if you're that worried just play the lobbies that don't require mumble. you're not missing much.

play good, don't be rude to team Mates, be mature most of all, take advice from people also

You'll be fine mate. I started around the same age. There are some assholes yeah but just listen to people and be nice and you should be fine.

Challenge people with maturity, and challenge people with skill. Younger players do thrive around here, if they can use their skills to their advantage.

im not sure if challenging people if the way to go

but from my experience of starting comp in steel at like 13 and jumping to open a year later (now) the best thing to just jump in to lobbies and make friends and make connections since from what im seeing, connections are everything in the comp community since its so small. also try to take it a step further and make your own team with some buds at first just to get started and see what ugc is like.

pangy was a 14 year old legend, if your voice isn't grating who cares

Lobbies no problem, half those players are 13-17 anyway. And as long as your teammates don't mind your voice and you're willing to learn, playing actual comp tf2 should be fine too

maturity over anything

Most people don't use comms anyway I wouldn't worry about it.

Don't worry about it. I remember months ago when i first got into comp tf2 I wouldn't even talk in tf2centers because i was scared people would make fun of my voice. I just grew out of it because my early pug groups had a lot of young people in it too, and i could adapt much better there. Soon after that I finally just didn't care what people thought of my voice. There were some times where I would be a little shy if I joined in a new pug group, in the same mumble as a well known player / invite player, but those things don't bother me anymore. My voice is a little bit better from when it was 6 months ago. You're 13, your voice will change rapidly. As joe said, maturity is much more important than age group. Another thing is that you need to make connections quick. I would suggest Newbie Mixes 2.0 ( http://steamcommunity.com/groups/newbie6v6pug ) as a lot of the people there are probably younger than you. goodluck

rofl

play mge/dm mod under an alias on an alt while youre still unknown for a billion hours and then ask to try out for a mid open team. If they ask you about your experience tell them that you've been playing quake and cs since you were 5 years old. Destroy the other team as hard as you can with your amazing DM while yelling HAHA MEATSHOT in your young high pitched voice. You will be a legend.

people get annoyed, for better or for worse, when younger players talk too much about useless things

i imagine if you dont talk too much about dumb things and just communicate normal calls there shouldnt be a problem

i was relatively young when i started playing competitively, just dont let what other people say bother you, and act mature about it when they do

He's also the source of my one and only bind:

Joke aside, just follow what people say in this thread, and ignore anyone who's looking for an excuse to go off on you.

I started playing comp TF2 when I was 12, I was staying away from mumble lobbies too, but one year later, I talk in Mumble like everyone else, you just need to ignore people that will make fun of you because of your age/voice, be mature and polite to everyone, and you will get used to it

Dont play ugc play esea first

theres always those low steel players that like to be a bad troll but no one really cares about your age as long as your ok and not an ass.

Super was/is 12 and he's doing just fine last i checked

is this joke still running? thank the lord

please heed this warning

if people give you shit about your voice just remember those are the people who will stay at the bottom

i played with pangy for a whole season

he was a squeaker in the beginning, but by the end of the season he was a man....

cloudmaker still sounds 12
shouldn't be an issue

ya but cloudmaker is shit

I played in iron in season 8 Hl and I was like 13. Don't worry you'll only stay on a team for about a season then they get tired of your immaturity like me

i think the only thing to be worried about is if your voice is squeaky. other than that, just try to play well. i think the only other issue is that you could possibly have time constraints depending on what your parents do/make you do with your time. But, if you have a lot of free time you can improve pretty quickly.

Be willing to learn and ask for advice, ignore the toxic people, and make sure you have fun.

Most of the time, I find young players really aren't open to criticism, and often times that will ether a) Stunt their improvement in the game or b) give them an insanely bad rep they can't come back from. My best advice to you as a young player coming into the competitive scene, Be humble and get into the mindset that there are lots of people out there who know better and you can learn a lot from. Once you feel comfortable with your own game knowledge and skill, then you can go on to find your own identity as a player and hopefully move up however far you want to go! (with the right attitude of course)

TL;DR Attitude is everything

D: