It is pretty much never, ever done in a competitive setting, mostly because its difficult. Yet when i think about it, the defender does have high ground plus a great vantage point to attack from and fall back into, the AC connector. The huts right outside the spawn area are at an angle heavily favouring the defense.

Im thinking combine 2 soldiers, demo, medic, sniper and engi all defending A and you have a decent defense.

The above is assuming the enemy pushes into A initially. If you gave the attacking team B without much contest, A would probably be easier to defend with the attack coming from either 1. the AB connector which is easily spammed/choked/trapped or 2. Through C which is not as easy to defend as through connector but still there is only one direct route.

discuss? also, Im not looking for responses saying "B is still easier to defend", regardless, the games outcome cant always be predictable so I am looking for logical lineups/strats to defend point A.

Way back in the $1000 CEVO tournament (I think it was that tournament...maybe it was Season 1), my team rolled an engineer, a demo, and a sniper on point A from the start.

The engi was at this beast spot near the point itself - in the direction of the outer fence, away from the side the attacking team comes from. The demo would sticky the spawn doors and then would fall back to defend the SG and the sniper would sit in the A-C connector to fall back to B if he got pushed or if B was attacked first. Most of the time the other team would all go A and the engi / demo could hold them off for a while. The strat's goal was to waste time, not to hold the point indefinitely.

I think it can work but most good teams can blow right through it. They can then trap the demo and the player who was playing engi in the spawn. Competitive TF2 has changed a lot since then...

As Graham said, Gravelpit (especially A) is all about wasting as much of the enemy's time as possible.

CreeD, I think you're underestimating the power of a scout. They can stay on top of the huts constantly harassing and get out pretty quickly if need be.

Using the pro jump, you can get any class (even heavy) up to the A spawn tunnel.
Kritz + demo used to work magic there, but now teams are getting wise.

A few months back my team scrimmed against a team that put all 6 players at A. They had medic, heavy, engie, solly, demo, sniper.

The sentry covered the point, around where you described, Graham. The heavy and medic waited near the healthpack. The soldier and demo spammed just enough to force us out of the side paths and into the middle where we had no height advantage and the sniper and heavy cut us down. We countered this with a sniper of our own who got some lucky picks. Still, we were low/mid (if that) so everything was sloppy.

I'm wondering what you can do with a spy at A. You can either use cloak and dagger and use the pro jump, then shank the medic or you can do some really cheeky stuff with the dead ringer: Jump on A as they cap, get one of the nearby ammo boxes, jump back on, etc. That would probably only gain you four or five seconds, unfortunately. (What can I say. I play TF2 for the lulz, even competitively) :-)

The biggest problem with defending A is that getting back to it after respawning on defense takes way longer than getting back to B. And since there is only one reasonable way into A from C which has a small choke a demo can easily hold off any attempts to reinforce A with freshly spawned players.

Gravelpit is one of the few maps my team has won competitively and that came from defending B. Holding A works good in the pub but I have yet to see it work in 6v6...maybe back in the day but not anymore. It might be feasible to send an engi and sniper or demo to A with the rest at B just to waste time on the clock, but I'm not to sure about that either. We're getting into "who has the better time" scenario there.

If I was defend A I would have the sentry on the rock (as it typically is when teams are running double engineer). The demoman's main goal would be to protect that gun from A's spawn area. At the beginning he'd sticky both sides, and pop when necessary. He's pretty much protected from scouts etc by the gun, so he just needs to get rid of things from the 2 sides before they get the gun. His left side is really easy to cover, because although the gun can be spammed from there if they peek enough, it leaves the other team really exposed. The right is harder because players can survive if they edge it then go around the house.
I'd have a sniper on the right side.. He'd be able to nag people who go connectors as well as attempt to get finish people off hurt from the sentry on the right side.
The combo would be on the left side. They'd be near the A-C connector and also spam the left side if enemies try and peek the sentry. They'd be at the A-C connector in case the opposing team tries to go through there to easily spam the gun. Also can assist with the B-A connector if the sniper can't get the picks on those people.

You really would have to play further up at A to effectively hold the point. I think this strategy could work, especially considering the other team won't effectively know how to attack A most likely. The main disadvantage is as jaegar said. When you guys die, there's only 1 entrance (well technically 2) back into A, so unless your team still has control... the opposing team can keep you out of there.

One thing you could do to make your time at A a bit more efficent when your playing engi since if you die most teams will already be pushing B via C and you'll run smack dab into them: Simply throw down a quick tele exit at spawn, set up at a and when you have the time throw up an entrance, if they start to roll A run for the entrance to spawn and quickly upgrade the tele so if the sniper/demo is stuck or still alive when there pushing they can take it as well then you can switch classes.

This would only really work though if you have the demo/engi/sniper at A so he has ample time to set up the entrance along with his other equipment. I haven't had much personal practice with a sentry at A since the teams I've been on prefer just do the normal one at B so not sure how viable time wise it would be and if going suicide ninja battle engi would be more efficient.

I hate just giving the other team A, I really do, but what options do you have? Sending two or three people over to A to defend or stall the cap usually results in them getting spawn camped when the team crosses through C, and when presented with defending either A or B you're going to want to take B obviously. I wish the path from A to B wasn't so close to A spawn tunnel, at least then maybe you could send some people to defend A and they might be able to escape back to B. Just the way the map is laid out and everything though a lot of times just giving the team A is your best option.

Getting people up there with the pro jump doesn't really fool anyone these days, as a Scout will almost always bonk through and check for traps and such. A sentry on the rock is ok I guess, it will stall them but not for very long and again you'll probably just end up getting spawn camped eventually if people are helping defend it. I don't know, when teams I've been on defend it, the main goal has been to try and make the Medic use uber, and then get out of there, that way they have to build another uber or be forced to push into B without one.

Then again, my teams have had a long history of doing terrible on gpit...

Well usually when a team decides to send an engineer to A they also send another engineer to B. The engineer at A is the one that is going to switch to a different class since his gun isn't going to last long/he'll die first. With this said, the engineer at B should have a teleporter up on the right side, so after the engineer at A dies, he can take that teleporter.

Usually the opposing team is still capping the point at this time, and if they do have someone spawn camping, that person would rush to get over there before the engineer spawned and would naturally cover the right side (left side of spawn). Then the engineer or whatever class he is now, can take the teleporter on the right side of spawn.

So spawn-camping isn't usually a huge issue.

If the person who dies at A is smart about it having someone in respawn while the enemy is pushing from A through C to B can actually be really useful. Either you make them waste time and resources trying to kill you or they ignore you which lets you have an easy flanking opportunity. The person in spawn can also scout out if the enemy team is not going through C and put your team on alert for a possible connector push or a doubling back through spawn and push from long.

I've seen syckness and biggy have good success sniping from respawn while the enemy team is pushing through C and then having the option to switch to scout to support once they push into B.

The spawn area battle is worth considering as the natural progression from A to B is through C, the tunnel being a focus-fire nightmare. A sniper or engineer can set up here to delay the push or force them to come from spawn directly into B. If the engi gets set up quickly enough it can possibly force the uber they are holding or be a back-up in case B goes down quickly, however lingering here when no one is coming through is putting your team a man down. You have to consider if it is even worth having the second engi and where and when to place him.

As for defending A, the last few times I have scrimmed on this map, spending at least a bit of manpower to defend A is worth it and can give you a bit of extra time on the stopwatch. Whether that's the whole team for a round or only an engi/sniper/demo or combination of these is purely situational, dependent upon the enemy teams play and counters. That's the reason this map is such fun, it's very dynamic in respect to the types of attack and defense that you see.