Open power rankings.

heh

I don't know the feasibility of this, but what if players were individually "ranked" with an ELO or similar system, and pugs wins/losses would affect that score/elo/etc. in much the same way mge does now.

It would be harder with multiple classes, but I think with some tweaking it would be really sweet.

moose scout
enigma scout
plat pocket
harbleu roam
b4nny demo
mesr med

Those are some sweet dogs :>

r.i.p. josie :<

I might be flying out from SD. :)

A scout looking to improve his/her game would be making a mistake not to take this offer. You will probably improve more than starting on a low/mid open team lol.

So ya high open.

de_stroyed kid

Nah but that was the best invite preview I could have asked for mason. Thank you.

Report submitted.

Report status:
Not Academic as fuck [ ]
Academic as fuck [x]

That seems a lot less likely than having trouble with school and getting a 2.8.

On Salty's OP:

Most parents (hopefully yours too) just want their kid to be successful, and most parents (unfortunately) define successful as either exactly how their life turned out or super monetarily rich.

From this, there are a few things you can do to encourage your parents to treat you more as a peer than as a "10 year old".
1. Focus on improving your grades in the long run. It may take some time but even showing your parents that you did really well on a hard test/project/etc. will make them feel as if you can/will be successful. Studying really hard and doing well on a standardized test and showing your parents that you are really proud of your score will also work wonders here.
2. Make sure they see you doing whatever "good" things you are doing. My parents feel that I don't do enough studying because by the time they get home from work (7 pm most nights) they just see me playing videogames. To counter this I show them the actual work I have completed, which really helps them to feel better about my life.
3. Get a parent-approved hobby. Do your parents like running? Drawing? Fantasy Football? It doesn't matter. Pick an activity you can get involved with your parents in. This can also be an opportunity to express your maturity.
4. Become their peers in your interactions. Speak clearly without slang or curse words. Don't make childish excuses. The other 3 suggestions I made are also helpful in this fourth endeavor.

TL;DR Treat your parents as peers, choose to act/speak maturely, and they will most likely reciprocate.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f47vft4Pg0A

If people really find your voice itself annoying and/or you just don't want to comm a lot or are self conscious, just comm the important stuff and stay quiet most of the time :)

^ What vanilla said.

The basics:
Uber (also watch for kritz)
Their classes up (note pick classes or heavies, snipers classes can be pushed into aggressively if you can keep them pinned down while heavies must be carefully focused during a push)
Heals/Damage (is your team buffed? is theirs lit? sometimes you can push off that)
Positioning (are they backed away from the choke? if so you can usually bully in)

Some "tips":
Know your team's abilities versus theirs. You have better scouts? Take uber fights 1v1 so your scouts can win the post uber. You have a better demo and pocket? Bully in a bit and try to force uber.
Favor aggression if you have mid and defense if you don't. You don't want to push with a tiny advantage into a team defending middle, while it is a safer bet to push into 2nd or last with a small advantage as you have less to lose.

I think the maps should be at least somewhat popular maps in the pub or comp community.

My suggestions:

koth viaduct pro
koth ashville
turbine
one of the koth maps that won the tf2maps competition

Also, does "objectives disabled" mean SoapDM? Or are people just gonna be running into the middle of the map over and over again?

Mine gets gunky a lot. Heres my long self-created process for cleaning:

1. Compressed air. Use the small nozzle to get under the mouse buttons and let it rip.
2. Fold toilet paper over itself a few times to make a stiff corner. Rub this corner under each mouse button and in the side buttons.
3. For the side buttons (which I don't use but get really gunky easily) stick a pocket knife in there and scrape around. The knife is also a good method of getting dirt deep under the regular mouse buttons.
4. After using the knife (which you should wipe off after every scrape) repeat step 2 to clean out the debris that you dislodged but did not bring out.
5. A final compressed air spray to finish it off.

You can also use the knife to scrape the ridges on the bottom of the mouse. I find that they get dirty easily and cleaning them out makes the mouse move much smoother on its pad.