competitive – Page 3 – The Daily SPUF

A Match-Made Future?

April 8, 2016 Medic 0 Comments 6v6, beta, comp, competitive, match making, matchmaking

You’ll probably have noticed that, while the rest of the TF2 community is going mad for matchmaking, here at the Daily SPUF, we’ve been rather quiet about it. Really, we should have been all over competitive matchmaking like a rash, what with being a TF2 blog and all, but there’s reasons why we’ve not been that keen, the main reason being that not a whole lot is actually going on with the beta. Yes, I know, we’ve had patch notes every few days. Which is a good thing because some bugs are being fixed. But there’s no actual changes. The… [Continue Reading]

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Medic’s First Tiny Steps into Official TF2 Competitive

March 22, 2016 Medic 0 Comments beta, competitive, fun, official, Team Fortress 2

This article was brought to you by Puffs, the Number 1 Medic-Calmer. Puffs – pink, round, puffy and opinionated, get yours now! Alright, a million years later than everyone else, I’ve finally had a go at TF2 matchmaking, during the 6th Stress Test. (Note: this article is a bit late – I held off publishing it due to a week of love and hate) I was finally around when that delightful Stress Test button appeared on my screen, and I was actually in a good enough mood to play. But, coward that I am, I didn’t want to go it… [Continue Reading]

Featured The SPUF of Legend

Thoughts on Matchmaking

March 4, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments 6v6, competitive, Highlander, matchmaking

While I missed the first matchmaking stress test, I was awake and ready for the second one! Sorry EU fans, maybe one day Valve will have one at a time that’s not horrible for you guys. I don’t have enough to do commentary on 16 minutes of footage, so I’m just making an article. I loved how easy it was to queue up; just click the button and you’re off to the races. I played 6 matches and won 5 of them, so the players seem really competent for the most part. There were usually 2-3 people with mics on our… [Continue Reading]

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Windows in TF2

February 4, 2016 aabicus 0 Comments competitive, design, maps, TFC

No, not that Windows. I’m talking about the ones that even Mac and Linux players have to deal with. Many maps in TF2 feature glass windows, which surprisingly are something of a new feature for the TF series. Going back into Team Fortress Classic, I can’t find any examples in official maps of transparent screens allowing the user to look but not interact with further parts of the map. They were consciously included in TF2’s design, as the Gravelpit developer commentary explains: “Height is a useful feature when designing defensible buildings. For instance, the cap B building needs to be defended from… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements Featured The Competitive Corner

Team Fortress 2 Competitive Beta Sign-Up

January 28, 2016 Medic 0 Comments beta, competitive, group, matchmaking, progress, steam

Well, who’d have thought it? There’s actually matchmaking things going on for reals! No more will B4nny (bless him) be the only reliable and constant source of information about Team Fortress 2’s official matchmaking. Nope, yesterday, a Valve employee popped by and announced that there is now an official Steam group, as seen here. It’s almost definitely official, since the admins are three Valve employees, and the group also has a selection of Steam Community moderators. The main admin of the group, someone called Jill, has got nearly 4000 hours on Team Fortress 2, which is a sign of, um,… [Continue Reading]

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Tough Break and its Signs of Things to Come

December 21, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments balance, competitive, demoknight, matchmaking, medic, pyro, tough break, update

The Tough Break update rolled out an extremely healthy list of balance changes to Team Fortress 2. Spanning the entirety of its class roster and with a general trend of making each class’ stock role more defined, it provides some very clear insights regarding the direction Valve is hoping to take TF2 in the coming months. SPUF is ablaze right now with questions attempting to make sense of some of the more extreme alterations, and since I’m stuck on a five-hour plane ride without internet I thought I’d take the time to comment on some things I’ve noticed and make… [Continue Reading]

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Killcams and Comp TF2

December 10, 2015 aabicus 0 Comments competitive, death, mechanics, sniper

Killcams are a masterfully-designed element in TF2. As the developer commentary states, killcams were added due to many Team Fortress Classic players having trouble determining who killed them and what they themselves did to get into that lethal situation. By showing you a quick screenshot of your attacker with some subtle “swoosh” effects showing you his rough location, Valve turned every death into a learning experience while simultaneously lessening the chance the killer can keep farming kills from the same location. But I’m wondering if that behavior becomes slightly unbalanced in a competitive setting. When you’ve reached the point that all the… [Continue Reading]

The Competitive Corner

Gun Mettle Alchemist

November 16, 2015 Gamemaster1379 0 Comments analysis, competitive, engineer, guide, information, strategy

Cross-post from my site at and SteamCommunity Guides – Gun Mettle Alchemist A fair amount of time has passed since the release of Gun Mettle. With it came a series of core mechanical changes that made the Engineer dynamic much different than it was in years past. Many of the changes reflect the modern state of the PvP meta–in which speed and mobility are emphasized above all else. Engineer was not alone in these changes. Speed and mobility based changes were also present for the Spy–namely the Dead Ringer & Big Earner. However, that is another article entirely. For now,… [Continue Reading]

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Competitive Matchmaking Beta is here! Kinda…

November 6, 2015 Medic 0 Comments beta, competitive, hype, matchmaking, new, Team Fortress 2

Well well well well, looks like those Teamfortress.tvers have found something interesting. It’s a small version of the Competitive Matchmaking Beta! It’s actually a real thing! Turns out a small update yesterday added a console command that enables you to open the Competitive matchmaking menu. The command, for whoever wants to try it, is OpenMatchmakingLobby ladder Typing this into console brings up a new page. It looks like this: Interestingly, it had a bunch of scores, and a drop down box. The box has a choice of either 6v6 or 9v9, which is unusual since everyone thought they’d just do… [Continue Reading]

Featured The Competitive Corner

Why ETF2L allowing the Pomson and Short Circuit in Highlander isn’t so insane after all

October 26, 2015 Medic 0 Comments balance, competitive, engineer, Highlander, weapon

With Highlander Season 9 coming around, ETF2L has decided to allow a few new weapons – the Pomson 6000 and the Short Circuit. Now, many people think this is rather strange. These are two weapons that really do shake things up. I’m pretty sure that ETF2L has their reasons and they’ve probably already made them public by now, but I’m a lunatic with his own blog so I’m going to write about my own reasons. Let’s start with the slightly less sane one. Originally, the Short Circuit wasn’t an issue. It was a rather quiet little weapon, hiding away in… [Continue Reading]