Arontimes tangents

Looking back to decades ago, I once participated in fighting game tournaments with a total prize pool of less than $20. Early in SC1's lifetime, before Brood War was released, my friends and I participated in a 4v4 tournament with $20 going to first place (had we won, we would've gotten a whopping $5 each). I also recall a 1v1 tournament shortly before Brood War was released with $10 going to 1st place.
Esports has been around for a long time, long before the term was coined, but we didn't treat those games less seriously just because we couldn't break even even with a 1st place finish.

People change over time, though. Looking through my earliest posts on TeamLiquid.net, I was basically a Starcraft elitist who looked down on DotA. Now I'm practically a Valve shill considering how much I praise the game. I'm a fucking sellout. :D

Speaking of Overwatch, the main reason I'm not playing Overwatch is because Blizzard fucked over Starcraft 2 (and Diablo 3, but I don't play that game anymore so it's less of an issue with me). I know they have different dev teams on OW and SC2 and D3, but like my EA boycott, I'm never buying another Blizzard game again until they've proven that they're through with fucking over their players.
Conversely, I play TF2 because of the goodwill Valve has with me in their other ventures: DotA, Counterstrike, the Steam platform, and Steam hardware.

Yes, matchmaking as it exists right now is how it's supposed to work. This isn't a surprise to anyone who particpates in the matchmaking systems of other, more established multiplayer games. In my case, these are DotA 2, Starcraft 2, and many other games I've played in the past.
I am also very pleased to hear you mention the importance of making the most out of the bad players ("dead weight") on your team. This is an important piece of advice that helped me climb the DotA 2 ladder; I stopped worrying about the bad players on my team once I realized that the enemy team has an equal chance of having bad players amongst them as well.
Furthermore, it is taken for granted in the DotA 2 community that you should not employ pro-level strategies unless you have pro-level teammates and opponents. My main hero in DotA 2 is Chen, who is a very powerful hero in competitive DotA 2 but is one of the least played heroes in pubs. He gets banned a lot in pro games but is almost unseen in pub matches (unless you're a Chen main like myself).
The problem we have here is that our player base wants to employ pro-level strategies in what is obviously a 6v6 ranked pub. It doesn't work that way in other games. You can't just build a community around the best of the best. There has to be room for lesser players if greater players exist.

I am an RTS purist but not an elitist
Yes. I am a Diamond 3 Terran.

Here's something I experienced a few weeks ago, against a much younger player (young enough to be my son if I bothered having any children).
Aron's Opponent: "[[Path to Exile]] your [[Tasigur, the Golden Fang]]."
Aron Times: "Sure."
I put Tasigur into my exile zone and pick up my library to begin searching for a basic land.
Aron's Opponent: "Wait, in response, I cast [[Aven Mindcensor]]."
Aron Times: "That's not how it works. Exiling my creature and searching for a basic land are all part of Path to Exile. You can't cast anything while a spell is resolving. I know what you're trying to do, and you should've cast Aven Mindcensor and then Path to Exile without passing priority first. Even if you did that, I can just counter or burn your bird before Path to Exile resolves."
The judge is called. We both explain what he is trying to do. The judge confirms that I was right.

The person who got me interested in competitive Magic, and the reason I am a Spike today, was a really nice guy who gave me a good first impression of the competitive community. I emulate the way he treated me when I was in my Timmy phase.

I've been following TF2 since 1999, when I first played Team Fortress Classic. It had been announced in 1998 as a standalone sequel to the Team Fortress mod for Quake. It was due to be released in 2000.
Meanwhile, we had these video clips that showed off the game's features. Note that these clips predate YouTube and widespread broadband Internet access, and it took a long time to download and then play them.
Kudos to this YouTube channel for preserving the history of TF2. We waited nine years for this game. "Team Fortress 2 released!" was our version of "Half-Life 3 confirmed!"

In PvP multiplayer games where you are allowed to choose the map (or any other settings), some players eventually focus on one map to the exclusion of everything else. I used to call this "one-mapping," and it frustrated me to no end around the turn of the millennium.
The first two games I played extensively online were Warcraft 3 and C&C: Generals. Warcraft 3's ladder only allowed for limited map vetoes, while C&C: Generals allowed you to choose just a single map (unlimited map vetoes). Warcraft 3 ladder games had more variety in terms of map choice, while a lot of the tryhards in Generals played solely on Tournament Desert.

So here's what happened in other games:
Non-TF2 Game I Care About	What Happened in that Game
Magic: the Gathering	The Magic community collectively flipped out with the recently previewed cards for Modern Masters 2017. Many popular, out-of-print cards are going to be reprinted in this set. WotC even laid to rest a long-running meme by reprinting Damnation, whose long absence has achieved meme status in the community.
Path of Exile	Breach League just ended and we're about to start Legacy League. Also, earlier this month, Grinding Gear Games announced not one, not two, but six whole new Acts for Path of Exile. Later this year, the Fall of Oriath expansion lets players play from Act 1 to Act 10 in one single playthrough (instead of five Acts split between three difficulty levels).
Defense of the Ancients 2	LUL. Also, this is a thing. Day9 + Purge OTP
Pillars of Eternity	The campaign for PoE 2 ended but you can still donate.
Overwatch	Following in the footsteps of Hat Simulator, Overwatch is once again doing cryptic teasers for their next update: 1 2