competitive

Featured The Competitive Corner 

Why TF2/CSGO comp pisses me off

InstantMuffin 0 Comments , ,

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]

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Community Announcements 

ESL Cologne 2016 CSGO Grand Finals Today!

aabicus 0 Comments , , , ,

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]

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Community Announcements Featured 

Meet your Match update – Called it.

Medic 0 Comments , , , , , ,

I fucking called it. See, I said it in this article. Unless the ‘Neato’ update comes in the middle of next week (which, knowing my luck, it will), all of next week’s articles will be a bit different in some way. Anyway, yes, competitive has been released, unranked gameplay is no longer the casual slogfest it used to be and copies Overwatch and every other matchmaking system, at least on Valve servers, Pass Time is out of beta and OMG WHAT THE FUCK THEY FINALLY MADE SUNSHINE OFFICIAL OMG FUCKING FINALLY. There’s also Metalworks and Swiftwater, two major competitive maps… [Continue Reading]

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Featured The Competitive Corner 

If TF2 Competitive wants to ever get off the ground, it needs to stop being so pretentious

Medic 0 Comments ,

That’s a long title, I know, but this is a problem I’ve had for ages with competitive TF2. In all competitive games, you are going to get some snobbery based off ranks and the like, but here, in our tiny little competitive community, we can be incredibly snobbish and pretentious. I want to start off with a personal story. I played in 4v4 EU Silver. Most of my matches were against platinum or gold 6v6 or Highlander teams, playing casually for fun. My team on the other hand had only played a season of 4v4, and were at the same… [Continue Reading]

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The SPUF Conga. Every character in this conga line is a former member of the Steam Powered User Forums.
Featured The Competitive Corner 

Why is Competitive Matchmaking coming out of beta?

Medic 0 Comments , , ,

After 11 mediocre stress tests, TF2 Competitive Matchmaking is coming out of beta. And tons of little things that we’ve complained about don’t seem to have been addressed. The game doesn’t run much better on DX9, so those needing DX8 (some of whom may be on plenty strong enough computers that just don’t play nice with TF2) are locked out of competitive. Other graphical settings, mostly ones only accessible via console commands, are also turned off. Matchmaking seems to have trouble matchmaking people of varied ranks. The issue of class limits and class composition is still… an issue. Those ‘small’… [Continue Reading]

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Featured The Competitive Corner 

Butting Heads in the Apocalypse

aabicus 0 Comments , ,

I’ve always loved watching competitive eSports. There’s nothing more electrifying than watching the absolute top players of a community murdering each other with insane reflexes, top-tier strats and telepathic teamwork, all with a pair of announcers following you along for the ride. But for the first time, I’ve found a competitive mode that really bears serious analysis just because of how creative the community had to get to even translate the base game into something eSport-worthy. I’m talking about Valve’s greatest asymmetrical shooter, Left 4 Dead 2. (A short crash course for people unfamiliar with L4D2 versus: Each map on a campaign, one… [Continue Reading]

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Featured The Competitive Corner 

TF2 Competitive has a lot to steal…

Medic 0 Comments , , , , ,

Let’s face it, competitive Team Fortress 2 isn’t nearly as popular as anyone had hoped. Apart from b4nny, who is essentially the god of TF2 and can turn almost any invite team into a winner, most people don’t get many views. All the big leagues, ESEA, ETF2L, UGC, AsiaFortress and so on, get a few thousand views for their big grand finals, which doesn’t sound too bad, except when I tell you that a person being banned from League of Legends and sulking got just as many views, if not more. Despite the competitive community’s enthusiasm, the general populace and… [Continue Reading]

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Featured The Competitive Corner 

Would Highlander really work in Matchmaking?

Medic 0 Comments , ,

In our beloved little competitive matchmaking beta, we currently only have access to 6v6 matchmaking. While it doesn’t really look like the much stricter, more organized community competitive leagues, it feels similar. 5CP maps, the odd King of the Hill map, optimal teams including Medics, Demomen, Scouts and Soldiers, 6 players per team (obviously)… You get the point. There’s also plans to have a Highlander matchmaking thingy, but it’s been greyed out since the beginning. But I’m wondering, will Highlander really work? In terms of getting people to play classes, it can happen. Highlander has been the other staple of… [Continue Reading]

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Why TF2 Wouldn’t Make a Very Good eSport

aabicus 2 Comments , ,

I have over 3300 hours in TF2, and it’s been my favorite game for years ever since I started playing it. I’ve written hundreds of articles about it, recorded videos, organized community events and have watched numerous competitive tournaments on Twitch and Source TV. In contrast, I’ve barely started playing Counter-Strike Global Offensive in 2016 and I only passably enjoy my time playing it. I doubt I’ll ever be getting serious about it to the same extent I love everything about TF2. I’m saying all this to qualify the stance I’m about to take, because I have a confession. I watched… [Continue Reading]

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MeeM’s Thoughts on Camaraderie

MysticTheMeeM 0 Comments , , , ,

As seemingly the norm with the short articles I write, they start with an anecdote then use an example and close with a final thought. So, let’s not delay. The other night, I had a most wonderful hour and a half playing MvM with Medic and her friends. Although there were a few problems setting up, once we got everyone there the game started. Because it was Medic’s birthday we were doing medic only. Logically, we couldn’t do many hard waves like this so we started off by doing decoy. So, first round, six medics versus what 40 scouts(?). Pretty… [Continue Reading]

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