General TF2 Gameplay/Comp. Thread

[Dr. Orange]

Made on whim to get Comp talk out of main SFOTF2 thread. 

 

So, my intention was using this thread as a place where we can share strategies and techniques in playing TF2 and all the nine characters. Make the newcomers pro like the Soviets would. 

 

Maybe even share trading strategies or something. 

 

 

 

 

 

That's like all I have.

[Scourge]

Play as heavy

Dont suck

Win game

["User"]

Play as heavy

Dont suck

Win game

 

Get lessons from Polk, Arthur, or DZK

[Hidi]

Hey, so Exec, I was going to make a little 'viewbook' style thread for SFO's little competitive scene. It won't be like this, and probably more complicated than that. Allow me to get my computer back first.

Remember: There are three formats to competitive!

Highlander (9v9, HL) - One of each class, nine to a team. The biggest challenge in Highlander is being a cohesive unit. It's not all about your individual skill, but how you work as a team.

Sixes (6v6, 6s) - Standard format is two Scouts, two Soldiers (Roamer and pocket), one Demoman, and a Medic. Off-classing is permitted with certain restrictions.

Fours (4v4, 4s) - Off-classing is constant, however some teams may prefer to remain static as much as possible. You can have a Medic or a Heavy, but not both, and not more than one person on a class.

[Dr. Orange]

I know Icy had a great writing on comp. TF2 that I'd wish he post here but I'll post it for him because yes.

 

DISCLAIMER:
I just put this together based on my own experience. If I'm wrong about certain things, then feel free to correct me.
Overall, though, I think this is a good read for new Highlander players.

CONCEPT:
2 teams, 9 players each
1 of each class for each team.

-----MAPS:

Highlander technically allows for most game modes and/or maps, but the game modes that are usually played are as follows:

Payload (Upward, Badwater, etc)
Control Points (Granary, Steel, etc)
King of the Hill (Viaduct, Lakeside, etc)
Attack/Defend Control Points (Gravel Pit, Dustbowl, etc)

King of the Hill and Control Point maps are played the same way they always have been, so I don't need to go over those.

In Payload, though, you play in a mode called "Stopwatch".
Stopwatch works this way:
BLU tries to push the cart, but they need to go as fast as they can, because at the end of the round, whether they cap the final point or not, there is a total time staring them in the face. The former RED team (now BLU for the next round) must capture X amount of points and/or beat the time, and it's up to the former BLU team (now RED) to stop them.
Whoever has the best time at the end of a round (One rotation of offense/defense) wins that round. The first team to win 2 rounds wins the match. A 3rd round will be played in case of a tie after 2 rounds.

Stopwatch is also used for Attack/Defend Control Point maps (ie: Gravel Pit) The same rules apply here, but there's no cart.

-----CLASSES:

As with everything in this guide, don't take this all too seriously. You're the one playing the class and you should do whatever you need to do. In general, though, these are basic tips on what each class's role is.

/////SCOUT
In Payload, Scout is the #1 cart pusher. If the cart is about to move back, he better get himself over there ASAP. He also sometimes uses his Bonk! if the team needs him to distract the sentry. No need to always have the Bonk equipped, though. Milk or pistol are great secondaries for HL.
He's not on the cart 24/7, though. The Scout can roam around, make important calls to the team (spy here, medic there, building sentry, etc), and of course, kill enemies!

For CP maps, again, he is great at capturing points, but is also a good class for roaming around and annoying the enemy team.

On KOTH maps, same stuff.

The Scout is a very versatile class and can fill many roles. It depends on the team, the player, the map, and/or the enemy team to decide his exact role for every match.

/////SOLDIER
The Soldier is a very important class in Highlander.
On Payload maps, he typically roams around to the "Soldier spots" and works from there. If needed, he can "bomb" the enemy team. When jumping/bombing, his main target is usually the Medic. The Soldier can be a big help in taking down sentries.
Most of the time on PL maps, Soldier is just doing his job. You won't find him on the cart much, he's too busy jumping around trying to kill the enemy.
Soldier is a good uber buddy if in a jam. Medics should be sure to overheal him if they spot him. He needs all the HP he can get for those rocket jumps.

On other maps, Soldier does the same basic stuff. He helps cap the point, bombs the enemy, and just spams anything that moves.

/////PYRO
The Pyro is a good support class, but can also be a very offensive class if given the opportunity. On most maps, he will be with the combo a lot of the time. Spy-checking, reflecting spam, airblasting ubers/enemies in general, and so on.
He can help cap the point/push the cart, he can help defend the engineer/sentry, he can roam a bit if possible/needed, and of course, he can stick with the combo and defend them.
It's very common for the Pyro to be the "defender" class, but he can be very effective on the offensive, as well, in the right situations.

/////DEMOMAN
The Demo, if skilled, can destroy the enemy team with his stickies. Placing them in obscured places, he can wait for an unsuspecting enemy to walk over them, detonate, and boom. Demos will often just spam stickies onto points, carts, chokes, etc, and rack up the kills if the enemy can't evade them. The grenade launcher is also useful. If in a jam, out of stickies, or just fond of the grenade launcher for some reason, the Demoman can use grenades to kill enemies, as well. They're good for spamming the enemy, too, much like stickies.
In general, Demos are an integral part of any Highlander team. They are very important to make that push, maintain that hold, or take out sentries in places Heavies may not be able to aim their bullets.

/////HEAVY
Run around, stay with the Medic, push to take down sentries and the enemy team in general, and watch your back for spies even if your Pyro is hugging your back.

/////ENGINEER
For RED Payload, refer to that section of the guide. I went over what the Engineer basically does there.
The Engineer is an extremely important class, specifically on Payload when defending. He needs to be quick, though. He can't hesitate or he will lose his hold. Say BLU caps a point on Payload, his sentry is down, his team is down, he needs to HAUL ASS back to the next point and setup his nest as quickly as possible. In fact, he should already be there if the team thinks they're losing a hold before it's taken.

For everything else, Engie can pack a mini-sentry to extremely annoy the enemy team. He needs to be efficient with setting up teleporters and dispensers to help his team stay alive and get back to the action quickly if they die.
Sometimes he will set up level 3 sentries if he thinks he can/should. It's all map/team/situation-specific here, though.

/////MEDIC
Heal people. Uber them to take out sentries/enemy holds. DON'T get in the enemy Sniper's line of sight, WATCH YOUR BACK even if there's a friendly Pyro hugging you.
Constantly jump around if you have to get in the enemy Sniper's line of sight, and only take out your primary/melee if you're alone/in trouble.

/////SNIPER
He runs around, sometimes camps, usually stays a little ways back from the action. He aims for the head and shoots.

Sometimes he will charge up a shot and purposefully aim for the body. Usually the enemy Medic is a good target for this, but if a certain class is giving the team a lot of trouble, he can hit them with a fully-charged bodyshot or two for an (relatively) easy kill.

Medics should definitely overheal the sniper if they get the chance. It helps him survive headshots from the other sniper.

/////SPY
He is sneaky. He tries to sneak around, sneakily take out enemy players (mostly Medics, Heavies, Engies, and Snipers), calls out to the team what the enemy's position is, calls out what the Medic's Uber percentage is, what Medigun he is using, etc etc etc.

He is very good at annoying Engineers if he can manage it. Sap the buildings, backstab the protectors, and help the team make that push successful.

-----BASIC TACTICS FOR EACH GAME MODE:

/////PAYLOAD:
RED team: Engineers will typically rush out the spawn doors, lay down a teleporter entrance (hopefully), then hurry on their way (WITHOUT going back for metal first typically, very important not to waste time) to the first hold, set up shop with their sentry/dispenser/teleporter exit (in order of importance), upgrade everything as much as they can, and the round will start.
A few of the other classes, most definitely excluding the Medic, will suicide near the first hold so the Engie can pick up their weapons for metal to upgrade his buildings without having to run around picking up ammo boxes. This helps the Engineer and the first hold immenseley. With this strategy, by the time the BLU spawn doors open up, he'll have a Level 3 Sentry Gun, a teleporter, and a Dispenser ready to go.
So hear this: Don't forget to suicide as soon as you make it to the first hold/sentry spot. Don't all suicide in the same spot, though, as that will put all the ammo on top of each other and the Engineer will lose precious metal. Spread out the suicides a little bit.

That's RED/defense most of the time on most Payload maps. There are alternative strategies, but this is what most teams do most of the time.

BLU team: Sit in spawn, build uber, get ready to go out and destroy the sentry, push the cart, and cap as many points as possible.
It's important to try and be aggressive here, but not too much. You don't want to have 100% uber and everyone else be dead from being too aggressive. It's got to be balanced.
Once you get the momentum, don't let up. Keep 3x on the cart and keep moving forward so the enemy can't get a strong hold set up.

/////CONTROL POINTS:
Run. Fast. Demos will typically use their stickies to "roll out" as quickly as possible so they can get to mid ASAP and start trying to hold it. Scouts can run with the Demo to help them. Medic needs to heal Demo as he rolls out. Soldier will whip his teammates so they can all get to mid as quickly as possible.
Cap all the points, try to have a backup plan if you lose the first mid fight. Keep moving forward if you get the momentum.
Try to win. That's about it. There are various class-specific strategies for every game mode, but I won't go into detail here. This is meant to be a basic rundown of what you'll be doing. I will link an in-depth Highlander guide for each class at the bottom of this post for you to read yourself.

/////KOTH:
Run as fast as you can to mid. Try to win the first fight and control the point for as long as you can. Try to push a few people ahead if you do take the point. Don't let the enemy get setup or push you back to your own spawn. There will be a battle for mid quite often. You'll have a few designated "holds" and if you control those holds, you will control the point and win the round.

-----COMMON HIGHLANDER TERMS:

Scrim: Like a match, but a scrimmage/practice round. Played against another Highlander team in your division. The team leader(s) organize these, and they will try to work around player schedules so most of the main players will be able to play each scrim. There will be a few of these each week.

Match: Same as a scrim, but for all the marbles.

Lobby: Played like a match, but between random people from anywhere. Typically organized on sites like TF2Center, TF2Lobby, or mix.nahl ?????

Pub: Random, public game. Basically, most TF2 servers.

--

Combo: Medic + their pocket. Typically Heavy/Medic.

Hold: A location the team "holds". Typically, a hold is just a certain spot near a point.

Sack/Suicide: If someone says this, they just mean suiciding for the Engie, like on defense on Payload maps.

Advantage: When someone says something like "We have advantage" they mean that either A) Our Medic's Ubercharge percentage is higher than the enemy's, or B) We have significantly more players alive than the other team.
It can be used the opposite way, too, of course.

-----COMMON THINGS TO SAY DURING GAMES:

To keep comms "clear" here are some basic callouts that you should use/hear during a game.

"CLASS down!" when you take down an enemy. (Always call out when you kill an enemy)

"CLEAR COMMS!" Everyone shut up.

"I'm down" when you die (not necessary, but OK to say)

"I'm up" when you respawn (same as above)

"Sapping xxxx" when sapping a sentry gun/engie nest

"Soldier jumping/bombing!" when an enemy soldier is attempting to bomb your team/medic.

"Spy CLASS, LOCATION" when you see a spy

"Sentry down!" when you take down the sentry

"Teleporter down!" when you take down a teleporter

"We're pushing!" when your team is making a push (Mostly used by the players who have control over making the push, such as the Medic, Heavy, Soldier, or Demo)

"Uber! / They ubered!" when the enemy ubers in (Also useful to mention which medigun's uber it is, who they ubered, and where they ubered if at all possible)

"Fall back!" when you think your team needs to fall back a bit

"Move up!" when you think your team needs to move up/push

RANDOM RAMBLINGS THAT MAY BE OF INTEREST:

Medic's gotta do dat heal priority.
Demo needs to stay focused, stay near the combo when needed
Sniper needs to be good and understand tactics, don't go for kills you can't get, but still support the team by snipping off heads.
Pyro needs to stick with combo, roam along the flank if possible, etc.
Scout HAS to be on CART/POINT/SUPPORT DUTY. should milk, flank, annoy, etc, and practice aim as much as possible.
Heavy/Demo/Solly have to be nice to medic, if things don't work, WORK ON THINGS CALMLY
Spy needs to CALL, CALL, CALL, when he sees anything of note.

Gotta take care of little annoyances like mini sentries so the team can keep going. Getting bogged down by something like a mini is dumb, but it happens sometimes and it really shouldn't.
GOTTA GROUP UP TOGETHER, GET SOME CHEMISTRY.
ALL ABOUT CHEMISTRY.
Makes or breaks a game/team.

Gotta get to "know" the team so that when a big push is needed to take down a nest or whatever, medic, heavy, demo, etc, know to flock together and fall back so they can BUILD, CLEAR COMMS, and PUSH PUSH PUSH. WIN.

["User"]

The pre-season match is tonight and the map is Granary. I'll be expecting an easy victory from Icy, Scourge, High, and the rest.

[Dr. Orange]

Results were mixed. 4-2, then 0-4. Struggle is real.

["User"]

Results were mixed. 4-2, then 0-4 tied. Struggle is real.

 

So did you win or not? A final result should be first to 5 points with a half ending after 4 points for a team or 30 minutes.  These results do not make any sense lol

[Dr. Orange]

I don't pay attention to that. I'm just in this for the strategy and friendly competition. 

["User"]

I don't pay attention to that. I'm just in this for the strategy and friendly competition. 

 

You were in the game, and you have no idea who won or lost? Okay....

 

I'll find out some other way I guess?

[Hidi]

I got kinda kicked off my team reently lulz

[Dr. Orange]

I got kinda kicked off my team reently lulz

 

 

Come to A6V. We have koocies.

["User"]

I got kinda kicked off my team reently lulz

 

Try and be a backup to the backup medic on a low gold team.  DO IT FOR THE MEDAL