buff banner at chokepoints, spam damage is enough to get a charge, one shot scouts.

I have the most amazing strat for snakewater middle as demo, but wait till the season to see it :3

As you say, this won't work if they can see your demo still alive, or if they check the scoreboard.

I've done this with some success in pugs, but in a scrim I wouldn't count on it.

The SSD thing is hilarious

DH + Buff Banner = OHKO on the med at any range

I figure it has to do with ESEA's desire to keep gameplay pretty limited so people can figure out strategies within certain parameters. If there are too many ways to play the metagame (for example allowing gunslinger and removing 1 engy class limit to make 2 engies into an offensive machine) there is a chance there will no longer be a "standard" way to play, when standardizing tf2 is something the community seems to agree with.

Another part of it is that banning overpowered weapons has been something competitive tf2 has always tried to do since its inception, and i think part of the bans today are in place because some body or group of people decided it would be better to keep tf2 as standardized and balanced as possible.

balanced games are fun, but sometimes its fun to play a class that has far more control over the game because of its firepower (demoman), so i say fuck class and weapon limits...

I could be completely wrong, this is just an opinion

EDIT: to clear up confusion, when I write standardizing the game, I mean 2 scouts 2 soldiers 1 med 1 demo and the esea weapon bans. The weapon and class limits are in place to enforce a balanced version of 6v6 (generally cp) tf2. crit cola is detrimental to the game balance if you are holding spire and go in through flank and get a 3k on the other team, however that is because in the way comp tf2 is played nowadays, there are choke points, and there are respawn times. there is no reason there should be respawn times and choke points, it is just the way we decided to play the game.

if the game was played with friendly fire, ctf as the standard, and no resup times, im sure weapon and class limits would be very different...

Not that many people play with ragdolls/gibs on but I swore the DR used to leave a corpse of what you were disguised when you feign. Now it just drops a friendly spy ragdoll.

Actually the Invite team captains vote to decide the ban list. The Invite Illuminati is distorting the game so they can be good at it. Join me and help free us from their tyrannical regime #noweaponbans

You can dead ringer bomb certain last points like Badlands last by running backwards onto the point (scout disguise jumping backwards and looking around like crazy works pretty well), hold the dead ringer out, drop disguise by going friendly Spy disguise, then if the Demoman dets you insta drop cloak and you will cap the point basically instantly unless there's actually someone on the point.

i was told this strat was too gay.

this is most effective with capping last. they think your team wiped, all push out, and you uncloak on point. almost guaranteed cap if what triggers your "sniper death" are the stickies on the point, but usually works either way since a lot of demos det after a wipe conviniently

ive always wondered if anyone tried some kind of double pyro uber and let a scout cap last while they airblast everything away

I've tinkered with the idea of a pyro with quick fix uber rushing on to the point
... There's a reason I'm not the maincaller...

oh man i remember this but can't find the video

br0 vs flow??? on gullywash

two pyros + heavy in water

it failed miserably BUT IT STILL HAS POTENTIAL

I think the problem with this mindset is that while its clear certain past unlocks have no place in 6s, people also mentally block any new unlocks. The Vaccinator comes to mind, despite being a new, unique approach to the medigun, no one has seemed to toy with it and try to expand on its possibilities (that I've seen). Its quick resist miniubers could be used to push through certain areas and pick the enemy medic before they have have a full uber, or even a full kritz...and unlike the krits, the vacc protects the medic as well, and helps heal him.

Its always a weapon I thought could be amazing in high level 6s in certain situations, but very people seem to investigate it. Hell, a lot of top players I've seen on their streams are surprised when they see it in a rare pub, because they didn't even know it existed!

I believe when it came out, it was tried into oblivion. It came up short because of slow buff times and, honestly, Invuln/crits>extra heals. Same as the quickfix.

The biggest problem with the Vaccinator imo is it essentially turns the game into literal Rock Paper Scissors that the Medic can shift around so he always wins. If you get in a situation where you can't mix damage types, you auto lose against the Vacc.

Its hard as shit to get in that situation in the first place. If the other team has any experience with the weapon, theyll make sure to mix damage types, so medic will have an even harder time timing resistances so they get the most out of the medigun. Overall it makes medic a lot more difficult to play.

So like . . . when the demo and roamer or the two scouts are against you? That doesn't happen very often.

With my former team we used to do this push at badlands last that worked as follows

- One Scout goes Spy and disguises as friendly sniper and is just annoying in main/peeks barrels
- The other scout clears stickys with pistol/scatter from main and protects sniper/spy
- The Spy goes back into lower lobby, gets rid of disguise, cloaks and runs through main onto the point
- Decloaks and draws a lot of people down to the point because they dont expect it (or gets the cap against bad teams -_-)
- Demo and Medic kritz from main
- Soldiers go in top to have free high ground
- Scout stays in Main with Medic if they need to fall out or goes in late to finish cap/clean up

Worked really well in our matches. Haven't tried it in my new team though. :)

€: Doesn't really rely on any unlocks due to euroland tf2 but it's not something you see all the time.

A bombing soldier and a few well-placed stickies will tear a non-untered vaccinator medic and his patient to shreds.

Yeah, I know it's a somewhat rare situation, but whenever it does happen it's a pretty stupid scenario. :/

Some unlocks are already banned because they promote R-P-S-esque mid fights as is, why promote RPS with damage types/resistances. I'm not quite sure it adds anything to the game, except for a really cool uber mechanic that would be tight on the actual Medigun.

ETF2L had an entire tournament dedicated to trying out it's effectiveness.

I think, put simply, keeping the majority of the unlocks banned is pleasing to the masses.
It's easier to keep it banned and please a lot of people, than it is to unban it.
Unbanning it results in you needing to justify the unban, and then listen to hundreds of people whine about how it's so broken or that they have no idea how to fight it.

This along with the fact that most of the unlocks are, in fact, tried and tested.

I think one of the funniest ones we did in iM (as -A- like 3 years ago) was where we had one of our soldiers on GPIT b roof with direct hit.

Not necessarily a 'strategy' per se, but aporia had a lot of fun hitting easy airshots, and missing everything else.

Also when it was allowed for whatever goddamn reason in Australia - GRU + sandvich heavy to mid. Apparently gunboats were 'more overpowered'?

that was legal? what the fuck

Yep. As I said earlier, apparently they found gunboats more imbalanced. lol

Paintrain roamer is awesome, scout meatshots really hurt though

It was br0 vs mix^.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRCglcpIq5k
Start around 6 minutes in.

Euro TF2 sounds fun.

How would this be in any way less the case in NA tf2?

allow pretty boy's pistol, 200~ hp scouts and no fall damage, gg

Guess it is.

Good lord I remember that. Probably the low point of S13 for Brave Little Toasters.