Everyone knows that some maps are much easier to play on merc than others, such as many of the old PT maps: deftech, bank, warehouse, etc. These maps, along with the method of tiebreaking, that is, defender picks if they want to pick side or host, make it almost impossible to beat a team on one of these maps.
Example: Deftech
Team A plays Spy - Spy1 Hacks objective A in first 3 minutes of game. Spy2 moves in to obj C, Spy1 moves in to obj B. Merc1 camps only way in to objective B. (There are three, really: The merc-only door, which is almost impossible for a spy to enter through, and it would immediately alert the merc; the elevator, which must be hacked first and, like the door, alerts the merc and gives him ample time to set up the easiest nade of his life; and the ceiling, which can be easily covered by a merc using EMV.) Merc2 camps obj C, easily covered with 3 mines, 3 spytraps, 4 nades, and a gasmask. Spy1 can't enter objective B. Spy2 enters objective C, Kills merc2, and plants a bomb. Merc1 runs to ObjC, diffuses bomb, and runs back to objB. Spy replants bomb, merc2 runs to objc, diffuses bomb, kills spy2. Meanwhile, merc1 has enough time to nade ObjB, killing spy1. Much furthur useless madness ensues, no objectives are taken, time runs out.Anyway:
Final score, round 1:
Spy1: 1 point, 1 life left
Spy2: 0 points, 2 kills, 2 lives left
Merc1: 3 kills
Merc2: 2 kills
Team A plays merc - No objectives are taken or even started, spies are all dead in 7-8 minutes.
Final score, round 2:
Merc1: 8 points, 2 lives left.
Merc2: 0 points, 3 lives left.
Spy1: 0 points, 0 kills, 0 lives left.
Spy2: 0 points, 0 kills, 0 lives left.
Team A is attacking, so for the tiebreaker, team B picks to play merc. Team A hosts.
Team A - spy round, tiebreaker:
Spy 1 makes distraction, dies in first 20 seconds of round. Spy 2 infiltrates obj B and manages to capture the disk. Spy1 dies. Spy2 moves in to objC, plants bomb, distracts merc, bomb diffused, spy2 dies. Spy1 moves in to obj A, spy 2 makes distraction downstairs obj A. Spy 2 moves in to hack the console. Spy 1 continues harassing merc1 in upper obj A and dies. Spy 2 gets 1/3 way through hack, kills merc1 on his own mine, gets 1/2 way through the hack, and is killed by merc 2. Spy1 heads for upper objA, gets naded by merc, is out of game. Spy2 gets double teamed until he's out of lives.
Final score:
Spy1: 0 points, 0 kills, 0 lives
Spy2: 1 point, 0 kills, 0 lives
Merc1: 4 kills, 3 lives
Merc2: 4 kills, 3 lives
Overall:
TeamA - Spy rounds - 2: 2 objectives taken, 2 merc kills, 3 lives left. - Merc round - 1 - 8 kills, 1 death
TeamB - Spy round - 1: 0 objectives taken, 1 merc kill, 0 lives left. - Merc rounds - 2 - 13 kills, 2 deaths
Average:
TeamA Spy: 1 objective per round, 1 merc kill per round, 1.5 lives left at the end of every round.
TeamB Spy: 0 objectives per round, .5 merc kills per round, 0 lives left at the end of every round.
TeamA Merc: 8 kills per round, spies don't touch a single objective, 1 merc death.
TeamB Merc: 6.5 kills per round, spies get an average of 1 objective per round, 1 merc death.
TeamB wins by standard TWL rules, although TeamA outperforms them.
Similar scenarios can be imagined (indeed, have happened) in bank and warehouse, due to their zone nature. TeamA progresses all the way to zone3, while teamB can't make it past zone1. TeamB is defending, plays merc for tiebreaker, and wins, even though they barely won their merc rounds and got completely destroyed on their spy round, where, on the contrary, team A ALMOST won on their spy round and and completely destroyed on their merc round.
Either of these problems can easily be fixed by either coming up with an alternate tiebreaking method, removing deftech, bank, and warehouse (any more maps like this?) from the rotation, or both. I've never heard anyone say they love playing matches on these maps. On the contrary, they're a huge point of contention; people have already petitioned for their removal, and even after winning on warehouse, the defending team remarked that their win was absurdly cheap. After playing a deftech map, the winners remarked that they despised the map. Conclusively, I don't think any of these maps would be that missed.
As for an alternate tiebreaker method, there needs to be some way for both the spy AND the merc scores taken in to account. Unfortunately, there's no way in game to take screenshots or record demos (that I know of), so it's difficult to have a properly analytical method of score dissection w/o having bulletproof score recording. The printscreen button could be utlilized, but that's rather annoying. I'd like to hope that all the teams could trust each other, and from what I've seen, it's not exactly a far-fetched goal - the community is extremely tight and considerate. However, without a solid method of score recording, methods such as looking at the spy round objectives hacked and the merc round spy kills are useless. On the other hand, playing matches over and over again until a clear winener emerges is both impractical and unfeasable. No clear way to make a better tiebreaker comes to mind, but if these matches are going to remain in rotation, a new tiebreaking method is required.
Thanks for reading
~Ruff_ilb
Example: Deftech
Team A plays Spy - Spy1 Hacks objective A in first 3 minutes of game. Spy2 moves in to obj C, Spy1 moves in to obj B. Merc1 camps only way in to objective B. (There are three, really: The merc-only door, which is almost impossible for a spy to enter through, and it would immediately alert the merc; the elevator, which must be hacked first and, like the door, alerts the merc and gives him ample time to set up the easiest nade of his life; and the ceiling, which can be easily covered by a merc using EMV.) Merc2 camps obj C, easily covered with 3 mines, 3 spytraps, 4 nades, and a gasmask. Spy1 can't enter objective B. Spy2 enters objective C, Kills merc2, and plants a bomb. Merc1 runs to ObjC, diffuses bomb, and runs back to objB. Spy replants bomb, merc2 runs to objc, diffuses bomb, kills spy2. Meanwhile, merc1 has enough time to nade ObjB, killing spy1. Much furthur useless madness ensues, no objectives are taken, time runs out.Anyway:
Final score, round 1:
Spy1: 1 point, 1 life left
Spy2: 0 points, 2 kills, 2 lives left
Merc1: 3 kills
Merc2: 2 kills
Team A plays merc - No objectives are taken or even started, spies are all dead in 7-8 minutes.
Final score, round 2:
Merc1: 8 points, 2 lives left.
Merc2: 0 points, 3 lives left.
Spy1: 0 points, 0 kills, 0 lives left.
Spy2: 0 points, 0 kills, 0 lives left.
Team A is attacking, so for the tiebreaker, team B picks to play merc. Team A hosts.
Team A - spy round, tiebreaker:
Spy 1 makes distraction, dies in first 20 seconds of round. Spy 2 infiltrates obj B and manages to capture the disk. Spy1 dies. Spy2 moves in to objC, plants bomb, distracts merc, bomb diffused, spy2 dies. Spy1 moves in to obj A, spy 2 makes distraction downstairs obj A. Spy 2 moves in to hack the console. Spy 1 continues harassing merc1 in upper obj A and dies. Spy 2 gets 1/3 way through hack, kills merc1 on his own mine, gets 1/2 way through the hack, and is killed by merc 2. Spy1 heads for upper objA, gets naded by merc, is out of game. Spy2 gets double teamed until he's out of lives.
Final score:
Spy1: 0 points, 0 kills, 0 lives
Spy2: 1 point, 0 kills, 0 lives
Merc1: 4 kills, 3 lives
Merc2: 4 kills, 3 lives
Overall:
TeamA - Spy rounds - 2: 2 objectives taken, 2 merc kills, 3 lives left. - Merc round - 1 - 8 kills, 1 death
TeamB - Spy round - 1: 0 objectives taken, 1 merc kill, 0 lives left. - Merc rounds - 2 - 13 kills, 2 deaths
Average:
TeamA Spy: 1 objective per round, 1 merc kill per round, 1.5 lives left at the end of every round.
TeamB Spy: 0 objectives per round, .5 merc kills per round, 0 lives left at the end of every round.
TeamA Merc: 8 kills per round, spies don't touch a single objective, 1 merc death.
TeamB Merc: 6.5 kills per round, spies get an average of 1 objective per round, 1 merc death.
TeamB wins by standard TWL rules, although TeamA outperforms them.
Similar scenarios can be imagined (indeed, have happened) in bank and warehouse, due to their zone nature. TeamA progresses all the way to zone3, while teamB can't make it past zone1. TeamB is defending, plays merc for tiebreaker, and wins, even though they barely won their merc rounds and got completely destroyed on their spy round, where, on the contrary, team A ALMOST won on their spy round and and completely destroyed on their merc round.
Either of these problems can easily be fixed by either coming up with an alternate tiebreaking method, removing deftech, bank, and warehouse (any more maps like this?) from the rotation, or both. I've never heard anyone say they love playing matches on these maps. On the contrary, they're a huge point of contention; people have already petitioned for their removal, and even after winning on warehouse, the defending team remarked that their win was absurdly cheap. After playing a deftech map, the winners remarked that they despised the map. Conclusively, I don't think any of these maps would be that missed.
As for an alternate tiebreaker method, there needs to be some way for both the spy AND the merc scores taken in to account. Unfortunately, there's no way in game to take screenshots or record demos (that I know of), so it's difficult to have a properly analytical method of score dissection w/o having bulletproof score recording. The printscreen button could be utlilized, but that's rather annoying. I'd like to hope that all the teams could trust each other, and from what I've seen, it's not exactly a far-fetched goal - the community is extremely tight and considerate. However, without a solid method of score recording, methods such as looking at the spy round objectives hacked and the merc round spy kills are useless. On the other hand, playing matches over and over again until a clear winener emerges is both impractical and unfeasable. No clear way to make a better tiebreaker comes to mind, but if these matches are going to remain in rotation, a new tiebreaking method is required.
Thanks for reading
~Ruff_ilb
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