I am "that guy". I worked in the restaurant industry for my first job, so I do know what it's like to live off your wages + tips. I, however, do not feel sorry for those people who have never developed a skill that will get them a better job. If I paid everyone extra for doing their job just because they make a low hourly wage, I wouldn't be able to afford food myself. In the restaurant industry, tipped employees typically make higher hourly wages (after tips) than the people preparing food and/or working other jobs. If they don't hit minimum wage, the employer is required to bring them up to minimum wage. I do typically leave a tip because it's (stupidly) expected, but I see no reason to blanketly tip some arbitrary percentage.

I don't care if my meal is $5, $10, or $50. If the service is good, I will tip $1-2 per person at the table and I'll be agitated while I'm doing it, because it's utterly insane for me to pay someone else's employees just for doing their job correctly. I don't expect you to tip me for properly fixing your computer--why should your food service job be any different?

I do leave a tip because it's socially expected, and I got tired of hearing people bitch at me for not doing so, a la Reservoir Dogs. I don't leave ridiculously large tips or "20% of the total meal" tips because I think it's stupid that a person serving me a more expensive meal automatically receives a larger tip for doing the same job as a person serving me a cheaper meal.

I used to tip delivery services well. When pizza and other places started charging a delivery fee, that took the place of tips, so they get $1-2.

Alleal,

I am not suggesting that the 'meta' never change. I thoroughly enjoyed the quick fix; perhaps I even enjoyed it more than anyone else, but I definitely see its problems. I played viaduct the week the battalion's backup was buffed--against a team who ran it and it won the map for them. I was in the fabled platinum gully last push with conch. That push alone should be an indicator as to why the conch should not be allowed. We stalemated for 20 minutes, then wham, one conch and we win the round.

I've played a lot of scrims with and against high level teams on various maps where the conch is used (during this offseason primarily--people either didn't think about it before or had an unwritten rule to not use it, despite it being legal in ESEA last season). It doesn't necessarily win the push for you, but it makes any push a hell of a lot easier.

I feel like it would be a nice addition if it required another 400-600 damage to charge, and if the meter instantly started fading down after it fills (additional damage will charge it up, but it would be constantly draining). This would force it to be used immediately rather than the typical 'build it, save that soldier with uber if necessary, then conch in immediately after ubers are traded, giving your team an incredible advantage in any situation'.

I guess what I'm getting at is that it's been used enough lately that I feel it can be adequately diagnosed as overpowered and an item that unnecessarily creates one-way fights. I am suggesting that gaining a full meter all but guarantees your team's success in the next push.

Sure, with it being allowed, defending teams will come up with better ways to counter it. I'm certain some people would enjoy watching that develop. I just feel like I've seen enough to determine that it has no place in 6v6.

Pocket makes the most sense because he's more likely to live long enough to get it, but if the pocket survives mid and the roamer dies, roamer equips it and roamer/pocket halfway swap roles while it's being charged.

I doubt it. It drops your damage taken, which would partially suppress the vampire health the other team receives, but not completely and there'd still be the speed boost that wouldn't be negated.

Obviously this is what's occurring. While it's understandable, I just feel it was unnecessary to risk turning the pinnacle season of your league into a feverishly derided fiasco in an effort to propitiate the players in lower divisions who have complained that they don't get to choose what weapons are allowed in ESEA.

Oh well. I was merely expressing an opinion, so hopefully nobody feels offended. I do hope for the best from the season.

There are several people who have been running it more and more during stalemates. I don't necessarily disagree with your idea of, "run it for a while, then ban it if it's bad" but that mentality was the pushing force behind the quick fix debacle.

I'm not saying it should be banned, but I don't think the lower divisions have really seen just how incredible it is at this point. It was legal in the most recent season of ESEA, but it wasn't used much. I think it went unused primarily because people didn't think about it. I don't think it had anything to do with people thinking it was bad or even mediocre. Its use won't be limited to this, but I think you'll see lots of soldiers swapping to it after they die on mid if their team takes mid. It won't be restricted to pocket or roamer, although it would likely be more effective when carried by the pocket.

Solo uber and force uber standoff -> re-push immediately after with conch.
Conch uber vs. no uber
Uber vs. no uber -> re-push with conch post-uber
Non uber push w/conch through chokes or flanks
etc

I'm OK with seeing it play out for a season, but I do very much expect it to be like quick fix: one team will run it and that will ultimately force other teams to do that as well, because a conch push will beat a non-conch defense nearly every time, provided the conch team doesn't screw up royally.

synchro,
yo dog i ain't claimin' to be great ok

In my opinion, these results make it pretty clear that polling the whole community for bans is a mistake. You vote to ban the battallion's backup which offers protection against crits and damage resistance, but you leave in a weapon that grants 100% minicrits for your team as well as the concheror, which gives passive health regen, insane speed, -and- essentially gives each player on your team his/her own medic (35% damage->health).

I hope I'm wrong, but I think you're going to see the soldier game quickly begin to revolve around concheror. It's simply too strong to not run after middle.

Your laptop's video card will have to support output at a higher refresh rate as well. If it's some integrated junk, it's technically possible that it won't, but most likely it will.

No particle effects should be nice. Does this suffer from the same oddities as the old versions (scouts/demos/etc with no feet and/or legs when wearing certain items)?

I like the idea of this, but I'd be surprised if it really helps anyone with FPS. It certainly doesn't affect mine, although removing particle effects will go a long way toward making players easier to see in regular maps.

D~e~c~i~m~a~t~e, I'll drink to your hat's demise.

3:03 PM - XTS // alfa: me and ma3la were in their teamspeak
3:03 PM - XTS // alfa: and just hear
3:03 PM - XTS // alfa: "oh is that the game tim plays"
3:04 PM - XTS // alfa: "you know that tim olson guy"
3:04 PM - smaka: did you tell them tim is the most racist person in tf2
3:05 PM - XTS // alfa: no im sure they already know it

It's under the arrows. Part of the invite illuminati experience.

+2hp per second for wearer
+25% speed for scouts in range, above 30% for other classes
35% damage dealt received as health
480 damage to charge

I think it should be banned because its charge can be obtained by sitting back and spamming rockets over the course of 20 seconds (or less) and everyone on your team not only moves super fast, but also gains 35% of damage dealt back as health. That's like having two black box soldiers with four rockets each--and that's without counting the demo and scouts. The only real counter to the conch is the conch or some form of uber, and the conch charges way too easily for that to have any kind of semblance of balance unless you call "conch vs conch" balanced. The problem with that is that it goes back to the "it's so good that both teams are essentially forced to run it" conundrum.

Also, for those of you who really believe that LAN is unimportant and it doesn't matter if it disappears, consider the progression of a person who is brand new to competitive TF2 (and enjoy my 3 minute non-centered clip-art doodlegram!)

http://i.imgur.com/u2DJgpz.jpg

The point of that is just that once you're in the higher divisions and you get to meet your teammates and hang out at LAN, that becomes what you play for as much as anything else. Without LAN, TF2 won't die. Without LAN, many upper invite players will still be around. But many of them will leave, and, at least for a while, the upper-level competition of TF2 will suffer.

There is no reason why the conch should be allowed with its current stats.

I think that if you truly enjoy TF2 and you'd like to see the competition stay at least where it is, you should opt to play in both leagues. Ignoring CEVO and playing in ESEA only at this point seems silly--why not help out the league that has made countless changes and brought on people like Lange to ensure smooth operation?

On the other hand, playing in CEVO only will do little more than ensure that the one league that has been here over the past 4 years will drop TF2. It seems ludicrous to put all our eggs in the proverbial CEVO basket this early. Play in both leagues. Give CEVO a few seasons' time to prove themselves and to get any extras (LAN, etc.) in place before you decide that's the one league for you. It'd be a shame to lose ESEA and then for CEVO to be unable to deliver.

Quick fix was a cool idea. To be properly balanced, it needs to have a more useful ubercharge but simultaneously less healing power when not ubered. The problem with quick fix in its current state is that it dishes out heals so fast that when two evenly matched teams are playing, a team running it to middle will beat a team not running it to middle just on sheer healing points. This is obviously negated if you focus fire targets or manage to pick the medic early in the fight, but all four invite teams figured out that it's incredibly strong for mids, but very mediocre beyond that.

I don't think anyone thought it was overpowered in a general sense--it was just so incredibly strong for mids that anyone not running it was instantly at a disadvantage, which introduced the whole "do we push with quick fix into last and hope we can take down a sentry and a heavy before getting stickied to death, or do we waste a bunch of time and walk back to spawn to switch mediguns, giving the enemy uber when they wouldn't have had a chance at having uber otherwise" debacle.

While I think most teams will reserve it for last holds, I do very much think it should be banned to prevent a CEVO occurrence of fixgate.

http://i.imgur.com/hNwI2yd.jpg

he holdin da lil baybee

Who's