A Newbie's Guide to Competitive Team Fortress 2

A Guide to Competitive Team Fortress 2

If you consider yourself a “gamer”, you probably are familiar with Team Fortress 2. The iconic class-based shooter can be seen across the Internet, from Youtube spin-off videos to Reddit trade forums to posts on this very blog. While this game is considered to be “casual” by many familiar with other first-person shooters, competitive gameplay in Team Fortress 2 is a refreshing and dynamic alternative to the comp scene of other FPS games, thanks to many of its unique game mechanics. In addition to the standard sniper rifle headshots, shotgun meatshots, rocket launcher gibs, and grenade blunders seen in most FPS games, one will also see Soldiers and Demomen jumping halfway across the map with their explosives, Scouts circling entire teams like sharks using their speed and double jump to dodge fire, Spies going invisible and flanking the enemy team to backstab their key players, and Medics giving their teammates invulnerability or one-hit-kill power. This wide variety is what makes competitive TF2 so fun to play, and it's also what makes it so fun to watch. Let's go over the basics of how comp TF2 is played:

Team Composition

The two main types of competitive TF2 are 6v6 and Highlander. 6v6, or “sixes,” is a somewhat self-explanatory game mode in which both teams are composed of 6 players. Teams are limited to 1 Medic and 1 Demoman, and almost always use these two classes for reasons we'll go into later. Generally teams are limited to 2 each of the remaining classes to prevent games from looking like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RBV3mdKKO8M. Most teams in high-level 6v6 play use 2 Soldiers and 2 Scouts in addition to a Medic and Demo thanks to the Soldier's high health and ability to maneuver around maps with his rocket jump and the Scout's speed and dodging capabilities. If teams want to use a different class in certain situations, like Sniper when the map is at a wide expanse or Engineer for holding a control point, they usually replace one of their Scouts.

Highlander is a game mode in which “There can only be one!” (of each class). Each team is composed of a Scout, Soldier, Pyro, Demoman, Heavy, Engineer, Medic, Sniper, and Spy.

Class Roles

In 6v6 as well as Highlander, the Medic is considered to be the most important class because of his ability to heal his teammates to above their maximum health (an “overheal”) as well as make his teammates invulnerable or do more damage with the Ubercharge. A Medic will want to stay with a high-health, damage-dealing class in order to be protected from the enemy team; this player is called a “pocket” and the role is usually filled by a Soldier in 6v6 and a Heavy or Demoman in Highlander. Medics need to heal teammates with their Medigun in order to build their Ubercharge, so they rarely, if ever, go on the attack. The two types of mediguns used most often in both 6v6 and Highlander are Kritzkrieg and standard Medigun. The standard medigun makes both the Medic and their heal target invulnerable, while Kritzkrieg makes every attack of the heal target a critical hit. Although standard Ubercharge will beat a Kritzkrieg, Kritzkrieg charges faster and thus can be used as a good surprise counter to a medic running standard Medigun. One of the Medic's lesser-known and lesser-used roles is being the “team caller,” calling out when a team should push ahead or retreat and where the team should be positioned on the map. The Medic is also responsible for keeping track of how much ubercharge each team has, which he does by watching the kill feed and seeing when the enemy medic respawns. With all the time I've spent describing the Medic's duties, I hope I've given an accurate depiction of how important a Medic is to a team. On to the heavy classes:

The Demoman is a very powerful class that can be picked up rather easily; there's a reason for it being limited to 1 in 6v6 play. In both Highlander and 6v6, the Demoman is responsible for preventing capture of points by covering the point with his sticky bombs, which, if detonated, kill everyone standing on a point. The demoman is also expected to contribute a large portion of damage to the enemy team and get kills due to his stickybombs having enormous explosive range and his grenades being an effective form of spam.

The Soldier is probably the class that changes the most between 6v6 and Highlander. In 6v6, there are 2 soldiers, one being designated a “pocket” and the other a “roamer.” The pocket stays with his medic as described earlier, while the roamer plays aggressively, trying to score kills on isolated players or jump into the enemy medic and kill him before the enemy pocket can shoot him down. In Highlander, the rocket jump is less likely to work effectively because the Soldier can be pushed back very easily by a few bullets, which the enemy Heavy and Engineer will be happy to supply. Thus the HL soldier is relegated to a support role, jumping the enemy medic when he can and trying to pick off weak targets or defend his teammates when he can't.

The Scout is one of the hardest classes to play effectively in a competitive environment thanks to its low health and utter reliance on precise aim to get kills and stay alive. The Scout's role in both Highlander and 6v6 is to use his speed to move around the map and flank the enemy team in addition to pickinng off enemies that are low on health and running for cover. Because the Scout has only 125 health and his Scattergun only has kill power at close range, attempting a direct attack is very dangerous and a scout has to move elusively and use his jumps to be able to even get into kill range.

The Heavy is the class that Highlander games revolve around; he is the Medic's pocket and the ideal defense against jumping Soldiers and Demos and ambushing Pyros. A good Heavy gets in position to lead the charge against the enemy team and has awareness of where his enemies are, calling out if they are low on health or attempting to flank. In 6v6, using a Heavy can be an effective surprise tactic as he has 450 health when overhealed and can kill aggressive enemies incredibly quickly at short range.

The Pyro is a class whose effectiveness is highly diminished against organized teams, since these teams generally stick together and call out enemy locations. Pyros in competitive TF2 are used as a support class. In 6v6, they are mainly used if the enemy medic has an Ubercharge well before your team does; their job is to airblast away the enemy medic while he is ubering his team as well as try to score kills with fire and reflected projectiles. In Highlander the Pyro is far more important, sticking with the Medic, Engineer, and Sniper and preventing Spies from killing them as well as attempting to defend his teammates from projectiles and ambushing Scouts.

The Engineer is a little-used niche option in 6v6 due to his lack of mobility with his Sentry Gun and the ability of good players to easily dispose of his buildings. Engineers are usually only used to defend certain key points if the Demoman is getting picked by the enemy's soldiers and scouts, although sometimes the Sentry Gun can pose as an effective distraction as as seen in this infamous 6v6 scrimmage. In Highlander, the Engineer is much like the Pyro and is charged with defending his teammates with his Sentry Guns as well as providing key secondary healing with his Dispensers and attempting to build Teleporters to get his teammates to the front lines.

The Sniper is used quite often in 6v6 when there is enough room for him to take aim at an opponent without being easily killed in return; for example, the second point on Badlands is an excellent sniping location from both offense and defense and teams will often be seen using snipers during the fight for that capture point. In Highlander, the Sniper, well, snipes, trying to focus on eliminating the enemy Sniper first and then their Medic.

The Spy is a very unique class unlike anything commonly seen in first-person shooters. It can be used in 6v6 if a player feels like he can reliably break a stalemate by backstabbing the enemy medic. In Highlander, the Spy is not relied upon due to the erratic nature of the class but can certainly change the tide of the game by eliminating enemy Snipers, Medics, and Engineers from play, or stabbing entire groups of distracted opponents. The Spy's ability to easily maneuver behind enemy lines with his watches and disguise ability means he should try to focus on the opposing player who is doing the most to win the game for the enemy.

Game Format

The maps played in 6v6 and Highlander are selected from a limited pool; you won't often see a competitive match on 2Fort or Pipeline. Most 6v6 leagues play the majority of their matches on 5CP maps, with cp_granary and cp_badlands being the standards, due to the faster play seen on those maps as well as the flanking routes that give Scouts and roaming Soldiers opportunities to make exciting plays on the bulk of an enemy team. King of the Hill mode is also seen quite often while the occasional attack/defense capture point map like Gravelpit is thrown in as well. Since victory in Highlander relies more on effective strategy than individual performance, the maps used are far more varied, with 5CP, King of the Hill, Attack/Defense, Payload, and Capture the Flag mode all seeing play. Weapon bans are also far more strict in 6v6 than in highlander and vary from league to league. Europe's biggest league ETF2L only allows the default weapons and reskins for 6v6, and America's biggest league, ESEA, bans a large section of weapons deemed overpowered by the players. Meanwhile, the biggest American Highlander league, UGC, only bans a few recently released weapons with ETF2L Highlander doing the same. Generally the rule of thumb for weapon bans is that all leagues ban recently released weapons until they are proven to be not game-breaking and 6v6 leagues ban any weapon that has the potential to change the metagame. The full list of weapon bans by league can be found here: http://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Competitive_item_restrictions.

Competitive Community

The main North American leagues for 6v6 are UGC, CEVO, and ESEA, with ESEA generally being considered the highest-level among them. North American Highlander players compete in UGC's Highlander league as well as ETF2L's North American division. Across the seas, ETF2L is the biggest and most well-known league for both 6v6 and Highlander. Smaller regional leagues also exist across the world, prominently in Australia, Russia, and South America.

If a player wants to get into the competitive scene, the forums for their chosen league are generally a good place to start, as these have recruitment threads for new or teamless players to join teams that have an opening. Once on a team, you'll play matches according to the league's match schedule, as well as "scrimmages" which are practice games against other teams on the map your team is playing that week. Getting the skills and game sense required for success in competitive TF2 is difficult since the game doesn't have a ranking system like other competitive games such as Starcraft and DOTA 2; instead, one has to find an external matchmaking source with the most prominent being tf2lobby.com in North America (and Europe) and the under-construction PubComp.com in Europe. These websites arrange games that follow the competitive format of the host's choosing, and anyone with a Steam account and TF2 installed can join and practice their game with their chosen class in their chosen game mode.

Higher-level 6v6 players prefer to keep out any player without high-level league experience which is indicated in the US by the three-tiered ESEA league and in Europe by the many-tiered ETF2L league. The players from ESEA-Invite (the highest division in ESEA) and ESEA-Intermediate (the second-highest) often play Pick-Up Games, or PUGs, with other players from their league, while ETF2L PUGs are determined by “division,” with Division 1 being the highest. The players in 6v6 also identify by a scale of High to Low, which is a confusing and unreliable system which was famously parodied in this video.

If one wants to watch TF2 in a competitive format, Community Fortress ("CommFT") and their streaming channel eXtv are the most reliable sources. CommFT's Youtube channel, seen here, has monthly match highlights from worldwide leagues, a series of videos called "Moments of Glory" which displays exceptional plays by individual players in competitive games, dozens of replays of league championships and other matches, and even more stuff among their hundreds of videos which I haven't seen yet. You can catch them streaming league games at their twitch.tv channel, shown here, with excellent commentary by their staff.

I think I'll end the post here with what is perhaps my favorite frag video which shows what dedicated, smart, team-first players can do in competitive TF2: Team FANOM's Season 6 ESEA LAN Highlights. I hope this post was informative, and happy fragging!