#comp ow

[uberchain]

(I Hope) This Is The Last Definitive TF2/OW Politics Rambling I Ever Keyboard Enthusiast About

TaiRong’s Twitter rant on why he left comp TF2 for comp OW cuts deep. His talk was very specific to AsiaFortress, but it’s a sentiment for many former TF2 pros and talent who prioritized OW. They wanted more than what TF2 was able to give them. In turn, what it gets interpreted as is a slight against TF2 and its community. 

I too, have also called brothers and sisters “traitors” at one point because I hated how not only they were leaving me, but then seemed to forget their roots. They didn’t owe me or TF2 anything. It’s not that they forgot their roots, it’s that the people who left are just as angry as the people who stayed. 

I will never forget Creep*, a prominent AsiaFortress player from Korea, telling me at i55 that he wanted to bring an Asian team to iSeries one day. In i58, that actually seemed like it would be the case, but the Asian players struggled to field a team for i58 because of a majority of their playerbase leaving for OW. When I reflect back on it, it would have been wasteful to collect who was left in Asia if the best players had left. Full Tilt and Crowns were the EU powerhouses, and even the weakest froyotech roster in LAN history would have probably beaten them. Australia still hurts from 4th Place LAN placements to this day.

Of course I would have liked to see Asia at a major international TF2 LAN, let alone South America or even Australia again. I hope they will get the funding they need if they decide to contest the powerhouses of Europe or North America, and I hope they will enjoy their experiences if they do so, as many TF2 players who fight for passion do. I wished the same for Australia when they came back for i58 and ESA Rewind, even though I knew the curse of 4th Place and the lack of monetary justification must have hurt a fair bit.

The fire/candle burning out metaphor is common in my scene. I’m saddened to hear about Pavane and TaiRong attempting to go through it all and fight hard after so many hours of dedication to TF2, but burning out or feeling helpless as so many others have done around me. I’m glad TaiRong asked Fl0w3r and Pine to follow him at the right time, and as such found more success in OW than they did TF2. It took me some time to accept it, but now I can say I think they made the right choice, as did so many others I saw succeed - Seagull, Muma, Mangachu. SDB, Knoxxx, Zebbosai. Some of the many old names and old faces that TF2 players remember fondly; that TF2 players miss.

I get rebuttals of how TF2 was marketed as a casual game a lot. I know this. It was one of the reasons why matchmaking was met with so much pushback when new devs finally were allowed to implement it. To some extent, I’m inclined to agree. My favourite shit to deal with has to be when I see comments that say that the competitive TF2 pros are ruining the game. That they should just leave and stop pushing competitive on a casual game.

Well...they did. 

After years of watching Valve to push the community’s 6v6, having to grow up and stop being a salt factory about my brothers and sisters going to OW instead, being paid for and thanked sincerely for my involvement in OW from Blizzard, never touching Valve’s Matchmaking since the first launch week until they adjust it again, and now overseeing what might be the most important piece of TF2 narrative in the form of 1 and a half years of filming - I’m okay with them leaving.

They left, because TF2 itself, as well as the majority of TF2′s playerbase, was insistent on TF2 being a casual game. Therefore, people who wanted more than that finally decided “alright, it’s going to stay a casual game” - and found a competitive game instead. Gameplay opinions, criticized business tactics, and other semantics aside - they found a game that did not limit itself to insisting on being a casual game, but wanted to also be called a competitive game.  

I am happy for TaiRong’s success and determination. I understand and sympathize with TaiRong’s anger and his frustration. I am happy he left TF2 if he was no longer happy with it. I can objectively say as a bigger TF2 fan that OW is treating him better so far. How long that will last, I don’t know, but I can 100% say it’s treated him better than AsiaFortress from his tweets and from what I know. Of course I’m sad that TF2 was not enough for him; I understand that his and many other’s anger is more at Valve than TF2 itself. I understand the other side of the story that disagree with that sentiment and will point out Valve’s decisions as wiser.

But that’s okay. I’m glad they left if they weren’t happy here. I’m glad they’re happier where they are.

I’m sure similar fandoms experience this: I see not just former pros, but content creators, artists, Youtubers, talking about how they fear returning to TF2 for anything. The reasons sometimes are similar: they’re afraid of angry TF2 fans who labelled them traitors. They’re afraid of falling back into the comfort TF2 will offer them rather than go out of their comfort zone to try new things for themselves. They’re afraid that they’ll fall back into a depressive state because they were either in a bad state when they ventured into TF2, or they simply will always want more than TF2 was or will be able to offer.

Let them leave then. They are not yours to keep. They were not meant to stay. Their relationship with TF2 was not as fond as you thought it was - who was wrong in that relationship is up to you. Their anger is not because they forgot their roots. Their anger iis not against the community. Some of their closest friends and teammates are all probably from the same roots. 

We did not forget their roots. They did not forget their roots. Their anger was because they couldn’t find what they wanted - so they found it elsewhere. And that’s okay.

*Pavane turned out to be Creep.

[soxonconcrete]

Me in voice comms tryna get my team onna point

[uberchain]

so like. why are people still stanning fuel after their awful performance and their equally awful players (save for mickie who like everybody loves)?

Because Dallas Fuel, like it or not, was born out of what people consider one of the most important teams in Overwatch esports history: Team EnVyUs.

I’m not qualified enough to talk about OW esports. I just watch. But while there’s more factors in terms of mechanical skill and meta to what made EnVyUs a force to be reckoned with in the early days of OW esports - a scene that struggled to find any competition in Europe and where the MSI incident caused a crackdown on NA events - we’re gonna talk about Mickie because yes I’m very biased towards Mickie more than I am of Fuel’s current state of affairs. 

But when you consider Mickie, I feel like you need to also, despite how Fuel are, consider Fuel’s history as one of the most well-known teams in OW esports’ legacy, and what their impact was as EnVyUs. 

It started at the OW World Cup 2016, when an equally as important guy from Team Germany named InternetHulk noticed a player from the World Cup fan favourites: Team Thailand.

Arguably, it started before that as EnVyUs. But this is in context of with Mickie.

So, most people who watched OWWC16 might remember that every time Team Thailand were on the camera they went full goofball mode, dabs every now and then and funny faces everywhere else. They did not make it to playoffs but people remembered them for their entertainment on-screen, as well as even when they lost, how their captain recommended them to keep smiling no matter what - which is a big part of Thai “cool heart” attitude in Thai culture. This is attractive to non-Thai audiences because of how refreshing it is in a “serious” environment, despite how seriously the Thai team actually commits.

Fast forward to a while later as Team EnVyUs is adopted by an NA team and the “yoooo are eu teams allowed to be called na thonkingface” vlogs and blogs come into full play. They’re about to compete in APEX in Korea, arguably the best place to play OW LAN events to improve faster due to the dry spells everywhere else. EnVyUs aren’t used to it, and there’s a few things that are going amiss. Just as you think it couldn’t get worse, suddenly Talespin is announced to have gone “yeah I’m out, also fuck you taimou”, and EnVyUs is in need of a DPS player. 

So Hulk, who had approached Mickie and Oputo around the World Cup after their elimination, finally hits up Mickie like “yo, we need a sub”. Enter Mickie for the sub role on Flex while Hulk shifts to support and Harry to DPS. People doubted that the team would manage to beat French powerhouses Rogue, also a very important team in OW history, and get owned because of Mickie only having three days to practice with EnVyUs. Mickie fucking slammed it. 

People were not expecting a foreign team that had been struggling previous compared to an established foreign team like Rogue to show up at APEX and slam not only Rogue but a good chunk of the Korean teams used to playing high-level OW, let alone a substitute from Thailand who wasn’t as strong with his English at the time to rock Talespin’s missing spot who became a well-known D.Va comp player during that time. Come MLG Vegas, EnVyUs finally decides to sign Mickie the fuck on as a full-time player. 

EnVyUs were on top of the world. People enjoyed watching their interactions and team chemistry, they could feel the friendship between them. It helped that EnVyUs already had eyes on them and personalities such as Taimou, Hulk, and Harry, but in terms of Mickie, Mickie was popular because his personality was like beams of sunshine and he was always clowning around, people fucking loved him. 

On the surface, it was like an always-grinning shonen protagonist in an anime about first-person shooter esports who came into this team that was downfallen about so many things and turned it right away - even though Mickie has already been involved in a very serious esports history before Overwatch.

After proving themselves in APEX and proving each of their individual worth as players from Chipshajen to Cocco, a few things happened. I can’t remember all of them since around this time, I stopped keeping up as much until Contenders S1, WC2017 and OWL S1, but there are some major things I remember most. Dive meta, after saving OW from quad-tank meta being boring watch, suddenly became the meta boring to watch. KyKy joined to coach, while Hulk left wanting to pursue coaching in League of Legends. Seagull and Effect joined, the team became even more noticeable in their stardom power. 

And then Hulk, God rest his positive soul. Hulk made EnVyUs what it was, made Mickie the star he shines brightly as even to this day. Hulk left too early.

Casters, players, fans and viewers, even Blizzard staff from all around the world involved in OW esports, remembered and respected Hulk in every way they could after his passing, including making the Dennis Hawelka Award, of which is given out after every OWL season to “the player that we deem to have had the most positive impact on the community”. Hulk was deemed a cornerstone of the competitive OW community by many people, an important figure who really wanted to see OW esports thrive and live as it should. Hulk helped build Overwatch as an esport. 

Fast-forward to now. Contenders in comparison to APEX hit EnVyUs hard. Now Dallas Fuel struggles in aspects even beyond their gameplay. Their chemistry seems off, their performance is weak, and PR-wise, a chunk of their players are toxic and downright unapologetic, as such act out as though there’s no regard to anybody but themselves. Due to this, people turn to players like Mickie and Effect and ignore the other players (despite how yes, guaranteed those two has probably said or done some dumb shit at some point too). Others turn away, because to them EnVyUs is not what it was, and EnVyUs is not there anymore. Even Outlaws have gone form being the cool kids that nobody expected to do well, to superceding Fuel as the cool kids that are actually doing well.

It might be a very “well, grandpa, I hate to tell you this but you ain’t as big and important now as you were back then” thing, where people don’t want to idolize those from the past because of their mistakes in the present. But if you’re going to ask me why people want to see Fuel succeed, it’s because they’ve always wanted to - and have been used to - seeing Fuel in their previous life succeed. You will find articles upon articles if you search around upon EnVyUs’ struggles, their rise, their fall, their rise again, and their history. 

For Mickie stans, that also meant seeing Mickie not only succeed, but smile not just out of of the way of the cool heart, but because he was happy that he won with - despite what we fans think of his teammates when they do stupid shit or do a big oops during gameplay - a group of people he not only fights with, but people that have been some of his closest friends.

Additionally: here is a 40-minute Thai feature (English-subbed) detailing how while on the surface Mickie is the class clown, underneath he’s very much true to the shonen anime protagonist analogy with a serious, no-nonsense attitude towards competition.

[uberchain]

Speaking of dallas fuel how do you feel about xqc's suspension?

I think it was fair. There’s some people who think the extent of his comment should not have warranted the magnitude of the consequence (which was a Stage 1 ban + $2000 fine). The issue is he was in violation of the Code of Conduct, and he’s too used to saying whatever he wants with no consequences and a large fanbase backing him up. I disagreed with what he said, I think it’s good that there were punishments for it, I disagree with everybody saying that the world’s becoming way too social justice warrior/politically correct about it. It was a rude ass thing to say, it was morally not cool, and even if it was a light, accidental homophobic comment, it was still fairly homophobic.

That being said - if you exclude how it does hurt his reputation as a professional player - it’s literally a slap on the wrist. I read that $2000 was like 4% of what he makes from either OWL and/or streaming. Dallas Fuel’s statement helps because it shows they’d like to offer him some PR training or help, but dude is a stream player more than a team player at this point. OWL is a big deal, and people need to treat it like that. They have poured stupid amounts of money into making sure this succeeds and so you can’t get away with saying shit without using a brain.

Also Fuel’s statement was nice but if you’re looking from it from a “yeah he fucked up soz rule” it’s bullshit??? It contained no actual apology for what a representative of their team did wrong, and sort of coddled their player rather than reprimanded him even though supposedly (?) xQc was told that he was suspended from his own Twitch chat rather than the team? I agree with how they’re helping their players but at least ALSO apologize??? I imagine they think they don’t need to since he already did, but you kind of have to if people are making a big deal about it. It makes the team look like they’re deflecting rather than supporting. 

Also in regards to people saying to stop getting offended on behalf of Muma due to the two apologizing on Twitter, I think they need to re-assess. Simply because Muma said “it was fine” doesn’t necessarily mean what xQc said wasn’t wrong. It still is offensive, it still makes him look bad, and it makes the organizations who he is representing look bad. Therefore, from a business perspective and a moral perspective, it’s not right at all. Again, OWL is a big deal, and they need to treat it like that. I know some people are concerned about censorship - this is not one of those times where that applies. He said something stupid, he has to pay the consequences for it. As will other players.

As an aside, I’m happy people feel represented by Muma playing, where he stated he’s happy people are encouraged to feel comfortable with themselves and inspired by how he’s made it. I’m bothered by how many people support him only because of his sexuality alone when he clearly stated he did not what to be defined by his sexuality alone. The latter reduces people down to a token.* I’m glad Muma is being supported by so many people during this fiasco though, including his own team and the organization. Organization support for their players is really important to see not just for the players (minority or majority, but it’s very important for the former), but for the fans as well as the viewers.

*In retrospect, xQc singling out Muma by making that comment is also a problem with this from the opposite side. Don’t say stupid shit to somebody just because of their sexuality. 

tl;dr: it was justified, xqc made homophobic comment and punished that’s good, slap on the wrist in the bigger picture that’s bad, owl is serious business that’s a mixed bag of things, dallas fuel will help him that’s good, dallas fuel didn’t apologize though that’s bad, muma and LGBT+ players being supported that’s good, muma tokenized spoken for on behalf of others or idolized/targeted for being gay that’s bad, homophobia and general stupid ass shit being punished that’s good

EDIT: okay apparently the situation has escalated and xQc is self-destructing on his stream uhhhh

EDIT 2: apparently dude just blew the fuck up there was hair-cutting involved and cheerios and everything, I have no idea what happens from here

[uberchain]

any tips for not getting discouraged in competitive overwatch when your teammates are being assholes? i really enjoy playing as lucio and i just got off of a match where 3 other guys made me feel like i might actually be the worst support ever lol, even though i usually think i do pretty well

Never solo queue.

Never solo queue.

Never listen to assholes.

If you must listen to assholes, assess anything they said that wasn’t just along the lines if “ur bad/u suck donkey dick”. If you feel like they might have a point, take the criticism into consideration or reject it because you feel like you might know better as a Support class (and usually Supports get abandoned a lot unless you’re hyperaggressive, which Lucios can do a lot; don’t overextend unless your team’s great) - but usually it’s best just to queue up with some friends, teammates or some people you might know and ask for sincere, honest and maybe blunt-but-not-asshole feedback (see: Rules 1, 2, & 3). Learn what you could do better from either guides or people that are cool about you learning things. 

Never solo queue.