Hats and Cats TF2: Recent Episodes
Bliztank
One day I thought to myself
Online communities are cool and all but what if we had interviews
And that's that kinda, covers a lot of social issues and the past of the competitive TF2 scene. We diagnose a lot of problems, provides even more solutions and constructive criticism. Once I run out of volunteers to interview there will be more traditional podcasting done. Covers the different regions of tf2 and emphasises the need for cooperation between them; as well as between the casual and competitive side of the game.
The audio quality picks up around five videos in. Participants are north american unless stated otherwise.
New episodes every monday/wednesday/friday at 12 pm est; some saturdays at the same time too
May branch out to other games in the future/other online communities.
You can see the video form of the series with included visuals for context at https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdRm-mx1l55TcKUFPU-lKj9w1dnAm8f46
If interested, Reach out to me on steam at https://steamcommunity.com/id/Bliztank/
Or Discord at Bliztank#1499
A lot about pugs, leadership, mentoring, other games, multiclassing, and caffeine usage.
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Part 3 of 3. A bit unfocused compared to the two prior parts, a bit more podcasty imo. Karaeoke at the end btw.
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Part 2 of 3
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Part 1 of 3. So this one is probably the most unique episode yet, and it ends up becoming a bit more of a traditional podcast as time goes on. It was done while hard hat jones was doing a 24 hour livestream. Naturally, this had an effect on the interview itself, especially towards the end/second timestamp and on. It goes on for a bit due to the interactivity with his stream chat and bounces back and fourth a fair bit. It also features karaoke, and me talking about the series and it’s goals for a bit among other things. Starts off by talking about the streamer life and what that entails if that’s your thing.
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part 3 of 3
same sorts of stuff as in part 2
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part 2 of 3
Resumed a decent few days later which isn't typically the case tbh. Anyways hones in much more on the cultural side of things and how it defines europe as a region in contrast to na
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part 1 of 3
This one talks a lot about the philosophy of MattJ, as well as thoughts on the state of team fortress two and it's community.
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part 2 of 2
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This one covers a lot of the lore and various trivia of the witness gaming brand, as well as a bit of discussion on mentoring, lans, and resup.gg
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Part 2 of 2
This one covers a ton of rgl related topics from the perspective of the current hl head admin and really puts you into the mind of the man who has to make a bunch of important decisions for the good of the community, was glad to get it done.
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Part 1 of 2
Series is resumed but uploads will be staggered until I have a backlog again
This one covers a ton of rgl related topics from the perspective of the current hl head admin and really puts you into the mind of the man who has to make a bunch of important decisions for the good of the community, was glad to get it done.
Support this podcast at — https://redcircle.com/hats-and-cats-tf2/donations
This one covers a lot of 6s stuff from a community oriented perspective and touches upon a lot of various projects.
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This one covers 6s and tftv from a self described more detached and less community involved perspective
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This one covers what it's like to reach invite in highlander, what pyro is like to a newer pyro, and a generally fresher set of eyes on competitive culture.
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this one covers a lot of the leadership experiences of b&h paul. he is paul
part 2 of 2
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this one covers a lot of the leadership experiences of b&h paul. he is paul
part 1 of 2
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This one delves primarily into metagames, player improvement and the concept of maincalling.
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Mr. Micah has some of the most interesting takes to offer. very insightful talk that puts a lot of rgl decision making methodology into perspective.
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Part 3 of 3
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Mothership does a lot of behind the scenes technical stuff in the rgl community and it was really nice to humanize all of that moderation experience. Also mothership put a ton of effort into increasing the audio quality of this one which is super appreciated
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Part 2 of 3
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This one is all about Kegaman and their own experiences including with content creation, with a little on the state of Asian Highlander. I usually prefer to have more of a significance and some takeaways from what I do, but I really don't mind just delving into some more personal stories for the sake of it; kega's always a joy and a really nice person.
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Covers more of the traditional 6v6 side of things and a lot of admin specific sentiment/experiences.
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Part 2 of 3, continuation of the prior topics
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Covers a lot of admin experiences all around and insight into each of rgl's modes.
part 1 of 3
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Part 2 of 2
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This one covers what highlander was like near the start of it, ancient engineer lore, the legacy of gamemaster's plays, and overall sentiments on the community and future of the game as a whole.
Part 1 of 2
This one talks a lot about what it's like to play Australian highlander, the culture and people/staff behind it, Qixalite and concerns regarding their influence, and the general theme of cross-regional cooperation towards the end. I have more Aussie ones in the works, but it's def interesting to hear about these concerns from various sources and see what their story is.
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This one covers a lot of the issues asia hl faces, problems with their head admin and administration, and overall concerns regarding the region in gaming. A lot these things are valid concerns and I don't think it gets the attention it deserves outside of Asia; and seemingly does not get addressed
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Part 2 of 2
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Bring back class wars, rgl. We desire glorious battle. invite dispenser interview also blake is the first person to have volunteered to get interviewed!!!!
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Part 2 of 2
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This one covers the methodology and thought processes of mapping a lot, along with some covering of what it's like to run a community and co own a slenderfortress server; really insightful stuff.
Part one of two
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This one covers the history of baconblitz's content creation, advice and discussions about being a content creator, the importance of content creation for the game, has a high amount of focus on just how content creation and community collaboration can go a long way for the scene. This one builds off of the Maven interview a bit. I really do think it'd be neat to see competitive content creators and casual content creators coming together and seeing what happens.
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part 2 of 2
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This one covers a lot about what it was like for maven to work as a member of the rgl staff and graphics team, a bit about anxiety and impostor syndrome and how that affected his content producing career, and just a lot of lore about the rgl video channel and various side projects of his. I really enjoyed getting to talk to Maven about all of his super creative and passionate projects. I think this one also helps set up nicely for a future focus on the potential for content creation and community collaboration going forward.
1 of 2
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part 2 of 2
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Content warning for this one, brief mentions of darker topics and terms. This one covers a lot of mentoring experiences in both as a mentor and mentee, rgl and ugc's new player experiences, brief talking about what it's like to be a female player in the tf2 comp scene, and a lot of older community drama in general. I think this one has a bit of a different tone and language from my other ones, but I think it's valid all the same. This covers a lot of history that's important to know going forward, and brings back a lot of history we'd like to forget. I really enjoyed hearing all of what katryna had to say, and what unique sort of story the end product is.
Another one that isn't supposed to be a 2 parter but is
This one covers a lot of the casting, administrative, and cross regional experiences of Ire, along with some community experiences. I like the focus we were able to give to casting and the range of topics we covered in the time frame. Really, just hearing the dual perspective from Ire being both a 6s and highlander admin for rgl was also great. Also my first one with a more 6s oriented player which was really neat.
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Part 2 of 2 because file upload limit
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this one talks about a ton of different things. a looot about old player culture, even a bit on successful online relationships, various discussions about how pyro was in the ugc days compared to rgl, and talks about the potential for the community in the future, along with recent community issues. I'm really interested in the idea of maybe setting up some round tables and ways for the community to become more of a community in the future.
part 1 of 2 b/c the upload limit
This one covers a lot of what it's like to be an rgl admin and deal with community initiatives. Covers some recent highlander events and discussions, division size discussion, and map testing briefly. This one had a lot more casual discussing and banter which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing. I definitely respect the initiative he's taking here and I think it's something worth participating in.
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this one mostly covers the concept of social validation in the community, reasoning for rulings/bans, and the initial transition from ugc to rgl and the impact it had. Note that I do not agree with everything said here, but it is not my job to attack everyone over the past. I do think those sorts of dialogues are very important to understand the mindsets people use to justify these sorts of behaviors.
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this one focuses a lot on the experiences of an SA player with their own league, and perspective on RGL as an out of region player. I think it really gives perspective into what it's been like for him, and the potential benefit of regional cooperation.
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this one covers a lot of older ugc memories, rgl staffing experiences, and the mental health effects of being a community figure. I sympathize with darzie over a lot of these things. give them hugs, give cats hugs.
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