Last Monday, the Cevo-A finals took place between 22d and Knockout Gaming. The match was a best of format. The two picked maps were Badlands and Yukon.

Badlands was… A quick match. 22d came out strong, wiping K0 gaming at mid. They easily captured spire and moved on to last. Knockout gaming seemed to wake up with a clutch last defence, but in the end it faded.
This pattern seemed to be the story of the game. 22d came out fighting and mid and Knockout was forced to retreat several times into choke, not even being ABLE to fight for mid. Goldy forced several early ubers, proving his worth on the new 22d roster.

It wasn’t all 22d, though. After losing 4 rounds straight, Knockout finally pulled something together. They won two rounds in a row, making the score 4-2 in favor of 22d. The rally was largely due to Novice’s great soldier skills. He played a very good match, even with 22d was steamrolling.

In round 7,  22d went back to basics and played to win. They wiped Knockout at mid, and made quick work of last, winning 5-2 in only 17 minutes.

Next the two teams moved to Yukon. Goldy for 22d came out with some MAJOR work as sniper. He got several kills during this match, and for most of the first half, was leading the team in points.

Knockout wasn’t done, though. They threw together a very good defense on last, in which Novice forced Tragic to drop an uber with some fancy rocket jumps. Knockout made a good push, but in the end, it wasn’t enough.

Yukon was sloppy for both teams though, and this primarily showed in the second half. 22d was leading 4-0 going into half, just needing one more win to secure the championship. Both teams dropped several players to sticky traps and the round became a standstill. Neither team could seem to get up uber, but when they did, they weren’t able to do much with it. After 11 minutes, knockout gaming squeezed out a win.

After the loss, Tragic pulled the team together and reconsidered their strategies. They played like a much better team going into round 6 and Knockout gaming was forced into submission. 22d are the new Cevo-A champions, winning Yukon 5-1.

Though Knockout gaming got beat, I’d like to say they did have several good moments and pushes as a team, often times coming back from a last defense to get at least mid. They took 3 rounds away from a team that has only lost 8 all season.

But 22d did prove why they were undefeated this season. They were a force to be reckoned with, and ALL of their players looked consistently strong. Especially Green with his sick-nasty Yukon jumps.

It was a great match, and I’m looking forward to seeing these two teams in the future!

Knockout Gaming is:

Noobina
Defiance
Broses
Bastard
DooG
Novice

22d is:

Tragic
Terminator
Green
Pt_
Flappy
Goldy

Chris Schetter of tgbf.tv and I were featured as guest hosts on the latest edition of KritzKast! In episode 72, we attempt to hold a discussion with the regular hosts about what's all going on in competitive TF2. Check it out here!

(And tf2trubl is probably going to be out this weekend, even though I might say it'd be out sooner on the podcast.)

It is a pretty busy week for the folks over at the Xtreme Professional League. I managed to catch up with Charles and ask a couple of questions from the man in charge of the TF2 division of XPL…

Can you introduce yourself for those in the community that do not already know you?

Wow, where to start? I am Charles, the Game Manager for TF2 at XPL. The TF2 community and most people in general refer to me as Hawkeye. As far as Team Fortress 2, I have played since around the Pyro update regularly. I also serve on staff here at CommFt as a forum moderator and Server admin for the two DM servers. Author of the TF2 MatchMod plugin (matchmod.net) and generally help quite a few different communities out getting servers configured and routinely answer steam IM for general game questions to pretty much anyone.

I have been active in gaming and competition for quite a long time. Back in the 80s I played Elite, Trek 2.8 and Doom over a modem for 1v1 match ups. Plus hit up Dwango quite a bit back in the day. Active at LAN parties and tournaments in Michigan from about the Doom era until the LAN participants decided I was old enough to ask to buy them beer. This covered Quake/2, Rise of the Triad, Descent, Warcraft/2, MechWarrior, Diablo/2, X-Wing vs Tie Fighter, Age of Empires, Command and Conquer, Starfleet Command, Unreal Tournament, Tribes, and a ton of others I am leaving out. I stopped actively attending/organizing LANs in the late 90s era.

I was active in many of the communities around these games, and modded many of them. TNTBot for Quake 1, 4-Team CTF for Quake 2, StarSiegeCraft:Fallen Jedi Edition for Tribes, and writing tutorials when I was on staff at Inside3D.net (Quake modding site)

When looking at the XPL TF2 Standings page, a few different columns stand out, specifically Points and RPI.  What is unclear initially is which of those two factors is more important, and how each is calculated.  This article will aim to give players a greater understanding of exactly how teams are ranked in the XPL and how those rankings themselves are determined.

The points system in XPL is relatively simplistic.  Teams are awarded three points for each win, two points for a tie or a forfeit win, and one point for either a loss or a forfeit loss.  Remember that, since each map played technically counts as an individual match, teams can score a maximum of six points each week and a minimum of two.  However, the points system in XPL is largely irrelevant.  Teams are not ranked according to their points when it comes to playoff standings, and points appear to be used as little more than a modifier for a team's overall RPI.

Much more complicated is the Ratings Percentage Index, or RPI.  This is the number that every team's playoff aspirations will hinge on, as it is the number that decides where teams lie in the rankings.

Article Two, Series “Into the Unknown”... A little series on breaking into the competitive scene.

Pick or be picked?

Alright, let’s continue where we left off last time.  Let’s say you wanted to become the next carnage and started to DM nonstop.  After a while, you decided to enter the lobby, and to your pleasant surprise, you can keep up a positive KA:D against scouts with over a hundred lobbies under their proverbial belts.  (Note while the number of lobbies one has attended does not necessarily equate to an epic pro, the chances of them being better are higher.)

Then, you decided you want to take things a bit more seriously, and decide to visit the CommFT forums (I’m not just saying this to have more traffic on this site.  The only alternative to this would be GotFrag, and let’s just say there’s a tiny infestation of trolls in the area).  After reading the rules, and posting an ad for someone to pick up the uber amazing mini carnage (remember, post as low), you wait.

If you’re seriously trying to get picked up by a team, then after you post, attach a ‘Looking to your name.  For example, Alar Ensis ‘Looking.  This way, when you lobby, people will know that you’re looking for a team, and if they see that you are indeed, epic pro, they will contact you. Another benefit to this would be that if someone is on the forums often, and find your name (provided that you dominated his Schweinhund rear), he may post under your name a positive statement like, “He’s good, DM’s are definitely better than a low.” Of course DM’s aren’t everything, esp. if you’re a medic.  That’s why it’s important to have a mic.

As for what exactly to “comm” is a different question altogether.  I’ll get to this later, probably in a different article.  Let’s fast forward the time a bit, and your attempts at joining a team have met with a rather frickin’ unbelievable silence.  Your bumping attempts have ended with more lackluster silence, and your lobby count is slowly growing.  What to do?

Well for me, I decided start a team of my own, through a combination of a few factors.  First was the promise of a possible server (now unfortunately invalid).  Second was the fact that as a medic, I needed to be able to command without question, and the best way to ensure leadership is to actually start the team.  Thus, I was off, ready to start a team that would take the TF2 world by storm.

So now, what to do?  Well first off, you need to know what kind of team you wish to create.  Then, you will know what type of people to recruit.  Remember, go for lows.  Even if a low+ is looking for a team, your team probably won’t be able to keep up with his experience, leading him to rage or ragequit.   So it’s better to start off with people all around the same level and experience: zilch.

As you stalk the recruitment forums (and yes, you can use GotFrag as long as you don’t post a thing), you may come up with a startling conclusion.  I don’t want any of these people.  At his point, you may want to either consider: quitting (and saving years of your life), keep stalking the forums, or go back to that trusty pub you’ve always frequented in your childhood era of TF2, where huntsman spam was considered cool.

Now as for what I did, I chose the third option.  I went back to my old community (any Refuge guys reading this?) and friended the guys who I thought were good, and asked them if they wanted to join.

Simply put, yes.  Now with that, I had a team, but it wasn’t without its many faults.  But that’s for next time.

tl;dr?  Go to gotfrag.com, it’s a great place with supportive members.  And carnage huntsman spam is cool.

Well then, til next time~

Alar Ensis (Pronounced Ah-Lar Ehn-cys, NOT Ae-Ler En-cise)

BTW, it seems I’ve made a habit of referencing different coL members – first Solid, then carnage.  I guess I’ll work to continue the pattern, and then move on to different teams.

The following article will aim to give readers, and especially competitive players, an objective look at the positive and negative aspects of the Xtreme Professional League's Team Fortress 2 league.  XPL is the latest in a relatively long line of leagues to offer TF2 competition, and as such it faces an uphill battle as it seeks to establish itself and win over the invite-level teams, which will obviously be paramount to the league's overall lasting success in this fickle community.

While it is obviously difficult to fully gauge the quality of a league after just one week of play, some issues have clearly already come into light, and it never hurts to take a look at the flaws in the hopes that they will at least be discussed and at best be fixed altogether.

Good day to you, my name is Trogdor The Burninator, but most people call me Trogdor. I wanted to join the Community Fortress writing staff to help realize its ultimate goal, which is to build the bridge between the lower skill leveled players and the higher ones. While it seems that a certain someone by the name of Alar Ensis has already beaten me to the punch, I decided to put my post up anyway. Please keep in mind that this first article is meant to help those that are COMPLETELY clueless to the competitive scene, I will be progressing on much more specific subjects as time goes on.

THE TF2 COMPETITIVE COMMUNITY SURVIVAL GUIDE

Part 1: FORUMS

Forums, they’re a basic necessity for any competitive gaming community. They’re used for a number of things: communication, recruiting, archiving information, and trolling. Part one of my expose on the team fortress competitive community will be focusing on looking posts, learning tips and tricks, and how to spot the trolls.

Via the Apocalypse Gaming Community, comes this picture from Valve apparently from the upcoming Engineer Update. That's definitely a new map... Anyone spot anything else?

The CEVO-A Season 5 finals are going down tomorrow (Monday, June 28th) night at 9 pm Central time. 22d is taking on Knockout Gaming in a best-of-three match with each team being able to choose a map; CEVO has chosen the tiebreak as koth_viaduct. 22d defeated KO Gaming in the upper bracket finals on cp_granary but KO proceeded to defeat Mainline Gaming in the lower bracket finals to return for round 2. TGBF.tv is not sure if they are going to be able to cast this match but Apoplexy Industries is providing a Source TV Relay either way. You can check out the CEVO-A playoffs brackets HERE.