I figured I'd make a thread to prepare all the new teams with advice I never had. Feel free to add your own.
ESEA Stuff
- You need both the league fee (which you should have 6 of by registration time) and the premium fee (the monthly one you can buy in batches) to enter a server and play matches. Otherwise you can just sit on a roster until you need to play.
- Your team roster can have 3 people join per week. Leaving or cutting doesn't matter. Joins do.
- Have a different leader and scheduler. Trust me on this one (hi alfa). And have both of their Steam profiles linked from the ESEA page somewhere so if someone need to talk to you urgently about scheduling, they can.
- Be on the ball with scheduling. The other team can make a scheduling offer and if you don't check you can completely miss your match. At minimum, make sure you're receiving and checking the automatic emails that ESEA sends. If not, at least check every 24 hours because that's the minimum time needed for an offer to become the official time.
- If you're currently paid up and have premium, you can join any of the match servers to check your routing. If it's bad, you can submit a support ticket (ESEA asks for certain details, keep in mind) to get it fixed.
- You MUST schedule your two weekly matches from between Sunday to Sunday. Try not to schedule it late. I used to do this a lot because I'd try to "get more scrims in" during the week, but, honestly, over the seasons, I don't think it makes a difference. Just play.
- I don't know if anyone on TFTV is going to write Open articles, but it'd be incredibly helpful to put your starting roster on the ESEA team page.
- You have 1 free team name change per month. Go wild.
Team Stuff
- For a lot of you, this is going to be a season of improvement. There are only so many spots for playoffs. But there is always a chance for upsets and insane growth (I've seen it before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again). Take this season as a stepping stone to bigger and greater things. If you haven't played in a paid league before, you as a player and your team will become better at a rate you've never imagined. I played in UGC a bit, in 4s/6s/HL, but I keep going back to a paid league because I grow as a player way more than I ever did in UGC.
- Scrim regularly and as often as your team is comfortable with. And with all 6 starters. I wouldn't recommend using more than 2 ringers, and that's stretching it. technosex of unlock abuse and SizzlingStats fame wrote this great post on how to improve. If you do something close to that, you'll make huge strides.
- Don't be afraid to ask for a mentor to look over your scrims or POVs. Be respectful to them and their time. They don't need to but luckily a lot of higher level players are pretty nice and don't mind spending SOME time to help you out. Take their advice and be sure to follow up on it.
- COMMUNICATE. If you aren't there for the day's scrims or matches, TELL YOUR LEADER/SCHEDULER. If you're going on vacation for the week, TELL YOUR TEAM. And make arrangements for your backup player. I've captained several teams where a player would suddenly go missing even after I told them the schedule. It makes you want to kill the team.
- If you're playing scrims or matches, be there on time. Don't have the team captain or scrim finder to tell you to join mumble. Just show up on time. Join on info quick. Don't make 11 other people wait on you.
- I know STV demo reviews are boring, but you (both as a player and team) will improve drastically and you'll potentially get rid of bad habits in your gameplay. I recommend doing at least one review a week, but as you can see from technosex's post, you can do much more.
- Don't get discouraged if you're playing against someone better. Every team is going to play against someone better. Note what the opponent did, acknowledge they played well, and then move on. If you get rolled, it'll only take 10-15 minutes; you'll be able to find another scrim.
- Be a good sport. People will remember you and your behavior.
- People have different ways of handling problems, but if someone is being problematic (negative in mumble, not showing up on time, etc.), resolve it quickly and peacefully. Don't let problems sit around and grow.
- Have fun. Enjoy being on a team, hanging out, and improving with them. It'll be good.
Got anything else to add? Please post.
I figured I'd make a thread to prepare all the new teams with advice I never had. Feel free to add your own.
[u][b]ESEA Stuff[/b][/u]
[list]
[*] You need both the league fee (which you should have 6 of by registration time) and the premium fee (the monthly one you can buy in batches) to enter a server and play matches. Otherwise you can just sit on a roster until you need to play.
[*] Your team roster can have 3 people join per week. Leaving or cutting doesn't matter. Joins do.
[*] Have a different leader and scheduler. Trust me on this one (hi alfa). And have both of their Steam profiles linked from the ESEA page somewhere so if someone need to talk to you urgently about scheduling, they can.
[*] Be on the ball with scheduling. The other team can make a scheduling offer and if you don't check you can completely miss your match. At minimum, make sure you're receiving and checking the automatic emails that ESEA sends. If not, at least check every 24 hours because that's the minimum time needed for an offer to become the official time.
[*] If you're currently paid up and have premium, you can join any of the match servers to check your routing. If it's bad, you can submit a support ticket (ESEA asks for certain details, keep in mind) to get it fixed.
[*] You MUST schedule your two weekly matches from between Sunday to Sunday. Try not to schedule it late. I used to do this a lot because I'd try to "get more scrims in" during the week, but, honestly, over the seasons, I don't think it makes a difference. Just play.
[*] I don't know if anyone on TFTV is going to write Open articles, but it'd be incredibly helpful to put your starting roster on the ESEA team page.
[*] You have 1 free team name change per month. Go wild.
[/list]
[u][b]Team Stuff[/b][/u]
[list]
[*] For a lot of you, this is going to be a season of improvement. There are only so many spots for playoffs. But there is always a chance for upsets and insane growth (I've seen it before, and I wouldn't be surprised if it happened again). Take this season as a stepping stone to bigger and greater things. If you haven't played in a paid league before, you as a player and your team will become better at a rate you've never imagined. I played in UGC a bit, in 4s/6s/HL, but I keep going back to a paid league because I grow as a player way more than I ever did in UGC.
[*] Scrim regularly and as often as your team is comfortable with. And with all 6 starters. I wouldn't recommend using more than 2 ringers, and that's stretching it. technosex of unlock abuse and SizzlingStats fame wrote [url=http://teamfortress.tv/thread/20733/getting-better/?page=2#31]this great post on how to improve[/url]. If you do something close to that, you'll make huge strides.
[*] Don't be afraid to [url=http://teamfortress.tv/forum/3/mentoring]ask for a mentor[/url] to look over your scrims or POVs. Be respectful to them and their time. They don't need to but luckily a lot of higher level players are pretty nice and don't mind spending SOME time to help you out. Take their advice and be sure to follow up on it.
[*] COMMUNICATE. If you aren't there for the day's scrims or matches, TELL YOUR LEADER/SCHEDULER. If you're going on vacation for the week, TELL YOUR TEAM. And make arrangements for your backup player. I've captained several teams where a player would suddenly go missing even after I told them the schedule. It makes you want to kill the team.
[*] If you're playing scrims or matches, be there on time. Don't have the team captain or scrim finder to tell you to join mumble. Just show up on time. Join on info quick. Don't make 11 other people wait on you.
[*] I know STV demo reviews are boring, but you (both as a player and team) will improve drastically and you'll potentially get rid of bad habits in your gameplay. I recommend doing at least one review a week, but as you can see from [url=http://teamfortress.tv/thread/20733/getting-better/?page=2#31]technosex's post[/url], you can do much more.
[*] Don't get discouraged if you're playing against someone better. Every team is going to play against someone better. Note what the opponent did, acknowledge they played well, and then move on. If you get rolled, it'll only take 10-15 minutes; you'll be able to find another scrim.
[*] Be a good sport. People will remember you and your behavior.
[*] People have different ways of handling problems, but if someone is being problematic (negative in mumble, not showing up on time, etc.), resolve it quickly and peacefully. Don't let problems sit around and grow.
[*] Have fun. Enjoy being on a team, hanging out, and improving with them. It'll be good.
[/list]
Got anything else to add? Please post.
Great advice mana! Heres a great guide on team building by kev for the everyday anime consumer.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=321723902
Great advice mana! Heres a great guide on team building by kev for the everyday anime consumer.
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=321723902
[img]http://i.imgur.com/7TykAOA.png[/img]
mana[*] I don't know if anyone on TFTV is going to write Open articles, but it'd be incredibly helpful to put your starting roster on the ESEA team page.
there should be tftv open write ups as far as i know
also for double headers, esea doesnt allow you to schedule 2 matches after each other by default (i think you need to have a 2 hour gap between them). you can play the first match, then steam message killing/tri or i think you can submit a ticket to move the second match of the night to when you finish your first match.
[quote=mana]
[*] I don't know if anyone on TFTV is going to write Open articles, but it'd be incredibly helpful to put your starting roster on the ESEA team page.
[/quote]
there should be tftv open write ups as far as i know
also for double headers, esea doesnt allow you to schedule 2 matches after each other by default (i think you need to have a 2 hour gap between them). you can play the first match, then steam message killing/tri or i think you can submit a ticket to move the second match of the night to when you finish your first match.
mana[*] Have a different leader and scheduler. Trust me on this one (hi alfa).
It worked for 3 seasons now, I don't expect it to fail anytime soon.
[quote=mana][*] Have a different leader and scheduler. Trust me on this one (hi alfa).[/quote]
It worked for 3 seasons now, I don't expect it to fail anytime soon.
You're going to lose. It might be a really bad or fast loss. Don't lose faith. Most people have a season they'd like to forget. The successful teams are willing to work through the losses. Keep scrimming and remember that in the second half of the season you'll play teams that have a similar record. It gets better.
You're going to lose. It might be a really bad or fast loss. Don't lose faith. Most people have a season they'd like to forget. The successful teams are willing to work through the losses. Keep scrimming and remember that in the second half of the season you'll play teams that have a similar record. It gets better.
I demand a link to Disney Channel Celebs in the OP as inspiration for all the new teams out there.
I demand a link to Disney Channel Celebs in the OP as inspiration for all the new teams out there.