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My clan, DB, has just been knocked out from the highlander tournament, because of an error made by an admin. We have accepted this, and we of course understand the huge work the admins have done throughout the highlander tournament and we respect that. Overall we have enjoyed the competitive scene of TF2. Thought i would share my voice, an average pub gamer, on how it has been and such, and of the highlander game mode vs the 6vs6 game mode.

First, the interest there seemed to be for the highlander tournament was overwhelming. So many teams and so many players from around the world, it’s so amazing how the correct tournament with the correct rules can get people to play competitive in TF2. In my opinion, the current game modes in competitive TF2 is boring and i think thats why there is so few that actually want to play TF2 on the competitive scene. Personally i think it’s so boring watching a 6vs6 match on SourceTV as it is now, and i’ve never enjoyed it one bit, because i’ve always felt like something was missing and there was a certain disbalance. Highlander games are so fun to watch, since all class come in to play, and you need to use all classes to your advantage as best as possible. I mean.. this is what made TF2 fun in the first place to begin with. The wide variety of how many ways you can play this game, with all 9 classes. Bringing a tournament together where all 9 classes was supposed to be used in 9vs9 was a great move, and it has really relit the competitive TF2 scene in my opinion. If a league was to be made of highlander like the 6vs6 league, i think it would become very popular, and even better replace the 6vs6 with 9vs9 highlander in competitive TF2.
Many of the “old school” TF2 gamers that i have stumbled upon in the TF2 lobby, were not enthusiastic about the highlander one bit, and quite frankly, i can’t understand that. Maybe they were actually afraid that 9vs9 would become more popular, or maybe they just can’t accept the change. The fact of the matter is, that 9vs9 is way more funny to play in, way more funny to watch, and as it is right now, hell of alot more popular and appealing than 6vs6.

As said before, overall we enjoyed our time in the highlander league, and we salute the admins for their great work, for putting this tournament together.

Disagree almost in entirety, especially on your thoughts about 6v6 being ‘boring’. i40 final, watch it, if you still think that you’re in a minority — this community is one of the most enthusiastic about.

9v9 is fun, but it’s too many players for a competitive environment.

it may be nicer to watch and play, but it just is not practical – simply because 6 players is pretty much the most you can coordinate to get online on certain days and practice, which is what pretty much makes it interesting: the competition.

OP, highlander leagues have been around for years. I dunno about in EU, but in NA, almost all of them have died off due to unpopularity. This…
Quoted from this is evil evil

If a league was to be made of highlander like the 6vs6 league, i think it would become very popular, and even better replace the 6vs6 with 9vs9 highlander in competitive TF2.

… is just outright false. 100%. Highlander was available everywhere, people tried it for a while, and then everyone realized that it doesn’t work at higher skill levels and has much slower gameplay overall than 6v6. This isn’t some conspiracy of elite “old school” competitive players trying to avoid highlander replacing 6v6. Many of them tried highlander at some point.

If anything, it’s the fault of players like yourselves who champion the highlander format but completely failed to take part in it unless you were catered to directly by Valve and given the promise that no competitive players would pose a serious challenge to you (something that can’t be replicated). For years, almost every topic in SPUF I’ve seen that’s gone along the lines of “competitive players don’t get it and should play highlander” has been responded to with “there ARE competitive highlander leagues, what are you talking about?” And, sure enough, those same people who complained about 6v6 over highlander almost never joined up, even though it was free and just about the lowest barrier of entry in the entire competitive fps scene.

If you want to play highlander, I highly encourage you to do so. I will add, however, that the reason it’s not popular now is definitely not the fault of “old school” competitive players, and if you play it for a while, you’ll probably find (like most other competitive players who tried it) that the format gets old after a season or two.

1) as said before, impossible to get 9 players on together for more than 1 night a week
2) comms are horrid, 9 people on mumble, minus perhaps the engie, is just eugh
3) it’s, as in pubs, 80% spam and holding chokes for a stalemate and 20% of actually doing something
4) as said before, opinion does not = fact
5) almost no coordination due to 9 players, no teamwork except some basics, turns out to be boring after the initial shine of it

I think the highlander tournament is perfectly doing it’s job in getting people interested in competitive tf2 since it forms a bridge between “pub” and “pro” plus it introduces players to a league site.

I do not think making highlander the new 6v6 would do anything but split the competitive community in two major halves. Not to mention, organizing and running a highlander team on high levels is much harder than doing so for a six player team.

Quoted from G-Mang

is just outright false. 100%. Highlander was available everywhere, people tried it for a while, and then everyone realized that it doesn’t work at higher skill levels and has much slower gameplay overall than 6v6. This isn’t some conspiracy of elite “old school” competitive players trying to avoid highlander replacing 6v6. Many of them tried highlander at some point..

I’ve never noticed any highlander like leagues, for the past 2 years i have been playing. All i have been seeing is 6vs6 and 1on1 Soldier cups. So maybe i didn’t search long enough, or else the organizers of the league didn’t advertise their league as well as they could have.
And i have never claimed there was any conspiracy amongst the old school TF2 gamers. I can only speak from my experience from TF2lobby where i’ve met a couple, and i was referring to them. Of course you can say, i’m generalising a bit, but it’s a bit hard when you come in, new to the competitive scene, and in fact all of the “old school” gamers seems more or less disgruntled over the highlander league for some reason.

These are merely my point of views, and are not neccessarily facts.

Quoted from this is evil evil

[…]
And i have never claimed there was any conspiracy amongst the old school TF2 gamers. I can only speak from my experience from TF2lobby where i’ve met a couple, and i was referring to them. Of course you can say, i’m generalising a bit, but it’s a bit hard when you come in, new to the competitive scene, and in fact all of the “old school” gamers seems more or less disgruntled over the highlander league for some reason.

Just like you have your point of view on 6v6 people have their point of view on 9v9. I’ve played highlander for a little fair bit (albeit long time ago, before there was ‘free medal tournaments’ around). I like it, but for a competetive gameplay I prefer 6v6 any day of the week. This is what the world is like, some have one opinion some another, some may even be of the opinion that highlander and 6v6 stinks balls and there should be an arena tournament.

IF you want to do something about it I suggest putting down the effort to try and organize cups, tournaments, laddermatches and a league of your own, or help ETF2L with the same. That way you can ensure yourself there’s always someone willing to put down the energy to make sure that highlander is fairly represented. IF people want to play highlander, they will come. If not, they won’t. Simple as that, noone is forcing anyone.