seagull using the original

the sigafoo save. it inspired uncledane to main engineer and since then we have become more knowledged on tf2 and the engineer then ever berfore

dd5f started the shovel shitfest

vhalin's usage of black box and his annoying playstyle as a roaming soldier

carnage for the more aggressive Scout playstyle

in my mind, ryb was one of the first demos to really prioritize rollouts as an important skill, could be wrong on that though

trying to remember the first team to run double gunboats soldier, that would've been big too (was it seagull and zbryan? not sure)

and I think b4nny and kaidus were pretty influential in getting 6s players to take jump maps seriously

maybe I'm giving too much credit to the super notable names here but that's what comes to mind first

dingo definitely put the loch n load on a lot of peoples radar and popularized the use of it as an actual viable sidegrade
also the b4nny bind was insanely game changing on all fronts

muuki flex class

ruwin in HL first showed the benefit of just tanking heals on the scout class, I think also in 6s as well but I'm less confident on that front

taggerung and kermit (na) taught me that k/d and refresh rate are just numbers :)

I always remembered it being lansky as the first one to use gunboats as pocket but i could be wrong

I believe this was mihaly’s flow, who also pioneered the renowned “double scout uber” among other things

iirc botmode was reviewing the top 100 NA players tftv and stated that ruwin was considered the first “pocket” scout, playing similarly to modern scouts in todays meta even without the medic move speed passive on heal target that was added WAY after he stopped playing. It was fairly impressive considering shotgun sollys were considered the carry class back then (or so I’ve been told) and which led to harbelu (playing pocket solly at the time) run gunboats.

Also my take for players/teams that influenced the community that weren’t froyo I’d say ruwin and the other classic mixup guys would definitely be up there like enigma making tftv, TLR marking the stereotype of buff soldier players, seagull and his methods of roamer, etc.

Kaidus on the "I bomb in and nuke" demo playstyle

mihaly's flow and pyyyour in particular were very ahead of their time - the iron man gpit defense was lit

I always thought that tri was the first top pocket to run gunboats but I guess I was wrong

x6's success as a team was a big departure from what kinds of players/teams were winning and dominating in invite

from my perspective as a scout player vhalin was really influencial and essentially created a strong scout playstyle whose impact was way outsized compared to the player's dm

harb came up with the viaduct cliff hold during an esea lan (maybe grand finals too) and that caught on and became popular for the rest of the time i played tf2

mackey inventing the "reverse pick"

dingo might have been the first to really use it frequently in invite but in my mind hedgehog hero is the main one responsible for NA loch usage being where its at today

not sure about most influential but skye vaccinator last holds and jarret/habib booties to mid was pretty game changing

to me muma is the booties guy and it also got nerfed to the point it didnt change the game at all

also wasnt tri an early gunboats pocket pioneer? iirc s13-14 was when it started trending in NA but then the seasons after that the sub-lansky pockets all happened to be heavy shotgun-style players

also enigma will always be the most under-mentioned player on threads like these imo

grapejuice

mangachu was doing meme spoon shit way back in the day i feel like before dd5f, also known for hiding in corners/wacky plays (Pete known for corners too lol sneaky pete)

ima give it up to indust for being the first med to be widely known for having sick mechanics, seeing him play def inspired me and im sure plenty of other ppl to actually practice mge and jump maps/surfs and shit to get better at med

not really influential cuz nobody else does it but u could say that sigh running shotgun pocket in current era is 'pioneering' to some extent just in that its totally different from what everyone else does

feel like the real test is empirically how often people mention their names, like when people say things like a "banny scout", "sandblast uber", "ma3la bomb" (metalworks), "lolguy milk", "that was some clockwork shit", etc. it at least means they have a well known / distinct playstyle, or some really important clutch plays that everyone remembers (e.g., harbleu snakewater clutch)

highfive for ctapping

jay's spoon in modern era with a well established meta was very influential imo, not about the spoon itself, more about the way he 'reinvented' and reminded people how insanely viable it can be

botmode for having such an extensive archive of crosshairs

Back off he’s mine

m4risa was definitely an early adapter of cheating and not getting banned by incompetent admins

Miperton(to me) game wise probably Jay or Soapy honestly

putting mip on the list of most pioneering tf2 players is your magnum opus