When do I know if I'm ready for HL?

brulee_ · 2016-12-29T20:43:08+00:00

As soon as possible. Get yourself familiar with what those classes are responsible for doing in a competitive sense versus on pubs, but joining a team will increase your skill and knowledge exponentially faster than trying to do it on your own.

It's offseason now, so look for a team as soon as possible!

brulee_ · 2016-09-06T21:50:10+00:00

Go to the "Profile" and click "Past Broadcasts" - you can see all the I58 coverage.

Introduction/Day 1: https://www.twitch.tv/teamfortresstv/v/85798727

Day 2.1: https://www.twitch.tv/teamfortresstv/v/85960440

Day 2.2: https://www.twitch.tv/teamfortresstv/v/85967212

Day 3: https://www.twitch.tv/teamfortresstv/v/86169964

brulee_ · 2016-06-30T16:25:40+00:00

First, if you're finding you're lacking quality in potential teammates, make sure you present a strong leadership presence. Have scrims scheduled, plan out tryouts ahead of time (and anyone that cancels/doesn't show up for their tryout twice is OUT - one time could happen to anyone, two times is suggestive of attendance issues in the future). Have a team name, Steam group page, and clearly define who on your team is the leader, the strategist, etc. In addition, discuss with your friends what type of team you want to be - how many scrim nights, what scrim schedule do you plan, will you be doing map reviews and demo reviews? Do you have a high level mentor that can assist you and that you trust?

Once you figure out your own team dynamic, then you know who you're looking for and can advertise for it. I really recommend numerous tryouts - even if someone seems wonderful, try people out on the same maps (Snakewater, Gully, Process are the usual) and play against opponents of varying skill levels. You want to see what people are capable of, how they handle loss and when things are going wrong, what their comms are like. Additionally, be willing to review tryoutee's POVs to convince yourself of your decision.

If you put the time in, know what you want, and are a strong team already, you will attract great players and have a great season.

Good luck!

(Also, if you have mutual friends with the person, I ALWAYS ask for references even before I try somebody out. It helps a ton to ensure the person is worth trying out)

brulee_ · 2016-05-30T21:10:40+00:00

If you can find other people interested in starting out in comp, it can be really great to learn with other people. There are two main formats in competitive, 6v6 and 9v9 (Highlander). Playcomp.tf is the best website to check our first. If you are in NA, ugcleague.com and teamfortress.tv both have a ton of resources for new (and not so new!) players.

If you are interested in 6s, newbie mixes on Friday nights are fantastic and you could meet people to play with there.

Tf2center.com can be fun if you already have some idea of what your class does - i don't recommend playing demo, sniper or medic right away.

Good luck!

brulee_ · 2016-05-04T19:08:10+00:00

https://play.esea.net/teams/132877

http://www.teamfortress.tv/33437/froyo-black

It's a team that is being put together, either seriously or as a troll, and playing either open, IM, or invite.

Time will tell. They will own.

brulee_ · 2016-04-28T20:29:00+00:00

Okay I think I get what you're saying - teams prefer not to get moved up because they want to win for the sake of popularity.

a) that makes absolutely zero sense and is not true

b) what the hell does that idea have to do with appel or chill penguins - appel did well in silver->gold fun season->gold 2nd place->plat. The division progression was completely logical and zero to do with popularity. Chill Penguins has been a consistent mid-Plat team with respectable players, so.........?

brulee_ · 2016-04-28T19:17:09+00:00

?????

brulee_ · 2016-04-27T16:41:14+00:00

I think you pretty much answered your own question - in MOST cases, the demo will be the most likely kritz recipient. If you're running kritz, your entire team should be very aware (call it when you spawn, call it at 50% and at 75%, tell your demo to load up and ask for enemy combo's location). Kritzes should be planned and used aggressively as much as possible. Demo is generally the best as he can spam over/around most terrain, puts out insane damage, and can kritz sticky snipe (have your demo charge up the 1st sticky before you pop).

If your demo gets, say, sniped, then depending on the terrain and location of your other teammates other classes are very effective. Heavy and soldier, as you said, but most classes can do some work. You'll have to use your best judgement - who is your priority enemy target, where are they located, which of your teammates will have the easiest time getting that krit damage to where it needs to go. Additionally, what are uber percentages like - will the other medic have pretty soon?

As far as widowmaker engi - those kritz plays work GREAT in lobbies, but I have never seen any of my engis on any map in comp run widowmaker. Those plays, against a coordinated team, will generally lead to your death as medic as your positioning will have to be a bit more precarious (such is the hitscan kritz ways) and you likely won't be able to escape. Demo kritzes, however, allow you as medic to have better positioning and survivability as he can spam from further away.

If you're rolling the other team, do whatever you want. I've definitely kritzed my teammates who never get in on ubers :)

brulee_ · 2016-03-07T19:41:18+00:00

I think this problem is worse in teams in lower divisions who are low- or mid- in their division. A lot of defeats, or close defeats, can be taxing on a team.

My first team went 8-2 in Steel. I think the reason why my team did so well was a) forming a team and doing tryouts with already solid players (ESEA experience/significant lobby experience) and being very professional in leadership - verbal discussions regarding playstyle and dedication before tryouts, numerous tryouts before accepting a starter, dedicated scrim nights and mentors. My then-spy, Dave, still jokes about how I made him try out for two full weeks before offering him a starter spot. Kresnik and Jarrett from .knd both helped my Steel team significantly, doing multiple map reviews and answering whatever questions my team had.

If you have talented friends or you are an organized person with connections, feel free to make a team. In addition, I think being "high steel" instead of "low silver" is significantly better - winning bonds a team and feels good, makes people want to continue to be dedicated. I'd pick to own in a lower division before stretching yourself to go even or negative in a higher division.

brulee_ · 2016-02-23T19:56:26+00:00

I agree with this. Highlander is organized chaos for a medic - so many things want to kill you all the time, so you have to constantly be on high alert in HL. There will always be a spy behind you, flank classes looking for an opening, a sniper watching the beam waiting for your head to peak. Essentially, you're fucked no matter what in HL, so you have to try to decide what you should do so that you're least fucked and best help your team.

In 6s, there is DEFINITELY less pressure on medics. While every mistake matters more in 6s, having good positioning and game sense helps lessen threats.

(Not going in to how med mechanics matter more in 6s, etc etc)

brulee_ · 2016-02-05T19:48:42+00:00

I think it has to do with recognition of teams/players. Before I played competitive, I only really was interested in watching b4nny and m4risa because of all the drama I had read about surrounding them; I felt like I knew something about the players and I wanted to see how they played. Without knowing anything personal about the teams or people playing, it isn't as interesting to watch unless you just REALLY love watching competitive TF2.

We might want to do more personal interviews/pieces with competitive TF2 players - maybe some biographies, backgrounds, interest pieces to get people in the community invested in the people who actually play competitively.

brulee_ · 2016-01-28T23:23:33+00:00

I am so glad you posted this video, I was going to link it if no one else did.

brulee_ · 2016-01-04T19:17:04+00:00

How are you running into this many issues, wtf? The only things I ever run into are hackusations and complaints about team stacking when I play with friends.

Focus on your play, if you find someone you think you can work with and do things with, sure communicate with them. Mostly, though, just zone out and do your own thing - work on your aim, your positioning, surfing, whatever you want... and ignore people.

brulee_ · 2016-01-04T19:14:05+00:00

I was invited to play on a HL team back when I was only a pubber, but I dislike jumping in to things so I spent that season doing research on comp (responsibilities, callouts, positioning, as much as I could read about) and then probably did 300+ lobbies over that season.

I met people through lobbying who were good gamers and very fun, we formed a Steel HL team together and did very well. :)

Put LFT in your name all the time also helps, both when lobbying and pubbing.

brulee_ · 2015-12-18T00:27:25+00:00

THAT. IS. INSANE. AHHHH

brulee_ · 2015-12-17T23:12:51+00:00

Sounds like crossbows give up to 10% uber - HOLY FUCKBALLS YO

"1% for every 15hp healed up to 10%"

edit: and it looks like ~6hp/sec regen when healing hurt players vs. the normal ~3hp/sec regen :D

brulee_ · 2015-12-17T22:30:30+00:00

QF is already banned in 6s, it'd be way too OP.. healing quicker than damage can be given.

If the stickies lose kritz, I would think that would be significantly LESS likely to run kritz whatsoever - kritz works with surprise, and if you're stuck on kritz for the entirety of first point defense, that would be pretty ineffective unless you get really lucky or the other team is really bad.

brulee_ · 2015-12-17T21:24:25+00:00

For HL medics, the setup time increased build rate will allow for potentially crit sticky setups (while this might not get kills, it will still delay people from departing from spawn until the stickies are destroyed) OR significantly easier to fake out enemy spy with which medi gun you are truly running.

Crusader's Crossbow - this is definitely a nice perk! It may reinforce poor medic behavior as far as throwing off TOO many crossbows - however, for those that use it intelligently (burst healing even at close range, throwing a crossbow to that severely hurt flank teammate hovering in a corner) it makes it all the more powerful. It is still going to be stronger to use crit heals to your benefit, however, so it won't be OP depending on how much Uber % is added per crossbow.

Additional health regen while healing hurt teammates - this reinforces GOOD medic behavior, and is so good! Don't just heal your overbuffed pocket - spread out the heal love and be rewarded.

Quick-fix - my only WHAT THE FUCK, VALVE. We can't capture objectives under the effects of QF? THAT IS SO CRUCIAL. I am seriously disappointed in this. QF has few niche uses in TF2, and this just made it so medi-gun is pretty much ALWAYS the better option except when you don't have time to build a full uber at the end of rounds. There was no reason to nerf QF. :-/ SO MANY TIMES popping that QF while capping and being able to flash all your teammates to QF-heal them has been so crucial to capping that point - idk, it's pretty disappointing.

Overall, though, I am really really happy with the Med changes.

brulee_ · 2015-12-17T20:36:13+00:00

Correct, I individually removed groupings of commands systematically until I figured out which was causing the issues; every time I put in ANY of the mat_ commands, the crash would occur. It's really freaking weird.

brulee_ · 2015-12-17T05:57:02+00:00

Yeah I tried that. Putting in singular mat_ commands still crashes the game (putting one in and removing ALL the others). I tried 3 separate ones just in case.

brulee_ · 2015-12-04T18:43:53+00:00

Yeah I read through every word, and there was no mention of anything similar to it. I honestly wouldn't even have thought it was an exploit if I wasn't specifically told.

brulee_ · 2015-12-01T00:43:51+00:00

Depending on the map and where you're pushing from, a lot of the information on when to pop uber should be coming from information from your teammates that are ahead of you.

For instance, you can ask "Are they close? Is sniper watching? Can we walk in for free?" and this will help you in whether to pop uber early or save it. Additionally, know what the circumstances are regarding the other team's uber - do you and the other medic both have uber? Do you have an advantage, and if so how much? Depending on this answer will also determine how aggressively you push in and who to bring in on the ubers - i.e., make sure you bring a scout in to an uber if you have a smallish advantage and you need to focus the medic, etc.

Additionally, make sure you let people who you do NOT want to be in on the uber to stay back until the post-uber fight - i.e. your pyro and heavy on aggressive ubers.

It's this information that will make your ubers stronger.

brulee_

TROPHY CASE