DPM's 4v4 Strategy Guide
Intro
This is a newly updated version of the strategy guide I wrote about 2 years ago (in 2000). I was quite pleased to know that many people appreciated my league guide, so I decided to re-release it with some new material.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of my league experience with you, the reader, to help you with your league play. Doing well in league is far from easy; it takes a lot of dedication, practice, quick reflexes, intelligent decisions, and strategizing. I hope to fulfill my goal through this article by hopefully giving you a better understanding and appreciation of the game of Subspace and of league games. Enjoy.
Pre-Game
Macros are very important. When you are deep in a game and have little time to type because you are busy fighting your opponent, macros bring you an easy way to communicate to a teammate. It is important to make them as simple as possible, usually people ignore long macros that try to say a lot in them, it's just not worth the time to read a long macro when the other team is gunning for you and a tenth of a second can mean life or death. It's easier to be observant and just go where your team is going, if your team is well organized and stays together, then you will not need to read many macros at all. The only macros that really make a difference are the "regroup", "safe", "not safe", "anti on", "anti off", and the "help" macro. Putting your coordinates in your macros is of course, important.
Also choosing the right ship combination for your team is crucial. Having 3 warbirds and a weasel is one of the most effective combinations in league games. More than 2 weasels, in my experience at least, should be avoided as your warbird opponents can easily out-fly your weasels. As a general rule, having at least 3 warbirds is crucial as a backbone to most teams as their mobility and versatility outperforms all other ships. Having a weasel/cloaker combination for example may allow for a shock advantage, but a good warbird team can adjust and steal the advantage of any less agile team.
Practice
Practice makes perfect, but to many pilots, it is just a way to pass the time. Unfortunately, nobody learns this way. When you play in a scrimmage, always try to have a game plan in mind. Some examples of this are staying with your team more closely, sticking with a particular wingman, being as offensive as possible (popular in many pracs), focusing on vulching, or backing up your teammates better. Any of these are good, depending on your goals. Mindlessly playing in a practice won't get you anywhere. Don't be afraid to take risks in a practice, to change strategies, to push the envelope to the maximum so you have a better idea of your limits when match time comes. It's better to go 0-3 in a practice and learn something important than to go 6-0 and to learn nothing about your own game play.
Duel
Dueling skill is one of the most important and usually neglected skill in Pro League today. A duel, which is a 1 on 1 battle to the end can be interpreted as practicing your offense skills and ability to recover and dodge in preparation for a real league game. Almost all of the best league players are good duelers with few exceptions. For the longest time, I thought that dueling was a useless skill until I started to duel myself. Dueling teaches you how to attack your enemy, from the first shot to finishing him with the last shot. It teaches you to aim and to make every bomb and bullet count. It also teaches you the all important skill of taking advantage of momentum. Understanding the intricacies of momentum/spacing advantages often makes the difference between a good player and a great player or a great player and a star player. Learn how to duel, and duel well.
Subbing
It is very important that the whole squad understands the situation of subbing and the requirements the squad captain puts upon his players before every league game. This is important to avoid confusion, anger, and arguing during a league game. Always have a game plan in mind in terms of subbing and always tell the team what that game plan will be and make sure they agree with it. Before every game, make sure that the 4 starters are clearly known to everybody, and it is always good to pick a 1st, 2nd and 3rd sub before the game to clear up confusion.
In my current squad, whenever the captain (me) starts in a game, I always choose a trustworthy teammate in spectator mode to be the acting captain for the duration of the game (or until he gets subbed in himself). I tell him what will be the subbing order and if I'm organized enough, I'll tell him when to sub out a person. When he knows all this clearly after we start, he will be the acting captain and make all of the decisions. Just make sure that the rest of the team knows that he is the acting captain during the game so that they will respect his authority. This is good for me because I will not have to worry about being captain when I'm busy playing and will be able to concentrate more effectively.
Develop a Strategy
A pre-game discussion of general strategy in your league game is very important. For one, it helps your team gain confidence as they feel prepared for your opponents, and they know what their roles are during the game. Getting an effective strategy together is not easy and requires a lot of personal observation. First you need to get a general feel for your team's abilities and weaknesses. If your team is generally offensive, then you need to prepare a strategy that would best fit their abilities so they can perform to the best of their capabilities during the game. The best thing to do is to classify your players into different categories, the three most common are the offensive player, the vulcher, and the backstabber. When you have classified them, experiment with different lineups to see who works best with whom. In general, it's good to have one or two offensive players with the rest being vulchers.
Then there are general strategies you can experiment with to see what fits your team best. There's the buddy system, where your starters are grouped in teams of two, each teammate in a group has to cover the other teammate. The advantage of this strategy is that there is less responsibility given to the players, since they only have to make sure one teammate is ok and not the entire three. Another possible strategy is called follow the leader. This is when the squad selects a "leader" that will be followed religiously by the other three players. You can select this leader by his or her capabilities, and depending if you want an offensive game or not. It's works great in theory however after 10-15 minutes of play, it's hard to keep the focus on following one pilot the entire game. Basically follow the leader is just another way to make your starters focus and bomb the same target, which is fundamental in order to win in league.
Another strategy is the classic backstabbing combination. How it works is that there will be one brave player that will always try to sneak behind the enemy group and attack them from their weak spot while the other 3 players attack them from their front side. Theoretically what's supposed to happen is that the backstabber will confuse the enemy group, distracting them from their lobbing and force them to attack the loner. That's when the other 3 swoop in and attack the enemy while attaining momentum. The backstabber can also swoop in and force the enemy to deflect bombs and precious attention to the backstabber while the other 3 attack with little resistance. This is a risky strategy as the backstabber has to be exceedingly talented or extremely lagged in order to avoid certain death by purposefully getting isolated by the enemy. But if the backstabber can take the punishment, the other 3 players can have a field day attacking the disoriented enemy. Great current examples of solid backstabbers are CookieM and Rage. They both have great talent at breaking up enemy positions single-handedly while simultaneously deflecting attention away from the main attacking force. If you want to see this strategy in action, take notes from those two players.
Another strategy is what I call the bomb wall. Use this only if you face an extremely aggressive opponent that takes no prisoners when attacking you. What happens is all four players group together behind some kind of structure and simply create a wall of bombs, impenetrable to the opposing team. When they eventually get through it by either a backstabber breaking up the group or some other method, the group has to retreat and find the next structure to hide behind. The key is to keep the group in the middle of the map at all times since the corners will be almost certain trouble for your team with this strategy. The idea is that the opposing team will become increasingly frustrated with the bomb wall, and increasingly take greater and greater risks to create an attack. Therefore the more desperate they get, the easier it will be to pick them off. When a backstabber gets too close, a leader will direct the team to attack him to death. With this strategy, having someone to direct the team's flight path is crucial since maintaining the bomb wall requires all 4 players contributing to it. Be warned, this is still a highly experimental strategy, which requires a lot of patience. But in my opinion, it's worth testing out against an aggressive team.
One last strategy I'd like to point out is the most basic of all and perhaps the most effective of all. Lob bombs when the other team lobs. Do not chase any opponents by yourself, if you see yourself flying towards an enemy without backup, back off. If there are opportunities to attack, let's say a loner over-extends, then everyone chases and attacks the loner. If you are not accustomed to your other teammates, then it's preferable for someone to tell you "attack my target!", "chase the loner!" something like that. After he's dead or repped or out of your teams range, go right back to your original position of lobbing. This is a waiting game, attack if the opportunities are good, and never chase without backup. Sounds simple isn't it? But performing it in a real league game is a very different story. It's takes dedication in order to be comfortable with your other teammates, sensing attacking possibilities takes coordination among your team and there could be a lot of frustration when nobody follows you. Remember, try not to get frustrated, keep on trying to develop that teamwork with your teammates, and the results will come.
These above strategies are just some examples, not to be followed to the letter. Overall, it's very important to have some sort of gameplan before playing a league game. Make sure you know what kind of style of play you are going up against so you can plan to counter their strengths and attack their weaknesses. Know what questions to ask yourselves. If the enemies are a lobbing team, can we employ the backstabbing strategy or buddy system? If our opponents are aggressive, then maybe we should look to employ some sort of bomb wall to counter their offense. Overall, find a strategy that suits your team and don't be afraid to experiment.
GO!
Stay Together
You've probably heard this before from teammates and others. This is one of the most important things to do during the game. If your team is spread out, you will be easy pickings for the opponent when they single you out one at a time, force your repels, and eventually crush you. Staying together means knowing where all of your teammates are at all times, knowing where you are, and being close enough when the opportunity arises to help a teammate attack a common target. Also, when one of your teammates are in trouble, you should be in the position of helping him. Balance is key to keeping a good formation, if you are too close, then you will be an easy target for lobbing, because the enemy will just throw bombs in your general direction with the possibility of hitting more than one of you at a time, it's like hitting two birds with one stone. If you are too far apart, the enemy can break you up easier, and use the classic divide and conquer tactics, which work really well in this game. Staying together is not the only thing that is important to create a good formation, there is also a mental aspect to this. We are all very selfish out there when we play in a real league game, we all want good records without dying, and get recognized by your peers as a good player. But sometimes this feeling of selfishness/self preservation can hurt you more than help. Even if you know that you are the best player on the squad, you still need your teammates to help you out. Only a coordinated effort by the team is the only sure way to soundly beat your opponent.
Another trick to help your team to stay together is yelling out directions like "GO UP", "GO DOWN", "GO LEFT", "GO RIGHT" on your frequency to direct your team into going one way instead of doing a guessing game of where your team will be next. That is especially helpful when your team is in retreat or is in a really bad position in the map. Help your teammates as much as possible, attack the target that your teammate is attacking, don't risk it all so you can be the big hero.
Focus on One Target
This strategy complements with staying together, not only do you have to be within reach of your teammates, but if you combine this with always focusing on attacking one target, you will be a formidable foe indeed. This is a rule I use a lot in real league games, whenever your teammates decide to attack a pilot, you attack it too. It takes discipline, and sometimes in the heat of a battle, you don't realize that you are alone attacking an enemy when your teammates are nowhere in sight. I know this has happened to me many times in practices when unfocused. So this leads to this: even though you smell the enemy you are chasing is close to death but you have no teammates to back you up, resist this temptation and stop the chase, especially if his friends are relatively close by. This is so important in the beginning of the game, because the very first kills can decide the fate of the game and if you miscalculate your attack when alone, you can pay dearly for your mistake. Something I do in the beginning of the game is to remain very neutral and steady in the first half, get a feel for the game, get a feel for your opponents, and how your team is reacting to them. Don't be fooled by a lure, with the weakened opponent being the bait, wanting you to attack; if you do, his teammates will rip you apart. Early in the game, you will not really know what is a good kill opportunity or one that is not, so try to hold back your urges to kill, and analyze and keep tabs on your opponents' moves. Cautiously get a feel for knowing when to attack or not. Also selecting a weakened enemy out of your opponents and singling him out is a very powerful tool and strategy that many squads use. Whenever an opponent is low in repels or has a death or two, message your teammates to attack that target and stay on him until he is out of the game. This will cause extra strain and pressure on that enemy, hopefully forcing him out of the game for a powerplay. Your teammates in spectator mode should work to help the people who are playing by using target macros like showing the coordinates of the target and making energy macros like "%tickname is RED". These macros are incredibly useful in clutch situations in league games. Play smart, use your head when in the game, I know that sometimes it can get a little chaotic, control your actions, don't let the events control you.
Work Those Lobbing Skills
In a lobbing situation, the most important thing is not the bombing itself or how many bombs you shoot, but it's all in positioning. Shooting a few bombs where the enemy doesn't necessarily expect is very important. In a lobbing game, before you do anything, analyze the whole situation. Recognize what part of the map you are in, recognize where your team is generally located and flying around, and know where your enemy is grouped together. Always analyze the radar in this situation, look out for opportunities of weakness from your enemies, trust me, there will be some. With this information, you will know where their bombing lines are, so you can avoid them, know when their bombs come in, at what intervals, etc. Now with this information, you can lob bomb while feeling safer doing it. Surprise is one of your biggest weapons, don't shoot where they will expect you to shoot, shoot them where they feel safe from you, keep them on their toes. Patience is key in being successful here, wait for your opportunities, don't push too hard for results or else you might pay for it. If you get an opponent down, only attack when you have backup. Again, staying together is key for this to work well.
As I already stated, gathering as much information as you can is key to winning a lobbing war. It can get very frustrating at times, but remember, it's equally frustrating to your opponents! Playing smart is key here. Often what I notice with more novice players is that when they are in a lobbing situation, they just mindlessly throw bombs here and there, not hitting much of anything. This is an ineffective way of using your precious energy. In a league game, using your brain instead of pure hand eye coordination is very important. Don't lob a bomb somewhere just for the sake of lobbing, or just for the sake that you are full energy - lob a bomb that you KNOW will hit a target. Remember that using your energy to shoot in a league game is a strategic decision, the more you shoot, the more vulnerable you'll be to potential counter-attacking-remember, they will be trying to surprise you too.
When Down a Pilot
It will happen, one time or another, so be prepared for it to happen. Right after you see a teammate die or lag out, move back, stop attacking, anything except carrying on your attack as if nothing happened. Don't hesitate, regroup back with your teammates, get into a defensive position and await your fallen teammate. Timing is very important, depending on how well you are organized, you can be back in the game fighting with all players in a matter of seconds. But a less skillful team could really fall apart in this situation. With a man down, your opponents can really take advantage and if you aren't together with your teammates, they can take you apart, burning repels or even cause another death. Keep your cool as a team and you'll be fine. The same goes for someone who lags out, try to hang back, fend off the enemy as much as possible, and stay in the middle of the map and hope for the best until your teammate comes back in.
If you are the person that dies, remember to chill out. Many times I see players die out, then when they regroup they want immediate revenge. That's no good because for one you tend to take too many chances and could get yourself killed again! Best thing to do is to take deep breaths and get back to your original gameplan. If you're the captain of the team and if you see someone dying out quickly, it's your job to calm him down if he has trouble doing it himself. If he dies again trying to seek revenge, don't hesitate to immediately sub him out before he goes 0-3 and loses the game for you.
Playing the Game
It's good to keep it safe, so in a real game, before I shoot, I always try to have my energy level to its fullest or close to full strength. This ensures my safety, in case somebody vulches me after I shoot, I will still have enough left to survive. This is especially important to do if you are running anti-warp. Don't overshoot, unless you are sure that you won't be vulched, if the killing opportunity is just too good to be true, then maybe it is.
Just as a side note I recently timed how long it takes for a ship to recover to full power with only 100 energy left and using items such as anti-warp, x-radar and stealth as the variables. What I found out is quite interesting. For the Warbird and Weasel(it's the same), both ships take 13 seconds to return to full after 100 energy without anything on. It takes 14 seconds to return to full with anti-warp on. It takes 15 seconds to return to full with x-radar on. It takes a full 19 seconds to recover from 100 energy with stealth on. With anti-warp and x-radar on at the same time, I found out that it takes 15.90 seconds to recover to full energy. It takes 21 seconds to recover to full with anti-warp + stealth on. And finally for the insane player, it will interest you that it takes 24 seconds to reach full energy with anti-warp, x-radar and stealth on.
Energy management is incredibly important in games, especially with dealing with dreaded rep-kills. When you attack and want to kill your opponent so bad that you shoot until you're in deep red, that's taking your own mortality into risk because if the opponent uses his rep, he can push you back into his teammates bombs. Sometimes you have enough time to repel those out of the way, but most of the time the enemy rep comes as such of a surprise that you are just not in the mindset to repel back. Rep-kills frustrate me because they are so easily preventable! Be patient, if you play smart they will eventually die at your hands, don't risk being killed yourself, especially in a tight game.
No one on one! Sometimes when you get caught up in the game, and you've been trying this guy for the past 10-20 minutes, finally you get your chance, he's almost dead, you know it, but…you are all alone! Almost nothing pisses me off than seeing my teammate all alone fighting an opponent when the rest of us are busting our butts trying to stay together and playing like a team. This is no good, duel on your own time, this is a league game. Again, always attacking with backup is a must 95% of the time in order to be successful. Doing otherwise is risking the game for your team. Remember, chasing a loner alone weakens your teammates formation, when you attack alone you risk your teammates safety. Teammates are there to help you out, and since teamwork is a two-way street, you have to do your part to back them up.
As a side note, I'd like to share with you a trick I learned which is called the point-blank(pb) mine trick. When you rocket someone and can't seem to finish him off with that last shot, this trick can come in handy. It was developed in Jackpot as it helped to give that last little damage to kill a flag carrier as you rocketed him. It works like this: when you rocket someone, do your usual gun attack, but once you shoot him as much as you can before you pass him( if he's slowing down) and still doesn't die, use your last energy to mine him point-blank. The best time to point-blank him is when you just surpassed him with your rocket and just when you are about to get out of range, mine. This prevents the lucky shot your target might give off when you mine. It goes without saying that it would be in your best interest that no other enemy is around you when this happens. But for the advanced player, you can mostly calculate whether any random shots will hit you directly after a pb mine attempt. I can only speak for myself but this strategy has worked countless times against unsuspecting pilots. They think that when they slow down and just let you pass by that they can take whatever you dish out at them and then.... BAM, you mine! This tactic takes a lot of balls since it risks your own death in the process, but in those cases when you just need that little push to kill the enemy while rocketed, it just might be worth a shot to try.
Offense
Momentum is everything in a league game. If you have it, I can guarantee that your team will win in the end. Momentum decides when you attack or retreat so that's why it is an incredibly important factor to control. Momentum can be gathered as easily by simply just hitting one of your opponents with a bomb after he misses causing him to retreat. The most important thing in a league game is to constantly think how you can move forward and push your enemies back. Seems simple enough, right? The advice is simple but actually doing it is a very different and difficult matter. The best way is to practice always thinking about ways to move back your opponents in scrimmages. The most important step is to actually change your mentality from defense to offense. Look at all the top teams in League today like Intrepid and Interloper , they are very offensively minded squads. Just watch them in practice or in real games, watch how they constantly force reps as their opponents retreat . They don't expect to win it in 20 minutes, but they will slowly and surely weaken their opponents, taking out their enemies one opponent at a time. Anybody can play defensive, only the best can play offensive too.
Turrenting! [sic]
Turreting is often ignored and considered lame in league games. But under certain circumstances, it works very well. The most effective strategies of turreting is using the 2-man turret and the full 4-man turret. The 4-man turret strategy was used frequently by Black Hole in the early days of league, unfortunately, after them the strategy was virtually ignored as a viable strategy in league. But recently it has come back, the most famous example was the Requiem vs Betrayal game where Betrayal got an early and solid lead over Requiem by using the full 4-man turret tactic and eventually pulled out the upset. First pre-condition for a turret to be used effectively is first and foremost, getting the other team to attack you. The best strategy as a pilot is bounce off objects and turning direction toward the oncoming enemy and spray them with bombs, if you do this right they will either be forced to repel or even better, die. A strategy that should be looked at more closely is turreting after you have the game well in hand and chasing the last of your opponents. The Javelin is basically a must in order to gain enough speed to chase down the loners. Turreting is all about concentrating your teammates fire to reap maximum damage on your enemies. If you do it well, your turret will be unstoppable. Now to counter a turret is very simple, stop chasing and wait until they get off their turret and start playing "normally".
Mine-Reps (Old School)
This is another strategy that is considered lame but has been largely successful in some situations and have given way to some very easy kills in league games. In most league games, mines are used very infrequently, they are largely ignored and used only in purely defensive purposes. By neglecting them you are neglecting a potentially very effective weapon. Try this next time you are in a league practice, just lay 2 mines next to each other, somewhere you think that the enemy might be. Just watch how much they try to avoid it, by knowing this you can potentially target the enemy by predicting where he will go in the future, or try luring the enemy closer to the mines and if an opponent makes the mistake to be between you and the mines, use one of your repels. In a league game, it's best to have more than 2 mines stacked, always get a teammate to see the stack so they can pitch in and just wait for your opportunity to repel somebody into it. It's good for a laugh and free kills can go a long way. And the next time the enemy sees a big mine pile, they will think twice before attacking you. Unfortunately league has limited mines to only 1 per person, making mine-repelling a thing of the past. We can only cross our fingers and hope that they bring back the old mine settings, since this tactic is so much fun to attempt!
When You are Down a Pilot
This is when you are in a purely defensive mode. At this time, you are down a man or two, this is when playing smart really counts. How do you play smart? Here are a few things to remember when you are in this situation, retreat when your opponents have the advantage, when you have the advantage, attack. Yeah, this will mean that you will sometimes look like a wuss by running away but it's more important if you survive to attack at another time. Play smart, be patient, sometimes you will not get an opportunity for a few minutes, but keep on analyzing the situation, look for the opening. Remember, the game is 60 minutes long, use every minute if that's what it takes between winning and losing. In the end, it's the result that really counts, not the way you have done it.
Proper Thor Use
One of the most wasted weapons in league is the thor. The worst thing you can do to is to waste a thor by using it like a normal bomb. Have you ever killed anybody like this on a regular basis? I may have killed 2 people total in every league practice I've ever been in by just using my thor like a normal bomb. This bomb is supposed to be used to attack through a wall, so use it for its purpose. Save your thor for when you know that your enemy is very low and surprise him with a thor attack through a wall, if you are lucky, you will force him to repel or even kill him. Just like your repels, save your thor for a perfect time where it will do maximum damage on your opponent.
When You're the Last Man Standing or running in general
This is a situation when you are either all alone and your whole team is dead or if you have been led away from your teammates and you're getting chased down four vs one. If you are getting chased away from your teammates, the best thing you can do is just run away. Yeah, you heard me right, just run, don't shoot, conserve your energy and your repels, just run until you get back with your teammates. If you are really in trouble and they are pressuring you too much and you have to get out, then rocket, it's always better to rocket than to burn a repel. Saving repels is very important so you'll be in better shape later in the game. If you are in deep trouble with hardly any items and you are you being chased 4 on 1 with an enemy rocketing you, the last ditch defense is to release your 2 decoys at once hoping to confuse your opponents. It's worth a try and it's saved my life many times. Sometimes it confuses your opponent enough to spray bullets at all decoys therefore deflecting some of the damage off of you. If you're really good, you'll completely confuse your opponent into chasing a lone decoy, if that happens, congratulations, you've managed a clean escape by only using decoys.
A very important thing to remember when you are being chased is to never fly in one direction for very long. The key to surviving in these situations is to keep your opponents guessing, bounce off of stuff, and once they expect you to bounce off of something, don't. Try to use the map to your advantage, use the walls to block enemy bombs and fly through the structures to avoid clear bombing lines. Always try to keep them guessing, the more offbalance you make them, the better your chances of survival.
When you are all alone in the game, then run away, who cares if they call you a wussy as you flee in terror, at least you're alive. At this stage of the game you have to turn on anti if you are to stand a chance against the oncoming hordes. It's totally pointless if you are about to kill a guy to only see that he warps away. Always save your energy, only shoot when you know you will hit your target, every bit of energy counts, avoid every bullet/bomb you can and you will be in the best shape possible when you will be forced into a situation where you have to shoot or die. What I do when I'm down is usually to target one guy out of the group of chasers, the best person for this is the person who is running anti-warp. When I get my energy near 1700, I turn around and shoot a lob bomb, you are not trying to kill him yet, just for him to lose a bit of his energy so when he comes in for the kill, you will have the advantage and not him. A good strategy is a bomb/mine combo, if they are not dead after the mine, then mine again, if he is too close, then gun him down. When an opponent gets close enough, with using a rocket, with the intent of killing you with the final blow, then it's very important you do not get into a 1 for 1 bullet exchange gun match. As much as possible, try to avoid 1 or 2-3 bullets from the enemy, this will make all the difference and give you the energy advantage. Another good thing that I use, is by getting rep reports from my teammates on spec, I will use that information by targeting those who are most vulnerable, such as someone who has 0 reps and 0 rockets. Make sure you have a few rockets in your storage for use. This is the waiting game, keep on lobbing a bomb here and there into the oncoming enemy, just picking at their energy, at this time of the game the other team with their huge advantage tends to get very sloppy, they tend to overshoot and come in close with low energy. When an overshooting enemy comes close to you, turn around and rocket this guy with everything with you have with your guns wailing. This works beautifully for me, if you are focused and are keen for more kills and keeping the fight on. It's important to never give up, who knows what will happen.
Proper Repel Use
In a league game, you obviously don't want to die, that's why repels are there for you. So why do people tend to die all the time with 1 or 2 unused repels? This is obvious, but it is so very important to use all of your repels when you are in trouble. Think of this, isn't it better to live and have 0 repels than to die and have 2 repels? Sometimes it's a guy thing, you are too much of a man to use your repels, because if you repel, it's a sign of weakness. Another reason why people don't use their repels at times of danger is because they thought they could survive without using one. These days, you can die even when you use a repel because of either lag or somebody shoots a bomb a millisecond after you used the repel, either way, you die. The way I deal with this in real games is to anticipate when you are in real danger before it even happens! With all the playing time you all had in league, you should know now when you are in these types of situations. People like to wait until the last second right before death to repel, but this is not the wise action to do. Even if you have 1700 energy but you are getting surrounded by the enemy with a very narrow chance of escape, you just know that your energy will be gone in a matter of seconds…….when you realize this, repel now, don't wait until you are down to your last 50 energy to make this decision, because at this time even when you repel, you are not guaranteed to survive--a rogue bullet, lag, or voodoo can kill you when it's down to the wire. Nothing pisses me off more when you repel and still die, so to avoid it, repel before you are in actual trouble.
Victory is Yours. Don't Screw Up.
After a long tough battle, you have to cut down the other team to just one player, you have the advantage, don't give it up. The runner generally does not want to be called a pussy, so he fights back, best thing to do is get him to run anti, if he's not, keep on warping until he does. Then either you or a teammate runs stealth to drain him down, this will help your team to hurt him even before you start to shoot. If you have a rocket, recharge your energy until you are full, once you have done this, wait, get in close, don't shoot, make him concentrate on the rest of your team, when he either messes up somehow or overshoots, rocket him. If your aim is good and if you picked the right time to rocket, this will work great and end the game. If you don't have a rocket, try to fly as close as you can to him, get him to target you, make him shoot at you while the rest of your team is gunning and bombing his ass. Don't shoot as much as your teammates as you will receive the brunt of his attack, if he senses a kill from you, wait until he makes his move towards you, when this happens, immediately start going backwards behind the rest of your team, at this time he will be lured and it will be too late to escape your oncoming teammates. Remember to not get cocky in a situation where you are up a pilot or two in a tight game, your opponents are still looking for any openings you can give them and your job is to not give them one. Anything can happen in a league game, keep your guard up and bring the win home.
Game Over
This is a newly updated version of the strategy guide I wrote about 2 years ago (in 2000). I was quite pleased to know that many people appreciated my league guide, so I decided to re-release it with some new material.
I'd like to take this opportunity to share some of my league experience with you, the reader, to help you with your league play. Doing well in league is far from easy; it takes a lot of dedication, practice, quick reflexes, intelligent decisions, and strategizing. I hope to fulfill my goal through this article by hopefully giving you a better understanding and appreciation of the game of Subspace and of league games. Enjoy.
Pre-Game
Macros are very important. When you are deep in a game and have little time to type because you are busy fighting your opponent, macros bring you an easy way to communicate to a teammate. It is important to make them as simple as possible, usually people ignore long macros that try to say a lot in them, it's just not worth the time to read a long macro when the other team is gunning for you and a tenth of a second can mean life or death. It's easier to be observant and just go where your team is going, if your team is well organized and stays together, then you will not need to read many macros at all. The only macros that really make a difference are the "regroup", "safe", "not safe", "anti on", "anti off", and the "help" macro. Putting your coordinates in your macros is of course, important.
Also choosing the right ship combination for your team is crucial. Having 3 warbirds and a weasel is one of the most effective combinations in league games. More than 2 weasels, in my experience at least, should be avoided as your warbird opponents can easily out-fly your weasels. As a general rule, having at least 3 warbirds is crucial as a backbone to most teams as their mobility and versatility outperforms all other ships. Having a weasel/cloaker combination for example may allow for a shock advantage, but a good warbird team can adjust and steal the advantage of any less agile team.
Practice
Practice makes perfect, but to many pilots, it is just a way to pass the time. Unfortunately, nobody learns this way. When you play in a scrimmage, always try to have a game plan in mind. Some examples of this are staying with your team more closely, sticking with a particular wingman, being as offensive as possible (popular in many pracs), focusing on vulching, or backing up your teammates better. Any of these are good, depending on your goals. Mindlessly playing in a practice won't get you anywhere. Don't be afraid to take risks in a practice, to change strategies, to push the envelope to the maximum so you have a better idea of your limits when match time comes. It's better to go 0-3 in a practice and learn something important than to go 6-0 and to learn nothing about your own game play.
Duel
Dueling skill is one of the most important and usually neglected skill in Pro League today. A duel, which is a 1 on 1 battle to the end can be interpreted as practicing your offense skills and ability to recover and dodge in preparation for a real league game. Almost all of the best league players are good duelers with few exceptions. For the longest time, I thought that dueling was a useless skill until I started to duel myself. Dueling teaches you how to attack your enemy, from the first shot to finishing him with the last shot. It teaches you to aim and to make every bomb and bullet count. It also teaches you the all important skill of taking advantage of momentum. Understanding the intricacies of momentum/spacing advantages often makes the difference between a good player and a great player or a great player and a star player. Learn how to duel, and duel well.
Subbing
It is very important that the whole squad understands the situation of subbing and the requirements the squad captain puts upon his players before every league game. This is important to avoid confusion, anger, and arguing during a league game. Always have a game plan in mind in terms of subbing and always tell the team what that game plan will be and make sure they agree with it. Before every game, make sure that the 4 starters are clearly known to everybody, and it is always good to pick a 1st, 2nd and 3rd sub before the game to clear up confusion.
In my current squad, whenever the captain (me) starts in a game, I always choose a trustworthy teammate in spectator mode to be the acting captain for the duration of the game (or until he gets subbed in himself). I tell him what will be the subbing order and if I'm organized enough, I'll tell him when to sub out a person. When he knows all this clearly after we start, he will be the acting captain and make all of the decisions. Just make sure that the rest of the team knows that he is the acting captain during the game so that they will respect his authority. This is good for me because I will not have to worry about being captain when I'm busy playing and will be able to concentrate more effectively.
Develop a Strategy
A pre-game discussion of general strategy in your league game is very important. For one, it helps your team gain confidence as they feel prepared for your opponents, and they know what their roles are during the game. Getting an effective strategy together is not easy and requires a lot of personal observation. First you need to get a general feel for your team's abilities and weaknesses. If your team is generally offensive, then you need to prepare a strategy that would best fit their abilities so they can perform to the best of their capabilities during the game. The best thing to do is to classify your players into different categories, the three most common are the offensive player, the vulcher, and the backstabber. When you have classified them, experiment with different lineups to see who works best with whom. In general, it's good to have one or two offensive players with the rest being vulchers.
Then there are general strategies you can experiment with to see what fits your team best. There's the buddy system, where your starters are grouped in teams of two, each teammate in a group has to cover the other teammate. The advantage of this strategy is that there is less responsibility given to the players, since they only have to make sure one teammate is ok and not the entire three. Another possible strategy is called follow the leader. This is when the squad selects a "leader" that will be followed religiously by the other three players. You can select this leader by his or her capabilities, and depending if you want an offensive game or not. It's works great in theory however after 10-15 minutes of play, it's hard to keep the focus on following one pilot the entire game. Basically follow the leader is just another way to make your starters focus and bomb the same target, which is fundamental in order to win in league.
Another strategy is the classic backstabbing combination. How it works is that there will be one brave player that will always try to sneak behind the enemy group and attack them from their weak spot while the other 3 players attack them from their front side. Theoretically what's supposed to happen is that the backstabber will confuse the enemy group, distracting them from their lobbing and force them to attack the loner. That's when the other 3 swoop in and attack the enemy while attaining momentum. The backstabber can also swoop in and force the enemy to deflect bombs and precious attention to the backstabber while the other 3 attack with little resistance. This is a risky strategy as the backstabber has to be exceedingly talented or extremely lagged in order to avoid certain death by purposefully getting isolated by the enemy. But if the backstabber can take the punishment, the other 3 players can have a field day attacking the disoriented enemy. Great current examples of solid backstabbers are CookieM and Rage. They both have great talent at breaking up enemy positions single-handedly while simultaneously deflecting attention away from the main attacking force. If you want to see this strategy in action, take notes from those two players.
Another strategy is what I call the bomb wall. Use this only if you face an extremely aggressive opponent that takes no prisoners when attacking you. What happens is all four players group together behind some kind of structure and simply create a wall of bombs, impenetrable to the opposing team. When they eventually get through it by either a backstabber breaking up the group or some other method, the group has to retreat and find the next structure to hide behind. The key is to keep the group in the middle of the map at all times since the corners will be almost certain trouble for your team with this strategy. The idea is that the opposing team will become increasingly frustrated with the bomb wall, and increasingly take greater and greater risks to create an attack. Therefore the more desperate they get, the easier it will be to pick them off. When a backstabber gets too close, a leader will direct the team to attack him to death. With this strategy, having someone to direct the team's flight path is crucial since maintaining the bomb wall requires all 4 players contributing to it. Be warned, this is still a highly experimental strategy, which requires a lot of patience. But in my opinion, it's worth testing out against an aggressive team.
One last strategy I'd like to point out is the most basic of all and perhaps the most effective of all. Lob bombs when the other team lobs. Do not chase any opponents by yourself, if you see yourself flying towards an enemy without backup, back off. If there are opportunities to attack, let's say a loner over-extends, then everyone chases and attacks the loner. If you are not accustomed to your other teammates, then it's preferable for someone to tell you "attack my target!", "chase the loner!" something like that. After he's dead or repped or out of your teams range, go right back to your original position of lobbing. This is a waiting game, attack if the opportunities are good, and never chase without backup. Sounds simple isn't it? But performing it in a real league game is a very different story. It's takes dedication in order to be comfortable with your other teammates, sensing attacking possibilities takes coordination among your team and there could be a lot of frustration when nobody follows you. Remember, try not to get frustrated, keep on trying to develop that teamwork with your teammates, and the results will come.
These above strategies are just some examples, not to be followed to the letter. Overall, it's very important to have some sort of gameplan before playing a league game. Make sure you know what kind of style of play you are going up against so you can plan to counter their strengths and attack their weaknesses. Know what questions to ask yourselves. If the enemies are a lobbing team, can we employ the backstabbing strategy or buddy system? If our opponents are aggressive, then maybe we should look to employ some sort of bomb wall to counter their offense. Overall, find a strategy that suits your team and don't be afraid to experiment.
GO!
Stay Together
You've probably heard this before from teammates and others. This is one of the most important things to do during the game. If your team is spread out, you will be easy pickings for the opponent when they single you out one at a time, force your repels, and eventually crush you. Staying together means knowing where all of your teammates are at all times, knowing where you are, and being close enough when the opportunity arises to help a teammate attack a common target. Also, when one of your teammates are in trouble, you should be in the position of helping him. Balance is key to keeping a good formation, if you are too close, then you will be an easy target for lobbing, because the enemy will just throw bombs in your general direction with the possibility of hitting more than one of you at a time, it's like hitting two birds with one stone. If you are too far apart, the enemy can break you up easier, and use the classic divide and conquer tactics, which work really well in this game. Staying together is not the only thing that is important to create a good formation, there is also a mental aspect to this. We are all very selfish out there when we play in a real league game, we all want good records without dying, and get recognized by your peers as a good player. But sometimes this feeling of selfishness/self preservation can hurt you more than help. Even if you know that you are the best player on the squad, you still need your teammates to help you out. Only a coordinated effort by the team is the only sure way to soundly beat your opponent.
Another trick to help your team to stay together is yelling out directions like "GO UP", "GO DOWN", "GO LEFT", "GO RIGHT" on your frequency to direct your team into going one way instead of doing a guessing game of where your team will be next. That is especially helpful when your team is in retreat or is in a really bad position in the map. Help your teammates as much as possible, attack the target that your teammate is attacking, don't risk it all so you can be the big hero.
Focus on One Target
This strategy complements with staying together, not only do you have to be within reach of your teammates, but if you combine this with always focusing on attacking one target, you will be a formidable foe indeed. This is a rule I use a lot in real league games, whenever your teammates decide to attack a pilot, you attack it too. It takes discipline, and sometimes in the heat of a battle, you don't realize that you are alone attacking an enemy when your teammates are nowhere in sight. I know this has happened to me many times in practices when unfocused. So this leads to this: even though you smell the enemy you are chasing is close to death but you have no teammates to back you up, resist this temptation and stop the chase, especially if his friends are relatively close by. This is so important in the beginning of the game, because the very first kills can decide the fate of the game and if you miscalculate your attack when alone, you can pay dearly for your mistake. Something I do in the beginning of the game is to remain very neutral and steady in the first half, get a feel for the game, get a feel for your opponents, and how your team is reacting to them. Don't be fooled by a lure, with the weakened opponent being the bait, wanting you to attack; if you do, his teammates will rip you apart. Early in the game, you will not really know what is a good kill opportunity or one that is not, so try to hold back your urges to kill, and analyze and keep tabs on your opponents' moves. Cautiously get a feel for knowing when to attack or not. Also selecting a weakened enemy out of your opponents and singling him out is a very powerful tool and strategy that many squads use. Whenever an opponent is low in repels or has a death or two, message your teammates to attack that target and stay on him until he is out of the game. This will cause extra strain and pressure on that enemy, hopefully forcing him out of the game for a powerplay. Your teammates in spectator mode should work to help the people who are playing by using target macros like showing the coordinates of the target and making energy macros like "%tickname is RED". These macros are incredibly useful in clutch situations in league games. Play smart, use your head when in the game, I know that sometimes it can get a little chaotic, control your actions, don't let the events control you.
Work Those Lobbing Skills
In a lobbing situation, the most important thing is not the bombing itself or how many bombs you shoot, but it's all in positioning. Shooting a few bombs where the enemy doesn't necessarily expect is very important. In a lobbing game, before you do anything, analyze the whole situation. Recognize what part of the map you are in, recognize where your team is generally located and flying around, and know where your enemy is grouped together. Always analyze the radar in this situation, look out for opportunities of weakness from your enemies, trust me, there will be some. With this information, you will know where their bombing lines are, so you can avoid them, know when their bombs come in, at what intervals, etc. Now with this information, you can lob bomb while feeling safer doing it. Surprise is one of your biggest weapons, don't shoot where they will expect you to shoot, shoot them where they feel safe from you, keep them on their toes. Patience is key in being successful here, wait for your opportunities, don't push too hard for results or else you might pay for it. If you get an opponent down, only attack when you have backup. Again, staying together is key for this to work well.
As I already stated, gathering as much information as you can is key to winning a lobbing war. It can get very frustrating at times, but remember, it's equally frustrating to your opponents! Playing smart is key here. Often what I notice with more novice players is that when they are in a lobbing situation, they just mindlessly throw bombs here and there, not hitting much of anything. This is an ineffective way of using your precious energy. In a league game, using your brain instead of pure hand eye coordination is very important. Don't lob a bomb somewhere just for the sake of lobbing, or just for the sake that you are full energy - lob a bomb that you KNOW will hit a target. Remember that using your energy to shoot in a league game is a strategic decision, the more you shoot, the more vulnerable you'll be to potential counter-attacking-remember, they will be trying to surprise you too.
When Down a Pilot
It will happen, one time or another, so be prepared for it to happen. Right after you see a teammate die or lag out, move back, stop attacking, anything except carrying on your attack as if nothing happened. Don't hesitate, regroup back with your teammates, get into a defensive position and await your fallen teammate. Timing is very important, depending on how well you are organized, you can be back in the game fighting with all players in a matter of seconds. But a less skillful team could really fall apart in this situation. With a man down, your opponents can really take advantage and if you aren't together with your teammates, they can take you apart, burning repels or even cause another death. Keep your cool as a team and you'll be fine. The same goes for someone who lags out, try to hang back, fend off the enemy as much as possible, and stay in the middle of the map and hope for the best until your teammate comes back in.
If you are the person that dies, remember to chill out. Many times I see players die out, then when they regroup they want immediate revenge. That's no good because for one you tend to take too many chances and could get yourself killed again! Best thing to do is to take deep breaths and get back to your original gameplan. If you're the captain of the team and if you see someone dying out quickly, it's your job to calm him down if he has trouble doing it himself. If he dies again trying to seek revenge, don't hesitate to immediately sub him out before he goes 0-3 and loses the game for you.
Playing the Game
It's good to keep it safe, so in a real game, before I shoot, I always try to have my energy level to its fullest or close to full strength. This ensures my safety, in case somebody vulches me after I shoot, I will still have enough left to survive. This is especially important to do if you are running anti-warp. Don't overshoot, unless you are sure that you won't be vulched, if the killing opportunity is just too good to be true, then maybe it is.
Just as a side note I recently timed how long it takes for a ship to recover to full power with only 100 energy left and using items such as anti-warp, x-radar and stealth as the variables. What I found out is quite interesting. For the Warbird and Weasel(it's the same), both ships take 13 seconds to return to full after 100 energy without anything on. It takes 14 seconds to return to full with anti-warp on. It takes 15 seconds to return to full with x-radar on. It takes a full 19 seconds to recover from 100 energy with stealth on. With anti-warp and x-radar on at the same time, I found out that it takes 15.90 seconds to recover to full energy. It takes 21 seconds to recover to full with anti-warp + stealth on. And finally for the insane player, it will interest you that it takes 24 seconds to reach full energy with anti-warp, x-radar and stealth on.
Energy management is incredibly important in games, especially with dealing with dreaded rep-kills. When you attack and want to kill your opponent so bad that you shoot until you're in deep red, that's taking your own mortality into risk because if the opponent uses his rep, he can push you back into his teammates bombs. Sometimes you have enough time to repel those out of the way, but most of the time the enemy rep comes as such of a surprise that you are just not in the mindset to repel back. Rep-kills frustrate me because they are so easily preventable! Be patient, if you play smart they will eventually die at your hands, don't risk being killed yourself, especially in a tight game.
No one on one! Sometimes when you get caught up in the game, and you've been trying this guy for the past 10-20 minutes, finally you get your chance, he's almost dead, you know it, but…you are all alone! Almost nothing pisses me off than seeing my teammate all alone fighting an opponent when the rest of us are busting our butts trying to stay together and playing like a team. This is no good, duel on your own time, this is a league game. Again, always attacking with backup is a must 95% of the time in order to be successful. Doing otherwise is risking the game for your team. Remember, chasing a loner alone weakens your teammates formation, when you attack alone you risk your teammates safety. Teammates are there to help you out, and since teamwork is a two-way street, you have to do your part to back them up.
As a side note, I'd like to share with you a trick I learned which is called the point-blank(pb) mine trick. When you rocket someone and can't seem to finish him off with that last shot, this trick can come in handy. It was developed in Jackpot as it helped to give that last little damage to kill a flag carrier as you rocketed him. It works like this: when you rocket someone, do your usual gun attack, but once you shoot him as much as you can before you pass him( if he's slowing down) and still doesn't die, use your last energy to mine him point-blank. The best time to point-blank him is when you just surpassed him with your rocket and just when you are about to get out of range, mine. This prevents the lucky shot your target might give off when you mine. It goes without saying that it would be in your best interest that no other enemy is around you when this happens. But for the advanced player, you can mostly calculate whether any random shots will hit you directly after a pb mine attempt. I can only speak for myself but this strategy has worked countless times against unsuspecting pilots. They think that when they slow down and just let you pass by that they can take whatever you dish out at them and then.... BAM, you mine! This tactic takes a lot of balls since it risks your own death in the process, but in those cases when you just need that little push to kill the enemy while rocketed, it just might be worth a shot to try.
Offense
Momentum is everything in a league game. If you have it, I can guarantee that your team will win in the end. Momentum decides when you attack or retreat so that's why it is an incredibly important factor to control. Momentum can be gathered as easily by simply just hitting one of your opponents with a bomb after he misses causing him to retreat. The most important thing in a league game is to constantly think how you can move forward and push your enemies back. Seems simple enough, right? The advice is simple but actually doing it is a very different and difficult matter. The best way is to practice always thinking about ways to move back your opponents in scrimmages. The most important step is to actually change your mentality from defense to offense. Look at all the top teams in League today like Intrepid and Interloper , they are very offensively minded squads. Just watch them in practice or in real games, watch how they constantly force reps as their opponents retreat . They don't expect to win it in 20 minutes, but they will slowly and surely weaken their opponents, taking out their enemies one opponent at a time. Anybody can play defensive, only the best can play offensive too.
Turrenting! [sic]
Turreting is often ignored and considered lame in league games. But under certain circumstances, it works very well. The most effective strategies of turreting is using the 2-man turret and the full 4-man turret. The 4-man turret strategy was used frequently by Black Hole in the early days of league, unfortunately, after them the strategy was virtually ignored as a viable strategy in league. But recently it has come back, the most famous example was the Requiem vs Betrayal game where Betrayal got an early and solid lead over Requiem by using the full 4-man turret tactic and eventually pulled out the upset. First pre-condition for a turret to be used effectively is first and foremost, getting the other team to attack you. The best strategy as a pilot is bounce off objects and turning direction toward the oncoming enemy and spray them with bombs, if you do this right they will either be forced to repel or even better, die. A strategy that should be looked at more closely is turreting after you have the game well in hand and chasing the last of your opponents. The Javelin is basically a must in order to gain enough speed to chase down the loners. Turreting is all about concentrating your teammates fire to reap maximum damage on your enemies. If you do it well, your turret will be unstoppable. Now to counter a turret is very simple, stop chasing and wait until they get off their turret and start playing "normally".
Mine-Reps (Old School)
This is another strategy that is considered lame but has been largely successful in some situations and have given way to some very easy kills in league games. In most league games, mines are used very infrequently, they are largely ignored and used only in purely defensive purposes. By neglecting them you are neglecting a potentially very effective weapon. Try this next time you are in a league practice, just lay 2 mines next to each other, somewhere you think that the enemy might be. Just watch how much they try to avoid it, by knowing this you can potentially target the enemy by predicting where he will go in the future, or try luring the enemy closer to the mines and if an opponent makes the mistake to be between you and the mines, use one of your repels. In a league game, it's best to have more than 2 mines stacked, always get a teammate to see the stack so they can pitch in and just wait for your opportunity to repel somebody into it. It's good for a laugh and free kills can go a long way. And the next time the enemy sees a big mine pile, they will think twice before attacking you. Unfortunately league has limited mines to only 1 per person, making mine-repelling a thing of the past. We can only cross our fingers and hope that they bring back the old mine settings, since this tactic is so much fun to attempt!
When You are Down a Pilot
This is when you are in a purely defensive mode. At this time, you are down a man or two, this is when playing smart really counts. How do you play smart? Here are a few things to remember when you are in this situation, retreat when your opponents have the advantage, when you have the advantage, attack. Yeah, this will mean that you will sometimes look like a wuss by running away but it's more important if you survive to attack at another time. Play smart, be patient, sometimes you will not get an opportunity for a few minutes, but keep on analyzing the situation, look for the opening. Remember, the game is 60 minutes long, use every minute if that's what it takes between winning and losing. In the end, it's the result that really counts, not the way you have done it.
Proper Thor Use
One of the most wasted weapons in league is the thor. The worst thing you can do to is to waste a thor by using it like a normal bomb. Have you ever killed anybody like this on a regular basis? I may have killed 2 people total in every league practice I've ever been in by just using my thor like a normal bomb. This bomb is supposed to be used to attack through a wall, so use it for its purpose. Save your thor for when you know that your enemy is very low and surprise him with a thor attack through a wall, if you are lucky, you will force him to repel or even kill him. Just like your repels, save your thor for a perfect time where it will do maximum damage on your opponent.
When You're the Last Man Standing or running in general
This is a situation when you are either all alone and your whole team is dead or if you have been led away from your teammates and you're getting chased down four vs one. If you are getting chased away from your teammates, the best thing you can do is just run away. Yeah, you heard me right, just run, don't shoot, conserve your energy and your repels, just run until you get back with your teammates. If you are really in trouble and they are pressuring you too much and you have to get out, then rocket, it's always better to rocket than to burn a repel. Saving repels is very important so you'll be in better shape later in the game. If you are in deep trouble with hardly any items and you are you being chased 4 on 1 with an enemy rocketing you, the last ditch defense is to release your 2 decoys at once hoping to confuse your opponents. It's worth a try and it's saved my life many times. Sometimes it confuses your opponent enough to spray bullets at all decoys therefore deflecting some of the damage off of you. If you're really good, you'll completely confuse your opponent into chasing a lone decoy, if that happens, congratulations, you've managed a clean escape by only using decoys.
A very important thing to remember when you are being chased is to never fly in one direction for very long. The key to surviving in these situations is to keep your opponents guessing, bounce off of stuff, and once they expect you to bounce off of something, don't. Try to use the map to your advantage, use the walls to block enemy bombs and fly through the structures to avoid clear bombing lines. Always try to keep them guessing, the more offbalance you make them, the better your chances of survival.
When you are all alone in the game, then run away, who cares if they call you a wussy as you flee in terror, at least you're alive. At this stage of the game you have to turn on anti if you are to stand a chance against the oncoming hordes. It's totally pointless if you are about to kill a guy to only see that he warps away. Always save your energy, only shoot when you know you will hit your target, every bit of energy counts, avoid every bullet/bomb you can and you will be in the best shape possible when you will be forced into a situation where you have to shoot or die. What I do when I'm down is usually to target one guy out of the group of chasers, the best person for this is the person who is running anti-warp. When I get my energy near 1700, I turn around and shoot a lob bomb, you are not trying to kill him yet, just for him to lose a bit of his energy so when he comes in for the kill, you will have the advantage and not him. A good strategy is a bomb/mine combo, if they are not dead after the mine, then mine again, if he is too close, then gun him down. When an opponent gets close enough, with using a rocket, with the intent of killing you with the final blow, then it's very important you do not get into a 1 for 1 bullet exchange gun match. As much as possible, try to avoid 1 or 2-3 bullets from the enemy, this will make all the difference and give you the energy advantage. Another good thing that I use, is by getting rep reports from my teammates on spec, I will use that information by targeting those who are most vulnerable, such as someone who has 0 reps and 0 rockets. Make sure you have a few rockets in your storage for use. This is the waiting game, keep on lobbing a bomb here and there into the oncoming enemy, just picking at their energy, at this time of the game the other team with their huge advantage tends to get very sloppy, they tend to overshoot and come in close with low energy. When an overshooting enemy comes close to you, turn around and rocket this guy with everything with you have with your guns wailing. This works beautifully for me, if you are focused and are keen for more kills and keeping the fight on. It's important to never give up, who knows what will happen.
Proper Repel Use
In a league game, you obviously don't want to die, that's why repels are there for you. So why do people tend to die all the time with 1 or 2 unused repels? This is obvious, but it is so very important to use all of your repels when you are in trouble. Think of this, isn't it better to live and have 0 repels than to die and have 2 repels? Sometimes it's a guy thing, you are too much of a man to use your repels, because if you repel, it's a sign of weakness. Another reason why people don't use their repels at times of danger is because they thought they could survive without using one. These days, you can die even when you use a repel because of either lag or somebody shoots a bomb a millisecond after you used the repel, either way, you die. The way I deal with this in real games is to anticipate when you are in real danger before it even happens! With all the playing time you all had in league, you should know now when you are in these types of situations. People like to wait until the last second right before death to repel, but this is not the wise action to do. Even if you have 1700 energy but you are getting surrounded by the enemy with a very narrow chance of escape, you just know that your energy will be gone in a matter of seconds…….when you realize this, repel now, don't wait until you are down to your last 50 energy to make this decision, because at this time even when you repel, you are not guaranteed to survive--a rogue bullet, lag, or voodoo can kill you when it's down to the wire. Nothing pisses me off more when you repel and still die, so to avoid it, repel before you are in actual trouble.
Victory is Yours. Don't Screw Up.
After a long tough battle, you have to cut down the other team to just one player, you have the advantage, don't give it up. The runner generally does not want to be called a pussy, so he fights back, best thing to do is get him to run anti, if he's not, keep on warping until he does. Then either you or a teammate runs stealth to drain him down, this will help your team to hurt him even before you start to shoot. If you have a rocket, recharge your energy until you are full, once you have done this, wait, get in close, don't shoot, make him concentrate on the rest of your team, when he either messes up somehow or overshoots, rocket him. If your aim is good and if you picked the right time to rocket, this will work great and end the game. If you don't have a rocket, try to fly as close as you can to him, get him to target you, make him shoot at you while the rest of your team is gunning and bombing his ass. Don't shoot as much as your teammates as you will receive the brunt of his attack, if he senses a kill from you, wait until he makes his move towards you, when this happens, immediately start going backwards behind the rest of your team, at this time he will be lured and it will be too late to escape your oncoming teammates. Remember to not get cocky in a situation where you are up a pilot or two in a tight game, your opponents are still looking for any openings you can give them and your job is to not give them one. Anything can happen in a league game, keep your guard up and bring the win home.
Game Over
