wow phantom leaking that bonk, solemn vow, soda popper and pootis steak are making into ESEA whitelist ?!??! how could he

It's pretty obvious that in theory the unlock would be extremely busted. Depending on how you look at things this could effect your optimism, but people have taken much better measures currently to see how busted these unlocks are. Apparently the bonk was not nearly as good as people anticipated. What unlocks are allowed next season won't ever stop me personally from playing the game but I also understand others won't share the same sentiment. My opinion may also be skewed because I play a lot of the other comp formats and still play a lot of casual. I believe extremely unlocks aren't half as annoying or as good as people believe.

On top of this all unlock decisions aren't final. Any higher level players are greatly encouraged to keep testing these weapons out. The more opinions the better, and people are looking a lot better with giving output this season compared to anyone prior (for at least for how much I've been around).

Also bonk was unbanned for a while in PugChamp. I personally ran it a few games and tried advertising others to try it. The thing was awful (but I'm not a good scout) and no one wanted to run it. It's currently banned.

https://i.imgur.com/heaY3IL.png

leak whore... uwu

also fwiw not really a leak, luc streamed the entire Illuminati meeting last night

can we like, not have retarded unlocks that negatively impact gameplay, please

Maybe bonk will end up being busted, smarter people than me certainly think so, but this debate has been based entirely on theorycrafting by people who are far too lazy to actually see if it is.

There is counterplay to bonk, and its main uses seem to reward aggression and pushing, which could do a bit to alleviate the defender's advantage that people complain about in this game. But that's just my opinion, and we don't need to fill up another thread with hypothetical hearsay and fearmongering.

I remember the chicken littles that came out when Cow Mangler was unbanned but while it may be better than stock the "Med Drops to Charge Shot" epidemic that people predicted never seemed to materialize outside of twitch highlights.

Now that every player can test shit like bonk and soda popper in scrims, this sort of baseless whining is worthless. We can base our opinions on evidence now.

YZFITTY BRO

if i see anyone use the soda popper im just gunna leave the server man

Everyone loves a scout buff...

new meta theory: spend the entire mid bonking about and then clean up when everyone is low and you're still 150 hp in their combo

why tho

I'm not sure you're appreciating what not doing any damage for 8 seconds on mid is going to do to the outcome of a team fight.

oh boy now we'll definitely get a $100,000 major! great job guys!

Can't wait for scouts to start walking past the combo instead of the flank to get behind

I think it’s great that we’re moving towards less restrictions because Valve doesn’t like the restrictions at all and getting closer to Valve and their idea of the game can only benefit the game as long as it doesn’t create divides in the community (which it shouldn’t), it also gives more options for a more flexible meta.

Can you block a point while bonking?

Scouts under the effects of Bonk! can neither capture nor defend objectives such as control points or Payload carts.

Ah good. Both scouts ready to bonk on point would have been such fun..

Could maybe bodyblock on badlands last tho with both scouts

expecting epic distraction strats through crowded chokes

What's actually the point of this? The game is 11 years old, the reality is that dreams of expanding the scene should be abandoned by now. Focus on players who are currently playing the format and don't make them use dumb unlocks they were always opposed to.

And if you're going to do that anyway, atleast admit you're doing it cuz you're bored.

where my mf promod at?

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Everyone discussing bonk meanwhile soda popper lets scouts jump 5 times cause that class meeds more of that, without any meaningful change in dps (and if anything faster kills once in meatshot range)

afaik this only applies to the FaN

Honestly i'm a bit fed up. What is the point of theorycrafting if the most popular posts in this thread are people jerking about and complaining about stuff they think will happen ?
I personally don't think that giving every scout a get-out-of-jail free card would make the game more fun or interesting, but I was wrong on other unlocks before (underestimating the mangler/overestimating the brass beast for example). There's only one way to find out and it is to actually try stuff out. Who knows, maybe the speed debuff that applies when the effect wears off will prove to be an interesting mechanic ? I'll admit that I didn't even knew that you couldn't block with the bonk.

I do think that unbanning it after a single invite-only tournament is a bit fast, since I really enjoy whitelist pre-season cups as they allow for every player, regardless of skill level, to give their input, but I understand the logistical constraints behind such a tourney. Lucrative's event had the merit of at least giving us a clearer view of what these unlocks are actually able to do.

Ultimately, I think we all play TF2 for different reasons. Some people might want to go back to the 2009 whitelist, where only the Kritzkrieg, Gunboats and Escape Plan were allowed, and maybe they would have more fun playing if that were the case. But I personally wouldn't. To me TF2 at its best is a game of endless possibilities instead of some sort of tactical RPS (subtle dig at Overwatch in a attempt to gain upfrags), and I think that most unlocks, even less-used ones are interesting as they offer at least another option. Some new options are simply not fun to play against (like the Vaccinator) and must be axed, but we can't really know without trying them first.

"scout bombing me"

You all salty about the bonk being unbanned even tho you never really tested it in a game for real lol

Both have 50% faster firing speed, Fan knocks back which can be frustrating in its own right but SP doesnt, meaning dmg stays consistent where Fan relies on the knockback to make people miss
Afaik SP only starts having worse dpm in fights compared to stock after 2 reloads at which point you'll still have access to the 5 jump thing on top of everything and while it might be entertaining for a bit to see how far people can push that extra movement, that novelty will wear of real fast once scouts fly around dodging everything

i have and its stupid shut the fuck up

like its not really broken its just annoying as fuck and gimmicky, the reason i started playing comp is to get away from all the gimmicky shit from pubs but as the whitelist keeps "evolving" it just feels more and more like a pub and it kinda kills my drive to keep playing, and im sure a lot of other people feel the same way

just stop

imagine thinking untested weapons should be initially tested in live esea matches

same people who thought testing the unfinished cardinal was esea's job