hey i love seeing ur posts about comp tf2, do you have any advice for a wannabe sixes medic? ive been watching a lot of recorded games and demo reviews and stuff and it looks like a lot of fun but actually playing a match myself sounds so daunting and scary
hello anon! thanks for asking and im glad that youve thought about playing comp :)
this ended up really long so under the cut it goes
to start with some outside stuff youll need:
a discord account
a mic (or any other audio input device)
mumble (optional)
from what ive seen, the biggest leagues all have discord servers where players can find scrims or teams and teammates (in the case of rgl) but also teams use discord because its a quick, easy and cheep way to keep in touch
now, a league, there are 5 leagues but ive only played in 2 of them as they are region specific, there are:
rgl (NA/north american league)
etf2l (EU/european league)
ozfortress (oceania/australia league)
asiafortress (asian league, site is down rn?)
ugc (international, the old league where it all started)
now the best way to get into comp is probably through a newbie cup, a shorter season for new players with dedicated coaches provided, but the only one that regularly runs is by an NA pug group, speaking of, another good way to start is through pugs! (or mixes if youre in eu) pugs or pick up games or mixes are run either by the league or an independent person, in NA the biggest non-league pug group i know is tf2 coaching central or tf2cc for short, they also run the newbie cup and are based entirely on discord! in EU, mixes are run usually through sites and require mumble, the biggest being tf2center which id say is much more beginner friendly and hosts more formats than the other site, tf2pickup.eu where you can only play 6s and will usually find players that have been playing since season 2 (etf2l is on season 47)
also! every friday (if there are enough people) there are newbie mixes! basically a mix/pug with a coach, i havent personally played but ive heard its good
now if you find a league that works for you, heres some settings that youll need:
enable developer console
this will allow you to open the developer console, this is a nifty little thing because it allows you to do all kinds of crap, for example, connecting to a specific server if you have the connect info, which is very important in comp, you can change the button that opens the console at the very bottom of the settings
thats how the dev console looks like, heres how to find it:
change your fov to 90
this can be either done in the settings or by putting fov_desired 90 into the console, 90 is the max you can set it to in the settings but if you want more fov then feel free to change this to something else like 130 for example. this is done because the default tf2 fov doesnt let you see as much as 90 and having that information is crucial, especially for medic
now for the actually medic specific stuff
in the advanced settings there are two key things you need to turn on, 1) keep healing even when not pressing the fire key and 2) autocall for medic if below 99% health
the first one is a no brainer, youre gonna be healing constantly for 2 hours or more if you play a season as medic and your fingers will cramp up if you just keep holding down mouse1 so this ones for that
the second one is a bit odd, why autocall? well it might help you find spies or find your way back to your team if you get lost without having to comm it out, it also shows you if a teammate got damaged very recently because of the small cross above their head, this is important because then it will take more time to heal them up
uber masking
when you are about to hit 100% ubercharge, press E, and the "medic!" voiceline is gonna override the very loud and very obvious "I AM FULLY CHARGED" voiceline, tldr: you dont want the other team to know that you have uber
uber counting
the average stock uber can be built in 40-50 seconds, at the start of the round your ubers are the same but they will get offset as the game goes on, when the enemy medic spawns count in your head to 40 or watch the clock for 40 seconds and at the end of that 40 seconds they will have uber
uber related callouts:
"we have ad" (=we have more uber than them)
"we have disad" (=we have less uber than them)
"they have" (=they have uber, be cautious)
"we have" (=we have uber, yay!)
"its even/equal" (=the ubers are the same)
"med dropped!" (=the other medic dropped uber, you now have a lot of ad, you will hear this from your teammates)
"he got a saw on me" (=their medic is running ubersaw and just hit me, they have 25 more uber)
"use" (=pop it)
"use on me/use on [class]" (=use uber on a specific person or class, usually scout or demo)
"big ad/disad" (=the difference between our ubers is big, around 50% difference)
"small ad/disad" (=the difference between our ubers is small, anywhere from 20% to 5% difference)
thats a lot of callouts but dont fear, youll get a hang of it soon :)
the ideal loadout
crusaders crossbow
stock medigun
solemn vow
i did mention the ubersaw but its use is much more niche and works the best when the enemy team is shit, the solemn vow also lets you see the enemy medics uber if you see him but dont use this as a crutch and also call out enemy health ("demo is 50!" and then your flank scout game ends him), ill go over the weapons now
crusaders crossbow
the weapon with most skill, it allows you to heal your team at large distances, your teammates will usually say "arrow me" or "arrow me [location]" and then you shoot them and heal em up, the crusaders crossbow is also used in rollouts a lot, process and gullywash for example both require you to arrow someone mid rollout, i have a few aim training maps linked in my other medic tips post which also, funny enough, have a clip of how comms usually sound so thats cool
stock medigun
other than the kritzkrieg, the stock is the only medigun allowed in standard 6s, its the most consistent medigun and also makes you invincible for 8 seconds, you mentioned watching demos of other players and usually when they do a push into a point they uber the demo so that he can jump in unharmed, then the scout to go fast and the back on demo because hes the 2nd most important class here (the 1st is you!! so dont die!!)
honorary kritz mention
in lower divs, kritz isnt usually played, its an element of surprise weapon and it takes 32 seconds to get uber but 32 is an awkward number so we usually just count to 30 and use the 2 seconds to run :)
the kritz is much more widely used in highlander but ive seen some great playes with it in 6s too
some medigun strats before we move onto melee:
building uber with a boston basher scout
your scout is your escort now, random encounters lied to you, medics do, in fact, heal scouts
give your players a buff (overheal) when youre in spawn and waiting to move, its needed for rollouts in most cases, heal order is usually demo -> roamer -> demo again -> psolly
you need to heal as much as you can, this is a race to get uber
players will come up to you and ask for buffs, its usually soldiers and they will usually jump away shortly after
the ubersaw and the head
the solemn vow is a much better choice of melee then the ubersaw simply due to the fact that you can see enemy health and uber, but i cant deny that the ubersaw saved my ass a few times, still, use the head
now thats the weapons, lets get onto the more interpersonal relationships between teammates
the general playerbase of comp is sweaty gamer cishet guys but ive found that many of them are cool (despite the reputation of sweaty gamer cishet guys) and they are cool especially in rgl
heres some tips,
keep your tumblr private from your team
they dont know the lore of tf2 and 9 times out of 10 dont really care for it
just keep the discussion to comp
many of them are down to play casual or even valve comp if you ask
feel free to ask for tips! they love giving tips!
you will be judged for being a medic player but in a joking matter (they dont usually like playing medic so theyre glad that someone else is lol)
they will show you cool shit (usually clips of airshots)
tf2 comp players are a bit edgy at times, sometimes people just say slurs but not the n word with a hard R or anything (ps. you can report people if they say a slur mid game in chat)
a lot of the time they are gonna tell it to you straight, if youre bad then they will tell you youre bad at xy and z and if you dont improve then they will just call you open (<- lowest division in etf2l/derogatory term for anyone who isnt in open)
in a team you have the team leader who schedules everything and runs this team and talks to the admins, maybe a co-tl who helps with team leader stuff, the main roster which is just the players who play most often, the subs who substitute the main roster when someone cant make it but you still want to play and lastly the ringers(NA term)/mercs(EU term) who are outsiders you call in if your pscout just called in sick and the pscout sub is on vacation and you really need a player
classes
its at the bottom because i forgot about it lol?
6s has 2 soldiers, 2 scouts, a demo and a medic
they are split into the flank and the combo, the combo is with the medic and the flank is not
demo:
you will need to heal this guy a lot, he takes a lot of damage and gives out a lot of damage, he can trap down an area or spam down a choke, will be with you in most of your ubers, make sure this guy is buffed
pocket scout:
the scout in the combo, your escort and personal bodyguard (kinda), hes gonna build with you, pick you up from spawn when you die and is most likely gonna be the maincaller (=person who calls the shots in a comp match like when to retreat and what not)
pocket soldier:
in all honesty idfk what this guy does, he wants heals and watches chokes, spams rockets down chokes too, sacs for med (=jumps on the medic and kills them hopefully)
flank scout:
watches flanks, wants heals, can replace your pscout if he dies, will offclass if need be (offclassing is the act of switching your class to a different one that isnt standard in 6s like sniper or heavy)
roamer (flank soldier):
i also dont know what the fuck the roamer does, its basically the same as psolly but he watches flanks and offlcasses and has a different rollout
post game
so after you play your first game of comp, write ".ss" into the chat, this will open a window with your logs for that match and you can see how you did that game! if you want you can also download the demo from demos.tf if you look up your steam name it should show up, there are other sites where you can see how you did like more.tf which is a nicer looking site and also you can compare specific players and see more stuff so thats cool! theres also trends.tf where you can see how you did over time and basically every stat you can think of even down to the time youve spent playing a class in comp, heres my overview on trends.tf if you wanna see all that it shows (ps. most of my recent games are 4v4 because of a cup lol)
last thing before the end, i did make a post about medic tips a while ago and those apply here as well
tf2 competitive wiki if you want to learn callouts and other stuff
so! thats the basics of 6s med :) gl hf and feel free to dm me if you have any more questions
edit: i forgot to mention b4nny, the lord and savior of competitive tf2 and while he doesnt play med much he has a lot of experience and knows a lot about comp and just has a lot of resources for comp
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