Team Fortress 2 Article!

Hello everybody :) (all like 3 of you :P hehe) i was recently asked to do an article for www.botc.co.za. Basically they are responsible for many of the online gaming competitions that run here in South Africa. At the momet there is a Team Fortress 2 Competition running and they asked if i could just write an article based on my experiences in TF2. This is what i had to say :)

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The team crowds around the door, anxiously waiting for it to open. The Engineers are frantically setting up a quick defense to stop any enemies from encroaching on the spawn area. The Medics are busy healing up their Heavy's or Soldiers, charging their uber charge. "Mission begins in ten seconds" the announcer states clearly. 5-4-3-2-1!!! "WOOHOO!!!" yells the scouts as they sprint ahead of the others, to reach the first control point. The spies put their disuises on and cloak, ready to infiltrate the enemies base. Pyro's, Medics, Soldiers, Heavy's, Demomen, Engeneers, and Snipers follow closely behind. This is a battle to win. This is Team Fortress 2!

Their are several gameplay modes in Team Fortress 2. All of that aside though the main emphasis is to play as a team. There is no way you can be successful alone in this game. Sure you may be skilled enough to kill many enemies in one life, but that sure won't help you win the round. The fact that there are 9 classes to choose from also adds huge variety to the game. With many endless combinations a team can have, having the right balance is easy enough to work on, but insanely difficult to master.

Recently The first ever TF2 Botc was launched. It is excting for this community as it is a chance to see who deserves top honours, and it will also allow the game to grow in this country. The are many other competetive games out there (Call of Duty and Counter Strike being examples) but nobody can deny that Team Fortress is unique in so many ways. In a TF2 competition, every team has six players. With 9 classes to choose from its crucial to know what players in your team excel at what class. Certain combinatons of classes work better on certain maps then others. A good team will always excel if obviously, they know how to play as a team. Going Commando (urm... Rambo) in this game can only get you so far. 

I will never forget playing Team Fortress for the first time, me being a Counter Strke player at the time. On a Counter Strike FFS server you can generally do your own thing if you wish. So i was quite surprised to find myself not doing that great on my first play of TF2. All these classes, so many players, where do i go? How do i win? It came with a few rounds of play, learning which classes are best to use in certain situations or scenarios. After getting the basics, you realise just how fun it can be. Communicating with your team, Frantically running around that control point to cap it while you wait for reinforcements. Getting that teleporter up so that your team can move up faster to the "Mini base" you have built consisting of a sentry gun and dispenser. Healing as many people as you can as a Medic, building up so you can deploy that Ubercharge. Flanking the enemy team as a pyro so you can cause confusion and take some out enemies while you are at it. Every role you play in TF2 has its purpose. Depending on how well you do your job can ensure whether your team gets to hear that crazy announcer lady say "SUCCESS!!!" or have her disapprovingly say "YOU FAIL"

For those of you who do not have TF2, consider getting it. It takes some getting used to, but its great fun to play casually with other players, or seriously with a team. For those that do have it, but you missed the chance to enter BOTC, watch how the other teams progress, and learn from them. You could be part of the Team Fortress BOTC version 2 in the future :)

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I dont know if they will be happy with it :) but will see!!! I dont even know if im happy with it :P oh well :)