From an idea onto the canvas, starting all the way from the rough sketches, the competitive TF2 Classic scene has been the artwork of a visionary community, and a true metamorphosis in itself. Its latest brush stroke, the 4v4 Cup announced in the Discord server on August 28, expected to be a 4-team single-elimination show, proved to attract 8 teams and enough commitment for a group stage to be played as well. The details are shared below and in the tournament page. Specific match dates, results, STVs, and live streams will be announced mainly on Discord along the way.

For now, we encourage all the long-timers and the dreamers to take a brief moment to appreciate TF2 Classic having organized competitive teams, scrimming with each other, and participating in its own competition.

Thank you.

Schedule
Group Stages (round-robin): September 22-28.
Group tie-breakers and Play-Offs: September 29 – October 5.
Semi-Finals and the Grand Final: October 6-12.

Participants
Signed-up teams: 5 EU (EURO GROUP), 1 NA, 1 SA, 1 intercontinental (WORLD GROUP)
Rostered players: 40

Map Pool
koth_product, koth_maple_ridge, koth_ashville, cp_warmfrost (3CP), koth_bagel, koth_clearcut, dom_lilcanyon (unofficial 2-point version of dom_oilcanyon)

After the TF2 Classic competitive scene decided to go more structured this year, the fundamental questions of rules, win conditions and game formats were raised. Like, how would one play the asymmetric Territorial Domination (TD) maps that spawns teams at random points at round start, and how many players a team would be composed of if the non-class Civilian (VIP) was involved… Not only were these formulated, but also the required server plugins and configs were developed until April to make competitive TF2 Classic possible and viable.

The pick-up games organized regularly already provided testing grounds for most of CompTF2C’s ruleset and server tech, and constant improvement followed the initial release. However, a full scale test was still due, and that is what we present today: A Full Match. In a match that will be played in the 6v6+ format, simulating the so-called sit out mechanic (of the “plus” format) for the Civilian (VIP) players, all four unique game modes of TF2 Classic will be demonstrated competitively: VIP, VIPR (VIP Race), TD and DOM (Domination).

You will be able to enjoy this show match live in the STV server (140.238.103.207:27021) on August 30, Saturday at 20:00 UTC (22:00 CET or 16:00 EST). Read the guide below for what you will witness that night.

Team Fortress 2 Classic has introduced some weapons that are vastly different than what we see in live TF2. One of these weapons is the Anti-Aircraft Cannon, which combines hitscan with explosives to create a single-fire minigun for the Heavy. It has limited range, deals some splash damage, and can mini-crit airborne targets. Many players have complained about the AAC so far. Some about the way its bullets work, others its mini-crit capability, and a handful think that the concept of a single-fire minigun is just plain ridiculous.

These criticisms are not warranted, not without being properly challenged. That is exactly what will be done in this article. Putting more structure into what you have heard many times before, and hopefully reaching to a more concrete conclusion as a result.

During the month of June CompTF2C executed the HAMMER MONTH, playtesting a series of custom maps competitively over 3 weekends, as previously covered. During vipr_chopper_b2 (by Damon) in Week 1, it was realized that mp_stalemate_enable 0 does not work properly, with the control points being broken after a Sudden Death round that was bypassed (the way competitive TF2 is played at least since the first ETF2L config in 2008). VIPR and vipr_drizzle creator 14bit, and Damon dug deep into this issue and found out that while the official VIPR maps did not suffer from it, the custom-made vipr_chopper did, because of the shared VIPR logic prefab on tf2maps.net. 14bit then updated the shared prefab with the one we have in our official TF2C installations, and informed the TF2C Mapping Community accordingly. Damon, on the other hand, compiled vipr_chopper_b2pro for CompTF2C, that includes this correct prefab, as well as the customization we will describe below.

In competitive we defined mp_timelimit 30 and mp_match_end_at_timelimit 1 for VIPR, to prevent an infinitely long match and an infinitely long last round, as done for 5CP, which also adds additional time to the round with every point capture–technically making it a necessity, although conceptually we do recognize that VIPR is designed with a “simultaneous A/D CP” or PLR in mind, and not 5CP.
VIPR maps so far are designed with setup times which is a non-issue for public gameplay where mp_match_end_at_timelimit is 0. In our pick-up games, when the map time remaining was only a little more than 60 seconds, the setup timer of 60 seconds made the last round basically irrelevant. These 1-2 minute long last rounds are the history-making ones in the legacy of competitive TF2, with the losing team playing a very aggressive mid, going all-in. The long setup timer also makes all the midfights (the rawest action in competitive) an über exchange situation (both teams cautiously holding on to their 100% charges). Damon was so kind to also remove the setup timer in the pro version of his map according to our feedback.

As creation of a “pro” version for every VIPR map would not be a sustainable solution, we looked for creative ways to achieve that. We turned our heads to the Stripper: Source plugin following Damon’s advice; and with technical support from its guru in the TF2 Classic universe, Dynamilk (host of the Bangerz.TF Engineer Fortress server, connected via bangerz.tf:27018), we installed and tested the right version. Apparently we were not the first ones, as competitive TF2 people wanted to achieve the same thing 17 years ago for the setup timer of cp_well and every other map that would otherwise need a “pro” version. We quickly implemented the solution to our official cfg/plugin/vscript pack, and gave the required guidance in our tech manual. At the end of the day, CompTF2C keeps clearing the obstacles to make a viable competitive TF2 Classic.

The HAMMER MONTH, announced in May and played throughout June, is now over. This crossover event between the TF2C Mapping and TF2C Competitive communities brought enough participants to playtest experimental modes like 4teams (koth_blender by Milkman67) and a new take on domination with constantly moving objectives (dom_carts, by Voodoo People) in an organized competitive setting for the first time; while map makers gained a whole different perspective by observing 6v6, prolander and highlander gameplay on their maps for the first time.

One thing is clear: The TF2C Mapping Community is no one trick pony. Not only did multiple maps show good game flow, but the quality of modelling and artistry was also shown to be top notch. Both experienced competitive players and newcomers alike played through the event, with many of them providing valuable feedback in the post-event poll. Let us now look at that data.