I've always been a fan of writing semi-anonymous letters to people who the public may not quite realize are stupid, people like Anderson Cooper, Bungie Software, EA/Activision/Treyarch, and the guy who keeps having sex in my bathroom.  Anyway, here are a few letters I've written to some of the TF2 community, including players and general styles of players.

Dear TF2 Lobby,

You know, there are more maps than cp_badlands and cp_granary.  How many times can you play the same people on the same map before you get bored?  I don't know about you but I can't just play the same map over and over and over; I need some diversity! (The exclamation point means that I'm showing more emotion so you can tell that I really care about this) What irks me just as much is that you'll sit in the main lobby and complain about the lack of lobbies and then, when I make a lobby and since I have other things to spend money on besides TF2 like food and drinks and school and I can't afford to spend the $30 a month to get you your 1000 FPS Chicago NFO that runs 24/7 Badlands just so you will play a damn lobby.

As you can imagine, being a student as well as a gamer limits the amount of free income I have to spend on making lobbies for you.  My priorities as a student go school stuff, booze, fried chicken, THEN TF2.  If you check out my steam purchases, you'll see that I don't have very many games and that most of the ones that I own were purchased on sale BUT I DIGRESS. Valve provides us with somewhere between 20 and a lot of servers for lobbies.  I don't know why you can't deal with the 90 ping.  I'm in New Hampshire; I have to deal with the 20 degrees, wind chill, and higher ping than you and I play just fine.

On top of that, try some of the quality 1st and 3rd party maps available out there.  I'm a big fan of freight, gullywash, coldfront, obscure, and my favorite map of all, koth_garbageday.  Don't deny it, you love it, too.

Yours in the sense that we both blame the lag for our incompetence,

dubel_07

The first official cast of a CommFT Highlander match is going down tomorrow (Saturday, April 23rd) at 5 PM PST / 8 PM EST. The match-up is between North American teams Gun Runners and Couch Athletics on cp_coldfront and will be casted by eXtine and Jonas with Peter Mansbridge on camera.

To watch the cast, go to the following link at the appropriate time on Saturday: http://www.justin.tv/extvesports/

EDIT: To watch the VOD, go here: http://www.justin.tv/extvesports/b/284355068

Hello and welcome to my guide. I am your host, MR SLIN. This is designed to be both an update and expansion to the first portion of Alex "Waar" Godunov's famous "A Beginner's Guide to TF2", which was written in January of 2009. Many of you are familiar with the Competitive TF2 Wiki. However, my guide is designed to expand upon these topics for a player that is already familiar with TF2. This guide will help players to set up their game with a competitive focus, and ensures that they have all of the necessary tools needed to begin playing Team Fortress 2 competitively. Now, being from North America myself, I am aware that this will have a North American bent to it. However, I hope that some of these tips will be applicable to players in other parts of the world, who are trying to get their start in competitive TF2.

So apparently there is this Highlander Thing, and apparently it is kinda a big deal (this Free crank keeps rambling on about it). I think that any great event needs great recording so the masses can look upon us, green with the flames of a thousand years of envy that they, mere mortals in the face of giants, were not included in this frag fest.

So I have a proposal to make, gentlemen (and ladies). I want to make a frag video. Not just any frag video. The Community Fortress Highlander Tournament OFFICIAL (sorta) frag video. But to do this, I need demos. I need lots of demos. I need so many demos that it becomes part of my daily ritual just to sit here and curse out valve software's stupid demo watching system. And since everyone needs to be recording demos anyway, I figure that you can provide me these demos. So send me an email with all of the following things.

1. A Demo, archived up somehow (zip rar 7z), named in the following fashion [playername]_[class]_[map]_[teamname]_[country].zip/rar/7z (also acceptable is a tf2demos.com link)
2. Ticks of your awesomeness. Competition will be fierce as I will only accept a few clips per week. So make them epic.
3. A SHORT description of the awesomeness. Example: "I started off with a sick double ambassador headshot followed by sapping the sentry and proceeding to backstab 5 of the remaining players before getting the medic to uber me as spyro"
4. Your email header should read "commftdemo [playername] [class] [map] [country] [up to 5 words describing your awesome]" (example "commftdemo shdwpuppet USA soldier 4 airshot spire") I will filter emails by these tags at first to make sure we get a lot of variability in classes.
5. (optional) a link to a youtube video or download link or maybe just a name of a song you think would be epic in the frag vid. No genre limitations, and, if I pick your song, you get a shoutout in the credits.

Send the demos + all that info to shdw.puppet+ This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it . Please, only official matches, no scrims please!

All demos/emails not following the format will be deleted. If I am feeling nice and have the time, I may reply that your demo/email does not follow format, please correct. But then again, I may not. No limits to the number of demos you can submit, but each person will only be in the movie once. Not all those who submit will be featured, but thank you to everyone who does end up submitting.

Graham really wants me to encourage you guys to upload your POV demos to tf2demos.com and link them in the appropriate place (I think he is making a thread tomorrow) so that everyone can witness the sheer awesomeness that is the Community Fortress Highlander Tournament. SO DO IT!!!!

Thanks everyone, I hope to have a fantastically frustrating time on this project!

Love and cookies ~

Alex "shdwpuppet" Williams

A patch was released today to fix the crashes that people have been having lately:

• Fixed a server crash that could occur if TFBots were used across map changes
• Fixed a client crash caused by weapons with attached models
• Fixed a material system crash
• Fixed a client crash with dynamic model loading
• Fixed a few backpack images not drawing correctly
• Fixed listen servers sometimes not authenticating with Steam (not being able to use Offline Practice)
• Fixed the "itemtest" command
• Fixed players not being able to access their backpack loadout
• Updated the localization files

We do not plan on postponing the Highlander tournament since this seems to be directed at the very issues that would have necessitated a postponement. Be sure to post in the relevant thread on the forums if you still have issues with crashing after this patch.

Hello, it's Adam from TF2Strategy here, from now on I'm hopefully going to be bringing you a roundup of the top level European leagues; I thought that I'd start my coverage of the European scene now, after a match between Button Bashers and Thermaltake. These are the two teams that are predicted to top the premier division. These teams are the only two 'known' premier teams.

The other premier teams left ETF2L due to the ‘cinnamon’ ruleset that was proposed. There was a split in opinion, the majority of teams in the higher levels were in favour of vanilla + medlocks, whereas the lower divisions preferred the inclusion of more unlocks. As a result big name teams such as Epsilon and Dignitas quit ETF2L for ESL. A lot of the teams in the premier division are relatively unknown, teams like k1ck have been promoted to overcome the shortfall of teams, this will make it a very interesting and unpredictable season for the premier season. Here are the predictions for ESL courtesy of Honeymustard

Granary and Gravelpit were the two maps that were played. It kicked off with Button Bashers taking Granary 3 – 2. There’s not much that I can say about the match because the TF2TV stream was only up for the final few minutes. Surprisingly numlocked made a surprise appearance, according to Ronny Bash was going to demo, Ronny was going scout and tba was going to medic. Numlocked played a very aggressive game and dealt a lot of damage, overall a very close game!

Gravelpit saw some great use of the utilities, with Stefan and Fisshu both rocking the pyro to great effect, both of them managed to deflect crit stickies and a huge amount of rocket spam. Bash also used the heavy very well, levitating Thermaltake's jumping soldiers and denying their uber from having any effect.  Interestingly Button Bashers opted to run an engineer on defence, whereas Thermaltake didn't. On the second round Stefan managed to surf one of Kaidus’s stickies and saved his sentry gun which further prolonged the game. Button Bashers took Gravelpit as well 2 - 0.


A great game with Button Bashers taking both games, kudos to TF2TV for casting the game and VanillaTF2 for advertising it. Curiously enough the people over at VanillaTF2 voted for Thermaltake to win both maps, this could have been because Thy, the demo for Button Bashers recently left the team.

EDIT: Note that some of the match-ups were deleted when we changed brackets. All of the matches that are currently listed on the forums are the ones that should be played. If you were originally in a match-up, and you can't find your match-up now, that means you have received a BYE with the new bracket system. None of the original match-ups changed but some were deleted. Check the brackets to check to be sure of either your opponent or if you got a BYE. The bracket for the North American conference can be found HERE while the bracket for the European conference can be found HERE.


It has finally begun!

After a few last-minute registrations, we ended registration with 97 registered teams. Given that all of these teams have more than 9 players (with many having the maximum 13), we are confident to assert that there are more than 1,000 players competing in CommFT's first ever Highlander Tournament. These 1,000 players will be going head-to-head in a total of 37 first week matches on cp_coldfront - 37 matches that have been scheduled on the HL section of the forums. If you are playing in the tournament, click the above link, find the thread for your match, and read the information inside. We want the first week to run as smoothly as possible and that will only be the case if every team pays attention, works with their opponent, plays hard, and conducts themselves in a sportsmanlike manner. If anyone has any issues with their matches, the tournament in general, or wants to talk to me (I go by jinn_ on IRC) or Free, be sure to join the #commft IRC channel on GameSurge.net and talk it up. If you have a general question, be sure to check out the official rules and the official configs for the event before asking us.

We are looking forward to casting provided by eXtv and TF2tv so stay tuned to their websites (and this page) for the latest on their casts of the tournament.


Server information for North American matches:

To request a server, contact Graham via PM on the forums, on IRC on GameSurge.net in #commft (his nick is jinn_), or on Steam. He can hook you up with a NA server provided by our friends over at EOReality.net.


Server information for European matches:

To request a server, contact Graham via PM on the forums, on IRC on GameSurge.net in #commft (his nick is jinn_), or on Steam. He can hook you up with a EU server provided by our friends over at Multiplay and ETF2L.

Ladies and gents, gunslingers and brass-beasters, welcome back to Screaming Eagles.  The first Community Fortress Highlander Tournament is officially under way.  Are you excited?  I'm excited.  I'm livid with excitement.  I'm crackling, sparking, with excitement, like a Pyro on the crates at Granary mid, watching the enemy combo pass beneath me, oblivious, vulnerable.  If there is a place beyond excitement, a fortress mirrored across a moat, perhaps with battlements, perhaps with a covered bridge running down the middle, perhaps set in the dry and dusty mesa of the heart's pleasure equator, then that is where I dwell: the 2fort of joy.  I have a stand-up cow, a tractor.  My trees are fiberboard.  I am a happy, happy flesh-bot.

But enough about feelings.  Let's talk Highlander!  Last time, I covered the flexible pocket.  Today, I'll talk about another crucial strategy: the flanks!

That's right folks, we are nearing the end of registration for the first ever CommFT Highlander tournament! We currently have 90 teams registered (with around 45 in each region) and registration closes tonight at midnight EST. If you haven't registered yet, be sure to get your team in the mix within the next 8 hours - there will be no late registration and teams cannot be added after midnight tonight!

We are finalizing the configs, the server situation, and the PL rules right now so stay tuned about all of this. Also, as soon as registration closes, there will be threads going up on the forums listing the match-ups for the first round. It will be up to the teams to find their opponent in their match-up thread, go to the registration thread to find the contact information for their opponent, contact their opponent, get the match played by the end of the week, and report/confirm the score in their match-up thread.

I think the title is misleading. Not only did we get new hats two days prior, hats are updated in this update! Regardless. Here's a bit of a breakdown on the game-changing parts of the update.

Koth_Badlands looks like fun, or at least it was fun with low playercounts in the Beta. Seems like a solid competitive map to me.

On critical hit changes: obviously they are all nerfs to the original weapons. I am confident that at least a couple of them will be reverted or changed in some upcoming patch. I mean, come on:

The Eyelander / Headtaker can no longer one-shot a Medic (146 damage).

The Gunslinger was already inferior before the nerf!

The Claidheamh Mor is now useless. It wasn't great before, but now it's pointless.

The Southern Hospitality and Powerjack are, however, much more balanced. The Caber remains an unusual weapon, virtually unchanged (though it can no longer kill Soldiers, if I'm correct).

The Dalokohs Bar is a bit more on par with the Shotgun, which isn't saying much. It's still obselete relative to the Sandvich. Additionally, the Fists of Steel are less campy, which is great. Slower weapon switch and a lowered percentage will hopefully bring Heavy back from the depths of overpowered gay defenses.

The Loch-n-Load has been prodded in the right direction, even though it's still ganky and poor in comparison to the default.

The Equalizer now deals up to 113 damage at exactly 1 health, and 88 at 64 health and below (though I'm not sure how the damage here was tweaked). No more one-shots.

The Battalion's Backup now requires 350 damage to charge. I think this is a bit much, since it wasn't the end-all be-all backpack in the first place. The Concheror, on the other hand, got a buff to its healing rate - which I also think is a bit uncalled for.

Mad Milk has been nerfed. Thank God. This was crazy before. We'll see what kind of effect this has, I suppose. To compensate, the Sun-on-a-Stick got a nerf to damage, but acts as a mini-Axtinguisher (albeit a fast-swinging one). Also, the Fan O'War marks targets for 15 seconds. I like the balancing here - Scout has the same amount of melees as the Demoman, and his are all roughly balanced.

Backburner now has a 50-ammo airblast! It only carries a +10% damage rate instead of +15%. I think this makes the original Flamethrower basically obselete (not that it wasn't really originally). I wouldn't mind another tweak to airblast on the original Flamethrower - even less ammo cost? Faster / more effective airblast? That way, each one serves a distinct purpose (Airblasts / damage / alternate weapons).

Flare Gun always crits burning targets. This is perhaps the best sidegrade in the whole damn game. I'm proud of it.

Sydney Sleeper charges faster, not that any competitive player would be caught dead rolling with the bodyshotter. As an iffy Sniper, I'm happy.

Other than that, Bots have been changed, the pause menu is better, and attached models are now completely outlawed (thanks, servers who sold them).

Questions? Points? Rants? Comments, if you please!

A huge update was released this evening. Check out the notes:

Yaaaaaoooo Jay here with my write up of Sunday nights UGC Highlander eXtv game of the week.

Let me start off by saying, I was really looking forward to this match - Stoic Defenders of the Igloo(1) vs Target Sucks(4).

My prediction in this match was for Target Sucks to take down Stoic but I was proven wrong. This match seemed evenly matched before it even started and I could tell it was gonna be hard for either of these teams to win.

It was pretty interesting to see these teams go at each other, also being two of the only top teams without invite players. I felt like Target Sucks should've pushed Mid a lot harder than they did. The flow seemed to go towards Stoic most of the match but Target Sucks had their moments. Grieve dominated a lot of the match and had me screaming most of the time. Great match and Target Sucks took down Stoic (4-2) So, with not much to say, I thought why not ask the leaders about their opinions on how they played last night!