So...

**Option hunter** · 07-13-12, 07:52 PM

How come I, when on a team with vastly more experienced people at this game then me, am the one doing the calling? Not gonna name any names here, but I got excuses like "You guys RTVed this map" and "I don't know this map." Poor little Kitty here doesn't know diddly about this game and you are making me call? That just seems wrong too me.

**Kaido** · 07-13-12, 08:41 PM

I'll be honest, at the moment I am not confident in my own calls. I've been playing CS for almost 10 years on and off and have never had to be the caller, my role has always been to follow the call. In sports, you have your coaches and your players, each with their own role. Not all players can turn into coaches. After making TPG my new home, I found that there are times when T side has no caller, now this isn't something that happens frequently at the times I play, but it does happen, and eventually someone usually steps up regardless of their experience. Knowing this I realized I have to step it up and start thinking more strategically instead of just getting frags to contribute to the community. However, this doesn't mean I will try to call whenever I get on, I still have a long way to go before I am confident of what works and what doesn't. I regret not being able to remember the calls I followed over the years. Last night goat encouraged me to try calling on nuke so I gave it a shot for a few rounds. For the most part we were unsuccessful, meaning we would lose the round but get the bomb down. Now nuke is a hard map to call for T side when the teams have a pretty good balance, but even so I got discouraged because I didn't know if my calls made us lose or if we just couldn't hold the site, so goat was kind enough to take over. Later that night on temple when the server dropped down to about 10-11 players total, the game started and no one made an initial call. Pickle and myself got together and decided to switch callers between the two of us every round, a bit unorthodox but it seemed to work out for us. That being said, eventually I hope to be able to confidently and consistently make calls, but I can't say for sure when that will be.

**iLLusioN** · 07-13-12, 08:58 PM

Originally Posted by Option hunter

How come I, when on a team with vastly more experienced people at this game then me, am the one doing the calling? Not gonna name any names here, but I got excuses like "You guys RTVed this map" and "I don't know this map." Poor little Kitty here doesn't know diddly about this game and you are making me call? That just seems wrong too me.

Unfortunately alot of people, new and old, don't like to/feel confident calling so they just don't. Also, there has been alot of attitude on the servers recently; I think this is mostly because we have a bunch of new people showing up playing CS in preparation for CS:GO. I've been seeing more people than usual get banned for not following the call and whatnot.

@ Kaidos

Honestly, the success or failure of your calls depend more upon your team doing what they are told and working towards the goal as you specify. I've seen T teams full of mediocre skill players completely smash a CT team full of prominent, highly skilled regs just because the Ts bought into the calls and did their job to a T. You'll see it fairly often if a T team is getting blown out and someone takes over for the original caller.

I remember when I first started calling here, we were playing strike. Vafa graciously let me start calling at the beginning of the map...we went like 1-7 as a team. Vafa took over calls, made the exact same calls I had been making, but all of a sudden we were rolling into site and holding it. I was a new caller, so people weren't really buying into it. Vafa is one of the top TPG callers ever...so they bought into it, and played with more confidence with the same calls, and IIRC we came back to win it.

Point of that is to say...don't get down on yourself. Chances are your struggles were less on your calls than they were on the way the team reacted to those calls. The more you call the more you will notice that having a team buy into the system and go all out will get you further than anything else. It's always pretty awesome whenever you have a team fighting to be the first into a choke point, rather than knowing for a fact that the first person in will be you because everyone else is going to bitch out. Hopefully the admins can continue to, and gain ground on, weeding out the trash, so that we see more of the TPG that used to be here every day. Too many people whining, moaning, and complaining about pretty much everything lately(maps, calls, players, weapons, etc)

**nihilanth311** · 07-13-12, 09:00 PM

When it comes to getting rolled, the calls are to blame 1 out of every 20 or more ... SO CALL!! You'd be fine at it Kaido.

**Option hunter** · 07-13-12, 10:05 PM

I'm not afraid to step up and be a leader. Which is why I did it here, today, even though I know only the very basics of the layouts of the maps. Being a leader started for me about 6 months after I started playing at TPG in the 2142 server. I just don't like being put in that position when I am still learning a game and the maps, especially when there are people who are better suited to it then me on my team.

Kaido, here's a tip.

Being a good leader doesn't mean that you are right 100% of the time. It means that you do your best to lead your team to victory. Don't let mistakes and failures get your confidence down, because you ARE going to get it wrong more times then you get it right. Just keep trying, and learn everytime you fail. Yes, having confidence in your calls is important, but just because you don't doesn't mean that you're not a good leader, and never will be. It took me a long time to gain confidence to be a leader in BF, and I started gaining that by taking Squad Leader positions every map. So just step up and try your best, because that's all anyone can ask of you. No one is going to hate you for trying, and if they do, then they obviously have never made a call in their life, and don't understand what it's like.

**Madmax (Grape)** · 07-13-12, 10:33 PM

That's sucks that no one on at the time would step up. Someone learning the maps and game shouldn't have to lead.

But thanks for doing it!

**Adretheon** · 07-14-12, 02:50 AM

Kaido: Like others have said, it's not your ability to call but the fact that you do call that makes it matter. With that said, honestly any person with two cents can call a TPG map. If you know the map enough to get around it, then all's good. The rest of getting good at calling comes with experience.

Here's some advise: If you are calling. You should never ever ever worry about getting kills. Your job after calling is to support your team. If you die first, that's good for you. That way you can look at the CT side and see what they do. When I call, I'm proud to be 1-15 cause that means I learned more about the CT rotation than I would have if I was alive.

If you are calling, ask your team the big question, why didn't that work? They'll tell you. If they don't then keep asking, make them feel like dicks cause they fucked up(that'll make them change so they don't get yelled at, that's just human nature). Ask about what happened while you are dead, find out why, and adjust the next call.

Don't get into routine, mix it up a bit. This too comes with experience though. Sometimes people mix it up too much, if it works don't fix it. You just have to learn when to stick with a call, and when to say, "ok lets go B one round."

Now, being a good caller gets you props for sure, and being a shitty caller fucks your teams. However, the best callers always learn from the team when starting out. I'm a good caller with the right team. Most new Regs see me as the .60k/d player I am, but the old Regs know me as a good leader. You have to earn that mentality with players. That's what helps you win maps, if your teams believes in you, then you are home free with the win.

**Xificul** · 07-14-12, 01:32 PM

I call once in awhile and I enjoy it but it does suck when people dont follow the call.

**Kaido** · 07-16-12, 03:20 AM

@ RAWRKITYY

Thank you for the reply, it makes me feel a bit more comfortable to call if I have to.

@ Option Hunter

I completely understand what you said, I just dislike the idea of losing, especially if I am leading the pack, but like you said you have to keep trying to get it right.

@ Adretheon

Thanks for the advice, to add to that, when I am focused, I try to predict the opposing team's movements and location while still alive and relay that back to the team, not only T side but CT side as well.

So to Option the OP, one of the reasons why sometimes no one steps up even if there are more experienced players than you in server is that they may have played the role of a "player" and not a "coach" there whole times on CS, so they would definitely be uncomfortable calling, but I will overcome that hurdle eventually!

**Adretheon** · 07-16-12, 09:43 AM

Map calling is one of those trial by fire kinda things. You'll only get better through more of it. Honestly, if I'm on your team step up and call it because you'll learn some things(also cause I'm usually playing recon while I'm dead). If you're new to it let me know cause I always have after round input about why a call did or didn't work.(most of the time its the team not the caller, but you should ask just in case cause I know we have some really shitty callers)