matchmaking – The Daily SPUF

Team Fortress 2 now has Real Competitive Rankings

April 4, 2018March 30, 2018 Medic 2 Comments comp, competitive, matchmaking, Team Fortress 2, update

Out of the blue, a wild Team Fortress 2 update has appeared! A Team Fortress 2 update that actually has some substance, that is more than just the release of a new cosmetic set. Okay, that was still a big part of the update, and ironically the new collection is called the Blue Moon Case, but still, we got changes! Balance ones! The biggest thing though is the change to the competitive system. The much needed changes. The changes we should have had ages ago. Before the update, everyone, from b4nny to a guy who literally just started the game… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements Featured

Smissmas 2016 is here

December 22, 2016January 21, 2017 Medic 0 Comments matchmaking, smissmas, update

Smissmas 2016 is here and its a tiny, weeny update! Seriously, very tiny. Like, it’s the sort of update you’d get in March 2013 to make everyone shut up for a bit until the big Summer update. Not even that, actually. Firstly, there’s the standard Festive Crate. It’s got a bunch of Smissmas items, 17 in total, that will look amazing in July. The special crates need a special key to open, available for the normal price in the Mann Co. Store. Nope, you just buy the crates from the store. No keys, no drops, nada. Opening the crate will… [Continue Reading]

Featured

Another look at Casual Matchmaking

October 25, 2016November 17, 2016 Medic 0 Comments matchmaking, Team Fortress 2

Oh look! A Team Fortress 2 article! That’s a genuine surprise. Except it’s not, because Halloween is here, and Scream Fortress has always been my favourite event of the year. This year, not so much, but that’s really for another article. Yes, I wanted to have another look at Casual Matchmaking. What made me want to write this was the fact that I spent half an hour in one match, on Ghostfort (the Lakeside Event map). This map is incredibly long at the best of times, but casual matchmaking’s best of 3, combined with people being unfamiliar with the map,… [Continue Reading]

Featured

What’s so damn special about Overwatch’s matchmaking?

August 22, 2016September 17, 2016 Medic 0 Comments matchmaking, overwatch, silly, stupid, Team Fortress 2

I see this all the time. “TF2’s matchmaking sucks! I’m going to play Overwatch because it has better matchmaking!” Anyone who says this isn’t thinking straight. There are legitimate reasons why you might want to play Overwatch, or even play it over Team Fortress 2, but if you’re going because TF2’s casual and competitive matchmaking sucks, then you’re not thinking things through. Here’s a conversation I had with my sister, who is an avid Overwatch fan. “I hate this map.” “Why?” “Too many choke points.” “Can’t you choose what map you want to play?” “Uh, no.” In Overwatch, you can’t… [Continue Reading]

Community Announcements Featured

Meet your Match update – Called it.

July 6, 2016 Medic 0 Comments comp, competitive, maps, matchmaking, pass time, Team Fortress 2, update

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]

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?

June 27, 2016August 20, 2016 Medic 0 Comments competitive, matchmaking, Team Fortress 2, update

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]

Featured The Competitive Corner

TF2 Competitive has a lot to steal…

May 13, 2016 Medic 0 Comments competitive, cosmetics, CSGO, matchmaking, struggling competitive scene, Team Fortress 2

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]

Featured The Competitive Corner

Would Highlander really work in Matchmaking?

April 27, 2016 Medic 0 Comments competitive, Highlander, matchmaking

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]

Featured The Competitive Corner

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]

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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