It's hard to do in the world in TF2 since our regions are for the most part separate from each other. This would be a lot easier to do regionally. Also TF2Metrics does this but it's powered only by statistics using its own model, meaning certain players are over/under-valued.

I always thought that due to the lack of intercontinental events, any "top x players" list that don't want to speculate too much should restrict itself to a single region.

seems fair enough
who are the top 20 players in europe and the top 20 in na?
:)

.

TAAAAANK!
One-Man Cheeseburger Apocalypse
Numnutz
Big Mean Muther Hubbard
The Administrator
Cry Some More
Crazed Gunman
Chucklenuts
GutsandGlory!
Mentlegen
Ze Ubermensch
MoreGun
Herr Doktor
Headful of Eyeballs
Screamin' Eagles
Target Practice
Archimedes!
Ribs Grow Back
Hat-Wearing MAN
Tiny Baby Man

Sorry for those who felt left out. Was a tough one.

it's hard because of different classes, how can you judge if raymon is more skilled on medic than blaze is on soldier?

Okay now we enter part 2 of my "top tf2 players" theories. The concept of best TF2 player is flawed because we can't even agree as to what does being the best means. Is the best based on :

• Placement ? If you think that is the case then just go see who won the last seasons and compile the list to see if which names pops up the most. The issues with that are : What if a player on a very good team isn't as good as the rest of them, and is getting "carried" in a way ? What if a player is simply really good at making good teams ? What about players that stopped playing for personal reasons while being at their peak, like adamracek or Puoskari ?
  
• Potential ? Generally I feel like people agree on my points about placements, so they include players that potentially are as good as the players on the podium, but simply don't have better team mates, or lack consistency, or any other reasons. The issues with that are : you are basing yourself on a lot of speculations, also there are very few players that would not be improved by playing with better teammates. In a way, potential as hard to define as "best". Should you base it on performances against much stronger teams rewarding players like utka or Aliensmiley ? Or on performances in more even matches, and seeing players like Azunis or krafty instead ?
  
• Statistical outliers ? This is when you see someone having much stronger logs than the rest of their team. A lot of players that rapidly rose through the ranks, like credu or toemas have had very strong logs performances, but everyone knows that logs are a perfectly accurate representation of the game, so medic players or more selfless players like Drackk and Dr.Phil are left out of it

Of course most people do a mesh of all 3 and can even categories such as versatility, numbers of airshots and so on. Like others said, comparing people who play different classes is tricky at best, and let's not forget that we are all making lists without being able to hear the comms of a team, and that is a very important part of the game but we simply can't reach it. I think making teams rankings (both active and retired) would be easier in terms of evidence and stuff.

To conclude, I would say that while extremely subjective, I think that discussing who is the best is like doing a list of the best movies ever. Everyone is going to have a different opinion, and I think that's cool that we can all interpret the same game differently and that it really shows the depth of TF2.

I'll maybe do a list in the night

yall ever seen the caliber of players in the furry pound? yall are sleeping.

https://i.gyazo.com/64d6783ec24432153b6f6c284b3100e2.png

1.b4nny
2-6. whoever is playing with b4nny.
6-20. don't really matter.

loosely ordered just my opinion on the top 20 in the world.

habib
b4nny
thalash
yomps
nursey
laz
raymon
arekk
slemnish
blaze
ams
starkie
credu
kaptain
kaidus
botmode
silentes
corsa
marmaloo
yight

https://i.gyazo.com/3c1c13967908ec581756dbf99a36dd87.png

guess it's been a while since i joined the server

272 days of playtime on furry pound. 6528 hours. this guy is the ultimate life form

are there even 20 people who play tf2

There used to be a player on LA skial hightower called 'Silent Assassin' who would charge shot the hightower from spawn, only opening the door for the second the charge shot released. He would never leave spawn at all, and would always killbind on round end to retain his doms. He would play on the server frequently, often for hours at a time. To me, Silent Assassin is the greatest tf2 player of all time.

that dude had to get 300 points and 150 kills an hour for those stats. legendary

He might have been a fake nick of a guy I used to play Lazytown with named "DaShiv" - Lazytown is a community map (first ever custom one in TF2) and essentially it's like Trench warfare in TF2, with near instant respawn and choke points. Anyhow he used to play Demo, farm kills by standing far back and spamming consistently for 8 hour sessions at a time till he racked up 10-12 dominations - He was statistically the best player on Lazytown as far as their hlstatsx rankings went, I tried so hard to beat him - More frags? Don't matter, More wins? Who cares - I was reduced to farming Kritz from 3 different medics (least 1 female cos that is how I roll virgins) and then, at that point I finally made it to Number 1 ranked Lazytown player - For 1 day until I went back to normal and he was ahead of me again.

In my mind, this guy is the best of all time.

Ya dude I totally agree