Absoulute enters the ring with a mixture of irony and serious mode, looking at how it is playing Soldier, as well as diving into the Pro and Cons (puns intended).*
The underlining question is always asked or thought when joining competitive TF2, where do people come from? Generally, as a rule of thumb (Yes, it was legal to beat your wife with a stick no wider than your thumb in the old days) you come from a public server or clan. You learn how to do crazy mad skillz tasks such as joining a server, changing your name and avatar, and if your really pro then custom sprays.
Personally, I joined TF2 from the Quake3 scene. Alot of players come from different games, and most games are similar. So surely if I’m pro at Quake3 then I can be pro at TF2:Soldier? Yes! No…
I was pretty damn good at Quake3. I would hit a silly percentage of LG most of the time, and my Railgun aim was sometimes so astonishing I would have to get out of my seat and examine from afar with a slanted head what I had just pulled off. I found myself in the midst of the horrible melee of a div5 clan called “Epic Clan”. This would be the same “Epic Clan” that had a leader called K.A.I.N who supposedly was committed to a mental asylum for running naked down a highway (lol), shortly after I graduated to Div4. Oh, and the soldier aimbotter (lol) S0nOfPi3.
Soldier was fun when I was n00b.
Playing soldier in the lower divisions was definitely a walk in the park, because I had aim. If you played a previous game where you are firing rockets (all be it very very slow ones) at a target then you understand the dynamics of how to hit someone. In simplistic terms, you fire where they are going to be, and at their feet. That’s pretty much Quake3.
Fast forwarding a few divisions, and I’m playing with a clan that turns up at a designated time, rarely talks about anything other than TF2, and how “You can’t do that, nub”. TF2 is now seriouz businezz, and we want to improve. Hell, I wanted to improve. I found that lust for competitive play again, which had disappeared when I started getting laid in University. I pretty much remained clanless for quite a while, until I got talking to the famous nos, who pretty much took me (like many others) under his wing and taught me some shit. We giggled, lol’d, and generally played pickups together for a few months. It was cool as a coconut with a hat on.
I joined Blame, a relatively “mid” clan when I was in them, who are still playing today. I was looking to learn how to play teh game, have someone with experience tell me what i’m doing wrong. The only analogy I can think of to sum up Blame, would be 6 guys painting a bowl of fruit in a art class. Every single one of the guys paints completely different things, including baerbel who painted a fish, and WildCard who painted a bottle of wine. Myself, I painted a candle. The idea is, none of us were on the same page ever, and that’s why it failed (for me, as I was kicked for insubordination).
I think the main reason I was kicked was because my ideas were too radical, too mould breaking for any of them to understand. They are all great guys, but they had no spark in them. They had read on ETF2L that you cannot push if A happens and you should fall back if B happens. I was all about X, the dynamic of the game, which got me into some problems (As you need your mates to kill shit aswell).
Why can’t I do that then?
Well in a nutshell, playing Soldier at a higher level is kinda boring. It’s probably the most boring class to play at div2+, because if you actually analyse it you aren’t really allowed to do anything that exciting. By comparison, playing soldier in the lower divisions felt like endless rocket jumping towards people, killing entire teams rocket jumping off hilarious places towards people who just panic. It felt amazing, seriously. You would kill entire teams and be left shouting on mumble like a retard “They’re down, cap!!”.. Whilst all your team died in separate locations stupidly.
By the time you’ve jumped towards anyone in a high skill game, you’ve been ping bombed off mumble by your team for being “crazy” and “stupid”. It is so hard grained into the soldier mentality that you aren’t allowed to go aggro that teams don’t even expect you to.
Surely playing at such high level there should be some sort of tactic you can try for one round that is unpredictable? If it pays off, you can literally shit your pants whilst shouting “Byte down1 omg!!” on mumble, feeling as good as if you’ve just won the Spanish lottery. Players like Byte have such an understanding of the game, it’s often the unpredictability that can win a situation… or not. ;)
oRLY how?!
An example “crazy strat” that I used to do in RaWr would be coming towards CP2 Tower on Badlands. We all know the positions, we are aware where everyone should be. Infact that’s what makes jumping round the corner towards the medic with 300hp and bouncing off the left wall so funny. You can totally do some damage. You have 2 rockets to kill or force the uber, and it’s worked for me, even against good teams.
But this type of aggression is so fucking difficult to time, because everyone has their head up their ass. Granted, you could say that mine was firmly stick between by abdominal area, but atleast I’m trying. Demoman, if I’m going aggro, you should be waiting to do something whilst they are turned around. Scouts, you should probably wait until the heavies have achieved something.
Break free…!
Let the soldier go wild, let him run free with the wind in his hair and a strong horse unicorn galloping between his legs. Give him his moment to shine, not sit and fall back and wait for his medic to miss an uber clutch and he dies walking backwards.
However this does not work if your team are too focused on “what your doing wrong” than focusing on actually getting dynamic and following you in should you do some decent damage. Sure, you could all die, but you might not. You might roll them. (especially if Byte is down). It’s all about timing, and I guess that’s why there is a division 1.
Teh Moral is importantZzz!!1
Keep your mind open people, and don’t hold back pure genius when you see it. It might just get you that spot you deserve, on vanillatf2.org’s frontpage. You may even get a tiny flag by your name, and it’s entirely possible that some people will refer to you as “Absolute down”. I can only ever dream.
You only know what i’m talking about. Those quiet and awkward moments on Mumble. The teamplay isn’t working, and Person X pushes and dies, and Person Y quietly cuts himself with a razer.. razer. C WHUT I DID THAR?!
It’s a cycle that can be broken. It’s the essence of team-play, and you shouldn’t let something so fucking trivial let you lose games. Don’t let someone get to you, or tell them to shut the fuck up (In a way they feel like they have won). I.e.
Byte I am really sorry that you are down, but please keep positive otherwise I will lose focus and moral.
Try not to get caught up in the rules. Sure, they are very important. The game is mainly based on experience, and it’s the only game where actual talent or aim plays a small role. Okay you might disagree, but what sort of game lets you literally hit every rocket and they don’t die? Are you joking, you fucked up cartoon game? This isn’t Tom and Jerry for god sake. The mouse get’s owned, and speaking of crazy shit like that, Home Alone was bullshit. He’d totally just get murdered by those two guys robbing his house.
Getting even more off track, I felt like the problem with the TF2 higher competitive scene was lack of respect. Sure, there are players out there that take is mega seriously, practicing their flick scout shots in the shower (Predz).. but what happens if a team that isn’t supposed to win beats a good team? Anarchy, that’s what. Forum, IRC, and local news bulletin wide. The losing team generally blames such loses on something dumb factor like lag, or Numlocked’s hair was in the way. I think the worst person for this has to be dunc, or byte.From my perspective, RaWr actually beat TCM, dignitas, and all the other decent teams at the time in PCW’s (WOW OMGZ PLZ SIGN MY MOUSEPADZ RAWWRr!!).. Insert picture of dunc strangling Fragga after RaWr vs England game
RaWr were constantly hounded or bad mouthed in-game and out. Sure, we had Josh who has as much tact as a member of the KKK, but we won fair and square. Why the rage, why the lack of respect?
I guess the lack of respect is granted, as they are quite high players and know what the fuck they are talking about. Dunc is obviously a really nice guy, but he’s in a really bad place because he’s built his macho-guy image so fucking huge, he’s lying to himself. I bet you 10,000 coconuts (African) that he helps old ladies across the road. Infact, that’s probably why his previous clan folded. There was a massive intake in homeless people at the shelter, and dunc stayed behind to help them, and subsequently didn’t play FB with the proper lineup. Wow FB, you’re such cunts…
I suppose what I’m getting it is show some fucking respect. You might just very well destroy the game you have put so many years into getting great at, and players might very well even throw a shoe (Techtron, Team eSrael) at you LAN.
*awaits Cheers, Byte *awaits dunc grammatically correcting me *awaits Admirable being really nice cos he’s a really nice guy *awaits techtron asking about his jew hat purchase on eBay (easily confused) *awaits some random fag pretending tf2 is ez and i’m shit rofl lol omg * awaits random flamer #1
Peace out, and enjoy the summer. Don’t be offended, I’m only being a sarcastic wanker as per usual =).
~Absolute
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2010-05-24 by absolute.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.