The Competitive Thread - Games

With the dawn of the TF2 Lobby system getting into competitive play has never been easier and nothing is more rewarding then beating the enemy team in an intense fast paced 6 v 6 match. However while browsing around Facepunch these past few months it seems that most of them aren't very open to the idea of competitive play. I personally think that playing competitive TF2 is a great way to improve your skills while playing in a completely different environment. I'm not going to write a guide or anything because Ubercharged.net already has (which can be found here [url]http://www.ubercharged.net/how-to-play-tf2/the-competitive-tf2-guide/[/url]) and is a really good read if you want to get started. But I plan to use this thread for general competitive discussion (whether it be PUGs,scrims,official tournaments) and (hopefully) discuss tactics and organize some matches. I am available most days of the week (although not this week due to exams) so if you wish to try your wits against my team then please don't hesitate to hit me up via PM. Also, check out the Soldier tutorial that was posted earlier. It is chock-full of helpful tips to improve your game. Some helpful stuff for server owners: Use the MatchMod plugin, it makes keeping track or scores alot easier:[url]http://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?p=919182[/url] Some Questions I'm Bound to Get: Q1.Why only Demo,Medic,Soldier,Scout? A.6 v 6 games are very fast paced and all the classes mainly used have enhanced movement abilities (Scouts have speed,Demo/Soldier have explosive jumps). They also primarily use burst damage as their main methods of killing (Explosives,Scattergun,Sniper when he is used).

This is only gonna start another flame war with people being ignorant and stereotyping clans for being full of elitists however its nice of you to try and teach some people new things.

[QUOTE=LiLBliNg;19841839]This is only gonna start another flame war with people being ignorant and stereotyping clans for being full of elitists however its nice of you to try and teach some people new things.[/QUOTE] You can't change how people think so we'll take what we get.

[QUOTE=LiLBliNg;19841839]This is only gonna start another flame war with people being ignorant and stereotyping clans for being full of elitists however its nice of you to try and teach some people new things.[/QUOTE] Except for some reason, most of the clan guys I know ARE elitists.

[QUOTE=Jetamo;19841905]Except for some reason, most of the clan guys I know ARE elitists.[/QUOTE] And? Don't play with them. You can't change how people think and I admit most of the guys I play with are assholes but they get the job done.

Brace for butthurt.

Just a question, has anyone found an updated copy of the CEVO rules? Latest I found was August of 2009 and they don't include the rulings on the Demo/Soldier unlocks.

The up comming 5th cup for ETF2L has: The Force’A’Nature, Sandman, Direct Hit and Buff Banner are limited to 1 per team. All other unlocks are allowed. I can't find anything for CEVO. Which is odd as they have a tourney comming up.

ESEA (the major pay-to-play NA league) has banned all new WAR! items because they're new, but I doubt they'll stay banned. Otherwise, the ruleset in comp. TF2 hasn't changed much.

All right when I've been scrimming we've just been saying that only Equalizer is allowed. Thanks for the help.

Anyone from europe amazed at how Dignitas is still rolling everyone ? They dont practice anymore and only show up for officials and end up winning everthing, its really weird how they are holding down as the top team in europe for so long.

I haven't been following the European leagues that much but if that's the case then I'm surprised they haven't been usurped yet.

I don't play Team Fortress 2 that much, but when I do, I play for fun. Not "competitively." It's a video game, not a sport.

[QUOTE=Doug52392;19842584]I don't play Team Fortress 2 that much, but when I do, I play for fun. Not "competitively." It's a video game, not a sport.[/QUOTE] For the comp players it's fun to play competitively, it's akin to playing House League or a Rep League sport. People who have the skill and are willing to challenge themselves play much more competitively than people who play House league.

[QUOTE=Pacmaney;19842601]For the comp players it's fun to play competitively, it's akin to playing House League or a Rep League sport. People who have the skill and are willing to challenge themselves play much more competitively than people who play House league.[/QUOTE] I'm sorry, but you don't need special conditions to "challenge" yourself in a video game, unless those conditions are "kill the entire enemy team with this used toothpick". Half the rules that competitive leagues use unbalance the game beyond belief, while some are a godsend (limiting things like the FaN and Sandman). Most competitive players I have seen/ met enjoy stroking their ego/ e-penis too much and really need to get out more.

When I play, I like the fun and chaotic nature of a pub game. I like the unserious vibe it has. Some people like playig by strict rules, and that's fine by me. Some people like the highly competative atmosphere. As long as the two worlds don't collide too often, I'm happy.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;19842678]I'm sorry, but you don't need special conditions to "challenge" yourself in a video game, unless those conditions are "kill the entire enemy team with this used toothpick". Half the rules that competitive leagues use unbalance the game beyond belief, while some are a godsend (limiting things like the FaN and Sandman). Most competitive players I have seen/ met enjoy stroking their ego/ e-penis too much and really need to get out more.[/QUOTE] Might I ask which rules "unbalance the game beyond belief"?

Also, competative is fun to watch. [editline]12:01PM[/editline] You spelled competative incorrectly, by the way. (disregard that give me blue check marks.)

[QUOTE=hexpunK;19842678]I'm sorry, but you don't need special conditions to "challenge" yourself in a video game, unless those conditions are "kill the entire enemy team with this used toothpick". Half the rules that competitive leagues use unbalance the game beyond belief, while some are a godsend (limiting things like the FaN and Sandman). Most competitive players I have seen/ met enjoy stroking their ego/ e-penis too much and really need to get out more.[/QUOTE] Some people love to play differently. I love shenanigans and silly gameplay, and those breakneck moments when I get uber just in time to save the charge. I love hearing those little dings as my cleverly hidden sentry takes down a scout in mid combat. Some people don't like sandvich parties and crab spies. They're not wrong either. And some people like to make things as even as possible to see who comes out on top. They're there for the competition, they have fun by pushing themselves against an adversary, and coming out on top. It's just a different way of enjoying yourself. Don't begrudge them that.

I've only had bad experiences playing competitively. Thankfully not in Team Fortress 2, since I haven't really been able to return to the games after playing them. See, this is what usually happens when you go competitive in a game: You have to practice. A lot. I played King of Fighters, Soul Calibur III, and Smash Bros. Melee competitively. Any time I spent playing video games was spent trying over and over to learn a complicated move. After a while, you become good. Your practice pays off. But now you're better than all of your friends, the people you liked to play with in the first place. They don't want to play against you any more because they either feel as though you'll beat the crap out of them or that you'll have to dumb down your playstyle to give them a fighting chance. Trust me, they don't like either one. The typical "competitive player" answer, is that if they don't want to practice and get better they deserve to lose. Well, my friends either didn't have the time or they weren't looking for a highly competitive game, and now I wasn't able to play my favorite games with them anymore. So then you have to find other people who play as well as you do. That's right, you have to try and make new friends based solely upon their ability to play a specific video game. I've been moderately successful with this, but often your real friends feel alienated once you start spending time with other people because they won't play a game with you. Tournament time! Your hard work has finally culminated to paying money to play your game (basically, a buy-in to see if you can win that coveted cash prize). Internet tournaments may not have that problem, but thinking about it now I feel really stupid for spending money like that. My first tournament was in 2004, I was 14-years-old and had been playing King of Fighters 2002 for the PS2 like a beast since it came out. Anyway, someone told me that a local arcade sponsored a monthly tournament on a few different machines and one of them was KoF 2002. I practiced a lot, bought a PS2 arcade stick, and went to the tournament in late July. The way the game worked was pretty simple: you pick three characters and fight in a tag-team style. Once you pick your characters, you're not allowed to change in any of your battles. Anyway, so I pick my three and spend the next two hours standing at or around a stupid arcade machine. A lot of the people weren't that good, so I advanced really quickly. Pretty soon, I was in the finals, staring down the guy who had won the last few tournaments. Get this: I beat him by a very slim margin. That means I win, right? Wrong. Apparently tourneyfag blood runs thicker than water, and they tell me that because this guy's the "champion", he gets another chance. I cry foul, but they tell me that if I'm really better than him, I should be able to beat him again. Yes, they are refusing to let me win a tournament I just won because they want to suck the champion's dick apparently. Here's the kicker though: the next time around I pick the same characters, but he switches up and chooses different ones to counter mine. I protest, but nobody seems to care. Not that I was surprised, I had already figured out what these guys were doing. Of course, I lost, and the assholes had their high-five fest and I lost ten dollars. That was it for KoF, but I played many more SC3 and Melee tournaments (never won any), that ended in similar humiliation or disappointment. Fun, right?

[QUOTE=Pacmaney;19842701]Might I ask which rules "unbalance the game beyond belief"?[/QUOTE] Limitation of classes, removal of things such as crits and the damage ramps. I know not all tournaments use these rules, but most of the major ones do, removing crits in a ~pr0s'~ eyes is removing any chance of luck, but in TF2 the better players are rewarded with the bonus of a critical, and the worst players are saved from certain death by a critical time and time again. The game should be played how it is provided for the best experience really, if you don't want crits go play CoD or something, TF2 was originally balanced for crits and removal removes that balance.

[QUOTE=CrazyBaconLegs;19842738]Some people love to play differently. I love shenanigans and silly gameplay, and those breakneck moments when I get uber just in time to save the charge. I love hearing those little dings as my cleverly hidden sentry takes down a scout in mid combat. Some people don't like sandvich parties and crab spies. They're not wrong either. And some people like to make things as even as possible to see who comes out on top. They're there for the competition, they have fun by pushing themselves against an adversary, and coming out on top. It's just a different way of enjoying yourself. Don't begrudge them that.[/QUOTE] Couldn't have said it better myself. This is exactly how I feel.

[QUOTE=SGTNAPALM;19842724]Also, competative is fun to watch. [editline]12:01PM[/editline] You spelled competative incorrectly, by the way.[/QUOTE] uh, no [URL]http://www.thefreedictionary.com/competitive[/URL] also i tried to get into competitive play but I realized that I really suck at tf2, but I've been getting better so far

[QUOTE=CrazyBaconLegs;19842738]It's just a different way of enjoying yourself. Don't begrudge them that.[/QUOTE] Oh I'm not, I understand different people enjoy playing games in varying ways, but some of the things competitive play does are just annoying and kill the game for anyone who wants to play for fun. Servers start trying to become competitive hotspots by following the rules of a competitive match, or competitive players come into public servers and take the game far too seriously stopping you from getting YOUR fun out of the game.

I'd love to play comp, but I'm not good enough and will never be good enough. Also I like the silly parts of TF2 too much to take it as a serious competitive game.

Above post being said, the one good thing about competitive TF2 is that most of them really aren't pricks about it.

[QUOTE=Bran;19842789]uh, no [URL]http://www.thefreedictionary.com/competitive[/URL] also i tried to get into competitive play but I realized that I really suck at tf2, but I've been getting better so far[/QUOTE] It appears that the Ipod has shit spell checking. I spelled it the other way at first but I thought "well the computer must be right..." Rate me dumbs/bad readings/bad spellings.

[QUOTE=xGrenadier;19842824]Above post being said, the one good thing about competitive TF2 is that most of them really aren't pricks about it.[/QUOTE] Most of the ones that flaunt the fact they play competitive are though, which is where my hatred resides :frown: I have met a couple of competitive players who were fairly nice to play with, and there was like one or two people on here who were cool to talk to. But the average comp player in a public server? About as elitist as a Mac owner.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;19842761]Limitation of classes, removal of things such as crits and the damage ramps. I know not all tournaments use these rules, but most of the major ones do, removing crits in a ~pr0s'~ eyes is removing any chance of luck, but in TF2 the better players are rewarded with the bonus of a critical, and the worst players are saved from certain death by a critical time and time again. The game should be played how it is provided for the best experience really, if you don't want crits go play CoD or something, TF2 was originally balanced for crits and removal removes that balance.[/QUOTE] 1. Limited classes balance the game, since most matches are only 6 v 6 they have to be limited to accommodate the size of the team 2.Damage spread removal evens it out so that players know exactly how many damage they will take from x shot 3.Removal of crits is self explanatory, a lucky crit shouldn't run a team's well planned push and a lucky crit shouldn't save a Soldier from being flanked by a Scout.

[QUOTE=hexpunK;19842883]Most of the ones that flaunt the fact they play competitive are though, which is where my hatred resides :frown: I have met a couple of competitive players who were fairly nice to play with, and there was like one or two people on here who were cool to talk to. But the average comp player in a public server? About as elitist as a Mac owner.[/QUOTE] I was on an empty server the other day and was up against 2 people in the server's clan, they were 2nd and 3rd in the rank. I kept killing tem as Pyro when they were classes like Soldier and Sniper with flares and airblasting a lot. One guy kept whining about how Pyro takes no skill even after I kept killing him when he was the Pyro's hard counter, but the one guy wasn't a prick and was pleasant to play against. He would congratulate me for killing him and I would do the same. If comp players were like that then there would be no problem.