Genuine question and I am curious of what both the smarter and stupider people in the community think of this query.

What would have a greater impact on the flow of 6's, banning pyro or sniper?

Removing pyro allows for more efficient last pushes which in turn transitions to more midfights and then more last pushes.

However, removing sniper removes a key strategy to break multiple stalemates within the game whilst allowing people to not be concerned with pre-firing forward spawns when pushing.

The key to answering this question is to remember it's about the flow of the game. If you ban sniper, but every time you would pick sniper, a spy is picked instead and does the same job, the flow would not be altered so much, so keep that in mind when typing well thought out, detailed responses.

This is actually really good for the game, as it gives the illusion people have control when they don't. If people feel they have control when losing, that there is something they could have done better to win, they will keep playing rather than giving up and playing something more fun. Sniper impacts this in a kinda crazy way, and is largely the reason its frustrating.

This game is balanced around 2-shots, with some few exceptions. Primary weapons with scout, soldier, demo all two shot most classes when hitting perfectly, pyro and heavy have similar 'time to kill' as these 2-shots. Secondary weapons usually 3-shot, thinking shotguns, revolver etc.

This flow of fighting allows for counterplay and that illusion of control which makes people ok with getting 2-shot as they felt there was something they could do in the situation, as they had time to react to the second shot.

Sniper 1-shots in any sightline, which ruins this flow. It doesn't allow for counterplay, which is the crux of frustration, and is unenjoyable for the player losing in this case, which is unhealthy for the game.

Medic allows every other player on his team to take an extra shot. Medic is THE counter to the sniper. Medic overheal allows people to take 2-shots allowing for counterplay. The rest of the team has an option for counterplay, but it relies on teamwork, and not individual play, which holds some frustration, but not nearly as much as dying to sniper as medic and having actually no agency.

This difference in dynamics between 1 and 2-shot fights is really what makes sniper good. This is the argument that isn't countered by "just learn to play vs sniper" as there is nothing that can reasonably be done to keep your medic alive. If the medic can't walk forward to heal their team and has to stay behind cover, noone receives the overheal buff, and if the medic walks forward, they then in turn die.

The only two real ways to counter sniper in these situations is to either nerf snipers damage by 1, make bodyshots do 149 fully scoped, and 149 quickscope headshots, or buff medic hp by 1. What these would do is it will give the medics a chance to use their kit to counter the sniper using overheal and it forces the enemy to use more resources (sac or spam) on the medic to secure an advantage, which in turn means fewer resources are used to protect the sniper, allowing for further counterplay.

I do believe the 1 hp difference would be massive in how medics can play against sniper without actually impacting how the class feels. It removes a lot of frustration and opens up more angles on how a medic can play the game and it turns this trickles down to how the rest of the team can play against it without actually removing the class from the game. It also enables the counterplay argument giving more enjoyment even when losing.

https://i.gyazo.com/3efc2ae406f6f24bf0dc0157bdf5947f.png

Nice NA all star roster, any EU squad would never compete fortunately.

How many spec tickets are going to be available and can I purchase them for another person?

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcS0JMB8uCnW9lo5xLYHUxZYsLI6HZ445SsJoQ&s

Is Silves and Domo when they duo deadlock (domo wears glasses)

https://www.twitch.tv/essentialstf/clip/RockySassyWrenChocolateRain-kCJpbuRA34U9yaI6

The casual community doesn't even know why it hates comp. Competitive tf2, especially 6v6 is just not accessible due to the basic level of skill you need to even function in an open or newcomer team. People act like anyone could come in and pick up the game and have fun, but you can't in competitive.

If you do not understand the basics of aiming, movement and maps/rollouts you will be at such a disadvantage from the get go. If you find a team to scrim with and play competitive in other games you kinda are playing near the peak of that games competitive skill. TF2 is no different, the average open player can pubstomp relatively easily. However there is no transition from pub to competitive.

Valve tried to make one and it sucked and was infested with hackers they did nothing about for years. Faceit not being popular also sucked, as they could have actually had a proper regular newbie 6v6 experience.

Those pubbers you try to convince to play comp who are actually capable (think uncletopia tryhards) are scared to lose. They just don't want to admit it. They will come up with every excuse in the book. However they don't want to lose. They don't want to try to win either, they just want to win. Out of the tens of people I've seen cry about comp players, only one was self aware enough to say that they just aren't good enough to compete and they just want to stomp pubs, but they can't anymore cus of comp players.

Those kinds of people who hide behind a veil of lies and excuses are just pussies as far as I'm concerned and if they read this, put your money where your mouth is and learn how to play 6s by playing highlander lobbies first, then 6s lobbies on tf2c. Prove that you are actually good at the game instead of just crying how comp players ban your favourite weapon, or just admit that you like your free wins.

I dont play overwatch anymore, but sometimes I still skim the overwatch (think r/tf2) / overwatch university subreddit (think r/truetf2 except alive and with a ranking system) and the singular biggest current complaint is about tanks being rock paper scissors and people not wanting to play that game. People want to play their main and have them viable, even at a small disadvantage just not at the current massive disadvantages they see.

There is decent insight and self awareness where the players actually acknowledge that it's necessary to either have incredibly weak or strong tanks. They either are weak and do nothing and noone plays them, making the counter matchups have less impact, or they are strong and do stuff and therefore the counters are also exaggerated.

I guarantee if tf2 was the same rock, paper, scissors, there would be the same sentiment. It's a known thing that redditors don't know what they want, and this is a prime example.

I'm actually a huge advocate of offclasses, and I really don't think they are used correctly, especially in NA. Not only do american teams NOT offclass on last by default (see how often they have scouts on last during last LAN), but no region really uses a class that is strong based on the point of the map. Personally I think the usage of pyros during ubers and heavies for post ubers is not utilised nearly as much as it should be for it being such a strong strategy on multiple points of different maps.

Instead of forcing someone to play pyro to counter soldier, and then another guy to run heavy to counter the pyro, then another to run sniper to counter the heavy, they should use those classes to properly play according to the maps aswell as what the enemy is playing and they would be able to play their mains. Or just play highlander.

I see quite a lot of MH cases when I work on an ambulance, and there are two things that really remain consistent. One is that it doesn't matter how much you help someone if they don't want to help themselves. The other is that there are some people who just can't be helped, even if they want it. They will assault people and they will cause serious harm to others without realising it.

I don't know if ROL falls in either of these categories, but you have to see that these sorts of threats are not normal behaviour of an adult and are not fixed with kindness and respect. If they are fixable, it is done by proper medical therapies and medication. Giving people who are mentally unwell, especially incorrectly medicated schizophrenics (they have prescribed medication but they would not be allowed to attend whilst taking the medication) the space to do stuff like shoot themselves in the head means they WILL follow through with the threats. An online community of gamers has 0% chance of helping this person, and will ACTIVELY BE PUTTING THEMSELVES IN DANGER BY TRYING.

Having interacted with people like this DURING their mental health crisis, I would personally NOT go to any event they had a chance to show up to and I would suggest to remove them from the greater community if the organisers of these events wanted them to remain safe. It is unsafe for them and unsafe for the rest of the community to have them at such a place without either a trained full time chaperone or having them in handcuffs, which is no way to be treated.

To say a point about being nice in the community, I'm going to take a different stance. You don't have to be nice or be friends with people but the scene isn't very big, so you have to be able to work with people if you want to keep playing. From my perspective, I don't really want to interact with someone who is that mentally unwell (severe schizophrenic having multiple crises), or someone who is just a cunt. I would rather not play than play with many people in this community, and it's a large reason I don't play pugs anymore (I used to play a lot of pugs).

Is there a bracket? Just on challonge or something? Haven't followed it directly so far so idk who is still in

I would say 2-4 people in prem could be actively cheating, definitely a couple of sus individuals however with little to no evidence other than the words of people who play against them, it would be unwise to say their names.

If you doubt this statement, keep in mind catbocker's apology above. A role model to many finally coming clean, and I hope future generatioins of European tf2 players have clean, sanitary individuals like DomoCatFace to inspire them on their future careers.

Currently watching castlevania and i'd binge it if i wasnt limited to others watching it.

https://www.twitch.tv/wilsons_disease

Im gonna get hate for saying this, but I know a lot of people who are currently enjoying dota or league of legends.

Massive update in dota and arena gamemode in league (temporary gamemode tho) makes them much more fun rn.

True, the plane ticket to somewhere like philadelphia alone is 10x what it costs to travel around europe for me (UK travel, local bus to airport for £2)

I can quite literally have the whole trip in a thursday to monday (hotel, food, drinks, even the lack of pay for missing work on the weekend) going from london to any major city in europe for less than a plane ticket to the US, and that's just for me, someone who lives in one of the most accessible places in the world for travel. It's only going to be worse for anyone else in europe or america.

Plus the problem with the age and size of the community. The community is small which makes fundraising money harder, but also the average age is quite old. A lot of young adults who would travel to these events have more important things to spend money on (like rent or food). So whilst sure they could afford to drop money to support people to go play games, and donate to a fun event, it just isn't worth it for them.