Darklord
Private Tester
So, there are even fewer people stepping up to be captains these days then there have been historically. That, obviously, is rather pathetic, given how few people used to do it. Basically it is like 3 people left who will volunteer, and even then a quarter of the time I end up splitting up the teams by hand myself.
This clearly has to end. If I am captain every time, how can we stroke my ego by picking me first in every game?
So, here it is. For all you never guys, we need to to step it up, so here are some basics.
First and foremost: ASK QUESTIONS.
There are a lot of people who know, generally, what to do, who to pick, and so forth. You can captain even if there are few things you aren't sure of. I might tease you for silly questions, but I'll answer them, and if you learn from them, I'll respect you going forward. Lots of the top players were absolutely horrible players that were willing to learn.
Ucan is probably the best example of this, for his first couple weeks of playing PUs, I told him his goal when he was on my team was simply to hide on the back of the base on Niv and grab the flag when our team called for e-grabs. And he did it. He made himself useful to the team, and got picked because of it. He learned over time, got waaaaay better, and now is one of the best players in the game. Everyone starts somewhere, and if we see you getting better and learning from game to game, people will want to play with you more. If you ignore advice, never get any better, and are generally annoying, we will yell at you. I more then most.
The Picks:
You have a few things to keep in mind when picking. The first, by far, is player skill. There's no two ways about it. I would rather have 7 top tier defensive players then 4 top tier d guys and 3 mediocre cappers. That said, if you can get a fantastic chaser and a great capper, that is better then two fantastic cappers, most of the time. Variety certainly helps.
Making sure you get something for each position is important also. What you need for each position varies by map. On Zenith, good cappers are super important. On Frost, anyone can grab the flag and OD out, so defense and LO are more important. This isn't a hard an fast rule, but it helps in general. HoF is almost always important, but there are very few good HoFs out there right now, and generally as long as you get one, you are set.
There are lots of ways to strategically pick. Let's say there are two good cappers in the pool, pop and shaska, and you are on Zenith. Now, pop is the better capper here. Shaska is getting much better, but still has a little bit to go to catch up. You definitely need one of the two, and know that they are thinking the same. The moment you pick pop, they will take shaska, or vice versa. So what you can do is simply wait. Wait for them to pick Pop, and use your picks to bolster other areas. When they do grab him, immediately take shaska. You will have a capper nearly as good, and likely gotten an advantage in another area.
This idea works in reverse as well. Let's say there is only one player who does HoF in the whole group, Vanquish. Now, normally if there was another HoF here, say strategist, vanquish would be picked later. Picking vanquish over strategist would be an advantage for your team, but not a huge one, so he would go in the middle of the picks most likely. When there is only one HoF on the board, vanquish would likely go in the first 3 picks, depending on who else is there. Having the only HoF, or the only good capper, is a huge advantage that can make a player get picked much faster.
Who to pick, when:
While there are different ways to strategically pick people sooner or later, if you simply know which player will make your team most likely to win the game in the general sense, you will do well. At this point, most people probably have a feel for who to pick, and in what order, as long as you have been playing for a while. You see it every pickup, players being picked in the same general order. You see who the best captains pick first over and over, and notice who you have on your team when you win. You see their points on the scoreboard. They may not tell everything, but when someone has 1200 points, you know they are probably doing something right.
For those who aren't as familiar with the top players, I'll list the order I would pick people in, given the whole pool of the community to pick from. I'll also split them up by position, to give a sense of who to pick when you need something specific. For some, I'll add comments lower down, so you can see what I was thinking for where I placed them. For many, I'll get their position horribly wrong. I can only go by what I've seen and remember recently, and there are some players I don't get to play with or see much, so don't hold this under too much scrutiny. Then there will be plenty I just flat out forget to add. Don't hate me if I forget you, it is 2am.I'll put down their primary positions, but most of these can do a lot more then listed. Post below and I'll add you in somewhere. I'm leaving out in-actives, or this would take forever, and of course is only people who primarily play in US pickups.
1) Darklord - Chase
2) Mabel - LO, SaH
3) Unknown - Cap, Chase
4) Spartan (Homingun) - Cap, Chase
5) Ucan - SaH (snipe), Cap, Chase
6) Discord - Chase, SaH, LO
7) Fire - Chase, SaH, LO, HoF, Cap
8) Floks - SaH, LO, Chase
9) Freeman - SaH, LO
10) Bugspray - Cap, Chase, LO
11) Ragol - Chase
12) Rock - Cap
13) APC - Cap
14) Contingency - HoF, Cap
15) Envy - SaH, LO
16) Kryst - SaH, LO
17) Poponfu - Cap
18) Skepsis - LO
19) Sid - SaH, LO, HoF, Cap
20) Kirby - SaH, LO
Ok, there are obviously tons more names to be added, and I'll do that over the next few days/week or so as we play PUs and I see names. Without seeing a list of all the people playing PUs, this is taking way too long to add to.
Darklord - I put myself at the top for one reason; I've been the first pick in 95% of the games for the last month or two. I chase, and do it well. I'm pretty confident there isn't anyone with anywhere close to my win percentage in pickups (3-4 losses in the last ~1.5 months), although that likely has something to do with the fact that I'm usually first pick, and that team does have a decent advantage.
Mabel - I go back and forth here. His positions aren't generally the critical ones to have, but generally his aim and clutch returns offset that. I may pick him first most of the time simply because I like playing/talking with him, and because he is annoying as hell to have shooting me as I try to chase. 3-4 might be a more reasonable spot, ignoring those.
Unknown - The best capper in the game, hands down. There is no one else that gives me remotely the trouble unknown does, and he is a fantastic dueler to boot. Great on returns, great on tossing on standoffs, you want him on your team.
Spartan (Homingun) - While unknown is a hair better at pure capping and on tossing during standoffs, spartan is better on returns by a good bit. Hell, he is almost better then me at it, particularly his OD returns. On top of being one of the best pure cappers (as in grabbing and getting it home, nothing else), his dueling and returning skills are also absolutely top notch. He is the most well rounded player in the game; a great HoF, a top 3 chaser, amazing sah/lo in addition to his capping. Honestly, I might pick him before unknown if he wasn't highly underrated by many of the other captains. I find that I can sometimes pick unknown and then get spartan afterwards in addition, which doesn't happen the other way around.
Ucan - Best sniper in the game, and annoying as hell at it. Someone should nerf the damn sniper so he falls down a few rungs.
Discord - Great chaser, although I virtually never see him do it, as I play the same position.
Fire - Fire has been rocketing up in my regard recently, getting way better recently. He is also super versatile, so he can be a great addition at almost any spot.
Floks - Great SaH, great sniper. I put him above freeman because he is a tad more versatile, so if you need to switch things up he will be a bit more useful. It could have gone either way overall.
Bugs - Rather inactive and has ping issues, but a great player.
Ragol - I had very little idea where to place him, this is going by reputation mostly. I've only played with him a few times recently. Could be up a tad, or down some, not really sure.
Rock - Annoying as all hell to play with or against, simply because he does annoying *chocolate cookies* like rabbit constantly. If you can ignore that, he is a very solid and very underrated player.
APC - Doesn't play much anymore. Used to be higher.
Contingency - Almost certainly the best HoF in the game, and is branching out and proving himself great at other positions recently too.
Envy/Kryst - not sure where to rank these two in relation to each other. Haven't seen kryst the last few days, but I think envy might be a tad better right now. Regardless, both are great players and great picks.
Poponfu - One of the very best pure cappers in the game, but isn't as good on duels/returns or LO if he misses. Other then unknown and spartan, he is the best as what he does, but dueling is so important in the current game that he gets knocked down a ways.
I'll add more to this tomorrow and moving forward, but it is late now and I don't want to lose what I had started.
This clearly has to end. If I am captain every time, how can we stroke my ego by picking me first in every game?
So, here it is. For all you never guys, we need to to step it up, so here are some basics.
First and foremost: ASK QUESTIONS.
There are a lot of people who know, generally, what to do, who to pick, and so forth. You can captain even if there are few things you aren't sure of. I might tease you for silly questions, but I'll answer them, and if you learn from them, I'll respect you going forward. Lots of the top players were absolutely horrible players that were willing to learn.
Ucan is probably the best example of this, for his first couple weeks of playing PUs, I told him his goal when he was on my team was simply to hide on the back of the base on Niv and grab the flag when our team called for e-grabs. And he did it. He made himself useful to the team, and got picked because of it. He learned over time, got waaaaay better, and now is one of the best players in the game. Everyone starts somewhere, and if we see you getting better and learning from game to game, people will want to play with you more. If you ignore advice, never get any better, and are generally annoying, we will yell at you. I more then most.
The Picks:
You have a few things to keep in mind when picking. The first, by far, is player skill. There's no two ways about it. I would rather have 7 top tier defensive players then 4 top tier d guys and 3 mediocre cappers. That said, if you can get a fantastic chaser and a great capper, that is better then two fantastic cappers, most of the time. Variety certainly helps.
Making sure you get something for each position is important also. What you need for each position varies by map. On Zenith, good cappers are super important. On Frost, anyone can grab the flag and OD out, so defense and LO are more important. This isn't a hard an fast rule, but it helps in general. HoF is almost always important, but there are very few good HoFs out there right now, and generally as long as you get one, you are set.
There are lots of ways to strategically pick. Let's say there are two good cappers in the pool, pop and shaska, and you are on Zenith. Now, pop is the better capper here. Shaska is getting much better, but still has a little bit to go to catch up. You definitely need one of the two, and know that they are thinking the same. The moment you pick pop, they will take shaska, or vice versa. So what you can do is simply wait. Wait for them to pick Pop, and use your picks to bolster other areas. When they do grab him, immediately take shaska. You will have a capper nearly as good, and likely gotten an advantage in another area.
This idea works in reverse as well. Let's say there is only one player who does HoF in the whole group, Vanquish. Now, normally if there was another HoF here, say strategist, vanquish would be picked later. Picking vanquish over strategist would be an advantage for your team, but not a huge one, so he would go in the middle of the picks most likely. When there is only one HoF on the board, vanquish would likely go in the first 3 picks, depending on who else is there. Having the only HoF, or the only good capper, is a huge advantage that can make a player get picked much faster.
Who to pick, when:
While there are different ways to strategically pick people sooner or later, if you simply know which player will make your team most likely to win the game in the general sense, you will do well. At this point, most people probably have a feel for who to pick, and in what order, as long as you have been playing for a while. You see it every pickup, players being picked in the same general order. You see who the best captains pick first over and over, and notice who you have on your team when you win. You see their points on the scoreboard. They may not tell everything, but when someone has 1200 points, you know they are probably doing something right.
For those who aren't as familiar with the top players, I'll list the order I would pick people in, given the whole pool of the community to pick from. I'll also split them up by position, to give a sense of who to pick when you need something specific. For some, I'll add comments lower down, so you can see what I was thinking for where I placed them. For many, I'll get their position horribly wrong. I can only go by what I've seen and remember recently, and there are some players I don't get to play with or see much, so don't hold this under too much scrutiny. Then there will be plenty I just flat out forget to add. Don't hate me if I forget you, it is 2am.I'll put down their primary positions, but most of these can do a lot more then listed. Post below and I'll add you in somewhere. I'm leaving out in-actives, or this would take forever, and of course is only people who primarily play in US pickups.
1) Darklord - Chase
2) Mabel - LO, SaH
3) Unknown - Cap, Chase
4) Spartan (Homingun) - Cap, Chase
5) Ucan - SaH (snipe), Cap, Chase
6) Discord - Chase, SaH, LO
7) Fire - Chase, SaH, LO, HoF, Cap
8) Floks - SaH, LO, Chase
9) Freeman - SaH, LO
10) Bugspray - Cap, Chase, LO
11) Ragol - Chase
12) Rock - Cap
13) APC - Cap
14) Contingency - HoF, Cap
15) Envy - SaH, LO
16) Kryst - SaH, LO
17) Poponfu - Cap
18) Skepsis - LO
19) Sid - SaH, LO, HoF, Cap
20) Kirby - SaH, LO
Ok, there are obviously tons more names to be added, and I'll do that over the next few days/week or so as we play PUs and I see names. Without seeing a list of all the people playing PUs, this is taking way too long to add to.
Darklord - I put myself at the top for one reason; I've been the first pick in 95% of the games for the last month or two. I chase, and do it well. I'm pretty confident there isn't anyone with anywhere close to my win percentage in pickups (3-4 losses in the last ~1.5 months), although that likely has something to do with the fact that I'm usually first pick, and that team does have a decent advantage.
Mabel - I go back and forth here. His positions aren't generally the critical ones to have, but generally his aim and clutch returns offset that. I may pick him first most of the time simply because I like playing/talking with him, and because he is annoying as hell to have shooting me as I try to chase. 3-4 might be a more reasonable spot, ignoring those.
Unknown - The best capper in the game, hands down. There is no one else that gives me remotely the trouble unknown does, and he is a fantastic dueler to boot. Great on returns, great on tossing on standoffs, you want him on your team.
Spartan (Homingun) - While unknown is a hair better at pure capping and on tossing during standoffs, spartan is better on returns by a good bit. Hell, he is almost better then me at it, particularly his OD returns. On top of being one of the best pure cappers (as in grabbing and getting it home, nothing else), his dueling and returning skills are also absolutely top notch. He is the most well rounded player in the game; a great HoF, a top 3 chaser, amazing sah/lo in addition to his capping. Honestly, I might pick him before unknown if he wasn't highly underrated by many of the other captains. I find that I can sometimes pick unknown and then get spartan afterwards in addition, which doesn't happen the other way around.
Ucan - Best sniper in the game, and annoying as hell at it. Someone should nerf the damn sniper so he falls down a few rungs.
Discord - Great chaser, although I virtually never see him do it, as I play the same position.
Fire - Fire has been rocketing up in my regard recently, getting way better recently. He is also super versatile, so he can be a great addition at almost any spot.
Floks - Great SaH, great sniper. I put him above freeman because he is a tad more versatile, so if you need to switch things up he will be a bit more useful. It could have gone either way overall.
Bugs - Rather inactive and has ping issues, but a great player.
Ragol - I had very little idea where to place him, this is going by reputation mostly. I've only played with him a few times recently. Could be up a tad, or down some, not really sure.
Rock - Annoying as all hell to play with or against, simply because he does annoying *chocolate cookies* like rabbit constantly. If you can ignore that, he is a very solid and very underrated player.
APC - Doesn't play much anymore. Used to be higher.
Contingency - Almost certainly the best HoF in the game, and is branching out and proving himself great at other positions recently too.
Envy/Kryst - not sure where to rank these two in relation to each other. Haven't seen kryst the last few days, but I think envy might be a tad better right now. Regardless, both are great players and great picks.
Poponfu - One of the very best pure cappers in the game, but isn't as good on duels/returns or LO if he misses. Other then unknown and spartan, he is the best as what he does, but dueling is so important in the current game that he gets knocked down a ways.
I'll add more to this tomorrow and moving forward, but it is late now and I don't want to lose what I had started.