For all my TF2 career, I've been a Pyro main. I've loved flare combos and hitting reflects just because its so satisfying to get those clutch kills in tense situations by hitting that insane cross the map flare, or with lighting quick reaction speed, reflecting a soldier's rocket. This was all true up until a few months ago, where I felt that I had hit a brick wall with my Pyro gameplay. I was constantly dying and just not doing as well as I wanted to. Whether this was because of the limitations of the class or just a "Skill issue" I'm still unsure, but what it resulted to was me trying out other classes as I wasn't getting what I wanted out of Pyro.

After thinking a little, I decided to play some Engineer, and not only has my gameplay significantly improved, but I also feel like that "spark" of TF2 has been reignited within me after so long. Truthfully, I wasn't new to Engineer, I had played him for one season of Open Highlander but it really wasn't anything super serious.

But skip forward to a couple days ago, where engineer went from being my 4 least played a couple months back, to being my most played class as of recent, even beating out my hours on Pyro.

Don't get my wrong, from time to time I still enjoy playing Pyro, but I just never do nearly as well on him as I do on Engie, and I feel like I'm just having way more fun on Engineer now than I was on Pyro before

Has this happened to anyone else? Feeling stuck in a sense with their main, and when they end up switching they realise that they prefer their new class over their old main?

https://i.imgur.com/BiEw8Mr.png

https://i.imgur.com/ihT0vfo.png <-- My brightness settings. mat_monitorgamma is set to 1.6

What's with so many jump maps being extremely dark? It's really hard to see where the distinction between floor and wall is sometimes, which also comes up when you're approaching a ledge. This is not exclusive to this one map, I see this in jump maps ALL the time. I cannot see where I'm going and it's frustrating.

Is there some setting jump map creators use that I'm not aware of that makes things easier to see?

I know that Scout should stay at some range in such scenarios, but what about Pyro? His movement options are limited. Scout can easily get either closer or back off a little, but for Pyro it seems preferable to stay as close to the target as possible, but then again, that's where guessing game starts, which is not preferable. I use Degreaser+Flare Gun+Powerjack combo all the time. People say that Pyro should pressure the enemy with his secondary in order to bait the rocket/grenade. But Flare Gun cannot quite do it as good as Shotgun or Detonator. So it seems I should go for inconsistent directs? I think you already get what I'm trying to say — I want to keep guessing games to a minimum through good movement. So I want to ask if there are good movement techs in a limited close range scenario for the Pyro. Surely there isn't remedy for everything, but any tips?

Today I learned that ~2 weeks ago Valve added new servers in 4 more cities. One of these cities is Warsaw, meaning I can play on a server in my country, having 5 ms ping, instead of connecting to Frankfurt/Stockholm servers as I used to. I played on one of these Warsaw servers today and it was great.

I'd like to play only on these Warsaw servers but the slider in the custom ping limit setting doesn't go lower than 25 ms. If I slide it down to 25 ms, I still get mainly connected to Stockholm/Frankfurt servers (and immediately after joining these servers my ping rises above 25 ms).

I tried setting the ping limit to something like 6 ms via a command tf_mm_custom_ping but it doesn't seem to have any effect, I still get connected to the servers in Germany. Is there any way to perhaps choose a valve server by hand?

.

Games of skill and strategy have been a fixture of daily life for basically as long as civilization has existed. From the day humans started working together, nothing has hit quite like being better than somebody at something, even better when there are no real stakes attached other than true gamer status.

- Reverend

Hello ladies and gents. I, like many of you here, like to win games, and I'm always looking for ways to do this more consistently. The promise of getting an edge on enemy gamers is what will lead many a tryhard TF2 player to custom configs and userscripts. I became particularly interested in them since I have a career centered around creating efficient web GUIs and a love of card games where hours can be spent deckbuilding and theorycrafting. I've found a lot of satisfaction designing a control scheme for Team Fortress with maximum efficiency in mind. This is why Medic and Pyro have really suited me, as their combo potential is immense. However, in my endless pursuit of power, I have crossed over to the dark side: Sticky-spam Demoman. Its made me interested in ways to get my pipes more consistent since their trajectory could be best described as awful. My experience lining up flares and bolts is that I make extensive use of the lower edge of my CPMA_circle_dot crosshair to predict the arc at range. Its made me curious on how that could be developed further, so I did some research and found this.

Looks familiar right? It kind of mirrors real world sights and reticles. These are designed by experts with the goal of being intuitive, easy to learn, and reliable in stressful environments where critical thinking is suppressed. The prevailing zeitgeist around crosshair choice in TF2 is to use a simple dot crosshair so that you'll memorize the trajectories and spread of your weapons and will benefit from less distraction. This is called instinctive aiming, and is fine when you have countless hours to hone these skills in the same way you learn to pitch a ball or shoot a bow. The vast majority of the pros like b4nny and clockwork utilize this to great effect. However, real world people committed to consistency always use specialized targeting systems that "aim" to take as much burden off the user as possible. This is because your instinctual aim can be thrown off by lack of practice, subtle changes in your physiology like caffeine or hunger, or just having an off day. Having extra help never hurts, especially if you have plenty of time to lose muscle memory between playtime like I do. I believe that by relying entirely on instinct, players could be missing out on the huge potential of visual pattern recognition, which is arguably one of our most powerful brain routines. Really what do you think is quicker, finding range on a visible scale based on playermodel size, or guesstimating the blank space under a dot?

i would make this a poll but we cant do those so ill just ask a normal question.

I am making a tfbot improvement mod, and one thing I intend to improve is the bot's general positioning. However, one key aspect I also want to add is space.

When playing with normal people, I notice that people tend to spread out even when unprompted. However, when asked if this is intentional, people either can't answer or just say its done automatically in their head.

I especially notice this in melee only servers. Even if someone is directly in a corner, people still spread out and let others kill them, even if that isn't a good idea.

It would be nice to get more insight on this instead of just using my own. Thoughts?

Hello,

I have been trying to improve on sniper recently and while I recognize that lower sensitivity is more consistent and would improve my aim, I'm hesitant on making any changes as not to mess with my rocket jumping muscle memory and the aim of other classes.

So I have been thinking on changing scoped sensitivity. After some googling I discovered that zoom_sensitivity_ratio 0.793471 supposedly gives you the same scoped sensitivity as unscoped. And while for many years I have been using 0.818933027098955175, without putting much thought into it, I became really confused now, because nor at 0.79, 0.82 or 1 is my scoped sensitivity anywhere close to scoped. In fact at 0.82, scoped is 3-4 times slower than unscoped (moving 360 degrees while scoped requires 3-4 times more mouse pad space than unscoped).

I thought it was like this for everyone (scoped sensitivity being much slower than unscoped), but is it not? I'm really confused. Is there some other setting that affects scoped sensitivity or something?

Hey, so I was curious what people's opinions are on maining the 4 main 6's classes (scout, soldier, demo, medic) to improve at the game. Would this be good or should I try to narrow it down more? Thanks!

The Horse Run Monthly Cup is a TF2 6s cup aimed at revitalizing the tournament circuit in North America. Its first cup was back in September 2024.

For the 3rd cup this coming November, there has been a change. To garner more participation from lower level players, the secondary bracket, which caters to Amateur to Intermediate level players, will be sporting a 60 key cup.

Information about the event can be found below:

Date: November 3, 2024

Prize Pool:

• Headliner Bracket: $500 (RGL Main and above)
• Secondary Bracket: 60 Keys (RGL Amateur and Intermediate)

Discord (Signup here): https://discord.gg/TtyWfwVg

Event Stream Page: https://www.teamfortress.tv/65074/horse-run-monthly-november

Tournament Organizer: GamerLatam (https://x.com/GamerLatamMX)

POSTER

So I always queue for payload/koth but I end up always getting payload and I'm wondering if the gamemode is the reason that I feel so bad at scout sometimes. I realized that scout is really map dependent and that payload encourages people to just huddle up in a chokepoint and scout really sucks in this situation.

Does anyone have any tips for someone who loves scout but is on payload? Or maybe suggestions for other classes that could perform better but still be fun for a scout main? I have a hard time trying to find a secondary.

I strongly believe map timer, team switch, auto-scramble combined will make the matches more enjoyable for everyone regardless of how they wish to play the game.

Seeing such a masterpiece suffering so much from one single inconsiderate decision is really frustrating...

edit: I'm not even talking about replacing casual with quickplay, just those in-server stuff....

I love of people I meet have never read the TF2 comics even after being into the game for hours upon hours, and it's gotten me curious. I know there's kind of two different TF2 fandom sides, one being around people into the characters and making fanart and stories and things and talking about them, while the other side is the one more focused around the game itself and playing the game.

Some of the more character centered people who are into it haven't even ever touched the game(which I'm 100% not knocking them for that), but I know they have absolutely more than likely read the comics, which is the stronger reason for why and how they got so hooked on the characters in the first place.

But I'm curious about the more gaming centered side since I've met few of them who have read the comics, let alone heard of them(asides from bumping into memes about the 7th comic never coming out and then later the hype of the 7th comic getting teasered).

So have yall heard of the comic or read it? and what are your hours of gameplay?

I always get jumpscared dying to these because they are SO loud and they happen out of nowhere. Anyone know if it's possible to make these sounds less intense?

Via the Steam Community SinfulParticipant949 and whatever crack the Valve staff are smoking:

• Reverted BLU Scout pants fix because it conflicts with too many existing cosmetics

• Updated the Fleet Commander again to fix import problems from the previous update

• Updated the Phantom Plague and Haunting Haze Unusual effects to fix sometimes spawning away from the player

• Updated cp_freaky_fair

• Fixed issues related to the gamemode logic

  • Reapplied check that was mistakenly removed to check if the player is actively buying upgrades in a station or not
  • Implemented new custom system to refund upgrades to hopefully address inconsistencies both in-round and across rounds
  • Implemented logic to handle mismatches in recorded vs actual currency values when leaving the upgrade trigger and having not accepted de-bought upgrades
  • Reverted code to do with Ghosts and Sentry busters to fix bugs related to their effects not de-applying
  • Implemented a way to force kill players to address edge cases where you could survive as the sentry buster past their explosion (Thanks MilkMaster!)
  • Improved the logic which checks if you can apply a new potion effect to yourself to address bugs where effects can overlap
  • Fixed sniper and demo shields not having their upgrades cleared
  • Fixed canteens not having their values cleared when refunding whilst not equipped

• Increased the height of the skybox

• Increased last point capture time from 6s to 7s

• Changed some clipping to stop giants from building on roofs

• Smoothed out a divot (Thanks Midnite!)

• Updated zi_atoll, zi_blazehattan, zi_devastation_final1, zi_murky, zi_sanitarium, and zi_woods

• General

  • Re-encoded all Zombie Infection sound effects as .WAV
    • This fixes issues with sound effects not playing correctly and spewing errors in the console

• Bug fixes

  • Fixed a bug that caused Sniper's Spit Pool to deal much more damage than intended
  • Fixed a bug that caused team names to not display correctly when playing on mp_tournament mode
  • Fixed a bug where Engineer would sometimes scream like a charging Demoman while throwing an EMP Grenade

• Zombie Changes

  • Sniper's Spit Pool damage vs Survivors no longer stacks when standing in multiple zones
  • Zombie Heavy is no longer immune to Critical Hits
  • Zombie Heavy's max health raised to 525 (from 450)
  • Zombie Pyro's max health raised to 250 (from 175)
  • Zombie Pyro now drops a medium health kit on death

• Survivor Changes

  • Crossbow weapons no longer have a flat damage multiplier against Zombies
  • The B.A.S.E Jumper can no longer be deployed if you are one of the last three survivors
  • Jumper Weapons can no longer store reserve ammunition

• Updated zi_murky (additional changes)

• Added more respawn room triggers around the new spawn zones

Rumor has it:

• Size is ~80 MB

SinfulParticipant949 is running around checking out his new trousers, so you'll have to deal with my inferior formatting. He showed up, pally!

Via the Steam Community and SinfulParticipant949:

• Added missing list of authors for arena_lumberyard_event

• Fixed the Crook Combatant hiding the Scout's dog tags

• Fixed some sound script entries not playing because they were looking for .wav instead of .mp3

• Fixed BLU Scout using the incorrect team color pants 17 years later. This is the most Valve Time thing ever.

• Fixed some props_farm models using an incorrect surfaceprop setting

• Updated the large version of the backpack image for The Fast Learner to be consistent with the small version

• Updated the schema entries for The Hound's Hood and the Thrilling Tracksuit to remove unused settings

• Updated a couple of the community console images to fix missing nomip/nolod settings

• Updated Freaky Fair's expert contract to be "Win a round on Freaky Fair"

• Updated the Fleet Commander and Delldozer to fix import problems from the previous update

• Updated arena_lumberyard_event

• Fixed mini-crits being removed from the last player standing if they used the Crit-a-Cola

• Added missing navigation mesh

• Fixed areaportal windows in spawn fading in too early

• Fixed cases where players would get stuck on the setup doors

• Adjusted prop fades

• Updated cp_darkmarsh

• Lowered spell spawn timer (from 180 seconds to 120 seconds)

• Spells that spawn outside respawn rooms will disappear after 30 seconds of not being picked up

• Added several more pumpkin bomb spawn points

• Fixed portcullis doors turning pitch black when opening

• Lowered RED respawn wave time for the last point (from 10 to 8)

• Updated tow_dynamite

• Fixed an ammo pick-up differ on BLU side

• Added a missing wagon wheel on BLU side

• Added Tug of War objective strings

• Made the jump pad's deathpits deeper

• A new critter has arrived

• Updated pd_circus

• Fixed spell books being prompted despite none spawning in the map

• Reduced points per player from 6 to 5

• Reduced distracting lighting and details around the inaccessible areas of the circus

• Fixed being able to place teleporters too close to spawn doors

• Fixed erroneous collisions

• Fixed small displacements cutting through walls

• Fixed some gaps in geometry

my schedule is packed during the week and my only real time off is on weekends so what time/day usually are hl scrims?

It's insane how well the Thermal Thruster handles on KOTH harvest. You can pressure high ground easily, fly into sentry nests and abuse their slow turning speed to kill them, and the Thermal Thrusters jump distance is so perfectly tuned that it only takes 2 Thruster charges to scale the entire map, farmhouse to farmhouse.

Meaning that if you activated your Thermal Thruster from the center shed you can jump back into spawn or jump to one of 4 large health packs on the map in just ONE jump.

And after the fact, you still have ONE jump left, which you can use either to:

A: Dive bomb the point

B: Jump on to the enemy farmhouse and melt anyone standing there.

Since the map is so small, your Thruster enables you to have constant access to your spawn room. Which is an insane advantage not seen in many other maps.

Add Pyro's movement speed on top of that and a generous helping of indoor spaces, and you're free to give flank, ambush, or chase anyone you like. The best part is that while you're out killing, your Thermal Thruster has already been charging up. In which case you can disengage after getting your frags.

I also found this super secret technique:

1. Farm le Phlog crits
2. Go to spawn room
3. Equip Thruster
4. Wait for enemy dead/capping

A. Enemy dead: Jump to the enemy farmhouse roof, wait respawn countdown, MMMPH!

B. Enemy capping: MMMPH! at spawn, jump to center shed

5.Profit

6. Rinse and Repeat

Thermal Thruster is a dirty poo poo weapon on other maps. Especially Goldrush. Let me know if you guys know any good ones for the weapon.

I know this is a stupid question, and i know the answer is "just play spy more"

But i've been playing spy for 100 hours and ive only gotten like 3 trickstabs in mt entire life.

Im especially struggling on matadors, for i dont even know how it's supposed to work.

Tr_trickstab is kinda helping? But its still not helping with my matadors.

If anyone has mastered trickstabs, what did you do to get to where you are?

So I feel like I’m about an average player. I top leaderboards almost every pub as demo and scout, but I have trouble with handling snipers and occasionally spies. My main issue is the inability to peek any sightlines on more open maps when they have a good sniper. I know if I peek the sniper won’t miss the headshot if they’re good, and I’m locked to either finding a flank or dealing damage without peaking via spam. Flanks are covered by decent players mostly and I usually don’t have the team support to safely do it, and dealing damage with demo via spam is decent but not super effective on some maps.

Spies I get are pretty easy to deal with on paper. Problem is, looking behind me constantly when the enemy team has a few good spies feels ineffective. I constantly turn around which wastes time where I could be doing damage, and even when I do and spy check, most of the time I don’t even spot a decent spy. Although I will make a note that I don’t have much issues with spies, i would say currently most of my deaths are just from those 2 classes overall, so I could use some tips on how to better hone my awareness vs spies, and learn how to fight sniper when he has a good sightline.

I feel like I’ve improved a lot at 1v1ing and dealing with basically every other class.

I used to play a fair amount of comp matchmaking when it came out and was still playable, then moved on to Faceit afterwards. However, this was at least 6 years ago and I'm wondering what a good starting point would be? I play on UT and am an NA player. Any suggestions would help greatly, even if its just about where to start!

Via the Steam Community and SinfulParticipant949:

• Fixed an issue with Blazehattan contracts

• Fixed an issue with Outburst contracts

• Fixed an invalid Soul Gargoyle location on Mann Manor

• Fixed players not being able to select a class and spawn after watching an intro video

• Recompiled props_farm\box_cluster03.mdl to fix a problem with the material

• Updated the Dusk Duster to adjust the rigging a bit to reduce distortion

• Updated the Triboniophorus Gentlemannus

• Fixed clipping

• Updated texture to fix mipmapping

• Added jigglebone

• Added attachment for genteel smoke effect

• Updated the Clue Hairdo to fix a rim mask problem with the 'Case Open' style

• Updated the Fleet Commander

• Fixed white seams when moving camera away from character

• Improved position of Style Selection camera by deleting unused bones

• Updated the Delldozer to fix a problem with the specular map for the Re-Mastered and Re-Engineered styles

• Updated The Witch Doctor to fix a problem with the diffuse textures and normal maps

• Updated Taunt: Commending Clap to fix some issues with sounds and timing

• Updated zi_atoll, zi_blazehattan, zi_devastation_final1, zi_murky, zi_sanitarium, and zi_woods

• Reduced Zombie Engineer's EMP Grenade Cooldown from 10 seconds to 9 seconds

• Adjusted Zombie Pyro's death explosion to briefly ignite players hit by the blast

• Fixed a bug that allowed Zombie Medic to spawn infinite dispenser entities (Thanks Psychicpie!)

• Fixed Zombie Heavy's ability appearing as an active instead of a passive on the HUD (Thanks NeoDement!)

• Fixed a bug that caused Zombie Heavy's knockback effect to trigger on afterburn damage when quickly swapping from Pyro to Heavy

• Updated zi_blazehattan (additional changes)

• Fixed top roof having no collisions, causing players to 'sink in'

• Made the brick decoration near the wooden ramp slightly lower to make jumping to the top roof easier

• Removed some redundant clip brushes

• Changed the round timer from 6 minutes to 3 minutes 30 seconds

• Fixed missing textures behind the windows of the warehouse building

• Fixed rendering issue in the A Gate zombie spawn (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed several instances where players could stand on top of clip brushes and in high places (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed floodlight stuck spot near B Gate (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed troll teleporter spots (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed telephone pole collision (Thanks Midnite!)

• Added no-build triggers on top of barrel clusters at the top of the containers for consistency

• Added barrel clusters and wood debri on top of the red container with the floodlight to make it more apparent engineers can't build there, as well as to provide cover for zombies

• Various small changes

• Updated tow_dynamite

• Doubled the chances of a Jump Spell drop

• Fixed the main gates killing players when touched on the side

• Fixed the main gates killing you prematurely before they are fully closed

• Fixed HUD textures going missing on occasion (Thanks Aar)

• Fixed the rooftop fire being too strong

• Fixed multiple locations that allowed players to build out of bounds

• Fixed an overly aggressive propfade in front of spawn

• Fixed edge bugs on multiple roofs that allowed players to remain alive

• Updated vsh_outburst

• Improved performance

• Fixed menu images

• Fixed a minor visual issue

• Fixed being able to stick to the invisible walls

• Updated koth_sawmill_event

• Reduced the amount of skeletons that spawn

• Added a new pathway to the secret underworld exit

• Redid some detailing near Reds base

• Improved lighting near some shacks near mid

• Fixed clipping for a shack

• Reworked where Soul Gargoyles spawn, now favoring Mid more often

• Made some new greener water for Mids lumber place

• New spectator cams

• Updated cp_freaky_fair

• Fixed issues related to the gamemode logic

  • Fixed players being able to retain upgrades on their weapons by putting them in their loadout before the round changes and then switching back to them
  • Fixed some currency bugs related to players having upgrades pending but not accepted, and then leaving the upgrade trigger
  • Fixed players being able to retain their upgrades when switching classes inside the upgrade trigger after having refunded
  • Fixed character upgrades being occasionally set to incorrect quantities
  • Changed uber and kritz potions so they use the equivalent lakeside conditions to allow Medics to switch weapons and maintain their effects
  • Fixed players being able to put a class into a massive debt
  • Several minor fixes

• Merasmus is very talkative, so we asked him to talk a bit differently

  • Merasmus will only sometimes say something after he already talked about his financial problems during the first seconds of setup time
  • Merasmus will no longer say something that is too long to say before he needs to announce something else, he will say something different now
  • Merasmus now has more things to say
  • Merasmus will now announce overtime, stalemate and last control point being captured instead of the Administrator

• Made changes to the upgrades

  • Ghost Potion: ghost spooking radius reduced from 512 hu to 384 hu
  • Ghost Potion: ghost spooking frequency increased from 5 to 7 secs (this is a nerf)
  • Sentry Firing Speed: removed redundant 3rd level
  • Disposable sentry: Maximum amount reduced from 4 to 3
  • Crit boost on kill: Now disabled
  • Shield Recharge Rate bonus: Maximum level reduced from 4 to 2
  • Shield Recharge Rate bonus: Price increased from $150 to $250
  • Rocket Specialist: Price increased from $300 to $450
  • Rocket Specialist: Maximum level reduced from 4 to 3
  • Crit damage resistance: Resist reduced from 30% to 25% per level (this is a nerf)
  • Crit damage resistance: Maximum Resist reduced from 90% to 75% (this is a nerf)
  • Thermal Thruster impact stun: Price increased from $600 to $750
  • Explosive Headshot: Price increased from $350 to $450
  • Mad Milk and Jarate speed on target debuff: Debuff reduced from 35% to 25%
  • Mark For Death: Price reduced from $500 to $300

• Fixed several roof spots players were able to stand on (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed several teleporter stuck spots (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed floating pumpkins and planks (Thanks Midnite!)

• Fixed several spots that could be abused to spawncamp enemy team (Thanks Midnite!)

• Removed some visible dev textures (Thanks Midnite!)

• Removed stool from the arcade that was blocking the path previously

• Fixed being able to deal splash damage through metal grates

• Clipped the attic in respawn room to prevent players from getting and building there

• Clipped several beams in the lobby room

• Fixed missing wooden board near Red respawn room door

• Moved Merry-Go-Round sound source closer to make it louder

• Brightened several dark spots

• Closed the tree gap

Rumor has it:

• Size is ~130 MB

I have heard there is 6 v 6, highlander and prolander? (from the flair) and even 4 v 4?

what are the difference if these competitive formats? how are they played differently? and what are the meta's?

i am a bit interested in trying 6 v 6, but valve's official competitive matchmaking is fucked (waited 1 hour once, no match, on youtube somebody said he waited 3 hours for a match, just for someone in the opponent team to not have the right graphics card power or smth so the match is invalid)

so in overall, can someone help me understand what competitive matches are there in tf2? if there are any ways I can join a casual "competitive" match? and how does the class do/what are the jobs of each class in each competitive mode?

other than spycheck and deny ubers

i dont play highlander so sorry in advance if i sound like an idiot

ive just been thinking about what pyro does and besides uber and spy denys i really cant think of anything else

scout already denies soldier bombs and since its hl you also have a pootis to deny as well. i guess maybe pester their sniper with flares but i dont think that really does anything

maybe im thinking about it in a 6s way, but i would like to learn more about highlander, so please tell me

I've been seeing quite a lot of Medics recently running the Amputator instead of the Ubersaw. It seems like a popular pick when trying to push last when getting a saw is not practical. Like, any map's last point. Just pick a wall, position your back against it, and start taunting.

Honestly? It kinda compensates for not having a 2nd Medic until one of your teammates decided to help you. Solo uber still hurts for pushing Barnblitz last, but with your teammates not dying, the enemy team kinda can't push outside either unless they decided to go Kritz (hopefully your team have Engis/can shut them down quickly).

RGL pugs is dead for HL. TF2 center is dead. TF2pugs.com is dead.

And nothing gets organized in any of the discords (i.e RGL discord)? Where do you go to play HL pugs?

In the April 2024 update Valve said: "Should include performance improvements for most users".

So what do you think about the Source engine used in Team Fortress 2 with regards to getting good framerate and consistent frame times? Would you say the game feels smooth/no stuttering? Is TF2's Source 1 engine well optimized?

I'm a medic main with 150 hours on medic but I play a decent amount of every class. I feel like I'm pretty good at medic, most of the time I topscore and I can carry my team in pubs but I know that I'm nowhere near the elite level. I haven't played competitive so I'm wondering if there's any way to get better at medic other than by simply playing him.

I'm just wondering what specifically do high level medics do that separates them from other medics? With every other class you can see an obvious difference in skill in terms of aim, positioning, and kills but with medic I feel like the differences are a lot more subtle. Is there a way that medics train to dodge enemy attacks and survive more often? How do you know when to run vs take your chances with melee?

So after watching some comp videos to get better at some classes (especially roamer), it’s basically drilled into my brain to always go for medic kills even if you die trying, but with potentially 2 or 3 medics in a non comp team, more “teammates” to give free uber saw hits to the enemy medics, and the potential skill imbalance between your medic and the enemy medics making it hard to capitalize on uber leading, how important/game changing are med picks in casual games and is it worth suiciding for one?

poll ended results here: https://www.reddit.com/r/tf2/comments/1g3xwo8/results_for_scout_primarys_casual_vs_competitive/