CUBE was with the original TFTV crew but initially decided not to come over to VanillaTF2 when VanillaTV was being formed. Since then he’s joined (arguably) the strongest Highlander team in Europe, SNSD. The team have won everything they’ve entered but in his opinion the competition is catching up.

Under his guidance their YouTube channel has changed from a repository of previous live shows into being a collection of brand new crafted content specifically for drawing in new subscribers; informing and teaching the public the finer points of competitive game-play.

The three new video sets are:

• Insights – digging into an individual protagonist’s experience of a TF2 match
• Analysis – an expert breaks down retrospectively some of the plays in a match
• Frag movie review – frag movie makers critiquing the best frag movies the community has to offer

Intro/outro created for WIP by Cryogenetic.

That said I know how they feel. This interview was recorded in December of 2011 and one thing or another has kept me from releasing it till now. The major 2.4 update happened for gg2 in October. The release combined a new play mode with greatly enhanced mod intergration.

Dual King of the Hill, requiring a team to hold their own point while taking the other team’s before the timer starts to go down, is an expansion on the standard KOTH mode associated with Team Fortress 2 the game’s spiritual forefather.

Possibly the most important part of this big update comes in the form of the mod update. Lead gg2 developer, Psychopath takes us through the benefits of the new open format for map makers and modders.

Intro/outro created for WIP by Cryogenetic.

Comedian opens himself up on reddit to an AMA (ask me anything) though it seems unnecessary; he’s so open and truly excited by everything he’s doing he could easily be living an AMA everyday. In fact when South Africa’s own TF2 community interviewed him they have to pair him off with Salamancer to get any exclusive content.

That’s the thing with streaming live content, it’s addictive. As Comedian puts it, you’ve got to enjoy the spotlight at least a little. Little wonder then that VanillaTV is looking to other forms of media than the live shoutcasting, namely podcasting. With no current competition in the European market this can only be a smart move for them. Another smart move was Byte patching tings up with eSports hero,  ThePledge. Now those two are back on friendly terms vtv has an excellent new caster on their roster and everyone is happy.

One of the more interesting moves for vtv was away from their video streaming partners, TwitchTV. Comedian discusses the thoughts behind the jump to own3d.tv and the benfits it provides in combinations for an increased presence on YouTube.

I personally feel in some way responsible for Comedian meeting Ruskeydoo, the 3D artist behind so many TF2 items (including the KritzKast Lo-Fi Longwave). With that encounter a sketch on a napkin has turned into the living, breathing model of a unicorn strapped to spy’s head. On its mention Comedian almost breaks down with pleasure, I can see why. The hat is ultra dopey looking but caries the charm of random excitement of the whole VanillaTF2 team. While no promises have been made that it will make it into the game yet, it stands a reasonable chance even on its own merits.

Not content with hats, WIP has a second exclusive from this chat. VanillaTV are organizing their very own two-day TF2 cup.  Sometime in the next couple of months we’ll see two tiers of players battling it out to win mousemats designed by Torden. I’ve not seen them yet but I have a suspicion unicorns may be involved

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble's "Monkeys have arrived". Used under CC Licen

Keekerdc is in a different place to where he was when we recorded WIP #003, both figuratively and physically. He’s relocated to Seattle on the West Coast. He’s also taking a different approach to reporting on the esport scene. Gone are the heady days of talking his way though a game. He’s moved on to writing for ESFI World and is toying with the idea of doing much more for them in the near future.

ESFI wants Chris to build his own show for the channel. Something that brings together all the interesting stories from every corner of esports. So once again we catch him while he’s on the brink of something new and possibly this time something old. Not entirely giving up on shoutcasting, Chris is working on some code to bring more interesting and polished visuals to casts.

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble's "Monkeys have arrived". Used under CC License

Shaylyn engages in heavy research rather than making thousands of sketches. She is currently at the point of needing to create a base mesh. For this she wishes to move away from the toolset she knows from her work as an environment artist for Gearbox Software and towards ZBrush.  This means learning a completely new and different interface. A daunting task we wish her the best of luck with.

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble's "Monkeys have arrived". Used under CC License

It’s little surprising that EA have granted EOR the Trusted Server Provider status. For many this would be cause enough for celebration. Indeed glancing at their website you’ll see plenty of Battlefield 3 promotional banners. For Robby and his team though, getting everything ready for one event isn’t enough of a challenge. Hence their rather bold move into the European market. Within the next 24hrs EOReality is set to go live in London, England.

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble's "Monkeys have arrived". Used under CC License

Like many of the team Vincenator has had his fill of TF2Lobby. His initial enthusiasm for Floor_Master’s work was curbed when he found he had arrived too late to contribute. Believing TF2Lobby to have fallen into a state of unrealised potential he’s keen not to let PubComp fall into the same traps. He has pounced on this open project and built the entire SM codebase on which PubComp relies. Keeping to the open nature his code may be edited in the future. I’d be surprised if this is the last we hear from him on WIP.

For his part Parable speaks of the messaging system that will link the game servers to the website database. He also makes it clear that the end of September release date is still very much on.

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble’s “Monkeys have arrived“. Used under CC License

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble's "Monkeys have arrived". Used under CC License

In the build up to i43 I sit down with Comedian, previoulsy of TF2TV, now of VanillaTV.

In the last few weeks there has been a staff shuffle; Shox is going to pass his role as ‘right-hand-man’ over to the floor manager, Leftism. Comedian has faught to maintain the Open Mic project, he explains the importance of the constant hunt for new talent and this sentiment is reflected too in VTF2′s open call for writers.

Most importantly this week sees the preparations for Multiplay’s i43, the biggest eSport gathering and LAN party in the UK. VanillaTV are going to be bringing the fource of four men and hope to introduce Cheerfuls, previously seen in StartCraft audiences and a unique promo item.

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble's "Monkeys have arrived". Used under CC License

While it takes a huge cast to get this show running, Byte sees his crew as filling four core group roles, with a special fifth catagory for Torden alone.

Floormanager – looks after casters/web posts/on the day, ensuring everything happens where it should (leftism). Directors (or Streamers) – the cameramen who present the feed for each show. Casters – a strict policy of quality is maintained on main casters and co-casters. News/Article posters – able to pump out the bulk of the site news and written posts (Atrox, Trell, Torden, Shox). Designers – a role for Torden.

They have been able to stamp their brand on the feeds through use of a customised HUD and bring to life some nifty site features such as the VOD archive and the Streaming plugin.

New public servers are their gift back to the comp world. A place for players from around the world to hang out and practise their DM skills.

Intro/outro sampled from Daddy_Scrabble’s “Monkeys have arrived“. Used under CC License