Ever wanted to know how well you fare in the Asian competitive Team Fortress 2 scene but you're too shy to ask the server? That's what the Asiafortress Skill Rater is for! Do note that the skill rater is not just limited to players from Singapore/Malaysia - feel free to request for a rating even if you are from Japan or Korea!

有曾經想知道自己在TF2亞洲競賽界的水平但你又太害羞而難以開口嗎?這樣Asiafortress 水平評分器(Skill rater)就派上用場了！但請留意水平評分並不只限制於新加坡/馬來西亞的玩家 - 所以即使你是日本或韓國玩家，歡迎自由詢問請求評分吧!

アジアの Team Fortress 2 の競技的なシーンのにおいてあなた達はいままで自分の実力を知りたかったでしょう、だけどあなた達はシャイ過ぎてサーバーに聞くことができなかったでしょ？Asiafortress のスキルレーターはそんなあなた達のためにあります！スキルレーターはシンガポールやマレーシアのプレイヤーに限定されているものではありません。あなたが日本や韓国出身プレイヤーであってもスキル評価のリクエストを遠慮無くしてください。

당신이 경쟁팀포에 얼마나 잘 기여했는지 알고있습니다! 근데 서버 물어보기가 부끄러운가? 요그거 때문에 아포 기술 평가자가 있는 것! 기억해라. 기술 평가자는 싱가폴이나 말레이시아 플레이어에 한정된 게 아님을!, 당신이 한국인이든 일본인이든 레이팅평가를 마음껏 물어보시길!

LINK: http://asiafortress....skill-detector/

Credits to Lei, Life & Dub for the translations!

*Disclaimer: Varying definitions of "everything" may apply.

What is SteamPipe?

SteamPipe is Valve's new content distribution system for Steam. Advantages of using SteamPipe, as claimed by Valve:

• Faster and smoother downloads
  
• Faster game boot times and map load times
  
• Easier distribution, installation, and management of mods
  
• Smoother dedicated server distribution and update rollover
  

The bolded text is good news for everyone who can't play AsiaFortress PuGs because they load slowly and never get +1's.

Great! When will TF2 be on SteamPipe?

The TF2 game files will officially be converted on the 30th of April 2013. There is, however a way to get the beta release of TF2 on SteamPipe right now.

Tell me how!

Before I tell you how, be warned of a number of things:

• Your GCF files will be deleted, along with the possibility of some of your custom content(HUDs, configs, maps, addons, model skins, sounds, etc) being deleted.
  
• You WILL NOT be able to join a game server that is not running the TF2 SteamPipe Dedicated Server. So, pretty much any server that you can access now will be inaccessible(Till the server owner converts on the 30th, or before) if you opt into the SteamPipe beta for TF2. This includes AsiaFortress, StarHub, LowYAT, OneAsiaGamer, and GamersUN servers.
  
• You CAN opt back out of the beta(go back to GCFs) before the 30th, but it's very likely you won't get your game customisation back.
  
• Most plugins will work(where to place them will be discussed later) excluding our great and wonderful P-REC :'(
  
• If you're going to try this out, I would recommend trying it on an alternate account on a different PC.
  

Before you opt in, you should backup all your custom content and your demos. Go into your "C:\Program Files (x86)\Steam\steamapps\[username]\team fortress 2\tf" folder and backup any folders that contain custom content(addons, cfg, maps, models, particles, resource, scripts)

Also remember, that you need enough space on disk for two copies of TF2. Once it's converted, it will go back to standard disk space usage.

Now, to opt into the SteamPipe beta, right click on TF2 in your Steam library, go to properties, click on the "Betas" tab and select "steampipe - "

Your game files should then be converted, and your GCFs will be deleted.

If you've opted into the beta, there are still some things you need to do, which will be described in the next section.

I don't want to opt into the beta; is there anything I need to do?

Whether or not you opt into the beta, once your game files are converted, there are some things you need to know about the workings of the new filesystem.

• The path of your game files will be changed from "[steam installation directory]/steamapps/[username]/team fortress 2/" to "[steam installation directory]/steamapps/common/Team Fortress 2/"
  
• All the GCF files in your steamapps folder will be deleted.
  
• Dowloaded files will not go to their respective folders based on type as they currently do. For example, a custom map you would currently download from a server will go to your "maps" folder. Once you're using SteamPipe, it will go to your "tf/download" folder. This has been done so you can distinguish between server-downloaded files(that you may want to remove) and files that you've downloaded yourself.
  
• Files that you've previously downloaded/replaced(if they don't get deleted during conversion) will be moved to "tf/download" during the conversion. I would recommend deleting everything in the "tf/download" folder after conversion. Explanation on that in the next point.
  
• Custom content you manually download should now go into "tf/custom", but to make it simpler to distinguish between different custom files, make a subfolder under the custom folder, such as "tf/custom/mystuff". Say you have a NoHats mod and you want to keep those custom files separate from other custom files, you can make another subfolder in 'custom', and put the NoHats files in there. So your file paths would be "tf/custom/NoHats/models" and "tf/custom/NoHats/particles". The game will still read those folders, and the NoHats files in 'models' and 'particles' will not mix with other 'models' and 'particles' files in the event that you want to remove them.
  
• Basically, Valve says do not extract any custom content directly into "tf/custom". Always extract it into a subfolder(create one if there's nothing in there). All your addons, cfg, maps, models, particles, resource, scripts, sound folders should go into a subfolder(can be named anything) under "tf/custom".
  
• Only .vpk files should go directly into the "tf/custom" folder. .vpk files basically contain everything a mod needs in a compressed format, including folder structure and varying files. However, at this point in time, no custom content I've heard about is distributed in .vpk format.
  

That's about it for now. The most important thing at the moment is to backup all your custom content, and your demos.

The Grand Finals of this year's Mercenaries Cup 4 was one filled with intensity, and I'm not just saying that for the sake of saying. Both maps ended in golden caps, showing the skill level of both Muk Eun Ji and Green Leaves. In the first map Snakewater, the golden cap ran the entire 10-minute duration, and ended with the middle point dominated by the Koreans. Going back and forth so many times, it has to be nerve wrecking as the first map always sets the mood.

The second map, Badlands, also ended up in a golden cap?!?!?! WTF! This time round, Muk Eun Ji managed to secure the last cap point although the fight at the last point was a little messy. But nonetheless, props to both teams especially Green Leaves for putting up a strong fight against Muk Eun Ji, especially when their last encounter was a 6-1 5-0 roll in favour of MEJ. The final score for both maps was 3-2 on Snakewater and 4-3 on Badlands.

Player awards for such an amazing grand final!

• best demo - opd
  
• best scout - hoshimi
  
• best clutch player - life
  
• best pocket - babel
  
• over powered father award - hsk's father for delivering the "father krit"
  

The second runner-up would be the All Stars, beating many higher-seeding teams in the competition to place third in this year's Mercenaries Cup 4. Congratulations to all the winners, which includes everyone that participated in the tournament!

Big thanks to Spammah, Yuki and Khao for casting the grand finals, Natapon as the community leader providing the Asiafortress servers and streaming the grand finals. And last but not least, thank YOU for being the community, as without you, the fourth edition of the Mercenaries Cup would never have happened.

The prize pool for this year's Mercenaries Cup amounts to 40+ refined, so congratulations to all the winners of this year's Mercenaries Cup 4, and don't splurge too much on stranges! They don't count in the Asiafortress servers anymore