Faint —

For both streaming and casting roles, it’s imperative that you can regularly be available during the week. This means that if you are only available for 1 or 2 nights a week, then it’s probably not much help to us. Most of the people who offer to help stream or cast for VanillaTV do not realise this. Nevertheless, if you feel that you can dedicate a bit of time to helping the community out, then read on!

Streamers

Streaming is obviously an important role within VTV. As we are currently lacking in this department, this is our main priority.

Ideally you’ll fit the following criteria:

• A working knowledge of Xsplit/other streaming software (not essential, but a bonus)
• Willing and able to stream a fair amount of nights – bear in mind a lot of games will start at 21:15 CEST, although nights where cups are involved can run earlier/later
• A suitable upload speed – around 2.5mbit is the minimum needed for a high quality stream
• A pc setup that can run TF2 comfortably on Max settings, or as close to as possible, no one wants to watch a minecraft version of TF2 being streamed!
• The ability to work well within a team

Casters

We are always on the lookout for talented and enthusiastic casters to join our team.  If you feel like having your voice reverberating through the internet, you should…

• Be willing and able to set aside a few nights to cast
• Have a decent quality microphone
• A good understanding of the game, noone wants to listen to someone who doesn’t understand what’s going on.
• Work well in a team

Floor Managers

Though this isn’t a huge priority at the moment, if we think that Trell deserves a break once in a while from doing my job, there may be room for another floor manager position. Floor Managers are the guys who co-ordinate everything during, and before casts to ensure the experience to the end user is as smooth.  Currently this involves:

• Liaising with the streamer and casters to make sure everyone is where they should be at the correct time
• Ensuring STV and Relays are up and running fine – This means hassling teams/players to get the right details early
• Making sure a VanillaTF2 post is done plenty of time prior to the game(s)
• Ensuring Steam Group announcements are made prior to the game(s)
• Making sure the Vanilla Bot has the correct !upcoming list, and announces to all channels with information about the game(s)

While we can’t promise you’ll be the next Mr-Wrangler-Airshot aka CUBE, for big events (such as i46) VanillaTV may be able to help provide funding for you to go and help with the coverage.

If you think you fit the criteria for any of these positions, please apply by contacting Byte, Trell or Comedian by email and on irc.

Byte: byte[at]vanillatv.org  Trell: contact[at]flashdesignwebsites.com  Comedian: lazar[at]vanillatv.org

Byte —

Tonight will be a debut match for both teams – having not played any matches yet in ETF2L, and also rumour has it (source: Animal) that CIDO have not played for a very long time. Find out what happens if CIDO lose – will they fold, or will they find the strength to recompose themselves for the rest of the season!

Cido

11

Naughty Badmen

ETF2L Season 12 Week 1 - Division 1 Match

(11 comments)

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TIME

• Wednesday May 16th
• 21:15 cest
• 15:15 edt (na)
• 05:15 est (aus)

CASTED BY

• VanillaTV Livestream
• VanillaTV Mumble

SOURCETV

• relay.vanillatv.org:27100

Who will win this match?

• Cido (62%, 32 Votes)
  
• Naughty Badmen (38%, 20 Votes)
  

Total Voters: 52

 Loading ...

MAPSSCORE

DEMO

VIDEO

cp_gullywash4-5

cp_badlands5-2

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---

Join Byte & Gubbins for the cast with Comedian on the stream at 21:15, in what should be an exciting game to watch with the aid of commentary and finding out what went wrong for CrackClan and why this supposedly was their last game together before the fold reform!

Beta — I am sure you all know your alphabet by now but for those who don’t we are here to help!

In an aid to help have some steady content on VanillaTV and to help the community arrange games, we are pleased to introduce ABC Tuesday Cast.

So what is an ABC cast?  Well, this will be a regular weekly cast featuring AcidReniX & Beta with Comedian providing the streaming.  For the Tuesday…well if you haven’t guessed already, this feature will be every Tuesday.

So how does this help the community?  We continually experience issues with games arranged late and VTV being unable to provide a cast or stream.  By scheduling your games on a Tuesday and informing VTV, we will be able to provide high level commentary and streaming to the masses.

Same old stuff?  In an effort to bring the games to the masses, we will be willing to cast and stream a wide range of division games, across multiple competitions in an aid to help kill your boredom.

So what are you waiting for?  Get scheduling now and help us help you! We are not psychics, please make sure you schedule early and inform a member of the VTV staff.

]]> http://www.vanillatf2.org/2012/05/abc-tuesday/feed/ 69 http://www.vanillatf2.org/2012/05/vanillatv-insight-tviq-highlander-sniper/ http://www.vanillatf2.org/2012/05/vanillatv-insight-tviq-highlander-sniper/#comments Tue, 15 May 2012 11:50:15 +0000 cube http://www.vanillatf2.org/?p=27284 CUBE — Apologies lately for the lack of content (other than the abundance of i45 coverage). I’m right in the middle of my university exams which is a good excuse I promise! Frag Movies of the Month March IS in the works but in the mean time enjoy SNSD vs Colony from the POV of TviQ.

Upvotes please!

MP3:  http://adamfindlay.co.uk/pirateradio/episode20.zip

CommanderX - We’ve been away for a few weeks but we’ve returned for the special event of Greg’s birthday. Kaidus will be joining me as usual alongside the birthday boy himself, feast your eyes on his not quite cookye like scouting in celebration of his aging. We’ll look at all the matches, cup finals etc that we have missed going all the way back to that incredible TCM vs 2strong game up to the more recent less spectacular CrackClan vs Infsued. We will also be going around the rumour mill sifting through the garbage to find the real gossip including all team transfers from fan favourites Autobots to prem giants Epsilon. Details of when and where are below, don’t miss out.

Same time as always 23:00CET

Stream - Twitch TV
Mumble - VanillaTV
IRC - #PirateRadio @ quakenet
Previous Episodes - YouTube
ETF2L 

Lolita — 16Bit TF bring’s South Africa the Gamers United Cup this weekend. Following our usual one night trend this cup will take place on 13 May at 18:00 (GMT+2).

We will be giving away some DotA 2 beta keys, courtesy of Gamers United to our winners. Similar to the Face-Off competition we had last year, we have seeded our teams into a Pro and Novice bracket and have incorporated different formats into this cup, including single elimination, round robin and best of three. To check out all the details on this cup’s format and the time schedule, go to this link.

We are pleased to see some old and new teams enter including xTc|Severe, a veteran team recently acquired by South Africa’s oldest MGO Xperts@Total.Chaos.

New maps to the pool this time round include cp_croissant_b7, cp_bazillion_rc5 and cp_mainline_rc6. We’d like to invite every one to come listen in to the Pro Bracket finals.

Shoutcasting and streaming for Pro bracket finals

Hosts: Lazar ‘Comedian’ Jovic from VanillaTF2 and Rhys ‘Greaver’ Hudson from GreaverTV

Tune into VanillaTF2’s Mumble Server for the shoutcasting

Address: 193.169.68.156

Port: 64738

To watch the match with the shoutcasting, tune to live stream here

Comedian —

Anyhow, regarding the feedback we are looking for, we have several specific points that we are looking for your opinions about which are listed below. We are looking for both things you liked and didn’t like, but in the case you did not like something, we are only looking for constructive criticism, so please try to frame your feedback in a nice way. There is a difference between giving feedback and just being plain offensive, and we hope that you will not go past this limit.
 

1. The Grand Finals – As we cannot influence the match itself (we hope), we are looking for feedback on everything around it, specifically; the introduction of the players and casters on-stage, the between map interview with elem-v, the way the cheerfuls were presented and distributed, the camerawork in-game by myself, and anything else we missed.
2. The post-processed and edited Youtube content such as the intro video, interviews, spitfire rounds, and 1v1 interviews (these are to be released!). What Did you like, what did you think could have been done better, and what is something that you would like to see at the next event?
3. Scheduling – how easy did you find it to see who/what was getting casted and find information in general?
4. Rebroadcast – We ran a rebroadcast of the day’s events during the night, so for those of you that tuned in, what did you think about it? could we have improved it, or just do it the same way?
5. The saturday night cp_toxic mix community cast – Should we have done it? Its not professional but it shows lan atmosphere and was greatly enjoyed by all people in the casting room. I do not know how it was enjoyed by the people at home, and if it is something we would want to repeat.
6. And finally, Casting – Please limit yourself to giving feedback on Pledge, CUBE and myself regarding casting done at lan. For myself, i also appreciate feedback on camera positioning and movement.

Hopefully, we will be able to gain some great feedback from this post, and improve, what was in my eyes the best coverage any TF2 event has had, to even greater standards.

Faint —After last night’s decisive victory over  Crack Clan, Team Infused look to secure a place in the Grand Final of Angel’s Cup, where the winner of tonight’s game will face  Epsilon eSports. With €750 on the line for the winner of the grand final though, Crack Clan aren’t likely to give this one up without a fight.

The odds seemed to be stacked against them following a crushing defeat last night against the very same team, but as Crack Clan seem to perform better when they are the underdogs, this could be a good one…

On VanillaTV’s Open Mic tonight,  Greg will be joined by the one and only  Poop, with Comedian on the stream – fresh from a relaxing casting session at i45 ;)

All of the interesting stuff starts at 21:15 CET. Don’t be late!

Team Infused dunc, numlocked, flisko, Mike, Cookye, JoeyC

20

Crack Clan Royze, Retshock, Matnun, Pescanova, Bash, Longas

Esports Heaven Angels Cup LB Final

(7 comments)

---

TIME

• Thursday May 10th
• 21:15 cest
• 15:15 edt (na)
• 05:15 est (aus)

CASTED BY

• VanillaTV Livestream
• VanillaTV Mumble

SOURCETV

• 145.92.203.100:27100

Who will win this match?

• Team Infused (70%, 31 Votes)
  
• Crack Clan (30%, 16 Votes)
  

Total Voters: 44

 Loading ...

MAPSSCORE

DEMO

VIDEO

cp_badlands6-3

cp_gullywash5-0

cp_snakewater

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Califax —

Time for interview #4! Read on and post below who you think it is!

Tell us, who is your father, who is your mother? 

My father’s name is Avidan and he is a lawyer, my mother’s name is Tamar and she was also a lawyer, but decided to change her profession to air stewardess, and they are still happily married. I also have one older brother who is in the army at the moment.

Where were you born? Where is your home?

I was born in Tel Aviv in 1994, and I still live there now with my parents. They are fine with my gaming, however they would rather have me focusing more on my studies or play some real sport instead of eSports of course.

What do you do when you’re not gaming?

I like to play basketball and football. I also like watching sports on TV and hanging out with friends.

What has your gaming-life looked like so far, outside of TF2?

Counter Strike is the first game I have ever played when I was 12 years old. Today I’m playing 3 games apart from TF2: Call of Duty 4, Counter-Strike Source and League of Legends. I also played CS:S competitively before I got into TF2, but to be honest, I was pretty bad at it :P.

Tell us a bit about your TF2 career?

I started playing TF2 from the beta, but only on public servers in the beginning. I got into 6v6 in the 4th season of ETF2L in division 3. I really enjoyed to play with my first team and we kept progressing every season. In our 2nd season together we played in div2 and in our 3rd season we were already in div1, but then our demoman left us and we dropped. I love my current team and I think we are playing very well together and having a lot of fun, and to me that is more important than anything.

If you could include yourself in your personal all-time favorite line-up, who would be your teammates?

Stefan: his movement is just too good.
Jh: best game sense ever.
kyynel: will survive in almost every difficult situation.
Darn: playing so well as a roamer.
Retsh0ck: best dodging and game sense in TF2.

Where do you see yourself in 5 years, in life and gaming?

In 5 years I see myself studying at university, but I don’t know what exactly as I haven’t really thought about it yet. I don’t think I will be playing eSports games in 5 years because I will be in the army and obviously I won’t be able to play TF2 from there.

And lastly, can you tell us something no one in the TF2 community knows about you?

My brother played with me in my first TF2 clan.

I want to thank the interviewee for answering the question, and wish him the best of luck with all his future endeavours. Look forward to my next interview to find out if you guessed correctly who it actually was!

Skyride —

Good – TF2 Community
These days it almost goes without saying, but our community is truly a thing to behold. Not so much the troll-infested online conglomerate of DM-obsessed teens that seem to make up a sizable portion of ETF2L these days, but the LAN attending regulars and newcomers. While winning an MGE duel online may result in a flood of Cyrillic characters, at LAN it’s very likely to earn you a free beer and a good laugh. Whether it be Greg’s overly complex drinking games, Tapley’s infamous jungle juice, or a room of 2 dozen drunks plus Comedian casting another dozen people playing a new custom map at 2am, it’s impossible to not have a great time.

The community photo is truly the epitome of how this community works. The fact that nearly a hundred loosely organised gamers can come together at a specific time with only a few hours notice for something seemingly trivial just goes to show what a tight-knit bunch we really are.

Bad – Grand Final
As painful as it is to point out, we simply had a finals with scores and teams that could have been predicted a month in advance. This was Infused’s tournament to take and they did it half asleep while slumped back at a 45 degree angle. Aside from a single brilliant map earlier in the tournament from our inevitable second place winners, no one really managed to make the infamous brits (and a fin) break a sweat all weekend. Greg spent the entire event playing demo and numlocked simply took the finals as opportunity to practice shooting at his feet.

Despite Byte and Pledge’s best attempts, it’s hard to get a crowd excited about a game with such an obvious outcome that many in the community took it as an opportunity to catch up on some sleep. As someone who’s attended every spring and summer i-series event since i39, I can honestly say this was definitely the most disappointing TF2 final I’ve ever seen.

This fight is actually less one-sided than the i45 TF2 Final

Good – Elemental Violence
Despite being severely out-classed in the final, EV took it like champs, gave it 110% and went for it. They went into that final fully intending to give it their best in the face of near-certain defeat, aiming for a win and nothing less. WAR has said both on and offline that he would have preferred to be 5-0′d twice in a row by an on-class Infused instead of a closer game against a group of off-class prem players.

That aside, they played terrifically throughout the whole tournament and provided an extremely exciting underdog to watch. If you haven’t already seen it, the lower bracket final between Zumba and Elem.V was probably the best game of the weekend and the vods are well worth a watch despite the outcome being known. Many have stated that it was the “real” finals of the event, and as someone who was stood in the casting booth watching the action live, I can’t say I disagree.

Bad – Anal Prolapse
Unfortunately due to the infamously flaky piece of hardware that is the Razer Deathadder, we may have had a few more interesting games in the later stages of the tournament stolen from us. Anal Prolapse (or “AP” as they were euphemistically referred to by our casters over at VTV) Medic Si unfortunately developed some serious USB issues on his machine that resulted in him having to play all of his Saturday matches with a laptop touchpad and keyboard. As true as the anecdote “A good tradesman never blames his tools” may be, it’s certainly hard to knock in nails with a fork.

Along with being prematurely knocked down to the loser’s bracket due to their demoman Hildreth being unfamiliar with the complex intricacies of setting an alarm clock, it’s a shame to see such a promising team of upcoming players under-perform by such a wide margin for reasons that were mostly out of their control.

A PHD in time science is required to operate one of these. Basic use is also included as a module on our basket weaving post-grad program.

Good – VanillaTV’s Casting
While it may appear to be a conflict of interest both personally and due to the site on which you are reading this article, I can assure you it is not. The casting rotation of Pledge, Comedian, Byte and Cube did an incredible job this weekend. As someone who self-admittedly doesn’t watch a great deal of TF2 casts, it’s amazing to see the difference a year can make. Every game was broadcast with a quality and stamina I would never have thought possible only 12 months ago. I think a special shoutout is owed to Comedian who spent a large portion of the weekend tanking through the ills of bad blood sugar levels, but also invested a large amount of his own money into all of the great equipment you saw lining the edges of the webcam.

I personally feel that if this starts to become the standard for every major LAN event, we could very well see this game given a second chance in the world of major esports.

Bad – Seating
Although this may sound like a fairly subtle and nit-picky issue, I think it’s something worth bringing up. One of the coolest things for me personally about previous i-series events has been that there was always an area where I could walk over to anyone, ask them their name, and recognise them from either the ETF2L forums, IRC, or even just mixes from #tf.wars. The idea of being so completely engrossed in the community both physically as well as literally is truly a feeling like nothing else. The TF2 tent was one of the main reasons for the success for i40, so to see us take yet another step back from that is disappointing. I do understand it is a little difficult for Multiplay to justify setting aside an area specifically for a game which is well known for having lack-luster attendance outside of summer events, however I can’t help but feel we’ve really lost something this event by not having.

There is of course no doubt in my mind that everything will be back in order come i46, but my concern is more for future Spring and Winter events. What really makes this game is its community, and if you start to segregate the community, you lose what makes TF2 such a great game.

Good – 9 Men
Punching above their weight does not even begin to describe the performance this rag-tag team put on. They managed to take down Anal Prolapse, Give Zumba a run for their money, and even take a couple of rounds off Infused; actually managing to be in the lead at one point. For a team who’ve been playing around div4 level, that’s fairly impressive. I’d like to think this isn’t going to be a one-weekend occurrence, but either way bloody hell lads, hats off to you.

Bad – Attendance
Any time attendance of non-summer i-series events is brought up, there are two halves of me which always start arguing with each other. One half is saying “what do you expect? This is standard for the TF2 community”, but the other simply does not find the situation acceptable. I was actually discussing this with BoneS and the fine gentlemen who does the incredible photography you see every i-series right before the final. This LAN only had 10 TF2 teams attending. 10 Teams. That is a single group of a single division in ETF2L, for comparison there were 50 teams in attendance at i43, and 24 in attendance at i42. I understand that a lot of people had set funds aside for Battle of Amsterdam, but somehow I’m just a little skeptical that we would have had double the attendance had no word ever been made public of Qun’s sketchy plans.

LAN is the best part of being involved in an online gaming community. For those 4 days, everything about your online persona becomes real. Those flashing red icons in mumble become people, those 6 anonymous names on a scoreboard become 6 professionals on a stage, and those raging kids don’t exist. It is something you have to try at least once in your life, and the chances are you’ll want to do it again too. If nothing else it’s worth it just to try out a Stone Willy’s pizza.

The crowd getting hyped before the start of the TF2 Grand Final

Good – Promotion
There’s a saying in sales that people don’t buy a product, they buy you. If it applies to promoting something you love, then I think that it’s something few scenes do better. Every time there’s a big shout at the grand final, every time Comedian screams in the casting room, every time there’s a cheer over an airshot, someone new finds out about competitive TF2. There are people who 12 months from now will be highly active members of the community that just had their first glimpse of the game this weekend. Whether it be on stream, on a news site, or at the event itself. I’ve personally spoken to a large number of people this weekend who are now very interested in something that 7 days ago they had never heard of. As long we keep doing that, this game will always live.