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.

Koeitje — You probably all have noticed that ETF2L has published it’s map pool for S11 after two polls that didn’t include all possible map choices. I’ll run through all maps that can be considered candidates for being played in competitive TF2 followed by a small survey (or just click here to go straight to it) containing all the maps I would consider to be candidates for a possible map pool. But first the official ETF2L S11 map pool.  The most surprising maps are, of course, Cp_Freight_Final1 and Cp_Foundry being a decider map while not being in the map pool.

cp_badlands
cp_gullywash_final1
cp_granary
cp_snakewater
cp_freight_final1
cp_gravelpit

The 7th map, cp_foundry, will be the decider map in any and all Season 11 playoffs. This means that during the map-pick/elimination phases, teams only need to pick 2 maps rather than 3.

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…

The folks over at TF2maps.net have announced the entries for their sixth contest based around (a)symmetrical maps. Previous winners of the annual competition, excluding last year’s artpass contest where the winner was guaranteed to be an official map, have gained notoriety ranging from being added to the game (plr_nightfall, winner of contest #3) to being used in competitive leagues (ctf_wildfire, winner of contest #4 and used in last years Wireplay 7v7 season) so the results of this contest maybe of some interest to you.

The maps are predominantly single and multi staged attack/defend maps – with a small contingent being 5-CP. It should be noted that the contest’s entry requirements stated maps should be playable on 32-man servers meaning most, if not all, maps may potentially be too large for 6v6, although some may be of use for highlander matches.

Read more…

Custom content creators from TF2Maps.net once again amazed us. They’ve been making a stunning theme pack and this time it’s all about buildings and construction!
You can download the pack from here, but also remember to check out the awesome site just made for the pack and see what it holds inside!

Also the thread of this in the TF2Maps.net forums is located here.

- tarmo

To quote someone else, everyone gets their 15 minutes of fame. And to quote myself, I wish they didn’t.

-Mick Mars, Mötley Crüe

On one hand, we’d like to continue to serve unedited and uncensored voices to the public. On the other hand this site’s purpose isn’t to be used as a shortcut to get undeserved attention for a common forum post. Thus, we’d like to tighten the noose a bit by collecting rants to published in the weekends.

To open this new era, your friendly neighbourhood Shintaz, with some friendly neighbourhood rage towards Obscure. Go on:

The weird kid in the pool

Hey. Shintaz here, and I’m bored as fuck, so I’m going to write a rant. Not about numlocked’s terrible TERRIBLE gun names, not about Fisshu’s lack of skill and still participating in high level TF2 – not even anything about ESL Wire (well… maybe later). No, this is a rant about Season 8′s map pool.

I’m going to cut straight to the chase – who is that one kid in the pool? Who is that kid that needs to wear a noseplug, fluorescent swimming hat and bright yellow armbands? Well… without offending Byte, Codcrille or any other person that actually worked on this map (you probably would’ve guessed what it is now) – cp_obscure_final.