That sasuke and demoman clip...what a way to end 2015.

It's just for general chat and scrim searching usage anyway for this discord.

Probably a request to enigma in the request forum?. He might see this thread though anyway.

This. There have been multiple threads about this in the past. One common problem was that IRC wasn't really easy to use or as easily accessible to many players at that time or even this time. Tons of people of people don't understand it or want to have to download it or go through with it. There was a site though that let people in, but if I recall there was problems with it and I don't even recall what the url is even more for it. Now we are in 2015, where time to time IRC is becoming a bit less relevant as people tend to use other sorts of way for communication. Note that as time has passed in TF2 since we used IRC, the comp TF2 scene has gained much more people, more new people to be exact. Using the discord is one current way that can be used for easy access so new teams can use it without having to worry about IRC as much.

One way team leaders can use the discord is to use this form:
"[6s/HL]. [Division]. [CP/Koth Map]. [yours/our server]. @(your discord name) for contact."
That could be one way, or whatever else is important to add, like timezone or time to scrim for another time. Credits to Hassassin for the info on scrims.

Don't know if I'm doing this right, but here is the discord link to the scrim channel for the TFTV discord:
https://discord.gg/0Smo0KLDcoV9n1V8
I think discord would be a more relevant and just as easy way to use a chat and find scrims. All it takes is for actual team leaders/scrim finders to actually use the chat, or any sort of scrim site.

I honestly miss that guy and his pyro post, where has he been :(

I really hope this doesn't turn into a garbage thread. I'm hoping to intend for this thread's purpose to discuss the state of pyro, how things should be, and everything else related to it.
I was interested to start this thread as I see Reddit firing up in anger towards the changes made to Pyro overall while I see us competitive TF2 players finally reaching Nirvana(until MM comes out then Nirvana #2) as the Pyro has finally been dealt justice to us. Now if TF2 history serves us right, or at least in game development history. There are times where game devs will take into consideration of what the community says about something and implement said changes into the game. Valve has done so before with how the competitive community wanted certain changes or things, and such were implemented. Other times things were possibly taken from gaming reddits themselves implemented into their games(SC2, Dota 2, and etc.). When it comes to TF2 discussion and kind of "sides", it truly comes down to the competitive TF2 community and TF2 reddit I feel(later SPUF). I'm generally trying to stay neutral in this as I want to know from the competitive community, the community I trust that has shown great discussion and reasoning, to have their say.

If you have been looking at r/tf2, there are multiple threads and many posts of disagreement to the pyro update and how this is all b4nny's fault. People have stated that they hate b4nny now and that he is cause of this problem. I in my view would like to say that b4nny cannot be confirmed to be the true fault of this. Sure he posted a video a week ago ranting about pyro and how he can be changed. Sure they did do a recent update that matched almost as much as what he ranted about. But that clearly doesn't mean that he is the fault, maybe Valve did take into consideration of what he said or maybe they didn't. But for one thing is, if they did, it's somewhat justified. B4nny is arguably probably the best player in the game overall, and has had achievements/accomplishments to warrant it. He has played TF2 for many years and probably has a decent(I'm even underestimating his comprehension at this point) understanding of the state of the game. Despite what r/tf2 may think, even comp TF2ers have gone through a pub phase before for a decent amount of time before switching. Even time to time we still play pubs! But overall the state of the game has changed for pyro.

Now I feel that I have been in TF2 long enough(during somewhat relevant times) to warrant the main history of a Pyro. This is before the times of degreaser, this was when Pyro was still a young one trying to find his role in the TF2 world. He was a simple pyro as many other pyros would seem to be. Flaming around and extinguishing time to time. He would soon get unlocks that helped for situations such as the backburner or homewrecker. He even had a flaregun for convenience. Even pyro could be played really well back then as one of the notable pyros of that time was TMP, who has a video before those times illustrating the use of flamethrower+flaregun+axtinguisher. Although that may stay irrelevant to the discussion as it was something I witnessed that seemed to show a degree of how pyro can definitely be played. Then the update came where Pyro was granted the degreaser, and that was the time where for the next few years the loadout to use was Degreaser+Flare gun+axtinguisher. In pubs you would see the loadout everywhere for pyro and even times if not all in competitive HL. I feel that we could warrant these pyros as "metapyros" for the sake of discussion. People that would join TF2 would be destroyed by metapyros multiple times in pubs and see how easy and fast it was to kill. Cause honestly puff and sting was decently easy that anyone could do it, I think even at most times the mouse would not even need to change position as one would flame, airblast and flare in the same general direction. Slowly the pyro would be nerfed but people still would not let go of the degreaser which was generally still the better flamethrower. During these times, competitive players all around of pyrohaters in general have despised this combo. What pyro mains may have seen was a "balanced" pyro, but to many others, it was the CRITro. As Pyro seemed to have a very strong relation to crits with the weapons he has been granted. It was definitely notable that pyro was essentially a crit class that utilized it for high damage output. If we were to keep track of all pyro kills in TF2 in the past 5 years, I'd say it's safe to assume that most of those kills were associated with crits of some kind(mini or full). Kind of irrelevant to the history of TF2, but during these times, even in 6s lobbies, I would tend to offclass as pyro(please don't hate) on defense. Mainly only at last and the loadout I would use which some or many may laugh at would be Backburner, shotgun, and default axe. I became a roaming pyro that would defend the flanks at last and tend to do some shenanigans(I'll be honest here, I did it for defense and foolery) and get behind the enemy team in creative ways. It did show to be decently effective if played correctly and I would get BB crit kills behind the medic, pocket soldier, and etc. It helped with pushes to recapture 2nd and it was in a COMPETITIVE setting, that I was able to do it in(although not the highest). The main point from that story is that with playful and creative thinking, a loadout that diverged from the metapyro, I was still able to take out players with the pyro. Now that the update has come, the pyro has been significantly changed to part ways with the metapyro loadout. Most of TF.TV is happy but most of r/tf2 is unhappy(as seen by posts and upvotes).

This is a disclaimer for that history of Pyro, it was pretty bleak but also remember that is just MY view of Pyro over the years. History has multiple different views and that is understandable I hope. Why I kind of brought up this discussion is that I wonder if Valve will revert these changes. Valve has been known to revert changes(demoman example?) and take suggestions from the community. Is it possible that Valve will listen to reddit if it goes on long enough, or will Valve finally rule that this is the way it's meant to be. While many of you may say "it's obvious they won't", I like to take from general tf2 experience into consideration and that is why I have my reasonable possibility that they may, no matter how low or high it could be. If many of you have seen the posts on r/tf2, what are your arguments towards them? If many of you disagree with the pyro update, what would you change? I would generally like to see the responses towards this and how you feel about Pyro as a class now. The argument has become Pyro is not good anymore and Valve made a mistake vs Pyro is finally balanced and Valve has finally made a great change, pretty much. I would love to read the discussion on this and hope top competitive pyro mains leave their opinions also on this. If the discussion is big enough, and the argument continues on for the next few days, maybe even a SOTG(State of the Game) stream with some notable people and top pyro mains may be of interest.

One of my possible reasoning thoughts for the pyro being nerfed in it's state is for the sake of MM as the metapyro loadout generally does tend to be all unlocks, new players playing MM may not find it fun to go against and feel disadvantaged.

Final disclaimer, I am not intending for a shit thread, despite how it's a thread about pyro. I am actually on the side of pyro finally being nerfed as I myself have a hate for what Pyro has become over the years. Sorry for the long post and possibly horrible formatting(that I may edit), and thanks for reading.

TLDR: Large pyro update, comp community is happy reddit is unhappy, both are sole components to TF2 community. Will Valve revert? Post opinions, suggestions, and etc.
EDIT: TLDR

fried rice

Hi, I'm the uploader of the video, as you can see on the video details, it was uploaded this year and was vital evidence in your ban I believe. Also, your brother even kind of ratted you out this year also:
http://forums.tf2center.com/topic/6205-dog21-steam-0019753782

When you were "young" as in just a couple months ago?
I believe that everyone hates you because you hacked and won't really fess up to it and take responsibility or understand the consequence of hacking. One of those consequences is having a community frown upon you. People focus on the past if there is generally a good reason to as a way of reason to dislike a person. Hitler did a truly horrible thing in the past that no one agreed with, so many people disliked him. Although you may just say "it's not the same thing", it's the equivalent to it in this community.

You have not shown the community any reason to give you a second chance at all, so far as we have seen you still act immaturely and cannot respond appropriately to others. Your reputation this year has further went down and will keep going down if shit keeps going like this. The thing you don't understand or will accept is your mistakes, your problems, and your actions. As you can see, the community disagrees and has not supported your actions(your pug group). I would guess and assume that you are still too young based on some posts and the way you type/respond. The best thing you can do for yourself at this point is to accept that you have done wrong and acted immaturely, accept that you hacked and truly regret it(I feel like I haven't seen a sincere post about this), and forget that horrible pug group and just become a normal player trying to get better.

I miss stultus.

9th post bro.

Not One Punch Man.

Well of course we don't see that, they didn't put DX8 into the game. I'm sure if it was an available option they would.
I feel that it is unnecessary to make it where only DX9 players can play competitive mode as in a few other competitive games people are allowed to use whichever settings they would like. But considering that we have seen the behaviors of the TF2 team and how they are a bit more communicative with us than before, there may be a good reason for doing so or an optimization update that would blow our minds(if you think about it, MM might attract new players, but the number of players you can attract and keep playing is kind of limited by the hardware). I definitely do support keeping DX8 on though as it has yielded fps increases for years.

I can see this being a pretty great and useful guide that will be used or referenced a lot. Just needs some work and making sure there are disclaimers and making sure each thing actually does contribute to fps. Once you truly finish the aspects and steps, it'd be cool to later update and finish with pictures/videos. Good luck!

Don't know if this will be helpful at all but there's still the video of Puppy21 hacking if no one remembers:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=llsRbnEZw1E
He did end up getting banned from TF2Center for this it seems. Overall this thread looks like one hell of a mess.