Continuing the roundtable series, we now turn to the remaining invite pocket soldiers: Classic Mixup's TLR, and Tyrone, from Quantic Legacy. Both have numerous seasons of experience under their respective belts, and each has been to ESEA LAN at least twice, putting them in lofty positions indeed. Let's hear what they have to say!
[iq]So, please give a quick introduction of yourselves.[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: Hey, what's going on, I'm the leader / pocket soldier for team Quantic Legacy.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: I'm TLR, pocket soldier for Classic Mixup.[/ia]
[iq]What impact do you think the pocket soldier has on the game? Or, why is the pocket soldier important?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: I think that the pocket soldier is one of the most important classes in competitive TF2. The reason for this is due to the amount of heals and damage pockets receive and deal, respectively. The pocket is important because the pocket is the foundation for most of the pushes or retreats. He has the commanding view of the battlefield and can easily change the tide of fights with the decision he/she makes. I often say what Seagull was saying, that the pocket is the moving wall/line for the team. If you're too far in front of your team, you've over extended, but if you're behind, you're not in the fight, and useless. I find it interesting that we both say the same things, even though I'm pretty sure we've never spoken to each other about that before.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: Pocket soldier is a very versatile role. You protect the medic, lead pushes, take ubers, and try to keep control of areas. Since you often take the uber and receive the most heals you can have big impacts in fights.[/ia]
[iq]When assessing a pocket soldier, which part of his game do you look for? Or, what's the most important skill to become a pocket soldier?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: I think that the most important aspect of the pocket soldier is his awareness. The ability to react to different situations as well as how they position themselves offensively/defensively is extremely important. A few more skill that are extremely important for pocket soldiers is being confident in your decisions, as well as the ability to adapt to unexpected strategies or plays. Containing players/teams with rocket spam as well as adjusting position for your team to make offensive plays are huge aspects of pocketing that I believe are often overlooked.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: I look for pockets that are mobile and have their presence felt. Pockets that take advantage of opportunities to get a pick or use an uber creatively. I feel that the pocket soldier needs to be the most well rounded of all the classes. If you are not very aware, your medic will constantly get picked and you will not be able to take advantage of situations. If your DM is poor, you won't have as much of an impact in fights or uber pushes.[/ia]
[iq]As a pocket soldier, the shotgun is often neglected among lower levels. Could you explain why the shotgun is so important?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: The shotgun is an extremely good finishing tool, and having strong shotgun aim can also help with dealing with immediate threats. I prefer to spread out my damage between the rocket launcher and shotgun, mainly to keep my opponents honest, and hopefully making them lose track of my ammo count. Another reason that shotgun is important is to disrupt your opponents dodging. I feel that most players have two different dodge patterns: one for hitscan, and one for explosives. If you can alternate between your two weapons effectively, then you have the counter for each dodge pattern, which allows you to hit your shots easier. One last thing. Ever since strange weapons came out, I've been tracking my kills, and my rocket launcher has 24k kills, compared to my shotgun, which as 20k kills. Which basically shows that the shotgun is an extremely dangerous weapon, and should be used more.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: You will typically use the shotgun after you are low or out of rockets and chances are you and your opponent will both be weak. It often decides whether you get the kill or you get killed. It's also important to know when to use the shotgun. Usually you are better off sticking with rockets at least until you are out, but if you get a good bounce or you are fighting a scout being able to hit your shotgun will allow you to kill them quicker and focus on other targets.[/ia]
[iq]A somewhat common perception is that pocket soldiers don't need to rocket jump well. Could you explain why pocket soldiers need to rocket jump well?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: As I said earlier, positioning is extremely important, and good rocket jumping can help benefit your positioning, and getting set up or initiating pushes. Creative rocket jumping also makes flanking that much more dangerous.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: This could not be more untrue. Being able to be mobile as pocket is crucial. You often are buffed and around the medic, allowing you to use rocket jumps to quickly change positions. Quick, precise rocket jumps will get you into good situations and out of bad ones numerous times every game. Being able to jump exactly where you want to allows you to setup a much better uber. Efficient rocket jumping is very important for pockets and can create many opportunities.[/ia]
[iq]As a pocket soldier, how do you improve? Any advice for improving from getting over that plateau that seems to occur at low-mid level?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: Experience is a huge factor in having strong pocket play. The only way to improve that aspect,however, is to keep playing, staying in leagues and pugging often. One piece of advice that I can give is to work on your weakness. It's not fun, but that is where practice comes into play. I've had lots of weaknesses to overcome in my TF2 career so far, and all of them have been overcome through practice. From rocket jumping, to movement, and even shotgun aim. While trying to overcome weaknesses, you should practice a lot, and leave your pride at the door. I know that recently, players have been getting caught up/frustrated with the terrible etiquette in MGE/DM. However, in the end, you're in there to improve your own game, not win, so it shouldn't matter what your opponent does to you. When I go into ammomod, or MGE, or whatever, I go in there to play my game. It doesn't matter whose on the other side of the screen. I play the player, and if I can 20~0 them, I'll try for it, and if they beat me badly, It doesn't matter. One things that really irks me is when I see better players try to go for melee kills just to prove a point. I feel that it's belittling. In my opinion, it's always better to destroy someone quickly than to draw it out and play with them. I guess its something I've learned from playing competitive sports, respect your opponent, but play your own game; and that's the mindset everyone should have as a competitive TF2 player.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: Focus on one aspect at a time. Maybe you want to think more about your positioning or protecting the medic. Don't just play; think about what you are doing as you play. Watch a demo where you played well and one you did not play very good in. See what was different and think about what you could have done differently.[/ia]
[iq]How do the skill sets of pocket soldier and roaming soldiers differ?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: Basically, as pocket, you focus on immediate threats in fights, pushing players out, keeping the team controlled, as well as playing off your team more so than the roamer. The roamer's job is to disrupt opposing teams. We are looking for completely different openings and positioning aspects. Roamers have the ability to go for high risk, high reward plays, but pockets can't take as many because a mistake from a pocket could mean potential death for the medic and demo. However, I think that they're similar in that these two classes need a ton of experience to be effective, while players mainly need to have a good mechanical handle on the game to play scout.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: Pocket soldiers need to be well rounded. You have to be able to fill in gaps that arise and be able to handle many different situations. Roamers need to focus more on timing and creating openings for their team by doing things like distracting or getting important picks. Roamers also need to be able to determine what would be best for the team. "Should I suicide on the medic or play with the scouts?" Typically the more annoying the roamer, the more he helps his team.[/ia]
[iq]How has the role of pocket soldier evolved from the beginning of TF2? Has it grown in relevance, shrunk in relevance?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: I definitely think that the game has trended more into a team oriented game. TF2 of young was a completely different game, where the better pocket soldier often meant the difference between a win and a loss. Pocket soldiers back than would completely murder teams especially because emphasis on uber counting wasn't quite as high as it is now, and ubers could absolutely demolish teams. Another reason is that the pockets role is to punish players out of position and in the earlier stages of TF2, everybody was out of position. Nowadays, the game is more like chess. Its controlled, and there's generally a right and wrong way to approach every push. The game is a lot more structured and pocket soldiers have just become another player on the team, as opposed to the monsters they were before.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: Pockets can still have a big impact, but not like they could in the past. Early in TF2, teams were unorganized. A 300 hp soldier with a medic could dominate since no one matched him in health and backup was a lot further off than it is now. Positioning was a lot worse, which meant that people would often be caught out by ubers. One uber might get three or four kills on people that are not prepared. Compare that to now where it is rare to get more than one or two kills with an uber.[/ia]
[iq]How do you work together with your roamer? Or are you and the roamer more separate?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: I work with my roamer extremely often, more so than most speculate. Most of our team plays are initiated by Mackey, we work together on early mid plays/roll outs, during transitions, and especially if we're about to start a push or are falling out of the fight. Some teams prefer roaming soldiers to play on the flank, but our team like to use our roamer to pressure the combo. He floats between helping our combo, and helping our scouts so I guess he can be on the opposite side of the map at times.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: Pretty much the only time Relic and I work together is when he jumps in and creates a distraction, while the pocket and the rest of the team push in. Other than that, the roamer is usually pretty separate from the pocket.[/ia]
[iq]As a pocket, one of the most important parts is a medic. What is important/ what do you look for in a good medic/ what can a medic do to make you excel?[/iq]
[ia][b]Tyrone[/b]: The two most important parts of medics are personality and mechanical skill. The recent trend of taking combat super stars and putting them on medic has produced some tremendous results. This is the best possible thing because most medics with combat experience are drilled to best other players, and through that they refine there movement and aim. I find that most 'career' medics put a mental block on themselves and can't survive in the high stress/pressure zones, especially in key fights. If you look at teams in the past that used combat class medics harbleu,blacky,reptile,mesr,pure the age of medics all brought so much confidence to movement. These players "milk" significantly longer than most other carreer medics and on top of that, they move in fights so well, and are constantly applying heals even in the most dangerous positions. I read somewhere that the reason players dodge well is due to tracking, and I firmly believe that. If the medic doesn't "track" opposing players, they have no way of knowing how to dodge the opposing player. I like to think of tracking as concentration, and if a medic can't anticipate the hit, they'll pop at the first signs of threats, and in this era of TF2, every advantage is taken.
A good medic can bring out the full potentials of a team. They can allow for faster pushes to happen because they don't need to collect health often, and really help in every 1v1 situation, where the medic can come and influence every fight with heals. Strong medics are the hardest classes to find, there really are few and far between because most of the best players, choose to steer away from that class. A good medic can allow me more freedom to be offensive, nothing is more frustrating than jumping into a fight with uber ready, only to die because your medic wasn't fast enough to pop.[/ia]
[ia][b]TLR[/b]: A medic that understands your play style and is on the same page with you is very important. A good medic knows whether he should follow you or meet up with someone else. A good medic will allow you to do so much more, while a medic that leaves you or positions poorly can limit you.[/ia]
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