Just a quick update on the status of the iT! servers - some of you may have noticed that Jump iT, Surf iT, and JuJump iT all have fewer slots than they used to. Due to a much lower average player count I am downsizing the servers a bit. SuSurf iT and Surf iT - EU are very graciously provided to us for free from tragicservers.com (who you should all be buying from if you need servers!!!) so their slots will not be changing.
I am going to get a little personal since I know there are a lot of people out there who love the servers almost as much as I do - So here is a little update... I am leaving my job today (my last day
) after 7 1/2 years and taking a new position where my starting salary will be significantly smaller than my current one. Changing jobs was never something I planned on or ever even though about, but life throws one hell of a curveball and sometimes you have to take a huge step back to even think about going forward... life lessons bitches. Take notes. Anyways I have been very very fortunate at this old job and was able to manage the servers / babysit you guys on irc all day while at work. I also had the luxury of being pretty carefree about money, which is pretty evident in the expansion from 1 jump server to 6 jump / surf / bball / MGE servers in the US, a new EU surf server, and sponsorship of TF2 teams in the last few seasons (
YOU SHOULD ALL BE WATCHING AND CHEERING AT EVERY GAME BTW!!!). I have absolutely LOVED being able to provide all of this, and I really do feel like the servers are my children.
Since so much is changing for me in my real life, I really felt like this was the time to retire the iT servers and was planning on shutting everything down in February 2014 after ESEA LAN (since Team iT will be going). I was going to give whoever wanted to put up replacement servers access to the ftp to get whatever files they need then saying goodnight to the iT family. I have spent so much time thinking about what to do with the servers over the past week its almost embarrassing... but thats how much I love what has become of these misfit servers. I cant imagine ever letting someone take over for me because I have this view of my servers and their reputation that I wouldnt want anyone to tarnish... but thinking about shutting them down altogether is heartbreaking.
Right now I do not know what is going to happen, but snipping some empty slots off the servers was a good start, and I felt it was the right thing to do to let everyone know in advance about the possibility of the servers shutting down so if someone DID want to put something up they would have plenty of time. No matter what happens though, I cannot say enough thank yous to everyone for all the love and support these servers have received over the past 3 years. You guys are the only reason that these servers were successful... thank you thank you thank you.