The explanation is pretty simple i guess. You fired before him. My guess is, the server is calculation from the moment of pressing fire.

Edit:
Or it is just bullshit what i wrote, since i remember i was fragged somtimes with bfg directly after spawn while this bfg had already a longer on it's way and i wasn't frozen.

wrote:

i would be for 5 seconds spawnprotection anyways

Would make me angry, fragging 2-3 people and you get no score.

tbh im uberhappy about spawnkillprotection, esp when i think about the old system in 1.03, where u were invincible but it was possible to shoot u into a corner until protection was off.. esp in ftag this new system makes a lot of sense imo, and the timing is pretty perfect

spawn protection is one of the best things in e+ when you consider how it gives you a chance to actually play the game, and not get spawn raped, so I'm for keeping it
I remember when I first started playing e+ on 1.03 when I spawned and if someone was camping nearby I couldn't do nothing but wait for next round

ofc this situation that kaktus mentioned happened to me too, but I consider it just a part of the game, more of a luck factor... if there are any actions in order to improve current spawn protection there should really be added few seconds spawn protection period so you can get off the spawn point and avoid possible spawn campers.

I find teamkills on spawn to be more irritating thing than this, f.e. the situation when you want to spawn quickly and you press shooting button few times, and you finally spawn , but looky look there's your teammate right infront of your spawnpoint (read: under your crosshair), so you get 1 sec of uncontemplated "playing" and a bonus of waiting till someone else thaws you cause you teamkilled yourself with first rail that you fired while you still didn't see any surroundings of your spawn point at all.

wrote:

It drives me mad, when do I spawn, aim at one enemy - rail him he doesnt get killed cos of protection while another enemy making a valid frag on me as my rail still reload. Not happening that much but kinda unfair imo.

Dont think we can do much about it anyway

Ditto, the implementation was a huge mistake. It has diluted tag into a spammy tdm fest with no real rewards, the whole nerve of tag is lost. As it is you are at a disadvantage trying to play an attacking style, you can even spawnfrag the same guy 3 times in a row if you move fast enough. Together with plusN (which really really needs some tweaking asap, who's in charge?) it has made tag the most boring gametype.