QWTF (QuakeWorld Team Fortress) Clan/Map/Weapon Study

Introduction

For over six years, I have been collecting QWTF match demo files, capturing them to video, and posting them on YouTube. In addition, I have been accumulating a large collection of match data thanks to Erik Selberg's (a.k.a. >V<SPEEDenator) excellent SPEEDStats script. Recently, I decided to start investigating this large and unique dataset to see what insights could be gleaned from it.

My sincere thanks to SPEEDenator for his aforementioned SPEEDStats script, without which this study would not have happened. I also thank lunk[DJedi] for his willingness to host my site for several years now. Finally, I thank all of those who have contributed their QWTF match demos to my project, whether by direct donation of QWD files or simply by taking some step long ago to prevent their files from being lost on a broken hard drive. This project is driven by your data, and so I thank you.

On this page, I present findings on how specific clans achieved their frags with specific weapons on the most popular maps. I chose the 20 clans and the 11 maps for which I had the most data on which to perform my assessment.

The Clans

The Maps

About Heatmaps

For each map (or map aggregation), I present two heatmaps. In each heatmap, each row represents the aggregated frags for a single clan for all of their matches on that map for the top 16 weapons by frag count for the entire dataset. The first row of the first heatmap, for example, represents the aggregation of all of Digital Jedi's frags for the 16 most popular weapons in my entire dataset. For each clan-weapon combination, there is a single block in the heatmap. The lighter the block, the more frags Digital Jedi had with that weapon as a percentage of all of their frags. In the first heatmap, the blocks for Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher are almost the exact same shade, meaning that on these maps, Digital Jedi had nearly equal numbers of Sniper Rifle and Rocket Launcher frags. I'm 12, on the other hand, has a Sniper Rifle block that is much lighter than their Rocket Launcher block, meaning that I'm 12 had many more Sniper Rifle frags than Rocket Launcher frags. In contrast, clans such as wTf, The Nothing, FOLD, and Clan in a Box have a Rocket Launcher block that is much brighter than the Sniper Rifle block, meaning that they had many more Rocket Launcher frags than Sniper Rifle frags.

Because it is immediately apparent that the rocket launcher is, in most cases, the most popular weapon by far, I have prepared for each map a second heatmap, one that removes soldier weapons (Rocket Launcher, Soldier Super Shotgun, Soldier Hand Grenade) from the list of weapons, allowing us some idea of how the other weapons stack up against each other.

On the left side of each heatmap is a dendogram. Essentially, it shows how similar or dissimilar different clans are. For example, in the first heatmap, Digital Jedi and MA are quite similar, and r3m is the next most similar clan to both of those clans. In contrast, the bottom six clans on the heatmap are quite dissimilar from those three clans. Similarly, along the top of each heatmap is a dendogram for the different weapons. In most cases, the less-used weapons are all grouped pretty tightly because they really can't compare with the few most popular weapons, in particular the Rocket Launcher.

The Data

My starting dataset is the collection of 854 matches (as of this writing) that I have assembled over the years. For each match, I have data generated by SPEEDStats. For this study, I am using aggregate frags by weapon counts by class for each match for each clan's members. In other words, for each match, I count how many frags there are with each weapon by each class by the clan in question's members. For example, if I am considering Marauder, if Marauder had three soldiers in a match, I aggregate their frags with each weapon as Marauder-soldier frags. If Marauder's opponents had soldiers, I do not consider their frags. In the case of a weapon shared by more than one class, such as the super shotgun, frags by each class with that weapon are tracked separately. For example, if five Marauder soldiers combine for 10 frags by super shotgun and two Marauder medics combine for 30 frags by super shotgun, the 10 Marauder-soldier-super shotgun frags and the 30 Marauder-medic-super shotgun frags are tracked separately.

I have written a Python script and a set of Python classes that parse each individual SPEEDStats page and extract all pertinent information. The script aggregates and organizes the quantitative information from each match. I then export the data to a CSV file. I read the CSV file into R, wherein I created each heatmap.

For each comparison, I extract the pertinent information about each of the weapons in the comparison according to the following rules:

For each comparison, I use the percentage of a clan's frags that were achieved with each weapon. In this way, I am able to do a clan-by-clan comparison without the frags from a clan with many matches overwhelming the frags from a clan with fewer matches.

The Heatmaps

DISCUSSION: Clearly, the Rocket Launcher and the Sniper Rifle were the most commonly used weapons on these maps. Only the Soldier Hand Grenade comes anywhere close to those weapons. Clanwise, the clans appear to fall into three groups: 1) Rocket Launcher clans, 2) Sniper Rifle clans, and 3) mixed clans. Note that All Out Assault had significantly more Sentry Gun frags than any other clan.


DISCUSSION: Unsurprisingly, with Soldier weapons removed, the Sniper Rifle dominates the heatmap. Otherwise, only the Pipe Bomb, Grenade Launcher, and Sentry Gun appear to make any significant dent in the heatmap.



DISCUSSION: Again, the Rocket Launcher dominates, as no other weapon comes close to its impact. Aside from that, the Soldier Hand Grenade, the Pipe Bomb, and the Sentry Gun again make the most differnce. Clanwise, the clans appear to split into three groups: 1) Completely Soldier, 2) Almost Completely Soldier, and 3) ROCK, doing their own thing.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the impact of Demomen on 32smooth comes to the fore, as the demoman often was the best defense at the flag with his Pipe Bombs. The dichotomy between clans that favored the Sentry Gun on Defense vs. the Pipe Bomb (or which of the two had more impact since they were often used together) becomes clearer. Otherwise, the Scout Nailgun and the Grenade Launcher register, showing that Scouts often had to have some fragging ability on this map, and that it was with Demomen that they often tangled. Clanwise, Gothic Terror stands out for their use of Snipers as well as Wolvesmoon for their reliance on Demomen vs. Engineers.



DISCUSSION: Again, the Rocket Launcher dominates, with the Soldier Hand Grenade and Pipe Bomb also appearing.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the use of Pipe Bombs becomes much clearer. Gothic Terror stands out for their reliance upon Snipers and Sentries for frags and Marauder for their absence of Snipers and use of Scouts and Medics (most likely courtesy of yours truly). r3m also stand out for their Medic frags.



DISCUSSION: Rocket Launcher, Soldier Hand Grenade, Sniper Rifle. Clanwise, clans either had good Snipers or they didn't.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the Sniper Rifle is the clear champion. Clanwise, MA are the other outlier, with their use of Medics and higher than normal fragging by Scouts.



DISCUSSION: With sniping impractical on h4rdcore, the Pipe Bomb supplants it as the usual favored non-Soldier weapon, although I'm 12 and Gothic Terror apparently did try to snipe somewhat. Clanwise, MA stand out for their use of Sentry Guns.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, all of the Demoman weapons become much more obvious. Scout Nailgun frags become more obvious, too. Clanwise, Marauder stand out for their use of Medics in addition to Gothic Terror and I'm 12's use of Snipers.



DISCUSSION: Again, Rocket Launcher dominates, but the balance between Sniper frags and Demoman frags is apparent. Interestingly, Pipe Bombs aren't as popular as on other maps, probably because the flag area affords the Demoman little place to hide. Clanwise, the clans fall into three groups based upon preferred defensive setup.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the Sentry-Demoman divide becomes much clearer, though the Sniper Rifle has the single largest value thanks to Finale. Clanwise, Digital Jedi's Engineers did an unusual amount of fragging with their Super Shotguns. As mentioned, Finale liked using Snipers (possibly on offense), whereas clans like MA and Digital Jedi completely eschewed Snipers.



DISCUSSION: Soldiers, Pipe Bombs, Sentries. The clans are grouped by which of those three they favor on defense.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the different philosophies become apparent. Digital Jedi preferred the Sentry Gun defense, Clan in a Box favored Pipe Bombs, while other clans preferred a more mixed approach.



DISCUSSION: The Rocket Launcher dominates so much that the other weapons hardly register. Clanwise, MA are oddballs for not using a Sniper. Otherwise, clans either had quite good Snipers or they did not.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the Pipe Bomb-Sniper Rifle split is more obvious. MA stand out for eschewing Snipers for Engineers, while Digital Jedi and macfortress did much more fragging with Snipers than with Demomen.



DISCUSSION: Finally, the Rocket Launcher doesn't completely dominate! With its wide-open spaces, the Sniper Rifle was a popular weapon on well6, even on offense. Otherwise, the other weapons, even Demoman weapons, have a hard time comparing. Clanwise, the two broad groups appear to be those that favor the Sniper Rifle for frags or those that favor the Rocket Launcher. macfortress stand out for their minimal sniping.


DISCUSSION: With Soldiers removed, the Sniper's influence is quite clear. Inerestingly, the Medic weapons show up as have about as much influence as the Pipe Bomb, in some cases more. This is not surprising as many clans favored a mobile medic in the water tunnels where his Super Nailgun would be effective. Clanwise, the two main groups are determined by how effective their Medics were.



To Do

Contact Information

Comments? Please feel free to contact me (Tickenest) at my Gmail address (it's easy to guess). Thank you for reading.