Please help critique my tournament game

[LastSingularity]

As some of you know, I have been trying to cup for the summer, and while there have been a lot of close calls, none of them have yielded me a cup so far. I can't be sure whether it is sheer (un)luck or just something fundamental lacking in my approach. So I have one last idea in mind -

If any of you experienced tournament players have time, can you critique my tournament game? Specific pointers like these are really helpful:

"At this time in this video, you tried to go for this target to kill, but you didn't pay attention to this other player who was low on fuel and armors just 2 screens away" or

"You tried to search for equipment right after a mob had cleared the whole area of equipment and I know this because here and here, I saw them on the map fighting 5 min ago" or

"You moved to this fuel during PPH, but instead you should have gone here in order to shoot through two targets at once"

If you can critique any of the tournament videos, or even a certain segment of one video (i.e. - part 4 of 6, of Castles July 27th), that would deeply appreciated.

Thanks so much!

--- Videos Below ---

TankPit Tournament - 2014-07-22 - Crazy Maze - #5 Captain
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... uorvYUXpW5

TankPit Tournament - 2014-07-27 - Castles - #7 Captain
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... SnSqnToD9e

TankPit Tournament - 2014-06-28 - Levels - #15 Lieutenant (Made #1 Captain with 5 min to go, but died)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... 2qDHByU6Gv

TankPit Tournaments - 2014-06-16 - Castles - #6 Captain
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... eQXj4XBLVA

TankPit Tournament - 2014-07-14 - Elements - #13 Lieutenant (Good PPH for 40 min, then dropped off looking for kills)
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=P ... yqDdQ-HuYB

[PRIDE]

in the crazy maze one you were filling at corp. and using armors in 1v1s, 1v2s

[Headhunters]

Da King will take a look at it later for you

[The_Revelation]

I only had time to watch peices of your recent crazy maze tournament.

A few minor things I can point out are...

- Be aware of everything around you - map less, scope more.

- After you killed bigbaddog for captain (nice BTW, with a single) you were in a perfect position to go grab 50-60 duals. You only had 16 duals with 6 mintues left in the tournament. You had no chance at outranking anyone. You only had a shot at out PPHing the people ahead of you. You should have taken that opportunity to fill shields then get duals, then found someone willing to shield battle you. Just an FYI, if your ever #4 and I am #3 - I can guarantee you I will be firing off at LEAST 100 duals in the last 8 minutes, if its a PPH battle for cupping.

- Be aware of where your shooting. If you have two opponent tanks side by side, fire at the ground past both of them - that way you hit the other one if the first one maps. Same principle if the opponent tank is likely to move away from you in a straight line towards fuel or EQ, fire at the spot they are likely going to move to.

- Don't purposely fire homings over rocks or obstacles unless your going for a kill. Its a waste, just find a new angle or map.

- This one is optional, but several times you were quick to turn on shields when you didn't need to. Then you would get an EQ box of 2 shields. I can understand that this may be tougher for you since when you get low, you often get jumped quicker then some other players.


Take my opinion with a grain of salt, its just the way I play and others might have better suggestions :) Good tanking out there bro!

[SW]

in the crazy maze one you were filling at corp. and using armors in 1v1s, 1v2s

I do both of those.

[PRIDE]

in the crazy maze one you were filling at corp. and using armors in 1v1s, 1v2s

I do both of those.

those are advanced tactics though.

and if you saw the vid he was turning on armors with about 300 fuel left, not to armor fight but to teleport away. basically anytime he teleported he turned on armors. you have to get used to the game enough so that your confident to not use armors when teleporting.

by all means play safe though because now he might try to play confident and die a shitload in future tourneys

filling at corp i dont think is a huge advantage over filling at serg or lieut. the difference is by filling at corp other people will be higher ranks so you can shoot at them and you also increase your inventory but you will have to fill again eventually. then again, taking many various factors of the tournament in will determine which works best. depending on the map i fill at corp myself on iceland or a water map. filling at corp would be better if you are the first to fill too because itll allow others to catch up and you will have a huge eq advantage. but filling at corp may not work as well if you are last to fill

[LastSingularity]

Just an FYI, if your ever #4 and I am #3 - I can guarantee you I will be firing off at LEAST 100 duals in the last 8 minutes, if its a PPH battle for cupping.

That's golden advice there, Rev. I don't know why I never did that. Perhaps because I panic when I have 16 duals and 5-8 min left; I am torn on how many duals I should pick up vs. just finishing with singles. You and 987 said something similar - about 90-100 duals in 8 minutes or so. I'll fill to 90+ duals if I have 8 min left, next time, and try to find another PPH'er (preferrably captain or major) to 1v1 with, and armor-beast until I go empty

and if you saw the vid he was turning on armors with about 300 fuel left, not to armor fight but to teleport away. basically anytime he teleported he turned on armors. you have to get used to the game enough so that your confident to not use armors when teleporting.

filling at corp i dont think is a huge advantage over filling at serg or lieut. the difference is by filling at corp other people will be higher ranks so you can shoot at them and you also increase your inventory but you will have to fill again eventually. then again, taking many various factors of the tournament in will determine which works best. depending on the map i fill at corp myself on iceland or a water map. filling at corp would be better if you are the first to fill too because itll allow others to catch up and you will have a huge eq advantage. but filling at corp may not work as well if you are last to fill

I tend to lag and miss turns when 3 or more people are firing at me while I am mapping, sometimes 1-2 turns, which amounts to 3-6 dual shots, which could mean that I just die right there and then, before even teleporting. Part of it might just be that my computer / connection lags; and yes, other part is that I need better gauge / feel of what I can get away with (how low in fuel I can drop before I go insufficient on next screen, etc)

I fill at corporal because:
1 - The first spawn of equipment isn't used up yet, so going to screens without yellow dots yields 3-5 boxes often. Saves time
2 - If I fill at corporal, I don't have to worry about ERs ever again
3 - If I fill at corporal, and I get full, I have sergeants and lieutenants to PPH with, which yields more points per shot

But that's just my theory on why it is optimal, and I could be wrong / missing something critical here!

PRIDE - when do you fill up, and how do you handle your extra radar count? Thanks so much!

[The_Revelation]

My 2 cents on the filling at corporal thing;

It doesn't matter. Fill when you have a plethora of EQ in your screens. I wouldn't go making special trips around the map for it, but nothing wrong with topping up EQ when you feel there is a lot around you.

You will find that my advice will often leave you playing from behind during the tournament, its because I lean on EQ management - while many other players sprint hard at the beginning. I maximize efficiency in the final 20 minutes. Again its a preference thing, so there's no right or wrong answer.

[Headhunters]

Ok bro, Da King's take on it:

1. Filling:
Sometimes you're not utilizing and maximizing your screens sometimes. Yes the equip is random, but you want to use all da space in your screen instead of moving from screen to screen because it'll decrease your chances of searchin in a screen someone was already in.
WHY DO YOU HAVE ERS TURNED OFF?!?!? First of all, you're wasting 2 split seconds because you have to turn them off and on again. 2nd of all, once you get ERs you need to use them ASAP, wht you waiting on?

2. First stage of fighting:
You had plenty of duals when you were corp, why are you teleporting to empty screens to try to fill? you should be teleporting to botz/people and fight and pick up any equip on those screens when you first land or when they have teleported away. Or unless you need fuel and tele to a screen to get fuel then pick up equip. This is called fill fighting.
Overall you spend too much time tryin to fill when no one is around instead of fighting.

I stopped watching after bout half way through your first homemade vid. Because you really need to work on stop trying to fill so much and just find people and fight. When you got full armour, full missles, full homings, and half duals, you don't need to go on empty screens and try to pick up equip, you're wasting a lot of valuable fighting time.


EDIT: Just seen rev's post, pretty much wht he says

[PRIDE]

^ exactly. he was filling instead of fighting at corp. thats what i meant. but sw wanted to give his take on it without looking at the vid

[weekend_nachos]

Nothing wrong with filling at corporal. I do this every tournament (especially in watermaps), usually because after you fill it takes like 10 shots or less to make corp, then go off an fill because at that point the EQ is still massively plentiful to where you can get 15 on a screen. Look towards areas with bots for this. And usually takes no more than another minute or two of your time really.

Then from corp all the way to lieut+ im fill fighting, making sure to grab the EQ on screens before anyone else. Usually around points for captain will i have to find a bit more eq and take some time for it, but my average tournament these days im shooting nonstop and being efficient as fuck with only like 3-4 top tier players being in close - equal competition ( Ruins of Neamt in Orbital, i was pretty much untouched). But unfortunately when you land a 12 - 15+ minute fill ( me in maze the other week ) Filling at corp isnt as wise because you miss some serious eq windows and at that point it really does hurt you more in coming back.

It's all situational really, but spending time at corp to fill immediately on a average fill doesnt really hurt much at all in the running, top points is easy to catch, and Sigma is definitely capable.

[zubby]

fill fight up to sgt. fill right before lieut if u need too. then look for kills.

-zubbys tourney guide. copyright.

[mtp1200]

fill fight up to sgt. fill right before lieut if u need too. then look for kills.

-zubbys tourney guide. copyright.

I do this to I think I got it from you if im not mistaken it was someones turney vid maybe BG

[eldawg51]

I tend to do what nachos does in water maps if I'm on land, but, I only fill at corp if i happen to find a couple screens full of eq when I rank to corp. Otherwise it's straight to serge shooting any tank that moves (or doesn't move, preferably).

Avoid shield fighting early on if at all possible unless you're extremely comfortable with your refill skills.

Try to avoid getting 3-1'd or more if you can help it.

Snipe if you can, especially mob targets. You don't wanna be the minority color in the center of a mob after you snag a kill.

Just a few rookie mistakes that some people make, myself included.

[LastSingularity]

Thanks for all the help, guys!

[wardizzle]

I tend to do what nachos does in water maps if I'm on land, but, I only fill at corp if i happen to find a couple screens full of eq when I rank to corp. Otherwise it's straight to serge shooting any tank that moves (or doesn't move, preferably).

Avoid shield fighting early on if at all possible unless you're extremely comfortable with your refill skills.

Try to avoid getting 3-1'd or more if you can help it.

Snipe if you can, especially mob targets. You don't wanna be the minority color in the center of a mob after you snag a kill.

Just a few rookie mistakes that some people make, myself included.

The fill is all about filling in a counter cycle to the rest of the map. If you see that everyone takes up the strategy of filling at corporal, fill fight until you're halfway to lieut and then reup. Currently, most are still on the "fill at sergeant" tactic which means if you fill-fight to sergeant there's a chance you'll spend 5 minutes trying to reup your duals which is 3 minutes longer than you should be spending.

Given that, I like to fill to around 50 ers at corporal on land maps and ~65 on water maps.

By the time I run out of duals close to lieutenant, everyone else is trying to empty and I can pick up eq pretty easily.

On water maps, for the first 30 minutes fight hard etc... but make sure you're staying ~40 to 50 ers. If you see your ers drop to the low 30s, if the map is dry on eq from everyone filling then and there, wait a few minutes and then refill your ers. If it's easy to refill, load up on ers right away.

The difference between top 3 pph and 10th+ in water maps pretty often comes down to er management. If you let your ers drop to 20-25, there's a good chance you'll wind up looking for eq for 10 minutes and your tournament is done.

On land, you can limp down to ~25 ers and generally be fine.

Also, I like to refill right before I make lieut. Lieutenant means 92 eq and if you're lugging around 70 20 84 84 40, you'll rank, have to refill 5 minutes later, and miss on some of the most consistent points all tournament. Often, I'll get my lieut kill, wait until I'm <10 shots away and refill before ranking.

Shield fighting through the first half of the exp you need to make lieut is also not a bad idea. You gain more than you lose. For one, refilling armors at corp and sergeant is a lot easier than at lieut. Secondly, if you're shield fighting at lieut, there's a good chance that 3 or 4 people will see you low and chase you around making you burn even more armors. That hardly happens when everyone is still trying to rank up between and including lieutenant. If 2 turn on you, just tele out of the scope of at least one of them and keep shooting with your armors on. It's a waste of time for them to chase you around if there are less mobile targets available.

[LastSingularity]

[shermanfrombf]

sigmas average number is 13.94!

[Jordann]

Sigma you're one step away from cupping. You understand the game dynamics, you understand strategy, the last thing to do is piece the two things you know together and execute. There's not much more that can be explained, your willingness to learn and grow has already sped up the process tenfold. Looking at your tournament results shows the massive improvement from the first ten and the last ten.

Now it's time to just get te experience. I'm sure everyone on this site knows how to win a cup, but when there's 18 minutes left and 4 captains I'm sure majority of the players play incorrectly. Gotta be willing to stick to the plan from start to finish with no deviations even when it feels like you need to do something different (like waste time filling or spend a minute on map looking for someone who maybe could die to someone in a raid)

[LastSingularity]

Sigma you're one step away from cupping. You understand the game dynamics, you understand strategy, the last thing to do is piece the two things you know together and execute. There's not much more that can be explained, your willingness to learn and grow has already sped up the process tenfold. Looking at your tournament results shows the massive improvement from the first ten and the last ten.

Now it's time to just get te experience. I'm sure everyone on this site knows how to win a cup, but when there's 18 minutes left and 4 captains I'm sure majority of the players play incorrectly. Gotta be willing to stick to the plan from start to finish with no deviations even when it feels like you need to do something different (like waste time filling or spend a minute on map looking for someone who maybe could die to someone in a raid)

You are right. I need to be more decisive about which route to take, in order to cup: 1 - Try to cup with high PPH captain and hope there will be only 1-2 majors at most, or 2 - try to outrank people by making major.

Last night's Deep Six tournament was clearly one in which I should have tried to make major, because while I made captain early on, as more people made captain later on, I realized that at least 6 guys were ahead of me in points and I had a hard time catching up. I did eventually make the decision to go for kills, looking for people who were stuck insufficient on some small islands. I had 1-2 close calls, but other people got the kills instead of me. Still, I understood what Beaver means by "be flexible and adapt to the situation given to you."

Conversely, there are tournaments where I have high PPH as a lieutenant because I get a lot of 1v1 and 2v1s, but I fail to make kills. In those cases, my current (limited) experiences tell me that if it is only 10 min or less left, I should stop chasing kills, keep PPH'ing, and hope that I can kill someone who miscalculates his shield count in the last 2 minutes (because I certainly won't make major anyway, so high PPH captain is the only possible solution)

I think that's what you mean by sticking to the plan from start to finish - did I understand correctly?

Thanks Jordann

[Jordann]

exactly.

if you need to make major to cup itll take you longer then if you focus on getting top pph and snagging one kill.

[PRIDE]

tournaments are not to played with with one strategy. the top pph 1 kill strategy works when a tournament has 10-15 players. most tournaments these days are 20+ players and you should aim for kills because nobody is cupping by just getting top pph. you need at least 1 kill always

[LastSingularity]

Summer is coming to an end soon! I have at MOST 3 more tournaments before I need to disappear from this game and focus on school work.

I learned a lot, had a lot of fun - thanks all for the advice and encouragement!

[eldawg51]

Love the attitude, brother. Hope to see you around sporadically and next summer!

[LastSingularity]

Love the attitude, brother. Hope to see you around sporadically and next summer!

I went from dying like once out of every 2-3 tries (and placing #22 or #25 or something stupid), to landing rank kills consistently and often being only a few shots from cupping (either because I almost had the kill to make major or because I needed 20 more dual shots to PPH to #3, etc).



Cup or no cup by the end of the summer, I am content with my progress in such a short time. No doubt I got this far because of the immense help that other players gave me.

Shout outs to all those who gave me advice: Kirby, BlueGhost, 987, Revelation, Beaver, weekend nachos, Rome sDs, Krusty, Headhunters / Megatron, Jordann, Lancehead, eldawg51 / HONOR, silentsnake1124 / Thundercracker, WEENIE, PRIDE.

Pretty much more than half of this list here has reached out to me and given me advice (kind of nuts!):
viewtopic.php?f=170&t=16640

I had a lot of fun laughing at our "cunt-hair from cupping" incidences with lol / Astrokid as well. Way too much laughs:

"Oh shit, I worked my target down from 90+ shields down to 20, when no one was looking, thought I was going to make major, and then Beaver came in and snagged it!" (happened to both of us)

"Oh shit, I got 4 extra radars in the first 30 seconds as recruit, and after I found only 2 boxes with 4 ERs!" (happened to both of us)

"Oh shit, I was trading #3 / #4 shot for shot and then Rev beat my ass down to #4!" (happened to both of us)

"Oh shit, I got my target low on fuel and shields, but he quit low, and when he came back 10 min later, some guy smacked him once and got the kill!"

[AsTrOKiD]

Cup or no cup by the end of the summer, I am content with my progress in such a short time..

I think I can speak on behalf of the majority of players when I say that you have definitely made a respectful and honest name for yourself in the short time that you've returned to this game. In many ways I feel like your 100 hours on the field (and 30+ hours in tournaments) has felt well over double that just because of your persistence and perseverance through-out playing. If you don't end up cupping this summer, you definitely fought your ass off and faced adversity all of the way to the end every time and that deserves a huge kudos.

That being said, there are still a few tourneys left and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you for the rest of them. You and I both know that we still have a huge chance of cupping, it's not over just yet, so let's keep trying at least! Realistically we both could have cupped over half a dozen times by now had the circumstances been different, so I don't see why the remaining tournaments couldn't sway our way?

[LastSingularity]

Cup or no cup by the end of the summer, I am content with my progress in such a short time..

I think I can speak on behalf of the majority of players when I say that you have definitely made a respectful and honest name for yourself in the short time that you've returned to this game. In many ways I feel like your 100 hours on the field (and 30+ hours in tournaments) has felt well over double that just because of your persistence and perseverance through-out playing. If you don't end up cupping this summer, you definitely fought your ass off and faced adversity all of the way to the end every time and that deserves a huge kudos.

That being said, there are still a few tourneys left and I'm definitely looking forward to seeing you for the rest of them. You and I both know that we still have a huge chance of cupping, it's not over just yet, so let's keep trying at least! Realistically we both could have cupped over half a dozen times by now had the circumstances been different, so I don't see why the remaining tournaments couldn't sway our way?

Thanks for the encouragement, man. You too. You have beasted so hard on the main field and in tournaments. A lot of people are rooting for you to cup as well.

It's kind of funny, you know, how you managed to cup back in the day as a 10 or 12 year old with no strategy, really, and now, you're in your mid-20's, and your mind is going 100 different directions thinking about balancing PPH vs. kills, studying BlueGhost and Kirby videos 3x over until you go blind, reading and re-reading 987 guide, taking advice from 10 different gurus on AIM, and still it's so, so, hard to cup now!

We really have had the worst luck in tournaments. I have lost count of the number of times that we almost made major but had our kill jacked from me, or we were only half a round of duals (30 or less) from making #3 captain, or we had a good streak going but we DIED in some stupid circumstance.

The only thing that would be fair, to balance all the bad luck we've had, is if we both cupped the same tournament or something

[AsTrOKiD]

The only thing that would be fair, to balance all the bad luck we've had, is if we both cupped the same tournament or something

I would praise the old TankPit gods and the new.