Know Your Role

I had a game last night, where my 3 random teammates were running straight at the enemy on Standoff. They were decent so they were doing some damage. I stayed more in the middle and just shot at the enemy from cover. One of my teammates asked “Hubristic, where are you? Are you even playing?” I almost felt bad, like I wasn’t being part of the team. Then remembered I had 5 kills and 1 death at that point so I just answered “yeah, I’m here” and kept shooting.

The 3 randoms were loosely working as a team by staying somewhat together, but it was mostly a FFA. I was staying back and cleaning up the kills they couldn’t finish with my BR. I had plenty of one/two shot kills. At the end of the game, I was 10-7-3. While trying to “not die” you can hide too much and put your team at a 4v3 disadvantage. You could also argue that I was just sitting back kill stealing. I think I was actually being a good support player. That’s the tricky part; knowing your role and how to fill it.

On Standoff, the battle area is generally predictable. I knew that my team was going to be “Bears” and I knew they’d be fighting in front of and around the enemy base. I could have gone with the flow and ran with them, but that’s not my style of choice. I would not have been as effective. From cover, I was able to watch the targets and team shoot. I also had a good view of the entire field to watch the flanks. Protecting them is how I died three times. I was able to inflict some damage and call out the enemy positions before I went down though.

Knowing your role is the real challenge for a support type player when playing with randoms or a team you’re not used to. It’s also probably one of the most common situations. Random teams don’t generally talk about strategy before a game. Sad but true. I think realizing you have a role to play in the team, instead of just trying to find enemies to kill, is a good first step towards success. Even if your team isn’t communicating or working together much, you can play an important support role. If you find yourself dying more than killing (like the 4th member of our team) its time to find a different role. With time, you'll learn what role to play in different games and with different types of teammates.