To go ahead and start, this is not a troll thread, this isn't a topic to come around and just throw negativity at everyone. It's a thread to seriously discuss as the remaining community whether or not it is worth attempting to revive the competitive scene, I.E. bringing back teams, bringing in new ones, teaching new players, etc.

Here is what's on the chopping block at the moment: A few people from the community are taking it upon themselves to create a new site akin to the old L4DNAO, complete with custom web design and coding, etc. The site most likely won't be called L4DNAO, however, the principle of the site will be the same, to bring the competitive community together and give a place for new players from the public L4D2 community to come in and learn from what others have to offer. Along with the release of the site, a L4D2 tournament will be hosted to hopefully bring back some teams, as well as bring in some new ones not only to the site but back into actually playing the game, that will be accompanied with a cash prize for either the winning team, or the top 3 teams depending on finances. Sponsors will be found for both the site and hopefully the tournament as well (however sponsors for the tournament will be entirely dependent on how many teams we can get to sign up).

This is a project that is basically another attempt to breathe life into the community and get people playing again, and hopefully a cash prize for a free to enter tournament will get people wanting to come out. The new site will also be affiliated with steam groups that promote growth in the community, such as the Scrim Network and Community 4 Fame, and will hopefully serve as a more active and more efficiently run website for people to discuss the game, the configs we use in competitive play, tournaments, casting of games and tournament matches, recruiting and creating teams, frag videos, etc.

A little more information about the tournament itself; I have sort of been wanting to do this for awhile now, the tournament would consist of a double elimination bracket system (again, dependent on how many teams sign up), with a cash prize that comes out of my own personal finances. Games in the tournament will be casted, and the more teams we acquire, the more chances I will have of obtaining one or more sponsors to put in for some swag and or small cash donations to add to the prize bin.

The overall point of this thread is to ask the very important question, is it all worth it? Is this community wanting to revitalize itself enough to play the game competitively again, help the site stay active, bring in more people to the community, etc? There's no sense in spending the money, time, and effort into doing all of this if no one is willing to get on the new site, play in tournaments and create new teams and play competitively again. So, with that said, please help me out here, and discuss what you as a community want to do, and whether or not you like the mentioned ideas above. Is it worth it for myself and others to attempt this site and tournament? If you have any questions please feel free to ask.

Intel already discussed this with me, and I plan on helping out wherever I can. I really want to see this game live to its fullest potential, there's no other game out there like it.

stop segregating the two games its one of the reasons that its in the situation it is now. people like to play both games.

Intel and me have been discussing this for awhile now, with ideas thrown around by various people.

In the long run, this community has somewhat dwindled down to a niche base. Most people here I know very well, have my own opinions on, and I don't see too many new faces.

The only question I feel should be answered is this: will this site be used enough? If we get tourneys going, the forums stay active as a hangout joint. Then I wouldn't feel like any of my time and money is wasted.

That being said, if we get enough support here I'll back it 100%.

tournaments aren't the answer they kill teams and cause people to leave especially after they are no longer playing in them. Maybe if the CG Placement tourney didnt take 4 months to finish there would be those same teams playing now.

I'd almost suggest a ladder. We never tried a ladder for L4D2 have we?

Sorry if it sounded like I was trying to segregate the L4D1 community, I wasn't. I just use L4D2 competitive community as a generalization to EVERYONE, since most of the community (at least a decent majority) who play competitive L4D2 also played L4D1 and some competitive L4D1. The site would accommodate to both games, if the desire to do so was there. There would be no purpose in supporting either if there was no desire to be active on a site that accommodated both.

As far as tournaments go, I think a well organized and run tournament can be done fairly simply. Yes, the CG tournament took a long time to finish, but in the end of it all, a lot of it fell apart mid-way through, and was part of the reason the tournament and now the leagues are dwindled down so badly. A ladder can be done as well, again, the discussion is for the community and most of it is dependent on the teams that sign up and the amount thereof.

I'd really love to see the L4D2 community as a whole grow to about pre-L4D2 status, despite the slim chance of that. There were plenty of teams and players, and we were all kinda like a big, dysfunctional family. I liked that.

A well run tournament could be great for this community. A badly run tournament could kill what's left of it.

I think rorek your best bet would be to announce whatever you plan on doing in every left 4 dead network that is left and see what kind of feedback you get, promote your site and mention a potential ladder/tournament or whatever and see what happens from there. L4D2 in its current state, in my opinion, would not be worth the effort.

The fact that you'd be willing to use your own money is exactly the reason why I like sticking with this community. I consider myself more of a spectator then a player but would definiately compete in a tournament like this. Ideally and unfortunately even to boost the community to half of what it was before the release of L4D2 would be more then I'd expect. An anwser how it will turn out is more of a schrodinger's cat though.

You have my sword

Paying out of pocket is essentially buying what's left of the community. Unless you have an infinite bankroll, people are only going to play in your tournaments when there is a prize, and leave it when there is not. Another site will only further segregate the community from those who want to leave and those who don't. This l4d2 community is probably the most troll-free out of any of the attempts to bring people together.

Here are some solid questions for you:
Why not sponsor your tournament here? Why does a brand new site need to be created to bring back L4D2? What incentive will people have to stay on your website once your tournaments stops paying out (Your bank account runs out)?

I have no doubt that people will play in your tournament solely based on the fact that there will be a payout, but unless that's a constant, you are going to need sponsors. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get businesses to invest into this game?

Regardless, godspeed.

Edited once, 1/1/11 - 3:13pm.

I believe after one (or possibly more) payed free tourneys that people might be willing to pay a small entry fee to play in the payed ones, therefore making them self sufficient. If several people put together their wallets and decided they wanted to run a tourney then they could most likely pull a lot of players back in.

Also, please don't make ANOTHER site for it. Run it through this site if it's possible. We don't need a whole other set of forums to look at and occupy. The main reason that Cybergamer forums became so active was that L4Dnao went down. If you put up another site I'm not sure anyone but the most dedicated would run to it.

That's the hope Pigeon, it just all depends on how many people back it, and are willing to play. On the note of running it through CG, I'd really like to steer clear from that personally. There are so many 'hubs' for this community right now, all of which are slowly declining in activity, including this one, and CG isn't primarily focused with L4D2, the forums here (which is all this is really) were created by revliS for his tournament and league. The CG L4D2 League is basically being ignored by the players, it isn't really even being played out from what I have been told. A new site will bring back a familiar L4DNAO interface with much more than just a small section of forums, as well as an integrated tournament system that allows the creation of brackets and scheduling through the site itself. We can not only advertise steam groups, sponsors, etc, but can also create a dedicated atmosphere to the L4D community and not just an organization's section of it. We're looking at more than just forums with this new site, and hopefully a site that can attract more of the public group of L4D players to it to learn the competitive side.

In response to Tony, we've discussed your questions on steam, in terms of incentives after the first tournament, we'll just have to see where that goes. What are the incentives of continuing to play the CG-A or P league? What are the incentives of 'staying' on this site? This isn't a 'move' of the community, it's the creation of a site to give the community a more dedicated hub to the community itself. You don't have to 'move' to the new site, that's why the internet lets you open two tabs AT THE SAME TIME!?

Edit: Also remember that this idea/the site has not been finalized, we'd like the overall consensus from the community first. We're not going to up and go make a site and host a tournament that no one wants to be a part of or will back. No one is going to be forced into moving sites and what not, if the community wants it, we can make it happen, it not, it doesn't.

Edited once, 1/1/11 - 3:52pm.

I'd be down for this, but I'd say just wait it out. Let this idea cook for a bit and get some more supporters.
I don't know if anyone here remembers L4DGaming, but it was a similar concept. Two guys with some cash tried starting a tournament, but it practically didn't go through with only about 3 teams actually playing in the tournament.
Aside from that I'm willing to help out with whatever you need.