PlayComp - Website dedicated to introducing players to Comp

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Arron Dominion
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PlayComp - Website dedicated to introducing players to Comp

Post by Arron Dominion » Sun Dec 28, 2014 2:08 am

I have been following a discussion on the UGC league's forum, and they have started an initiative to primarily help players who either don't know about comp and want to find out, or know about it but don't know how to participate. This initiative is in the form of a website.

The website goes over the basic formats seen between the different leagues (Highlander/6v6/4v4), places to go to watch how the competitive play looks like, goes over the basic leagues (excluded CEVO and a few others) and what gameplay the leagues cater to, a section on how to join breaking it down between finding a team/playing casually/starting a team, competitive resources, and a FAQ with some basic questions:
What do I need to play comp TF2?
I'm new, what format should I go for?
Am I good enough? I'm afraid I will do badly.
Is there a time requirement?
Do I need to use a mic?/I feel uncomfortable using a mic.
Do I need to buy a server for my team?

The information while not going into too many details is a good starting point if you are curious about TF2 competitive. Check it out:
http://playcomp.tf/
playcomp.tf <- If you are interested in Competitive TF2
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dmitri ravinoff
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Re: PlayComp - Website dedicated to introducing players to C

Post by dmitri ravinoff » Mon Dec 29, 2014 3:05 pm

would anyone be interested in playing UGC iron HL with me over the summer? I'm looking to get into it and I think I'll (finally) have enough time this summer
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Re: PlayComp - Website dedicated to introducing players to C

Post by A Ninja » Mon Dec 29, 2014 7:23 pm

I've done comp in the past, and I understand its appeal to people, but personally I just don't enjoy it. I find it extremely stressful, and it is very easy to get annoyed with your friends that you play with. Even getting people together at the same time was a challenge.
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Cheddars
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Re: PlayComp - Website dedicated to introducing players to C

Post by Cheddars » Mon Dec 29, 2014 9:10 pm

I've played UGC Iron HL a few summers ago with a group of close friends and it was definitely a challenge being the one doing everything: arranging scrims that fit the schedules of nine players, finding potential subs for players that might miss a match due to scheduling issues and actually having everyone together in Mumble at any moment in time.

We were stomped on by teams with players who had years of experience in tf2lobby and 6v6 that somehow found their way on a UGC Iron HL team. This led to a radical decrease in team moral and a general lack of passion and fun to the game and this inevitably led to player-player drama. In the end, however, we did manage to score quite a few wins and top the rankings so it was a pretty exciting experience.

I don't want to deter you guys from getting into competitive but just wanted to warn you of the potential challenges ahead that you'll face.
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Arron Dominion
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Re: PlayComp - Website dedicated to introducing players to C

Post by Arron Dominion » Tue Dec 30, 2014 3:36 pm

Been in comp for ~4 years now. There definitely a lot of challenges in the mix, especially if you are creating your own team. I suggest if you are forming your own team that you find a co-leader to help divide the work load (between talking to your match team, talking to scrim partners, organizing everyone, scheduling strategy sessions [if you go over map strat, not entirely necessary starting out])

Finding people who are time committed is the biggest challenge. You have to form a formal schedule (I.E. Thursday 9 pm EST Strat, Friday 9 PM EST scrim, Sunday 9 pm EST scrim, Monday 9:30 pm EST match) that won't change for the most part, and find people who are both able to make the schedule and actually do make the schedule the majority of the time. Finding subs is definitely a challenge. Starting in iron, try to focus on people who can make the time commitment if needed, and if you have a lengthy scrim schedule, try to fit them into one of your scrims to help build their experience.

In my experience, if you don't play together outside of competitive, no true chemistry forms and the focus will be on winning/losing during the course of the season. If you aren't doing map strats, and the team is losing and not having fun in the process, you probably want to start scheduling them on one of your normal practice days, earlier rather than later in your schedule. In your first season, just try to focus on learning the format and learning to play with each other in the format, rather than focusing on losing (although it does suck if you have a lot of loss).

During strat you typically go over map calls (This road leading up to CP Steel point A is valley, this porch at PL Upward 1st point is Deck, this balcony on KOTH Viaduct PRO is China, etc.), and push/hold strategies (For first point PL Upward offense demo/soldier go in for a medic bomb, heavy goes out left and checks for spy/sticky traps on the walls/rocks/in the rocks, medic stays back in spawn, sniper tries to take out the other sniper...once demo is back up we go in with a spy sap ||| For first point PL Upward defense, sniper goes to the deck, soldier/scout protect the left side, engineer builds at the base of the hill and receives metal from flank/pyro suicides, demo goes onto the platform on the right to spam sticks and pills at the enemy retreating to the stairs if needed, heavy sticks near the medic hiding underneath the deck watching for bombs and spy, and pyro goes between the flank, engineer, and combo waiting for airblasting a push).

I do have to agree with Cheddars about Iron having an issue of players joining Iron that don't belong in Iron. It has gotten better somewhat, but you still find players joining an iron team mid-season that should be in a higher division. I recommend trying to focus on working together as a team and not focus on the skill levels of the teams you are going up against as much as possible to avoid drama related to this issue.
playcomp.tf <- If you are interested in Competitive TF2
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