I was not agreeing with you in any way whatsoever.

What I can tell, you're taking the dangers of "changing the meta" of an extremely finnicky game too lightly, and at the same time treating TF2 Comp in general as if it has the kainotophobia of the old euro scene. TF2 is not a game where massive changes to how you play are necessarily good. The individual classes have their playstyles and mechanics and changing those very much will make TF2 stop being "TF2", regardless if it's the same game with the same art and maps and all that crap.

This is the reason that weapons are banned if they change significantly mid-season. This is a necessary thing. Seasons need to be playing the same game the whole time (more or less) by design, and if a mid-season change even has the potential to break the game, it absolutely positively must be banned; not doing so compromises the integrity and fairness of the tournament.

I'm not arguing in favor of keeping the diamondback unbanned forever. What I'm trying to say is that treating the banning of weapons that change mid-season as a reactionary sham is entirely a misunderstanding of the purposes of doing so. I do have my biases about this kind of thing, but they don't even matter when you get down to the nitty gritty aspects of what things have what necessities. A season of TF2 in a tournament needs to have more or less the same gameplay, or it's not fair.

TF2 is an extremely dangerous game where subtle changes can cause massive bad or massive good, so changes need to be taken carefully. Keep in mind that ESEA still does voting for weapon bans between seasons, so it's not like the admins are just banning things forever because they defy their sense of meta. At least for the highest level, it's the players there who are deciding what they want to do, more or less, and that makes things simpler. We just don't have a worthwhile per-match weapon ban decision system yet, so we have to deal with what we have, which really is the best we've got.

I think it's a gimmick weapon much like half of the tf2 weapon arsenal.
It's a weapon that was made specifically to make you feel good and do better about doing what you're already supposed to do. (Though this has been said.)
A lot of spy weapons already do this whether it be the Kunai, Big Earner, The Eternal Reward, etc.
Issue with it is, it'd be fine in pubs but it seems like it'd be gay as fuck in competitive.

I'd say toss the weapon and give it new mechanics but if half of tf2 weapon arsenal is gimmicky stuff similar to this, I can't really say the Diamondback should be given some special attention.
Comp - ban because i have no clue about competitive play and have an extremely shallow view on it.
pub - perfectly fine because it fits in with all the other reject weapons.
I don't think it's overpowered but I have trouble wondering why I should pick up the revolver unless getting backstabs are really that difficult.

Ooh, interesting word, kainotophobia. That's worth an up frag in my book.

But I wouldn't use it to describe this case, I would describe it as more of a fear of losing control because of a unplanned variable appearing rather than the change itself.

There's two ways of looking at it, one is looking at change as something dangerous, or as an opportunity to make advances. Taking into consideration that change happens regardless of what anyone does, it makes more sense to take the opportunities as they come rather than stand in the way of the boulder rolling down the hill.

As the saying goes, luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity.

The weapon does have some potential but I wish it could have been done another way, you're not supposed to get rewarded for the one thing you are supposed to do.

Like I read somewhere, it's like a dog getting a treat for shitting on the floor.

Agreed. If they reduced damage by 15% or so and cut the clip size in half, then I could see it being balanced.

Ah thanks for clarifying, Im outta sync with the euro scene at the moment and didn't realize their season was still ongoing. Mid-season bans make complete sense, gotta protect the integrity of the previous results from major meta swings.

would be cool if they were mini crits

make a scattergun that gives you kritz when you meatshot.

It isnt more or less viable then the ambassador in my opinion... If you have good aim with the amby and hit 60-70% of the headshots you wont use the diamondback

I played a pug with it yesterday as sniper and wow that razorback stab for a crit is really silly.

Valve will keep updating things to make the pub experience more enjoyable to keep people playing. It should probably just be banned.

I don't understand crits outside of kritzkrieg in the first place

It needs to be banned.

Immediately.

Going spy should be a risky move, because even if you pick say a roamer or scout, you are still on even terms, 5 v 5 with your team having a useless (likely dead) player. Now if you pick off a scout or roamer, you are 6 v 5 and your sixth man has a crit to kill med/demo/scout/soldier, whichever is weak.

Are you serious? Yeah, I'd say that's just a little overpowered, don't ya think? With getting a crit for stabbing a Razorback, all a Spy has to do is stab the Razor, avoid any further damage or way to be tracked down, let the heat die down, then sneak up on the Sniper while he's either A) moving to a safer position or B) going to resupply to get a new Razorback and crit him with a 102 and then a normal shot. That basically makes the Diamondback the Ambassador without needing to be skilled at aiming your shots.

I agree with Kurt though on his ideas on a balance of the Diamondback, if the base damage was reduced, it wouldn't do 102 damage on hit with a stored crit and wouldn't be the "go-to" revolver over the Ambassador. A set limit of stored crits would be okay, but since it's been pointed out that the crits are very easy to acquire, that wouldn't do much to balance it.

Not only ubered players/bonked scout, but spies that are invisible with the DR. This means you can get like 10 crits from 1 player... Fun in pubs with friends, stupid in HL.

im not really sure why people have such a problem with it. I used it very situationally before the buff, and i'd really only use it in those circumstances even after the buff. You will maybe get one or two backstabs per life, but the crits you get from it you could easily get from sapping a mini or 2. The consistent and quick damage of the revolver i personally find more useful than the diamondback, but thats just my opinion.

edit : im talking about highlander, im not sure how it is in 6s