Hello teamfortress.tv!!
Not So Typical Tryhards is a server/community dedicated to friendly, semi-competitive, and fun gameplay focusing on actually playing the game. While we retain the status of a public server, we offer gameplay and a community focused around improving and playing the game competitively without forcing people to play for a certain time, be restricted to 6-9 players, and is open to all skill levels. It’s that kind of middle ground, between a lobby and a pub. This is beneficial to the community because this could very well provide that needed push to bridge the gap between public and competitive players that tf2center just can’t quite provide. We allow people to practice, learn, and play while keeping key gameplay mechanics that public server players would be used to. It is targeted towards competitive players who would like a break, and public players tired of mindless public servers. The server currently offers a rotation of almost every map and gamemode, usually for a duration of 20 minutes. We are currently working on completing a weapon blacklist which would ban items such as the danger shield, demoknight, and other generally overpowered or broken weapons. We have very strict rules about friendly and griefing, each which could very well result in a permanent ban on first offense. Other than this, it functions like a normal server with a few custom plugins and mods in order to make it more balanced. It is targeted towards people who wish to play at a higher level than the normal pub but still retain the flexibility of your standard public server. (Yes, random crits are disabled).
To go along with this, we also have access to a custom deathmatch mod. This project and idea was created by UltimateX, he created the deathmatch mod and runs the server. As he describes it, "His primary project is a tf2 deathmatch mod (similar to mge) that's easier to configure and maintain and done with ~70% less code and is not built on top of an existing mod like mge is. It currently supports up to 18 arenas, per arena class limits, 2 v 2, 3 v 3 and higher. Spawning is completely random so they aren't so easily camped. You cannot take damage from late players (i.e. rockets fired right before death) and there is no overheal when spawned." We are open to suggestions and recommendations for this mod, please do tell. We eventually hope to have a server for both normal maps and for this deathmatch mod. To the extent of my knowledge, there is currently no other server or community that offers this mod as well as our unique gameplay that I know of.
Our goal is to provide an alternative to lobbies, pugs, and typical public servers. Our server and community is for players who would like to improve or play the game for real in a more relaxed and forgiving environment than actual competitive gameplay. The entire concept is can evolve and change as we acquire more players, and we will be working extensively to receive feedback. Unfortunately, we only have 1 server available with 16 slots and mediocre connection at the moment, and our player base is quite small. There are bugs and kinks to work out with the mods, and the weapon blacklist is still being tested. Overall, the project is still in it's early stages, but we hope to collect information, tips, and support from the rest of the community. We are not doing this for financial gain, we currently do not even have any advertisements. I feel that this could become something to run alongside with mge and dm given correct support and thoughtfulness. I eventually hope to exist coinciding with community's such as these, and become the go-to community for relaxed yet competitive tf2.
*I very well understand that this could have been posted in the "requests" section, but I would like to emphasize the point that this is not meant to be a server advertisement and that it is indeed a community ran and driven project.*