Fireside will be losing another key core member of our team as Bethnicz will also be stepping down from the team following the events of Physgun Fireside Denver 2025. Bethnicz has been our lead video editor and content director since July 2023, which would mark NEARLY two years with Fireside!

Initially when Fireside returned with the project Trial By Fireside back in 2021 (2022?), we were only running streams and doing production for matches. Outside of Retrospection Chats, a podcast run by myself (siyo), we had a bunch of ideas for our YouTube channel but neither the time nor the skillset to turn the ideas into a reality. Bringing Bethnicz on board helped up our game and put us on the map with TF2 content creation.

Competitive TF2 is a scene where most of our stories about players and epic moments of the past are primarily passed through word of mouth, and it tends to be the case that there’s little to no documentation of events that happened way back in the past.

TF2’s collective history of almost 2 decades deserves to be validated in a way beyond disappearing YouTube channels and 12 year old forum discussions. But in the process, the reward of making these videos is usually only self-fulfillment, and not compensatory in any meaningful way. Antlers and I had discussed previously about trying to use our platform for documentation and preservation, but nobody encapsulated and pushed that idea further than Bethnicz. 

Competitive TF2 content was relatively outdated before the videos you now see from Youtubers like Wild_Rumpus, along with a few others. Bethnicz came in with a new set of ideas that focused on building storylines and documenting stories, like ROME and Witness Gaming Highlander. Bethnicz also expanded these stories to help introduce newer players to the competitive history of TF2 and pushed forward his ideas in an attempt to fill the gap for new followers of the scene.

Along the way his own skill set grew. It’s incredible to watch the progress of somebody who is as dedicated to growing their unique talents and utilizing them for a vision of making TF2 more accessible to an everyday crowd, and Bethnicz put on a masterclass. You can see some of the videos and projects that Bethnicz had a hand in here, to get an idea of what an impact he’s had on our community.

• This Competitive TF2 Team is Grinding Their Way to the Top of TF2 Esports (ROME)
• How Witness Gaming Highlander Ended a Team Fortress 2 Esports Dynasty
• Recap Series
• North America’s Superteam
• RGL Season 15 Invite LAN Playoffs Interviews and Photos
• Localhost Philly (RESUP.GG Philly LAN 2023) TF2 will be BIG and here's why…
• LOLGUY The Prodigy

I think with Bethnicz we accomplished a goal that we wanted to emphasize at Fireside: to be an organization that could be a springboard for people to grow within and use that to further their skills and prospects. Sure, we may not have put out the best videos, but we tried our best to see our vision through and walk the talk so to say. As Bethnicz moves onto greater things in and outside the competitive TF2 scene, I can confidently say that the work we did not only satisfies that goal, but also fills a much needed area of competitive TF2 content creation that few are willing to take on. 

Antlers had this to say on Bethnicz’s impact on the Fireside team and regarding his path forward:

“It’s always a bittersweet moment to see somebody so integral to the FiresideCasts mission and ethos like Beth, but I know that as I got to see his skills grow, it connected with how Fireside grew, and I am forever thankful for that. I’ll miss working with him in our day-to-day interactions, but I know that he will keep the fire burning and push far past what we were capable of giving him here. Good luck, and thank you for everything.”

And a few words from the man himself, Bethnicz:

“I want to make one thing clear, just because I’m stepping down does not mean two things: 1) I’m leaving TF2, I love it too much to go away. I might do my own projects for the comp TF2 scene or just TF2 in general. 2) TF2 competitive coverage is over. I have hired one person to talk about competitive TF2 and that’s you. Cliche I know minus five frags, but it’s true.

All it takes is basic knowledge of video editing and a smidge of passion for competitive TF2 to actually make something for this community. It doesn’t have to be high quality with 200+ visual effects, you can do a podcast and still achieve something in this community. Whether it be a podcast about your team, making comp TF2 meme compilations, or making a documentary yourself about something you like in this community, people want to listen and see something in the competitive TF2 community. You just have to take the time to do it."