CommunityFortress

Yeaaa.... This whole eXpressions series hasn't quite lived up to it's promises yet as I haven't been getting them out nearly as frequentyl as I'd like. Instead of short topical aticles, I'm having to play a lil catch up. A lots been going on with eXtv and TGBF.tv, BUT THATS NO EXCUSE :)

Engineer Update:

The Engineer Update finally dropped, with a bit of surprises, a dash of predicted changes, and a little controversy. With the Golden Wrench crafting giveaway, DrunkenFool exploited insider information to determine when drop times were going to be. Derek was in the server while DrunkenFool counted down to a drop. Derek's craft and DrunkenFool's actions fittingly earned both of them a VAC ban. DrunkenFool took his in stride with an irc interview describing his feelings on the ban which Robin Walker himself explained to the creator of TF2Items.com

Yes, that was old news. Newer news is the Golden Wrench Charity drive, in which the owner of the #31 Golden Wrench is raising money for the Childs Play Charity through a scheduled destruction of the trouble causing item itself. The charity effort has gained steam and is not only almost at $4K raised for this fantastic cause, but also has solicited agreements for the destruction of other wrenches. Check out the page and spare a buck if you got it.

The Engineer update brought some new maps: Upward, Hightower, and Thunder Mountain.

Plr_hightower made it into the TF2LobbyChamp rotation and is the only map of the three that stands a chance to be in a 6v6 map rotation I haven't played it in that setting yet so cannot offer an opinion on it. The other two however are great additions to Attack/Defend pub rotations stuck on GoldRush and Badwater. Not only are they great additions to public server rotations, but they also signify an expansion of maps fit for Highlander. Highlander is still a rare sight on TF2Lobby.com, even though that site is the best option for organizing that style of play. All you anti-6v6 pubbers should be making those games happen :) Expand the Highlander Scene! Fight for your Right to be the only Engie/Spy/Sniper in Sight!

Concerning the new Engineer Unlockables, the Frontier Justice is on one hand nifty and powerful, while limited to 3 shots and the need to earn crits. 6v6 Engineers should probably roll with the regular shotgun in my opinion. The Gunslinger is pretty cool with the capability to be useful on weird maps with surprise roll outs. The wrangler makes a great combo with the Gunslinger, but its shielding ability is way over powered. Limiting teams to one Engineer while allowing the wrangler has been kicked around by some people but the Wrangler is too powerful and banning a 2nd engineer would hurt the play of Gravel Pit. The ability to grab an item when you rocket jump in order to place a sentry gun and a teleporter exit on the roof of B is reason alone to ban the wrangler. Moveable objects are a big buff that is great in all regards. It creates different roll out scenarios while also promoting engineers to move forward. Although the re-build time is pretty slow, a 6v6 Engineer could stay as that class and move their Sentry forward from Defending Last into 2nd.

Alongside the competitive community wide ban of the Wrangler, the Natascha has also gotten banned in multiple leagues (CEVO and ESEA). This has been a controversial decision although in this writers opinion a correct one. I'd like to see further changes to the Natascha. TF2Lobby will hopefully forever be our testing grounds. Go ahead and play Natascha heavy in there and feel dirty. You'll probably win some games, and probably lose some. It's not a guaranteed win tactic, but it's a boring one that detracts from exciting gameplay.

That whole post emptied the brain quite a bit :D

Thanks for reading, stay tuned!