Team Fortress 2

Team Fortress 2

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How to call and maincall in competitive
By Kengur and 1 collaborators
This guide is boring and has no pictures inside...
   
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Team calls
This is a basic guide about Highlander calls for people in Div 5/6 and Lobby players.

Calls are perhaps the most important thing in competitive play. Teams with better calls usually win over teams with better deathmatching skills simply due to "trenching" and sinergetic effects in HL compared to fast paced combat in 6v6.
  1. First of all... know thy enemy. If you for some reason didn't know this handy command "hud_combattext 1" will allow you to see damage numbers next to enemy models. Some HUDs can probably overwrite this see here[playstuff.net] and here for more details. Review what each class max hp and max buff hp (x1.5) is. Heavy can probably survive 400 and still hurt you. Too much stuff to remember... just assume the following:

    scout/sniper/spy/medic 125-150 (need 2 directs)
    pyro/demo/solly 175-250 (need 3 directs, pyro... well... adjust for reflects awesomeness...)
    heavy 400 (need 4-5 directs)
    Math is hard.

    *pipe* *direct* *meatshot* (pipe, rocket or shotgun that deals about 100 damage each)
    *headshot* (150 obviously, with charged hs a good sniper should take out the target so doh...)
    If it's anything else DON'T BOTHER to call it.
    If you did two pipes 75+70=145 just call *<class> took pipe* since it's not enough to call two pipes.

    Saying *someone is low* or *someone got rekt* is misleading most of the time

  2. Things EVERYONE call AT ALL TIMES
    *combo <position>* (if you see combo at new position, then call asap! especially if we have 100% uber)
    *uber call/pop <position>* ("call" is for Medic saying voice command when uber is ready)
    *sniper <position>* (only call when sniper is in scope mode)
    *med down/drop* (followed by cheers and cold champaign)
    *taking teleport* (if you call it a second earlier that Engineer might just remember that teleport is unsafe and he forgot to call it)
    *spy on <class>* if the spy is behind someone, or *spy as <class>*

  3. Realise that your comms will have a roundtrip of about 0.5s due to network latency and another 0.5-1s due to people reaction. Also Medic Uber pop has around 0.5 delay from the moment you press the magic button. So don't rage when people didn't call spy in time for you to react or your Medic didn't pop in time to save you from surprise Kritz.

  4. Always agree how to call locations before the game (usually during map talk you do that anyway). Don't just assume that everyone know "China" or "Shack" to be the same. You can check this wiki[comp.tf] for naming convention. You should try to call absolute positions and not relative to you.

  5. Sniper calls - *sniper <position> / down* (it's the only thing expected from a sniper - easy to play :D)

  6. Spy calls - all things from point 2 and ideally after every "med down" check their medigun in 15sec (they do that in Div 3). Spy is usually the eyes of your team. Most times good comms from spy mean world more than tricky backstabs.

  7. Medic calls - Uber percentage at 25, 50, 75, 90, 100%, and in case of your unfortunate death always say so. When you spawn say so someone can pick you up. If you have some free cranium capacity left try to track enemy Uber percentages since you have your meter to measure against (they do that in Div 3 again).

  8. Don't interrupt who ever is speaking at that moment for your regular comms (unless you are calling Uber pop, Spy or Godzilla!). Queue your info up. Don't repeat what the previous man said. Keep your comms short! Call ONE most important thing, don't call everything at once. Ideally you should be giving out one piece of HELPFUL info per 15 sec, your call should be about 1-1.5s long!

  9. In case you forgot location names use directional calls relative to your combo (or Medic) e.g. "Pyro close left". Use approximate directons easy to understand, don't try to be Google Maps. (Special thanks to Quintosh for this one!)
Main calls
*Friendly notice*
Keep in mind that there are no actual forced rules in main-calling each person calls individually and come up with their own ideas, this is a general guideline to what should be done, but don't take this as all out only way of calling.

  1. In lower Divs you can probably do pretty well without main caller. Demo telling Medic when to Kritz is not it. Main caller is someone from the team most experienced who can do shooting as well as thinking at the same time.

  2. Also main caller should have some weight (pun intended) and have the whole team support what he does. Demo and Heavy usually do best main calling because they are the combo. Medic will do fine in lower divs or if he did play a lot as either Demo or Heavy before.

  3. A team has ONE main-caller, hence the name. No backseat maincalling should be allowed. However as you climb Divs counter-calls might work sometimes, just due to essential information you might be lacking at the moment. But it requires immense amount of practice between the calling partners.

  4. Main calling is a bit of everything. If the team is good then main caller will only designate general directions. But sometimes you will need to tell specific classes what to do (this is usually maps with multiple entry points like Steel or Gravelpit). The timings are always crucial, because you have to finish talking and allow people time to react (see point 3 in Team Calls).

  5. If something is going bad, try to rethink your approach. Raging is not an option. If anything no caller is better than bad caller.

  6. Now when pushing ideally you should be doing damage to sentry>demo>heavy>med>etc in that order. If there are multiple targets in range main-caller should designate a target "FOCUS <class>" and EVERYONE around should deal damage to that one first.

  7. Nobody interrupts the main-caller and if the main-caller interrupts then that person should queue their calls. Whatever main-caller said everyone should do without second thoughts (see counter calls). If main-caller said "push" then it means "PUSH NOW!" and your only valid excuse for not doing that is if you are in an engagement, or you are designated to hold last point.

Telepathic Ryuu: another valid reason
Telepathic Ryuu: is you are dead
Telepathic Ryuu: :D
Kengur: no, that's not a valid reason :P
40 Comments
-15 social credit 1 Apr, 2023 @ 11:36pm 
ae
brainburger #FREEBLINK 4 Mar, 2021 @ 6:36am 
no pictures im shitting myself
John Backflip 2 Nov, 2020 @ 6:43am 
Sorry if this is a necro, thanks for this guide, it is obvious that you spent a lot of time on this, some of the points are very helpful for newbies! :)
Strange Man 18 Nov, 2019 @ 9:00am 
No pictures, horrible guide
Kengur  [author] 16 Oct, 2014 @ 3:55am 
Nobody like the guide. Should have put pictures for kids :tdealwithit:
Ryuu  [author] 15 Oct, 2014 @ 5:41am 
We build this, i am proud of our baby guide :D
BigManlyMan123 (very toxic) 15 Oct, 2014 @ 4:28am 
The only reason that this discussion is getting nowhere is because you refuse to address the points and arguments I have made, you have literally ignored 90% of the points I have made simply because I have put them forward undefectively and you lack the basic counter-arguments for them. Instead, you have resorted to attempting to undermine my points by stating that they are vague. My points are backed up with reasoning and explanations, in fact, I explained a series of points I made twice, the second time due to the possibility that you might not have have fully understood or have misinterpreted them the first time. You state that my sentences are vague repeatedly, but you have not given me an example of what exactly I have said that is vague.
BigManlyMan123 (very toxic) 15 Oct, 2014 @ 4:28am 
I have not in any way made any vague points regarding this guide as to what you could improve on, my earlier comments not only point out what is wrong and what you ought to correct, but I also linked a basic guide of my own, which explains in more depth and detail how to maincall and the basic gamesense needed to do it..
BigManlyMan123 (very toxic) 15 Oct, 2014 @ 4:27am 
I am not suggesting that this ought to be an all-round guide on "Life the Universe and Everything", I clearly stated before that this is a very basic guide to be read (see my comment #1). I did not suggest that this guide should be a guide about Medic maincalling either, you specifically asked me for my input when you said this:

"Anyways I'd really like to hear you story and things medic should be calling according to you. We can even make a separate section for classes if things work out with this collaborative approach."

earlier. I definitely did not suggest that this is a guide on how to make calls for spy, so please could you outline where I said that.
Kengur  [author] 15 Oct, 2014 @ 4:17am 
Ok. This is not getting anywhere. This is not an all around guide on Life the Universe and Everything. This is not a guide about a medic maincalling. This is not a guide on how to call spy (cause they do that in pubs anyway). If you still have some points to input into this guide so that it would become better, please do so in specifics and not vague sentences.