Ladies and Gents, welcome to the CommFT Highlander Strategy Series, a column that will dissects what went right (and sometimes wrong) with teams in the CommFT Highlander Tournament. Nine people is a lot to coordinate with all the blood and explosions and skinny babies swinging fish everywhere.
First up is the gracious and timely Linus from Team SNSD, a EU Highlander team that's been kicking ass and taking names in the tourney.
So, without further ado:
Team Name?
We're SNSD, a European highlander team. We have won the ETF2L community challenge, and have won all of our matches in the CommFt tournament so far.
How did you prepare for this particular CommFT HL Tourney Match?
We prepare in the same fashion for every official we play. We try to find out as much information about the enemy team's play style as possible, and then adjust our tactics the way we feel it fits best to counter them. Once the tactics are set, we usually try to find a team better than the one we're going to play against to test them out.
What were the strategies you used during the match? Did they work? Did you have to make changes on the fly?
We have been playing highlander actively for almost a year now and we have not lost a single official yet, which feels great. Never change tactics during an official; this is something we have learned the hard way from 6v6. Of course, almost every match we have to make slight adjustments, which usually means focusing on one (or two) particular player. For example, if the other team has a really good demoman, then we make sure that the demoman gets taken down/harassed as much as possible to put the enemy in disadvantage. But, our basic tactics remain unchanged. The only possible scenario, I can imagine, where we would make drastic changes is if we're losing really badly. In that case, it's best to just come up with everything you got, as there would be nothing to lose anyway, and who knows... crazy tactics have worked out pretty well in the past for some teams!
If you could change anything about the strategy you used during the match, what would it be?
In our week 2 match, we met "Quad Damage" on Viaduct. We won 4-2, but it was a really close game. We were actually 2-0 down when we made our comeback. Our main problem in the first 2 rounds was the sniper. He picked me(medic) with full charge several times - there was just little to no pressure on him. The 3rd round, however, he was our main target, and everything went much better. What would have I changed? Make that decision after the first couple of absolutely ridiculous frags he got!
What will you do differently to prepare for upcoming matches?
Our week 4 game is quite possibly going to be our most difficult match yet. It's against "Angry German Kids". A team which consists of Germany's top TF2 players - some of the world's finest. This does mean we'll try our extra best to prepare - though our usual routine won't change much. I'm going to make sure however that we will be fielding our best line-up, and thateveryone will be warmed up properly.
Have you learned anything specifically about Highlander strategy while playing in this tournament?
Our strategies constantly evolve; we always look out for possible improvements. We have entered the CommFT tournament with a brand new line-up which has opened new possibilities. I consider our revamped roster to have a lot more potential than the one we used in ETF2L, mainly allowing us to be more aggressive.
What class is the most difficult to use or coordinate in Highlander? Why?
As one of the main-callers (we have about 3 people doing that at the same time!) I'd say that the roaming classes are the most difficult to coordinate. We have our soldier, scout, sniper and of course the ultimate roaming class; the spy - constantly roaming, looking to get some picks. It's really hard to predict their success rate, so it's hard to rely on them during the game. However, the most difficult to coordinate would be the spy in my opinion. It's such a random class; you may have spent minutes planning your stab on that medic, but all that can just go to hell if he turns around for no reason whatsoever a split second before you backstab him.
Most difficult to use? Very difficult to say, depends alot on the map/team. I'd say though, it's always the roaming classes (listed as above) that have the hardest time. For example, if the enemy team is really spy-aware, then spies with regular clocks will struggle to get anything done. Or if the enemy sniper outpowers yours, then your sniper is basically forced to hide from the other sniper, which means giving up some good positions and, therefore, giving up on some potential valuable picks.
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Want to be part of the Highlander Strategy series? PM me on the forums and we'll make it happen!
