Ucantry2run
Private Tester
Considering the stuff that has happened, it certainly is not.
Captaining 101
- Thread starter Darklord
- Start date
Considering the stuff that has happened, it certainly is not.
AFireInAsa
#1
This thread is about improving the current state of captaining in PUGs for those who play PUGs currently. For those of you who have problems with PUGs in general, please express them in this thread created by Ucantry2run http://forums.legionsoverdrive.com/threads/a-change-in-pugs.1889/ .
As a frequent captain and PUG channel admin, I'll read all posts there and will use your input to try to improve the current state of PUGs.
As a frequent captain and PUG channel admin, I'll read all posts there and will use your input to try to improve the current state of PUGs.
Buhlitz
Member
maybe people are intimidated by you. Who wants to captain when they know you'll usurp their pick, tell their team how to play, and captain their team for them while playing LD from the other team.
Or maybe people are just lazy. Either way I found myself in your exact position a while back, and more often than not all people needed to be captain was a little bit of confidence, but not everyone likes to lead. You don't give people confidence by talking down to them. .
On topic : Having captained probably thousands upon thousands of pickups myself, I find what is usually most important is making sure the teams are as even as possible, not making sure you pick the best people first. Also, Darklord you are a great player but a terrible leader.
Or maybe people are just lazy. Either way I found myself in your exact position a while back, and more often than not all people needed to be captain was a little bit of confidence, but not everyone likes to lead. You don't give people confidence by talking down to them. .
On topic : Having captained probably thousands upon thousands of pickups myself, I find what is usually most important is making sure the teams are as even as possible, not making sure you pick the best people first. Also, Darklord you are a great player but a terrible leader.
Buhlitz
Member
if the elite players want to prove something, or want to have the most competitive environment possible, then stop shitting on the new guys grow a pair , pick a team, practice, and play against another team. I mean seriously, I got tired of winning PUG's after just a few months, throw some spice in your life. If this entire community COLLECTIVELY worked together to towards training and nurturing competitive development I think legions overall would see more success. I'm aware that you THINK that is what this thread is, but you'd be mistaken.
Strife
Moderator
Your posts were originally deleted, but I opted to clean them up instead because I thought they presented good points. Leaving them as they were would have started a flame war and I don't want to see the thread closed. So long as all of you keep things civil and relatively mature, it will remain open.
Buhlitz
Member
I always miss the good stuff. Outlawl, damn you.
On Topic :
This would be my serious contribution to Captaining 101, ignoring the circle jerk fest portion. For those of you who are reading this for serious tips on captaining and don't know me, I'm an original 1.0 with easily a few thousand hours of pickup experience, a good majority of that captaining.
First Things First, being a good captain just isn't about picking teams often times it can also be about motivating people to organize, and even recruiting people into the pickup channel with fervor. If you want to be a captain, you want to get good at getting people excited about playing a pickup(some people make you dread them). And when things get loud and roudy and off topic, throw in something like "hey, everyone kindly stfu so we can move on" I remember some nights repeating things like "ok first pick go" like 5 to 6 times in a row loud so people would get the idea. Who do you think came up with the idea for flipping a coin for first pick vs map and side. *ahem* Sped things up a bit didn't it.
Now that everyone is organized and patiently waiting, take a good hard look at who is playing, I start going over all the possible combinations of player skills. How would this LO work with that Capper, how do their unique play styles compliment one another. What Interesting tactics could I employ that are new and different and unexpected? This is why it's important to know what people do well, not necessarily who you think is the best player in the pool, but who is the best player to fit the strategy that you want to employ? I'm very against bread and butter strategies. A good example of why, is the one and only time Zeta handily beat .Cm it was on Moonshine and they employed a very unique tactic that had us on our heels the entire game, despite the fact that at the time we'd usually blow them out. (This was before they became the elite players they are today) Have fun with your strategies and try different things, there are always players who want to learn new positions and tactics, front route spam fest may work but it's not really that fun, and other things will and can work better if you try hard enough. For instance , me and snipedyoass/unknown would always try in pubs or pugs if we had the oppurtunity, the craziest planned out mid air od clear/approaches. Sometimes they'd work, sometimes they wouldn't but trying was fun. Having a strategy where you send 2 HO's to do nothing but harass and throw the flag to OR's flying on speed routes. Have fun with it.
I feel if you pick a player who plays opposite you first helps you build a balanced team. If you are capper, pick a chaser. If you are LO, pick a Stay at home. If you are utility, then pick a well rounded. From their you should decide whether or not you want to stack any given area. You can stack stay at home, chasers/lo, cappers, snipers, hof. Usually any given one of those stacks will almost immediately cause the other team to have to change their strategy to play yours, immediately giving you the upper hand. Even during the picks. The absolute most important quality of your team is going to be how well they play together, it doesn't matter if you have Darklord, Mabel Some other insanely good player on the same team if they aren't gelling with their other 4 or with each other, if they aren't on the same page an organized, team work oriented team who is having a good time will , can and have prevailed. If I see players who are on the same team and play complimenting positions, I'll try and pick both of them. If I know players are friends, or play other games together I'll pick them. If I like them, I'll pick them. Too often I've made the mistake of picking good players for my team over good personalities, and some times it can cause you to lose.
Once you have your strategy set, your players picked, and everything ready. Use all of this down time to very very specifically cover every aspect of everyones positions, what they are doing and when they are doing. Tell everyone what they are doing during stand offs, have the necessary players understand they may be communicating or relying on one another more than others. Keep lines of communication open for serious and useful information, not berating players for making mistakes or placing blame. Keep people serious and motivated to win, to me that is fun. To me picking a team with the expectation to 10-0 is fun, because I expect the other captain to do the same. To me , intense competition is fun so my advice is make your players really want to win, give them a reason to, and have fun doing it. Then if you lose, no big deal gg's and try a different strategy and pick, thats the point of pugs.
On Topic :
This would be my serious contribution to Captaining 101, ignoring the circle jerk fest portion. For those of you who are reading this for serious tips on captaining and don't know me, I'm an original 1.0 with easily a few thousand hours of pickup experience, a good majority of that captaining.
First Things First, being a good captain just isn't about picking teams often times it can also be about motivating people to organize, and even recruiting people into the pickup channel with fervor. If you want to be a captain, you want to get good at getting people excited about playing a pickup(some people make you dread them). And when things get loud and roudy and off topic, throw in something like "hey, everyone kindly stfu so we can move on" I remember some nights repeating things like "ok first pick go" like 5 to 6 times in a row loud so people would get the idea. Who do you think came up with the idea for flipping a coin for first pick vs map and side. *ahem* Sped things up a bit didn't it.
Now that everyone is organized and patiently waiting, take a good hard look at who is playing, I start going over all the possible combinations of player skills. How would this LO work with that Capper, how do their unique play styles compliment one another. What Interesting tactics could I employ that are new and different and unexpected? This is why it's important to know what people do well, not necessarily who you think is the best player in the pool, but who is the best player to fit the strategy that you want to employ? I'm very against bread and butter strategies. A good example of why, is the one and only time Zeta handily beat .Cm it was on Moonshine and they employed a very unique tactic that had us on our heels the entire game, despite the fact that at the time we'd usually blow them out. (This was before they became the elite players they are today) Have fun with your strategies and try different things, there are always players who want to learn new positions and tactics, front route spam fest may work but it's not really that fun, and other things will and can work better if you try hard enough. For instance , me and snipedyoass/unknown would always try in pubs or pugs if we had the oppurtunity, the craziest planned out mid air od clear/approaches. Sometimes they'd work, sometimes they wouldn't but trying was fun. Having a strategy where you send 2 HO's to do nothing but harass and throw the flag to OR's flying on speed routes. Have fun with it.
I feel if you pick a player who plays opposite you first helps you build a balanced team. If you are capper, pick a chaser. If you are LO, pick a Stay at home. If you are utility, then pick a well rounded. From their you should decide whether or not you want to stack any given area. You can stack stay at home, chasers/lo, cappers, snipers, hof. Usually any given one of those stacks will almost immediately cause the other team to have to change their strategy to play yours, immediately giving you the upper hand. Even during the picks. The absolute most important quality of your team is going to be how well they play together, it doesn't matter if you have Darklord, Mabel Some other insanely good player on the same team if they aren't gelling with their other 4 or with each other, if they aren't on the same page an organized, team work oriented team who is having a good time will , can and have prevailed. If I see players who are on the same team and play complimenting positions, I'll try and pick both of them. If I know players are friends, or play other games together I'll pick them. If I like them, I'll pick them. Too often I've made the mistake of picking good players for my team over good personalities, and some times it can cause you to lose.
Once you have your strategy set, your players picked, and everything ready. Use all of this down time to very very specifically cover every aspect of everyones positions, what they are doing and when they are doing. Tell everyone what they are doing during stand offs, have the necessary players understand they may be communicating or relying on one another more than others. Keep lines of communication open for serious and useful information, not berating players for making mistakes or placing blame. Keep people serious and motivated to win, to me that is fun. To me picking a team with the expectation to 10-0 is fun, because I expect the other captain to do the same. To me , intense competition is fun so my advice is make your players really want to win, give them a reason to, and have fun doing it. Then if you lose, no big deal gg's and try a different strategy and pick, thats the point of pugs.