im a tf2 noob, and started playing a few days ago. i have come to the conclusion i am the next pandemic tf2 player, but my ego aside i have a few questions.

When i kill someone with the intelligence. how do i return it. ive tried running over it, pushing f, etc and end up camping it and killing all the mindless tards who attempt to mess with my intelligence.

2nd. How do i get a ball for my baseball bat as a scout.

3rd. pyro questions. Flaregun seems to be pretty decent, but some expert pubbers were telling me shotgun is better. as tf2 champions what is your opinons? also is flaregun damage over time or a direct hit; ie can i shoot someone with it twice or just let them burn?

Thanks br0$kees.

1. There's a timer that runs down as long as nobody picks it up, look closely at the logo floating over it next time and you'll see the highlighted bit changing.

2. The Sandman is an unlock for scout. You get the ball, but lose your double jump. Either complete scout milestone 2, or try to randomly find it.

3. The flare gun does both instant damage and damage over time. However, it does so little damage instantly and the burn damage is negligible if there's a medic or dispenser anywhere near that the shotgun is by far a more realistic choice for midrange fighting, as it does reliable damage and is also excellent for finishing off fleeing enemies who ran out of range of your flamethrower. (setting them on fire again is useless)

awesome thanks. do you think sandman is worth it?

personally, no, I think the confusion you can wreak on enemies by jumping over/around them is better than a stun that has to happen from far away to be effective. people get caught up in trying to connect with it and lose chances to get kills.

plus it just takes away from the fun of having so much mobility!

awesome thanks. do you think sandman is worth it?

It's also banned in CEVO and ESEA... Deemed overpowered.

It's also banned in CEVO and ESEA... Deemed overpowered.

well im a terrible pubber so i will take what i can get.

are any of the upgrade guns allowed in CEVO/ESEA? i have the back burner and i would amuse that it is. But the huntsman is worthless imo.

are any of the upgrade guns allowed in CEVO/ESEA? i have the back burner and i would amuse that it is. But the huntsman is worthless imo.

Medic, heavy and pyro items all are allowed, and all scout items but Sandman. The spy/sniper guns are not allowed I don't think, at least for some period of time until everyone gets them, but I could be wrong on this.

As for the upgrade guns that are actually used by competitive players, I think it's:
- Blutsauger (since crits on normal needlegun are useless),
- Kritzkrieg very occasionally for special medic strats,
- Boxing gloves (heavies are rare),
- Axetinguisher and occasionally backburner (no one plays pyro competitively).

None of the scout upgrades are used by anyone as far as I know, because they blow hard compared to the originals.

The other core competitive classes (solly, demo) haven't gotten new weapons yet.

Check out the wiki's tf2 classes (http://wiki.commforums.com/doku.php?id=tf2:playing_competitively:classes:home ) section for the l33t stratz.

Also if you're srs bizness, play PUGs because pub play is an entirely different dynamic.

I actually saw a pro scout using the FaN on a cast yesterday... I wondered why, he was getting nothing done

and the reasoning for not allowing the sniper/spy weapons as of yet is that it's not easy for everyone to get them, but now that the achievement system is back in place we'll just have to wait and see what the major leagues say. If it gets the spy or sniper more of an interesting role in competitive play (jarate the medic!) then I say go for it, anything that forces teams to adapt playstyles rather than keeping the same lineup stagnant is cool with me.