Team Fortress 2 Officially Launches Competitive Beta Group on Steam
Everyone of us knows how a game on a old-fashioned Team Fortress 2 (TF2) server goes: You pick a class, you join Red or Blu and you get to wreck everyone’s hopes and dreams away with the weapons of your choice.
Valve wants to add a competitive twist to the critically-acclaimed team-based first-person shooter (team-based FPS) as the game publisher launches a Steam Community Group in order to promote the competitive beta version of the game.
Here is the short statement that the TF2 team has posted on Reddit regarding the mater:
We’ll be using this group to send out announcements related to the competitive beta as well as seed beta invites for the expansion of the closed beta. If that sounds like a thing you need, get in here!
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Team Fortress 2: Will it thrive with an official competitive version?
Remember Overwatch?
Many people expected Overwatch to be a free-to-play (F2P) title; however, when Blizzard announced that they will impose a $40 paywall, it closed the door for thousands of players who wanted to experience a competitive team-based FPS where players can switch characters on the fly.
Thus, it can be safely said that Valve wants to offer another (and possibly, better) alternative to Overwatch through creating an official competitive mode for TF2.
READ: No Folks, Overwatch Won’t Be Free To Play
How does Competitive TF2 currently work?
Long before Overwatch did its 6v6 (6’s) format, competitive TF2 has already used this format for a very long time.
Generally, only two from each class is allowed per team and there are a lot of variations on how teams are composed.
Only four modes are allowed in Competitive TF2: Attack/Defend, Capture the Flag, Control Point and Payload.
This pic represents how competitive TF2 works: Classes are synergized with each other.
Implications
It can be clearly seen that Valve is placing a very high priority on making a competitive version of TF2. If they succeed in this endeavor, Blizzard’s Overwatch would not just have to deal with a potential rival that can offer diverse characters, but they would also have to consider the fact that the game has already a solid player base.
This, in turn, would create a healthier environment for the “teamplay-based FPS” genre as players would have more titles to play and watch!
End Word
Fancy seeing rockets, grenades and invisible kills on stream?
Want to experience Team Fortress 2 in a different light?
All images taken from the official Team Fortress 2 wiki.
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