by William Bentley

Created on: May 15, 2009

The spy in Team Tortress 2, is arguably the single most powerful and terrifying aspect of any team when played properly, however when not used correctly a spy is about as much use as a flamethrower underwater.

This conveniently brings me onto my first point, avoid pyros like the plague, if you see one running towards you, its usually best to assume he's on to you and either cloak and run to the nearest body of water (where you can mock him until you take an axe in the face), or pull out the magnum and hope you can drop him faster than he can reach you, (even if he dies after setting you on fire your probably dead, 125hp lasts about 3 seconds if anyone else spots the fact your glowing the wrong colour). However its not all bad news, its a little known fact that pyros are one of the easiest classes to backstab, many spies go nowhere near them because they're terrified of being imolated and pyros have come to believe they are almost godlike in comparison to the spy, prove their perception of invulnerability wrong and plant your knife firmly in their backs, nine times out of ten they will never see it coming, and if they do revert to the previous tactic of running away.

The second bit of advice I have to offer, is that while you are disguised, melee weapons seem to have some mystical power to automatically critical if even waved in your direction, this can be particuarly annoying against medics, as not only are they faster than you, but as soon as that bonesaw they seem to love wielding connects with your frail little body, your looking at a lengthy respawn time while the 25% of uber charge you just provided dismantles your team. If you ever suspect someone is on to you, you are presented with 3 options, run screaming like a small child; pull your revolver and plug a couple of rounds into them before slinking off into the shadows; or the always comical matador approach, where as they charge forwards you hold your ground until the last possible moment, before casually side stepping and planting your knifre firmly in your opponents back, most of the time this technique will fail, but if your particuarly skilled (or just naturally lucky) its funny to watch the angry and slightly surprised response of the person now lying at your feet (Usually involving calling you a hacker or lagger, most of the time using somewhat more colourful vocabulary).

To be most effective as the spy, you want to get inside the enemies head, after getting a few succesful backstabs using one disguise, the enemy will get used to it and begin attacking that class on sight, this is the perfect time to change your get-up, as not only will it help make your appearance more credible, but after a few different disguises, your opponents will suspect anyone and everyone on their team and the resulting anarchy should give you and your team precious additional time to destroy the opposition.

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