To err is human, to forgive is divine – neither is GATT policy

Pubbies vs. Competitive

• Competitive matches are nothing like pubbies. While many of the individual skills learned in becoming good at playing solo will serve you well in competitive matches, there are MANY habits picked up that will cause your team to lose competitive matches. Pubbies are unorganized, survival of the fittest competitions. With no comms, nor leadership, players flock around the map like muppet birds with severely limited situational awareness – there is no organization and no team work. Individual skill is key to success in pubbies.
• Competitive matches, on the other hand, are highly organized and controlled by a caller familiar with the latest meta and map strategies. Effective communications offer a high level of situational awareness and intel to the team, and to the caller, and allow the team members to make better decisions and the caller to formulate effective action plans. The caller focuses the team on a single purpose during key points in the battle. Teamwork is key to success in competitive matches.
• GATT has repeatedly beaten teams with more highly skilled players (i.e. we beat teams in positions 2 and 9 at tier 8; and the teams all the way up to position 1 at tier 6). In competitive matches, individual skill is important, but teamwork is critical.

THINGS THE CALLER CANNOT CONTROL

• Unreasonable to assume everyone will perform perfectly every time – everyone makes mistakes
• The goal of these training guides is to minimize the impact of those mistakes
• To that end, we must EACH take TOTAL responsibility for our own actions in matches. If a mistake is made that is the fault of someone else, it will be evident when the replays are reviewed, and addressed at that time – especially if it becomes chronic and/or systemic.
• Everyone is playing on a level playing field. RNG, shitty servers, latency, packet loss, oh my. We all get fucked by these things and so does the enemy team. It’s just how it is, so get over it.
  • Talking about it during a match pollutes comms and causes you to lose
  • If you miss or bounce a shot, or get a ghost shell, no one needs to know. Get over it and take your next shot. The only way to raise your hits per game is to raise your shots per game. Shut up and shoot.
  • Stop blaming everything but yourself for your performance. Freefall6 plays with the same theoretical RNG as you (as a game mechanic, maybe not necessarily the rolls he gets…) and his recent WN8 is, almost guaranteed, higher and at a higher tier. Take responsibility for your outcomes.

• Rapidity of action wins matches
  • Latency is inherent in online game play
    • Latency between game client and server (machine)
    • Latency between receiving information and conversion to actionable intel (human)
    • Latency between giving orders and execution (human)
    • Latency between execution of orders and feedback through the caller’s client (machine/human)
  • Things that affect latency
    • Shitty internet (machine)
    • Shitty server (machine)
    • Shitty computer (human, because you could buy a better one)
    • Mood, drugs/alcohol (human)
    • Individual skill (human)
    • Team skill (human)

THINGS WE CAN DO TO ENSURE THE CALLER CAN CALL A SUCCESSFUL GAME

Working Together

• Competitive play requires communications discipline, everyone to be on the top of their game, everyone to work together as a single unit with a hive mind, and individual play to be impeccable
• In competitive matches team work is critical and personal skill is secondary
  • While personal skill contributes mightily to how a match will play out, your personal stats at the end of the game mean literally ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOTHING! Did we win, or did we lose? On the wins, could we have done better, or did we rock it? On the losses, was it a foregone conclusion (they were just better / had better tanks / played better than us) or did we miserably fall flat on our faces performing basic maneuvers?
• Push means PUSH
  • When we’re moving as a team and executing a call together, there should NOT be anyone just sitting alone doing their own thing. In replay reviews we see a lot of players that don’t get into the thick of the fight, likely because they are trying to ‘preserve hitpoints’, but in competitive gameplay it’s all about the aggressive application of the call and aggressive team overmatch/flanking maneuvers that make or break matches.
  • NO ONE is impressed with the last guy who, because they were not engaged in the game to begin with, has full  HP at the end of the match and cleans up the slops – even if it results in a win. Yes, we won, but at the expense of ALMOST LOSING, when it did NOT have to be that way if we had everyone engaged as called.
  • This is doubly debilitating and humiliating when it’s against ‘reds’ and ‘oranges’ that we should be walking all over at this point

• If you’re not in the thick of the fight you’re sacrificing your teammates’ hit points. NO! You must share incoming damage. When your teammates are focused down by the enemy we lose guns!

• The key point to remember in competitive play? Follow the fucking call!
• WoT is similar to soccer, hockey or basketball, not like football – lots of clans play it like football and this will result in a LOT of losses
• How to lose a game playing it like it’s football? Someone makes an initial call, like “42 left, hut hut!”, and then everyone goes to their positions and just sits…camping loses games
• WoT is fluid. You have to KEEP MOVING. Never sit longer than the time it takes for bloom shrink and taking a shot.
• There has to be constant feedback from players on critical information (taking shots from unspotted enemies, overmatches forming, etc.), as well as constant calling from the caller
  • Never stop informing the caller of situational changes
  • Never stop calling the team

Don’t forget: The caller has to play their tank, pay attention to the match as it unfolds, watch the minimap for tactical information, listen to feedback from teammates, and go through the OODA loop constantly with information about EVERYONE and give orders throughout the ENTIRE MATCH – as you can imagine this is EXHAUSTING

Choosing NOT to preserve HP/the conscious decision to trade HP for position or other TEAM advantage

• This game is almost literally all about trading HP. The team that trades most effectively wins the game (barring capping). There are so many considerations when it comes to 1v1 HP trading, and we’ve discussed those before with the survivability onion, but they’re worth mentioning again when it comes to competitive team play
• NEVER:
  • Trade HP with an enemy tank without considering the outcome of the trade
  • Take incoming damage ‘by accident’ (“oh, oops, didn’t see him there”)
  • Take away HP from YOUR team’s HP pool by having low spatial awareness, focusing down the straw and shooting a crossing teammate (or being shot by crossing in front of someone else)
• WHEN TO TAKE INCOMING ENEMY DAMAGE:
  • If you have the HP to spare (their alpha + 25% isn’t enough to kill you), then take the fucking hit so you can take a gun out when it’s a one shot. Preserving your hitpoints in that situation is worthless, especially if it’s the final 1v1
  • When your teammate is a one shot, and you’re full/half health, and the incoming enemy round will end your teammate but if it hits you will not likely kill you – keep your teammate’s gun in the game
  • When your teammate has a higher alpha gun, or higher DPM capability (auto-loader) and you’re both equally damaged, sometimes it’s better to keep them alive so they can dish out more damage to the remaining enemy HP pool instead of preserving yourself