What Defines a "Pro" Player?

[flyingdutchman]

I don't think I can define what good/pro is on this game, but I know it when I get killed by it.

This has been my experience. When I set-up and think "i'm in the perfect spot" or "I think I can do something with this situation" and the guy that I'm facing somehow STILL kills me and I say to myself "how the frack did he just do that", I know that guy is on top of it. I had a few sniper battles with IMP-6 today where that happened. Pwnster had my number the other day. Then I switch to soldier and get wiped.

Some of you guys have had threads where you talk about how you feel that you are playing like garbage. I check your stats. You are doing better than I am most times, haha. That being said, I don't mind getting killed to turn around and get a good kill myself. I try to get involved in the match and watch some of these guys who are killing me over and over and over. I've played mostly soldier and have learned a lot from Gizanked and black_and_blue, just watching. I've tried to pick up some medic clues here and there. I've gotten to be ok sniping at times, and that has just come from playing some maps over and over. I read the sniper guide and it says roughly the same thing. Know the maps. From there I've tried to anticipate where guys will poke their knobby heads out from and try to hit 'em. I love that squishy sound when an arrow hits. I love when I pin a guy to the wall. Just getting on and runnign around for a bit is nice. I hope to improve with each round, but I'm not killing myself over it.

Rule No. 1, have fun.

[Nook^3]

"Pro" player to me is someone who sees a medic and realizes, hey, that guy is important to us winning! I should keep him alive and stay near him during pushes! Those people are the best players in the game.

[Earthworm James]

"Pro" player to me is someone who sees a medic and realizes, hey, that guy is important to us winning! I should keep him alive and stay near him during pushes! Those people are the best players in the game.

Haha, I like your perspective! So true and I am guilty of sticky jumping away from medics who are near uber charged. I die, of course, and they're left with nobody to uber or protect them. Sorry in advance!!!

[Parade Kid]

Bah! And here I was adopting a "kill all medics" playstyle

[Super Hero Dan]

Teamwork is the key, but not just understanding that you need to stay with your team. I think its important to be able to view the game as constantly shifting and be able to identify patterns. If you can feel the ebb and flow of a match you can know when to push and when to retreat. That is the key to being good in my opinion.

and also, of course, you must know where to stand =)

[Ignatius]

Over on 8 there's a pretty good crop of snipers to test yourself against.

I didn't realize how good the snipers were on TV8 until I started sniping on some other servers. Only playing on 8 was making me think anyone could pick up a rifle and snipe these days. I'm glad that still is not the case.

Everyone has a scope in their heart, you just have to find it.

[KILAAK SUB-KOMMANDER]

ONLEE KILAAKS HUV SOOPEERIOR SKILZ AND TEEMWURK AND PYOONY HOOMANZ KANOT DEEFEET KILAAK NAYSHUN

[Peahats]

ONLEE KILAAKS HUV SOOPEERIOR SKILZ AND TEEMWURK AND PYOONY HOOMANZ KANOT DEEFEET KILAAK NAYSHUN

Oh god they're spreading. We need to stop them!

[Larry]

Challenge them to a dual!

[One_Medic_Army]

I think I've realized: a pro isn't just someone who can play their class well, they're someone who can play their class well in complement of their team.
It's the demo who can see the push is faltering, and take the opportunity to jump to the enemy porters and disable them. It's the scout who can bonk in at just the right moment to give someone else the chance to kill a sentry gun. It's the soldier who pops rockets at an uber's feet to slow them down and give the rest of the team a chance.
It's doing things that require skill, but at the right time and place to benefit your entire team the most.

[Earthworm James]

I think I've realized: a pro isn't just someone who can play their class well, they're someone who can play their class well in complement of their team.
It's the demo who can see the push is faltering, and take the opportunity to jump to the enemy porters and disable them. It's the scout who can bonk in at just the right moment to give someone else the chance to kill a sentry gun. It's the soldier who pops rockets at an uber's feet to slow them down and give the rest of the team a chance.
It's doing things that require skill, but at the right time and place to benefit your entire team the most.

YES! One of my favorite sayings with my friends is, "Teamwork is better than cheating!". So true. The great thing about TF2 is that there are so many things you can do for your team that require skill. As a demoman, I can sequentially lay sticky bombs to bump around ubers, tho sometimes it backfires and they get launched forward....can that be called a backfire? it's much more like a forwardfire of doom & fiery death.

[Fano]

After watching the ESEA LAN finals this weekend Mackey is my new favorite player, man this guy is just amazing, truly a pro if there ever were one.

[One_Medic_Army]

Obviously those guys aren't paranoid enough

[Thorn]

I actually have played TF2 in ESEA for 4 seasons.I don't consider myself a pro by any stretch of the imagination. I do consider myself a competitive player at times, but that is not the only reason I play, or the only way for me to have fun.

I don't think "fun" is really a good metric to categorize different player types. I feel that all types of players can have fun doing what they do and play for different reasons. Goofing around, socializing, improving, trying new things, figuring out the best strat/tactic, and winning are all great reasons to play, and all of them can result in "fun" which will occur at varying degrees for different people in different moods.

I think really understanding how the game works, and being able to come up with the best response which results in the best outcome for your team is probably the hardest thing to develop, but also a sign of a really good player. Jesusfaction called it "situational awareness". I will have to go 1 step further and say its not enough to just be aware, but that you also need to know the optimal response in any given situation, and you need to be able to do this completely unconsciously (you don't have time to think about it during gameplay).

Following guides and tips on doing x, y, and z will get you a very surface level understanding of the game.They will definitely give you a good start on understanding the game, but that will only tell you WHAT to do, and not WHY. Without really understanding WHY, I don't think it is really possible to ever truly develop "game sense" or "situational awareness".

[Bishop1342]

If you want to see what "PRO" TF2 looks like, just go to VanillaTF2.org

It is really the hub of pro TF2. It is focused on European TF2, and that is because they are just better over there. The LAN series that was posted earlier in this video was all European players. Some of the videos over at VanillaTF2 are insane, and I highly suggest watching some of the insight series for perspective on playing a specific class.

For those of you that don't want to go looking for the videos, I will link to one of the best. This is Mike from Team Infused. He is 16 and maybe the best roaming soldier playing TF2 right now.

That is what I consider to be a "pro" player.

Bishop