This is probably a sort of alpha test for the match cfgs themselves, seeing that everything works on that end. The actual matchmaking will certainly take more work to test, maybe they'll bring more people in for a small closed beta or just release MM as a beta to everyone and work from there (more likely given Valve's usual posture on these things)

Probably because even the heavy mains don't care about heavy. From my experience there actually are many pyro mains who like the class for what it is. It's simple but fun. Even the most hardcore sixes gamer here can admit some things about pyro are flashy, like getting reflect airshots, long range flares, crit flares on pyros etc. and as clockwork mentioned the class is very attractive to new players because of how simple it is to get started with it, and those little flashy things can motivate someone to keep playing it even after they get better at the game overall, along with there always being a place for one of us in highlander.

Heavy doesn't really have those moments and is a class whose skill is hidden under the hood, gamesense, positioning, and that little bit of tracking that don't translate very well into a frag video. While I know a few heavy mains who are passionate about the class, I think the vast majority of them do it because they happen to be good at it, and a good amount of them only really play heavy with their HL teams, switching to other classes when they want to have fun. I know pyros who have thousands of hours on pyro alone, I myself have a thousand and that's even after I started enjoying less pyro and more scout. You don't get that just playing competitive.

I'm not saying this is fair for the heavy class and I would like those nerfs to be reverted and some more thought put into it to make it more fun and yes, "flashy", but it's a reality of life and tf2 in particular that those who argue ("whine") more get more attention. The first sticky nerf was so widely hated that it got reverted, for good reason, but while there was some outcry about the minigun situation it clearly wasn't enough to reach Valve's not very well-functioning ears, and I think the good HL heavies just kinda thought to themselves "oh well, I'll play more passive or take more heals and get on with my life, the enemy heavy got nerfed too". Now people are complaining pretty heavily about pyro because a lot of people aren't happy with having the combo playstyle nerfed in favour of being forced to use the flamethrower more, but I think "butthurt pyro mains" should realize the changes are actually a buff overall, and people who are concerned about the class's lack of depth will still put their arguments forward, hopefully in a more civil manner. And people who main heavy or engineer should do the same. Those two classes are really getting the short end of the stick right now and they deserve some love too.

Of course you can argue that it would take too much to revamp all the "HL classes" into viable and fun competitive classes, and you're probably right. I can't think of good ideas for heavy, think engie is pretty good as it is already but it's stuffed in sixes by the lack of mobility, and I love the pyro LG idea but even that is probably too drastic for Valve to actually do it. They might add rampups on stickies and miniguns but they won't actually change the very mechanism of the weapons.

Losing froyotech and epsilon within a couple of days is surreal to say the least.

To be honest you shouldn't expect either of those weapons to affect highlander that much, if at all. I personally consider the Pomson terrible and not worth using: if you're running level 3 sentries you'll want the rescue ranger, and if you're on offence with minis literally any of the shotguns is more useful. I won't trade half of my DPS for a gimmicky uber removal device. The short circuit... yeah, it could see some uses, but only with minis. I don't really see the point in running level 3 without a wrangler.

I understand why the weapons are banned but if they are allowed in 9v9 matchmaking I doubt they'll make a big difference to the game. Besides I don't think matchmaking is something to be taken very seriously... you have ETF2L and UGC for that. Honestly when/if MM comes out I'll grind it for long enough to achieve a high rank (assuming there are ranks) as my favourite class and leave it at that.

I mained medic for a long time in pubs and low level highlander because honestly, TF2 was my first shooter and I couldn't aim any gun in the game apart from the healing gun when I started. For a while I kind of enjoyed it, but I started hating medic pretty quickly - I didn't like being entirely dependent on the team to get anything done.

Pyro was kind of an accident. My best friend was a really good pyro at the time and taught me how stuff works and I just got sucked in. At this point I've buried almost 700 hours in the old fire guy and I still get all giddy when I get reflects. It's not a very skilful class but there's a lot of subtle things about it that most people don't realize are crucial, making the difference between a pyro that just stands there spychecking and one that truly helps his team with whatever is needed.

I'm trying to get better at other classes and dwell into sixes a bit but I think I'm a pyro main for life, sorry to say :O

Really like the new eureka effect and hope engies find creative ways of using it. Good to know that they're aware of the pyro self-reflect issue, too bad they haven't fixed reflected pipes and sentry rockets yet. Hopefully that will come in soon. Looking forward to new weapons! It's been so long.

heh

it's okay, I think snipers are literally sons of Satan

ah yeah. but that's one weapon that I doubt anyone will ever use in a match except for trolling purposes.

personal opinion is that the phlog might give rise to some ridiculous plays if used sparingly when the other team doesn't expect it, but if used full time the enemy team will react to and counter it by focusing the pyro. Airblast is still a very valuable tool to give up for something that might or might not work. And yeah, it's a pretty stupid weapon, but I look forward to trying it. Competitive pyro, and pyro in general hasn't had anything new to play with in a very long time (the last unlock to come out was the scorch shot in the meet the pyro update, almost two years ago!) so I'm thirsty for change.

but UGC updated their whitelist. http://ugcleague.com/files_tf2h.cfm

The Phlog got unbanned. Also the baby face's blaster is banned, pretty sure it wasn't before.
But yeah, the phlog is whitelisted. Who'da thunk it.

it's an inside joke with my team's spy and the etf2l forums. thank you ^^

I actually changed my stream channel to twitch.tv/4hp_, is it possible to add that one and remove the old one please?

I'm also going to play platinum again with my own team, Street Bench eSports.

Well one thing is to say "dang she got fat" to your boys, a completely different one is to show her picture to 300+ people watching on the internet while saying "dang she got fat". But I think that was just the last drop, so to say - getting cut from his team and repeatedly getting called trash and washed up by a lot of people including some of the best players out there kind of takes a toll on a guy. If I were him I probably wouldn't feel like streaming either (edit: or playing comp TF2 at all). But eh, too bad. I don't know him as a person but his stream was pretty good

okay I double checked identity this time. Thank you very much! Adding... :P

ok I got trolled. fine job sir