Its improved a lot under the current administration and is def not totally dead, NA still has a lobby or two running the whole evening on most nights. Sometimes theres issues, but as long as you don't get hung up on winning/losing its a good time and is just a lot less hostile than pugs in general. They're more fun with friends, and although theres for sure a couple people to local mute it still tends to be a fun environment.

last week I played a center for the first time in a few months and half of the opposing team ragequit for no apparent reason (it was not a roll or anything). the whole 'one person quits sets off a chain reaction of quitting within the next 10 seconds' is pretty annoying. I dunno if pugs have this issue as well because I am really just a bball/ultiduo goblin historically.

I think bringing back public bball is the play here :-) baby steps after all!

tf2center is criminally boring when people aren't talking and when you have a bunch of 0 lobby people in a game

literally every 6s game on the entire planet is criminally boring like that wym???

i think what he's saying is that people not talking all game is more common on tf2c than in other pug groups by a significant margin

while im here and reminded of the topic, i personally really enjoyed faceit pugs as much as they were memed on because of banny or whatever. i think they were amazing for low/mid level players to get into a pug and actually play on demand. they definitely had issues that needed to be solved, the main one being drafting for each class, but it was still really fun

the more regular puggers who play tf2c the less that will happen :)

tf2c na lobbies can be fun but there are a maximum of 20 active players each night, so it can be very cliquey. would be solved with more players but there's also a stigma against 0 lobby players

IMO, its just not an ideal pug system anymore -- and I feel its because of the following three reason:

1. Team balance is virtually impossible

You'll always find a trend of players adding up to stack the lobby, getting steamrolls. Don't even get me started on the lobbies "balancing" system if you were to even turn it on.
In addition, from time to time, the lobby host will just kick people at random, often trying to get a slot open for a friend.

I also don't think "hours" or "lobbies" stats doesn't really assess someones skills and I feel can be an intimation factor for new players when adding into a pug.

2. The "team environment" when the lobby starts

I have a mixed opinion on this; but general, its not a great experience. Its can be a resulting of many things, people throwing the pug, people not talking, players forcing their med to take random ubers, scouts NOT BUILDING ubers, players feeding for random picks when defending, no coordination in mids. I feel this is more common in lobbies then lets say a random in-house pug.

Sometimes it feels like a numbness DM match. I just want some type of team coordination man. Often more or not, people will just straight up leave a TF2lobby then trying to finish it at the end, killing the morale -- sometimes straight ending the pug.

3. Limitations

This part can be a lot of things, but in general to start of with is how med requires 10 lobbies -- IN COMBAT. I would rather have a newer medic play med then force them onto combat. Its why my friend who played medic could never get into 6s -- for him it seemed like a huge hurdle. You can argue that they can force through it and shit the bed, but that's still 10 lobbies getting ruined -- that or lobby owners just kicks/bans them next pug.

In addition to that, to even create a lobby, you need approx. 50 lobbies? To some, that isn't a lot, but when you're competing for a specific class slot you want to play on, its going to take a hot minute. Even IF YOU DO get to ability to create a lobby, iirc, there's a maximum numbers of NA lobbies that can be created? Like 2-3 max?

The only thing I feel is good about TF2center is the ability to host on your own server, the game mode type, and the maps. Emphasis on the map part because you can choose variety of maps -- even experimental ones -- versus the default of most in-house pugs. I played a granary pug earlier, while we lost, I had some cool moments.

Any-case, most pug players are just looking to play the default, so sometimes its impossible to run alternative maps.

Agree on the drafting part. I think to newer players, it was a foreign concepts. Many players I knew complained about captains -- specifically the newer players -- didn't know know which player to choose, leading to unbalance pugs. Despite that, faceit players at least put the effort/coordination in that pug comparative to a TF2center lobby.

Honestly, I just want a pug site where its just says "Add up" with two options, "combat" or "Med". When a pug starts, combat players can COMMUNICATE which classes they want play, instead of forced classes. That or a flip a coin system lol.

im still banned for cheating because the UGC admins gave the tf2center admins the wrong ban reason and they rejected my appeal

unbanned

lobbies and pugs are different

thank mr speedy

tf2stadium died for this?