I have had the collection since March 2010 but only got around to online gaming last week since I am always swamped with work. I am still exploring, getting blasted to smithereens at every turn whilst I get a hang of the pace but I am loving it so far!!

This spells lazy to me. It’s all available on the http://www.TF2.co.za 🙂

But I think the Divisions thing would be really great, having 3 Divisions. Then each team goes where he fits in and well if that team puts in the effort, he can win the Division, be nummer 1 and work on doing even better to be upgraded to the next division. Like Turkish have said: “Remember that people will commit to something that they deem worth their time and effort”.

Also this DoGaming cup will do TF2SA really good.

And I didn’t just do it and left it. By the end of tonight I will be done with a 3rd new team. And this would not have happend this quick if there wern’t any guidance. Also not just putting together random ppl for the sake of getting more teams in TF2, making sure there are ppl in the team that can lead and knows what to do to improve as a team.

With this being said, I agreed with the fact that we need to advertise more. What I did was go on pub severs and spam that if you are interested in joing a clan and don’t know where to start, join the steam group.

We just all need to work together.

Saying that people are not committed and/or lazy is not entirely accurate. Remember that people will commit to something that they deem worth their time and effort. One cannot merely think that because you have a passion for something and are putting a massive effort in to pursuing that passion that others will follow suit. Not everyone has the same priorities. Similarly, different people will play the game for different reason. That being said, TF2CSA has done a great job at catering for the needs and wants of the so called top level teams like Sever, Eq, etc. These teams are after competition (mostly, but I am speaking under correction), and that is what they are being given.

The question that we need to ask ourselves is why are more people not committing to the competitive side of the game? It’s not as simple as saying they are lazy and want to be spoon fed. How are we going to change their attitudes and get them to see TF2 as something worth their time and effort?

Now this is where I might be in danger of getting flamed, but so be it. I didn’t come back to this game because of the competitions or because of the massive effort that razor and co put into the game and the community (although it is something I have immense respect for). I came back to spend time with my friends. The people in CM are scattered throughout the country and TF2 is an excellent way to spend time with them. Naturally, I could accomplish this by just playing on pub servers with people. But that’s not the entire picture. I derive a great sense of accomplishment by going through the journey of growth and advancement WITH MY FRIENDS – while at the same time having fun with them. And that is exactly what competitive TF2 offers me. Sure, other things offer the same. But at this point in time, TF2 serves me/us best. I can achieve the above my simply playing games, whether they are games in a competition or if they are friendly scrims. It really doesn’t make a difference to me.

My point is that there is a massive knowledge gap. Most of the things mentioned above are symptoms, not causes. People don’t commit to things for a reason. We need to go out and find what that reason is, and take the proper action/s to address what we have found. Remember this spans all types of TF2 plays, from causal pubbers, to pub heroes, to semi-competitive players, and players who only play in pick-ups and scrims/comps/clannies.

In closing, I think we need to continuously ask ourselves what we can do differently to attract more people to the competitive side of things, instead of trying to convince them to play. If that means breaking international norms then we will have to address that issue as and when it arises.

Sorry for double post. 🙂

1. On clans breaking up, lots of people refuse to work on their team. They simply lose their 1st clan game and go “Why are we getting steamrolled, we are pr0 players”. Then they rage and make a new clan, it goes on like this over and over till they give up and blame the other people or TF2. TF2 is all about teamwork and strats, basically you can have a team with average skill but with insane teamwork, who are comfortable with their teammates, trust them and know what each and every one of them would do in a specific situation. Then you get a team of players with the top skill in SA, 1vs1 they can’t be touched. But they don’t have the bond the other team has, then the average team beat them just coz they can work together as a team much better than the other team.

So it has been said so many times, “Never give up”, “Practice makes perfect”. When you get home chill on mumble with your buddies, get that comfortable vibe going, this will make things alot easier. See the good in losing, when you lose you can watch the demo as a team, look for your mistakes and improve on them, the team that won or steamrolled you won’t be able to improve on their mistakes, coz they didn’t really make any. This means the losing team actually gains alot more from that game than the winning team. The losing team must just have the “WANT” to improve. Anyone can be the best, the WILL must just be there.

2. Alot of gamers are lazy, they want things to be easy, hence the lack of proper team management in some clans. It’s really not that hard at all. Planning is the key, ask your team. “AweH can you play this coming Wednesday?” If it’s a yes, ask the other clans, “AweH, wanne play Wednesday?” till you get a yes and then do it. Yes things happen, for example like a random traffic jam (for you Space Bud-E) and then you just use a sub, remember scrimmage games are just practice, the scores doesn’t matter at all. Yes now you don’t have your full team, but there are still tons of other things you can work on or practice.

So you grow up and want to play games. Back in the day it was Army, now it’s virtual army. 🙂 So you play something that is close to that like COD or CSS. Don’t get me wrong I like both those games, but in COD you can have “hacking aim” and take out 3 or 4 of the other team every time and win the game. In TF2 it’s much more strategic, because it is based on capture points and respawning, not just DM and kills. Yes the other 2 games also require teamwork, but in TF2 it is much more important than aim. People tend to go for the games that are already big, don’t want to “do the work”. Some don’t play TF2 coz it looks like a comic ect. Whatever the reason, morale of the story is we gonna have to work together to proof to the rest of SA-Gaming that TF2 is not a joke or a game just for fun and that it actually is a game that you can play competitively. We need to get TF2 out there, get other games to notice it. One guy sees it and goes “Wow, dude did you check TF2, looks like some decent fun, let’s try it out, I also want to do those sexy midairs” 🙂

Lola that what you were looking for? 🙂

So yea, nice interview Lola. Keep up the good work!