TF2 – A journey to above average.
I’ve always been fortunate enough to pick up new games quickly and hover at the “above average” skill level with relative ease. After a solid 2 year break from all sorts of gaming other than the rare bi-monthly game of Quake 3 (my all time favourite competitive e-sports game) against my roommate at the time, Team Fortress 2 was released. Being a big fan of Team Fortress Classic for the original Half-Life and the apparent focus on “fun” game-play I decided to take the plunge and give it a bash.
Going completely against the grain of conventional game development style, Valve did a fantastic job. TF2 has a lot of its promised attributes, when you first play the game it really is just good silly fun. After you spend some time getting used to the feel of the game’s engine and general game-play flow there is also a huge opportunity for seriously fast paced highly skilled team fps gaming.
The learning curve isn’t as dramatic as well established competitive games such as Warcraft III or Quake 3; but it’s there. The engine allows for great air movement harking back to Q1 or Q3 CPMA with the Soldier and Demoman having the ability to send themselves flying with a rocket or sticky jump respectively and even a touch of Unreal Tournament with the Scout’s double jump ability. Another variable to worry about is the sheer variance of game-play, with 9 different classes to shoot at you’re forced to adopt a plethora of different styles depending on which class you bump into next.
Sufficiently bored and annoyed by public play I shifted my sights to the more serious pickup community. Pickup games are similar to pub in the way that they’re played by whoever is around, though they follow tournament rules and structure which strongly differs from pub in my favour. Particularly with regards to pickups being 6 vs. 6 games (compared to 12 vs. 12 pub) with the following class limitations: no more than two of the following classes – Soldier, Sniper, Scout, Pyro, Heavy, Engi, Spy. No more than one of the following classes – Medic, Demoman. With Pyro, Heavy, Engi and Spys being very rare in pickup play.
A very brief description of each classes function and usage in pickup games:
Scout (43.2 hours): By far the fastest moving class the scout does what his name alludes to. The first one into battle the scout normally calls the initial observations for the enemy’s strategy and tries to inflict early casualties. Most rounds start with the 2 scouts from each team having a quick battle over the middle capture point. These battles are normally quick and fruitless as in general the scout should stay alive here rather than risk his own death for a kill. Once the initial scout battle has calmed down they’ll begin hunting down the lone Demoman and Medic. Killing either of these 2 classes early in a round can hugely influence the outcome of not only the battle for the first point but the team’s momentum for an entire round.
Soldier (14.1 hours): Each of the game’s 2 soldiers has a rather different mandate. The “defensive” soldier quite obviously plays defensively; he will hug the Medic the whole game forming the solid foundation for the team. This is the player who will normally be calling the shots for the team, setting up defensive positions and calling attack routes. The “attacking” soldier is a bit more of a loose cannon, he will play more aggressively than the other soldier, often getting more kills and being more destructive, while dying more often in the process.
Demoman (6.9 hours): The Demoman is an absolute enigma to me. I’ve only racked up around 7 hours of game-play with the Demoman and I just can’t get to grips with this class. Even though the person playing demoman in a pickup will more than likely end up with the lowest score at the end of a match, he is an absolutely crucial player on both defense and offense. With the ability to set deadly traps with sticky bombs and lay down heavy spam cover fire with pipe bombs, he strikes fear into anyone trying to get through a choke or sit on a capture point during battle. I’ve been asked more than a few times to “please be a bit softer” by my brother because I tend to get a bit loud when exclaiming “demoman down!” on the mic to teammates.
Medic (5.3 hours): In all honesty I find playing as a Medic rather boring. Not that he is a useless class at all, just that it requires a much safer and slower style of play than I prefer. The medic, along with the demoman, is a scout’s top targets, and you are constantly being harassed with very little in the way of defending yourself, other than hiding behind your defensive soldier. On the flip when you play with a solid medic his presence is definitely felt, keeping the whole team on full health and forming the foundation with the defensive soldier.
Engineer (3.9 hours): The engineer is very rarely used, other than for initial defense on capture point B on Gravelpit.
Sniper (5.9 hours): Sniper’s are primarily used for very rare and short periods of time during a game usually to take out an opposing team’s medic when attacking the last capture point; dramatically swinging the advantage to the attacking side.
Heavy (3.4 hours): Sometimes if a team is being dominated one of the scouts will switch to heavy for a little extra strength on the defense.
Pyro (2.5 hours): Pyro is used as a last ditch defense tool, similar to that of the heavy.
Spy (0.8 hours): The spy class is used similarly to that of the sniper. He will be called upon to get a sneakily kill on an enemy’s medic or destroy an engineer’s sentry gun.
At the time of writing this I’ve played 86 pickup games. I’ve gone from a completely unknown player constantly being picked last (also known as “being the fat kid”) to a, and I say this tentatively, respected Scout in the pickup community. I say it tentatively because I am by no means the best; with most of the people having played >300 hours in their class of choice, I’m happy at above average on my ~40 hours. Taking the game a little more seriously has been a lot of fun. Even though the games are social events with no prizes or clan affiliations there is the definite serious undertone, everyone has a little something to prove which tends to bring out the best.
If any of the slang confused you check out the TF2Wiki along with GotFrag’s “A Beginner’s Guide to Competitive TF2“; alternatively get hold of me and I’d be more than happy to discuss.
Author: n1c
Blog: Geek Issues
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Naaice n1c. What nick did you use to use in TFC days cause I was a big player of TFC back in the day. Majority of the time number 1 engineer.
Hey; to be honest it was so long ago I actually can’t remember! Though the chances are it was probably HoaX / hoax.
I spent a lot of time playing with the guys (from a clan I can’t remember now) SlyFly, Ex0duz, Bio-Hazard, MOnk etc.
Its Pvt Parts, I do for remember you man.
Awesome; when I saw your name I thought it was a bit familiar, but this was like… 8/9 years ago?
If you haven’t played TF2 yet I hope my little writeup didn’t put you off – engie is the most played class and he’s pretty fun; just not used all that much for competitive play.
http://www.steampowered.com/status/tf2/tf2_stats.php
Yeah played it a bit, enjoyed it, but The requirements and having to get steam updates now is going to make me eMo lol. so yeah. Do any of the old guys from SoAr still play cause that was the clan that most of them were from back then? I remember lopedog when he went to the states and tried to join our games lol gg
Not that I know of; I haven’t seen any names I recognize. Most of the guys have moved on since.
Are you from Durban by any chnace cause you look familiar?
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I am indeed!
Ahh i met you at Olivers place the once for a lan!! lol what a koinky dinky lol. Damn the world is small, please make some space.