That's a cool resource but it's slightly different to tactics.tf in as much as you can't place markers on it so if you wanted to show your team where to stand on an E defence then this wouldn't be much good to you

The issue I can see with cp_steel is that it's got so many narrow corridors that are all really important that it's nearly impossible to get one screenshot of say, the E point which could show all the areas. Even a birdseye view of the E point wouldn't quite suffice because it doesn't show the C-E connector area down the stairs, the area outside of the RED spawn door (which is enclosed) or either of the sniper nests.

I think you would need maybe 2-3 screenshots for the more complex/enclosed points and maybe only 1-2 for easier points like B which would probably be doable with 1 screenshot thinking about it.

I'm not around for most of the day or evening today but I'll have a crack at it tomorrow if you like, hit me up on steam and we can talk some more :)

EDIT: I got bored - here's my attempt at cp_steel, no doubt some of these will be utterly useless/shite but hopefully you'll like some of them. The later ones in the list are better because these are listed in reverse chronological order and the later screenshots are niche pictures of little nooks and crannies like the RED spawn exit to B or the C-D connector, hope you like some of them!

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518198185
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518198152
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518198109
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518198040
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518198019
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518198003
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197984
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197965
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197951
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197928
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197904
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197883
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197873
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197848
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197833
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197821
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197807
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197790
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197770
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197753
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197737
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197717
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197707
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197691
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197669
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197651
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197632
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197608
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197591
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197566
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197543
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197531
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197514
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197504
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=518197490

Just wanted to say that I think this is a really great initiative and as soon as my team recruit a pocket soldier I'll be pushing for us to get involved. We actually tried to join one but half our team couldn't make it :(

Don't let the poor attendance put you off our scene, the TF2 community at large takes a bit of time to warm to new ideas - as good as they may be.

I'm happy to volunteer for taking screenshots, I run TF2 on high graphics and in 1080p but I'm not exactly super experienced in HL so maybe it'd be better if someone else did it? If not though I'll happily do it.

I think it would be useful to change it so it shows the current state because if I were leading a team I might use some free time to draw up some stuff in advance of a map talk. It's a minor thing really now I know how it works but it would just improve the quality of life for the user in general. Keep up the great work! :)

Excellent project and I really like the idea. Unfortunately it doesn't work :(

I just tried sharing a picture using the URL link provided with a friend and neither he nor I could share our respective pictures with each other even if we saved the image and then re-opened it. The page loads but it's just a blank white screen. Looking forward to it being fixed :)

I'd be really interested to see how the best Asian teams stack up against the Europeans, Americans and Aussies.

I'm just watching the VOD right now and I really like that asiafortress are making casts and I'd like to see more. I thought I'd give some constructive criticism for the cast.

1. Your casters sound a bit bored sometimes, they need to get excited! The casters are there to hype up the game and make it more interesting as well as tell you what's going on and imparting their knowledge of the game. They perked up a bit sometimes but they can do more. If there's not much happening or there's a pause then talk about what's happened already. In pauses especially try and analyse the situation and talk about what could happen next etc.

Actually having watched it a bit more the casters get better with time, maybe they just need to warm up a bit?

2. During the pre-game the casters were far too quiet, the pre-game time is actually really important and for the first few mins the casters were barely talking. Talk about the teams and their history a bit more. This is especially important for asiafortress as many of us outside of asia are unfamiliar with these players.

In general some casters to follow the example of include: Gecks, Sideshow, Admirable and Sigafoo

3. Your casters don't talk over each other much which is great but generally it's nice to have either:

a) A caster who deals with each event as it happens (Play by Play caster) and a caster who is the analyst who goes over what happened and why in the dead time in between events.

b) 2 casters who take it in turn to swap roles. This is not as common as a) but it works, maincall.tf used to do it to great effect and it's kinda what Arx & Beta do too but it's tricky to pull off and requires your casters to really know each other

3. The match overlay is ok but I'd make the health and name bars a bit bigger and move that down to the center of the left hand side instead of having it up in the top left. It's important information to have on the screen and I found it was a bit hard to read sometimes. I personally think TFTV's overlay has it all. It's bigger, in a better place and it also has separate bars for ubercharge which are really useful for keeping track of who has the advantage.

4. The cameraman needs to follow individual's PoV's more rather than showing a top down view. TF2 is not an easy game to follow for a viewer as there is a lot going on so it's very important the cameraman tries to catch the "highlights" of the game. Davidthewin is a great example of this especially during the i55 coverage. I don't know exactly how this is done but I know that using live logs really helps as it shows you what's happening before you see it happen on the STV due to the delay. Also as was covered by your casters, Turn your steam notification sounds off! I think I also saw your cameraman's cursor floating around on the screen during one of the granary mid fights ;)

5. The Scoreboard isn't important, don't show it during the game.

6. I personally don't like the pre-game overlay with the border. It makes the important information small. Don't be scared covering up the screen during the pre-game dm fest, it's not important and most casters actually switch away from the STV for the majority of it. Again TFTV is a great example of how an overlay could be done, especially important imo is having the scores for all the maps in the corner somewhere.

7. If there's nothing to say then go to a break. It's better to listen to music than listen to your poor casters struggling to find something to say. They end up talking about the cosmetics of the players before sunshine the poor souls.

Having said all of that, it's a promising start and I'd like to see these casts continue. Regards from the UK!

In europe we're about to have our first primarily highlander LAN. It was funded partly by community contributions and partly from a sponsorship by a TF2 website.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/deutschlan-tf2-fundraiser#/story

I totally get where you're coming from. I still remember my first experience of comp many years ago playing medic with my entire team blaming me for everything - that wasn't fun.

But please don't give up. Instead if you really wanna improve I'd recommend you do the following:

- Keep playing TF2Center, listen to those who are giving you constructive criticism and ignore the people who are being rude (local mute them on mumble by right clicking their name if you have to). The first few times I played TF2C I was nervous but after a few lobbies you realise that TF2C is just practice. Therefore whatever you mess up on, it doesn't matter as long as you learn from your mistakes.

- As others have said, newbie mixes is great and you should go to them: https://steamcommunity.com/groups/na6v6newbiemix

- Install P-REC (guide: http://etf2l.org/p-rec/) and perhaps find someone who is willing to mentor you by watching your demos with you and telling you what you're doing wrong but also what you're doing right (these are equally important to know). I don't know much about the NA scene but I would imagine someone on TFTV would be willing to mentor you if you post a thread.

- Read guides to competitive 6v6 and scout + watch PoVs of invite scouts to see what they're doing. Scout is mostly aim but you also need to know when to attack, when to get out, when to get behind etc. Again I'm not sure where NAs can get PoVs being European but I'm sure someone would be able to help you.

- MGE and DM servers are great for improving your aim. There are literally 100s of MGE servers but it doesn't matter too much which one you use as long as the server is ok and your ping isn't too high. Make sure you play against other scouts and soldiers as these are the classes you'll be dueling in matches most of the time.

- Once you are more confident, find a UGC team. Ultimately lobbies and mixes and scrims and whatever are good but to truely learn the game and get better, there is no substitute for playing in a team and having proper organisation and communication.

Hopefully that helps you out if you have any questions then please don't hesitate to ask, most people on here don't bite (much).

I wish I could help with this project, it's a great idea. Being the mid medic scrub that I am, I'm looking forward to anything but especially a guide to advanced medic play. Good luck :)

For those of you who would like to help us please read the following:

For those of you who are programmers:
At the moment, the developers have asked me not to recruit any developers internally. This is because the initial base program needs to be written by a core team of contributors to build up the structure of the code and make it easily extendable. However if you want to contribute as a developer you can always write something and send us a Github pull request for review. If the changes are good we’ll merge them! Just make sure to contact Nonagon (https://steamcommunity.com/id/nonagono/, backend) or Schalla (https://steamcommunity.com/id/daschalla/, frontend) if you want to start working on a bigger feature to make sure your code matches the project’s structure.

For those of you who are graphic designers:
If you’re handy with the more artistic side of things then we are looking for more graphic designers to help out with designing the rest of the site! This doesn’t only mean images or web design, but videos as well. If you're interested contact Capu (http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198044857348/) or R.E.M.(http://steamcommunity.com/id/atomicasby/)

For those of you who are interested in administration:
We have a group of people to discuss rules lists, site policies and other documentation. Joining this group would not automatically give you admin rights once the site is up and running but we will select people from this group who we trust and who do good work for the site. Administration is kinda full at the moment but if you wanna join, speak to Rand (http://steamcommunity.com/profiles/76561198043745557/) or R.E.M. (http://steamcommunity.com/id/atomicasby/)

If you wanna help spread the word of this site then the best thing you can do is tell your friends. Feedback, suggestions and constructive comments are also always welcome.

This is such a cool idea. Awesome stuff :)

Hello everyone, so glad to be working on this project, we have some really talented people from across the TF2 community and I'm excited to see what the finished product looks like.

We understand the importance of having a smooth running site. We have a dedicated dev-ops team waiting to run & maintain the site once it goes up. All of the people involved in our project, regardless of their role, are skilled and experienced and many of them have a previous history working on other sites related to the TF2 competitive community.

If anyone is desperate and needs to find a last min EU medic for the tournament then hit me up:

Steam: http://steamcommunity.com/id/atomicasby/
ETF2L: http://etf2l.org/forum/user/93248/
UGC: http://www.ugcleague.com/players_page.cfm?player_id=76561198016790006

Approximate skill level: ~mid/high

EDIT: Nevermind I just realised I'm too late D:

Hey, you probably know about this already but logs.tf has been down for at least an hour due to a 500 HTTP error (Internal server error). Just thought I'd let you know in case you hadn't spotted it already. The fact that everyone is moaning about logs.tf being down just shows how much of an asset to the community it is. Keep up the good work! :)