Don Newman
He stalks his prey from above the canisters. Peering down onto the control point, he sees a heavy and his medic running across, trying to capture. If his mask were not in the way, one could imagine a smile across his face. He searches through his arsenal, tossing aside the flamethrower and shotgun found inside. At the very bottom he finds his one true love. Gleaming brightly at him was Betty, his trusty chopper. The blood she’s spilled, the heads she’s chopped, the curses she’s caused utterance of; all kept within metal and wood. He unsheathes his violent baby and cuts his glove slightly, making sure it cuts like butter. It does, and he moves out.
He sneaks around back, making sure he keeps out of sight. He moves in like a spy, but somehow more cloaked, and reaches the pair as they begin to cap. Over his voice communication, he hears his teammates saying to go for the medic. However, his mind knows better. While the angry shouts of his brethren play over his speakers, he attacks the heavy. It may be the amount of fat behind him, but he hardly notices Betty cutting through him like he was tender pork. As he falls down, the medic is horrified by the sight of his dead partner and begins to run. However, Betty knows where to swing to take out his opponents. With a side-splitting chop, the master assassin walks over their bodies and says…
“It must have been a bit embarrassing…”
This is the story of Don Newman, the most amazing pyro I have ever seen. Without using the flamethrower’s flames or shotgun, he is able to dominate most on the other team, climb the scoreboard, and leave us laughing and crying. Many a time I have came onto the server and shoot at Don, yet he manages to just walk slowly to me and axe me a question. There is even a machinima for him as a Batman-esque crusader known as “The Red Knight.”
For anyone who dare doubt his power, he assembled a video of both his axing and also some uberchaining.
This is a video made just for this article. This is the latest video of his powers, and they’ve improved quite a lot since the first one.
If you would like to play against this force of nature, you may join him on the main server he frequents. His server is:
ATF Humpaholics Anonymous – 8.6.77.142:27015
Additionally, I have asked him and he will visit your server for a match. Just contact either him or me on Steam and tell us when and where.
Stumble it!
Yokujin responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 10:00 pm #
Amazing Airblast-jump skills.
He juggles with the rockets like they’re his own.
edinbugger responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 10:32 pm #
Good god, that guy is GOOD.
Notger responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 10:38 pm #
How can you jump with an airblast? (Not that I play Pyro too much, but still, I am wondering.)
Great guy. I love his approach to the pyro.
LOOY responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 11:02 pm #
Wait? You can airblast jump with rockets?
Yokujin responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 11:11 pm #
The trick is when you see a rocket coming from an enemy soldier, that you jump and airblast the rocket to your feet, like it’s your own rocket. It’s very difficult to time, but when you master it you see the results like in the video.
Baconator responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 11:11 pm #
This guy has some serious pyro skills, but it seemed like most of those axe kills were crits, and the ones that weren’t crits were on some noobish opponents. You could definitely learn a some things about positioning and timing from this guy though.
alexholic responded on 26 Sep 2008 at 11:55 pm #
amazing. simply amazing.
Spenny responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 12:22 am #
I played a round with this guy once. We got into overtime on the round. I was low on ammo and health so I thought I’d run back to spawn. Didn’t realize you can’t get stuff out of them in overtime.
Also at this time the rest of my team was dead, as somebody on mic chat reminded me. I ran out of the spawn only to find just about all of BLU team outside.
“It must have been a bit embarrassing…”
vornn responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 2:38 am #
I want those in High Res please. This guy is awesome! I’m gonna learn from this. I’ll be joining this server. lol
Azul responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 4:28 am #
That second video was pretty great to watch. The pyro skills were great… although I am not a fan of the uberchaining and would be happy if less people knew how to do it. It only takes a modicum of skill, considering you are one of the fastest classes in the game… and a single heavy is usually enough to build another whole uber… it’s not like he can actually get away. The only real counter for an uberchain is a pyro airblast or maybe sg. One set of uberchaining medics can put the entire enemy team on the run if they want to keep the medics from having a perma-uber for the whole match… which leads me to another question. Why is it that when an enemy ubers half the team always seems to turn and just shoot at them constantly. Run away! They’re invincible… come back when they aren’t anymore!
LatinoGeek responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 4:55 am #
Holy cow!! this guy is unbelievably good!
n00bie51 responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 4:58 am #
Azul, a couple of Sentry Guns at distance makes it virtually impossible for Über chains to become effective, and sometimes they’re quite difficult to coordinate.
It looks like he’s got some insane skills as a Pyro but I can’t imagine him winning against a competent player in a one-on-one death match with just his air blast skills and an axe.
TPMX responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 6:24 am #
n00bie, is that a challenge? You know there’s 2 ways to challenge him. You’d best put your skills where your mouth is. Otherwise, his axe is gonna be there.
As for the crit thing, he does rely on that somewhat, but in order to crit higher you must continuously kill. Try doing that using only melee.
Himmelstoss responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 6:42 am #
So this is the guy you were telling me about. Wow. He should come to the ubercharged server sometime
Ryebread responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 7:00 am #
I understand the constant critting; as long as he keeps up the axe kills, he’s got a good chance of critting every swing he makes. However, airblast-rocket-jumping? That, sir, is insane skill right there.
Also, call me fool if you must, but do not deny me my dream that it is, in fact, Don Newman behind the keyboard, chanting as he swings his axe.
Azul responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 7:45 am #
The rocket jumping airblast trick was super crazy… every time I saw it I was saying… wow… I didn’t think you could rocket jump with the airblast… then someone explained it and I was more amazed.
BrickInTheHead responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 7:54 am #
I’m a member of ATF, and I must tell you guys that the shots he has in this video aren’t like most skill videos where they’re just “picked out” of hours of gameplay. Don constantly performs like this – those airblast jumps are a rarity, but he’s a demon with that axe. And most of them are not crits.
And to n00bies – trust me, he’ll kick your ass. I’m a fairly good player (along with many ATF and ATF regs) and in a one-on-one situation Don almost always wins. It takes a lot of time, but once you learn how he does it you can counter it.
He’s a sneaky bugger.
BrickInTheHead responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 8:04 am #
Also, one of the funniest things about him is that he doesn’t actually talk. He uses HLSS to play sound clips of the *actual* Don Newman speaking – that’s the odd laughing you hear in the videos.
He’s a very nice guy too.
Sushi Ninja responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 8:55 am #
Don Newman is the best TF2 player I have ever run into. Now, he does not get constant kills, but the way he plays, how gimped it is compared to normal gameplay, is ABSOLUTELY amazing. Fighting with him is awesome, and fighting against him sucks.
You know someone is good when as soon as he gets ubered, people ALWAYS run away.
And his airblast throwing is great too. he kept me in the air for 25+ seconds on toy fort.
Killa-Ewok responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 4:17 pm #
“Gordon Newman axed him for help…”
HelisPoe responded on 27 Sep 2008 at 11:53 pm #
At least he doesn’t rely on his flamethrower to result in kills. That my friends, is some serious ass kicking.
Mr. Noobinator responded on 28 Sep 2008 at 12:38 am #
i don’t get how he killed the demoman in 1.26-1.30. did he airblast the demo back, or did the stickynade? this guy do got some serious skills. his axe kills must rely on crits, otherwise, he would be dead before he kill the other guy. and i’m sure he died lots of times while attempting to make this vid.
that aside, i always love how he airblast the scouts trying to get the health pack and died by falling. always give me a bit of chuckle everytime i see it =)
Mr. Noobinator responded on 28 Sep 2008 at 12:42 am #
i mean…LOOK AT HIS STEAM STATS
HIS PYRO HOURS ARE ALMOST 400
now THAT’s insane
TPMX responded on 28 Sep 2008 at 2:37 am #
The only time Don dies is when there’s 2 or more people fighting him or a sniper shot. As for the demoman, he had a crit sticky going to Don, but he airblasted it back when he pulled the trigger.
A little explanation on the “this is how he normally plays.” 3 days before the article came up, I told Don to make the second movie. Within those three days he came up with that footage. No extra game time, no previous footage, just that.
Newnight responded on 28 Sep 2008 at 8:44 am #
This really is awesome/a long time a comin’.
Newman really is one of the best players I’ve encountered. I still remember how impossible it was to kill him when he was going for Pyromancer (1 mil burn points). It was probably on of the most frustrating experiences ever (and yes he did ask “Are you getting frustrated?”). But besides all of that, Newman probably knows pyro better than anyone in the game not to mention he really knows how to read a player. Not only that but he’s a good sport and rarely lashes out on players…unless you count his axe as lashing out >.>
And in the second video, I was the foolish Medic who said “Lets do this Newman!” and preceded to get nailed
.
Hattie responded on 28 Sep 2008 at 9:38 am #
Newman’s not impossible to kill at all; it’s just freakin’ hard. You are fighting someone who ostensibly should be handicapped. Instead he owns.
He’s very quick with that axe, and very good at sneaking up on people unawares. I can only imagine what it’d be like to play him if spy were his chosen class.
Also, don’t hold the uberchaining part of the vid against him, since it was made just after the medic achievements were first released.
pangit99 responded on 28 Sep 2008 at 1:40 pm #
Love the music. Anyone know what it is?
TPMX responded on 29 Sep 2008 at 12:02 am #
The first is “Fundamentum” by Lesiem. The second is “Running Wild” by Django Reinhardt.
Mr. Brit responded on 29 Sep 2008 at 3:44 am #
I have a friend who on the PS3 version who has similar skills with a medic. We tend to go together with me healing him and him bonesawing the enemy. It works great because you can maintain high health in between battles. I think he wound up with about 40 kills in one life when we got in the enemy spawn. Remember, this is without updates and on servers of no more than 16 people.
THEE POWSANGASAURUS responded on 29 Sep 2008 at 1:19 pm #
I still find it amazing that I can’t remember ever being killed by good old Don.
And to newnight: I knew it was ou saying that in the vid as the medic, but what got me is that you sound like your really, tearfully trying to get revenge for that Demo he killed.
Xilnold responded on 30 Sep 2008 at 1:13 am #
He’s not amazing, you all just suck.
Seriously, the heavy didn’t even turn around, and the medic just kept healing him.
The soldier ran by him, AND AN ENGINEER.
TPMX responded on 30 Sep 2008 at 6:15 am #
Again I say…come challenge him. I’ll let you say whatever you want about him once you have a match with him.
He actually came onto the ubercharged server yesterday with no knowledge of the playstyles of the people there. He got the 1st MVP by a fair margin.
Newnight responded on 30 Sep 2008 at 1:24 pm #
Yeah Pow, I had to do it. I would feel like a coward running away from him after he took down my Demo. Not to mention its always fun when you go up against Newman, win or lose.
sardiax responded on 30 Sep 2008 at 1:24 pm #
Don Newman is a pretty awesome player.
I don’t care how you think your skills compare to his, he’s tons of fun to play with, and I think that matters more.
Darth Damien responded on 01 Oct 2008 at 1:58 pm #
DON..AWESOME JOB DUDE….SEE YOU ON THE SERVER
Soigacas responded on 01 Oct 2008 at 5:08 pm #
“Ha ha ha ha!”
Deagle responded on 04 Oct 2008 at 3:22 pm #
Lol I can hear Newnight in the background ^_^
?????? responded on 29 Dec 2008 at 6:24 am #
??????? ??????? ?????????? ?????? ??????. (? ??????? ? ??? ???-?????? – ??? ???????)
Prawn responded on 07 Jan 2009 at 9:03 am #
fuck me, that was awesome
Xriloku responded on 13 Jan 2009 at 1:48 pm #
You know, the axing part doesn’t seem like the hard part. The real difficult part I think would be getting into position for them, which we sadly don’t see. The rocket jump thing I didn’t even know was possible, and he’s definitely proven to me that the flare gun IS ACTUALLY USEFUL. Lol gotta play this guy.
Rubbie responded on 15 Jan 2009 at 2:42 am #
the airblast rocketjumping was nice, as for the rest…. he may be able to beat a good soldier in 1v1 or a demo (although i dont know, i never seen him ” really” play. But i recon he would lose against any decent scout-heavy-sniper
His airblast skills are good, but yeah, thats like all you can train with a pyro. Airblast doesn’t have any advantage against scouts-heavy’s-snipers.
And for all of you, there are a lot of people who call themself somewhat “good”, i really don’t know if you are, since the level in most publics is VERY low, and if i actually try to i can get at the top pretty easily. Try playing a clanmatch against a (Real) mid-high class team, then you know how ” good” players are (And im not one of them.)
TPMX responded on 15 Jan 2009 at 9:32 am #
Scout? Maybe kill, but scouts are still weak to airblast. Pushing them off an abyss is easy.
Heavy? He kills heavies often, it’s in the video.
Sniper? Depends. From far away, of course. Close up, almost no way (of course).
The server he plays on is full of comp-level players and people who can handle comp-level players. Don’t discount him.
Gooch Gaming » Blog Archive » Don Newman Pyro Nutbag responded on 20 Jan 2009 at 8:43 am #
[...] Winkle brought these videos to my attention via http://www.ubercharged.net/ You can find the original post here. [...]
Zaphod Beeblebrox responded on 25 Jan 2009 at 5:55 am #
Well played Don! You and your axe are welcome over at our server anytime (8.6.77.123) ! We love a good melee fight!
Not a challenge, but we do hope to see you there some time!
??????? responded on 08 Feb 2009 at 8:12 pm #
+1 ? ??????????? ????????
Bacek responded on 26 Feb 2009 at 9:57 am #
?????! ? ??????????? ??????? ?????? ????????, ?? ??? ???? ?????!
Jening | ubercharged.net responded on 07 Apr 2009 at 10:12 am #
[...] you’re a longtime reader, chances are, you’ve already been introduced to Don Newman and Huey Lewis, two top-notch pyros. Now it’s time for a spy to take the [...]
ubercharged.net – Clank’s Super-Cool Awesome TF2 Improvement Bit! – Part Uno responded on 22 Jul 2009 at 8:36 pm #
[...] blasts take 5 less ammo to use, giving you a total of 10 on a full tank. I’m (partially) sure many would [...]
jasonz777z responded on 23 Feb 2010 at 11:09 pm #
…I was the engie whose head was split… but atleast it was by someone who deserved it.