The Competitive TF2 Guide
If you’re looking for the installments of ubercharged.net’s competitive TF2 guide, you’ve come to the right place!
The competitive TF2 guide is a long serial article about how competitive games work. While introductory in nature, we still go into quite a lot of depth about how things work. If you’re interested in trying competitive TF2 out, we’d recommend you give all the articles a quick skim.
And as for the others:
This guide was written by clubtheseals, French Toast, himmelstoss, and a few other guest authors. Also featuring some lovely Garry’s Mod work by Loafaries and Hain. We love all of you.
himmelstoss on August 30th 2009
This is No Zaku! responded on 31 Aug 2009 at 11:35 am #
Yep, yep, this is awesome guide, but I have a burning question.
How do you guys get these screenshots!? I’m VERY experienced at garry’s mod, but I’m convinced that it’s almost impossible to pose models like you’ve done in the guides. They’re too close to the in-game animations, and projectiles/tracers CANNOT be made the way it’s done here.
And yet, if it’s not garry’s mod, it’s almost impossible to get such beautiful pictures using in-game shots. Look at the crit rocket medic soldier one in the medic guide for example.
On the other hand, they all use some form of complex depth-of-field stuff too, so it could be heavily photoshopped in-game shots. But even that won’t make such convincing situations.
himmelstoss responded on 31 Aug 2009 at 12:25 pm #
@Zaku: Good question.
We record demos of games, then use the Drive function to get the camera where we want. I may talk about that in a future article.
Then we use
cl_drawhud 0
and
r_drawviewmodel (or something like that) 0
to remove the HUD and the like. Since we are not in-game, FPS is usually not an issue, and we turn up the settings to max to make the shots look extra-gorgeous.
Paper Shadow responded on 31 Aug 2009 at 11:46 pm #
Needs link to Sniper Article kthxbai…
Jazmeister responded on 01 Sep 2009 at 12:41 am #
Wow, that’s awesome. Now I’m gonna start demoing all my games.
himmelstoss responded on 01 Sep 2009 at 7:51 am #
@Paper Shadow: Done.
clubtheseals responded on 01 Sep 2009 at 8:23 am #
@Zaku, yeah, and once we have the raw shot, I work my photoshop magic to add depth of field effects
RandomChatter » Blog Archive » FF #18: Wu Tang – Derailed responded on 01 Sep 2009 at 4:03 pm #
[...] Meatshot Vol.2 is out! Thanks to Chrono for the link: http://www.pldx.com/movie/786/Meatshot_Vol_2/ http://www.ubercharged.net/how-to-play-tf2/the-competitive-tf2-guide/ Forget Teens: Gamers Are 35, Overweight — And Sad, CDC says FF #18: Wu Tang – Derailed Download [...]
brodeo responded on 03 Sep 2009 at 4:08 am #
Are you using r_depthoverlay 1?
You can use that for depth of field magic
Paper Shadow responded on 04 Sep 2009 at 12:15 am #
Needs link to Utility Article kthxbai…
himmelstoss responded on 04 Sep 2009 at 10:53 am #
@PS: Done. :/
clubtheseals responded on 05 Sep 2009 at 6:48 am #
@brodeo, that’s only useful for videos, as it generates a separate “depth map” which can be overlayed in programs like Premiere.
robot makes music responded on 07 Sep 2009 at 12:38 pm #
you could probably use the depth map as an alpha channel in photoshop on a gaussian blurred second layer to properly knock out the out of focus areas, assuming you could get it to output when not in the startmovie mode.
OTOH, you could record a few-seconds long movie in HD spec, and then output a screencap from premier with the properly blurred areas.
Still probably quicker to fake it in photoshop and not many can tell the diff anyway
himmelstoss responded on 08 Sep 2009 at 2:58 pm #
@robot: Yeah, we just abused the motion blur effect in photoshop. Whatever works.
Gaz responded on 10 Sep 2009 at 9:26 pm #
Is this guide much actual and relevent to the european scene? as I see the website server is located @ usa..
ubercharged.net – Competitive TF2, Part Nine: Tips and Tricks from the Pros responded on 12 Sep 2009 at 11:15 am #
[...] himmelstoss and I noticed a series of comments which asked what made us qualified to write about competitive TF2. Well, we play it, and we know the theories and strategies behind competitive games (which is what [...]
Paper Shadow responded on 12 Sep 2009 at 11:25 am #
Needs link to Tips and Tricks Article kthxbai…
The Competitive TF2 Guide : Team Fortress 2 (TF2) på Onlinegamer.se responded on 12 Sep 2009 at 8:30 pm #
[...] när Ubercharged.net:s artikelserie The Competitive TF2 Guide nått den nionde och sista delen tycker även vi att det är dags att uppmärksamma den. I [...]
TheGooglePlex responded on 15 Sep 2009 at 7:00 pm #
I would really like to get a printable PDF format of this series. Do you guys think that could be made available?
himmelstoss responded on 16 Sep 2009 at 2:28 pm #
@GooglePlex: If you want, sure. I’ll get one ready and post the link here.
ubercharged.net – Greetings Valve Fanboys (and girls)… again. responded on 17 Sep 2009 at 1:43 pm #
[...] you if you run scared after reading a few posts. Especially stay away from the universally despised competitive guide, and the forums. Doubly so if you are suffer back problems, heart conditions, nausea, dizziness, or [...]
Zorgulon responded on 18 Sep 2009 at 4:35 am #
Now that Valve have linked to this page a second time, you can bloody well update this to link to the ninth part!
This is No Zaku! responded on 19 Sep 2009 at 10:47 am #
“Now that Valve have linked to this page a second time, you can bloody well update this to link to the ninth part!” -Zorg
THIS
ubercharged.net – The Competitive TF2 Guide » Games responded on 20 Sep 2009 at 10:05 pm #
[...] ubercharged.net – The Competitive TF2 Guide [...]
CorellonL responded on 24 Sep 2009 at 2:17 pm #
Dear sir, this is fantastic.
I’ve never before thought of TF2 as a hardcore competitive tourney-style game. I’ve always considered it a pickup sort of game that you play with friends for kicks. This guide, however, sheds a whole new light on the situation. I look forward to potentially putting together a team and going from adequate player to great.
Dash responded on 25 Sep 2009 at 8:06 am #
This guide looks great. I will continue to study it and show it to my clan mates in the hope that we can start to think more competitively when playing TF2.
How To ‘One On One’ As Sniper | TF2Base.com – Your #1 source for TF2 responded on 27 Sep 2009 at 8:59 am #
[...] Ubercharged.net http://www.ubercharged.net/how-to-play-tf2/the-competitive-tf2-guide/U Article, TF2, [...]
unknown responded on 15 Oct 2009 at 7:09 pm #
no guide on a pyro
Beginners guide to 6vs6 TF2 - Erodov responded on 27 Oct 2009 at 2:27 am #
[...] [...]
Axe Murderer responded on 06 Nov 2009 at 11:24 am #
so the first post there is about being the pyro. me the career pyro will attempt to explain. use alternate routes that no one ever uses, flank and maybe use a distraction (heavy) to sneak around in plain sight. unlike most guides, i wont tell you how to pwn every class, just remember that you will win with flaking techniques. also, backburner sux. it takes away any chance of winning a duel vs the explosive lobbing classes (demo soldier) and i hardly ever got the proper angles (what is it now, like 35 degree angle behind a dude? and spy backstab is like 70?) a lot of classes WILL KILL YOU if you run right at them. use terrain to flank, too, example: (egypt map) egypt has lots of barrels and bricks lying around that you can run behind and duck. once an unsuspecting combatant runs forward, check behind him. what? dont shoot/flame immediately, you ask me? no, always check for backup. unless there are only two players, you will also lose. example over. learn how to rocket jump as pyro, too. watch some videos. play around with it. demoman sticky jumping is rarely suggested, as they can blow a sticky at any time. scouts are also a bane of pyros, the trick is to mess up the timing. when a scout runs away shottying you, just hide for maybe three seconds. when he comes back to kill you (he will, scouts are twitch players who dont like to run away) pop out and flame. a couple shotty blasts and just walk away. afterburn will take its course.
P.S. watch some puff and sting videos, too, airblasting then crit axing. just dont make the mistake of pulling out the axe on a soldier. he will blast you with his rockets and you will die. heavies take two crit axe hits, and he will often spin up in that time unless you are very fortunate indeed.
Axe Murderer responded on 06 Nov 2009 at 11:30 am #
apparently a short pyro segment is available in the utilities section. oops. its surely better written than mine, but the axe murderer college of fire is more geared toward a casual player, not the serious competitive 6v6.
ubercharged.net – Competitive TF2: Concentrated Training responded on 14 Nov 2009 at 12:00 am #
[...] a big hand to Secret Agent Clank, on his first contribution to the Competitive TF2 Guide. Future installments of the guide are going to be generally shorter and more specific than the [...]
ubercharged.net – Dear Scouts: responded on 22 Dec 2009 at 1:09 pm #
[...] at this from a competitive point of view. Here is some random guide on Competitive TF2 for those who aren’t too sure about it. Anyway, the average 6v6 team is made up of two [...]
ubercharged.net – Community Fortress responded on 17 Jan 2010 at 12:02 am #
[...] Also, they’re building a wiki focused entirely on the competitive aspect of TF2, which is worth a read for its thoroughness. It’s far more specific than TF2wiki and way more in-depth than UC’s competitive TF2 guide. [...]
Brainmaster responded on 23 Jan 2010 at 11:07 pm #
how to set your tf in cinema aspect ? i have 1680*1050 res, but i want to max out the fov
[TF2lobby] New update adds stats and more! - Overclock.net - Overclocking.net responded on 05 Feb 2010 at 7:23 am #
[...] a good thing. People expect you to be somewhat competent and understand 6v6 play (read this). It is a slick system and definitely helps you get better. __________________ I LOVE my Filco [...]
Xadavid responded on 13 Mar 2010 at 5:59 pm #
THIS SHOULD BE A BOOK.