Full Dodgeball Guide

This is a guide that should help anyone from beginner to intermediate level to get better at tf2 dodgeball. This guide will include basic tips to more advanced tips with all the information I can add to help anyone improve.

Introduction to the guide.

Welcome to my dodgeball guide. Throughout this guide I will try and provide many tips and tricks, with techniques ranging from beginner to advanced. If I have left anything out or you have any critical comments, please leave them down below and I will try and improve the guide respectively.

Introduction to dodgeball.

Dodgeball is a game mode where the main objective is to be the last team standing, or potentially the last man standing if playing on a free for all server.
The average round tends to consist of the rocket spawning in picking 1 team at random and more specifically 1 player at random. The rocket will lock onto said player and continue to follow them until it either hits them or the player airblasts the rocket away sending it to another player on the enemy team. After each airblast the rocket increases in speed making it harder and harder to airblast the rocket until it hits a player (who dies) and the rocket spawns in again with the original speed. This repeats until there is only one team remaining.

Before you start

During this section of the guide I will give a few pre dodgeball setting recommendations to help you before you start.

1. You are going to want your sensitivity to be somewhat high, so you can rotate at least 360 degrees with ease

2. You are going to want to make sure you can get at least constant 60 fps. and decent ping on servers. You can increase your fps by reducing your graphics settings, and you can decrease your ping by fully closing web browsers and any other internet consuming applications.

3. If you have not already, enable your developers console by going into options, then selecting advanced (near the bottom) and ticking the box next to enable dev console.

4. I dont think i explained this part very well so I will leave a video about it instead made by Aar. You can still read what I wrote, but this youtube guide will be more helpful.

You are going to want to lower your lerp from the default of 100 so type the following in:
cl_interp_ratio 0 (default 2)
cl_updaterate 9999 (default 20)

This following part is to help you get the lerp you want
for lerp 0.1 type cl_interp 0 in console
for lerp 0 type cl_interp 0 + cl_updaterate 65500
for lerp 10 type cl_interp 0.01
for lerp 20 type cl_interp 0.02
ect. Default is 0.1

To test that these settings have worked type net_graph 1 in console and it should look something like this:


You can only change all the settings in spectator mode or in the tf2 menu. I recommend typing them in the tf2 menu to ensure all of the settings are changed.

If you want you can also change your m_yaw (how fast the camera moves left and right) and m_pitch (up and down) the default for both is 0.022.

You can also change your weapon fov or turn it off completely. the default is 54, decrease the number to see less of your flamethrower, or increase it to see more of it. This is all down to preference and should not affect how you play. To change it use viewmodel_fov (default 54). To turn it off use r_drawviewmodel 0 (default 1)

My settings for anyone interested are
cl_interp_ratio 0
cl_updaterate 9999
cl_interp 0.01
m_yaw 0.029
viewmodel_fov 65

Playing dodgeball

The mechanics of playing dodgeball are fairly simple. When the rocket targets you, you will hear a beep. When the rocket gets close enough you airblast it away by clicking m2 (right click on mouse). If you move your mouse fast enough in a particular way, you can get the rocket to move in certain ways (I will go into more detail later on in the guide) or you can use the movement keys to manipulate the rocket in order to make it easier to deal with if you miss the initial hit on the rocket. (known as orbiting which i will cover later on as well). With the actual gameplay of dodgeball being fairly straight forward I will keep this section short and move on to the techniques of dodgeball.

things to remember

1. The rocket speeds up
2. walls will alter how the rocket moves, and might end up killing you if you try to orbit with a wall behind you
3. The beep means the rocket is coming for you
4. it's easier to move and airblast the rocket than to stay still
5. have fun

Fov and a bit more info

1. Fov or field of view is another factor of dodgeball. It is 100% preference, but I can only reccomend to not use a super low fov or a super high fov. I personally use the default of 90, but it is very common for people to use between 70-120 fov. To change this type !fov 90 into the chat of a server, but replacing 90 with your chosen fov.

I reccomend to keep the same fov for a while, as you will never get used to the fov if you keep changing it, thus not improving as much as you play

2. to get better at dodgeball it takes alot of practise, but this is always sped up if you try to leave your settings alone. If you keep changing your settings you will end up not mastering any settings, resulting in never getting great at dodgeball.

3. Practise practise practise

4. Don't copy other peoples settings unless it also works for you. Things such as lerp, fov, sensitivity, weapon viewmodel fov and so on are all preference. I have seen many guides only reccomending 0 lerp for example, but you should find a lerp that suits you. Remember to pick one and stick with it for a while. if you find yourself always hitting too early you can try increasing your lerp, and if you are hitting to late you can decrease it. You can only adjust it based on your own judgement, but my advice is don't change it too often or you will never give any lerp a propper chance.

5. Don't necissarily try and copy someone elses play style. you should find your own, wether it is statuing, dragging the sh*t out of the rocket, or just reflecting it without dragging it what so ever. Whatever playstyle you enjoy will usually work the best, hence why you should find your own instead of copying someone else. They might be really good, but it's because they are more accustomed to the playstyle

6. Have fun. Without having fun what is the point of playing the game. (might repeat this, but it's probably the most important step ;) )

Dodgeball techniques introduction

Whilst playing dodgeball you will see people do all sorts of things to try and manipulate the rocket to do what they want, from making it go behind them, to have the rocket follow them in a circle, to where the rocket and how the rocket flies after it gets airblasted. Below I will cover as many of the techniques as possible.

Orbiting

To orbit you simply start walking in a circle (w-a-s-d) whilst the rocket is following you on the outside, and simply right click when the rocket is about to or is in front of you.

switching

To switch simply drag the rocket to the left or to the right to change the person the rocket targets. This works with orbiting as well. Instead of dragging you can simply just aim in the direction or at a specific person when you airblast and it should switch.

Upspike

To upspike you can simply drag the rocket up or aim up and airblast. You can do this whilst orbiting as well. I find it easier to upspike whilst orbiting if i crouch just before or just as i airblast.

downspike

To downspike simply aim down or drag the rocket down when you airblast.

backfire

To backfire you just have to orbit a little bit so the rocket goes behind you and aim behind you at the rocket and airblast. you can also do this when the rocket is upspiked and lands behind you by simply turning around and airblasting at the right time.

Directs

Directs are where the rocket goes in one direction then changes direction and goes directly to another player. Directs are usually harder to hit and are a useful technique to learn. I find the easiest way to do a direct is to follow this pattern: here[gyazo.com]
You need to do the movement fairly fast which is why a high sensitivity works better.

Other direct variants.

there are some other direct variants such as the side direct. To do this move your mouse in the shape of a C with the start and end point being where you want the final direction to be. e.g. if you want the rocket to target someone to the right do a normal C if you want it to target someone to the left do a backwards C.

Third person

Third person is a change in camera angle whilst playing dodgeball. You can enter this mode by typing !tp or !thirdperson. To get back to first person type !fp or !firstperson . I personally do not enjoy playing in third person, and am not particularly good at it as you will see below, but it is by no means worse. You can do the same stuff to the rocket in third person as in first person. It is meerly a change of perspective.

This video below was posted by jagermeister, who as you will see is extremely good at dodgeball in the third person perspective.
link to his channel - ( https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCMnzBKEhfqurInG85iO807g/featured )

Close quarter combat (CQC)

Close quarter combat is exactly what it says on the tin. You are just close to someone else when against them. This requires a good knowledge of how the rocket performs, fast reactions and good timing. I recorded this footage after not playing dodgeball for a while so I was fairly bad (I might update the videos at some point)

statuing

Statuing is where you play dodgeball as you would normally except without moving. Here I demonstrate what statuing is like, but as you will see I executed it fairly poorly.

down then upspike.

to down the upspike you simply point the mouse down when you first airblast then quickly drag up. You can also drag down then up very quickly, but it will take some trial and error to get this correct before you can do it consistently.

backdragging

Backdragging achieves the same result as backfiring, but it does not require you looking behind you. You need to drag the rocket backwards as seen in the video at the right time in order for it to continue travelling back before going back over itself.

360-ing

360-ing is a bit more complicated than some of the other techniques. It requires moving 360 degrees but no more or no less so you are aiming forwards again afterwards. The timing is also important to hit the rocket.

advanced orbiting.

Advanced orbiting is still relatively simple. It just requires being used to how the rocket moves, jumping at the right time and so on. in the video I merely half orbit and drag the rocket from behind me instead of letting it come all the way in front of me.

Rallying

For those who know dodgeball already, you will probably see people fighting one on one getting to high speeds intentionally or unintentionally. To do this you simply need to have a good feeling for the rocket. You just need to remember to be patient with the rocket as it won't be consistent in the time it takes to get to you. Remember to airblast when it is close, and when you get more confident with rallying you can start to add drags to it. Here I have demonstrated a rally against a bot (pretty drag heavy) just to demonstrate what it can look like from someones perspective.

Some dodgeball gameplay

Here is some dodgeball gameplay just to give an idea what its like during a round.

some recommended servers.

For beginners
Panda servers
panda 04 (faster server) 193.192.59.191:27045
panda 19 (slower server for beginners) 176.57.142.80:27015
panda 29 (faster server) 176.57.142.80:27115

for anyone
(my favorite server) eternals 45.76.86.201:27015
blackwonder 176.57.141.9:27030
tawerna (eu) 185.140.120.100:27015
akod (very fast) 79.137.78.241:27015

these are all EU servers by the way.

Outro

Thanks for reading my guide, and if you have any questions or any suggestions please leave them down below.
This is my first guide so I am bound to have made a mistake somewhere, maybe missed some techniques or just went too in depth in areas I should of skimmed over.
Any suggestions are deeply appreciated.

edit: just an achievement i hit recently:


Edit: i have since hit a higher speed of 44600

[invis ⍥range]

kinda depends on if you are playing cqc first person or third person. I notice a lot of cqc third person players have a high fov and look at the floor making most their returns downspikes. I was never much of a cqc player so I can't give that many tips, however through playing more cqc you will find your own style. When I cqc I tend to try and predict when the enemy will airblast so I can instantly airblast it back, or I try to throw them off with downspikes and back drags. I play first person @90 fov

[a]

what are the basics of CQC

[a]

hot

[00m]

sperm

[homo erectus]

damn that mode used to be popping wayyy back when. its a lot more fun than speed dodgeball (this) if you can ever try it

[invis ⍥range]

panda servers have nukes but multiple rockets I can't think of any

[homo erectus]

are there any servers that host the other version of db, with nukes and a lot of rrockets. can't find any

[ves]

orbit

[invis ⍥range]

these videos are oldish now. My play style is probably different to the videos. As for the stuff I missed, I am sure people can figure some of that stuff out.
and thanks.

[Neek]

Not many guides would give you examples and the way to do it. Anyway there is some stuff that newbies needs to know.
- Pyrovisions Googles removes the rocket smoke, like if you orbit too much and the smoke fills your entire screen, the googles helps.
- Each servers has different rocket base speed and turn rate. For example, in one server, the rocket would instantly go to your back when the opponent do a heaven (extreme upspike) on you; In different server, the rocket would go few meters from your back, then turn to you, which messes your backshot timing.