Is it actually possible for a new team with low skill to get a scrim against a similarly capable opponent? Last night it seemed like all we scrimmed were teams that were much more skilled than us claiming to be low skill. Is this an e-peen thing with good teams in #tf2scrim looking for an ego boost or is it possible to get some real practice with an equally new/bad team :tongue:

Well obviously the answer to your question is yes. The unfortunate part is that I can relate to the e-peen you mentioned from higher teams.

Usually you should be able to get a scrim against a lower team, if you advertise as low (ie 6v6 cp_any y(ours) low).

Though I do hear you when you're getting rolled by teams that aren't even close to your skill level. When my last team and I started out, it seemed to happen at least once a night. I can't draw a conclusion as to why it happens, but I'd like to think it's not trolling. What I'd like to think are one of two things; either the team that beat you is much better, but just got destroyed by a higher level team (possibly looking to boost their morale). Or I'd like to think that maybe a better team is just having a terrible time finding a scrim, and they are just settling on you guys. Either way, I've felt your pain, I'm sure many people have been there, but I digress.

If you're still having trouble on IRC finding a team at your level, you can look through your friends list for a scrim. Sure it is old-fashioned, but I see you have a pretty large amount of friends. Just go ahead and ask around from friends that you think are equal or slightly above your skill level (obviously they must be on teams of their own).

Though, to be honest, I think you just got pretty unlucky. It may be the time of day you're asking for scrims. Either way keep at it, you'll be fine.

Yeah, it's not a bog deal, I'd just like some good practice. You can only learn so much from getting stomped. Even competition shows you your flaws and your strengths. We're gonna keep trying though.

my best advice is to keep playing advertising yourself as low until you find a team that puts up a good fight. add those guys to your friends list and try to contact them first whenever you want to scrim with your team again — thats the most surefire way to have an even match in my opinion.

my best advice is to keep playing advertising yourself as low until you find a team that puts up a good fight. add those guys to your friends list and try to contact them first whenever you want to scrim with your team again — thats the most surefire way to have an even match in my opinion.

Thats a great idea...teams helping other teams get better and move up the skill ladder.

Yeah I try not to use irc anymore. Add anyone on that you would like to scrim again to your friend's list, then use that before you go for the irc channel. If you're smart about who you play, you can improve drastically.

Yeah I try not to use irc anymore. Add anyone on that you would like to scrim again to your friend's list, then use that before you go for the irc channel. If you're smart about who you play, you can improve drastically.

So I take it as a compliment you asked me for a scrim once or twice? Probably just desperate. :P

But seriously, that's a fantastic idea. Plus, it would be nice to have more friends on other teams, especially at or around my skill level.

The problem with finding teams on your level aren't the fact that they're trying to troll you most likely. Usually on IRC there are times in the day when there's NOBODY to scrim.

Your team will be posting 6v6 y(ours) low, and a team above you has been posting 6v6 y(ours) be good. After a period of time when neither of you have found a scrim, that good team will settle for your team since you're the other team out there.

When teams ask you to scrim them on irc, ask how good they are (low, mid, high). That's the easiest way to make sure you aren't getting rolled by better teams. When you face a team of equal skill add the captain to your friends list so you can ask them next time before you post on IRC.

One thing I'd like to point out is that just because you are getting rolled doesn't mean there is a huge skill discrepancy. The first scrim I played, my team won 5-1 on the first map (badlands) and then went on to lose 1-5 on granary. The teams were actually pretty evenly matched, but you'd never guess that just by looking at one of the maps on its own. Most of the times my team has gotten rolled, it's not because the other team was higher-level just so much as we weren't really organized.

If you're in a game and you're getting rolled, you could ask the other team if it's okay to pause the game for a few minutes so you can sit down with your team and figure out what's going wrong and try to plan the next round better.

Getting to mid fast and organizing is part of the problem. We haven't played much as a team yet and not everyones got their jumps to mid down. That's probably a big part of it.

Getting to mid fast and organizing is part of the problem. We haven't played much as a team yet and not everyones got their jumps to mid down. That's probably a big part of it.

There are several videos on YouTube showing the fastest ways to get to mid for virtually every map, just find them and link your friends up.

As far as organization goes, you'll develop as a team. Communication is very important, the best way to start off is to call out who dies on the other team. It's important to keep coms positive, short, and meaningful. Eventually you'll get into calling out focus fire, pushes, backcaps, regrouping, etc.

I downloaded the demo/comm files for the EG match and I'm going to listen to them to get an idea of how they use their comms effectively. I think that's all we really need, they're getting the jumps down and the DM skills are there it's just other teams are better organized. Focus fire and regrouping are things we definately need to work on.

I also suggest just getting your team together and running a few dry runs. It will do wonders for your medic and it will become second nature for him. Getting to mid as a demo/soldier requires good healing technique and priority on the medic's part.

I also suggest just getting your team together and running a few dry runs. It will do wonders for your medic and it will become second nature for him. Getting to mid as a demo/soldier requires good healing technique and priority on the medic's part.

Yeah, we need more of this, our medic is used to the pub but he's finally getting his healing priority down. Now he has the demo buffed for his last jump, the roam healed on his way and back to me for the mid. He still needs a bit of work but I'm seeing marked improvement. Seems our scouts are having a little trouble too, maybe they're being a bit too aggresive.

When do you find a scrim with a team similar to your skill level, add them to steam friends and ask every night or two if they are interested in scrimming. There's only a handful of teams in tf2 that actually scrim all the time, so take what you can get and even if you get rolled, you will improve and start taking rounds on those teams.