I have just scheduled a scrim between our team and Malent's highlander team at 7:00pm PST THURSDAY, December 16th. So do your best to be on before then...for this scrim we will be using vent. If you need the information for the vent server please contact me and I'll relay the info over to you. The server at this time has not been set and any updated information will be relayed on this thread. If you have any questions about how the highlander game mode works or the rules for this highlander tournament please contact me. Lets win big on Thursday!

I'll be about an hour late. I would like to get a few rounds in if possible. As far as classes I can play pretty much anything.

do it!

Who let furious in here? Did we get rid of our forum screening process?

cool...I'll be there...

it makes me happy when he is sad or crying like a little baby.

Cool, I'll be there. Any thoughts on primary/secondary class assignments, so we know what to practice?

Here are a few things I want to do before heading into our first scrim on Thursday:

1. Have a relatively quick discussion with everyone new to the highlander game type. So if everyone who was not on the previous highlander team would join me on Earl's Highlander server tonight at 8:00pm PST to go over how everything works and how games are played that would be great. Sorry for the short notice.
2. Here are my initial thoughts about class assignments where primary is first and backup is second:
   
   1. Medic: Parkmad, SliPdIsCo, Heisenberg
      
   2. Scout: MonikerEpsilon, Z315, Earl
      
   3. Soldier: Heisenberg, BloodRed, MonikerEpsilon
      
   4. Demoman: Earl, Joker, B1aine, ME
      
   5. Spy: *gel, Z315, BloodRed* All will be battling for the primary spot
      
   6. Engineer: Al Fire 101, furious, Jinxter
      
   7. Pryo: *Jinxter, chuuw*, Grudge, Z, Blaine (Jinxter and chuuw will battle for primary spot so learn how to reflect and destroy stickies)
      
   8. Sniper: B1aine, furious, Grudge
      
   9. Heavy: DANE, everyone else
      
3. Remember Highlander is radically different than pub play...there are only 9 people on a team and a death means 10+ seconds of being a member down. Look for tutorials on how to play your class in a highlander type environment and practice reporting valuable information (locations of enemy players and buildings, % uber, enemy traps, etc.)

Throw me down as alts at Soldier, Heavy, Sniper and Heavy as well...

What happened, Al? You had set the time, I spread the word, come 8pm, people fired up TF2, and I had to tell them Al flaked. Son, I am disappoint.

My apologies everyone...I decided to go to bed because I couldn't keep my eyes open. If you can get on before our scrim tonight and see me online just send me a message and I'll go over everything. If you still don't have the vent server information again...just give me a shout and I'll give it to you. Finally, my plan for the scrim tonight will be as follows: Have the primary positions play a round to start off, while everyone else stays in vent/sourcetv to watch how it works. After the first round or two we will then switch out the primary positions to put in everyone else in.

The map list we will be playing for the scim is as follows: goldrush, freight_final1, steel.

Any questions just send me a message

Can I recommend mumble as an alternative to vent? It's much better quality/latency and has volume normalization and an in-game overlay built in.

If you guys want to check it out, message me on steam and I'll give you the IP/pass to my server.

I've never used mumble, but if it does those things as well as you say it does, I'd give it a try.

I always felt vent was much lower latency than TF2's in-game chat, and that's been good enough for me. TF2's chat is delayed by around 500ms or so. I think valve gives it lower priority than the game's logic, so vent ends up feeling very low latency.

Volume normalization is nice in theory but I've never really heard it used very well. Something always ends up being too loud or quiet when it shouldn't be. In vent, I just tweak everyone's settings individually and it's perfect for the rest of the night.

It might be too late for mumble for tonight's scrim.

Also, strats for cp_freight from a comp player. I just learned a path I never knew existed on that map.

SO where do I go tonight at 7? I'm confused.

Good video gel. Even though it's tuned for 6v6 play, just think of the pyro and spy as light harassment classes (like the scout), and the heavy another heavy class.

Mumble? I want to try it...

If you guys want to test it out, I have a server set up. Just install the Mumble client,and then connect to 184.106.173.40 (default port). The PW is asdf. Enter any nickname, and ignore the warning about the unsigned certificates (signed certificates cost $$$, and it doesn't really matter).

I won't be able to make it Thursday

I am not sure about Thursday. Parents decided to come into town and stay over. We'll see, but line up another ringer!

I can't make it until after 8PM on Thursday.

I talked to a few of you online after our last scrimmage. While we didn't win a round, I feel the game was a lot closer than it seemed. On a CP map, you can't take a point without an uber and we were close a couple times on 4 and 5 where I had an uber charged but had to use it before we could advance. We need to coordinate around a point after we take the center and always have the medic-heavy and either the solly or demo together so I can uber switch. For some reason, we like to split our advance and come in from both points of attack on a CP. While that's necessary, it always has to include the medic-heavy and one of the other power classes. The rest can distract from the other way.

The only other thing I think should have been done different is that we needed Max as solly. The heavy is a more forgiving class and competitive solly requires a higher skill level. As with medic, you cannot compromise and need the best player regardless of the domino effect.

No offense, I meant, yes offense to furious, we need Max as soldier because furious doesn't cut it. Heavy takes skill to play well in a team, but we need Max as soldier, and hopefully we can get someone else to fill in as heavy.

lol gel ok then I seem to recall saying "Well if you guys want me to" when you requested I play solidier due to the fact that I pretty much never play soldier