When I think "memorable teammate", I think about passion, dedication, leadership and charisma. The player I am about to mention has none of those things however. The word memorable generally has a positive connotation, but in this instance, memorable is the unfortunate reality that lives in my head with having played with this player.

8K Deathy.

The French Canadian soldier "extraordinaire" (I cringed typing that), well known for his time on Running with Scissors, and Feint Gaming. Pretty impressive stuff. But most of you will not have know about his time in the IM ladder. Well, let me tell you. I sure do.

It started as a fun passion project. To see if a team of 2 EX invite players and a bunch of literal new players with less than 20 total hours in game could even win a league match. It was fun. Practicing, learning the game, all on the fly with the help of some talented parties. Deathy eventually became aggressive at all teammates, especially towards the new players. It became extremely hard to focus during both practice and matches due mainly in part to the harsh words that left his mouth. It got to the point where the only time the team would congregate was for matches.

Midway through the season, Deathy decided that he was done. He shadow banned everyone from the server and was never to be heard from again. After some investigative research, it was made known to me that Deathy was now playing for a different team. I felt lost. I felt frustrated and mostly, let down that what I thought was a great friend, would cave to the call of the siren.

The team would be ultimately unsuccessful, boasting a mediocre 7-9 record on the season. A swift disbandment, and a group of friends serrated at the throat. Not only will I never forget Deathy, but I cannot forget. I do hope he is doing well, and I wish no ill will upon him.

Most memorable player that I can think of, but not in the way I would have wanted it to be.

I would love to see Sandblast come back. Ever since they kicked Deathy from Feint gaming, they really had some awesome performances that I found most entertaining. His streams also flaunt tons of learning moments.

Despite not making the top 100 list (which I think we can all agree was questionable at best), he was a top 20 player, if not top 5. He was generally held back by his team, which in turn led to some unfavorable team performances as of late. Not only that, but he also tore it up in different games such as Diabotical. But I digress.

Who could forget his infamous "AWOOOOOO" werewolf howl. Or the classic panty drencher on Gullywash. Or that time he... well never mind ;)

Anyways, if anyone wants to start a GoFundMe to get Sandblast back into the scene, let me know. I would be happy to help contribute!

Okay dude.....

I lol'd

The year is 2002, CS1.6 has been out for 2 years, and Quake 4 would not be released until 3 years later... But a new product from Microsoft has just hit the shelf. The Wheel Mouse Optical. The name basically tells you everything you need to know about the mouse. It is an optical mouse that has a scroll wheel. But beyond that, the mouse was loaded to the gills with other technology. Namely, the STMicroelectornics OS MLT 04 sensor that was WAY ahead of its time, and would go on to be used in the legendary Intellimouse 1.1, and the Intellimouse Explorer 3.0 (WMOs without the model number 1.1a use a different sensor, and are utter shit though).

The mouse was originally intended as a cheap, but effective office mouse that would be more user friendly and reliable than roller ball mice from the past. However, gamers would soon find that the incredible sensor, and light weight of the WMO were perfectly suited to fast paced FPS of the time. Quake pros such as Rapha, DaHaNG, and Toxjq all used a WMO for much of their career. Some of them use it even to this day! The shape and tactile response of the WMO's buttons are what drew many FPS players to the mouse as well.

Some of the main drawbacks of the WMO include it's crappy scroll wheel, it's garbage cable, and elephant in the room, it's 500hz polling rate. The polling rate of typical gaming mice by todays standards is usually 1000hz for reference. However, with some fancy footwork, and a dedicated community, the polling rate of the WMO was/is capable of being boosted to that sweet 1000hz we all love. As far as the cable is concerned, people have been modding their WMOs since their release, and in fact, some have even gone as far as to add wireless capabilities to their WMO. The skates were also originally plastic, which certainly do not bode well by today's standards, but this mouse was never intended to be a gaming mouse, and everyone uses hyperglides nowadays anyways so this shouldn't even be considered an issue.

Wireless WMO

https://i.imgur.com/ju8pYg2.jpg

Now I know some of you are thinking "Gee, how can this 20 year old piece of plastic be better than my Razer Omegacron Synopsis Variant mouse uwu" And to that I simply state; It's not. Objectively that is. But considering that the msrp for a brand new WMO (even today!) is about $30, and it has withstood the test of time earning popularity from top level fps veterans is extremely telling to the craftsmanship, and consistency of the WMO. If you have yet to try this wonderful piece of technology, give it a whirl. You can find tutorials on how to mod, overclock, and customize your new WMO all over online. But please do understand, that if you're still bad at whatever game you're trying to improve at while using this mouse, it's not the mouse's fault.

I will say, this game is a great meme. Haven't touched it since 2017 though.

Thank you for your contribution to the thread skoti, but I don't know who you are.

In the past few days/weeks, some have you might have noticed that asianriceguy (whom henceforth will be referred to arg) has recently been playing some TF2 after quite a long hiatus. For some of you new people out there, this name might not sound any alarms, but let me just give a quick synopsis of who (or what for that matter) arg is.

arg started his TF2 career playing open in Season 13 with Team Skiff. Although it was not certainly not an ideal freshman season, it would create the spark needed to ignite a 10 year career, and forming what many players consider to be, the best player to have never played at the invite level. Many of you may have ran into arg in the MGE arenas, as this is what he would consider his home, grinding for 12+ hours per day in order to truly hone in on his skills. arg was able to hold his own, or simply dismantle many top level players, particularly on AmmoMod. Despite having countless offers to play 6s with invite teams, arg would refuse and insist that his studies were more important to his overall well being. Instead, he would use his skills to win multiple ultiduo, and MGE tournaments.

With his ultiduo partner Caboose, arg has taken matches off of very high profile players such as grape, ninjanick, corsa, and muma. Some clips from one particular tournament can be found here. The ULTIduo would eventually go on to even play at EmeraldCity LAN in the spring of 2013. Other older players may remember arg from his streams titled "MGE tips and tricks", where he would give multiple dissertations on the intricacies of MGE as a whole. arg single-handedly created the foundations of z-axis movement and air-shot angle formations. He also was/is a firm advocate of shotgun solider, a meta that has since been long forgotten. When asked about this he simply stated:

Now all of this to say, arg isn't without his flaws. There are endless clips of the former IM champ making a complete goofball of himself. Many of which coming from none other than Caboose.
This might be one of the best clips in fact.

Furthermore, arg is know to play in extremely sub-optimal conditions. Whether it be his desk, which has very little room for arm movement, or playing while extremely fatigued, he manages to somehow keep the sigma grindset. He also has been known to practice the piano for multiple hour sessions in between grinding.

Beyond TF2, arg has also put in the effort and competed in other games such as Dota 2, Overwatch (where he would achieve a Gold ranking), and Push the Button (Jackbox Party Pack 6). I've previously stated that you simply cannot teach an old dog new tricks, but somehow arg manages to shove these words down my throat.

On a final note, I feel that the topic of loyalty must be addressed. For those who don't personally know arg, understand that he is quite possibly one of the most loyal people in the world. I have been doing copious amounts of research trying to find a single review of arg as a person, or as a player. I have only been able to find positive reviews and recommendations. arg is one of those players who is dedicated to continuous improvement in whatever he does, and it SHOWS

I've had the joy of getting to know asianriceguy, and cannot state enough how much of a pleasure it has been. Like anyone, he has some major flaws that simply can't be overlooked, but when all is said and done, he continues to be a people pleaser, a degenerate, and a friend. I'm very grateful to be able to have meet and interact with the King of MGE, and wish him all the best moving forward.

It has been brought to my attention that former 8K member "Deathy" has made a pseudo return to TF2. I just wanted to make a quick thread discussing a few of the reasons I believe that he will have little to no success at the invite level.

First and foremost, he simply has not played actively in over 3 years. This alone should be offensive to anyone who has been grinding competitively during this time. Having been attempting to find success multiple different games such as Valorant, Dota 2, and even Quake Champions during this time, some would say that you can't teach an old dog new tricks, and thus finds himself back in pugchamp lobbies trying to recoup what was lost over the past 3 years.

Secondly, I think it is important to bring up the topic of loyalty. A roadblock many teams in invite are facing in 2022 is the shortage of players who lack a sense of friendship, and loyalty values. While writing this post, Deathy is currently trying out with multiple different teams, while holding a roster spot on another. But this is not a first for the EX invite pocket player. While having spent multiple seasons with Running with Scizors, Deathy would go on a short stint with Feint Gaming. This however, was short lived due to multiple accusations that his performance was sub-standard. Deathy would ultimately leave Feint Gaming for other venues without even an attempt to prove himself. Sandblast can be found on this thread saying:

Finally, and to some extent, the most important; Deathy is french Canadian. Now upon first glance, this might not seem a big deal. Allow me to elaborate. There have been essentially 0 successful french Canadian TF2 players in the game's history. Deathy might be at the top of the list, however that is part of the problem. French Canadians, or "Québecois" consistently rank at the bottom of the countries to play with tier list. A user from this thread placed the rankings as follows:

As you can see, french Candians rank higher than only Latin America as a whole. Ouch.

Frankly, I just don't see Deathy as a good pick-up for any invite teams moving forward. The aforementioned reasons are barely brushing the snow dusting off the shit filled frozen lake. I would sincerely look elsewhere when searching for pocket soldiers. Pauldog, Toss, or even arg would be better picks for the quickly approaching season.

Thoughts?

Hi,

I just want to frag that's it

flank only

TY