It’s been an eventful year. And as I ready myself for another new years celebration, one of the many topics on my head is that of TF2. In all haste, I drafted up an idea and pasted it to a small collection of different souls of the game. I asked them to rank their most memorable TF2 moments of 2010, from 1 (best) to 5. Surprisingly enough, most of them even replied on a new years afternoon.
What was the most important TF2 event of 2010?
Lan: iSeries
Lan: Summer Assembly
coverage: VanillaTF2
coverage: TF2tv
coverage: MGE
Game: The opening of the Mann Co store
Game: The destablishment of a 1 team domination
Other
by Torden DrLeon (Fakkelbrigade)
1 - The change of power in the European top scene, with dignitas stepping down from the throne of tf2, for other teams to fight for it
2 - Broders rise to success and quick downfall, with the broder movie as their legacy
3 - VanillaTF2
4- Double heavy
5- Having 0 kills and 14 deaths after 15 minutes versus TCM in our last match this year
Byte (TCM)
1 - How TCM did not fold – Not many know behind the scenes of TCM-Gaming TF2 team, but having the lack of players (sometimes up to only 3/4 active) made it difficult to stay united! However we’ve managed the 4 months haul and that to me is the best achievement thus so far!
2 - i40! – The amount of players, community members and friends that came to i-series made it the best i-series for me so far. The final was epic, the hype and atmosphere was epic and it clearly sht all over COD,CSS and SC2 =)
3 - Fakkelbirgade! – These guys have come round the block and improved in this season without a shadow of doubt, coming up with amazing results against top teams. I’d of hoped they’d broke the barrier into the top 5, so I still have faith in these dutchies! (p.s. 4 - Summer Asemmbly – Worst tournament for TCM so far, not because of the event but because we had the best possible chance of winning and shtting all over the top teams with the current form we were in! We missed that opportunity so this to me is a sore part in year 2010 ¬_¬
5 - Being a Demoman – I miss playing demoman, after playing med for 2 seasons in the top bracket, all I’ve noticed is the majority of demomen using deathmatch ability over cleverness. We don’t get to see alot of ninja sticky spots or clever use of the stickies in the top flight. This makes me miss my class so much more! =)
i40: One of several successful lan events this year.
Dunc (Dignitas)
1 - i40 final
2 - Summer assembly
3 - Gonzo getting owned
4 - TCM looking like they might get good then, as usual, fucking something up and being awful again
5 - Need to think about
Gear (Blight)
1 - 2nd place on EMS. In my opinion the hugest achievement we did as a team. Beating TCM and Power were epic for me. Also my first money won online by playing a game. I like.
2 - My First Division 1 game. My internet connection was dead on that day and had to move my pc to my grandmother’s house :D Played with a 100 ping against FB. Result 3-3.
3 - Trading – Tough I’m bad at trading and have a humble backpack, I really was happy when Valve finally released it.
4 - TF2 Halloween event. I had so much fun playing on mann manor collecting the gifts (was banned from a public server after finding 3 gifts in a row :D) and the fighting the horseless headless horseman.
5 - My team joined The Last Resort – The first more popular organisation I joined in my time as a gamer.
Exfane (Fakkelbrigade)
1 - i40
2 - i39 (+ Vallone getting 2 kills on freight rofl)
3 - VanillaTF2.org
4 - Ddos
5 - FB green fold
Compton (Crack Clan, VanillaTF2)
1 - tf2mate As an enthusiastic professional web developer, the best way for me to serve the community is developing a web-based tool. In 2010, TF2mate hit a spot in me as an exciting project that’s actually helpful to many players out there. I released it intentionally early, and I expect to continue updating it and making it even more awesome. I’m grateful to everyone who uses it and especially those of you who give me valuable feedback, support and feature suggestions! That’s a way to contribute to the TF2 community as well, and anyone can participate. I can’t but smile when I see my Google Analytics hit 3000 visits per month, and that’s all thanks to you guys. 2 - Premier / new div1
I can’t think of a change in ETF2L that would have been as fitting as creating a separate first and premier division. Premier has even more potential than the old div1, and the new div1 games are just as interesting as the old div1. I hope this is a start of great things for ETF2L. Even the loudmouth whiners didn’t hurt their butts too bad, it seems.
3 - Vanillatf2
Even though I believe that there is always someone in the TF2 community to take the responsibility of releasing community-based coverage, you gotta give it to Torden and everyone else who participates in the project. Fantastic job, albeit the recent lack of quality articles has eaten up the value a bit.
4 - TF2TV
In failure, there’s always hope. I love what TF2TV is doing. I really do. But it’s probably the biggest loser in the Denial of Service catastrophy of 2010. I truly feel sorry for the guys who are making this incredible project and seeing it fail due to events that are out of its reach. You get the hype in the community about your new site, you get the casters, you get the VOD team, you start advertising the games, you get the people to tune in and when it’s show time – BAM – DoS, and the game is over before it begins. I really hope they will be able to rise again next year.
5 - Losing the core
Maybe it’s a result of series of experiences, maybe it’s called growing up. But the fact is, my interest in Team Fortress 2 is disappearing. During my time in Crack Clan, I was living the TF2 dream. I was in a clan where trust always went both ways. We were – and still are – friends. But unfortunately I also had to see it all fall down in a matter of weeks. We picked up our games again, started playing like normal, but something wasn’t there. There was always someone who was angry, or someone who was concentrating on why we were not being concentrated on the game, rather than being concentrated on the game. At a point, I just finally questioned myself: why am I trying hard to fit TF2 into my life when I’m not having fun? The answer was pretty obvious to me, and considering our clan folded rapidly, it seemed pretty clear to everyone else too despite all secrecy around it.
TF2Tv, one of several new coverage initiatives this year
Anakin (ESL league admin)
1 - Game updates with competitive changes: fixed weapon spreads, hit beeps
2 - More and more likely to move towards vanilla + medic unlocks format
3 - Dignitas and TCM being eliminated too quickly in last EMS season, compared to other seasons
4 - Too much hats/items are being added to the game
5 - Still not enough activity in ESL TF2
Reload (Blood is Good (div4)
1 - Starting our very first ETF2L season in S7 with Blood is Good, without practically any competitive experience, and seeing how much we’ve developed in 3 seasons. It’s been a great and fun year!
2 - The i40 final: Epsilon’s last push on Badlands with Byte and Dave’s commentary is the perfect example of how great TF2 is.
3 - Playing in the last European Pubbers vs Pros. I’ve had a lot of fun practicing with the fellow pubbers and eventually taking on some of Europe’s best players.
4 - The retard(s) who keep DDOS’ing servers, players and STV relays.
5 - Seeing TF2 slowly develop from a cartoon FPS game into a shooter with items and hats that provide set bonuses and attributes like stealing hp. Not to mention the looming update in which you can add attributes to the weapons yourself..
Admirable(K1ck/Yoyotech, Cadred TF2 coverage)
1 – The Mann Co. Store
Love it or hate it, Valve now have a financial justification to continue putting development resources in to our three year old game and the contributors even get a slice of the pie. Everyone’s a winner ^_^
2 - Power Gaming Win Assembly 2010
Did anyone actually see this coming? Moose has done an excellent job making the tough decisions and rejuvenating the Power roster in 2010, long may it continue!
3 - The trials and tribulations of TCM-Gaming
The first half of 2010 saw TCM-Gaming really dominating everything, online at least, giving a shining example of how to take the game to new levels with a professional attitude to playing and to winning. I would rate this period as more impressive than the Team Dignitas golden era, as the level of competition is higher than ever at the top. The second half of their year illustrates how tough it is to stay at the top of your game.
4 - Vanillatf2.org
An ingenious plan, hatched by fools. Who would have known it would be a pillar of the competitive Team Fortress 2 scene?
5 - The Content Explosion
We have seen a massive increase in the level of casting and commentary content; the likes of eXtv, My Gaming Edge, harrygomm, ETF2L Radio and TF2 TV to name but a few. Awesome work, helping to promote the competitive scene and bridge the skill gap. And the frag movies? Gawd they keep getting better and better. Torn Productions productions make me jizz :E
A big thanks to all of those beautiful people for sharing. As for myself:
1 - Creating Broder. Getting a group of underestimated players to the top within weeks or months.
2 - The start of VanillaTF2 and TF2TV. For my own part, it’s tough work being in the spotlight. I’ve been claimed a sellout, a liar, a gossip whore and even threatened by lawsuit. TF2TV has had their service nuked by Internet terrorists. But despite all of that, both services fill an important role in information and entertainment, and gives a fair opportunity for voices to be heard and leagues to promote and inform about their games.
3 - ETF2L. There’s always things to criticise, but in my opinion we’ve still gotten the best admins in a long while. Respect.
4 – The increase of a CBA culture. CBA to play whatever games, CBA to get involved in the scene, CBA to learn new ways to play the game. We can hate on all externals all we want, but in the end it’s us, the players, that make or break the game. We’ve lost talented authors like JimmyBreeze and CommanderX to 15$ of yank news. The scene is worth more than that, we miss you, boys.
5 - Fucking up Broder. Playing TF2 just isn’t the same without those bastards.
I wish you all a happy new year!
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2010-12-31 by torden.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.