A Call to Arms

[phreekopath]

Yep, another long drawn out post from me. It's a good read though, worth it IMO.

Not gunna lie, I'm kinda disappointed in the lack of enthusiasm...
After that huge push pre-Columbus, I thought for a moment that there was light at the end of the tunnel. I was wrong.

It seems all I've heard in regards to Halo in the past weeks was how MLG isn't going to have it at Anaheim and how MLG needs to remember their roots and remember that Halo made them what they are today and it's all Bungie's fault, yadda yadda yadda. It's time to take a step back and look around. All of this "Halo is MLG and MLG is Halo" bullshit needs to come to an end. Everyone is mad that MLG isn't carrying Halo into the future, but they are too tunnel-visioned to notice that there are several smaller leagues and tournaments popping up all over the country.

They're not trying to take MLG's place, they're trying to keep Halo alive, competitively speaking. They're attempting to tap into the market and the community that MLG has tossed to the side because they weren't "big enough" to produce the crowds and profit margins that a company of that size requires.

All we wanted MLG to do was listen to the fans, give us good competitive settings, some decent prizes, and let us play! Now that all of these other companies are sprouting up, the general consensus still seems to be "MLG, where you at?" Honestly, the mindset that everything that involves competitive Halo needs to somehow be connected to MLG is what's gotten us into this "all-or-nothing" situation. Right now MLG is giving us nothing, and it seems that the community is ok with that.

We've all heard stories of the lonely girl who gets in a relationship with an abusive cheater boyfriend, and after all of the fights, hospital visits, lonely nights, and breakups... she keeps going back to him. From outside, it's hard not to look at it and just go "are you stupid or something?" ... Why do we, as a community, continue to do this to MLG when there are obviously "plenty more fish in the sea"?

Consider this a call to arms, my friends. It's time to cut the umbilical cord and make ourselves responsible for our own destiny.

You guys aren't really going to let yourself be shown up by a bunch of Gears and CoD players, are you? When it was their heads on the chopping block, they all stepped up and made big things happen. Now those games average more viewers on streaming sites than Halo with all of it's "Pro Streamers".

Oh, and want to know the absolute BEST thing about walking away from this MLG dependency? You no longer HAVE to play Reach! :D :D You can start up or ask for Halo 3 ladders and tournaments back, you can even get Halo 1 and Halo 2 XBC games going! Run your own LANs in your own backyards. Go fucking apeshit, I don't care.

I just wanna game.

Just to kickstart some things, here's a short list of other leagues I have come across:

www.fglpro.com
www.thenationalgamingleague.com
http://consolegamingleague.co.cc
http://ugp-gaming.com
http://esportsrival.com
http://ecl.eu/
http://www.ggl.com/
http://www.bigteambattle.net/
NOTE: EVEN THOUGH I AM SEMI-AFFILIATED WITH ONE OF THESE SITES, THIS IS NOT AN ATTEMPT AT MARKETING, JUST A PUSH TO GET THE COMMUNITY GOING IN THE RIGHT DIRECTION

And that's just to name a few...
If you know of any others, post 'em up!! I'll add them to this post for easy future reference.

Now lets get out there and play some Halo!

[SullyVan]

Good read, i agree with most of the stuff you had to say. I myself will probably lan a little bit of reach/h2/h3 and just wait for halo4... but i wont ever get tired of playing halo weather its going back to an old one or not.

[aX goes ham]

i do appreciate you linking these, the only problem is the sudds settings for cgl honestly i played them, and the halo3 settings just aren't working.... Looking at all these though, esports rival could become something, ugp just had a tourney, ngl from what i heard is not bad, the sudds have warheads paying for an event and fgl idk about, but at least their something

[Antidote]

Games like Halo can't survive in a huge setting as well now that eSports is blowing up more and some of the more well known games are coming into the light for MLG. The grass root communities are where it does have to go. Regardless of biased opinions Halo has always been sort of on it's own as far as the eSports community is concerned. MLG has just started to realize there are bigger games out there then Halo and that's what they're going to have to do if they want to grow. There really aren't any competitive FPS games out there for eSports that are big names. Honestly the biggest is probably Counter Strike and that games is so old and bland now that even it doesn't get much spotlight, especially over in NA.

Halo if it wants to survive will have to do so in on the backburners in grass root communities. The game itself just isn't what it needs to be to be a big eSport title, none of the Halo games were, regardless again of biased opinions who think they were.

It's for sure the way to go for Halo. There are few people out there in the Halo community that aren't trying to force their way into eSports. I mean honestly if you have to try to force people to include your game, then you're doing something wrong.

[phreekopath]

i do appreciate you linking these, the only problem is the sudds settings for cgl honestly i played them, and the halo3 settings just aren't working....

HAHA, I never said any of these league were great, just that they existed... Hopefully with enough time and community support the settings will evolve into settings similar to what MLG has made, truly competitive, but fun, without being imbalanced.

For the record, it pained me to include the Sudd's site in there... but I'm not going to hold anything against them, someone's gotta do it.

[chris_cr33p]

'tis a good read indeed. And i totally agree. The mlg without halo bullshit is stupid. MLG wont profit off halo at Anaheim, Halo attendance always sucks out there...

[phreekopath]

It's just so disheartening that after all the effort everyone put in to try to get MLG to do events for Reach again, and then when MLG says no, everyone just kinda goes along with it as if there's no other choice. BUT THERE IS!

[WIERDO]

i dont wanna read it.


ill read it in a bit man

[phreekopath]

i dont wanna read it.


ill read it in a bit man

lawl... but you still replied :P

tl;dr
MLG sucks, the don't care about us, for some reason we love them anyway, there's other leagues, lets give them our support instead.

[HavkinKnight]

i say we talk to Rick and see what we can do. we really can turn TLN into a multi game Lan center/Toureny event. go back to PvJ, invite 32 Fighting game players and run a Multi Game Ladder bracket kinda thing. Have TLN make teams and play in a ladder and the top 8 go out to TLN there is alot of options we have here we just gotta flush them out but i really wanna prove to Rick that TLN was not a bad investment.

[phreekopath]

i say we talk to Rick and see what we can do. we really can turn TLN into a multi game Lan center/Toureny event. go back to PvJ, invite 32 Fighting game players and run a Multi Game Ladder bracket kinda thing. Have TLN make teams and play in a ladder and the top 8 go out to TLN there is alot of options we have here we just gotta flush them out but i really wanna prove to Rick that TLN was not a bad investment.

This is also a fantastic idea... but the whole point is that we need to stop thinking in monopoly-esque ways that Halo needs a place to call "home"

[Antidote]

i say we talk to Rick and see what we can do. we really can turn TLN into a multi game Lan center/Toureny event. go back to PvJ, invite 32 Fighting game players and run a Multi Game Ladder bracket kinda thing. Have TLN make teams and play in a ladder and the top 8 go out to TLN there is alot of options we have here we just gotta flush them out but i really wanna prove to Rick that TLN was not a bad investment.

It's not been the community that's been the problem with this site, both now and in the past. It's been the staff. Nothing is ever done on this site. Nothing has been done in a really really long time.

[HavkinKnight]

It's not been the community that's been the problem with this site, both now and in the past. It's been the staff. Nothing is ever done on this site. Nothing has been done in a really really long time.

Then someone get me in contact with Rick and ill get a kickstart on this we need to clean house (no offence to anyone) and get an Active staff! Dude Anti both of us have the ability to stream and we are both loud active members we need to start getting matches idc if its SC2 LoL Halo or Fighting games and we need to commentary on them or break them down or something. we need to get in contact with D_Mo and get some front page over haul going and ill call Small and see whats up but we cant blame the Site we dont try and fix it our selves! if Rick sees there is a desire to work on this then lets give him a staff willing to update and work on the site! im serious cuz if we dont fix this issue TLN will go away again and this time it could be for good... (altho we thought last time was for good) but FOR good For Good! so TLNC Lets get to it!

[phreekopath]

Then someone get me in contact with Rick and ill get a kickstart on this we need to clean house (no offence to anyone) and get an Active staff! Dude Anti both of us have the ability to stream and we are both loud active members we need to start getting matches idc if its SC2 LoL Halo or Fighting games and we need to commentary on them or break them down or something. we need to get in contact with D_Mo and get some front page over haul going and ill call Small and see whats up but we cant blame the Site we dont try and fix it our selves! if Rick sees there is a desire to work on this then lets give him a staff willing to update and work on the site! im serious cuz if we dont fix this issue TLN will go away again and this time it could be for good... (altho we thought last time was for good) but FOR good For Good! so TLNC Lets get to it!

It's too bad that everyone in the community isn't as fired up about this as you are. It's good to see that at least SOME people are trying. Honestly, I wish I could do more but my plate is full enough as it is. I do stream a pretty good bit, and I make posts like this to try to reignite the fire that we had burning just a few months ago that seemed to be quickly extinguished with one announcement by MLG.

Anyway, lets try to stay a bit more on-topic, mmkay? :)

We all need to support the other events and leagues (whether global, local, online, or whatever) just as much as we supported MLG and TLN when they first began.

[Antidote]

Then someone get me in contact with Rick and ill get a kickstart on this we need to clean house (no offence to anyone) and get an Active staff! Dude Anti both of us have the ability to stream and we are both loud active members we need to start getting matches idc if its SC2 LoL Halo or Fighting games and we need to commentary on them or break them down or something. we need to get in contact with D_Mo and get some front page over haul going and ill call Small and see whats up but we cant blame the Site we dont try and fix it our selves! if Rick sees there is a desire to work on this then lets give him a staff willing to update and work on the site! im serious cuz if we dont fix this issue TLN will go away again and this time it could be for good... (altho we thought last time was for good) but FOR good For Good! so TLNC Lets get to it!

I'd be okay to help if someone comes up with stuff. However, like most people TLN really hasn't been my main source for anything except Halo. Which really wasn't ever in the spotlight for eSports. So now that it's even off MLG there really isn't anywhere to go for Halo info, or really any reason to go. I've got other sites such as TL, joinDOTA, playdota and then other team sites. TLN would be hard to compete with these sites even if they went with multiple game titles. There are even multigame news sites that are cover games now that are getting bigger. TLN really just doesn't have any room to compete anymore.

Unless of course the people running this site come up with something new and interesting.

[phreekopath]

I'd be okay to help if someone comes up with stuff. However, like most people TLN really hasn't been my main source for anything except Halo. Which really wasn't ever in the spotlight for eSports. So now that it's even off MLG there really isn't anywhere to go for Halo info, or really any reason to go. I've got other sites such as TL, joinDOTA, playdota and then other team sites. TLN would be hard to compete with these sites even if they went with multiple game titles. There are even multigame news sites that are cover games now that are getting bigger. TLN really just doesn't have any room to compete anymore.

Unless of course the people running this site come up with something new and interesting.

^^ This is the reason we need to support other leagues and tournaments... Why does the entire competitive Halo community have to revolve around what MLG says or does, when it should revolve around COMPETITIVE HALO regardless of the origins...

I just don't get it...

[Antidote]

^^ This is the reason we need to support other leagues and tournaments... Why does the entire competitive Halo community have to revolve around what MLG says or does, when it should revolve around COMPETITIVE HALO regardless of the origins...

I just don't get it...

Because MLG is the only thing Halo has really been known on. Besides that is just really really really grassroot communities no one has heard of. Halo is now underground. There is no well known organization that still supports it.

[phreekopath]

Because MLG is the only thing Halo has really been known on. Besides that is just really really really grassroot communities no one has heard of. Halo is now underground. There is no well known organization that still supports it.

That's kind of the whole point of this thread... we need to support those grassroot communtities... TLN was grassroots at one point, and it's intent was never to take away from MLG at all. Hell, even Team Liquid was grassroots, and the community supported and grew it into what it is today. There's no reason that any of the aforementioned leagues couldn't become just as vital to Halo's future if the community puts in the time and effort.

The MLG monopoly on Halo's competitive community has left us stranded with nowhere to go. I predicted this months ago, if MLG drops Halo (which it has) and the community refuses to adopt newcomers to take their place (which it is), Halo will roll over and die (which it will)

[Antidote]

That's kind of the whole point of this thread... we need to support those grassroot communtities... TLN was grassroots at one point, and it's intent was never to take away from MLG at all. Hell, even Team Liquid was grassroots, and the community supported and grew it into what it is today. There's no reason that any of the aforementioned leagues couldn't become just as vital to Halo's future if the community puts in the time and effort.

The MLG monopoly on Halo's competitive community has left us stranded with nowhere to go. I predicted this months ago, if MLG drops Halo (which it has) and the community refuses to adopt newcomers to take their place (which it is), Halo will roll over and die (which it will)


I know. That's why no one really respects the community. It probably will die. Which is okay I guess. I mean I just follow it to keep up with what's going on. To me it makes no difference. The Halo community does need to support itself if it wants to live because no one else cares enough to support it. That's fine.

Just don't talk it the wrong way when I say, if a community can't support itself then why should anyone else support it? If it can't support itself then why does it deserve a place in the spotlight? It doesn't imo but that doesn't mean the people who don't like it shouldn't support it.

[phreekopath]

Nah anti, not trying to argue with you... but you're right, if a community can't support it self, then it's not really a community. Just trying to make everyone realize that there are other opportunities out there and we need to take a chance.

Also, the fact that we alienated the "noobs" for many years while in the meantime we were mostly outgrowing the game ourselves and leaving no player lineage doesn't really help much either, but that's another topic for another day.

Good talk, good talk...

[phreekopath]

updated OP with a few new sites

[phreekopath]

added btb.net