Artist, Pom, Rasta, Mousecake, Dog

Professor Kutch

Team Fortress 2 6v6

31 July 2020

Double Banner Theory

Ubers have just been exchanged. The BLU team is getting ready to dry push through top left onto Snakewater last. Most teams at this point would fear eating a ton of spam from the enemy demos and soldiers, but not this one. Their soldiers, in unison, begin to blow their horns, signaling the start of something amazing. "CHAAAAAAAAAAAARGE" yells both soldiers as their flags raise. The pocket soldier is on the battalion's backup, while the roamer has the buff banner equipped. The spam merely tickles the BLU team, while their returning projectiles have lost all their damage falloff and are now causing immense pain to RED. The BLU team emerges the push victorious. "That's nuts" Mousecake says in astonishment.

That was a last push made only possible through the use of two banners. The buff banner and battalion's backup. Alone, these banners are already strong, but together, they allow a team to take very little damage while returning a large amount from a distance. Our leader, KutchKutch, has made ludicrous statements such as "it takes too long to build" or "we won't get any space" but these are simply false. This double banner strategy is viable in a last push because it gives your team an advantage in an even push, there is plenty of time to build the banners, and the synergy between banners is powerful.

To start off, the double banner is viable because of the advantages they give your team. Each banner provides their own unique buffs. The Buff Banner giving mini-crits, the Battalion’s Backup providing resistances to damage, and the Concheror allowing you and your to heal based off damage dealt to enemies. These are very powerful assets to have because when you have a banner up, in most cases the other team will not. Playing your cards right with a banner could allow your team to convert points, even rounds, in your favor. Undoubtedly, the best banner you could use is the Battalion's Backup, as the 35% resistance to ALL damage types makes pushing through a choke a breeze. Now what if, while taking less damage, you were also dealing a lot more to the enemy team?

Secondly, double banner is a viable tactic to use because there is plenty of time to build the banners when trying to push last. Anyone with more than five minutes of experience in 5-cp knows that whenever a point is captured the round timer is set to ten minutes. If that time runs out, it is a stalemate and both teams play the mid fight once again. This almost never happens because ten minutes is plenty of time for either side to capture a control point. Ample time is given to the pushing team to build their banners up, as both Battalion's Backup and Buff Banner need only 600 damage to be ready for use. Once you have your banners, you work an even uber exchange to use your banners while both teams are down their ubers. I would definitely say a few minutes of stalemating is worth it if it means winning the round.

Finally, the double banner strategy is viable in last pushes because of the strength banner synergy provides. One banner is enough to give your team a big enough advantage to push, but combining two banners on a push is absolutely game-breaking. For example, using both Battalion’s Backup and Buff Banner allows your team to do great damage from a distance, while making any spam damage you take meaningless. Another great combination is Battalion’s Backup and Concheror. Healing through the minimal damage you are taking will be cake with these two banners. Personally, I recommend always having a Battalion’s Backup in your banner combination, as it is the best banner in the game in my opinion. The damage reduction is too valuable to give up.

To conclude, two banners are viable in last pushes due to their synergy, the plentiful time available to build them, and because of the advantages they give your team. Double banner really has been slept on too much, and my team plans on displaying their strength in game, even if KutchKutch disagrees.

[img]https://i.imgur.com/33elOeK.jpg[/img]

Credit to:
Pom: illustrator
Artist: writer
Dog: inspiration
Kutch: wrong
Mousecake: that's nuts
Rasta: drops