Stevepander
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Stevepander
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Stevepander is a Polish-English pyro main, currently playing for Highpander in ETF2L Prem and Samsung Galaxy Gang in UGC Platinum. He currently studies Undergraduate Mathematics at the University of Nottingham.
The (not so) Humble Beginnings
The Highlander pyro main started his TF2 career on a Polish community server, Stajnia Ogarów. He has been playing in both ETF2L and UGC since some of their earliest HL seasons. In 2012, Stevepander joined Max-Play Highlander Team, where he went on to play and win in UGC's Platinum Season 8. Max-Play continued on to play ETF2L's Experimental HL Cup #3 where they lost in the final against SNSD's fun team. This landed the team a spot in ETF2L's Prem in season 3, although they were knocked out in relegation matches against DAROUTOUTOU and colony. After a disappointing season of straight loses in Div 1, MPHT disbanded and Steve was left team-less.
Simply The Best
In the summer of 2013, Stevepander got in contact with Hildreth. After reviewing some demos together and speaking briefly, Hildreth decided Stevepander would be a good potential fit for his new HL project. The team was originally supposed to include sad panda, though that partnership ultimately failed. Stevepander and Hildreth continued to try and complete the roster, which resulted in the creation of Highpander.
Despite having limited experience at the top of highlander, Stevepander quickly made a name for himself. On Highpander, he's reached playoffs in every season they competed in, and Stevepander himself was a key puzzle piece in achieving this feat.
ETF2L hosts an award show after each season, and for the last 4 seasons in a row he has taken home the Pyro of the Season award.
- Pyro of the Season, ETF2L Highlander Season 8
- Pyro of the Season, ETF2L Highlander Season 7
- Pyro of the Season, ETF2L Highlander Season 6
- Pyro of the Season, ETF2L Highlander Season 5
Stevepander will be making an appearance at DeutschLAN, playing for LANpander.
Playstyle
Stevepander is known as one of the most aggressive pyros. He often claims that just being a pocket pyro, focused on protecting the medic and combo, is a flawed playstyle that doesn't allow for unlocking the pyro's full potential. Instead, Steve opts to often go for small, short flanking bursts where he tries to engage in fights with his teammates, in order to quickly overwhelm the enemy's flank. Staying with the combo only when it's useful, for example when there's about to be an uber exchange, or the team has an uber advantage and they're expecting suicide waves. Stevepander pretty exclusively uses Degreaser, Shotgun and Powerjack as his loadout. This is mostly due to personal preference. The main benefit he will argue in the Secondary Weapon debate, is that Shotgun allows for greater flexibility in medium range fights, while also allowing for a respectable enough amount of short range burst. "Leave long range to snipers", says Steve!
