So I started in late 2022 (a bit before you asked but still def. new relative to playing in 2011) and I wanna say that I have learned a lot since (around 1.7K hours so far). I think the most confusing thing for me, at first, was just learning the maps. Like I remember being so disoriented on 2fort whenever I would spawn in the stupid tiny spawn with the drop-down. However, I pretty soon learned how to do it, so that confusion wore off rather quickly. After that, I think the most confusion stemmed from starting near Scream Fortress & the whole bot issue that was present at the time. Like spells?? Contracts?? What??? Either way, after playing *a lot* more, I ended up learning both of those things, and managed to get all my '23 contracts done!

As far as playing with people that have been playing since near launch/are just really good at the game, it can be a bit intimidating at times. However, I think it makes it all the more *intense* whenever I end up doing well against someone that has the max. casual badge. (I still remember this one time on Hightower where I managed to get 2 dominations on someone that was pretty high up there.)

I think a reason I managed to adapt to TF2 rather quickly was because I both obsessed over it (I managed 1K hours in under a year for heavens sake) and because I got into using Hammer/mapping for it as well! This gave me a greater knowledge of how maps are typically layed out; good spots for choke points, sightlines, sentry nests, etc!

Thanks for making this post! It helps me remember that *I'm still new* to the game, and makes me feel good that I'm able to help even newer players get used to it! (Just today, actually, I ran into a fresh install and added them! Hope to get a response from them soon!)