Commemoration of the Early TF2 Era: EU 2007-11 w/ Byte interview

2011 Disaster

If the saying “TF2 is dead” is like the ebb and flow of a beach, disappearing and reappearing, long-reaching or short-lived at times, then 2011 was a tsunami that cast its large ominous shadow over the scene.

Initially, the year was promising. Assembly Winter 2011* was played in February, with Team Dignitas coming out on top against Epsilon and Power Gaming, befitting their reputation as LAN winners. This would be the Assembly right before the last one ever to host TF2 that summer.

The next month was a mix of somewhat good, and the worst. It introduced TF2 to MaXlan in Épinal. The attendance from the French teams made it nothing smaller than Insomnia’s. Two European favorites attended, where Button Bashers became the one finishing in front of their opponent Epsilon, thereby claiming their first LAN victory. On the online front, however, ETF2L announced its controversial “Cinnamon” unlock ruleset for Season 9 in March 3, 2011, which had been the toughest of the debates. After the everlasting “Vanilla” (none except the three Medic unlocks) ruleset, this was allowing several non-vanilla weapons to be utilized. To comprehend the psychology of the backlash, a look back at the history of unlocks could prove useful.

A majority of the first TF2 updates were “class updates”, introducing three new unlocks to each class. At the end of 2009, a new player would enter a game with vanilla weapons, plus three unlocks for each of these six classes: Scout, Pyro, Heavy, Medic, Sniper, and Spy. Two of the remaining classes waiting for their turns, Soldier and Demoman, would get their unlocks with the WAR! Update in December 2009, with a slight imbalance. Soldier would be the first class to receive a 4^th unlock: the Gunboats, one unlock more than all other classes. The end of the Engineer Update in July 2010, however, would be the beginning of community-created weapons being added to the game, without an exact count or seek for perfect balance. Whether it is as bad as it is made to sound here is another discussion, maybe for the NA competitive scene at the time, since they were used to allow unlocks. For EU however, it initially had no effect because of the ruleset that had been in place, but the unlocks were becoming yet another big gap between how the “pub” and competitive games were played. Still, it was such a taboo, barely challenged, and untested on such a scale.

The backlash was the worst that it could have been: many boycotted the season, including three of the top four teams from the last season. Teams, like Epsilon, were being divided into half; the players who want to play and support ETF2L (like F2, Shintaz); and the ones against it. Rosters became mixed up as a result, and teams were set back.

Season 9 sign ups closed in March 11. The boycotters turned their heads to ESL, which had already become less popular even then, when they announced their new 6v6 season with the vanilla ruleset.

In April 2011, i42 happened. Only FakkelBrigade (called “Team Thermaltake” now) and Team Infused (consisting of early top division players) were there as favorites. It became a custom for TF2 to skip the spring Insomnia in the following years, but after the previous year’s successful i39 in spring, this was disappointing news to the scene.

In May, Button Bashers announced they were no more. It was lack of motivation, and unmet expectations in terms of big LANs and events. TF2’s competitive scene was not yet resigned and settled with its size and reach at the time. TF2 itself was not an ancient game. Developers officially supporting the competitive scenes of their games was not common, hence there was nothing disappointing about Valve not promoting competitive TF2. Bringing TF2 to DreamHack LAN in Sweden was a collective dream of the community, rumored every now and then (was not going to happen until 2015). It was understandable for players to get demotivated if they had such hopes.

Also in May, BRINK came out, attracted some of the competitive TF2 players, and was regarded as the “TF2 killer”, five years before Overwatch. Just a month later, TF2 is made Free to Play, which was also received negatively by parts of the community, making them anxious because of the masses it brought, and the supposed disappearance of the “TF2 spirit.”

ETF2L Season 9 and ESL Season VII were played in such circumstances. Seven out of the ten signed-up Premier teams dropped out before the end of the ETF2L season, leaving only three: FakkelBrigade, TCM and k1ck. Also, the old favorite ESL’s top division was left with five out of ten initially signed-up teams.
In ESL, the underdogs k1ck won against SG-1 (Power Gaming) in the grand final, played during the same July evening as the EU grand final of CommFT’s highlander tournament. In ETF2L, FakkelBrigade and TCM matched, putting their hearts into it despite everything, in a grand final which would be regarded three years later as the game that saved European TF2.

Now let’s hear the story of the period from TCM’s captain, Byte.

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