Forum

TL:DR – Getting new players in is so important and we need to do more as a community to help them such as stop being elitist nobs and try to help out more.

Other than the sight of a comment fest ban post, the thing that always pleases me to see is when I see a new team made with a leader dedicated to making it happen. I make this thread after I just seen a new team created and when that happens I feel happy to see fresh faces coming into the community.

In a lot of cases new teams are just random teams thrown together where the leader has no idea what is coming when running a team and it is a lot of effort. I say the most important and dedicated people in TF2 are those who make a new team and get them practising and playing officials when they come and keep them together for months on end. Examples I can think of from a few months ago are people like Ritalin, Knife Crime, Shizao Oxy although they have improved a level since then and some of their teammates moved on but they really do amazing work keeping their team going and they do it for fun – they aren’t going to whine about unlocks and stop playing, they aren’t going to let a bad week of pcws stop them or anything else they just want to play and improve and enjoy themselves.

I think for new faces coming in, finding a person like these I mentioned above is hard. People who do the work for you so you can just turn up and play are a rare commodity I think stopping a lot of teams going. The people who have been on TF2lobby for a few months that then want to try find a team often struggle – look at the Div 5/6 players searching on the Recruitment post. Thing is they could easily make 10 or so new teams there not to mention players hanging around the fringes of comp TF2 on public servers or playing 7v7/Highlander or just on TF2 lobby and playing for fun but not going for competitive and playing other games. There is a lot of potential that could easily come into the community, whether they are good or not is irrelevant – what matters is they want to play 6v6 competitively and be part of this league and community. Imagine the 60-70 or so players searching Div 5/6 made 10 teams and entered Division 6/5 next season – granted half will probably fold within a month due to issues of throwing different people together but if we could get another Ritalin, Oxy, Knife Crime that make a team work then we could see more people people coming into Division 6/5 – after all that is what really matters. I mean Epsilon/Dignitas/Button Bashers may have gone from ETF2L but they can be replaced with mid/low Prem teams and they can be replaced by top Div 1 teams, and they can be replaced and so on until you get to the lower divisions where new teams come and fight – that is where we have to DO EVERYTHING in our power to help.

This means:

– Lose the elitist attitude. You play higher divisions and are probably better than them at the game but doesn’t give you the right to talk down and force people to hate the community and lose interest in the game and even worse – stop them from wanting to go to LAN. Why would you want to support TF2 at LAN and spend your own money to increase the prize pot for higher teams IF they are acting like arrogant, elitist arseholes? Lucky the likes of Tt and infused who were the top teams at the LAN I went to were safe guys and I’d happily spend £100 to increase their prize pot.

– Help people by ‘including them’. Ever been the fat kid at school? Being the internet I imagine most of you were so being excluded from a group by people for not being ‘as good’ as them isn’t what we need. When you mix, doublemix or just fuck around we need to invite as many newer players to play with you. I been trying to do it myself with some people when I can but I don’t mix as much as I used to. But giving them the chance to play with good players who won’t do a ‘Byte’ and yell furiously at their mistakes and make them ragequit because they get blamed for everything. Just be patient and hold back rage you have at their mistakes and try to be polite about pointing to their errors. Some people won’t appreciate it so much but as long as you’re respectful about it they won’t resent you or the game of TF2.

– Leagues. Yes it is a harsh request because leagues do so much for the individual but there HAS to be more leagues like ETF2L can do to help new teams. The obvious stuff like guides, recruitment, admins…etc are great and plenty of people did some great contributions but just getting people who aren’t too confident or sure how to find teams or meet people has to be something we can do for them. I am thinking that ETF2L sponsor some new people, like make a couple of teams from their recruitment section and give them a server they can use 2-3 days a week, maybe get volunteer mentors/organisers to go over basic stuff – anything to get these streams of new players searching without the means of finding a team or being given a chance. To define new players I am on about I mean the people who don’t know anyone in the TF2 community or know maybe 1-2 people in the same boat as them and have no idea how to run a team and need help. Some new people will find teams, some will have friends they can play with and others have contacts in 6v6 but a lot have nothing but their own initiative and need help.

– Buddying/coaching. Remember the ETF2L Highlander buddy system? Well I got a new suggestion I would love to see and I think a few people in this community may do. That is allowing a player to make a 6v6 team as a ‘buddy’. This 6v6 team will consist of new players in Division 5/6 or whatever and as ‘buddy’ – you can’t play officials (except for medic) but you can basically be a coach to the team. Basically this initiative allows you to make a team, hopefully backed by some donated servers from ETF2L, Wireplay, or some generous server providers (Hi Spike) and give new players a chance to learn. It is basically like mentoring except you’re officially part of the team on ETF2L/Wireplay or whatever league. Your responsibilities would be mentoring this team with the basics and doing some general admin stuff like war arranging, talking to individuals until you can get someone on your team to take over. Personally I would so something like this if I had the means at my disposal (server, mumble, leader access). Sort of thing has flaws obviously but it is just an idea…

I think anyone else who has time to write a wall-o-text post on this forum about unlocks, maps or bans or some other topic has time to do these things and other suggestions you may have to do what in my opinion is the most important thing for the good of the game – getting new people into 6v6 and keeping them interested. People go out of the game all the team for various reasons, no matter what the skill level and they need to be replaced for the community to grow. This season we seen a stagnation for various reasons in the growth of competitive TF2 in Europe but the f2p initiative is a great chance to recover this.

Don’t let us down.

I’ve managed my team for 2+ years and I’m mentally retarded.

I find it very hard to believe that there are people more dumb than me.

Quoted from WARHURYEAH

I’ve managed my team for 2+ years and I’m mentally retarded.

I find it very hard to believe that there are people more dumb than me.

http://etf2l.org/forum/user/16831/

Quoted from MEGAMIDDIE

[…]

http://etf2l.org/forum/user/16831/

The worst part is that I knew it would be linking to me, before I even clicked the link…

Quoted from Dummy

not going to babysit anyone its not hard getting into the scene if you dont act mentally retarded

Also we should make sure Dummy is locked in a cage somewhere.

On another, more serious note, I would be happy to do this sort of service (inb4 “you bad/stupid”), if someone wants to set up a steam group where people can add mentors I will, mix and give tips with anyone who wants them.

Quoted from Dummy

not going to babysit anyone its not hard getting into the scene if you dont act mentally retarded

i was thinking the way around when refering to u

Quoted from Hildreth

Lose the elitist attitude. You play higher divisions and are probably better than them at the game but doesn’t give you the right to talk down and force people to hate the community and lose interest in the game and even worse

This

copy commFT’s mentoring system, just make the ‘contact mentor yourself, don’t expect to be contacted’ thing more obvious so people don’t sit, like some do there, and do nothing, waiting to be mentored
it’s a good idea, simpler than an IRC channel or something, though that would mean work for the admins so probably won’t happen