I dont think you can compare TF2 to football. People who watch esports have wildly different motivations for watching than people who watch football.

People bring up the stale meta of tf2 as a problem because they are looking towards actual successful, modern-day esports. Specifically, league of legends and dota. Even CS has a lot of variation. Valve has recently started adding a bunch of new maps and balance changes, while the CS scene has been mysteriously exploding.

Maybe at some point people will obsess over esports and esports teams the way people care about real life sports, but we are not there yet, and TF2 isnt going to take us there.

Isnt the goal to make competitive tf2 as close to pubs as possiblle? How does arena: respawn achieve this?

I hate to be the doubter here, but im pretty sure competitive tf2 starts and ends with Valve. I like arena respawn and the changes it brought in, but its not gonna be relevant until valve gets involved with it.

Then again you can just play Dota where every hero is free always.

What makes reflex so much different thank quake? Is it just the stake jumping?

Pipes require a direct hit, where stickies and rockets can hit with splash damage. Its not the same.

Its been like that forever.

Well that sucks. Not many people were calling demo easy. The complaints were about him being op.

For those of us that don't have our computers over the holiday break, what's it like playing with the new sticky launcher? Do you feel weaker as demo (no theorycrafterino pls)?

New highlander server selection strats incoming.

Pretty sure the grappling hook was implemented specifically because you guys never choose to use the slow classes. Their "balancing mechanic" was overkill.

CTF sounds like their way of making sure the idiot classes are relevant. Sorry if I sound cynical, but this is the typical tf2 team response: fix the symptoms, not the core issue.

That being said, the new demo changes look extremely interesting. First time I've been seriously excited to play tf2 in a long while.

Do you guys think this is true?

New maps definitely bring in new strategy, but would you say players come up with new strategies the rest of the time?

Oh sorry. Yeah you're right. I can think of a number of very simple solutions to that problem, but any one one of them will modify the game, which is what we want to stay away from.

Its up to valve to create the system for unlocks that prevents teams from constantly trying to surprise the other team. But valve doesnt seem to want to make anything gameplay related for tf2 anymore.

Aui2000 recently said techies makes Dota a worse game. You hear pros complaining about new heroes (or old ones, honestly) literally all the time. Its not something specific to tf2. But not a single Dota player would say the game isn't better for the greater strategic and tactical options afforded by all the very different heroes.

I haven't watched the games yet, but the soldiers were still using the direct hit? That unlock isn't even good in HL.

Are the players trying to win or what?

Id hate to see this be the last "Valve's Game". Especially if one unlock proves to be pretty good and dominate the game. Part of the fun is seeing players counter and play around the unlocks, as well as them being abused.

Im extremely excited for this.