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Basketball, often also called BBall is a custom gamemode in Team Fortress 2. This gamemode exists in two forms: as a stand-alone gamemodes and as part of MGE (or my gaming edge). In the former it is played on custom capture the flag maps. In the ladder it’s played on mge training maps. The mod-gamemode dates back to sometime in early 2009. At the time of recording this there are approximately 15 servers running the stand-alone version and roughly 120 servers running it within MGE. This video pertains to the stand-alone version of Basketball over the MGE version but both share characteristics.

So what is Basketball?

Basketball is a custom gamemode where 2 teams of Soldiers utilizes explosive jumping and combat in order to capture a flag in their opponent’s basketball hoop.

A round of Basketball starts with every player spawning in at the far ends of a basketball court behind the posts with a neutral intelligence flag in the center of the map. Players must fight for control of the flag and have to explosive-jump while holding the flag on to their opponent’s basketball hoop in order to score points. When one team successfully gets a point players instantly reset back to spawn positions and respawn with full health and ammo. The flag respawns on the basketball court’s free throw line on the side of the court that just got scored on. A round ends when one team reaches a certain amount of points, usually 25. If nether team reaches the number of points needed when the timer runs out the team with the most points wins the round. Timers are usually set to 20 minutes.

In terms of the specific details Basketball differs slightly from server to server and map. These are the general characteristics of the gamemode:

• It’s usually played 2 players versus 2 players but can be played 1 on 1 or 3 on 3.
  
• The main area of maps resembles a basketball court. These courts share the same dimensions making the play-experience consistent to a degree between maps. The courts are roughly 20% larger than real-world standard Basketball NBA and FIBA courts.
  
• Servers limit players from playing classes other than the solider, however some may allow the use of the demoman.
  
• The use of most weapons other than stock and reskins of stock weapons are banned or discouraged.
  
• Tournament mode is enabled on Basketball servers. This means both teams have to ready-up before a round can begin and the hud indicates the health of teammates when spectating.
  
• Deathcams and respawn waves are disabled. In addition, players respawn quicker than usual. In competitive play Historically North American leagues have used 2 second respawn time while European leagues have opted for 6 seconds.

Basketball maps are designed in a certain way with nuances details to simulate some aspects of the real-world sport. Here are some small things to take note off as well as some general information that isn’t obvious:

• At the start of a round when the flag in the center of the map it can only be picked up by rocket jumping or with a well-timed crouch-jump. This is to simulate the very start of a real-life Basketball game where players jump for the ball. When the flag respawns on the free throw lines it’s also in the air but only requires a regular jump to reach.
  
• Rockets pass right through the basketball post’s rim and get nullified by the backboards.
  
• Despite the ground and fences looking uneven and warped, they’re actually flat and solid in order to promote the use of rocket jumps.

Basketball is a mod-gamemodes with relations in competitive play and competitive training. The mod-gamemode is used to practise rocket jumping, air strafing and shooting opponents in the air. It isn’t very common but in the past there have also been Basketball tournaments similar to tournaments for regular competitive play in Team Fortress 2.

And that’s basically Basketball in a nutshell. A competitive training custom gamemode loosely based on a real-world sport. Basketball with guns and rocket launchers. Thanks for watching. Like if you enjoyed or learned something new and subscribe for more videos like this one. Au revoir.


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- To find a server try servers with “bball” in their title: http://www.gametracker.com/search/tf2/?query=bball
- To find a server try servers with “bball” in the name of the map they’re running: http://www.gametracker.com/search/tf2/?search_by=map&query=bball
- A bball sever plugin: https://forums.alliedmods.net/showthread.php?t=206883
- The official Team Fortress wiki’s page on Basketball: https://wiki.teamfortress.com/wiki/Basketball
- Competitive Team Fortress wiki’s page on Basketball: http://comp.tf/wiki/BBall

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