step 1: your always right
step 2: bait your team
step 3: take the ubers

always say whats happening, be clear as to where you (and your heals) are and where youre fighting, always ask who has ad/percents

make sure u and ur team are on the same page basically

take a breath and don't over micro your team (mustardoverlord syndrome)

You're :thinking:

If you have the time to be extra clear, always be as clear and as detailed in your comms as you possibly can. Make sure you understand the limitations of every class you're playing with. Make sure your team always follows your calls, no matter how off they may seem to be. You making a bad call and then your team following through is the easiest and fastest way to learn how to make good calls in the future.

Hi, I've never actually maincalled on a team but i love being a tryhard team leader on tf2center.com. I'm not sure what class you play but I'm going to guess pocket.

• tell your team beforehand that it would help you a lot if everyone could try to follow your calls even if they think you're making the wrong decision. This makes it much easier for you and everyone else to learn which decisions were actually bad and which didnt work because only half of the team committed. Obviously, if theres a big reason for you guys not to push like "i just dropped" or "but they're respawning now" then yeah listen to them, but if its something a bit more subjective like pushing right or left then then they should probably just listen to you.
  
• Make sure your commands sound like commands and not like questions and vice versa. In the heat of the moment its really easy to mix up "should we go in?" and "lets go in".
  
• Don't just press tab to see if people are with you. Use your eyes to see who's around you and don't be afraid to ask if everyone is ready to push.
  
• Since most pushes start off with you rocket jumping to make space, make sure to call it. It helps everyone else know when you're actually in and not just shotgunning stickies on the floor.

whom'st'd

Ensure when the game slows down, you're using every ounce of time you have to prepare, not necessarily micro managing but just laying out the aims of the next push/defense and telling people where to jump then if you have time do some "what if's" like if we get forced trough the door or if they have a sentry etc.

staying calm is obviously a big one

remember that you can't always see everything, so don't presume

trust in your players initiative unless there's overt faults you see

listening is just as effective, especially when you're on pocket

call who's looking at you when you engage or if players give up certain high ground or positions (big one that people forget)

develop your insight of the game actively as much as you can and pick up on things you see or hear, always try and to have at least an a and b strategy for every situation

Make a super conscious effort not to tilt, or at the very least, to never let it seep into your comms. Ever. Your role as maincaller means if you let your frustration get to you, every single one of your teammates will be affected: tilting is contagious, and even your tone of voice can have an impact on how your whole team plays individually, and how you work together.

be decisive, consider uber, numbers, ammo, health and positioning when making your call.

^^^^^^^^^This.

It's better for the strat to fail than it is to fail the strat. It's not a matter of you always being right or being bossy. You can still be open minded. Objections, discussions, and trying it different ways can come later on - just make sure you actually do try your team's ideas in later scrims and not just say you will.

Definitely don't tilt. Be a good listener to the other comms - if you're not listening, your calls are based on bullshit, and you're a bad main-caller.

I've been maincalling only for a month or so, but what I've found out to be helpful is to have a set of short calls that everybody understands and make it easy for you to move the entire team in the desired direction. Do maptalks and make sure everybody knows what to do in a passive and aggressive hold, how to retreat, what to do in pushes. What helped me a lot is watching demos of matches from higher divisions and from our own scrims. I discuss our mistakes just before every scrim and practice our little strats. When your team is properly prepared, maincalling during matches is a pure formality.

I led an open team to mid intermediate last year so I have a bit of experience with this. Essentially, maincalling is keeping track of in game advantages and making calls that increase your advantages while minimising the effect of the disadvantages you have.

The big advantages in this game are uber, player and respawn (and health, although that's usually something you keep track of in fights, not something that lets you engage). Keep track of those and try to use your team's advantage in one area to create an advantage in another, or trade it to gain ground or capture an objective etc.

If you're at a disadvantage in some way try to work out how your opponents are going to want to take advantage of it, and try to foil their gameplan -- eg if you have player disad, they're probably going to push and try to capture the next point, so for example sometimes sending a flank player behind to threaten a backcap can completely negate their advantage if done correctly. More often though it's just better to give up the point so that you don't get snowballed into giving up more advantages to the other team.

Another aspect of maincalling involves making sure your teammates know their roles. I'm pretty sure many open players aren't too clear on that so going through it might help -- eg your demoman usually needs to be looking forward dealing damage to the main group of enemies, your scouts clean up shit, deny bombers and get buffs a lot, your roamer watches the flank and stays alive until it's a good time to go for a play and so on.