TF2 Newbs (Team Fortress 2)

I rarely go on the steamforums, but today I was sent a link which sounded interesting enough for me to brave the cold, harsh steamforums. The link was for a rogue server blacklist, specifically for TF2. I was actually quite happy with what I read and instead of reading a bunch of bellyaching whiner posts I read happy ‘its about time’ posts (thats a shocker). If you too hate servers that have fakeclients, bad tags, mods that unbalance the game than you should check out the TF2 Server Blacklist Post. The configurability of the lists seems like a nice powerful feature, so you can remove only what you want to remove. Immortal-D of tf2maps.net is helping Pebr to verify that the reported servers really are bad servers – which I think is great. So if you know some bad servers that lie, please report them. TF2 Server Blacklist Live reporting / list page

Lets hope valve takes this idea and incorperates it into the client.

[Edit - The live generation of custom lists seems broken (it shows unverified servers in the list), I recommend using the lists that can be found @ http://tf2app.com/blacklist/lists.php until this is fixed]

Andy Is Great Contest – Due to low volumes of entries this contest has been extended to Midnight November 15th. The basic premise of the contest is simple – write a < 200 word short essay about why Andy is great. If you believe that you can do the vast topic justice in a couple of sentences have at it - but if you want to get real detailed you have up to an entire page to cover the topic. The prize is a TF2Newbs.com T-shirt (Scout). Remember that we are all about having fun with these contests, so even if you don't think you can win you should still enter, its a small amount of time for a great amount of fun =)

Annual TF2Newbs Pumpkin Carving Contest - This contest is set to end on November 2nd - First place is L4D2. As always with the Pumpkin contest all people who enter will receive a prize (Reserve Slot on a Newbs server of your choice for a year) so its definitely worth the effort. So far we have 4 Entries and hopefully many more to come today - but if we don't then the odds of winning are VERY good :) Last Years TF2 Pumpkin Entries. Entering is very simple, just go to this link and Enter Your Pumpkin (tf2 themed) here for prizes

Today we got our very first entry in this years TF2 Themed Pumpkin Carving contest, hopefully many more follow shortly – remember the final date for entering the contest (grand prize a copy of L4D2) is November 2nd. Full Contest Details

In other Pumpkin News, a big atta-boy goes out to everyones favorite heavy, Scott Eats Bullets (And Arrows). Recently Scott sent in a letter to the Control Point podcast about our TF2 Themed Pumpkin Carving Contest and they read it during their broadcast! A huge thank you to both Scott and the folks at Control Point. People that help out others in the gaming community make up for a lot of nights dealing with idiots and griefers :) I know a lot of our regulars listen to the podcast, but incase you don’t usually check it out. Here Scotts Letter – it starts @ 37:49

The preview Demo of L4D2 comes out this evening (11pm Pacific) I’m sure it will be a good time for all (slow downloads, crashing, qq’ing, death, etc). Since L4D2′s release is fast approaching lets take a look back at psychonics L4D2 hypocrites page..

As you can see, the graph looks even more like pacman than it did before.

For full details, once again check out the man responsibles page L4D2 Boycott Lulz

There were piles of entries, and it took me a while to sort through them all…

Why are you looking at me funny?

…

Cut it out.

…

Ok, there were barely a handful of entries, and I went through them all in an hour or three. Happy? Moving on…
(more…)

As the title says, we will be having a short essay contest (roughly 250 or less words). The subject will be ‘Why Andy is great’. This contest is open to all people who know or are at least familiar with Andy. Andy has never won any tf2newbs prizes, but he has won an honorz for mic spam though. First prize will be a TF2Newbs T-shirt (available in Large and XL).

Contest ends November 1st – Midnight. Email entries to andyisgreat@tf2newbs.com

Private Steam Community Page
His Stats This Period

Hello and welcome, its time for a update on the posts from ~10 days ago, which I’ll pretend was only a week ago.

First off the TF2Newbs 2009 TF2 Pumpkin Carving Contest is underway, I havn’t checked if we have any submissions so far, but I’m pretty confident that we’ll have a better turn out than last year (See last years TF2 pumpkin entries). We have decided via poll to allow craft pumpkins, which is good news for those of you who hate pumpkin guts, or wish to save their pumpkin to display next year. For the rest of the Rules for 2009 TF2 Pumpkin Contest check out the link just before these words. The tl;dr basic idea is that you (using a tf2 theme) cut a pumpkin or other pumpkin like thing, take a picture, enter into contest, and get a chance to win L4D2.

As far as L4D2 boycotters go it looks like the boycott movement is sliding even more. Previously when we reported on this, the numbers were at a 2% hypocrite level. This has swelled to 3.8%! As always, be sure to check out the official L4D2 Boycott Lulz Webpage that psychonic has blessed the world with. I’d also like to remind everyone to mark down tomorrow (Oct 18th) on your calendar as Master Server Day. There will be much rejoicing and booze.

Time for #10 specific contests, no mapping experience required!

Three contests, all judged by myself and only myself.

First, find a map that is not already installed on #10 that you think SHOULD be installed on #10 and put into the rotation. Best map (as chosen by me with a multitude of criteria) wins! You don’t have to have made the map.

Second, find a song (from OCRemix) that is not already on #10 that would rock on #10. Best song (as chosen by me) wins! You don’t have to have made the remix.

Third, provide me with a screenshot from #10 that makes me laugh the hardest. You DO have to have made the screenshot (or rather, have had your game make the screenshot), and old screenshots don’t count.

The prize? Grand Prize (and there is nothing but the grand prize) winner for each contest gets a copy of L4D2 AND a copy of Borderlands. Yes, PREORDERS FOR BOTH GAMES.

You have until sometime on the 23rd when I decide to finalize my judging, owing to the fact that borderlands is available a few days later.

Edit:
To consolidate information:
Screenshots must be taken from the point the contest started.
Entries should be posted here or PMed to me. OCRemix ID numbers may be used, or album number with track number. Maps should be by name, or with a link to download. If I can’t find the map, I may request a link to download before considering the entry valid.
Maps already on the server include cyberpunk, harbl_hotel, dm_biosphere, ctf_convoy, ctf_aerospace, ctf_blackhole. Probably a couple others that are never switched to due to not really fitting the server.
Songs already on the server are OCRemix IDs 15, 1286, 1400, 1661, 881, 1367, and 1507.
You can enter 1 map, 2 songs, 5 screenshots.

Entries to date:

Contest 1: Map
rats_tequila
ctf_hoops_beta
ctf_moonwalk_v2

Contest 2: Song
OCRemix ID 1893
OCRemix ID 1760

Contest 3: Screenshots
NONE

Read / post about @ http://www.tf2newbs.com/forum/index.php/topic,4090.0.html

I was talking to my good internet friend psychonic today, and he was busy getting angry at the Steam Condenser PHP class / library. I helped (I think) resolve an issue or two and went on my merry way without giving much thought to what he was up to. Fast forward several hours and it all becomes clear.

It seems psychonic decided to grab a list of all the members of the L4D2 boycotters steam group which is currently the 22nd largest Steam Community Group, and then looked up each member to see if they had preordered L4D2. The results are a little surprising. It seems that more than a couple of these boycotters don’t understand that in order to effectively boycott they can’t buy the product they are boycotting, otherwise they are just posers riding the bandwagon.

For All the Details check out L4D2 Boycott Lulz. It has numbers and a picture of pacman. Oh, and it has some words to read too. Good times.

Halloween is fast approaching us, and that can mean only one thing. That Valve is preparing to release a new installment of Left 4 Dead. It also mean that its time for the annual TF2Newbs.com Team Fortress 2 Pumpkin Carving Contest. The winner of this contest will win a preorder of Left 4 Dead 2 – (L4D2). Runner ups will get TF2Newbs.com t-shirts. As always if participation exceeds our estimates we will add more prizes. Everyone is welcome to enter, you don’t even need to have played on the TF2Newbs game servers before, as long as you can carve a TF2 Pumpkin (or other gourd).

In the meantime, feel free to check out last years entries and prepare yourself for the full contest rules post which should be coming shortly.

2008 Team Fortress 2 Pumpkin Contest Results

The full contest rules for The 2009 TF2 Pumpkin Carving Contest will be on this page, its subject to change over the next day or so. But I’ll set them in stone soon enough.