Thread: Leading & Managing the Team, for Newer Teams

SUN TZU wrote in The Art of War:

Now the general who wins a battle makes many calculations in his temple ere the battle is fought. The general who loses a battle makes but few calculations beforehand. Thus do many calculations lead to victory, and few calculations to defeat: how much more no calculation at all! It is by attention to this point that I can foresee who is likely to win or lose.

The battle of tf2 begins outside of tf2. You must assess, know, understand and lead your own team before you can set out to defeat others. Anyone who has been on a team and even more led a team can agree that leading a team is a challenging task and a battle in itself. Challenges include everything from coordination and logistics to player and team psychology and dealing with player interactions.

I will attempt to capture a part of the calculations that the team leader must make in order to lead his team to success.

GOALS - define them and your team's level of commitment and make sure everyone is on the same page. Ask your team and yourself do you want to just mess around or do you want to place well and possibly win some awards. There are many ways to play the game and have fun. Competitive TF2 may not be for everyone, but for the right people 6v6 can be an extremely intense, rewarding and fun competition that showcases high levels of teamwork, as well as individual capabilities.

For example:

1. New team. League: CEVO-A. Scrims: 1-2 days per week. Goal: Top 15 finish.
2. Experienced team. League: ESEA-O. Scrims: 3 days per week. Goal: Top 5 playoff finish, move up to ESEA-IM.

COMMITMENT from all 6 starters starts from the simplest things such as being present at predetermined times to:

• Deathmatching
• Scrimming
• Going over strategies & demos (Latest Demos | TF2 Demos, esea.net)
• Communicating and discussing simple things to teammates at the end of the match such as what can we do better to improve in a certain situation.

In addition,

• As a bare minimum meet at least twice per week for a couple of scrims to have a chance to improve. Better teams meet much more frequently.
• Make sure you have a way of communicating with players
• Losing a starter can cause the team to drop a skill level and competely dissolve the team. Personal emergencies can happen at all times, but make sure you are aware of players external commitments.
• I have had to miss multiple weeks due to business trips and personal emergencies, which has caused my teams to 1) dissolve 2) lose in playoffs without me (one of the starters) with many starters offclassing to fill in gaps, thereby reducing the team's skill level.
• Commitment also means seeking ways to constantly improve. Consult experienced players, get a personal or team mentor (http://commforums.com/commft-mentor-program-f93.html) and seek and keep open all channels of information that may help your team.
• As a team leader, also seek help from the rest of your team. Scheduling games, coming up with strats, making calls, getting people in mumble, scouting the enemy, tracking enemy positions and status in game can and should be distributed among all teammates. One person doing all of these things can quickly become burnt out.

BACKUPS can often save the day from a missing starter's last minute emergency or absence.

• Having 1-2 backups that you know will be there and willing to play is much more valuable than having 20 people on the roster who may or may not be willing to fill in or be available at all.
• Make sure your backups are comfortable with their role as 1) backup for the team in general 2) filling in for a specific class. Offclassing a starter when a backup is filling in may increase skill level of team as a whole, as backup may not be proficient/comfortable with all classes.
• Generally, skill level of backups should be roughly the same as that of the starters. See 1st and 2nd points in next section.
• I would recommend to have at least two backups, who can ideally be able to fill in for any gaps that might present themselves at all times.

COMMUNICATION & COMPATIBILITY

• Make sure people on the team are around the same skill level. If a player's skill is too low, others will become discouraged and start to think the team is playing with a handicap and complain, which may lead to negative team morale and potential ragequitting.
• A player way above the team skill level may have tendencies to display hubristic qualities, to not work with the team and also become frustrated with the lack of deathmatch and/or gamesense skills and abilities on the team. This may lead to low team morale.
• Generally tf2 community has an intelligent, educated assortment of younger people playing. That being said, tf2 takes place on the internet so be sure to identify any potential signs of trouble and trollery and sort out such players early on to avoid major problems in the middle/end of the season.
• Mumble/vent with the whole team may not be the best place to confront players for making poor decisions, playing poorly or not commiting. Try to use private conversations first, and if that does not work, have others bring up the matter in private and finally if all else fails, discuss with the whole team.
• Be aware everyone has their own style of communicating and interacting with others.

WHY SHOULD I CARE

People play to ultimately have fun and win. You can set up your team for epic battles and victory by thinking about some of the details of leading a team. Hopefully if your team agrees on what the goals are, commits and gets along you should be in for some epic pwnage.

I would appreciate comments .

Author's note: This article is intended for potential new competitive 6v6 tf2 teams, but some principles may apply outside of 6v6 and outside of tf2 as well.

Well said Master, quality information that any potential player would do themselves a favor taking it to heart.