Domination

“

The burning you feel? It is shame. Click to listen — The Heavy

”

A Domination is a reward received for killing, or assisting in killing, one particular enemy four times without said enemy killing or assisting in a kill against you in between. If you dominate a player, a distinct sound cue plays and you become their Nemesis. You will see a small target icon next to the dominated player on the scoreboard. If a player dominates you, a slightly different sound cue plays. You will see an icon of two fists on the scoreboard, as well as the same icon, albeit team-colored, above your Nemesis. If you kill your Nemesis, or assist in killing them, they will lose their Domination and status as your Nemesis; this is known as a Revenge kill.

Dominations in one life are counted in your all-time stats. When dominating players, a medal symbol will appear next to your name on the scoreboard along with a number indicating how many opposing players you are currently dominating. Dominations are carried over map stages, but not over team or map changes. Team-swapping will cause all Dominations for and against you to be lost.

Dominating someone may sometimes produce a special audio response from your class. Dominating several people in one round will result in increasingly enthusiastic responses from your character.

Nemesis

When a player becomes your Nemesis, they sport a distinctive icon above their head which allows you to identify them (unless they are currently a Cloaked or disguised Spy). Only you can see this icon. If your Nemesis kills you, the Deathcam will identify them as such, and state that you have been killed "again" by them.

It is possible to have any number of opposing players as your Nemesis at once. Upon killing a Nemesis, you gain a Revenge kill, which counts towards your player stats, and the player loses their status as your Nemesis.

The Nemesis feature was added to promote relationships between players, creating a small negative reinforcement loop by giving players an opportunity to score extra points with a Revenge kill.

Revenge

Killing your Nemesis is called a Revenge kill. This is accompanied by a short sound cue and a special kill notice on the HUD. Obtaining a Revenge kill will also produce a short audio response by your class.

A Revenge kill is worth double the points received for a regular kill, and will remove your Nemesis' Domination against you. Revenge kills in one life, as well as in your player history, count towards your all-time stats. Players receive the Nemesis achievement upon collecting 5 total Revenge kills in their all-time stats. A Revenge kill can also occur during Humiliation, which is a highly advantageous and satisfying time to get one as your Nemesis will be cowering and completely vulnerable.

Related achievements

General

A Fresh Pair of Eyes Dominate a player using the Pyrovision Goggles and earn your own pair! Reward: Pyrovision Goggles BFF² Have 2 BEST FRIENDS at the same time.

Nemesis Get five Revenge kills.

 Soldier

Dominator Get 3 dominations in a single life.

Trench Warfare Kill your nemesis with a shovel.

 Pyro

BarbeQueQ Cause a dominated player to leave the server.

 Demoman

Three Times a Laddy Dominate three Engineers.

There Can Be Only One Decapitate your nemesis.

 Heavy

Icing on the Cake Get 20 kills on players that you're dominating. Lenin A Hand Help 5 teammates get revenge on their nemeses.

Red Oktoberfest Earn a domination for a Medic who's healing you.

 Medic

Doctor Assisted Homicide Assist in killing 20 nemeses.

 Sniper

Australian Rules Dominate an enemy Sniper.

Rode Hard, Put Away Wet Jarate an enemy that you're dominating.

 Spy

High Value Target Backstab an enemy who is dominating 3 or more of your teammates. Come in from the Cold Get a Revenge kill with a backstab.

The Melbourne Supremacy Dominate a Sniper.

Scarechievements

Ghastly Gibus Grab Dominate a player wearing any achievement Gibus hat to earn your own Ghastly Gibus.

Update history

May 27, 2010 Patch

• Fixed domination/revenge messages not using team colors for the player names.

March 19, 2013 Patch

• Fixed a scoreboard bug where domination count was reduced by 2 when a dominated player left the server.

Bugs

An autobalanced nemesis.

• If you trigger the feigned death of Dead Ringer Spies who were dominated or revenge-killed in their past life as any class, the kill feed will announce that you are dominating or have taken revenge upon them, but the scoreboard will say otherwise.
• Sometimes, after an autobalance moves a dominated player to the nemesis' team or vice-versa, the nemesis icon may remain visible above the player.
• As Medic,if healing a enemy Spy that Backstab someone you get a Kill Assist (and your name appears as the enemy team color),after this happen many times,you can dominate your own teammate.

Trivia

• Dominations were originally created to make player interactions have a more personal feel and encourage individual competition.
• Dominating enemies with kill assists will not trigger voice responses from your class, but the class who was awarded the kill.
  • This effect also applies with revenge.
• Killing a Spy who is using the Dead Ringer (if it is the 4th time you have killed said player) will notify you that you have dominated him. Once he de-cloaks however, he will no longer be "Dominated". Death-feigning Spies do not produce a fake revenge.
• No actual numerical medal will appear on the score screen next to the name of a player who has beyond 16 dominations, due to no scoreboard symbol existing for such an occasion.
• Those in Pyroland will see Dominations and Revenge kills as "Player is BEST FRIENDS with Player" and "Player BROKE UP with Player", respectively.
• It is possible for a player to dominate someone on their own team. This is done by a Medic healing an enemy Spy using an enemy disguise whom backstabs a teammate of the Medic, thus giving the Medic an assist for the death of his own teammate.

Gallery

• 

  The Domination icon that appears on the scoreboard.

• 

  RED Nemesis icon that appears above the head of a player's Nemesis.

• 

  BLU version of this icon.

Scoreboard symbols

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

See also

• Dueling Mini-Game