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The only advantage I see with changing the ruleset is unifying the global TF2 ruleset. But then… the US maxrounds, timelimit, halftime setup is:

– Less spectator friendly (Teams appear to randomly swap sides at 3-0, then game randomly ends at 2-0).

– Slower (yes, it is… sure 30 min timelimit encourages turtling, but simultaneously encourages pushing from the losing team because of a sense of urgency. 1 hour / no timelimit encourages waiting for picks or advantages and sending in repeat bombs to get them). Losing team has no motivation to push without an advantage and neither does the winning team.

– Difficult to schedule (Single map games can run from anything between 5 minutes and 1 hour (+ half time), best of 3 matches can run anywhere from 15 minutes and 3 hours (+ 3 lots of half time). I-series finals would have to be a single map (they wouldn’t give us a time slot for a best of 3 where each map could be over an hour) which means our TF2 final could be over in under 6 minutes. That would be fun…).

I’d be fine with switching to the NA score system if I could see it actually adding something significant to our TF2, but it simply doesn’t. Even if people do consider it to be a ‘better’ ruleset (I don’t but some do), it is only fractionally better at best, but it presents a whole new world of problems, especially when it comes to cups and LAN events. We would need completely different rules for LAN which seems dumb to me.

I would be for a half time setup, but again, the US system for that is quite dumb. Half time should be about two things. 1) Giving teams a break to talk strategy and changes, 2) To provide an equal battlefield where both teams spend an equal amount of time on each team. The American system does do #1, but it does not give #2. Changing teams at 3-0 and then playing to 5 isn’t equal. If there is a slight map advantage, one team would have it for longer. You would need to either play to 6, or have half time at 15 minutes and turn the win limit / cap difference off.

The only reasons I can see why the Americans still use that ruleset is because it is established and it does work fine (not great, but not bad). Also the ESEA plugin would need to be rebuilt which is just extra effort. It’s also not such a big deal for them regarding LAN events because they only have one and it involves 4 teams. Honestly, switching to the American scoring system is one of the dumbest thing this European community could do right now. At least with the old-school unlock arguments, some people had some pretty good reasons to change / not change, but this debate shouldn’t even exist. Just some noisy people causing a fuss.

I guess the problem with short time-based halves is that it would likely lead to lower scoring matches. It’s not uncommon to see ten minute rounds in TF2, so dividing a timelimit 30 in half could give you quite a few 1-1 games, with the second and fourth rounds ending in stalemate.

Have to side with Arx here, as I said before and he complemented most of my points against this change.

Hi. NA player here. I just read through this whole thing because I’m very intrigued by why people are so opposed to the ESEA ruleset (not UGC, to make it clear).

Just some clarification on how NA players play, time wise:

– Matches NORMALLY average to about 40 minutes before a team wins (i.e. win limit 5). I’d have to compile more statistics on come backs after halves, how many matches go the full hour + overtime as well as what final scores are, however, 40 minutes is a good rule of thumb.
– Our equivalent of PCWs, scrims, are usually win limit 5 OR 30 minutes, whichever comes first. It’s customary to ask, near the end of the PCW, to extend the time limit. Again, these PCWs are generally 40 minutes between relatively even teams. Adjust for less if a team is better. Normally we don’t extend PCWs past 40 minutes, it depends on what both teams agree upon.
– Earlier in the pre-season, we play a variety of maps. A bit before the season starts we pretty much linger on the first map of our season (kind of dumb, but that’s a different point entirely), otherwise we play the map of the season’s week. Variety does happen, but it’s kind of uncommon.
– I think the standard ESEA Open team has somewhere between 2-4 PCWs each practice night. For match nights, it’s typical to have a short PCW before the match (which normally takes place around 1930 or maybe 2030 my local time in the west coast of the US).
– Match nights are one map, not two. So, normally, 40 minutes, on average. Non-average matches that I’ve seen (i.e. incredibly even teams) typically go to 1 hr 15 min at most.
– We don’t concern ourselves with the round timer almost AT ALL. It practically never comes into play.

If I’m up for it I’ll try to make a post detailing some point refuting (with good proof, I should add) but I’d figure I’d throw in some time stats from an NA player.

Quoted from AnimaL

absolutely nothing wrong with EU rules, no need to change them

This.