VanillaTF2

Darkdwarf — This time around, we’re taking a look at mapmaking geniuses  Arnold‘s and  ScorpioUprising‘s latest maps in production. They’re both very different from those that make up the map pool of season 11 of ETF2L, and quite interesting to play – and spectate.

First is Cp_Croissant, winner of the 5cp section for the recent (a)symmetrical mapping contest over at TF2maps.net – since then the map has gone through a number of iterations from community feedback and is now in it’s eleventh beta version. Next we have Standin, a unique map similar to the “domination” modes one can find in Call of Duty. The map has recently had a massive rise in it’s profile thanks to it’s inclusion into the recent ESEA season’s map pool.

Read on for more info about the maps and their makers’ opinions about them.

Darkdwarf — Here’s two more maps that may define the future of our beloved competitive TF2. This week it’s the turn of seasoned map Cp_Obscure, recently having a face lift, and it’s designer Byte. As well as him, there’s Archy, the man behind Cp_Collis – a map, by comparison, not as well known but certainly doesn’t lack the potential.

As always, leave feedback to the creators, they really appreciate it!

Leftism — The introduction of new and innovative maps can bring with it a fresh air of enthusiasm within the community as the recent introduction of Cp_Foundry has shown. Thankfully, the tool used for TF2 mapping is free and openly available for people to use so we’re not limited to what Valve produce. In a series of interviews, Darkdwarf will be showcasing some of the up and coming maps all aiming for success in competitive league map pools.

Darkdwarf — A wind of change is blowing across the TF2 community, kudos to anyone catching the reference, as we are all looking to celebrate Christmas and the new year with an off-season. I’ll start off the celebration with a few articles about the future maps of TF2, because the game ain’t dead! I would have liked to go through the maps in detail in the article, but since I’m a bad div 6 player, I guess no one is actually interested in my opinion, so you’ll have to suffice with quick run throughs…

Trell — After the game Thursday night vs  Infused, I caught up with  Team Dignitas players to see if we could get some answers to some of the burning questions I had.  Beware the large wall of text!

First of all, this season in ETF2L can hardly be called one of your best so far. Is there anything in particular you believe is the reason behind this?

dajackal:  Two new players, hymzi back to play demoman, changed calls from Finnish to English.

cookye:  Oh you know, the lineup change.

Haza:  The main reason for that is probably the fact that we’ve only played together for 3 weeks.  Even though there’s 4 players that are the same, hymzi who’s switched to demo plays differently than mafu did, longás probably doesn’t play scout the same way hymzi did and I don’t play soldier like Punpu did (in addition to not being as good).  Also some of the matches (against cc and infused for example) were pretty even and I think we couldve won both of them, just didnt. Only 1 cap differences or so. So personally I’m quite surprised we’ve even managed this good.

Hocz:  Recent changes in our lineup has definately been the reason for this. Hymzi going from scout to demo and we have taken Haza to play soldier and longás as scout. Mafu and Punpu will be concentrating more on their studies and therefore can not play that much. It might not seem so big change for everyone because our new recruits are very good players but at this level of TF2 it is the little things that make the difference between winning and losing. We have improved a lot with our teamplay but it still needs little work. Also we need to work our rallyenglish comms a little. As you propably know we previously had a full finnish lineup.

Hymzi:  I think none of us were really expecting anything from this season.. We just changed our lineup and i had to change back to a class that i really don’t enjoy playing anymore + we had to bring in new players. We have been playing couple years with only finnish comms, so it was expected that its gonna take time to get used to. We are starting to get used to it now though.

longás:   Hymzi going back to demoman, Haza as soldier and me as scout with the “language change” are the main factors behind this bad season. We’ve been playing together for less than 1 month and we are getting really close scores against other top teams, we are improving fast and we’ll keep doing it.  The team didn’t expect too much from this season and they are happy with the team progression, there aren’t sad faces so everything is fine.

Hildreth — This week I took a journey into the unknown as I was contacted by The Enigma Zone Crew and set up an interview with a Welshman named Coleman who wanted to share the story behind his ancient clan and their move into TF2. Instead of doing results or anything else I have settled on just an interview to finish off my series for now. I got a lot more than a bargained for as I discovered TEZC are a clan full of rich history in many different games with Coleman himself being a regular LAN goer having real life contacts in the game:

Comedian — While it might look like an ordinary, calm and boring day, today marks the 1 year anniversary of when TF2TV came to be! With almost perfect timing, the south African TF2 community has, thanks to the hard work of Lolita and Lola done a wonderful interview with myself and eXtv’s Salamancer. below is a small excerpt from the interview.

On Sunday, 9 October 2011, competitive Team Fortress 2 (TF2) for South Africa (S.A) changed forever.The final match for the 16bit TF2 Face Offcompetition was shoutcasted by two of the most well known shoutcasters in Team Fortress. The attention we received from viewers globally added to the excitement and overall adrenaline as vinTage took on the undefeated and notorious Masters of TF2CSA.I am proud and privileged to present an interview with these two interesting and resourceful gentlemen!
Meet Lazar ‘Comedian’ Jovic and Eric ‘Salamancer’ Smalley.

You can read the full interview at South African Fortress.

Hildreth — First off for legal reasons, I should try to make it clear I am not importuning here for some sexual adventure (much to the disappointment of my love reject TheSucker) but rather introducing the name of the team I talked to this week, who have so far filled up that gaping hole in my week reserved for amusing anecdotes involving team names (see image below). With this cleared up I can get on with the business of pouring through hundreds of matches that have taken place in the past 2 weeks that I haven’t been here to watch come in from the sea of mass fixtures.