n00b1n8R
08-06-2009, 06:21 PM
a beginner's guide to competitive tf2
hey figured i'd post this here...maybe get some people interested in the comp side of tf2
this guide is designed for and assumes the intended audience is a team fortress 2 player who has never played a scrim, or a pub team that has decided to branch out and expand into the competitive scene. Advanced tactics and specific strategies for individual maps won't be discussed, rather the focus will be on a general understanding of the game. The goal is to lay the groundwork for new teams and players to expand on themselves as they learn together. This can also be taken as a basic f.a.q. As many of the ideas of what to put in were inspired by the many threads posted from new players asking these very questions.
Basic logistics
this sections seems almost unnecessary, but i want to be as comprehensive as possible in introducing new players and don't want to leave anything out regardless of how obvious it may seem. You'll want to download ventrilo for out of game voice communication and get yourself a channel somewhere (if you don't have any friends and don't want to pay monthly just yet, then ask someone in irc maybe somebody will hook you up). Second, you'll want an irc client - mirc is best but any result on google for 'irc client' works too. Connect to gamesurge (/server irc.gamesurge.net) and join (/join) channel #tf2scrim to find a scrim, channel #tf2.gather.us to play a pick up game, or website esea to play a pick up game. The leagues you'll want to sign up for are cevo and esea. Some people will say to join 'beginner leagues' but i disagree with that mentality. Cevo and esea are both open leagues where there are plenty of brand new teams, and you really don't want to stagnate in a league where you never play anybody better than yourself. If you do decide to go for a more casual league then there are twl, cal, and sta. Last but certainly not least, watch demos. Look at how other people play, it will help you tremendously both individually as well as on a macro strategy level.
Update: The european tf2 scene operates with the same basic principles, though different programs, irc servers and channels. In europe, mumble is preferred for voice chat while quakenet is the main irc server (/server irc.quakenet.org). The general scene hangout is #etf2l, while scrims work out of #tf.wars and pickups are in #mpuktf2.pickup.
The european scene is a little more robust with both a larger player base and larger field of leagues to compete in. The top level - in terms of prizes, teams participating, etc. - includes names like the european tf2 league (etf2l), enemy down, the ukesa and the variety of esl. Thesgl and wireplay also offer up leagues and tournaments for play, though much like twl/sta/cal, at a lower level of competition. Demos of all of this can be found at such places like cadred.org and the etf2l.org site.
Classes & maps
the basic 6man class format is two scouts, two soldiers, a medic, and a demoman. Most people identify themselves with one class and practice that one class. The maps that are played are push maps, the two most popular of which are granary and badlands. Well, fastlane, and to a lesser extent freight are also played in leagues. Gravel pit is the one attack/defend map being played, with dustbowl having been effectively phased out. A new map called broma is emerging, but most people haven't even played it yet and probably won't until the week for it comes around in cevo. Capture the flag and payload maps are not played at all.
Update: Except, of course, for ctf_turbine, which has a great deal of playtime in the european tf2 scene.
Class responsibilities
depending on your team's style you may have different classes play slightly different roles than what other teams do. However, there are some basic principles that are generally used for the different classes and their jobs. At least one soldier's job is to protect the medic. There are two different approaches to get this job done. A team could either run a dedicated combo soldier and a designated roaming soldier, or a team can keep both soldiers together and play it by circumstance (i personally prefer the latter as it gives you more options because you know both of your soldiers can do both jobs). Whatever your team decides, know that the combo of soldier and medic is the heart of the team. It's where the action is focused. The medic's job is to keep people alive, but just as important is staying alive. Do what it takes to survive, always pop your uber if you need it to save yourself. Because the soldier is the only class that can consistently defend you, that is who you are attached to. Good chemistry between soldier and medic is vital to the success of a team.
One of the scout's jobs is to cover flanks. When your combo is pushing in one direction you need to push in the other direction so as to prevent backcaps (this is especially true on well). Come into the fight and attack people that are low - it's not always necessary to gun straight for the medic if you know that somebody else is about to die, or is closer to you and you can make them die. Take advantage of the enemy focusing on your combo, and stay alive to clean up. A scout that survived the fight by turning the corner and avoiding soldier aggro can come in and clean up the entire team if the medic died and everyone is low, possibly even winning the game this way. Go for medic picks when the opportunity presents itself (especially when you don't have uber advantage), but don't let this be your sole function. Go for back caps when the opportunity presents itself, but again don't let this be your sole function. You are very much helpful alive helping the combo win the fight, so go for back caps and picks intelligently and when it won't severely harm your team should you fail. Scouts should also be aware of enemy scouts at all times. You should avoid letting enemy scouts roam free and pop out on your heavies. This doesn't mean you have to chase around scouts and try to kill them every time - at the very least keep them in front of you, and call their positions if you can't kill them. Keep in mind your demoman's position as he will attract scouts; keep him protected. Letting scouts roam free will burden your combo tremendously as they will have to fight the other team's combo as well as trying to keep the medic alive from free-running scouts.
The demoman's job is a little more versatile than the other classes. Depending on the location on the map and your team's strategy you can either come in with the combo or through a flank. Quite often you will find yourself without the combo but rather with the scouts, so it is important to develop a sort of cohesion between the demoman and the scouts. On many pushes the scouts may be responsible keeping the demo alive. Your default goal in a combo vs combo fight is to spam the enemy team with grenades and stickies, not always going for direct kills but to supplement soldier rocket damage. It does often pay to go aggressive as demo due to his high damage output, but when you do so do it intelligently and when the opportunity presents itself. Because you have sticky bombs, one of the best abilities of a demoman is the ability to completely shut off a choke point. Get familiar with all chokepoints on push maps and learn the best way to trap it to prevent enemies from free access. Once you have it trapped, you can do all sorts of things with your scouts to bait others inside to blow them up, but for now, just learn the basics of controlling/blocking an area. Normally you'll be alone on one side with your scouts while the combo guards the other entrance so learn to feel the enemy push.
Communication
to be successul, you must know things that you don't see. For this to happen your teammates must tell you those things. Get into the habit of calling out low targets. If you know you got a few good shots off on somebody then say something. Have other people focus that person and get them down. If you're about to push in with uber, get the enemy soldiers to shoot their rockets. See 4 consecutive rockets hit the wall beside you? Call that the soldier is reloading and that it's a good time to push in. Call everything you see, where enemy scouts are going, where the demoman is jumping, etc. Even if it's obvious, chances are not all 6 people on your team are watching what you're watching. Call how many people are down, maybe somebody on your team isn't aware. Communicate when your combo has pushed into the room, or the yard. When the fighting has started. Your scouts and (depending on position and map) your demo need to know when to follow in so that everyone can attack together.
obligatory text length lololol
hey figured i'd post this here...maybe get some people interested in the comp side of tf2
this guide is designed for and assumes the intended audience is a team fortress 2 player who has never played a scrim, or a pub team that has decided to branch out and expand into the competitive scene. Advanced tactics and specific strategies for individual maps won't be discussed, rather the focus will be on a general understanding of the game. The goal is to lay the groundwork for new teams and players to expand on themselves as they learn together. This can also be taken as a basic f.a.q. As many of the ideas of what to put in were inspired by the many threads posted from new players asking these very questions.
Basic logistics
this sections seems almost unnecessary, but i want to be as comprehensive as possible in introducing new players and don't want to leave anything out regardless of how obvious it may seem. You'll want to download ventrilo for out of game voice communication and get yourself a channel somewhere (if you don't have any friends and don't want to pay monthly just yet, then ask someone in irc maybe somebody will hook you up). Second, you'll want an irc client - mirc is best but any result on google for 'irc client' works too. Connect to gamesurge (/server irc.gamesurge.net) and join (/join) channel #tf2scrim to find a scrim, channel #tf2.gather.us to play a pick up game, or website esea to play a pick up game. The leagues you'll want to sign up for are cevo and esea. Some people will say to join 'beginner leagues' but i disagree with that mentality. Cevo and esea are both open leagues where there are plenty of brand new teams, and you really don't want to stagnate in a league where you never play anybody better than yourself. If you do decide to go for a more casual league then there are twl, cal, and sta. Last but certainly not least, watch demos. Look at how other people play, it will help you tremendously both individually as well as on a macro strategy level.
Update: The european tf2 scene operates with the same basic principles, though different programs, irc servers and channels. In europe, mumble is preferred for voice chat while quakenet is the main irc server (/server irc.quakenet.org). The general scene hangout is #etf2l, while scrims work out of #tf.wars and pickups are in #mpuktf2.pickup.
The european scene is a little more robust with both a larger player base and larger field of leagues to compete in. The top level - in terms of prizes, teams participating, etc. - includes names like the european tf2 league (etf2l), enemy down, the ukesa and the variety of esl. Thesgl and wireplay also offer up leagues and tournaments for play, though much like twl/sta/cal, at a lower level of competition. Demos of all of this can be found at such places like cadred.org and the etf2l.org site.
Classes & maps
the basic 6man class format is two scouts, two soldiers, a medic, and a demoman. Most people identify themselves with one class and practice that one class. The maps that are played are push maps, the two most popular of which are granary and badlands. Well, fastlane, and to a lesser extent freight are also played in leagues. Gravel pit is the one attack/defend map being played, with dustbowl having been effectively phased out. A new map called broma is emerging, but most people haven't even played it yet and probably won't until the week for it comes around in cevo. Capture the flag and payload maps are not played at all.
Update: Except, of course, for ctf_turbine, which has a great deal of playtime in the european tf2 scene.
Class responsibilities
depending on your team's style you may have different classes play slightly different roles than what other teams do. However, there are some basic principles that are generally used for the different classes and their jobs. At least one soldier's job is to protect the medic. There are two different approaches to get this job done. A team could either run a dedicated combo soldier and a designated roaming soldier, or a team can keep both soldiers together and play it by circumstance (i personally prefer the latter as it gives you more options because you know both of your soldiers can do both jobs). Whatever your team decides, know that the combo of soldier and medic is the heart of the team. It's where the action is focused. The medic's job is to keep people alive, but just as important is staying alive. Do what it takes to survive, always pop your uber if you need it to save yourself. Because the soldier is the only class that can consistently defend you, that is who you are attached to. Good chemistry between soldier and medic is vital to the success of a team.
One of the scout's jobs is to cover flanks. When your combo is pushing in one direction you need to push in the other direction so as to prevent backcaps (this is especially true on well). Come into the fight and attack people that are low - it's not always necessary to gun straight for the medic if you know that somebody else is about to die, or is closer to you and you can make them die. Take advantage of the enemy focusing on your combo, and stay alive to clean up. A scout that survived the fight by turning the corner and avoiding soldier aggro can come in and clean up the entire team if the medic died and everyone is low, possibly even winning the game this way. Go for medic picks when the opportunity presents itself (especially when you don't have uber advantage), but don't let this be your sole function. Go for back caps when the opportunity presents itself, but again don't let this be your sole function. You are very much helpful alive helping the combo win the fight, so go for back caps and picks intelligently and when it won't severely harm your team should you fail. Scouts should also be aware of enemy scouts at all times. You should avoid letting enemy scouts roam free and pop out on your heavies. This doesn't mean you have to chase around scouts and try to kill them every time - at the very least keep them in front of you, and call their positions if you can't kill them. Keep in mind your demoman's position as he will attract scouts; keep him protected. Letting scouts roam free will burden your combo tremendously as they will have to fight the other team's combo as well as trying to keep the medic alive from free-running scouts.
The demoman's job is a little more versatile than the other classes. Depending on the location on the map and your team's strategy you can either come in with the combo or through a flank. Quite often you will find yourself without the combo but rather with the scouts, so it is important to develop a sort of cohesion between the demoman and the scouts. On many pushes the scouts may be responsible keeping the demo alive. Your default goal in a combo vs combo fight is to spam the enemy team with grenades and stickies, not always going for direct kills but to supplement soldier rocket damage. It does often pay to go aggressive as demo due to his high damage output, but when you do so do it intelligently and when the opportunity presents itself. Because you have sticky bombs, one of the best abilities of a demoman is the ability to completely shut off a choke point. Get familiar with all chokepoints on push maps and learn the best way to trap it to prevent enemies from free access. Once you have it trapped, you can do all sorts of things with your scouts to bait others inside to blow them up, but for now, just learn the basics of controlling/blocking an area. Normally you'll be alone on one side with your scouts while the combo guards the other entrance so learn to feel the enemy push.
Communication
to be successul, you must know things that you don't see. For this to happen your teammates must tell you those things. Get into the habit of calling out low targets. If you know you got a few good shots off on somebody then say something. Have other people focus that person and get them down. If you're about to push in with uber, get the enemy soldiers to shoot their rockets. See 4 consecutive rockets hit the wall beside you? Call that the soldier is reloading and that it's a good time to push in. Call everything you see, where enemy scouts are going, where the demoman is jumping, etc. Even if it's obvious, chances are not all 6 people on your team are watching what you're watching. Call how many people are down, maybe somebody on your team isn't aware. Communicate when your combo has pushed into the room, or the yard. When the fighting has started. Your scouts and (depending on position and map) your demo need to know when to follow in so that everyone can attack together.
obligatory text length lololol