.TV’s FishStix at the ESEA Season 9 LAN (about a year ago) where he introduced the invite players in attendance to streaming. The initial hurdle to obtaining viewership was simply the lack of awareness, which I attempted to spread by creating the first version of TeamFortress.TV that functioned simply as a stream aggregator. The idea was for all involved in TF2 streaming to promote one URL (TeamFortress.TV) to benefit everyone as opposed to separate ones for each individual.

i: Is Teamfortress.tv actively trying to become a main hub for competitive tf2, bridging the gap between Europe and North America? Is that important for you?

E: The immediate focus is to unify the North American competitive community and merge relevant resources onto into one site. The scene here is desperately lacking a VanillaTF2, and I’m looking to fill that void.

i: What is the difference between TeamFortress.tv and already existing coverage sites like CommFT or VanillaTF2?

E: The site’s coded from the ground up to be a TF2 portal and isn’t bound by the rules and clumsiness of ready-to-go CMS solutions that CommFT/Vanilla are run on. This is of course means much more work and buginess in the short-run, but I’m quite confident that the ease of implementation of nonstandard features and speed advantages are well worth it.

i: What are the conditions to get my stream featured on TeamFortress.tv?

E: Drop me a link on the forums and I’ll be happy to add your stream provided you’re a competitive player and stream mostly TF2.

i: What should streamers do to improve spectator numbers and get more people enthusiastic for competitive TF2?

E: Tune in to the big-name streamers (Tyrone, Platinum, PYYYOUR, Lange, Seanbud, etc.) and take notes on how they engage streamers. Don’t neglect your stream chat — viewer interaction is key. You have to realize that simply watching TF2 without any sort of banter is usually pretty dry.

i: Is TeamFortress.tv planning on doing their own video content?

E: Not yet.

i: How can we as the ETF2L.org help TeamFortress.tv and vice versa?

E: If anyone’s interested in providing consistent ETF2L coverage, I’d be more than happy to feature your articles on the site. It’s a great cross promotion opportunity.

i: I hope these answers suffice. Thanks again for giving me the opportunity to talk with you.