Fish — It has been 2 weeks since I last graced Vanilla with an article, but it’s time to once again visit the word of Ask Fish. This week focuses on “how to develop a team and improve it!” – let us delve into the murky waters of keeping a team together and maintaining its progression.
Making a Team
So you decided to make your team. It’s an exciting time gathering 6 players together, ready to play TF2. How do you decide whom to bring in? What level are you aiming for? Tried and trusted players or hot prospects? I cannot answer these questions for you, for me the idea is you start off with 3 or 4 players you know are comfortable with then fill the gaps. A rather short start I admit but when it comes to making a team, most teams will spawn from someone knowing someone else; it’s rare that 6 random people come together into a team.
Team Harmony
I’m sure this part will have agreement and disagreement from people, but my view is a team will work better when there is a certain like for each other. To have a strong team you have to be just that: A team. The team plays together, they lose together and although they can challenge each other on aspects of the game they never blame each other. You take the responsibility for a loss together as a team. An alternative way of dodging the blame game is by truly liking people in the team – hold some social interaction outside the team to get the chemistry flowing. Things can quickly become just a team of players who come together to play matches and when it gets tough they will argue. There are many exceptions to the “rules” of team harmony if you get 6 people with the same mentality desire to improve. It is a workable possibility; you don’t have to enjoy each other that much. As my articles are pretty much aimed at div 3 and below I wouldn’t know of many teams like this that exist outside prem / div 1.
The importance of team harmony is to remain together when the going gets tough. Teams fold because the feeling inside the team is one of lack of enjoyment. A team that can accept a loss and learn from it will stay together for longer. Don’t knock the importance of team harmony and enjoying each other’s company – it will serve you so much better in the long run. There comes a point where you can’t even walk away from a team because you miss the players too much! :)
Football team of Ghana in harmony
Goals and expectations
The weight of expectations can be the end of teams. Have a clear goal in what you want to achieve have the chat with everyone about where you are going. The goal you have has to be realistic. Don’t be afraid to set a goal that is not always winning a division but placing a respectable 3rd and improving on it. When you decide what you want from the team everyone has to be on board with this goal. It will not work if half the team want to drive forward and the other half wants to just have fun. A competitive team has to be built on the foundations of wanting to improve and wanting to go forward. A team can also exist where the goal is to just enjoy play the game – but you can still learn from this article!
Take a beating
“Pain is weakness leaving the body”- Soldier. As a team, if you have decided to reach the limit of your potential then you have to push yourselves. Take a beating! Get a game against a team a division above you and have an aim to learn from it. Whenever we as a team got the chance to play a prem team, we always had one goal to compete with them. Although we knew we stood little chance of beating them we wanted to compete, not be rolled and learn from the experience. If you do get a game against a team one division above you then make sure you record STV. Watching the STV of a better team that beat you is a great learning tool to pick out moments where you almost had a round. You will also see some of the biggest areas that let you down: Simply, were they more aggressive? Did they position better? Did they do anything that could help you to try improving? Also, get friendly with teams above you – ask for the chance to play them again down the line. It gives you a measurement for if you have improved. Focus on the positives: perhaps you take 2 rounds this time from them? It is a step in the right direction.
Big Nog taking a beating from Velasquez
STV
STV is your friend; watching STV of games give you the best insight into what your team did wrong. As I said in calling articles, entire rounds can be traced back to small mistakes that created bigger issues – try and pin point them. Mistakes could be something as simple as you didn’t build uber and they got it quicker, wiping out your medic. Next game: focus building uber. Perhaps people over extend or die at the wrong moment. Again highlight bad choices to people. Don’t be afraid to challenge someone in the team for a poor play. You should be in a team with the same goals so everyone should accept constructive criticism when backed up with a tick from STV. For example, it is wise as a caller to watch the STV with comms to see if actions you asked for were followed or ignored.
Trust each other to do the job set out for you, but highlight errors in people’s games – no one is perfect in this game. There is room to improve so this will not only benefit the team, but your own play as well.
Watch other teams
TF2 has never had it so good. Back in the day it was almost impossible to hunt down a demo of a top team. Now we have VanillaTV streaming to the masses and demo’s available for you to ponder. Firstly, find one team that you have a great desire to be like or a player who you respect. Secondly, find some demos of them see how the team play or they play. Can’t find demos? Ask them in irc for it, at worst they can only say no. TF2 has the best community going with more people giving help and tips than ever before. I love to talk to anyone regarding TF2 and if anything I have ever said to anyone has taken their team further then I achieved something.
When you find a demo you’re impressed with or a tactic a team has, give it to your team and say we want to try this tactic, perfect it and tweak it. Make it your own work on the strength of the team, is your demoman a hero who wipes people? If so use him. There has never been more out there for teams to get their teeth into!
What is your weakness?
Whenever a player asks me for some time I always ask this question. It’s a great question to ask anyone and always has a wide variety of answers. If someone answers “our demo” I would question if they can improve or if they are not a fit for this team. Sometimes as a leader you have to be bold and make the choices no one else can. So many leaders just can’t stomach saying to a player look it’s not working we need to explore options. Instead they let it lay and the team begins to rot from the inside. Players will talk poor of each other in private and generally the team will degrade as people lose trust in each other. Some people DO NOT FIT no matter how much help you give them. Going forward you can either be the guy who makes the choice to try something new or you can continue to let the team be dragged down by 1 poor player. By no means am I saying go and kick your players – it’s a statement of if you can say to a person outside your team this player is our weakness then it’s a bigger problem than you realise.
For the most part when I ask the question people give me a wide range of team related problems which is always a big plus for them to realise what is wrong within the team. When you have the problems in the team do not shy away from them WORK on them. Dedicate yourselves to improving one area over a set time. If you sweep an issue under the carpet it’s always going to be there. People from outside your team can often see an issue you can’t so don’t be afraid to ask for someone to have a look at STV for example. Again to give an example in boner we was casted by Greg and we all listened to the VOD and he made a comment of how we were to indecisive. That comment alone helped us progress to become better and helped me to be more decisive as a caller so we worked on it we had night where we just made a choice and went with it.
Weak link?
Common weakness
A list of some of the more common weakness in teams with some possible ways to work on them:
“The calls are too clustered, I can’t hear myself”
- Have a night where apart from the caller everyone else has 2 words to say what they need. SCOUT LEFT, SOLDIER BEHIND, MEDIC WEAK, FOCUS SOLDIER, 2 words can be more than enough clearing the comms. It’s by no means easy but its good practise :)
“We don’t know when a good time to push is”
- Have a night where you push on every advantage every time you get a pick or a number advantage – go crazy! You will properly lose but you will learn from it the caller at least will pick up a better understanding of when to push.
“We can’t seem to win middles”
- Most teams seem to suffer with middles: they either got it or they don’t. So how to improve middles? Have 3 tactics for middle. Working on just 3 make sure everyone knows what to do after the initial set up. 3 tactics can be Passive, Reactive and Aggressive. Each middle is what is says on the tin with a goal.
Other night themes you can use:
Medic only ubers on a push or defence – Medic does not uber unless your defending a point or pushing. A scout comes in to pick you off, let yourself die to try to help your soldiers better protect you. Or better still run kritz! No uber defence :D
Scouts have a free night – Let your scouts explore their ability give them a night to just be themselves go crazy go nuts let them learn how to better aid the team!
New pushes different classes – Teams are comfortable with a normal push like ubering a demo. So try a night where you uber the others a soldier who doesn’t get it a scout perhaps, who knows when the time comes and its uber them or nothing they may just surprise you :)
There are other tips that I may cover in a later article but I will leave with one final paragraph :)
Mentors
People are hopefully somewhat aware of the mentor group Pledge runs with my support. It’s never been a better time to get Pledge or myself for an hour to give advice and honest feedback.
Advantages of a mentor:
Has experience you perhaps don’t
Is neutral and will see weakness in the team you don’t.
Has tactics that make help your team improve
Gives you the chance to ask burning questions you may have.
You also have my weekly sessions on maps that I enjoy running. I go over the basics and there is a link to download both the POV and Mumble so you can take them to your team :)
I also offer that if teams give me a STV I will watch it and offer feedback, BUT I do have a list of people that have given me and awaiting me so I can’t guarantee it will be done the same day. I will however give an indication of how long it may take :)
http://steamcommunity.com/groups/tf2mentorproject or #tf2.mentor
So as I sign off for another week the question is: what next? The original article was questions people had to ask me but I’ve enjoyed writing more of a tips article: Both options are now available to you.
Special love and thanks to psunfragga for proof reading and daring to correct my poor grammar.
What burning questions do you have for me? What article would be of benefit to the community? I need inspiration!
Originally published on VanillaTV (vanillatf2.org) on 2011-10-06 by Fish.
Recovered from the Internet Archive (archived copy) as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of VanillaTV's TF2 coverage. The original site is no longer online. All rights remain with the original author; reposted for historical reference.