It is:

It's been made clear that matchmaking is coming with a campaign and a large update surrounding it, they've released the preparation updates and have been doing the final stress test- meaning they don't have more major changes to make, as they won't be able to test rigorously without a beta. Everything indicates that within the next few days, or week at very most, matchmaking and the rest of this update will be released at the same time.

My goal isn't to blame the flank, I'm just looking for advice to what I can do to limit my own mistakes and win more as a team, given the situation. So far I've gotten a lot of great responses which we've started trying to put into action already, so thank you to everybody! I think the flank doing things based on combo / vice versa description is another one of those, I'll try keeping track of the game with that in mind more.

i want to win not feel better about myself

This is amazing

I'll try to figure this out more from now on, I get the feeling we can make a lot of progress this way. Also thanks for the in depth answer, there's a lot of useful advice for me here that I'll put to use :)

They are, but so far it hasn't translated into their comms as well as I'd like

Hey all, this is something my team has struggled with for a while, as our scouts don't comm what's going on with flank frequently enough, and our combo doesn't have a good sense of what the situation is on flank. This affects me a lot, as I'm playing pocket and maincalling for the team.

Today, I found out that our roamer, who communicated the most out the players on our flank, is quitting. My teammates have decided to replace him with another roamer who has better DM but (based on my impression from previous scrims with him ringing) whose communication is even worse than our scouts.

We've been having trouble with situations like, for example: I call a push and we try to execute it and get overwhelmed, only afterwards finding out our flank had been pressured back and was too hurt or had no positioning, and couldn't participate effectively in the fight. Myself making mistakes in maincalling due to a lack of information has cost us plenty of rounds in scrims and some in matches for a while, and I fear I'm going to make even more bad decisions now that I have less information.

Although we've scrimmed a lot before and during this season, it's still my first experience of maincalling for a team, so I'd appreciate some advice; what I can do to improve on my end?

I prefer a future where international cooperation is stronger, not weaker

UGC is a good place to get into competitive TF2 at first, and not a waste of time for players trying to improve.

For players completely new to comp, and with around 1000 hours or less in the game, the pure dm and gamesense needed to not be atrocious in open is simply out of reach for the first season or two. UGC is easy to get into, has other bad players, and doesn't require a financial investment just to take your first steps in the game.

I played iron last season, this season I'm scrimming for two or more hours 4-5 days a week and improving a lot with a dedicated team (2-0 so far against *relatively* solid opposition) and I'm definitely going to play open next season. I know I'll be pretty bad and we'll get rolled a lot, but after playing against equal opposition for a while I have the fundamentals down and I'm having tons of fun and I'm looking forward to the challenge of ESEA.

UGC has been a great place for me to start and shouldn't be constantly dismissed in such a snobbish manner like so many in this community do.

tears in my eyes, this is beautiful. this is gaming as it's meant to be.

I own and use the same laptop for all my gaming, the biggest downsides are (for me) the slow hard drive and shitty screen. However, the screen is easily replaceable by yourself and for less than $100, if you can afford it, you can buy a replacement panel with 60hz and FAR better color, darker blacks, viewing angles, etc.

I did this after a few months of owning the laptop and the difference was really noticeable. If you can afford it, I'd recommend it!

As for how well you'll be able to perform, you can still always improve even with a relatively poor setup- just make sure everything else apart from the refresh rate is as good as it can be. A decent mouse, stable FPS above 60 (with the same laptop, I've been able to achieve this on most pub maps and usually even in matchmaking as well), etc. Setting an antivirus exception for the Team Fortress 2 folder helped me a lot because the hard drive is so slow and TF2 constantly updates your stats file while in game.

If you enjoy scout, play scout! You'll be fine, with the potential to step up your game even more with a better setup.

Thanks for all your work making a good map even better, chojje! It's great to have people like you committed to providing their best work to make the game more fun for everybody.

By "basic" i meant maps that are strictly linear- Gravelpit, steel, junction etc wouldn't count. That's probably the simplest way to test the basic premise of A/D for matchmaking, so I understand valve taking this approach.

I think it's pretty clear Gravelpit is the best A/D map for 6s in general though. Either way, Gorge is a sentimental favorite of mine; as I was first getting into TF2 it was my favorite map and by far my most played.

What do you guys think? Attack/Defense isn't a staple of competitive TF2 for a reason, but if they were going to test it out for matchmaking with any (basic) A/D map I think Gorge is the best map to do it.

To start with, I have to say I was asleep while all this was going on so I can't speak to specifics of what happened, but I think it's worth putting my two cents in.

I regularly watch b4nny's stream, often before I sleep because (for me) it's enjoyable and relaxing to watch. I'm fairly new to competitive and watching him play and analyse situations, etc is also very helpful to me and has helped me improve as a player. Granted, I could gain a lot of this from other TF2 streamers, but I'm used to his stream and he has a relatively high quality production because he's fully invested in it as his main means of income, so I watch him stream the most.

However, I've never liked that he calls other players idiots, and generally insults people who he doesn't respect fully as players. It bothers me, and it makes me question what I would have to do be good- if a top invite player is an idiot, what can a player with 1,000 hours possibly do to play well enough to be respected by him? That, I think, is less important though. I think b4nny doesn't generally mean to be as disrespectful as he comes across to his viewers when he criticizes people for their personalities or playstyles. But this doesn't mean it's right for him to constantly talk down to people- I don't care if you're one of the best ever, I think it's always the better move to be respectful and kind. And be respectful and kind enough that the other party actually experiences it that way.

So I wasn't there for the drunk stream, but it sounds like everything that I described that I dislike was more extreme than usual. b4nny wasn't right to say all the things he did, and I don't think many people would disagree with that. Alcohol is also no excuse, everybody should agree with that.

So if you're reading this, b4nny, thank you for the enjoyment from your stream and the help you've given me as a competitive tf2 player. You're your own man but I've always wished you wouldn't speak down to other people as much as you do, and I know I'm not the only one.

If the rest of TFTV has gotten this far without -fragging, yes I'm a b4nny sub. I'm not trying to act like "I'm better than the other b4nny subs, please like me" I just wanted to express my opinion on something I care about. Also, please don't mindlessly judge all b4nny subs just because there are things you (and many others, obviously) don't like about his personality. It doesn't mean his subscribers like everything about him, even if some do. I subscribe because I want to give back for the help, entertainment and relaxation he's given me.

I'd love if everybody was kinder to everybody. Please try. It's worth it.