4812622If you walk around a corner into a phlog Pyro after he spent ten years farming 221 damage with Detonator, that's not the Pyro getting lucky, that's you making a huge mistake despite very ample warning. There was no luck involved. You just fucked up.
Building Phlog with Detonator is not free, it takes a very long time and you're stuck on a shitty loadout on a shitty class until you get Phlog. There's no way for you to contest Soldiers or Demos who can juggle you into infinity, and there's no way to kill anything that has a working S key. In addition it gets hard countered by Heavy, especially Natascha, as well as Engineer and even Manmelter Pyro.
There is a large opportunity cost to playing Pyro instead of Scout or Soldier. There is a large opportunity cost to playing Phlog Pyro to crack a stalemate instead of Battalion's Backup Soldier, or Engineer, or Heavy, or Sniper. There is a large opportunity cost to playing Phlog Pyro instead of regular Pyro. If that Phlog Pyro correctly analyzed that your team would most likely not be able to counter a joke weapon on a joke class without the element of surprise, and has the balls to actually try it, that is skill.
I said the weapon is underpowered overall no need to repeat that in your response. But the few kills that he might get are not deserved. And no, walking past a corner only to have a crit pyro in your face is not a misplay, you can't possibly stay away from all corners just because an idiot who plays phlog was spamming with the detonator.