Not again...

Why is my Team Fortress 2 playing always overshadowed with continuous raging?

Although this time it's more of a Steam woe than anything else, but last night I broke a record I had deemed impossible for me to break, based on research done during the 37.5 hours of time played as an Engineer.



I chimed in 16 sentry kills, with one sentry, during one life. Three dominations. 22 points total, with all the assists and teleports and one wrench-whacked Spy, and several minutes of pretty decent defending. Would've gotten more, but apparently half of the enemy team went Spy at that point (I can stand up to Spies myself if they're not very good), and it was kinda impossible trying to keep myself OR my buildings alive when I had Spies coming out of my ass and a Demoman got close enough to blow everything into oblivion while I was busy with sappers.
And I thought it would be impossible to get that many sentry kills in one life, because I always get only twelve. Whenever the counter hits twelve kills, my sentry's goners. Always. And I get twelve kills pretty often, it's very usual on Dustbowl where sentries tend to live longer.
So I was kinda expecting to get twelve kills, and then get backstabbed, but for once it didn't happen.

So where's all the rage? I broke a record, I should be celebrating, not raging, right?

Yeah, sure, if Steam had only registered the new record. My Engineer records remain as they were, max kills 14, max sentry kills 12, max points 18. No sign of the should-be record of max kills 17, max sentry kills 16, max points 22.
So, RAGE. At least I got the screenshot to show you that I indeed got 16 sentry kills.

I also went back to the Soldier like I told you I would, and had some great times last night. Dammit, Easy Mode, I missed your slow-as-hell ass and your ridiculous crit streaks.
It took a while getting used to it again, since I've been playing so much as a Demo lately. But at least Demo has taught me something: as a Soldier I was used to shooting at enemies' feet rather than bothering trying to get straight hits, but with Demo's bombs that's not very effective unless the target is standing still (and I'm still not that good at taking movement into account and calculating trajectories accordingly), so as a Demo I'm trying to actually hit people in the face with the regular bombs. Especially since they explode at contact and with weaker classes that's an instakill. And I'm getting gradually better and better at that (if I hit you in the face with a bomb, most of the time it's indeed because I aimed, not because you just happened to be there. And that's why bad Scouts who run right at me are dead. They are so fast that their movements are very easy to anticipate, if they run in straight line). So now that's seeping through to my Soldier tactics and I'm actually starting to aim rather than always trying to just rely on splash damage and juggling.
Also, I am suddenly the master at rocket jumping, because it took me this long to realise to crouch-jump. Now there isn't a place I can't get to, I kept camping on top of point B on Gravel Pit, and I did couple of pretty impressive defenses by jumping on top of C and raining doom on enemies standing on it. O ho ho.
And I finally learned to sticky jump as a Demoman! Whenever I jumped before, I just went straight up, and I don't know what I do differently now, but I actually go forward as well. I just don't like doing sticky jumps unless I'm backed by a Medic (which never happens because Medics hate me. Except yesterday I was apparently a good-enough Soldier to get a Medic sticking to me. Too bad I'm a horrible Medic buddy and get them killed. Their own fault for not knowing better and following me on my one-man suicide missions!) because they eat up so much health and I'm still not very accurate with them, so I might spring into any given direction and miss my target by a mile.

I demand more nerfing.

Well well well. Last night I had the best melée only times on a random server with Sonneteer, one of her friends and a bunch of random people (who were awesome and immediately agreed on melee only rules). We melée only-ed our way through several maps and had heaps of fun - well at least I did. Naturally it lead into several interesting records, my max kills as a Medic is 7, and damage dealt about 1,400. My max kills as a Scout is 4, and my max captures as a Pyro is 9 and max points 24, which makes me rage a bit, because it's the same as my Medic record and dammit, I'm trying to keep my "career class" the one with the most points.
Also scored a few achievements, I actually got Sawbones completely out of the blue during a match in CTF Turbine (which sucks, by the way). What's funny is that the enemy players were Scouts at that point, so I got Sawbones by killing Scouts. That's... pretty wtf.
And dammit it feels like such a waste to run around with a full übercharge. And because I kept using the Übersaw (although it's admittedly inferior to the normal bonesaw in melee only matches), I had a full charge nearly all the time. I came pretty damn close to getting Placebo Effect, though (got killed when I was one kill away from it).

And I've actually never heard the "You vant a second opinion? You are also UGLY!" in game before. Couldn't stop laughing after my Medic yelled it after a few bonesaw kills.

I also got lots of progress to Peer Review, since Sonneteer was mostly playing as a Medic, and in the enemy team. She dominated me a few times, though, insane crazy crit streaks, dammit: I get out of respawn, attack her and immediately get critted in the face. So I get out of respawn, striving to kick her ass this time, and again I get critted in the face. And with the annoying fanfare the game informs me that I have a new nemesis.
It was hilarious. Crit magnet, I am.



I also got a few Pyro achievements. OMGWTFBBQ I got completely consciously, and dammit it truly is the most amazing thing EVER to kill someone with a Hadouken. And melee only of course inspires a great deal of taunting, so at some point I got Freezer Burn. And I'm 2/3 through Dance Dance Immolation. Getting Lumberjack goes almost without saying. And all of those lead into this:



Which means that I finally have hands-on impressions about the Backburner's overpowered-ness.
And yeah, I was playing on my own computer for a change, hence the crappy graphics and smaller resolution. Yes, I had the 20 fps handicap. Made the whole melee thing pretty difficult, but at least I got used to it after a few minutes of whining about it (ahaha serious handicap: playing with the Übersaw AND 20 fps, I wonder how well I would've done with the regular bonesaw and on my little brother's computer).

But the Backburner. Is the cutest little thing ever (it has a face!), and also very, very good at one thing: defeating its very purpose. Stick with me. So the Backburner gives 100% crit change from behind. I don't know how flawed the recognition was before the latest batch (which apparently fixed it), but it feels pretty alright: the enemy has to have your back right at you or else it won't work. I didn't even once get crits from the side or from the front, but then again sometimes I didn't get them from the back either. I suppose that could be because of lag, so I won't blame the game being broken. The Backburner also provides the Pyro with a +50 HP increase, and this is where the weapon defeats its purpose.
Valve said, and I quote, "This flamethrower is built for the Pyro who likes to ambush their opponents [...] To aid in survivability, it grants the Pyro an extra fifty health." Which means that the Backburner is supposed to be the ultimate ambushing weapon with the guaranteed crits from the back, and the health buff helping in making a getaway after the ambush.
With the health buff the Pyro has 225 HP, which is more than the Soldier has and only falling 75 HP short from the Heavy. Now add a Medic, and the Pyro has 318 HP - more than the Heavy has normally. The Pyro has no reason to ambush his enemies anymore. What with the flamethrower's damage fall-off reduced, the Pyro doesn't even need the crits to be a total killing machine in close range. And the +50 HP really aids with survivability, because you can just hit and run, and remain almost unscathed. Sure you can still ambush enemies, good for you, it's just that with the Backburner you don't have to. It affected my mentality immediately after I noticed that I could get away with almost anything: I just charged head-first at Demomen and Soldiers, even goddamned Heavies, took some damage, set everything afire (or in Heavies' cases circle-strafed them to death), and ran away to get a medkit or find a Medic and ready myself for the next attack. And dammit it worked, and felt so much more useful than waiting silently in ambush just to get a few crits. I don't think the weapon is balanced if it can be "abused" in such a way.
Dammit, the Pyro was good the way he was, I never felt he was underpowered. Backburner would be a good and balanced weapon if you removed the health buff, because then the Pyro would be forced to go back to ambushing, and the Backburner would be the more effective ambushing weapon with the guaranteed crits, while the regular flamethrower would be more suitable for other confrontations because of the ability to deflect projectiles and thus get right at Soldiers' and Demomen's faces. Now the Backburner is a clear upgrade from the regular flamethower instead of an alternative weapon.

I wish Valve would realise this and remove the health buff. And dammit, this comes from a Pyro player who refuses to use the Backburner from now on, simply because it is ridiculously overpowered (and because I like the airburst).



And that's my 2 cents on the matter of the Pyro unlockables. NERF, VALVE. NERF.

I also played as Engineer a bit (because it's the easiest class to play with my low fps), and I've never randomly left my sentry in a more suitable moment: we were attacking in Dustbowl's third stage, and I saw our other Engineer (the team was whining about "too many Engineers" and I agreed, because when you attack you don't need but one Engineer if he can keep his act together) building his own sentry. I was BORED because I had just sat about five minutes behind my sentry, waiting for some action, so I fucked off to help him build the thing. I figured that okay, if he insists on being an Enigneer, at least his sentry should cover our back in case mine gets taken down, so I better help him with it (and I'm all for "All for one and one for all" attitude when I'm an Engineer, I help my comrades as much as I can, and then rage when they don't return the favour. Selfish fuckwit Engineers are the cancer that's killing my will to play the class).
And while I'm there I see a goddamn übered enemy Demo coming around the corner and starting to chuck stickies at my sentry. So what do I do? Upgrade the friendly sentry to second level, watch it massacre the Demo and his Medic, and then just simply return to my dispenser to put my sentry up again.
Damn. If I hadn't left I had probably died, because I'm still stupid enough to stay and hope that the Demo wouldn't kill ME too. And my colleague's poor little first level sentry would've probably been goners as well. I would've lost my dispenser AND my teleporter exit which kept our team pushing mercilessly. And we would've had to fall back.
And this, gentlemen, is why I was an MVP on Dustbowl's third stage, playing as an Engineer in BLU. I've never seen an Engineer being an MVP in the attacking team on third stage. And most of my points? Teleports. The main reason I even build a sentry was to protect the teleporter exit, I didn't really care if I got any kills (didn't, really, I got maybe three or four), as long as the sentry kept enemies from charging at us and destroying the teleporter. And at least we won, so it must've been a successful effort.

I'm thinking of going Strictly Engineer for a day.

You don't see this every day...

OH GOD WHAT THE FUCK.

You probably remember how I've been fighting with Heavy, how I suck as one, how I can't kill absolutely anyone as Heavy, how I just spend most of my time waiting for respawn while I'm playing as Heavy and so and so on.

WELL TAKE A LOOK AT THIS, SUCKERS:



Okay, yeah, that isn't quite as astounding once I tell you from WHAT that score came from, but that's still one crazyass score. And yes, it's one life (my Heavy stats don't look quite as pathetic anymore! Sixteen is pretty good! You can go check it out if you don't believe me). I didn't die even ONCE. And yeah, we were steamrolling.
But that score? Seven captures, two kills. One assist, but it doesn't count. Damn Gold Rush is crazy, and I was basically hugging the cart the whole time. It's perfect, because the cart moves at the exactly same pace as the Heavy does while spinning Sasha, which makes Heavy a nice mobile cart-defending turret. The kills came from a very lucky crit streak while plowing through the narrow hallway after the first checkpoint. Heh, gotta love those crits.
But anyway, my eyes nearly popped out of their sockets when the round ended and I saw I was a goddamn MVP. Number one, no less! (And I robbed a Medic from his First Do No Harm, sorry about that.)
I was an MVP on second stage too, but we didn't blow up the base in the third stage, but I was third on the scoreboard, with 59 points (which breaks down to 13 kills, 8 assists, 4 destructions and 19 captures). And I even dominated someone, WTF.

And having a Medic makes such a difference, I completely owned the enemy team at the start of the match once the teams changed and it was my team's time to defend, and the Medic who had been sticking to me went all "lol, nice one, Chrome." To which I replied that I'm actually a really horrible Heavy, but somehow I'm suddenly doing pretty good. Have a wild guess did he stick to me after that? Haha. Way to shoot yourself in the leg there, missy. But I didn't want him to stick to me too much, I would've probably wasted many of his übers.
But yeah, we weren't steamrolling anymore, so I was standing on a more even ground as a Heavy, plus I couldn't mooch all my points out of captures anymore, so I was quite sure I'd end up spending all my time in respawn, as usual. Also my deaths would skyrocket, while my killcount would stay ridiculously small.
Well I'm glad I was wrong: I was actually doing pretty good! Got a new kills record (five!), dominated some other guy, got the most awesome crit streak EVER after sneaking behind the enemy team in the hallways after the first checkpoint on stage two and MOWED THEM DOWN WITHOUT MERCY. Kept chuckling to myself as I emerged from the hallways, only a few hitpoints left and screaming for Medic.
And here's a screenshot of the final scoreboard, so you can see that I'm not making this shit up:



It's really not that great, I have just barely more kills than deaths (but thirty kills it pretty good! For me! That's like... more kills than I've got as a Heavy before this! No, seriously) and most of my points did come from those captures, but still I'm GODDAMN PROUD of myself! I'm glad I didn't give into my fear of sucking and being a drag to my team.
And with this successful Gold Rush match in mind I think I might have the guts to actually play more as the Heavy. I definitely will find myself going Heavy on Gold Rush from now on, it was so much fun - especially when attacking (besides, I was already getting really bored of playing Soldier on Gold Rush). Damn that cart is awesome.

No new Medic achievements, I haven't been really playing as Medic (except last night, uh, I was once again going on a killing spree with an awesome Demoman. We were steamrolling, just the two of us, it was kinda amusing to look at the scoreboard at the end of the match when we were there on the top, sporting twice as much points as the rest of our team. Our team was the sorriest excuse for a team ever, though, and I suppose the enemy team was too).

I've been Engineering on Dustbowl a lot, for a change. Almost broke my sentry kills record. AND got killed TWICE by my sentry today, so apparently that happens even when I'm sober. Damn newbie Spies uncloaking behind my goddamn back and then getting shot by my sentry THROUGH MY BODY.
And I know I'm being a horrible thorn in enemy team's side when half of the team goes Spy to either a) get a revenge on me after getting dominated, or b) finally take me down after having wasted several übers and failed gloriously every single time. Tee hee.
I love it.

And I love noobish Spies, they're so CUTE when they freeze completely. Seriously, I find myself going "aww" at them and not wanting to kill them when they're so adorably clueless. Today I watched this Spy just STAND next to me for god knows how long. I saw him uncloak as I turned to repair my dispenser, so I proceeded to shotgun him in the face. And then I stopped because I was kinda curious to see what he would do. I mean, a good Spy would've got the hell outta there when I saw him uncloak, but this little newbie Spy didn't even MOVE while I shot him: he just stood there, disguised as a Demo. So he stood there for a while, staring, and then he cloaked and ran away. Poor scared little Spy.
I think he actually went to sap my teleporter entrance after that (this was Dustbowl Stage two, I was defending). Yeah, newbie Spy, those were the easy points to get. I should've probably killed you, but damn, you kinda melted my cold Spy-loathing Engineer heart back there.
I killed him the next time I saw him, though.
And I don't remember if it was the same Spy (or some other newbie, damn the server was full of those tonight) who just STOOD STILL while trying to sap my things a little bit later. Needless to say, he got so wrenched. Aww.
Or the one who sapped my sentry and desperately tried to stab me in the face (I was back against a wall) while I just calmly whacked the sapper off. Awww.
I really didn't see any good Spies today, I dominated all the ones that tried to bring me down. Good Spies... I don't exactly know what makes a good Spy (because bad Spies do the exact same things the good Spies do, it's just that... they're not as good at it. I'd probably know the difference if I played more as a Spy), but a good Spy makes me want to ragequit. A good Spy makes it sure that I don't see him coming. A good Spy makes it sure that while I'm alive, I do nothing but beat sappers off of my buildings. A good Spy makes it sure that I spend most of my time in respawn, watching as my buildings get sapped. I don't understand what they do different from bad Spies: sometimes I see a Spy coming, and sometimes I don't.
Okay, yeah, good Spies backstab me first and then sap my stuff, and goddamn I hate it when they do that. With a third level sentry that requires some insane weapon-changing skill, I believe.

Those pesky newbie Spies did get a bit unnerving later on stage three, because there were at least two of them, and my team was full of equally as noobish Medics (there were at least four running around) healing EVERYONE in the vicinity, and I always watched with growing dread as one of the very inconspicuous Spies (I don't know what it is with bad Spies and being able to tell they're Spies from miles away - except that these ones liked to disguise as Engineers, which meant that they were either me, or the team's other Engie who was tanking his sentries on the other side, or waiting for respawn. For some reason he succumbed to the Spies and their sapping antics quite often) beelined straight towards me and my little nest with three spastic Medics in tow. OH GOD THE HORROR.
I should probably use the mic in those situations, but I didn't have my headset plugged in. Plus I'm still afraid to use it, I always get so nervous that I start stammering when I try to say something.
But yeah, I had to tell the Medics to be a bit more careful after I lost my buildings once (go ahead and try to kill a Spy with two Medics glued to his disguised ass!), but yeah, considering how chaotic and spammy that first point area gets... it's no wonder we lost.

Creative Engineering!

Grand Rounds and Autopsy Report GET! Five more and the Kritzkrieg is mine. I'm also 3/10 through Family Practice and 11/20 through Doctor Assisted Homicide.

And I didn't have to act like an ass to get Autopsy Report, it was Dustbowl, Stage three, and I was attacking. We were holding the line somewhere near the last corner (always the last corner!), but I had to fall back at some point because of an enemy über approaching, and I was holding a full charge and didn't want to die again while holding it (and there was no one there to give the charge to). So I'm waiting behind the second corner, and a Pyro runs around the corner and right at me yelling for Medic. I felt my Spy sense tingling, so I of course whipped out my Blutsauger to see if it indeed was a friendly Pyro in peril or a cheeky enemy Spy trying to trick me. Unsurprisingly it was the latter.
I was pretty damn slow to react after killing the Spy, but I noticed just as I was running over his corpse, that DAMN I could try taunting, and so I did. Got the achievement. Whoo.
I should've bonesawed him, now that I think about it, because he was yelling for Medic. Damn. But I still suck with the bonesaw, with Blutsauger I can actually kill people. Which reminds me, damn glitches, I was playing on Gravel Pit a few nights ago, and had to attack at some point, trying to fall back from just-captured B. And for some reason I didn't have the Blutsauger equipped. Didn't even realise it at first, not until I critted and went WTF the Blutsauger shouldn't cr... oh crap why am I holding the regular syringe gun oh fffff I'm dead, aren't I? Yeah, got killed because of it. I would've probably survived if I had the Blutsauger with me then, Pyros don't really stand a chance against it if I can stay outside the range of their flamethrower. Even if I am in flames.
But yeah, went to equip the Blutsauger during respawn, and actually had it equipped, so it was probably a glitch or something.

Last night I practised something I like to call "Creative Engineering." You know, on certain maps you see the sentries in same places, always, which isn't very clever, considering that the enemy is expecting to see sentries in those places, knows not to get in their line of sight, and prepare an über to take them down. Everyone's starting to know the weak spots of certain sentry locations (well at least I'm starting to know them), which makes those spots liabilities rather than strong defensive measures. So it's actually more effective to have a sentry in a place where no one expects one, even if it gets taken down very easily. So I'm trying to come up with places where no one expects a sentry, and where it can disrupt the enemy offense for a moment or two (maybe buy time for the other Engies to get down their sentries and fortify our base defenses). One of these places, while still a pretty known place for a sentry, is on Dustbowl's stage three's cap A. Usually Engies put their sentries on the ledge that leads out of REDs respawn, and near the stairs next to it. I usually put my sentry on the opposite side, to the right from the cap point, next to the stairs leading to the building. Attackers don't usually expect a sentry to be on that side (because it's more obvious to have the sentries on the other side, plus there are sentries ALWAYS on that side, and not nearly as often on the side I'm building on), and they use their übers trying to take down the sentries on the left, usually ignoring mine. Even if they take down the sentries, mine is going to shoot them in the back, sending them to respawn and buying time for other Engies to get their sentries back up. So the next time they try to take down my sentry, and the other sentries shoot them in the back. The setup can only be defeated with multiple co-ordinated übers (or with a very skilled Demoman chucking pipe bombs or stickies through the tiny windows in the building. With enough skill you can get them land right on top of my sentry. I hate Demomen when they do that). Or Spies.
Defended the point last night with this setup, and I even was an MVP that round.
Creative Engineering is plenty of fun on Gravel Pit, too. On Dustbowl it's pretty hard, but Gravel Pit is perfect for it.

Also, played a lot of offensive Engineer. Because I hate it when on certain maps you never get teleporters to front lines because no one ever plays Engineer when the team's attacking. Sure, offensive Engies are pretty useless on Dustbowl before the first point is capped (except on stage two: a sentry in the dugout can keep those pesky spawncamping-loving Pyros away. Stage three needs a dispenser and a sentry to guard it, because the first point area gets really spammy and as a Soldier I always run out of ammo and I hate to go back to respawn, or risk getting killed trying to scavenge any dropped weapons. Also, it keeps Pyros from spawncamping, and makes approaching enemy übers busy: instead of killing our men, they try to take down the sentry) and with the defense trying to push us back, it's pretty hard to get down a sentry to keep THEM back. It's totally awesome if you DO get a sentry down. Ensured a capture on stage two last night: got a first level sentry down close to the tiny building with ladder leading to its roof, which kept enemies off the point.
Another awesome offensive Engie moment was on Gravel Pit: we were attacking A after getting B, and I managed to get a sentry down just beside the cap point. Very vulnerable spot, but no one expected it, so it killed quite a few defenders before it got taken down, and by then the point was already capped. HA. After that I got buttraped and dominated by a FUCKING SCOUT, and we never got C. Jesus Christ I hate good Scouts. Couldn't even get a teleporter down.
I blame being drunk, but yeah. I'm drunk, you don't have an excuse. Teammates were complaining about the Scouts as well, so at least I wasn't the only one who got dominated by them.
Also went offensive Engineer on Gold Rush (being Engie on Gold Rush is still pretty weird for me since the map is so new), mainly to get those telporters up, because damn they make a difference. And while I was taking care of teleporting people to the front lines, I also experimented and tried to get down some sentries. Offensive sentries are almost always unexpected, which is great, and if they work, they can really stop defense from pushing us back.

But my greatest offensive Engineer moments were on Granary. I haven't played much as Engineer on Granary, because I find it really hard to build a sentry that would LAST for longer than a few minutes. There are no really good sentry locations, which naturally makes it great for some really creative Engineering. So my team is dominating, so I know to put my teleporter entrance down next to our SECOND respawn point instead of the base spawn, because I know we're going to cap the middle point anyhow. After the setup I wait for a moment, and then sneak in and try to get a sentry down right next to the point, to ensure our capture. After that I try to move it right outside the enemy warehouse capture point, to stop enemies from getting out of the warehouse and go capture the middle point back. You have no idea how many kills I got with those sentries. And I probably pissed off the enemy team to no end, he he. Sure, the sentries got taken down not long after the enemy learned about them, but it still makes me happy to get five odd kills with a sentry that no one saw coming. Also, I'm not very invested in those sentries, so once I get them down, I fuck off to do something else (for example, to lure enemies to my sentry, a huge hearty LOL at all the Pyros and Scouts who actually followed me and got shot, ha ha!), because the sentry IS going to die, and there's no use for me to tank it. Besides I usually get killed with my sentry, so if I'm not tanking it, I stay alive, and can get another sentry up somewhere else in a matter of seconds. I also don't upgrade them too much: if there's ammo supply close, I get them to level two and that's it.
Anyway, wherever it is that the sentry is, I put down my teleporter exit somewhere close by. After the warehouse point is capped, I move the teleporters accordingly, and try to put a sentry in the warehouse, to keep the enemies pinned near their base. I don't know how useful I was being, but at least I got a shitload of points from teleports. That's my main function as an offensive Engineer, after all: coming up with obscure sentry locations is just the "for fun" part.
And of course it would work much better if I didn't get shot to death by my own sentry all the time, but what can I say. I was drunk.



But anyway, not playing Engineer like I normally would definitely made it much more fun. Might have to do it more. Preferably while I'm sober and not as prone to dominate myself.

And ha, our little faggotry-filled Circlejerk group has our own server now. The name's MANTRAIN, so I'd really like to see the faces of my "normal" Steam friends once they see THAT on their Friends tab.

Of teamwork

I've been slipping. Ie. I still seem to babble about games in my other blog, and then don't feel the need to write the same things here as well. I need to be more strict with my own rules, dammit.

But yeah, teamwork. Because I played a game today in Hydro with RED being extremely stacked, which naturally resulted in BLU being steamrolled round after round. I was playing in BLU, because I always play in BLU in Hydro (I still play Pyro in Hydro almost always and I've got used to using all the routes from BLU's perspective). I wasn't too pissed off about the stacking (less so than usually) because I was doing fairly well and I got rather lot of defenses and revenges. And I actually felt like I was for once actually contributing something to my team, as hard as it was when we got mowed down continuously. But at least I was helping to fight them off.
But yeah, spent quite a lot of time dead (you know, kamikaze Pyro), and started to get pissed off at my own team by watching them play.
At one point I was watching how a group of RED people were storming the point, and my team mates were just STANDING there, away from the point. Some of them were shooting (Snipers with their pea shooters...), and some just simply stood. I wanted to grab my mic and scream my head off at them, "GET ON THE FUCKING POINT!" but it really wouldn't have helped, you know, me being dead and all. Jesus Christ. I can understand Soldiers and Demos standing away from the point and spamming their 'nades and rockets at the people standing on the point, but even that won't help as much as actually getting on the point. I always try to get on the point and fire my rockets there, even suiciding to kill them off and stop the capture.
After a while I witnessed another display of wonderful teamwork: I'm spectating a Pyro chasing down a Soldier. Nothing unusual there, except that at the same time there were two RED people standing on our point. Good going there, Pyro, nice to know that frags are apparently all you care about. I can't be the only one to stop whatever it is that I'm doing and turn on my heels if there are people standing on our point. Especially if I'm Pyro: I don't HAVE to chase anyone down, if they're on flames, they usually retreat and won't chase me down if I turn tail.
And lastly I saw people running away when there were people standing on our point. WHAT THE FUCK. I watch the point being capped and my team mates just turning away from it and running. They see people on the point, they hightail. Seriously guys, if they cap the point, it's humiliation time and you're gonna die either way.
We also had three Engineers, and at the start of each round ALL OF THEM placed down their sentries. Then they fought for the metal while oncoming enemies just promptly disposed of the three measly level one sentries and proceeded to capping the point. Jesus Christ, guys, would you think TEAM for once, put down one sentry, build it into a level three one all together in a matter of seconds, and THEN start putting down the other sentries? How fucking hard can it be? But noooo, I need it to be MY sentry, they need to be MY kills, I don't get anything for helping other Engies!
I want to change teams, go Spy and rape them and all their sentries, goddamn.
And how stupid can they be for not to realise that their little level one sentries won't hold? If they won't hold and enemies can push continuously, they won't ever get a chance to put the sentries back up again, and so we have three useless Engineers running around shotguns in hand, and then the point is capped. And they will not get any kills whatsoever. Goddamn.

But yeah, I'm the one to talk, I've been sucking a lot once again. Or that's how I feel, I can be on top of the scoreboard and still feel like I'm doing horrible. I should probably lay off playing as Soldier (I've clocked 54 hours as Soldier, which is kinda creepy. I'm not supposed to play it so much! It's by far my "MPC," Medic coming in second with measly 38 hours).
I found it ironic how a few days ago I was playing Engineer on Dustbowl, we were in Stage Three and defending the last cap. And I was doing horrible. I had a sneaky sentry up (after I had tried to get it up on my usual spot on the ledge on the right side of the cap point and ending up with tiny little sentry pieces flying into every direction every fucking time I tried to put it up. People were screaming at us Engies to get sentries up, but what the fuck I can't get my sentry up if you don't give me some suppressive fire! If that fucking Soldier keeps shooting rockets at me freely from the other side of the bleeding map, I can't get the sentry up! I should've yelled at THEM to keep them suppressed for the ten seconds that I need for getting the sentry up, but I'm a jovial player, and I don't yell at people. But once again: TEAMWORK, PEOPLE!), which went nicely unnoticed by the übered people storming the point. So I get killed by something, and as I'm waiting to respawn, I watch in awe as I completely own the people who just stormed past and tried to get the point. Five kills and two defenses. While I'm DEAD.
That's just about how useful I was that day.

And while we're still somewhat on the topic of teamwork, I have one more example to tell you.
I was playing in Gravel Pit one day. I was attacking, playing as Medic, had a nice Heavy buddy to cling to. We got A, but B was preeetty heavily guarded. Not much sentries, just so much people. There might've been some stacking involved, but anyway. So we're camping in the respawn hallways with the Heavy, waiting for my über, and the Heavy informs everyone that we have an über soon, that everyone should come with us and attack B when the charge is ready. I get the charge, he tells everyone that okay, we're going in, and then we go in.
And there's no one there.
Except for the entire RED team.
You can probably guess how well that ended. (Hint: not very well.)
After a while some guy on my team whines that his team sucks. I check the scoreboard and the guy is there on the bottom half, playing a Scout. Playing a Scout when we're trying to get a point that has incredibly strong defense, yeah, no wonder our team sucks.
But yeah, those who whine the most are usually the ones with the least skill.

This blog undoubtedly proves my point.

We never got B, surprise surprise.

And my computer caused me some serious grief yesterday. I was playing in Dustbowl, and for a change I was doing well, and then the game suddenly crashed, proclaiming some sort of engine error about failing to lock vertex buffer. I connected again, played a game in Gravel Pit and then it was back to Dustbowl, and the game crashed again. Then I went to check Steam's troubleshooting guides and verified my game cache files like they suggested. No defragmentation. I deleted my game folder just in case and then checked how much paged pool memory I was using, just in case. That turned out to be not the problem, as I was using only 80. So I was hoping the verifying would do the trick, and later connected to the server to play some more.
And the game crashed in Dustbowl again.
That's when I simply gave up and went to bed, pissed off as hell. I had no idea what the problem was, I've never gotten any game crashes before this, the GCFs were alright, it's not paged pool memory, and I'm not running any of the anti virus programs that supposedly meddle with Steam (I'm using F-Secure).
And today I started playing, just to see if the problem was still there before starting to send angry emails to Steam's support, and played two hours without any crashes. The problem was gone.
I have NO IDEA what the hell caused the problem, maybe the game was just having a bad day, or something.

And now my friend is playing, so I'll just jump in for a moment and hope for not-stacked teams.

Yes, I'm counting days for Goldrush. Must not get excited yet. Remember Valve Time, Chrome, remember Valve Time.

Oh it's April already. Goldrush month!

Anyway. Haven't been around, and my misadventures in TF2 can be easily summarised as "lots of sucking." I had a few pretty cool moments, like the epic Engineer cappan gaemz when we were playing in 2fort after a server crash and it was basically four against three, and we had three Engineers (I, and two of my friends). I got my sentry up in ramp room, and then I noticed that one of my friends had just gone and taken the intel.
I thought "I wanna do that too!" and so I started out towards the enemy base. My friend passed me by on the bridge, carrying the briefcase, all "'ello, old chap!" and I continued my perilous journey to the depths of the enemy base.
Well long story short, I also capped the intel, and we regarded it as a THING OF BEAUTY, doing two consecutive captures as Engineers. And then we got our asses properly kicked before we realised to change classes and start taking the game a bit more seriously. It was fun, though, as long as it lasted.

Finally got SOME reason to write, because today I played on some custom maps. I've been sticking to official Valve maps all this time (I have my misgivings about custom maps: no matter what people say, I will think that they suck, without exception), I think CP_Labor is the only custom map I've ever played (and I hate it, stupid linear map). But I've been getting SO tired of both Wells and 2fort, and I honestly would rather play any shitty custom map than the billionth round in Well or 2fort. I'd even play duel_duel2.

So the first map I played on, was called CTF_Impact2. Seemed like a pretty basic CTF map, and I generally dislike CTF. Well, okay, I don't dislike CTF, I just prefer control point maps over it. Or maybe it's because there's only two official CTF maps and I hate them both? Anyway.
Couldn't really experience the map to the fullest, because we were basically playing two on two at that point, and I just concentrated on being a serious thorn in one poor Engineer's flesh, and dominating another equally as poor Soldier.

The second was called Shock, and it was a control point map with two capture points. The second one's locked until the first one's capped, you know the drill. I actually quite liked it, but I'd like to play it with more people. We were going three on three, which was kinda amusing, since the first point is so close to attacking team's respawn, and the second point is VERY close to the defending team's respawn. So the match consisted mostly of lots of standing around doing nothing. :D
I was playing Soldier, because it's the one class I don't have to know the terrain as well as with some other classes (the thing I hate about new maps is that I'm SO LOST at first), and it's kinda pointless being a Medic when you have only two team mates and one of them is an Engineer stuck in defending the last point, so. Apart from the Engineer we had a Heavy.
And the enemies had gone with a Demo-Engineer-Spy line-up, and I had my friend (the Demo) cursing at me through Steam's chat that WE'RE ATTACKING THREE ON THREE AND WTF WE HAVE AN ENGINEER AND A SPY, and I was like yeah, especially the Spy's kinda cute. How the hell did he think he will get away with ANY disguise when we have three people in a team? Oh lawdy. He did backstab me once (and I saw him get the Heavy a couple of times, just before I gibbed him), but I don't have eyes in the back of my head, so.
But yeah, a huge CP map is huge, and three on three got pretty boring after a while, so me and my friend decided to go MELEE ONLY. Too bad our team mates didn't appreciate, and I had the Engineer trying to shotgun me when I ran at my Demo friend with the shovel in hand, and he nailed me with the bottle when I was down to 40 HP. And the next time my team's Heavy kept ruining our nice shovel vs. bottle deathmatch. Phooie.
Well, our teams probably hated us, because BLUs were just trying to cap the last point and would've probably appreciated the help of their very capable Demoman, and RED was trying to defend and while I'm not really good player, a trigger-happy suicidal Soldier on the point wouldn't have hurt, but instead we were just frolicking somewhere in the happy melée land.
Well, I had fun.
But yeah, I want to play on that map again, preferably with more people.

Third map was Ataraxia, another CTF map, and I hated it. With burning passion. So cramped and confusing! And it was somehow ugly. I don't want to talk about it, it was horrible. I totally loved the air vents, and managed to sneak into the enemy's intel room a few times from there, completely unnoticed (and then they started building millions of sentries in there, bastards).

The fourth was Badlands Classic b3e, which is naturally a CTF map. I've never played TFC, so I have no idea how similar it is to the old Badlands, but can I just say this? I'm SO glad the new Badlands is NOTHING like this one. D: The map is SO confusing! It looks very pretty, though. But yeah, it took me several minutes to find to the enemy base (I thought I found it a couple of times, only to realise that it was still my own damn base), and finding the intel was preeetty tricky, even with all the huge signs on the walls. I basically used just one route during the entire game, thankfully enemies never found out, I would've been pretty easy prey.
And then I managed to actually get the intel. I was running towards our base (I was a Pyro), following the "intelligence" signs and ending up where our intel is.
But it won't cap. I'm standing there like wtf why doesn't it cap, and my team's screaming at me "CAP IT! WHAT'S GOING ON, CAP IT ALREADY!" and I'm like oh god what the fuck am I broken. And then one Scout stumbles by and is like FFS CHROME FOLLOW ME, and then leads me out of the pit and back to our respawn and a goddamn different capture area. Facepalm.jpg.
HOW COULD'VE I KNOWN? D: I don't know if it went like that in TFC Badlands!
I was pretty embarrassed, but it was a winning capture, so there was no harm done.

And now I know. And knowing's half the battle.

So, it wasn't that bad a first touch at custom maps, but I'm still looking forward to playing on a TRULY good custom map. We'll see, and I'll keep you up to date.

And now one of my Steam friends is asking me to play with her, so I guess I'll jump in for a moment. I should be sleeping, but I can't say no to her.

Guys, guys, I actually rocket jumped on top of the cap B building in Gravel Pit today! It was AWESOME! We even had an Engie who knew how to get there via fucking around with dispensers and teleporters (I wanna do that too some day!), so there was a dispenser to provide ammo and health and it was awesome just camping there and shooting rockets and oh man. Too bad the attacking team never even made it inside the building, I would've LOVED to fire some rockets from the windows, because I know how much I hate it when there's a Soldier or a Demo on top of the building while I'm trying to cap the point.

Look at me standing there, all proud and stuff (wasn't an MVP, not by a long shot, didn't actually do much killing from there, but at least I GOT THERE YAY and kept some Snipers in check):


Did lots of rocket jumping today since I've finally learned how to do it. I even learned to do these huge leaps that are both high and long, makes traveling longer distances oh so much easier. Had to jump over trains in Well just because I CAN and then spend good time screaming for Medic. Yeah, my jumps still botch like 1/4 of the time, but most of the time I get where I'm trying to go!
For the record, the jump that got me on top of the cap B building was maybe fifth or sixth try and I was all fucking hell I can't even have any fun since I'm soon out of ammo. Fortunately there was already an Engie running around and building a dispenser. Lucky me.

Apart from learning to rocket jump I played a lot as Engineer today. Even got to be one in Dustbowl Stage Three when I was in RED! I have always wanted to do that! We didn't have but one Engie when the round started (I had been a Soldier on Stages One and Two), so I was like YES I'M GONNA BE ONE! Got four dominations during that round and kept my sentry alive pretty nicely considering how spammy the last capture point area gets.
And I only get fun out of 2fort by going Engineer and not taking the whole thing very seriously. You can find me there camping the ramp room, dominating Scouts and Spies, running around our base shooting at people (killing Medics) and trying to sneak into enemy territory every once in a while to get down a teleporter exit (I have serious Engineering ADHD: I always build the entrance, and then I just kinda forget about the exit. Most of the time I don't find a good-enough place for one, though: in CTF maps the exits get destroyed pretty fast and I hate doing the stupid long trek every few minutes just to make a teleporter exit. I hate leaving my other building unguarded when I know there are Spies around. I'm a territorial Engie, yes I am).

I was also a train magnet today. Embarrassing.

Today I got transferred from BLU to RED in Dustbowl RIGHT after we had capped Stage Two cap A. Seriously, I even capped the goddamned thing, (nothing's better than capping a point while taunting, take it from me), and then I start advancing towards cap B and bam, I die, and then I'm in RED. Goddamn autobalance. I always get switched to the losing team. Boo hoo.
But it turned out pretty okay after all: capping Stage One had been ridiculously easy, but we really put out a fight on Stage Two cap B. I got a few dominations and was topping the scoreboard - again - and we were doing really well (I was Soldier, btw), until one lucky push from BLU got through. But we managed to stop them completely on Stage Three cap A. I've actually NEVER seen cap A NOT being capped, it was strange. We practically spawn-raped them (I really dislike going into attacking team's spawn, I guess I'm that much of a jovial player. I think it's pretty low to kill someone just when they get out of their spawn, so I find myself NOT going there even though I have the chance. Besides, I like the challenge and hectic battles MORE than getting easy kills, so I much rather let the enemies come out and play where it's room to do so and they except me to attack them. Have I ever mentioned how much I hate spawn campers? It's the single most annoying thing that can happen. I won't do it even if I had the chance. I won't build sentries right outside enemy spawn because I think that's fucking cheap and takes fun out of the game. Because it's always frustrating to others), they couldn't form even a single good push to try to take the point. Yay for us!

And I need to have a Strictly Medic day soon. I rarely ever play as Medic anymore, and I feel bad for deserting Medic for easy frags and camping in one spot all carefree.
I went Medic in CP Well today, though. And had my best melée only Sudden Death yet. Managed to avoid getting killed during the primary brawl close to our second CP (I'm really bad at melée with the bonesaw) and advanced to the third cap with a Heavy. An enemy Spy botched a backstab (btw, I got facestabbed TWICE today, wtf. It's never happened before! I'm all "you're a buncha loonies!" when I read people complaining about facestabs happening, because it's never happened to me, but hey, whaddaya know, it apparently does happen! And it's fucking annoying to stare a Spy in the eye and yet get killed by a backstab) and disappeared somewhere while we capped the point and went to cap the fourth. We capped it and I saw a friendly Engie run in just as I started for the last point. Heard the Heavy scream and went all OHSHI- we're gonna lose, I'm the only one left EVERYONE'S LOOKING AT ME and I can't kill anyone with the bonesaw and the only enemy left is A SPY OH MY GOD IT'S INVISIBLE AND CAN KILL ME WITH ONE HIT OH MY GOD. D:
So I kinda panicked, but kept running for the last point, turning around and checking behind me like a lunatic because OH MY GOD THE SPY. Luckily the Spy was running low on cloak, so he couldn't sneak behind me and I was making it sure he couldn't get behind my back. So we just ran in circles (and I kept falling down from the cap area because I was so goddamn nervous), waving our weapons and trying to kill each other. And he was trying to stand on the point to stop me from capping it.
But because bonesaw is superior to the knife I actually killed the Spy at some point and ensured our victory.


I was SHAKING for minutes after it, it had been INTENSE. :D

I had a dream last night in which my sentry chimed in over 300 kills. I was really disappointed when it didn't happen in the game today. :D
But I killed another Engie with a pistol (I've never gotten a pistol kill before, I abuse the shotgun most of the time). The dirty bastard was sneaking around in our base in 2fort, trying to put down teleporters, so I had to plant a few bullets in his cranium.
And I don't know what it is, but übered Heavies don't strike any fear in my heart when I'm an Engineer. I'll just camp behind my sentry and wave my wrench like a nutcase if one is approaching, IF I CAN KEEP MY BABY UP THE HEAVY WILL DIE THE MOMENT THE ÜBER FADES MWAHAHA. Most of the time it works, as long as the Heavy doesn't get too close. Minigun sprays bullets so wide I only take stray hits and my dispenser keeps me pretty much alive.
But if it's an über Demo (or a Pyro with a Medic who knows what they're doing) that's coming at me, I'll be gone in a matter of seconds and putting up another sentry somewhere else. With Soldiers I'm on the fence: even one crit means death and destruction for me and my baby, but if there are no crits, I can easily keep the sentry up and running. Damn crits.

I once again had a horrible team today in Dustbowl. I was once again on top of the scoreboard as a Soldier. :/ But we were pretty much doomed from the start: we started Stage One with six fucking Engineers, one Demo, one Pyro and one Soldier (me). OUCH. Just guess how long it took BLU to cap both points? NOT VERY LONG. Engies kept them away from Cap A for a few minutes, but after that our entire defense fell apart and the second point was capped in a matter of seconds.
On Stage Three we owned for a little while, kept them in their spawn for almost ten minutes, and even after they capped (silliest cap ever, for fuck's sake, one goddamn Spy got through and just capped the point by himself while we were fighting off everyone else. To be honest, I didn't even notice our point being capped (too busy killing Medics) until someone yelled "KILL THE GODDAMN SPY!" over voicechat, and I nailed the bastard like a second too late. :< But hey, we still kept them in their spawn for a few minutes after that, which was pretty cool), they made one of the biggest mistakes BLU can make on Stage Three, and ignored a teleporter exit in our respawn exit (the one that closes once Cap A is capped) and we managed to rape them properly from behind once they had advanced to the last corner. <3
We lost, but like I already told you, I was the highest scorer, so.

And hey, I got a new score record for Demoman today! :D
So I told you how my regular server has new sudden death modes. Everyone goes melée and is forced to be a certain class. It's really lol inducing when everyone goes Medic and abuses the E key all the time, or when everyone goes Engineer and we can't even build dispensers and so everyone spams "We need a dispenser right here!" hehe.
Anyway, on 2fort everyone was forced to go Demo.
And somehow I managed to get three kills and one defense (the guy with our intel ran right at me and I got a lucky crit), so WHOA FOUR POINTS. My Demoman stats look still pretty pathetic, though. :D (For the record, I've played about 12 minutes as a Demo).

And why do I STILL giggle like some idiot when someone asks something silly (like "How can I enable quick weapon switch?") in chat, and someone answers promptly "F10."
And then a few people disconnect. Ahahah, still makes me laugh. So cruel, but so very amusing.
F10 is seriously the answer to everything.

And so much for trying other classes: I went Engineer in 2fort, Soldier in Granary, Dustbowl and Gravel Pit, and Pyro in Hydro. Le sigh. But at least I also tried Pyro in Well! Was a bit lost and didn't score as high as I am used to scoring as a Pyro, but it wasn't completely horrible. Plus hooray for circle-strafing first level sentries.

Time to try out some new stuff

I just realised that I always choose a certain class on certain maps, and I rarely try out anything new. I go Engineer or Soldier in 2fort, Pyro in Hydro, Soldier or Pyro in Badlands, Soldier or Medic in Gravel Pit, Soldier in Granary and so on and so on.
So the next time I'm playing, I'll try out, for example, Pyro in Well. I'm completely lost as a Pyro in Well. I'll go, um, Engineer in Badlands. Pyro in Dustbowl when I'm in BLU. Anything but Soldier in Granary.
And I have a sudden urge to go Sniper. I've been neglecting Sniper after I started getting hang of playing Pyro and Soldier (Sniper was my third favourite class at some point), and truth to be told I'm quite a sucky Sniper. I never realise to move and then I have Spies coming out of my ass. And I'm outplayed by the enemy Snipers way too easily. I also hate Sniper vs. Sniper battles so much that I try to choose my sniping points so that the enemy Snipers can't see me. And I will never, ever go Sniper in 2fort.
And in case you're wondering and haven't yet realised, my top four classes are Medic (~30 h), Soldier (~20 h), Pyro (~17 h) and Engineer (~17 h). After that comes Sniper with ~4 h, and every other class I've only played for less than an hour (Scout for almost two, which is kinda strange. Because I'm the worst Scout ever).

Also, the next time I'm playing, I'll try to use more of my secondary - and if possible, melée - weapons. I might cut my Pyro deaths in HALF if I could use the shotgun to my advantage. Soldier deaths too, if I could learn to change to shotgun or even the shovel at appropriate times. With Medic and Engineer I find myself changing weapons according to situation.

And I miss Labor.
Stupid custom map, I hated Labor when it was included in my regular server's map rotation. It is so goddamn linear and too easy to win with simple rushing. I hated it with burning passion and cheered when it was finally dropped.
Now I find myself missing its stupid linearity. I'm getting so fed up with Well I'd take Labor any day instead of it.

Oh yeah, Hydro is an exception to the rule with that "try out different classes on different maps" plan. I refuse to play any other class than Pyro in Hydro. It's not because I'm lost with other classes there, it's just because Pyro is so much FUN in Hydro. And because I OWN as a Pyro in Hydro. 51 points today, on top of the scoreboard, and after each round I was one of the MPV's. I die a lot (I'm one of those suicidal Pyros), but I also wreak a LOT of havoc. If I get a Medic to back me up, I'm simply unstoppable.
Yeah, I know, it's Team Fortress, it isn't all about frags, but damn it, I like being good at something. And I'm a good Pyro in Hydro. And no one can possibly say I contribute nothing to my team.
And I've never been as proud of myself as I was when I learned to circle-strafe lone Heavies to death.

Also, lol at bonesawing a sentry. No, it wasn't humiliation. No, I wasn't übered. Someone went all wtf in chat, how the hell does one bonesaw a sentry and I was amused.
Well, I was on Dustbowl Stage One Cap A, running around and healing people, when I saw an Engineer starting to build a sentry. The Engie fucked off somewhere (probably went to get more metal) and I went all D: fuck we're gonna be in trouble if that sentry goes up, so I whipped out my bonesaw and rushed towards the sentry, destroying it before it had finished building. That's how you destroy a sentry with a bonesaw!

And I did some intel capping in 2fort today.

As an Engineer. Lolwut.

Not the whole way, of course. I'm not that hardcore an Engie. And it was kind of an accident anyway, I was camping behind my sentry in courtyard, wavin' mah wrench like always, and suddenly there was complete chaos and the Scout carrying the enemy intel died from some unfortunate stray bullet when he was standing right next to me. He dropped the intel, and I took it automatically. I went all "ALRIGHTY THEN 8D" and ran off to the basement, capping the darn thing.
Totally worth it, because I love Engineer's modest "That's nothin'" voiceclip when he caps the intel. I have been wanting to do some capping to hear it and I did. <3

Server also pulled the funniest Sudden Death match ever. It was melée only, as usual, and it forced everyone to go Soldier. Except one guy, who was a Spy. WTF, server. Many lulz were had with eleven Soldiers and a lonely Spy standing on a control point and pummelling their helmets with shovels.

Remind me to make an entry about all kinds of TF2 related things I follow in internet. I need to pimp some stuff.

The Story of Unlikely Comradeship

So, Goldrush, anyone?
I can't WAIT. The map looks awesome and I'm curious as to how the new game mode will work.

The paged pool memory problems are there, and then they're... not. I don't mind, though, I played for five hours yesterday without the game crashing. And now I have an interesting Engineer story to tell.
So, everyone knows that a Pyro is an Engineer's best friend if there's a serious Spy infestation. Have the Pyro stand around and flame everyone who comes close to the sentry. It works wonders.
But yesterday I had the most unlikely Engineer buddy ever.

A Spy.

No, really. I was once again camping it out in enemy sewers on 2fort, because I like it there. I can pull off a pretty solid defense there, and a forward sentry like that really helps with offense. We were pretty much dominating the enemies. And usually the pissed-off enemies start concentrating on trying to take my little base down instead of trying to cap our intel and since I can pretty much pull it off by myself there for some time, our team can concentrate on capping the enemy intel and hello, glorious victory.
But anyway. The enemies were slowly starting to get pretty annoyed at having a sentry in their sewers, so Spies of course kept coming in and trying to take the sentry down. And I was pretty much prepared for them. Silly Spies, don't disguise as an Engineer if I'M the only Engineer in our team (wow, no Engineer infestation on 2fort, this is unheard of! Everyone went Sniper amirite?) and you're about to attack ME. When I see another Engineer running at me, I know it's definitely a Spy and can wrench them in the face before they get to do any sappin'.
So, Spies were coming in in a steady flow and I was getting pretty annoyed at them because I kept losing my dispenser. So, one of our Spies stumbles by and stays to camp by my dispenser. I pay no mind to him really, because, well, why would I?
Then an enemy Spy comes in, all inconspicuous (disguised as me), and starts sappin' mah buildings.
And our Spy just steps out and coldly stabs the disguised enemy Spy in the back while he's busy taking down my buildings.
That was kinda very cool.
So, the friendly Spy stays around, I kinda start wondering why's he camping here, shouldn't he be somewhere capping the intel and backstabbing people, and then another enemy Spy comes in, cue sappin'.
And our Spy once again proceeds to stabbing the enemy Spy in the back.

At that point I went "I love you, Spy."

That is... when you think about it, it WORKS. None of the enemy Spies paid NO MIND whatsoever to the Spy standing there, because they were so bent on getting rid of my sentry and me, and they know that once the sentry's being sapped, I'm too busy trying to save it to attack them (which is not the case, because if the Spy is standing right next to me, I have plenty of time to wrench him in the face and then go save my sentry). They didn't probably even recognise the backstabbing threat.
And because backstab is a one hit kill, the enemy Spy doesn't even have a chance to backstab me in panic.
Surely it probably doesn't work in every situation, but the point is that I don't think anyone's ever thought about having a Spy stand guard on sentries. And yeah, Spies probably have better things to do than stand guard on sentries, but in case they don't... it all depends on situation.

From now on, I want to have my own Spy whenever I'm an Engineer. And to think how much I used to loathe Spies when I play as an Engie...

I also found it kinda cute that when the enemy team FINALLY took my base down and sent me to respawn, I saw the Pyro who had done it declare in chat that "IT'S FINALLY DOWN!" and I went completely awww, glad to be of annoyance. :3 Made my day, really. Nothing's better than being a serious thorn in enemies' side.

And lookie, wrenchan gaems!



It's funny how much melée kills I get as an Engineer. Hee. The Spy managed to sap my sentry, but in return he got wrenched to death. The same destiny awaited the Soldier who rushed in, all giddy about not being torn into shreds by my sentry, and tried to obliterate me. Aww, I'm so sorry, poor Solly, but that's not the way it goes.

Also, I now have Heavy included in Head of the Class, so I'm 8/9 through, and I have NO IDEA which class I'm missing. Le sigh. I have a feeling it's Spy. Well at least that gives me an excuse to force myself to play more as a Spy.
And if it's not Spy, it's Demoman, and that's the worst case scenario.

Ahahaha oh wow.

Okay, the most epic shit ever. This is SO wrong on SO many different levels, and therefore it's awesome:

We were playing in Hydro. I was in BLU, Ville was in RED. I was an Engineer, he was a Pyro.
And I killed him.
With the wrench.
While a Medic was backing me up.

I mean what the fucking hell was that. :D First of all, Ville has a tendency to Dominate me when he's playing against me. I suck with all melée weapons. And a Medic + meléeing Engineer is one of the most absurd combos there can be.

I had awesome times as Engineer just now. Figured out a PERFECT place for a sentry in CTF_Well. Even Spies stood no chance and I was topping the scoreboard for a while. Dominated one silly Spy, and almost got killed really embarrassingly by the same Spy. I was there, next to my sentry, taunting with Ville, who was also an Engineer. And while the taunt animations played through I saw a goddamn CLOAKED SPY jump on my Dispenser and crouch there. Of course went all "OHSHI-" and just as the animation ended, the Spy tried to backstab me from above. End of his story.


Then I annoyed the enemy team in 2fort by camping it out in their sewers. Had a random emergency "OH MY GOD THEY'RE CAPPING THE POINT I NEED TO GET A SENTRY UP RIGHT NOW!" sentry chime in five kills in Granary. Goddamn, the poor little first level sentry was on the middle of the walkway with the huge tubes, next to our last cap. I was running down the walkway when enemies capped our second point, so I had to put the sentry down that instant or the last point would end up capped instantly, what with their insane Scout rushing.
Actually managed to fight them off for a little while. Was kinda awesome.
And I killed disturbingly much people with the wrench. Good.

And there was at one point a BLU Pyro with a name of Frank and I lol'd. Hardcore. It had to be one of our fags, because a coincidence like that just... isn't possible. That was a bit disturbing.