BAL-SACK: The Semi-Competitive Semi-Manifesto.

[rumsfald]

So.

On July 6, 2008, our Dear Leader, Kor Jong Il, told the people he had chosen to follow him to die for BRBu under his flag to sit down and consider just what we were getting ourselves into.  Seriously, just what the fuck were we supposed to be doing?



This post is my attempt to capture the major themes of that discussion.  No one asked me to write this.  I volunteered to be an unofficial scrivener.  I have fairly strong feelings about maintaining the unity of our community, and I think that clear and open communication prevents misunderstandings, which in turn prevent melodrama.  I just don’t think that scrimming will ever be half as fun as pubbing with all you guys and gals, so I don't want the fact that I was picked to be one of Kor's pirates to interfere with our thing, baby.




The flip side of the coin no one told me not to post this.  So I’m going to do my best not to step on toes or hurt feelings, but I might by mistake.  I might say something or frame something in a way that no one else on BAL-SACK or the forums agree with.  This is just Rummy’s drunken ramblings. So I welcome comments, questions, and concerns from everyone, not just the BAL-SACK team. 

That said, this is a semi-serious thread, and I would politely ask that you refrain from extreme threadjacking.  I don’t mean that you can’t make jokes (you can) or snipe (you can) or even derail things a bit (within reason, that’s fine), but I would ask that you do not build pyramids or get violent.  I’m not a forum admin, so I can’t enforce this, but I trust you all to know when to play in the sandbox and when to shit in the kitty litter.


              Mommy, from where do BAL-SACKs come?

We didn’t get this far for any glorious and glamorous reason.  Back in early April (or earlier) some of the TC regulars asked whether we would play them a friendly match or three.  Problem was, who would play?  So, the early primates assembled their primitive tools to cobble together a list of names to play TC. http://www.brbuninstalling.com/forum/ind...topic=75.0

Like a small cut on your big toe, it took a while for this infection to fester.


And so,

a month later, Kor got off his ass to solicit interest in playing. http://www.brbuninstalling.com/forum/ind...opic=245.0
And ‘Lo there was hype! Lots of people posted, and there was interest.  Problem was, it was finals time, and most of you whipper-snappers were too busying trying to cram for exams to salvage your GPA so Mom/Dad/Uncle Mel didn’t realize you were on a bender for half the semester and threaten to cut off your tuition fund, or, worse yet, make you work for a living at the family business.  So the great and benevolent leader postponed his mulch tryouts until the semester was over.

Time passes, hearts wander, and, like a GHost, TC disappears. http://www.brbuninstalling.com/forum/ind...2#msg16642
So, now that we have taken three months to get a list of players to play TC, TC isn’t around to play.  Great. Now what?


              Mommy, what do BAL-SACKs do?

Like our namesake, the number one thing we do is hang around.  Between your legs. Hang around and waiting for some action.  Remember, the whole genesis of this whole thing was just to have a short-list of names of people who wanted to and could face-off against a challenger. That’s it.

Anything more than that is purely optional. When we sat down and talked about it, no one was interested in spending MMORPG hours in trying to become a 1337 clan.  We’re not serious business. Just semi.

.


              I am Spartacus.

The last thing I want this little excursion to do is fracture the BRBu community.  So we don't have hierarchy. Again, no one told me to post this, it’s not my job, I’m just doing it to make the commons a little nicer place.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragedy_of_the_commons

In that vein, anyone on the team can schedule an event, make a post, float an idea for a strategy, or even try to line up matches. The only thing I ask is that you coordinate the rest of us the team. Will Captain Kor mind? Maybe, but chances are he won't notice a practice or two as he tries to get his Tier 3 Priestly Robes of WoWness.

To continue, the folks are currently on the team could be off tomorrow.  My keyboard broke last week, so I was MIA.  People have trips, vacations, lives, lumberjacking.  When that happens, any BRBu regular could be asked to sub or swap in or out.  Or help fill out an internal practice.  Of course, if you don’t play well or are a poor sport then slim pickens, but those folks are only a small small portion of our community.



I think this also applies to other BRBu TF2 teams.  I don’t see Peaches’s T-BAG or Dave’s 4/4 tourney as competing or competitive with BAL-SACK, any more than Mod Night or The Ship compete with TF2.  Or locking down the server to film some machinima with hand-picked actors. They don’t.  They are all just different ways to have fun with the game.  For each, you need a leader/coordinator and folks who want to play along. The variety of activities that we have going on in any week is our strength. (EDIT: To be clear, I absolutely hope that the T-BAG is competitive with BAL-SACK when we play against each other, the better you are the more we can both push each other. I just don't think that we should ever let us divide ourselves into different tribes).

              Look Mom, that guy is exposing himself again.



Half of what I said here is for the BAL-SACK team, so we can all get on the same page about what we don’t want or don’t want in this venture.  Half of what I said is for the community, so folks who want to know what’s going on can check in.  Half is perspiration. 

I’ve also got some other scrivening I want to do, I’ve promised to do some lessons learned posts on some of the practices we have done, and I want to set out the ground rules and expectations before I posted them.  And no, I don’t care if T-BAG steals our Intel, I don’t believe in security through obscurity.

              BAL-FAQ:

Q: What are all you doing on a locked server?
A: We might be practicing or we might be scrimming, but most likely we are standing very still, not talking, not chatting, but listing to Kor and Caff debate for an hour about which is the better sentry location for Cap Point B.  I’m not kidding.

Q: Why is the server closed?
A: Because the Owner of the server (not admin) offered to use it as a practice location.  We do have two others (and one for mod night).  Last night the server was completely empty when we went to practice.

Q: Can I join the server you are on and participate or spectate?
A: I don’t care.  But then again, I don’t run a server or have any level of admin, so my opinion is just my opinion.  As long as you shut up, sit down, and follow instructions I would welcome you.  But this is not the time for micspam, or idle chatter, or bonking, bottling, or heavy fisting. Wolfwood joined last night and played for a while and spectated for a bit, and loqutus was spectating for a while.  Which was fine, cause they were not disruptive.  Now, I think you would have to have mental issues if you watched our boring ass practices, but whatever. Remember, this is just Rummy’s opinion, I’m sure others would differ.  And no, that doesn’t apply if you are a GW or TC and we are prepping to play you.

Q: I see that you are in a server and it is renamed to Practice/Scrimmage/Tree Fort No Girls Allowed, can I spam everyone who is playing to find out what is going on?
A: I’d prefer that you did not.  If the server says Practice / Scrimmage, that is what we are doing.  We would all prefer not to get spammed with a bunch of “wut u doing thar” messages, because they will just get ignored.  Remember, the server admins need to deal with micspammers and douches on the other 2 servers, so if you spam them with trivial questions you make it harder for them to find the important steam messages that they need to see and respond to.  So please don’t.

Q: Why did you write up what we already know / what is posted elsewhere / this completely obvious shit?
A: For posterity.  So everything is clear and upfront and on the table.  So the new people who join the forums each and every day don't have to search through stale threads to find out what is going on.  So we are all on the same page.

Q: Why all the pictures?
A: Vandamguy only reads 2 words for every picture, so I at least wanted to give him a reason to read the first sentence. 

I’ll post some links to the other crap I write here when I get around to it.

Update: My writeup for the first scrim is here: http://www.brbuninstalling.com/forum/ind...opic=817.0
My writeup of our super-sekrit Steel strats is here: http://www.brbuninstalling.com/forum/ind...opic=822.0


Chrissakes, Rummy, you are a longwinded bitch.


And so it goes.

[Vandamguy]

Never tell your password to anyone.
rumsfald: http://www.brbuninstalling.com/forum/ind...opic=797.0
rumsfald: tell Kor I am talking about him behind his back
Vandamguy -brb:u-: rgr rgr
Vandamguy -brb:u-: this post pretty good! pictures! i like pictures
rumsfald: did you see the last FAQ yet?
Vandamguy -brb:u-: im at festor
rumsfald: skip to last FAQ
Vandamguy -brb:u-: no , its not tl;dr
Vandamguy -brb:u-: lol balfaq
Vandamguy -brb:u-: hahahahhahahahahahaha

[Benito Mussolini]

Chrissakes, Rummy, you are a longwinded bitch.

[cannedpeahes]

Hm. It was... well-organized?

[CaffeinePowered]

How you are consistently so fucking funny, I will never understand  :

[cbre88x]

+1 for being funny/serious

[Surf314]

Never have I been prouder than to say my bal-sack hangs with this guys.

[NiceGuy]

Like our namesake, the number one thing we do is hang around.  Between your legs. Hang around and waiting for some action.

This made me LoL so hard. +1 for the excellent write up. And if you were really drunk like you claim to have been I applaud you for your astounding ability to compose such an eloquent and cohesive post while intoxicated.

[ScottyGrayskull]

To continue, the folks are currently on the team could be off tomorrow.  My keyboard broke last week, so I was MIA.  People have trips, vacations, lives, lumberjacking.

... hardware upgrades that take a month and a half... :'(

I agree with your thoughts on the community being divided. I don't think that's happened at all, but when discussion started as soon as it did for a second team I will admit I was a little worried. I do like how things have worked out so far though.

[Benito Mussolini]

I agree with your thoughts on the community being divided. I don't think that's happened at all, but when discussion started as soon as it did for a second team I will admit I was a little worried. I do like how things have worked out so far though.

That's because of the [glow=Black,2,300]SEMI[/glow]-Competitive teaming.

The community is far from being based on competition and I really don't feel that the formation of this team has changed any of this (brought me closer to you guyyyys).

[exanimo]

Jesus Rums, I love the fuck out of you.