I think it's simplifying too much to say that one direction is *always* passive and one *always* aggressive since a lot of the aggression part of it depends on if the opposing team is actually gonna meet you there, which is usually a coin flip. If your team is struggling I'd consider getting more granular with your mid strategies.

e.g.:
"We're going left, we're going to take their crate aggressively and fight for it if they meet us, we play passive if they don't meet us"
OR
"We're going left, we're going to take their crate aggressively and fight for it if they meet us, if they don't meet us we'll high bomb our roamer, rotate back to the right and take a fight with them near our sewer."
etc.

Also worth considering, from a demoman POV: if their roamer fast rolls out a lot it makes aggressive left mids much harder since they can easily just land on their team's crate, deny your demo your pack, which gives their team a lot of control over that side. Obviously this is a good thing for your roamer to do often if you like playing right side passively since this one move denies a lot of potential aggression from the other team on that side early on.

It's really incredible how an otherwise innocuous image can carry so much pain in it lol

between that and the 1 in 1,000 spam kill this was the most memorable round of CS I've watched in quite a while, and a great match overall. Really happy that majors are back

(full context: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbbSnXwFZbs )

Seems like you're leaning very heavily on having a competent admin available to run PUGs when people want to play - I'll definitely give this a shot at some point though

I visited Sydney when studying abroad and their public transport system blows everything in the US out of the water. I could walk 2 minutes from my apartment to the nearest train station, take a 20 minute train ride to downtown, and either walk or take a bus 1 mile to my school. Their bus system is still kinda shit honestly but it nevertheless made me upset that public transport is so awful here. Like, my city's bus system is on par with Sydney's and that's considered "good" lol. I geniunely don't think Americans who haven't visited a city like Sydney can even imagine a place where you don't actually need a car to get to 95% of places in a timely manner.

yea, rename the current version to something you'll remember and put the old version (the one linked above) in your maps folder. The game will just read whatever map file is called cp_snakewater_final1 as the version it runs when it plays the demo.

It was a reasonably good looking mobile game copy+paste of TF2.

I think the best way I can describe the quality is that they actually fixed the weird hand clipping on the Soldier's reload animation.

Seeking help from a Source engine particle whiz!

The problem: I'm attempting to use the cool PLDX explosion.pcf particle effect with lawena, but a specific element of the effect gets drawn over EVERYTHING - players, geometry, etc. for no good reason - here's a screenshot that makes it abundantly clear: https://imgur.com/a/cMFzDcR

I've been trying various methods of getting this thing to work properly all day, mostly by attempting to simply delete the offending element

-I tried editing the particle by launching TF2 with -tools, but it crashes when I try to save without editing the particle.
-I opened the particle in SFM and edited it, but something about that process makes the explosion particle simply not show up at all, instead of my desired outcome which is just removing the McDonalds-ass ember shit that gets in the way of everything.

I'm stumped - anyone have ideas on how to fix this?

I don't think this man missed a single scrim or match all season - extremely reliable attendance. Had a very low drop rate with my team overall. Takes responsibility when he makes mistakes and does his best to correct in the future. Takes the initiative to mix in the occasional Kritz play when he knows he can build enough to get kritz advantage on the opposing team, which is an excellent mixup. Smart and mature player.

In the two seasons I've played with Soala I've seen his gamesense improve a ton. He really thrives in a coordinated environment when you spot for his bombs/sacs and work with him to hit the enemy team from multiple directions during a push. Give him these things in your team and he will deliver - during one week this season I swear he had a 40-50% force/drop rate on his sacs, which is pretty absurd. Excellent mechanics, pretty reliable attendance, and very resistant to tilt.

I enjoy producing/observing a lot but at this point in my life it's simply hard to justify sinking that 6-8 hours a week during the season into something that doesn't pay me, can often be stressful, and is pretty thankless work overall.

It doesn't help that a small number of high level NA players treat production (at least for TFTV) with anywhere between indifference and outright hostility (ignoring requests for stv info, changing servers without telling production, not providing rcon info for cheatfeed, being generally unresponsive/hard to reach, etc.). Covering lower level NA stuff or the few Prem casts I've done in recent memory I've had almost exclusively positive experiences with players, but I can't say the same for my experience doing NA invite sadly.

I still remember a couple seasons ago when aim straight up restreamed a TFTV cast of the Amateur Grand Finals match as it was happening, with zero effort to differentiate from the TFTV stream, which was really upsetting and disappointing to me. It's clear that some NA players just don't respect production at all and that's one of the biggest turn-offs for me personally, and makes me think twice whenever I consider producing more again.

this is fascinating

Just catching up on this thread, it's been a real treat to discover some great fragmovies that I actually haven't seen yet, as well as a bunch that I thought were lost to time (Tron Fortress, the No Name Series, YoYoTech), and finally a few that I simply forgot about (Memories by AMS, back to the roots, etc.)

That's the thing, presenting a teamfight like that in a way that makes sense to the viewer without completely breaking the flow of the fragmovie is an incredibly difficult thing to do. I've tried to do this multiple times in my own team fragmovies and this is still the closest I've gotten, and I barely manage to connect 3 players together in a narrative fashion, let alone an entire team.

Fanom is so fucking good I swear to god

I love Beater and his videos to death and he deserves as much recognition as possible, but AFAIK his videos are exclusively fragshows and are therefore outside the scope of this list. I haven't explored the depths of his gargantuan catalog in a while, to be fair, but I feel like this would be comparing apples to oranges.

SOME MORE HONORABLE MENTIONS

(since I hit the character limit on the main post)

PLEASE STOP TYPING by nick: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rXJo33t3Y-U
nick managed to make one of these weird, hyper technical/extremely difficult acid trip type TF2 edits last longer than 45 seconds, which is an accomplishment in and of itself. IMO this lies too far outside most people's idea of what a fragmovie is to be a part of this list but deserves some recognition for the crazy amount of work and talent needed to pull this off.

JUPITER by povarehok: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9U-EtyTiIw
Technically speaking this is absolutely mindblowing. Same as above, however, I think this goes beyond what most people think of with the phrase "frag movie".

The Refuzion series by Freezer - a series of classic TF2 community fragmovies, look em up!

a season of ozfortress events: twenty eight by cosmicvarietycash: https://youtu.be/v3tYrZVrX8g

2nd (worst) team in ozfortress: premier edition by cosmicvarietycash: https://youtu.be/Qmg1YRysZco

Daring Greatly by Deer: https://youtu.be/gUdhxJ8OHV4

That's all, hope I helped some people find some dope fragmovies they haven't seen before :)

It's come to my attention that many older TF2 fragmovies just aren't on the radar for those darn kids these days.

With that in mind, I've compiled a top 10 list of what are, IN MY OPINION, the absolute best damn fragmovies to ever exist, plus a ton of honorable mentions that are well worth a watch if you haven't heard of them before.

(For the purposes of this, I'm defining "fragmovie" to mean a video of tf2 frags with at least some extra effort thrown in via adding smooths or other non-POV shots, as opposed to "fragshows" which are purely POV footage. I also weigh quality of editing a bit more heavily than maybe the average person.)

Without further ado:

THE BEST TF2 FRAGMOVIES OF ALL TIME

#10. Swimmingly || A TF2 Sniper Frag Video by taytahs(AKA MilkBypr0duct): https://youtu.be/cM0KI7P73UI

Perfect pacing, incredible smooths (especially given that this was made before modern smoothing tools existed), and great frags help this sneak onto the list.
_____________________
#9. Classy by ikpure: https://youtu.be/q_i24DGo2bw

This is forever one of my personal favorites, with the last frag (I won't spoil it) being perhaps my favorite moment in any fragmovie ever. ikpure's movies are all about pure love for the game, and it bleeds through in every second here. (This movie is now a decade old by the way!)
_____________________
#8. PREM by CUBE: https://youtu.be/jamuLPfQibU

This is the gold standard by which most other fragmovies are judged. Ahead of its time in its incorporation of SFM, and embeds its frags firmly in their historical context. An absolute must watch if you haven't seen this before.
_____________________
#7. Late Blossom by NaF: https://youtu.be/9dkaw4iV32U

A masterpiece of editing and unlike any other fragmovie I know of. A strong idea, flawlessly executed.
_____________________
#6. HELSINKI - a TF2 Community movie by weatherspoon: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MSCR1Ruxx3k

Short and sweet, with a lot of sweat. Super high production quality, great frags, and great pacing. A very "complete" fragmovie, if that makes sense.
_____________________
#5. Red Light Green Light by MightyMe: https://youtu.be/gojLYwoLNw4

The one hit wonder demoman fragmovie, lighthearted and fun with some truly unique frags and editing. Never fails to make me smile or laugh when I watch it.
_____________________
#4. ozfortress winter league highlights by bonez: https://youtu.be/T8gxLtvWJtY

If you can make it through the overly long (but admittedly very epic) intro then this is an insane rush of a fragmovie featuring lots of high stakes frags from a tournament setting.
_____________________
#3. NFG by Gazy: https://youtu.be/F5ohRp3qHTg

This is the most recent fragmovie on the list and boy does it deserve it! Gazy keeps the pace extremely high and the adrenaline flowing through meatshot after meatshot. Scout movies can fall into the slow, low damage (i.e. BORING) 5/6k territory easily but this movie deftly avoids that pitfall. I've watched this probably about 15 times now and it never fails to get me really hyped to play TF2. The map reskins and crosshair are the icing on the cake, giving it a great old-school/quake feel that helps make this really stand out.
_____________________
#2. Pop Culture by Cla: https://youtu.be/Ii4mWZRLHH4

An incredibly high quality movie on all fronts, with tons of great smooths, insane frags, and fun music. It's hard to articulate exactly how, it's just...really good.
_____________________
#1. Fanom ESEA S6 highlights by subtitled: https://youtu.be/tRNARy0DwKI

What makes this fragmovie deserve the number one spot, in my opinion? In addition to the top level frags that still hold up reasonably well almost eleven years later, the spotless production quality, and the excellent music choice, this movie masters one thing that hasn't really been done quite the same in any movie before or since:

It portrays the complete chemistry of a top level team working in sync through showing us exactly how the players of fanom enable each other's crazy frags via working together. The game we play is Team Fortress 2, and anyone who has played on a coordinated team knows the magical feeling when you and your teammates are on the same wavelength and use that power to absolutely wipe the floor with the enemy. This movie captures that lightning in a bottle, and that's what pushes it over the edge as the best fragmovie of all time, in my opinion.
____________________

If you see a movie that's not on this list or in the honorable mentions that you think deserves to be, please share! I love discovering fragmovies I haven't seen yet.

Anyways, here's a big list of fragmovies that you should definitely watch if you haven't, but that didn't quite make the cut:

HONORABLE MENTIONS

The Experiment ESEA S9 highlights by subtitled: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnXY7B6_hq8
A lot of the frags don't really hold up to modern standards (except the engineer frag at 6:22) but another really high quality movie overall.

Venus, pt I by Googler: https://youtu.be/AbsafNyUyuQ
Unmatched production quality.

Majestic by ikpure: https://youtu.be/a0F5kuE37sQ
Like most of ikpure's movies, this one is soaked with nostalgia in the best way. It's an almost uninterrupted stream of excellent frags, silky smooth production, and awe. It's extremely transportive.

Classy vol. 2 by ikpure: https://youtu.be/UkyzTu-Owd8
A worthy sequel to Classy, pure bliss in fragmovie form and never fails to make me feel something.

Departure by Cla: https://youtu.be/hFTEM6Y8t9U
Outstanding quality in editing and frags (especially for the time), plus a unique approach to displaying the killfeed that works quite nicely.

Mango Fix - Sniper/Scout Frag by taytahs(AKA MilkBypr0duct): https://youtu.be/wDb2LU13omk
This video has the best smooths out of any movie on this list. The cinematic work here is unbelievable, especially given that the tools taytahs had
at the time were so clunky compared to what's available these days.

ETS Lan by kaypologist: https://youtu.be/Q-TNQQI0zxU
Somewhat weak frags hold back the god-tier editing and unique style of this video.

SHIFT by grid: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D_NCptpjn24
This madman recreated TF2 maps in Blender or Cinema 4D for this (I forget which) which is an insane amount of work,
but it paid off with a unique look and while there are some minor slips, the rest of the movie is great overall and this effort was enough to get 2nd place in the Boneyard Productions Comp, still the biggest TF2 editing contest the scene has seen. (PREM took 1st)

Yz50'd 1 and 2

ETF2L Highlander Challenge by CUBE: https://youtu.be/NWrZVybyiU4
When I think of "HL fragmovie", I think of this video. Still probably the best HL fragmovie ever made.

i63 Fragvideo by cyanic: https://youtu.be/epEIbLFGgKg
Doesn't quite manage to maintain an incredible level of quality throughout its gargantuan 14 minute length but nevertheless an important landmark in TF2 editing.

Breakneck by Uil and Cyanic: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgo4Ys6NOXc
Some of the best of modern TF2 editing IMO. Real boundary pushing SFM work and great pacing throughout.

The LAN Down Under Trailer 2021 by Uil: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LOzVYGS658o
Doesn't quite meet the criteria since it's a trailer and like a minute long, but HOLY SHIT this is good.

Oops I'm hitting the character limit

P.S. Shoutout to Crasian for helping me track down some of the real boomer fragmovies