6v6 guide; a brief look at what is expected of you in competitive play

[Milkyway64]

So now that we have comp server set up and the rosters are filling, it may do us some good to go over exactly how a 6v6 plays and how you, as the newer, aspiring comp player, can cope with the change and jump in skill levels. I'm no pro, having been on only one comp team before and only for a week or so, but that's why this isn't going to get extremely in depth.

First, a few general tips. The number one thing, THE number one thing for -all- comp players to do to be even remotely successful, is communication. Get yourself a mic, and USE it. Report your death, report your kills, report where you see enemies coming from, tell your team who is wounded, especially the medic.

Second, airstrafe. All classes can do it, and for all of them it is useful for dodging rockets. More on how to do it in the Soldier section.

Thirdly, use medpacks wisely. You medic should be doing almost all the healing, so that when he needs it he can use them.

Some Scout tips:

Learn to aim. Seriously, scout duels usually come down to who can keep the other in their crosshairs. But even more importantly is teamwork, there's two of you, you're the best class at killing in the game, so flanking and doubleteaming will go a long way.

I haven't played much Scout in comp setting, so that's about all I got. Other than airstrafe when caught with a rocket after a double jump.

Soldier tips:

Soldiers come in two flavors; pocket and roaming. The pocket soldier is the player that usually has the medic trained on him, and the roaming is the flanker that lonewolfs the road less traveled. Ideally, you should learn to do both as the situation may drag you into the other role mid-fight.

One of the Soldier's most valuable tools is the ability to rocket jump. Learning to do this effectively is what separates the great soldiers from the good. This I can help with, as I am somewhat accomplished at rocket jumping.

First, how to do it. It's as simple as jumping, crouching, and shooting at your feet. In that order. However, there's more to it than that, doing it like that and aiming down will only do a vertical rocket jump, which is only effective for jumping to really high ledges from right under them. There's more types, and they are even more useful. First is distance jumping. There's two ways to do it, from a wall and from the ground. To do it from the wall, walk next to one, jump away from it, pull a 180 and fire. It'll propel you at ludicrous speeds laterally, and it can be done from another rocket jump for even more distance. From the ground, you must jump, crouch, and fire a few feet behind you. It's less effective than the wall jump, but can be done anywhere.

Next is the most important one, a hybrid of the above two type. It's done exactly like the distance jump from the ground, but fire the rocket closer. You'll be sent at a nice speed away and up, where you can wreak havoc, take the highground, airstrafe, and more. You can adjust the trajectory by firing the rocket closer or further away behind you. It's like Toss the Turtle!

It seems hard, but it really isn't. Neither is airstrafing, which is a thing all classes can do but Soldier and Demo get the most of. Simply put, airstrafing is an exploit that allows you to control yourself in the air. To do it, just let go of W, hold the strafe key you want to go in (A key if you wanna go left) and turn the mouse steadily with it. Letting go of W is -very important- and is a really hard habit to break, but once you can manage it, airstrafing isn't so tough.

Now, putting them to use. Airstrafing, as mentioned, is best used for avoiding rockets and taking your rocket/sticky jumping to the next level. Rocketjumping is an amazing offensive measure as you are harder to hit, it's easier to hit the enemy, and you can go anywhere you like. Just be mindful of your health, and abuse that splash damage for all it's worth!

Demo tips:

Use stickies well. Airstrafe. I know nothing about demoman.

Medic tips:

Heal everyone. For god's sake, lose that pub mindset of attaching to one player and keeping him safe. In a comp environment, -every player matters- and a team of overhealed members will devastate a team with only one overhealed member, and this is despite you supposedly focusing on the pocket Soldier. Be aware, and you more than anyone have to communicate for every little thing.

Your job is to stay alive, you're the most important member on your team, you win games. The entire game revolves around you, so please, be aware and dodge like every point of HP you have is your last. And remember your needlegun, sometimes, you have to fight off flanking scouts or retreat.

That's really about all I can think of for Medic play.

[Fureox]

Just to add on to the Demo play (I'm no l33t demo, but at least it's something to go off of):

Always use your Sticky as your primary, pull out the grenade launcher for opponents at a distance or if you cant load your sticky fast enough as it does have a rather long reload time.

Predict your enemies movements and place stickies accordingly, you don't exactly need to shoot directly at them since they're probably moving and will dodge the majority of the damage from your sticky. This is especially important when you have a scout in your face. Put a sticky where the scout is going and he's dead.

Another strategy is to create a large minefield of stickies. Put all 8 of your stickies spread out across the ground, perhaps cielings, and on medpacks in your designated minefield. This assures scout kills most of the time and will net you large multikills when their team strolls onto the field. After you have your field set up, shoot at their team with your grenades and retreat to the mines when you're ready to nuke 'em, just make sure you don't blow yourself up (unless you're going to take 3+ with you)Do NOT use this strategy by backing away from fights to a quiet place where you can arrange your stickies in a pretty little orderly fashion - that makes you useless. Use it when you know they're coming around a corner, they're closing a large distance between you and your team, and during round set-up. Otherwise, use the predict-and-detonate method.

[Vy'drach]

Just to add on to the Demo play (I'm no l33t demo, but at least it's something to go off of):

Always use your Sticky as your primary, pull out the grenade launcher for opponents at a distance or if you cant load your sticky fast enough as it does have a rather long reload time.

Predict your enemies movements and place stickies accordingly, you don't exactly need to shoot directly at them since they're probably moving and will dodge the majority of the damage from your sticky. This is especially important when you have a scout in your face. Put a sticky where the scout is going and he's dead.

That is the most hated thing I have ever encountered in all of TF2. No exaggerations. It literally is my most hated thing in TF2. Every time I get killed by a demo's sticky spam, I want to punch through my screen, reach out of their screen, pull off their lower jaw, and slam it into their eye sockets. That's likely due to getting merced by demomen for a solid week straight, and dying to a grenade launcher or melee weapon (outside degroot) once each the entire week. Last week, as a matter of fact.

It's to the point I no longer equip my sticky launcher and use the Scottish Resistance instead, and will rename my default launcher "Free Kill Generator," with the description "-200% skill, but +100% kills."

However, if you want easy, assured kills with no skill requirement, that's the way to do it.

[Thu'um]

i beilive i have our scout, but dz can contest form our game sunday my flanking is just fine :troll:

[Fureox]

That is the most hated thing I have ever encountered in all of TF2. No exaggerations. It literally is my most hated thing in TF2. Every time I get killed by a demo's sticky spam, I want to punch through my screen, reach out of their screen, pull off their lower jaw, and slam it into their eye sockets. That's likely due to getting merced by demomen for a solid week straight, and dying to a grenade launcher or melee weapon (outside degroot) once each the entire week. Last week, as a matter of fact.

It's to the point I no longer equip my sticky launcher and use the Scottish Resistance instead, and will rename my default launcher "Free Kill Generator," with the description "-200% skill, but +100% kills."

However, if you want easy, assured kills with no skill requirement, that's the way to do it.

Exactly. Sticky spam is extremely enraging and relatively -easy- to do, but it's also very effective. Like you said, it's a free kill generator. In a serious game we are aiming to do whatever it takes to put down the enemy team so we shouldn't be afraid to employ every effective legal tactic available.