I will never do a sunshine map guide because I don't think I'll have the opportunity to play it in an organized setting - I may find somebody to make one with/for me, but I've literally never played a single game on it and don't foresee that I will any time soon.

Of many of the people that I've played tf2 with, Robot has been one of my favorites.

"So... What happens to us if we win this?" - Iarerobot
"I dunno man, I guess we win?" - me
"Are you sure they don't make us play against CoL - I mean... why aren't they trying" - Robot
"True" - me
"I don't want to win anymore" - robot.

I am pleased.

Russia v. Belgium game was p-solid, although I'd say Russia beat themselves more so than the Belgians beat them lol.

I own a 1996 Cadillac. The only problem I have with it is the lack of a heated steering wheel.

But hey, for ~3.6k you can't expect miracles. Plus plates/insurance/repairs are ultra cheap when you outright own a car. If I wreck it or it needs major repairs I'll just dump it and upgrade to a newer version. Or if I sell it, I'll still get most of my money back out of it since older cars tend not to depreciate unless you devastate it in some way.

If anything I would be in favor of a promod being used for LAN simply for continuity's sake - it's kinda silly to have an entire season played with 1 set of conditions and then an entirely new set being thrown for a championship.

Any major esport wouldn't have to worry about its pinnacle LAN being altered by an update :(.

There are still days left in this update - maybe they're saving the invisible players fix for last!? lol

My rough guesses after watching the open finals last night...

1. Soldier damage is now much more important, the roamer's early damage is now the keystone for your scouts at mids
2. Pockets are going to take the "har har I top damage all the time" spot back full time.
3. Demos are going to have to become pipe experts like it's 2009.
4. Whereas immediately detting was the skill to have in the past, now it's seeing 2 seconds into the future and laying a sticky there or sticky gardening.
5. Most transition fight damage is now going to have to be done with rollers and pipe spam.

I do imagine valve isn't going to keep the change as is. I could see a world where they keep this ramp up effect, but reduce it to 1 second.

I get that valve wanted to weaken the demo a bit, especially his short range defense capabilities, but they've basically made it to the point where he can only fight at the old level at very long range or with pipes. The revolver and pistol can now do more damage than a demo if you're instantly detting lol.

If you require additional hype check out their 5-4 gullywash match on eXtv: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pc8hWOWgT44

Yeah I know he prolly added some sort of ironic inflection when he said robust, but I mean... the thing I never really understood is the amount of people who clearly don't understand what robust actually means :(

robust
adjective \rō-ˈbəst, ˈrō-(ˌ)bəst\

: strong and healthy

: strongly formed or built

: successful or impressive and not likely to fail or weaken

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia2kRZ4CfkA

An older video of mine, but I'll post this here to get us started and edit in a diatribe after.

1. When to pop ubers.

You should practically never push in blind, you should know - either by peeking as the pocket - or having somebody else do it - where the other team is. If they've committed to holding far away or kiting you, if your adv. is big enough, dropping you is nbd even. Ideally you shouldn't pre-pop a full adv. uber unless you *know* your team can get 2 kills or the medic. Otherwise dropping you is preferable.

Furthermore, when you have full advantage, you shouldn't be solo pushing - you should have 2-3 buffed players coming through *with* you. Primarily for safety, and for rapid conquest of vital positions.

The after uber fight is all about how many people you shoved in, where they've gone, and what positions you hold - in an ADV situation anyways.

If you find that you need to have a solo uber - have a solo uber. If your demo is too close to you in a defensive situation your med should flash him to save him so he can get the hell away from you. You have more health, so you're more helpful in the front line. If your demo is too close to you in an offensive situation and is forcing your med to flash in a solo situation you need to have him back off.

Pushing with multiple people in advantage pushes is *always* a good idea - it's the right thing to do. Scout based ubers only really work if the other team has made a mistake and has a bunch of people close to you *or* if it's a small map area you're pushing into. A strict demo-uber is almost never preferable because you should seek to zone for your demo, so that he doesn't need uber or heals really. The reason you *have* to zone for your demo is because his class is so weak against scouts, or indeed, anybody who gets close to him. Even against SGss as long as your pocket gets the gun's attention and your demo isn't an idiot, he'll never have to worry about taking dmg from the SG.

So to sum up

1. Look at what you're pushing into
2. In adv situations, focus on taking good positions rapidly and only popping if it's essential (medic is going to die, you're going to lose more than 1 player, you're going to get their medic, you're going to get 2 kills).
3. In uber vs. uber have solo ubers - back up to your demo if it's bad, jump forward and have a scout + demo + others meet your medic if it's good.

Well, I had wanted to go to bed, but I'm too excited now. Great game guys.

I made myself hot dogs and my 6 year old asked me politely to "feed me, I'm starving to death" P-solid gift I guess.

I'm not exactly sure *what* the next season time scale is looking like for me, but I'm thinking I may like to play some tf2.

Would be willing to play medic or soldier - don't really care which.
Available generally always after 9/10 pm eastern on weekdays.

Demonstration of Air shot potential:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtOH3gEaTzo&feature=player_detailpage#t=1053

The thing I take away from this is that people need to be more proactive when dealing with the people in their lives. As a culture it's as if social skills simply don't exist. His parents *had* to know something was wrong, his roommates, whom he stabbed to death, *had* to know something wasn't right, and yet, all the further anything seemed to go was calling the police to "check" on him - when seriously - as a parent, if I felt the need to call the police to "check" on my child, I'd be coming with and said child would be leaving with me whether they liked it or not. Granted, that may not have prevented anything, and he was seeing a therapist, but clearly more could have been done.

As for the gun debate, I myself own several guns (I have a small little collection). The guns themselves are locked in a safe, and the bullets are locked in a separate safe that's hidden in a place where nobody would ever find them. The keys to said safe are on my person at all time (I have a kid right). Guns ought to be a lot harder to obtain. This guy was prescribed anti-psychotics, and yet, he waltzed down to the shop, and picked himself up 3 handguns over a relatively short period of time. If you made the process by which you obtained a gun of any type much more difficult - on par with what it takes to get an HR (historical/collection) license or a concealed carry permit you'd prevent plenty of gun-crime because anybody who has a sudden motivation to rampage wouldn't sit through 48+ hours (essentially 48 weeks) of gun-safety training and written tests, etc, nor the costs of such classes - or at least you'd give the people around them more time to actually do something about their actually crazy roommate/son.