Most callouts are self explanatory, some others have deep roots in the game history, for example in EU the Patio near house is called Haunter because Haunter was a very famous Portuguese soldier, from the old YoYoTech, that used to hide? (or bomb, not sure) from there a lot. This kind of stuff is really interesting for me because of all the history behind it with old map versions, teams or players.

Anyway, most map pages on comp.tf have images with their respective callouts, not all are done or finished but as always with a wiki we depend on user contributions. Ex: Badlands page (http://comp.tf/wiki/Badlands#Locations) or badwater (http://comp.tf/wiki/Badwater#Strategy)

Comp.tf is doing this, here's Gullywash for example.

EDIT: I QUIT

i would love to know why the back part of process sewers is called "Al Qaeda"

prolly cause you bomb from there

why do we call that room in snakewater "cheese"

Why 'china'?

It was a joke when the map came out because the room doesn't have any real characteristics to warrant a definitive name like "kitchen" or "battlements".
Whenever a new map comes out there's almost a guarantee one of the call outs is going to be cheese or Z, which that room is also called.

why is it shithouse? is it because its just a shittier version of house?

Sewer used to literally be a sewer

Water on gully used to have water

Most of them are common sense, but sometimes the map changes make them seem really random

That's what I always assumed

It's too small to be a proper house, so it's usually considered to be a Water Closet.

I always interpreted it as "if you go into that house, you're gonna get shit on" since its such a tight space

Because going there is suicide.

i've heard some people call lower "burger" but maybe that came after cheese, idk

half the names that aren't that intuitive at all were born out of random inside jokes that higher level people came up with and lower level players just parroted it - that's the only reason I've ever encountered for cheese on snakewater, the only reason I ever heard for people calling that area al qaeda was because wonderwall did it, and people called the area underneath snakewater second africa because of a joke post from gotfrag or natf2, I can't even remember which posts were on what forum anymore.

there are some other names that come from decals on the map that you can't see with fps configs and shit turned on - what people call shithouse on badlands was called maintenance at one point in time for this reason

http://i.imgur.com/DpbZaSF.jpg

never forget gandalfs cave

I seem to remember the yanks used to always call it "Closet" but now the Euro term "Shithouse" has taken over in popularity.

There are a lot of interesting stories to the names of areas on maps and their origins. Haunter, Africa, Cheese, China, Lunchbox etc etc. I will forever lay claim to naming "Japan" though! Think I will patent that shit

dude Im not sure if anyone knows what the japan callout is

right next to china on viaduct i think

I don't think closet is exclusively an American thing, it's more just people who want to not say shit for some reason in my experience

best callout. HE IS RIGHT THERE RIGHT FUCKING THERE YOU HISPANIC DONALD TRUMP FANATIC

The reason I understood was because it's right above the range (and plates and cups, or china) in house

http://i.imgur.com/izpxhMS.jpg

• We still call this maint (says maintenance above it, has generally stuck)
  
  
• A lot of aussies still call "Trash" "pocket"
  
  
• Chokes are often called "corner" here
  
  
• On gully, our team calls the place from your big door to choke elbow, the opposing 'ramp' we call ramp

some names are still ambiguous to me. An example being the medkit/ammo area from mid to yard, and almost anywhere on metalworks. I believe we called the area with medkit and ammo area near mid 'four door' (because it had 4 exits lol), and the one on last we called lobby.

http://s4.postimg.org/oves4uv4t/cheese.png

http://s4.postimg.org/cob1nap7h/pizza.jpg

http://s4.postimg.org/e7b160l5p/africa.png

http://s4.postimg.org/lkltr8ftp/alkayda.jpg

http://s4.postimg.org/7s7evlp25/secret.jpg

http://s4.postimg.org/mkc4mxuzh/image.jpg

There is a stickied thread listing callouts for various maps (it is somewhat outdated, though): http://www.teamfortress.tv/1234/labeled-maps-for-players-new-to-competitive-tf2

Several tutorial videos also go over callouts; Seanbud's map overviews come to mind.

I've taken to calling al-queda ISIS because we have to stick with the times.

To clarify it wasn't because ww- called it that it's because the rest of flow called it that because their 2 defense had ww- watching it, and ww- happened to be of Arab descent lol.

I like closet over shit-house just because it's fewer syllables. Efficiency! lol.

One think I did as a player, but have had to give up as a caster for ease of understanding is numbering doors - calling things numbers is just a lot easier because our number words tend to be so concise lol it's a lot faster to say "one" than basically most any other word lol. You also end up with little idiosyncrasies between what circle-jerk you followed as a noobie (for the longest time their was flank/choke confusion on snakewater mid - which is partly why people have moved to calling it saw and something else - to avoid it lol).

Don't closet and shit-house both have two syllables?

shit house is also two words so there is a pause in between, it definitely takes longer to say

On FLOW and Mixup we general called everything by position rather than having names for everything. We did this so no matter what map we played we could still call. Far left, left, midleft, mid, midright, right, Far right. Only really works if your team is very team oriented.

Yet there were some areas that were very crucial to call and really couldnt be named by position. So we decided to come up with easy 1-2 syllable words unrelated to other calls that would trigger a quick response from teammates. You know that feeling when you confuse a call, WaIt DiD You Mean TRucK, WaiT I THoughT it Was Car, et cetera.

It is called China because China is easy to say and China owns most US debt, stranglehold position. It was not called China until the upper area was updated to Cliff and China. Japan is behind china, and is rarely called but still is good in case you have someone in house or your med is trying to run.

It is called Africa because it is dark, and lower on 2nd point. Africa is 3 syllables but still is easy to say, so when someone is trying to flank you or catch you off guard, everyone knows what you're saying.

It is called Al Qaeda because for some time process played very slow, where combos would rotate into sewer, back to mid, back to sewer, back to mid, et cetera. And then all of a sudden a fucking roamer is flying through the sky coming after your demo/med, and you're like, woah, I thought you said they were mid. So yeah, its kind of like a terrorist attack.

i thought japan was the other bridge between the two buildings