Patrick "JimmyBreeze" Harvey explores the world of teammates: alpha dogs, incessant whiners and awesome drummers.
Read Patrick's last column "The way you play TF2 is wrong" here.
This column is the sole opinion of the author and does not represent the opinion of Heaven Media Ltd or the opinion of any affiliates.
After composing a heartfelt obituary about a TF2 team that announced they were folding, I got to thinking about what makes a team a successful team. I also unwittingly offended the man I was trying to love. Duncan "dunc" Wraight, sort-of-team-captain-but-not of what women want/Dunc's team, took issue with my argument and felt shortchanged by the piece (as you can read in the comments) - even though that was pretty much the opposite of what I intended. You could, of course, attribute such a misunderstanding to poor journalism. Or you could, in an attempt to deflect that criticism, further endanger that beautiful man's faith in you by writing an entire article about the kind of thing that might have made the team implode.
Social interactions on the internet are rife with misunderstandings and are fascinating in themselves, but stuff starts to get really interesting when you put five or six nerds together in a quest to beat other nerds in an online game. And while few of us can claim to be legitimately awesome or even particularly good at the game we play, I'm sure that most of us, at some time, will have been someone's teammate. But how many of us can claim to have been a good teammate?
Team Fortress 2 seems to be uniquely suited to such a case study. Not only does the title of the game helpfully feature the word "team", but making a team - even on the most mechanical level - is really difficult. Not only do you have to find six people of a similar skill and ambition, but those people have to be good at a particular class too. Come game time, putting it all together and making it actually work is even harder.
So, in an effort to bring TF2 players closer together (and alleviate some of the "TF2 is actually way too complicated to bother with" damage Shoot The Breeze has done to Dave Hopton's excellent Why TF2? series), I'm going to share some of the data sets that I've been plugging into my new website, TF2dating.com, the frustrated gamer's ultimate match-making resource.
Don't bother trying to steal the domain, I already registered it.
The kind of personalities that are by and large positive for a team - like the alpha dog (captain types), the quarterback (in-game callers), the carry (capable of single-handedly dominating games), the ninja (silent but deadly) and intangibles guy (follows orders and does all the little things that don't show up on the scoreboard) - can easily be neutralised by the bad apple personalities.
There are too many to mention, but some of the worst offenders include the incessant whiner (a low level but ultimately cancerous threat), the red shirt (player who overrates his ability and is always the first to go rambo and die in 6v6 situations) and my personal favourite, the drummer.
The drummer is often a wannabe alpha dog and/or a frustrated carrier. He also, for some reason, almost always plays demoman. He is almost always pretty good at demoman too. He's surly, does his own thing, and finds communication difficult. You can tell if you have a drummer in your team if he goes off-class without telling anyone (usually engineer, but sometimes pyro) or melee only for a round when it's clear you're not going to win Gravel Pit. That's his special way of telling you he's not happy.
Maybe it's the added responsibility that demomen have on them to deliver consistent damage and kills, but there's something else about the class that seems to either attract high-maintenance types or bring out the worst in people. The huge damage potential that they can dish out in games can be directed at your team, too. So if you're blessed to have a demoman that's more like an intangibles guy - who might be a good supplementary caller, perhaps - hold on to him real tight. He's a keeper. Like the rarest Pokemon.
"I'm gonna go aggro... I'm dead."
How might we apply all this to the top teams? Well, it's tough to get an accurate read on teams and individuals without hanging out on their mumble for a while, and that'd be kind of creepy. But let's take a guess anyway.
Part of Dignitas's success must be due to their stability, with only two notable lineup changes that I can remember (Mikko "Masiina" Vilkkilä was replaced by Kirk “AppZ” Preston who was replaced by Jukka "Rebeli" Kauppinen). And they have good reason to be so stable: their roster has a clear alpha dog who also happens to be a great QB, a scout and a demoman combo who qualify as carriers, intangibles guys and ninjas - who just get on with the game and play with a strict team-first mentality - and a brilliant medic who happens to be the only helpful red shirt in the whole of TF2.
Should the rumours of personality clashes in TCM be surprising? Don't they have two, or even three, alpha dogs who fancy themselves as QBs? All that pent up aggression can be a good thing - see their fantastic February for reference - but is that level of potential tension sustainable? We shall see.
Power Gaming are another team that seem to lack chemistry. They don't appear to have any willing quarterback. Yet they have perhaps the prototypical drummer/carrier in Kalle "hymzi" Honkala and one of the top intangibles/carrier types in Jani "hocz" Laakkonen. And just like the old Power Gaming, they can't reach the summit of the scene.
Back to Dunc's team. Like I wrote in the obituary, and why I felt it necessary to write something thoughtful about them: the mix was there. Dunc's scouts were both scary ninja carriers. What his soldier duo might have lacked in straight deathmatch skill, they made up for as superb intangibles guys. Their original demoman was another pure drummer, and the following guy happened to be an incessant whiner. Dunc was their alpha dog and QB, but for whatever reason, he was a reluctant one.
These will be available at i40 for £3 each.
I was fascinated by this kind of thing when I used to captain a team. We stuck together, worked really hard and eventually did pretty well. And now I'm kind of an elder statesman of TF2, albeit a politically corrupt one, people often ask me for advice in a kind of "what would Jimmy Breeze do" way. Unfortunately, forcing 3000 people to play Gorge against their will isn't relevant advice. But beyond that, I can only give them this super basic wisdom: play with people you consider your friends.
Because at the end of the day, while you can get a demoman, medic, scouts and soldiers together, mentor and even marshal them to success, teach them how to isolate opponents or gang the crates on Granary middle, you can't stop an incessant whiner from whining. A drummer will always be a drummer. Just like you'll always be a great teammate, right?
Originally published on Cadred.org on Fri, 23 Apr 2010 01:40:17 +0100 by JimmyBreeze.
Archived from Shoot The Breeze: What kind of teammate are you? as part of tf2esports.com's preservation of Cadred.org's TF2 coverage. All rights remain with the original author and Cadred.org; reposted for historical reference.