First Division, grrr Vision

Post by **Hubris** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 5:16 pm

So we are finally there, First Division. Now we have the ticket and now the ride starts. It's going to have ups and it's going to have downs, but what matters in the end is how we hold together as a team and have fun playing the way we want to play. I've been giving this some serious thought over the last week or so... I have been thinking what is it that separates the elite from the best, what do good players do that gives them that competitive edge, what makes a team and what breaks it.

Principally, everyone knows the maps, everyone knows their strategies, everyone knows the typical strategies they could face and knows how to play as a team. What determines winner and loser is a matter of balance in speed, precision and a general culture of risk aversion. Enough philosophising, we need something actionable and implementable to not only be competitive, but be serious challengers in the First Division.

I've decided that the best way for us to get close to something like that is for me to share my vision for the team as clearly as possible and then drill it in at practice. Sorry for the wall of text, but I've tried to keep it to the point. I'll speak about some of these thoughts tonight, but if you're ever not 100% clear on what I mean or happy with the below - just mention it to me and I'll be happy to run through it with you in as much detail as you like.

Some of it is obvious, some of it is quite technical... just read it, it won't hurt you.

Strategy - cover our bases, make the picks, take the flags, hold the flags, bleed their tickets, spawn trap
Tactics - start quickly, play our roles, be patient and let them make mistakes, adapt and capitalise

Troop Hurt - run&gun, suppressive fire, rifles, nades, rockets - all are required in volume and with coordination to have a good infantry squad
Tank Hurt - focus of team, timed attacks, go for spanners (mines & destroy) - armour serves to counter enemy armour and move quickly where troops should not

Game Plan:

When we attack a flag, we try one cycle of assault on that flag or go back cap and outside hold.
Cycle = spreading force (thin pressure), splitting force (front & back) and finally concentrating force (zerg)
We can't just keep throwing tickets at one flag, so try limit the death bleed for about 10-20 in a cycle, situation depending.
Once we abandon the cycle or it ends we have to change plan: go for an outside hold instead or switch back to linear hold.

This system will minimise our ticket bleed and help make our armour more competitive by relieving pressure.

Spreading force means pressuring all direct approaches and tightening the screws (minimise risk) - so go with the standard Recon, Medic, Medic, Support (in that order to threat). Splitting force means getting an attack on both the front and back before pushing in together - go with Recon&Medic at front and Support/Medic at their back. Zerg is the last attempt, the Recon player goes to place a beacon at their back flag whilst the Support/Engineer does the rushing and the Medics follow with the train.

Don't lose sight of our objective: hold two flags. Not hold this flag and that flag. Hold two flags. It doesn't matter which, we can't keep attacking the same places expecting a different result. The more clinical we are, the less tickets we lose while we work for our second flag.

What to do when it all goes pear shaped and nothing works? When we lose our tank, our infantry must go "defensive" (stop attacking directly, think defensive and be creative. Most of all prepare to help the armour battle by sending the recon to place a beacon to make a back cap possible and play an Engineer or two in the infantry squad.

In order to back cap we need 1 infantry troop to fall back;
Two infantry toops to hold front + the loose armour player (2 back, 3 front, 3 tank);
And one infantry medic should convert to Engineer to help the armour battle.
Thereafter, we call for spares where they are needed: our back flag, anti-armour or their back flag (in that order of priority).

Goal of this basic plan and backup plan is to put game on our terms; to do so, we must avoid contact, shut down their approaches to our flags and go for picks only while we wait for the back cap and armour plans to take dominance and start the bleed in our favour.

Kit Specifics:

Engineers - not going to win most peeks, will win most s2g (sprint2gun), destructo kills, blasting stubborns, softening areas for assault (blow shit up! then shoot)
Support - contact = pour out all your ammo, call reloads, switch position, repeat or rush (be liberal with firing, keep an eye on our back flag)
Medics - contact = hold cover, cover bases, peek, heal, revive, cover bases (quarterback the troops, avoid rushing, guard against counter-rush)
Recon - run&gun even with rifles, suppressive/defence role, beacon when our armour dies (be sneaky and harass them from behind)

The Recon and Support players can rotate suppressive/defensive and rushing roles to make mini-cycles faster

Obviously we're not going to field a Recon 24/7, but we do need someone to fill this role. If J0nny plays, he can play Recon more than other people as he can use a rifle to play defensively or a pdw/shotty to play the rushing role. If he's an Assault, or isn't playing, someone else needs to be designated to switch to Recon to get that beacon down early and keep it up all the time or our troops won't get traction and will just get frustrated endlessly throwing themselves into a direct assault.

Key Points:

It's all planning, awareness, communication, positioning, patience and pooning - take your picks, then move up!

You must have a good connection, a decent PC, reliable input/sound, the right gfx settings and the right mouse sens settings to even be competitive - lag is for fags!
If you think your PC, input devices, sound system or connection is somehow holding you back, talk about it - maybe we can help you?
Check the YouTube classroom here for good homework: http://www.grrr.co.za/showthread.php?869-Youtube-Classroom

Anticipation
Decisiveness and confidence
Maximizing speed, minimising risk or tactical error

On the money shooting
Pie peeking (offensive) and pixel peeking (defensive)
Controlling (offensive) or owning (defensive) lanes of fire

Maximize your ADS bonus or your hipfire bonus (peek or run&gun?)
Work on predicting close combat and improving sprint-to-fire time with habitual preparedness.

Post by **s3xy_j0nny** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 6:47 pm

Nice post. HOOAHH!

Post by **Thor_23** » Wed Jul 04, 2012 7:01 pm

wot he said ^^^^^^

Post by **Paul** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 7:11 am

Is mandatory reading for everyone in the team1!!

Post by **Phatso** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 8:33 am

Excellent write up Hubris, if the entire team can work according to what you've stated, we'll steamroll!

Stu · Post by **Stu** » Thu Jul 05, 2012 9:54 am

so much of value! Brilliant post Hubris, now don't let it get to your head son

Post by **Paul** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 8:47 am

Do we have a practise match for this Sunday setup? We need to gte cracking, also for those of you who weren't on Mumble last night, Tyger said that Sharqi and Karkand will be included in the map rotation for Leg 3. That means we need to to practise these as well as come up with some strats for them.
I am sure they will be popular, it also means that we now need to know atleast 5 Maps backwards

Post by **Paul** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 9:17 am

Everyone also needs to load and run UAC just incase this is a requirement for Leg 3. I suggest running it while you are on the Pubs just to get into the habit and to make sure it doesn't impact your machine

Post by **TygerBS** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 11:36 am

Well said Hubris!

Further too that, we need to take things to the next level in our analysis and training.
1. We all need to know all the spawn points at ever flag.
2. We need to know the best 4 spots for capping all flags.
3. The best 4 spots for holding and defending all flags.
4. The routes that need to be watched between flags to stop flanking and rushing.
5. The names of all places on all maps. The new players need to learn these, and we have new maps that we need to name. It may be worth us going through all of them again as a team.
6. The angles that relate to all of these above to give us the best opportunity of making the kill first.

This is a lot, but if we gonna compete we need to know these things.
We have 4 teams that technically have the beating of us in our group. We need to beat at least one of them to ensure we finish in the top four in out group. Top 4 is required to then be in the champions cup, and most importantly in RAGE!! yea baby!!

Post by **Onyx** » Fri Jul 06, 2012 1:07 pm

TygerBS wrote:Well said Hubris!

Further too that, we need to take things to the next level in our analysis and training.
1. We all need to know all the spawn points at ever flag.
2. We need to know the best 4 spots for capping all flags.
3. The best 4 spots for holding and defending all flags.
4. The routes that need to be watched between flags to stop flanking and rushing.
5. The names of all places on all maps. The new players need to learn these, and we have new maps that we need to name. It may be worth us going through all of them again as a team.
6. The angles that relate to all of these above to give us the best opportunity of making the kill first.

This is a lot, but if we gonna compete we need to know these things.
We have 4 teams that technically have the beating of us in our group. We need to beat at least one of them to ensure we finish in the top four in out group. Top 4 is required to then be in the champions cup, and most importantly in RAGE!! yea baby!!