Why TF2/CSGO comp pisses me off

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So, recently TF2 got its competitive mode update. That’s all fine – even though I don’t believe competitive in TF2 can work for balance reasons. What really pisses me off though are the eligibility requirements. For that I have to go back to where competitive started. Back in CSGO, initially everyone was eligible for comp, besides the lobby limits on rank disparity. However, issues arose. Issues mainly being smurfs. So Valve had the brilliant idea to use the profile ranks to make it harder for smurfs to be eligible for comp. The idea was okay, because you can only get… [Continue Reading]

Why Grenade Slots are a bad idea in TF2

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Hey look! An article about Team Fortress 2! This is actually quite a surprise, because there’s not really been much to write about lately apart from cosmetics. But there’s been a thread on SPUF talking about grenade slots, from a person who is a fan of Team Fortress Classic (a.k.a Grenade Hell) and really, really wants to get that grenade slot in the game somehow. And I’m going to tell you why that is wrong. If you’ve ever played TFC with actual people, you’ll see a lot of grenades. Almost everyone in TFC has two grenades, a normal, bog-standard blow-things-up-in-an-explosion… [Continue Reading]

Why I Play Medic

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With so many of the classes having such firepower and influence on the field, I can understand how Medic can be an easy class to ignore. But the beauty of the Medic is his ability through the wonders of medical science to unlock and maximise the potential of his patient, and by extension, his team. The first time I played Team Fortress 2, Medic was the first class I selected, being drawn to the weird and wonderful concept of being purely supportive to the team. A gun that was only capable of helping others both baffled and fascinated me. I’ve… [Continue Reading]

New Overwatch Hero Released!

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The first post-release Overwatch hero is here, and she’s the Crusader’s Crossbow personified. I know, I’m having trouble believing it myself! Ana’s sniper rifle will heal teammates or damage enemies; all that matters is who you hit. Likewise, her E-attack is an area-of-effect radius that heals teammates, similar to Soldier 76’s biotic field, but it also damages enemies in range. Finally, she has a sidearm she can fire every 12 seconds that temporarily knocks out any unlucky enemy in its crosshair, kinda like a mini-Reinhardt ultimate. Ana’s ultimate is a buff dart that grants one lucky teammate increased damage resistance, damage boost and… [Continue Reading]

Twitch Chat: The Beast with a Billion Faces

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The CSGO tournament ESL Cologne 2016 was this week, and despite the fact that each day began at my 1:30am, I’ve been staying up and loving every single day of it. It has all the highs and lows of high-level CSGO play, the shout casters are among the best in the world, and the production quality rivals traditional sports events. And yet somehow, one of my favorite parts of the tournament is the unfiltered meme-spewing echo chambers in the Twitch chat. Ever since Twitch Plays Pokemon introduced the concept of game streaming to me, I’ve spent countless hours watching various… [Continue Reading]

Twitch Chat – Hell on Earth

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Aabicus thinks that Twitch Chat is somewhat cute. It’s apparently endearing or something. Well he’s wrong. Twitch Chat is probably the most horrible thing I have seen that isn’t violent or gross or whatever. It’s an all-round turn off and a giant sign screaming that we’re all sheep. Especially in major e-sports events. Seriously it’s fucking retarded. The only thing worse is probably a youtube comment section on a particularly bait-y subject. Either way though, it’s the same set of utter idiots who scream and gurgle and shout and drool. And a ton of shitty emoticons and ‘jokes’. People screaming… [Continue Reading]

Why are we buffing Medic again?

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Hey, do any of you remember when I wrote an article explicitly saying to NOT buff Medic any more because as a class we’ll be too powerful and start to fuck with the meta of TF2? You know, this article? I clearly said in it to not buff Medic because he’s in a plenty good enough. Let me repeat myself. Medic is a super strong class that is pretty simple to play but very hard to be a pro at. Having a Medic on your team does not guarantee you victory, as a Medic can’t physically carry his team in… [Continue Reading]

ESL Cologne 2016 CSGO Grand Finals Today!

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In 14 hours, the last teams standing are going to butt heads in the ESL Cologne 2016 grand finals! If you have any motivation to watch top-level CSGO play, this is the time to jump in and watch. Of the 16 teams that originally came to fight for the 1 million dollar grand prize, it’s Team Liquid and SK Gaming who have survived the brackets and move into the illustrious Round 30. Team Liquid has had an amazing run this tournament. Despite getting off to a rocky start (though not without a resounding victory over EnVyUs), including losing pretty handily… [Continue Reading]

What’s up with Levels on Items?

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One of the first weapons I got was an Ubersaw. I’m pretty certain I don’t have it any more, as it wasn’t the achievement one. Most of the other first weapons I’d found were for classes I wasn’t playing – Scout, Sniper, Spy, Heavy, Soldier, the classes that I found genuinely hard (or too slow) early on. So I was mostly playing Medic, Engineer and Pyro and I didn’t really have any weapons for the other two. One of the first things I noticed on my brand new weapon was a level, level 10, compared to my level 1 Bonesaw.… [Continue Reading]

The Meet your Match Update is here – Early Thoughts

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The Meet your Match update has shipped, after apparently holding off for a bit as to not disturb a major ETF2L match, which is nice of them. Honestly though, I’m not sure what to say. I suppose I’m happy that we’re getting an update, and that we’ll be getting more updates in the future. Of course we got new taunts. The TF2 youtube channel had them uploaded but private for ages. Taunts are basically the new hats, but better because they don’t fuck with the art style in any way. Of course we got crates. The keyless crates are interesting.… [Continue Reading]