Web Animation / Team Service Announcement

*random sound effect*

"Team Service Announcement" is a series where the common mistakes and unused strategies of new and inexperienced players are blown out of proportion and explained in an attempt to help those who make them, as well as make my life less horrible. If you know someone who's new to the game is in need of some pointers, or just want to spread the message, share the videos and help improve the community. If you're a frustrated player who would like something addressed, or a new player who would like something explained, leave it in the comments section, and maybe I'll animate it.

—The statement at the end of every video description.

Team Service Announcement is a machinima series of shorts set in Team Fortress 2, made by "Krunkidile" with Source Filmmaker, and hosted on YouTube. Each video addresses a particular topic about TF2's multiplayer, in order to help new players to get better at the game. They cover advice about various tactics, ways to be helpful, when to try different methods, and how to avoid embarrassing deaths. Each one includes a great deal of humor and personality as well. The entire series can be seen here.

Krunkidile doesn't really make new episodes of the series too often for three reasons: 1: The advice is getting trickier to convey through SFM shorts, 2: people watch them for entertainment rather than education, and 3: Because they're not fun to make all the time, Although Krunkidile isn't against continuing the series overall.

This series provides examples of:

• Absurdly Ineffective Barricade: Exits and Entrances has the BLU team set up in front of their main entrance... completely ignoring the side passage the RED Demoman and Medic make use of.
• All Just a Dream: Compression Blast is set in a daydream of a Pyro, which explains bizarre events like the airblast being gale-force-wind levels of strong.
• Alt Text: The description for each video has an explanation of the lesson in plain English.
• Artificial Stupidity: In-universe in Fake Players. All the bots can be told apart by their frequent idiocy, such as running into walls, not seeking health when weak, and using the wrong weapons for the wrong situation. One of the bot Pyros gets a moment of Artificial Brilliance by managing to airblast a rocket that came from behind... only to go back to burning a wall trying to kill the Demoman on top of it.
• Aside Glance: When the Engineer slaps the Scout and leaves in "Teleporters", Scout looks at the screen for a second with a very "What just happened?" look to his face.
• Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: In The Kritzkrieg;
  BLU Soldier: If you know what's good for you, you will run!
  RED Demoman: Kill 'em!
  (All present RED team members are gibbed except Demoman and Sniper)
  RED Demoman: RUN!
• Beat: A very drawn-out one usually happens right before someone is about to be spectacularly and humiliatingly owned.
• Broken Record: "It's like Christmas morning. It's like Christmas morning. It's like Christmas morning."
• Bystander Syndrome: The point of Attention and Initiative; members of the RED team keep noticing threats in time to do something about them, but never actually do anything about them.
• Call-Back:
  • Objectives plays the same music as in Subtlety when the BLU Spy is being sneaky.^note "Sneakman" by Hideki Naganuma.
  • The Soldier in Grenade Launcher says "I've got a good feeling about this!" in a bad situation just like he did in Unlockable Weapons.
    • Grenade Launcher also calls back to Pop It, Don't Drop It in Demoman's penultimate volley of grenades, where an unfortunate medic is absolutely overwhelmed by firepower.
  • The BLU Scout in Scout Combat screams while running just as he did in Subtlety.
  • Cooperative Engineering features a Sniper saying "It's like Christmas mornin'" twice just like he did in Class Balance.
  • The part from Subtlety where the Spy is about to backstab his target is used in Soldiers Vs. Pyros, except that the loud noise is caused by Soldier's rocket explosion instead.
• The Cameo:
  • FemScout makes an appearance in Pop it, Don't Drop It, dancing with the other BLU folks.
  • Spider-Man can be seen several times.
  • Dante and Gordon Freeman are seen dancing in the "Exits and Entrances" video.
  • Elizabeth and Nemesis (in a blonde afro) are seen doing the thumbs up in "Cooperative Engineering". A common joke is that the former universe-hopped into the TF2 universe to find the current version of Comstock she was going to kill, who happened to be a Soldier.
  • Hatsune Miku, Godzilla, and Unit-01 appear as challengers to Soldier in Soldiers vs Pyros.
• Combining Mecha: Parodied in Fake Players. Several AI controlled players, i.e. "bots", combine to form a single bot with people for legs and arms.
• invokedCreator's Apathy: Invoked at times. Make a dumb request for a video and constantly nag him about it, and Krunkidile will respond with a horrific monstrosity loosely addressing your topic.
  Krunkidile: Deep Serpent Assignments are not Team Service Announcements. They are what happens when someone suggests an idea for a Team Service Announcement, but says it in a way that makes me want to do it, but not put any effort into it. So I spend an hour barely animating and mixing together six songs and then slap it on YouTube with a name that voices one of my grievances.
• Crippling Overspecialization:
  • Exaggerated in Class Balance, where the entire BLU team is Snipers (save for a single Medic, who looks ready to leave the server), all of them oblivious to the fact that they're losing the King of the Hill match.
  • Demoknights and Battle-Medics: The Demoknight is useless against the Sentry nest, but not against the two guys who snuck up on the Soldier, saving his life. Battle-Medic, however, is completely useless, and the Soldier rejects him.
• Crucified Hero Shot: The Sniper is seen posing like a crucifix at the end of Cooperative Engineering. This has no relevance to the rest of the video whatsoever.
• Dance Party Ending: The ending of Teleporters.
• Edutainment Show: The videos are funny, while the descriptions spell out the flaw and solution the video's addressing (Pop It, Don't Drop It addresses the value of a solo Ubercharge, for instance).
• Entitled Bastard: In Metal and Dispensers, the RED Soldier causes a ton of trouble for his team's Engineer by wasting the ammo crate during the setup period. Later he dashes to him demanding a dispenser... but the Engineer doesn't feel all that obliged. This ends up turning into a subversion, as not only does the Engineer and the Soldier arguing result in them being blown up by the BLU Demoman, but the description points out denying someone a dispenser can be just as bad as wasting ammo others need.
• Everybody's Dead, Dave: In The Kritzkrieg, the Announcer tells the RED Engineer "Your team is dead. Good luck."
• Every Episode Ending: "LEARN", followed by a random sound from the game. Occasionally replaced with a different word, such as "FROG" in Melee.
• Failed a Spot Check:
  • In Objectives, the spawn camping RED Team fails to notice a lone BLU spy that made it past them. This proves fatal.
  • BLU tries their hardest pushing the cart in Body Blocking, failing to notice the RED Spy hiding in front of it who's canceling their efforts.
  • All the BLU Snipers in Class Balance don't seem to see the RED Heavy capturing the King of the Hill control point.
  • Heck, Attention and Initiative is built around a particularly brutal Double Subversion, because it shows RED Team not responding to any threat to their progress, noticing the problems just in time to help but not actually helping.
• Fastball Special: Done twice in Demoknights and Battle Medics, the first time has an Engineer pick up his sentry and throw it at said Medic, then Soldier picks up a spy and throws it at the sentry nest sapping everything in there. He tries it again against the 2 players dominating him.
• Flanderization: In Unlockable Weapons, the BLU Soldier is a competent if overoptimistic fighter who got cornered by a Scout. In Grenade Launcher he's Too Dumb to Live.
• Flat "What": In Cooperative Engineering, the Engineer mutters "What..." when he sees that his Sentry is, among other abuse, being danced on by a robot.
• Flipping the Bird: In Pop it, Don't Drop it, the BLU Medic survives an ambush by the entire RED team, by using his Ubercharge just in time. How does he celebrate his survival? By flipping them off. With both hands. While wearing sunglasses. Surrounded by dancing Scouts and Heavies. While "Dream a Dream" by Captain Jack plays.
  • This pose was later modded as a taunt to replace the "Meet the Medic" taunt. It got so popular that Valve actually increased the price of the MtM taunt because so many people were buying it to replace it.
• Friendship Moment:
  • In Medkits, after seeing that the (visibly on fire) Medic needs the small health pack more than he does, the Heavy suddenly gets the clever idea to give the Medic his Sandvich instead (which acts as a medium health pack by comparison), top his own health off with the Medi Gun, then use the small health kit leftover to refill his Sandvich meter and share a snack with his Medic friend. The bit ends with the Heavy hugging the Medic with one hand while a wigged Soldier in the background sings "That's fuckin' Teamwork~!"
  • When both Demoman and Pyro prepare to use the teleporter in "Teleporters", Demoman chooses to Rocket Jump instead and let Pyro have it.
• Funny Background Event: Krunkidile is fond of putting these throughout the series.
  • One of the Snipers in Class Balance is aiming and shooting his kukri.
  • At the end of Hanging Back, the BLU Pyro can be seen looking back at the fishes that suddenly show up.
  • In Over-Extending, while the rest of the BLU team raises their guns to shoot the reckless Soldier, the Demoman raises… his Frying Pan. Also, in Exits and Entrances, Miniham.
  • In Objectives, as the panicking RED team rushes to the payload, the Engineer can be seen with a toolbox on his shoulder. Once they get there though, the RED team has lost, so his toolbox disappears. You can see him realize the box is missing and drop his arms.
  • Most of Spy Checking, particularly a cross-dressing dancing Scout.
• Gory Discretion Shot: In Attention And Initiative, after the BLU Engineer uses a teleporter to summon Heavy, Medic, Soldier, and Pyro, the heavy carnage is shown offscreen.
• Heroic BSoD:
  • The BLU Medic in Class Balance when witnessing his worst fear come true: his entire team is Snipers.
  • The Engineer in Sentry Knockback, when he sees the Medic blocking his Sentry's gunfire.
• Humiliation Conga: The BLU Spy in Spy-Checking gets burned by two Pyros, riddled with bullets by two Heavies, bumps into a fat Engineer when his target passes through him, and when he tries to make a getaway by cloaking he forgets he's still on fire and thus completely visible and doesn't even jump in the water under the bridge to escape, thus resulting in a thrown axe to the spine for his efforts.
• Ironic Echo:
  • All the BLU Snipers in Class Balance repeatedly mutter "It's like Christmas morning"... as does the RED Spy, because an enemy team full of nothing but Snipers is his dream come true.
  • The BLUs in Unlockable Weapons express joy in their new weapons... even after they stop being useful.
  Soldier: (is cornered, out of rockets, and his shotgun was replaced with the Battalion's Backup bugle) I've got a good feeling about— (blasted into the opposite wall by the Scout)
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: The RED Heavy in The Kritzkrieg gets impaled with a crocket. Which then explodes.
  Heavy's Decapitated Head: MY FLESH!
• Know When to Fold 'Em: The underlying message in "Overextending and Overcommitting" and "Blown Cover". Those situations can be salvaged by just not engaging the enemy and backing away.
• Kung Fu-Proof Mook: In The Kritzkrieg, the Soldier is able to kill almost the entire enemy team thanks to the Medic's Kritzkrieg, but is foiled by the Engineer's Sentry, which is immune to critical hits.
• Leeroy Jenkins: TF2 is about teamwork, so this tactic is frequently criticized.
  • In Over-Extending and Over-Committing, the poor RED Medic gets dragged into a suicidal charge by the Soldier. This goes as well as you'd expect.
  • The BLU Scout in Scout Combat doesn't understand how to run in anything but a straight line.
  • All it takes for the Sniper to avoid the W+M1 Pyro is to just move out of the way, and watch them hurl themself off a cliff.
• Leitmotif: "Sneakman" for the BLU Spy.
• Mind Screw: Melee is supposed be about when to use melee weapons, except the Sniper turns into a frog, and the Demoman starts flying...^note In context, the frog bit is a gag based on the original comment suggesting it misspelling "frag chance", which was probably referring to Critical Hit chance.
  • It's tame, however, compared to the non-TSA videos Krunkidile makes, which are... pretty out there.
• Mighty Glacier: In Ubercharge, Medic ignores the Demo and Soldier to focus on pocketing the Heavy (here seen as a massive rock-shape), and while revving up the minigun, the uber runs out, and they all die. The description notes that Heavy isn't very good to push with on an assault as he's too slow, and other classes, like Scout, Demo and Soldier do his job better in this instance (not to mention the minigun bulletspread).
• Mood Whiplash: W+M1 sounds pretty sophisticated with its Spanish music, and seemingly leads up to a huge duel. Then the Sniper sidesteps, the Pyro splats off a cliff, and the Sniper farts at his body.
• More Dakka: Parodied in Pop It, Don't Drop It, where the RED Medic has an automatic crossbow.^note As a side note, using mods or MvM upgrades to overflow the magazine of the Crusader's Crossbow initially made it behave this way until a patch capped its firerate for both balancing and performance reasons.
• Mundane Made Awesome:
  • Over-Extending and Over-Committing has the RED Soldier charging the BLU team with the RED Medic as a pole vault^note pay attention and you may notice the Medic bending in a way that should logically result in a Sickening "Crunch!". All to the tune of a Japanese pop ballad.
  • The Soldier logging out of a bot-filled server in "Fake Players" has him dramatically flying through a purple vortex after smashing through a bot pile-up.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero:
  • In Ranged Combat, just as the RED Sniper Jarated the BLU Spy, his Heavy, Soldier, and Scout teammates all pose as snipers, confusing and scaring off said BLU Spy. Then when the Sniper tried to get a clean kill off the running Spy, his focus got broken by the teammates trying to shoot the Spy with their short range weapons, allowing the Spy to run free. That really pissed the Sniper off to the point where he eventually slaps all 3 of them at once.
  • In Subtlety, the BLU Spy is about to land a backstab on the RED Heavy… only for the BLU Scout to rush forward and start whacking the Heavy with a frying pan. The Heavy is not pleased, and neither was the Spy.
• Offhand Backhand:
  • In Scout Combat, the RED Sniper does this with his sniper rifle for a headshot because the BLU Scout only knows how to run in straight lines.
  • The bot Pyro in Fake Players does this with a rocket. Alas, it's his only stroke of brilliance.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • The RED Team in Objectives when they hear the Administrator announce that the payload is nearly at the final checkpoint. While they're on the other side of the map.
  • The Engineer in Sentry Knockback when the Medic blocks his Sentry's gunfire. He doesn't snap out of it.
  • The RED Engineers in Building Placement when the Demoman destroys all their sentries… just as BLU Team's cart is about to reach the final checkpoint.
  • The BLU Medic in Pop It. Don't Drop It when his Soldier is sniped… and 21 REDs are all about to fire upon him.
• Overly Long Gag:
  • "It's like Christmas morning." *BANG* "It's like Christmas morning." *BANG* "It's like Christmas morning." *BANG*…"
  • *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up* *Thumbs-Up*
  • The Brass Beast lends itself to this:
    • The Heavy advancing slooooooooowly in Minigun Spinup.
    • The Heavy's arduous, cumbersome, and ultimately futile attempt to spin up his gun from a dead stop in Unlockable Weapons.
  • The RED Medic trying to land a short-range shot on the RED Heavy in The Crusader's Crossbow.
• Overt Operative: Precisely what should be avoided in Blown Cover, where spies that are discovered should flee and fire back in the process instead of sticking to what they do. The Spy in the TSA just bumbles around, bumping into RED soldiers and announcing his presence with "I am the spy!"
• Punny Name: Some of the music used in the series has been chosen simply because of the name; Sneakman (when Spy is being Sneaky), Slip Away (made in part by Gary Crockett), Nothing To Worry About (used in Revolvers when Spy tries fruitlessly to convince an Engineer to give up), while F.U.N is entirely based around using the song of the same name from Spongebob Squarepants
• Precision F-Strike: The Soldier at the end of Medkits sings "That's fucking teamwork!", from Tenacious D.
• Production Foreshadowing: Inadvertantly, but noticeable. As Krunkidile often uses items from the TF2 Steam Workshop in the videos, items might appear in a TSA video before they get implemented into the game itself. One example is in Demoknights and Battle-Medics, which has the Soldier use the Air Strike, but was released well before said item was implemented into Team Fortress 2.
• Real Life Writes the Plot: The Phlogistinator would have been about how to counter the Phlog, but a few days before it was uploaded, it got nerfed and became incredibly easy to deal with.
• Recurring Extra: The Medic with the Cockfighter, Marxman, and Crusader's Crossbow. He first appears in Building Placement, then Over-Extending and Over-Committing, has a memorable scene in Pop it, Don't Drop it, and is seen dancing with RED Heavy in Scout Combat.
  • Similarly (and coincidentally introduced in the same video as the Medic above), a serious-looking Demoman wearing the "Tavish Degroot Experience" will also appear occasionally. If Every Dramatic Team Fortress 2 Video is any indication, this seems to be Krunkidile's Author Avatar.
• Robotic Reveal: In Fake Players, when the BLU Soldier realizes everyone on the server is just a bot, everyone on the map reveals their artificialness and surrounds him.
• Rouge Angles of Satin: The gag in Melee where the Sniper gets turned into a frog was inspired by the comment requesting the video, which said "Oh idea how about when to use each classes melee weapon because they have a higher frog chance than projectile weapons"
  Krunkidile: I'm pretty sure by "frog chance," he meant "frag-chance," and by "frag-chance," he meant "crit-chance."
• Rule of Funny: The situations presented are usually exaggerated (almost to the point of unrealistic) versions of what could potentially happen in a game of Team Fortress 2.
• Smoke Shield: A justified example in Pop It, Don't Drop It — after the entire RED team has blasted the BLU medic with everything they've got, the smoke clears to reveal that the Medic survived by activating his Ubercharge.
• The Stinger:
  • Subtlety replaces the "LEARN" at the end with "ROCK" and shows the Soldier and Demoman jamming on their electric guitars.
  • Pop It, Don't Drop it has the Medic dancing by, still flipping off the other team.
• Stock Footage: Grenade Launcher uses pre-filmed footage from Pop It, Don't Drop It and... Godzilla?
• Tactical Rock–Paper–Scissors: The lesson in Unlockable Weapons is that none of the titular unlockables are straight upgrades; they have downsides and drawbacks as well as their new strengths.
• Take That!: The author will sometimes make jabs toward dramatic or romantic Team Fortress 2 SFM videos, due to finding the concept of it often strange or pretentious, such as this video in reference to this one.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: The BLU Medic gets hit with a barrage powerful enough to dig a hole to the Earth's center, just to make sure he dies. Good thing he Ubercharged in time.
• This Is Gonna Suck: The Engineer can only mutter "Well… darn" when the Spy pulls out his Revolver.
  • At the beginning of Kritzkrieg, the Heavy's reaction to a crit rocket sticking out of his stomach is an exasperated "Ohhhhh..."
• Too Dumb to Live:
  • The BLU Heavy in Minigun Spinup takes so long to walk anywhere with his revving Brass Beast that the RED Spy and Sniper decide assassinating him is just too easy to be fun. So instead they drive a steamroller over him.
  • The BLU Soldier in Grenade Launcher willingly stands on a stickybomb trap, claiming "I got a good feeling about this!"
• Touché: In The Revolver, the Spy responds "...you have done well" when the Engineer doesn't fall for his disguise and just smacks it off.
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: The Revolver points this out. If a backstab goes awry, well, the Spy still has a gun.
• The Worf Barrage: Pop It, Don't Drop It.

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LEARN