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“Mmmrrrghh rmmrarrr. Mmmrmmrw ggrrmmm!” - Pyro

I love playing pyro. I mean really, whats not to like? His muffled ramblings crack me up. Its kinda like Kenny from Southpark. You can’t really understand anything, but you fill in the details with your imagination, and somehow your brain attaches some meaning to it far more offensive than what it would have been. I’ve attempted to translate, and most of what the pyro says definitely refers to your mother and her choice of romantic partner.

Then you’ve got some of the coolest animations in the game. Depending on your weapon, you’ve got taunt animations with nods to star wars, street fighter, AND air guitar.

And you can set people on fire!

Which is great.

Unless you’re a spy.

Pyros excel at anti-spy patrolling. The flamethrower is perfect for random sweeps if you suspect a spy is lurking around anywhere. Just flame every single person you see (friendly fire is always off remember) to uncover any spies that may be disguised. If you stay aware you can listen for spies cloaking, and you can vaguely see a shimmer when they move. If in doubt, just flame in a circle around you and see if anything catches fire.

Just inside the bottom entrance of 2fort is a perfect spot to camp and intercept incoming spies. Occasionally you can check the sewer entrance to see if anyone is coming in. A random shotgun blast down the tunnel each time will hit any incoming cloaked spies. Don’t engage them at range though - they’ll own you. Retreat and wait till you can engage them at close range (either that or they’ll give up and go back - which is not your problem anymore).

Which is fun for a while, but if you’re playing in a public game then the spies will often get tired of getting burnt, and will switch tactics (or servers) leaving you without much to do - especially if you’ve got an engineer helping you out. A solid defence can be quite demoralising.

This is a bit of a dilemma. You can either change tactics yourself and try something else (maybe go offence, or change class). But as soon as you do, you can bet that there’s gonna be another spy sneaking in. It just takes one to take out your turret defence, and backstab a few decent folk. Eventually it becomes a bit of a chore.

But thats the way the game goes I guess. You really just gotta keep at it like with bathroom tiles. If you keep scrubbing, you can get rid of the built up mold, but if you stop for a while, then you’re back where you started.

Probably the best thing to do while waiting is to sit tight and spend some quality time with your Weighted Companion Cube. This is something you should be doing anyway, as it prevents it forming thoughts of stabbing you, or stealing your cake. Both of which will hamper your mold spy removal work.