MyTeamFortress.de
: Why did you found a project like the „ETF2L“ what kind of incentive, did you have?
Florian 'dAyKiLLeR'Jansen: Since its release TF2 has been missing a well-structured league. Only
ladders and a few cups, which didn't satisfy the team resources in the
european TF2 scene by far, be it missing promotion or proper support.
The way I see it the potential of the game is huge and that's why I
first started planning in November and I was very lucky to meet such an
experienced webdesigner with ST8. Through him the project „ETF2L“ got
really set-up nicely and we could launch with great resonance in
December.
MyTeamFortress.de : What kind of obstacles did you meet at the beginning and who supported you planning this project?
dAyKiLLeR: The biggest „problems“, if you can call them that, were the rules,
after all. It was hard to find the means to satisfy everyone, because
of the still ongoing discussion concerning classlimits and crits. We
believe, however, that our way of handling the matter, the removal of
crits and the introduction of classlimits, is important in order to
ensure exciting and varied matches. Who even likes watching
übercharge-combos battling it out time and again, anyway? As of now we
cannot claim any „real“ partners, our only and our biggest partner is
the community; but because of the good publicity the ETF2L has recieved
until now, we hope to expect changes in this department as well.
MyTeamFortress.de : It is somewhat unorthodox to determine the rule by a democratic
election. What do you think are the advantages and the dangers of such
a procedure, which was open to anyone and maybe to some who could not
fathom the consequences of their vote?
dAyKiLLeR:The decision to let all important rules be decided by a public vote was
very important to us. We wanted to provide the community with a means
of voicing their opinion for every single user. There were of course
people opposed to this system, after all 50 Counter-Strike players
could very well vote and falsify the result. Today, some weeks after
the votes came to an end, we can say with all due certainity that the
results have found an echo in the the greater part of the community. We
hope other well-known leagues are going to adopt our set of rules and
are going to start playing without crits, a medic limit of 1 and a
classlimit of 2 in the future.
MyTeamFortress.de: The reactions have been nothing but positiv so far, are there any
critical voices and some sort of competition amongst the different
leagues? SGL/ESL/Clanbase e.g.? To what extent can different
perceptions of the game endanger the community?
dAyKiLLeR:Of course critical voices are always there, everyone have their own
opinion, that's why we're always open to constructive criticism and
take it seriously. But all in all we're happy that almost all
participants of the first season are happy with our league. Even if the
hardest part, a flawless procedure of the 1st season still awaits.
Personally, I don't view the other leagues as competition, every one of
them follows their own philosopy and the ESL as well as the Clanbase
traditionally limit themselves to ladders and cups, which do not
produce any competition for our kind of „weekly Playday league“ at all.
It is however vexing that in my opinion people insist on their own set
of rules, which splits the community more or less in two. This cannot
be the intention of a league which wants to promote a game through
competition.
MyTeamFortress.de: What are your goals for this project? To what extent can prize money or other similiar stuff be expected?
dAyKiLLeR:We still have a lot of goals und some ideas, which haven't been
realized as of yet. In the coming weeks there are going to be some
innovations for sure and of course we've already planned ahead for the
time after the 1st season. Most important right now, however, is the
procedure of the 1st season which will pose as a base for the future of
the ETF2L. Of course we're trying to get possible partners in order to
supply the participating teams withprizes int he time to come. Sadly,
as many know, this isn't exactly the easiest endeavour, which is why
we're always open to queries concerning this matter. As of now, all
teams seem to be motivated enough to reach a good placing.
