Bring Home the Gold, Boys!

[tf2.com]

The Multiplay Insomnia Gaming Festival in Telford, England is UK's biggest LAN tournament, and unquestionably one of the highest profile TF2 competitions in the world. One thing it didn't have until recently, though, was any American representation. E-sports broadcaster eXTV has been spearheading a fundraiser to get our boys in the fight, and the TF2 community has responded, donating the money for airfare, PCs, and accommodations to get America's top TF2 players to the 9v9 tournament.


We couldn't be happier to hear this, firstly because it once again proves that TF2's got the most generous community in gaming history, and secondly because U! S! A! U! S! A! Actually, there might be some Canadians on the team. Close! E! Nough! Close! E! Nough!




Source: TF2.com

 

[ScorpioUprising]

B4nny is literally Jesus.

 

[honeymustard]

I'll be there

"...to the 9v9 tournament."

Not! Close! E! Nough!

 

[TMP]

to the 9v9 tournament.

proof that valve only cares about highlander

 

[Prestige]

Go mix down go

 

[thaumiel]

seems like the american teams just 5-0'd everyone

i was kind of hoping for something more... suspenseful?

oh well

 

[ScorpioUprising]

seems like the american teams just 5-0'd everyone

i was kind of hoping for something more... suspenseful?

oh well

Epsilon seems like europes only hope at the moment, but scrims against LG haven't been going there way really.

 

[honeymustard]

Go mix down go

We lost, THANKS.

 

[grazr]

seems like the american teams just 5-0'd everyone

i was kind of hoping for something more... suspenseful?

oh well

I can only imagine it was because the US teams stick with traditional, tried loadouts. EU scrims seem way more interesting to watch with unusual class makeups and loadouts whilst US teams are predictable. But, to each their own, as it were.If something works i guess there's no reason for some people not to use that option.

I wont bother to touch on skill levels, i'm sure there are great people on both US and EU teams. I'm just commenting on what i've observed.

 

[ScorpioUprising]

I can only imagine it was because the US teams stick with traditional, tried loadouts. EU scrims seem way more interesting to watch with unusual class makeups and loadouts whilst US teams are predictable. But, to each their own, as it were.If something works i guess there's no reason for some people not to use that option.

I wont bother to touch on skill levels, i'm sure there are great people on both US and EU teams. I'm just commenting on what i've observed.

Not sure I agree with this at all. American teams have all sorts of crazy offclassing shenanigans that lead to incredibly interesting spectator experiences (see LG's Mackey, classic mixup's Harbleu and Ruwin), whereas I'm really not sure on the euro side (from what I've heard they prefer running very few offclasses, aside from Heavy on Gullywash, and sniper when the player is good enough). Other than Shintaz on spy, I can't think of any really dedicated non-heavy, non-sniper players.

If you want to touch on the unusual class load outs, Americans actually allow unlocks whereas euros have banned everything except like 3 medic weapons since 6 or 7 seasons ago. This makes a lot of the offclasses significantly weaker (pyro loses degreaser, spy doesn't have cloak and dagger or ambassador, engineer loses jag), and probably results in them seeing very infrequent play in Europe. Could be wrong about that of course, but I still think the American teams are more likely to offclass than European teams.

From what I've heard, the primary reason why the Euro's lost so hard had more to do with level of commitment and dedication. Euro players are by no means bad, but they viewed the Lan and the majority of competitive events as excuses to hang out and drink. Ruwin, for example, was there at the lan by 10AM, practicing for four hours before the next match, whereas epsilon only started practicing three days before the event itself, and had to bring a demoman out of retirement in order to field a roster of 6.

The top European teams seem like great guys, very passionate and excited to hang out with one another, but don't seem prepared to put in the hard work necessary to really excel competitively.