Idster's "Improve your game" thread [Mentality + External factors]

[Idster]

Thanks to CEG hylander for making this section with my blessing, I wont waste time in getting the game improvement thread up and running.

Posts in this thread cover Mentality and External factors of gameplay improvment which can be applied to pretty much any and all games.

1st post Has been posted below.

[Idster]

Mentality

Anybody can kill someone in a match, but as soon as they are killed, or they are losing points-wise, they get worse and worse and worse untill boom! they've lost.

The mental aspect of this game is a part of games that many seem to forget about. A lot choose rather to focus on their ability to get headshots with the sniper, know decent parts of a map or how to get that perfect nade. Many fail to realize that all that stuff is so easy to learn and take a few weeks to perfect, but it’s the mental aspect of this game that separates the “Pros” from the “Joes”. You can only take your ability to aim so far, but taking your ability to out-wit, out-maneuver, or out-strategize to the next level is what you should really aspire to do.

Attitude

The first part I want to cover is the attitude in which this game is approached. Too many players today get frustrated when they lose, understandably so though. I don’t like to lose more than anyone else, but I know losses will always come. There is always going to be a plan that fails, a failure of skill, or a gross miscalculation. Anger is something that will hold you back from ever reaching the potential you may have. Keeping it in check is something that is not easily done. It will always be a problem, but one that can be remedied. Remember when you get angry next time to stop, take a deep breath, and just let it out slowly, you will be amazed at the difference in which you will perform after. There are many ways to check your anger and to curb it. You will have to realize that is not in any way helping you and will not do anything to help your talent at this game. Fixing it is something that you have to want to do though.


The second part about attitude I want to cover is morale. Morale will affect a team mentally so much worse than trash talk from an opposing team. Getting down or saying negative things ever in game CAN and usually will affect a games outcome. Saying things like “OMG they are going to win” will strike such a forceful blow to the strength of your own team. Why would you cheer for the opposing team when you want to win? I was always told in any sport; “If you don’t think you can win, you won’t”. The same applies here. You have to have confidence, not arrogance, but confidence in your abilities that if and MLG Pro sat down next to you, that his skills would fail against you. This of course will come from practicing those skills, but have confidence nonetheless. Getting down about a flag capture? Why? You still have a chance. It’s not over till they score 3 or 5 depending on the game and map. Saying anything negative in a game can also really affect the way you play. I used to team with a guy that would complain every time he died about the connection. Screaming things like “OMG WHY WON”T YOU DIE”, or “OMG HE JUST ATE THAT BULLET” or “WTF IS THIS LOW GREEN BAR, I CAN”T PLAY LIKE THIS” can be a problem for your teammates who will start to blame deaths, losses and ultimately a lot of things on lag. What do they intend to blame when played on LAN though? Yes lag happens and sometimes you just get screwed out of a kill, it happens to everyone, not just you. Complaining about it will not get you a point, nor a death taken away. Deal with it. Time to move on…

The positive aspect of this I want to briefly skim over, when you are starting to experience frustration in a game, quickly blow it off and focus on the callouts, making and responding to them. Keep your head in the game. Focus on your amazing shots, your clutch plays, or your nicely chosen tactics. Chose rather to focus on these things rather than things you can’t control or messed up on, let it go.

Brushing the Losses Off

This is one of the strongest part of some Pro’s mental arsenals, even some Pro’s have yet to master this one. Taking a loss and saying to yourself, “Yes, I made a mistake once, Yes, I lost that game, Yes, it sucks, but I won’t go out like that, I won’t lose twice, I won’t let this one get by me”. That is the best part of a Pro’s game. Anyone see FB shrug off a loss at ML’s ’08 and keep on trucking? They were mentally and physically tired after that weekend, but they refused to give up after being knocked to the LB, after dropping a game in the Finals. They were simply not going to give up. If they were going to lose, it was going to be because they had been out-played, out-witted, or out-skilled. They were simply not going to lose because of their selves. Learn this and you have achieved greatness.

Wit

This is going to be an important read, so get ready. This is the most highly diverse part of the mental aspect of this game. I wish I could show you some of the Pro’s thoughts during games at critical points and the options running through their head. When approaching any given situation in Halo, think to yourself, what are my options? How is my Health? What weapons does he have? What are my escape routes? How can I get the best of him/or her? What can I use against them? Answer these questions and you have a plan to out-wit them.

Jukes are essential to out-witting an opposing player. When low-shields, pretend to run around a corner, most players will not chase but will nade you or they may reload. It is in this moment that you now have the tactical advantage, but only for a brief period of time. Make the most of it. Nade juking is another tactic. Throwing nades where opponents cannot see them yet but will run upon them soon enough is a nade juke. For instance, a player is being chased around a corner. When the wounded player rounds the corner, he throws a nade at the wall closest to the corner, but not enough to make the nade round the corner, and the nade will explode in the path of the chaser. Sneaky Beaver. Another Nade juke is to nade somewhere to draw attention away from the actual retreat or attack. Directing an opponents attention to your distraction is the best laid trap. You are only weak if you show it. There are many times I have ran away taking shots, rounded a corner, then started shooting at my chaser, in turn he ran, because he was afraid I had an advantage that he didn’t see. This is the “poker face” of Juking. Feigning weakness only to show strength is a valued tactic of many players. The Jumping Juke is a tactic that has roots in H2, but has more value in H3 albeit a varied one. Let me explain. In Halo 3, if you hit players in the right spot in the face or the top of the head(sometimes armpits) you can get an assassination, works when used in conjunction with jumping. I have embarrassed OverShields and many others, also been removed from a friends list(back on now) for this sneaky tactic. Use jukes to their fullest potential.

Knowledge is Power, but Instinct is Better

Knowing where and when an opportunity will present itself in a game is half science, half instinct. Knowing spawns and weapon timers and listening to callouts will give you half the knowledge to determine enemy positions and whereabouts. Predicting player movement and player actions is border line scary sometimes. But basically, Instinct comes down to knowledge of the most common player moves or the predictability in your actions that another can see. Knowledge of this is power over an enemy team. As far as instinct goes, there are many things I know about it and many things I don’t know about it. I suggest if you want to improve your instinct, watch a lot of VOD fomr MLGpro.com, game POV’s and analyze the most used patterns. Change your predictability. Walshy is by far one of the most unpredictable players that will do some things to boggle the mind. I would venture so far as to say that many of us would say his skill is not baffling, but his status as an amazing player is secure, mainly because of his ability to manipulate, juke, and just embarrass top tier players with his off the wall tactics. Though they are crazy and sometimes seemingly foolish, they are hardly failure.

In closing, I wish that you would take this knowledge and apply it to great length. These tactics and this knowledge can beat more skilled players than you by simply fooling them. Combine these with amazing skill and you have one amazing player. Any player can be fooled, you just have to counter their counter move. Always think steps ahead of yourself. Be ready for anything, be prepared for the worst, hope for the best.

Difference between co-ckyness and Confidence
It's safe to say that all of us have experienced the ear-ache of co-cky players before or after matches, use this to your advantage straight away. It my seem irrelavent to many but matches are decided in the pre-game lobby, either by a confident player telling the other team (subconsiously) that they truly are ready for the match win, or by co-cky players going overboard (as they always do) and edging the other team to do better.

It kind of hard to explain, but pay close attention to who speaks and HOW they say it. If they sound co-cky they will usualy be insecure during the match (boosts your team morale, better performance, win result for you)

If they sound confident you need to achknowlage that to be more metally prepared for the match (better performance again if you can adapt to it)

Now on to staking your impact on a match, first rule; if you dont have anything decent to say, DONT say it! especially if its co-cky, All your doing is making the other team more eager to kill you.

Now if your realy confident in a match, speak up and say it in the pre-game lobby, if it is replied with co-cky retorts form the other team, you've already won. (but dont go overboard, they will see right through you)

[sorry about the dash in "co-cky" it wont show otherwise]

[Idster]

Customs
The first step to improvement is playing more customs. I know this sounds like a cliche answer, but something you must understand is that playing Matchmaking is so much different from playing customs. Players in MM will do things that often do not make sense, while in customs most things are strategized and planned and everything is similar to chess moves. Remember to mix up who you play against too or else you will develop a playstyle specifically to beat that team and will most likely not work against a different team of a different caliber.

Team Up
Secondly, find and develop a team. Team work is essential and playing with different people every day will not produce the results you want. Strategies are very important to the success of any team and are the foundation of well organized team. Every day there are improvements to be made. Saved films (in halo 3) is a tool that when used by a team to criticize what went wrong can improve a team. Take full advantage of it and remember to keep your cool when talking to your teammates. Be careful to watch how and what you say to them when you criticize their playstyle. Although it is important to point out each other's flaws in gameplay, no one likes critcism, so be careful in your way of approach. As you become tighter as a team, this will become less of an issue. But when first starting is when a team is most vulnerable. Always play together, always.

Communicate
Third, Communication is key and developing callouts with your team is necessary to the survival and map control of a team. Knowledge of enemy positions are the life of a team. Knowing the safe areas and the danger areas will give a team the fighting edge. Anticipating their approach through communication will also keep the advantage of map control. Communication is very important.


Team Shoot
Fourth, team shooting goes hand in hand with communication, Reacting to callouts is where most teams fail. Calling out a position is useless if never acted upon. Realize that the survival of your team is important to the success of your plan. Shooting the same guy at the same time will result in killing him quicker keeping your teammates in position because their shields are higher. Team shooting is a tricky thing and takes time to master. Most teams either succeed or fail here.

Timers (<--- halo 3 specific)
Fifth, Weapon and powerup timers. Knowing when the rockets or sniper spawn are very crucial to map control. Timers in MLG are based on a given spawn time, that is they always spawn at the same time, mostly. Powerups are a little different, they respawn every 2 minutes from when they are picked up, not at any set time. Knowing when these spawn will enable your team to get into position to lock down that section of the map so only your team has access to the spawn. These are necessary as well to the success of a team.

Map Control
Sixth, I have been talking about map control. Some may not know what this means, so I will explain. Map control is somewhat self-explanatory. Your team controls the map, meaning that you are setup in positions on the map locking an area down preventing the other teams free movement in an area. This is difficult to perform without the above. Breaking these kind of setups for the other team is harder though. The best counter-action to this setup is by pushing as a team on one corner of their setup, find the weakest corner. Never push the middle of this type of setup as you will almost always fail. Break a corner and work your way down the setup until they retreat. Also as an offensive team in this setup, retreat is always a good option when two down.

Awareness
Finally, Knowing where your enemies are at all times becomes an inert trait of the more dominant players. Being aware of their postion relies on communication and knowledge of the routes people frequent most. There are only so many routes to a destination, knowing the possibilities will greatly increase your chances. Constantly being on the lookout will keep you and your team in the know. Like they say "Keep your head on a swivel".