Unless they changed the healing functionality recently, this is inaccurate. The +15 overlaps itself so you only see one but if you hit two different enemies with a single rocket, you'll heal 30 hp.

I'm not seeing the difference. Can you elaborate?

It isn't a joke weapon, but the consensus for soldier loadouts in serious play is "stock is king". Black Box's popularity in HL deviates from the standard primary choice so I'm just trying to get a little more insight on it.

This group just raised more questions for me. At first I thought vhalin used it for fun, then I saw the stream where he used it in a scrim "seriously", and then I found this group. Seemed to glorify Black Box usage but didn't elaborate on it. I couldn't tell if it was a joke group or not.

This seems very specific. Besides, if you're splashing four people with a single then you're probably flying headfirst into a crowd. I don't think you'll last, 60 extra hp or no. Trading an extra rocket for more health upon landing may or may not be worth it but you'll probably die pretty quickly either way.

Maybe what you just said is more practical in practice but in theory it doesn't seem to make much sense. I'm liking the general answer of "less reliance on the medic" more than this.

Yeah that's pretty much the only answer I got when I asked in the stream. To my knowledge he's the only soldier in ugc plat who seriously uses it and I'm sure every soldier has considered the utility of relying less on the medic, but most still favor the stock RL. I was thinking there was more to it; something a little more cryptic.

I watched Platinum's stream earlier tonight and caught a few scrims of his team vs -ts-. I couldn't help but notice vhalin's use of the Black Box. I recalled hearing about him using it during the summer season but I thought he was just messing around with it. Is he using it seriously? What's his reasoning for it?

I'm not sure if vhalin posts here but if somebody feels they can speak for him, feel free. Bonus points if he's posted about it on UGC's forums or something.

I don't think I can get behind this. Throw enigma on pyro, any invite player on heavy, and most invite scouts/mackey on sniper. You've already got a pretty amazing utility lineup there. The heavy and sniper might have to get used to the enemy team running a full time spy but I don't think that would be an obstacle for too long.

The utilities certainly matter but pyro/heavy/engie aren't super hard to play and amazing snipers aren't exactly uncommon in the invite scene.

Canalzone was interesting but ultimately just not enjoyable to play. I honestly liked the idea of it and maneuvering the map was fun, but as soldier all I really did was cap points. I also played a handful of lobbies as heavy on canalzone and all I did was defend the same two or three points. I'd consider those to be the two extremes: the roamers who cap and the heavier classes + medics who just defend the points that give them the most advantage. It was just a boring map to play on. Easily my least favorite map of the season.

Standin, on the contrary, was fantastic. Both teams hopping back and forth between three points made it really fast paced and dynamic without being, well, canalzone.

Obscure also gets a mention. Best 5cp map of the season. I really want to see it come back. It feels like granary except with a midpoint that's a little more suited to highlander.

Ultimately I'm happy to see the rule removed. Like I said, it exponentially increases the skill cap and that's obviously a good thing. I'm just worried about plat HL's spectator scene. If competition remains tight, then that's great. If every finals match is just invite team vs invite team then season turnouts will just be kinda predictable.

It's not that I think the rule is any good; I'm just skeptical about the implications this cap removal will have on HL as a spectator e-sport.

I'm torn on this one. The very idea of having a limit on good players is downright stupid obviously. Removing this cap will definitely make the HL scene so much more interesting to follow since the skill cap will raise exponentially, but without it, I'm worried about a team full of invite level players downright rolling all over every team they play against. If a team has 9 invite players they could probably scrim once a week and still roll over half of the teams in platinum. The best solution I can think of is a new league that's a step above platinum and the invite players can form full teams and play against each other there.

Or maybe the challenge of beating a juggernaut team full of invite players will actually fuel the platinum scene further and makes things even more interesting to follow/spectate. Can't exactly predict the future. This is just how I'm looking at things.

#9: There's nothing wrong with stacking good players in a competitive environment but UGC HL isn't exactly played for huge cash prizes and you need to think about HL as a spectator sport. It may not be as interesting to follow the platinum scene (currently the only HL league worth following imo) if there's one supercharged team that's just eating the entire league's lineup alive.

When should a pocket soldier get aggressive and jump in? When his med goes down? When the enemy's is alone? Any info you can give on this would be appreciated. I'm a really aggressive soldier but I'll be playing pocket for 6s team so I need to cool my jumps a little. I'd just like to know if it's ever right to jump and, if so, when to do it.

I caught the last 30 minutes or so of your stream earlier today btw. I didn't hesitate to start following. I really appreciate any invite player who streams. Hearing comms is invaluable. Another question though: might I suggest playing some music?

#203: Not sure if you've already gotten a link or not, but here's platinum's stream. He's already got two vods!

http://www.twitch.tv/platinumtf2