Cookies with the Mercs

Today, I decided to do something very different. I decided to reveal who I really am. That’s right guys, I am not really Medic. I am in fact ENGINEER! Just kidding. I simply moonlight as an Engineer, whenever Carnival or Halloween comes along. Or when I decide to do baking! Yes. Baking. You think Engineer leaves all those dispensers to idle when he’s not busy defending the intelligence? “Medic!” you ask. “What are you baking today?” I’m glad you asked. I’m making double chocolate cookies. The recipe comes from She Wears Many Hats, but I’ve modified the recipe to better… [Continue Reading]

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Passive abilities

TF2 doesn’t feel like a game with a lot of passive abilities. There are few obvious ones, such as the scout’s double-jump and the Pyro’s afterburn immunity, but when you look into things, it turns out that almost every class has at least one. First of all, its debatable whether “more than 125 health” counts as a passive ability. Even though its pretty clearly the baseline for TF2, some people might consider speed and health a form of statistics instead of abilities. It’s also debatable whether any ability that requires equipping a weapon would count, like “can remove sappers” or… [Continue Reading]

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The Eureka Effect’s Wasted Potential

The Eureka Effect is one of the few weapons where a well intentioned buff turned out to be a complete nerf. For those of you who do not know the Eureka Effect is currently a wrench that allows you to teleport to your spawn and to your own teleporter exit. Now that may sound like a ninjaneers wet dream but in exchange for this potential mobility you lose 50% repair rate and 50% build rate, which makes you take over twice as long to build a sentry. Rather than the already slow 8 swings per upgrade, you are making a… [Continue Reading]

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The Art of the Backcap

The backcap is an under-appreciated skill these days. It seems like nobody ever sends a brave lone gunman to scout ahead and take the next point milliseconds after you finish capping this one. And while this loss of a fundamental strategy is sad for the state of TF2’s metagame, it can be quite fun if you’re willing to be the team’s backcapper. Backcapping, as the name implies, involves racing ahead to the next control point once determining (or just hoping to God) that your team can take this one alone. The two most popular classes to backcap are scout and… [Continue Reading]

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Gunslingers vs. Highlanders: an analysis

There was recently something of an upset when the Highlander team swept the Gunslingers in the recent tournament, and it rightly seems to have attracted something of an interest in the SPUF community. (I notice there hasn’t been a single thread arguing the Gunslinger is OP since the event…) Since I’ve participated in two of these events, playing Medic for Season 2 (the first time the Gunslingers won) and the most recent Season 5, I’ve got a pretty good perspective from which to analyze the two teams. On a fundamental level, the first major reason that Highlanders performed so much better… [Continue Reading]

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Gunslingers vs. Highlanders V results!

Season 5 of Gunslinger vs Highlander has come and gone, and once again SPUF’s longest-lasting circuit has surprised everyone with a Highlander sweep. After securing pl_swiftwater by preventing the Gunslingers from capping second and then capping first in fewer seconds, Highlander secured the midpoint and pushed all the way into last, winning 3 times in a row for best 3/5. While this technically ended the event, both teams decided to play koth_ashville anyway, and here’s where the matches really got close. Several could have gone either way, but ultimately Team Highlander won the first three matches, taking king-of-the-hill and becoming… [Continue Reading]

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Gunslinger versus Highlander 5

It’s been too long since we’ve done a SPUF event, and this one was always popular. The minisentry has also been nerfed since the last time we did these, so I think now is an appropriate time to do this. DATE 2014-11-16 (Sunday) at 1:00 PM EST. SERVER The server will be located in the central US. I will provide an IP a few hours before the match. RULES+ That’s right! Unlike previous seasons, we actually have rules! Organization! Can you believe it? • Stay positive and have fun. Don’t be that guy screaming over the mic because your team lost mid… [Continue Reading]

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A New WAR! Update?

Shortly after the release of this year’s Scream Fortress, a Facepunch user named testinglol (who has leaked and predicted several previous updates) found code in the game files suggesting there would be an update that would pit the Spy and Engineer against one another in the style of the WAR! Update that happened all the way back in 2009. Being a Spy main, this interested me supremely. You can find a full list of the features here, or watch Valve News Network’s video here. But for those of you who didn’t head off to soak in those links, here’s a… [Continue Reading]

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How to Fight the Short Circuit as an Explosive Class

Initial disclaimer: As you probably already know, there’s not a hell of a lot you can do as an explosive class against an intelligent (or even a braindead) Short Circuit engineer. He’s basically got the love child of the flamethrower and the deflector and it was hand-crafted at birth to screw you and only you. But as a diehard Demoman main I can do little except attempt to adapt to this new challenge, and I’ve slowly found what I believe to be the best possible strategy to use against a turtling level 3 sentry nest guarded by the Short Circuit.… [Continue Reading]

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Battle of the Builders: Dell Conagher vs Nuparu

Hopefully you’re all familiar with Mr. Conagher, the convivial Engineer from TF2. He’s the chap with an orange hardhat, a rusty wrench and a clichéd southern accent. He possesses the amazing ability to drop a toolbox on the ground, hit it repeatedly with said wrench and transform it into a Dispenser, a Teleporter or a stationary Terminator. These buildings, in conjunction with a wide selection of whack-things and shooty-things, make our Engie a formidable ally. Today we shall put him in the arena with another famous Engineer, he who they call Nuparu. This guy is a Matoran villager from the… [Continue Reading]

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