i have the same problem if the same person or another person would doo me the favor :)

Watch some VODs from the best demo in Europe, might give you some ideas on positioning etc.

http://www.twitch.tv/kaiduss/videos/

What exactly are you having trouble with? Scouts rushing you? Getting damage out?

Whether it be a scout going through closet, or a soldier bombing onto train, I usually get damaged too much or die before I can deal damage. I think I also put myself out of position when those things happen, so I need advice on how to handle pressure while dealing damage.

a huge part of this game is the team aspect

have you considered asking your teammates what they can do to make your life easier?

it's definitely a scout's duty to call either of those things. that call needs to be made seconds in advance and should give you enough time to react accordingly.

Ya, that's true, I think I need to listen to their calls as well. I think I miss them a lot of the times.

I like to breakdown a mid fight in 3 stages:

Stage 1- Communication with your scouts (pretty much what Enigma said): The first few seconds of the midfight is a 3v3 fight (scouts/demo). Listening to what your scouts call is imperative!

Stage 2- Decision time: Did Stage 1 go good for you guys? Great! Get in position and get ready to throw out some damage!!! IMO, it is important you have some "cue" of when to start going bananas. One cue could be your soldiers bombing....or perhaps when your medic starts tanking you. Don't get too excited and overextend into the enemy team without having some sort of distraction or reassurance from your team. (Note: It is also wise to establish who on your team deals with bombers/divers and who will have "eyes forward")

Stage 3- TAB check (scoreboard): Always make sure a pivotal player on the other team is down or not. For example, just because your team has point presence and man advantage does not mean that mid is over!! Watch out for that scout hiding in closet or the roamer jumping out of balcony (and so on). Demomen are almost as important as medics, and if some enemy player unaccounted for kills you, it could level the advantage you had.

Good luck!

yeah JOE, when we scrimmed your team I VAGUELY remember that every time our soldiers bombed, we forced you out into choke pretty easily

part of that is probably that your scouts need to be more proactive in denying soldiers, and also I could be wrong but I feel like you may have gone normal when the rest of your team did closet, which unless you're SUPER fast and can deny soldiers completely yourself I wouldn't recommend, I would go either balcony or valley with your team

and as enigma said, a scout just rushing through closet shouldn't really work if the call about it is made

overall, I think the only reason many demos feel badlands is the most difficult map is because, unless your goal is to do super early damage on soldiers before they even jump, it's probably the map that relies the most on help from your team. I have noticed that, whenever I play pug.na as demo, badlands is by far the map where I have the most trouble playing aggressive and doing a lot of damage.

has your team ever tried a scout rolling out through yard into choke?

Don't follow my way, but rather than the above tips, I just improved my rollout as much as possible so I could beat out all these opposing things and get a sticky or 2 down right in front of the house entrance for any scout who chooses to go that way. I also put one next to closet and to the right of house as you leave (which covers valley). Honestly, a lot of this depends on the other team and how willing your teammates are to adjust THEIR play to make sure you get damage out.

http://teamfortress.tv/articles/view/30-djs-demo-roundtable

http://teamfortress.tv/articles/view/31-djs-demo-roundtable-euro-remix

might be relevant

Thanks PUFF! That breakdown is kinda very simplistic and yet so helpful! I'll be keeping those things in mind in next scrims and see how i fare.

Mustard, yes I remember our scrim against you, I think I usually went window when we went closet and then walked through closet for the most part. I might have gone normal once when I shouldn't have, i forget. I can normally get to mid normal at the turning to 9:44 which I'm pretty sure is the fastest. If I don't I usually play window.

Any tips or secrets for dealing out the super early damage on soldiers walking through valley besides getting there fast? Any positioning things/whatever? The way I figured it, is to fuck with the crit heals on the soldiers by putting a stick right by that wall so when the equalizing soldier is getting healed, you hit him and mess with crit-heals. Is there some other trick that I don't know about?

puff that step thing was amazing, that was exactly what i needed i think. im doing a good 5k more damage a scrim from that 1 comment :)