The Begining, a change in mindset.

So you get a team of 4 and decide to venture in the MM ghetto… haxorz heaven, timmy town, team slayer. That means you’re either going to have a great night of pwnage or another lesson in corpse acceleration as you become frazzled by your negative K/D and launch rockets into the backs of your teammates. For many of us, how the night goes will depend on the teammates we have. If they’re awesome, you’ll be on a winning team. If not, well perhaps you should head into customs.

If that sounds accurate to you, you’re probably a “support player”. That means you run around following other players hoping to help them and praying they protect you. Maybe you take a different approach and try to play as a “spider.” Actually, you’re probably just hiding with a shotgun more than you’re trying to trap someone with it. That’s all okay, but I know from experience that it isn’t fun to feel like you’re not contributing enough to the team.

Here was my first goal: Suck less. Serious. I set out to try and suck less. Vague enough? Well, that will mean different things to different people but the point is that I decided that before I could be considered good or positive, I would need to stop being bad or negative. It’s a mindset. As with any goal, its good to have metrics to measure yourself against. Mine was the K/D ratio. I thought that there was only so much I could do about my killing skills, but knew I usually had a lot of stupid deaths I could prevent during a game. That’s what I worked on: Not dying. It sounds obvious and oversimplified, but it is completely changing my play style.

When I go into battle, I don’t think “how can I kill these sombitches?” I think “How can I have a shot at these sombitches and stay alive”. The first thing I do at spawn is grab a BR or Carbine and stickies. Spike grenades or stickies are a support player’s best friend. The ‘nade/BR combo is awesome for slayers, but a sticky will get a support player out of trouble and that’s our primary goal. Human grenades bounce and roll which makes them harder to place. If you’re being attacked or chased, a less skilled player can easily throw a stickie at a doorway to cover an escape or even get a kill at close range. The BR is a difficult weapon to master, but a must for support players. You may not have the reflexes or map knowledge to be effective at close range. Close range for a mediocre player is at best, a break even tactic. At worst, you spend the game watching your enemy’s crotch bounce off your helmet. You need to keep battles at a distance so that you can escape when need be. Best tips for the BR: Aim for the neck, and just barely lead targets at a distance.

So, the first thing I concentrated on was finding stickies and ranged weapons at spawn. After that, I concentrated on not dying. When I first started working on this, I would get killed looking for weapons. Eventually, you learn where they are and how to get them so that’s not a huge problem anymore. As for my “not dying”, at first I was going very negative with my K/D; the opposite of my goal. I spent too much time hiding. When I say "hide", I don't mean find a corner and assume the fetal position. I mean shooting from behind cover and running after taking hits. Anyway, at first I’d fire on someone, take some hits, turn around, get surprised and then waxed... -1. Very frustrating. However, that rough period has paid off. Now, I know where to escape to and when to do it. More on that and how it helps me kill stupid timmies later.

Disclaimer: I’m still not a “good” player so all of my tips should be taken with a healthy dose of salt. That being said, I’ve enjoyed some success in the last few months and I’m writing about what has helped me.