#comp ow

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.

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.

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

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.