Post by Xarious on Aug 21, 2016 16:51:18 GMT -5
Disclaimer: This section does not claim to be a TFFA strategy guide. This section is intended to inform about the basics of TFFA in terms of rules and general tactics used. There will be actual TFFA strategy guides in the Wisdom & Advice section later on that give a more in-depth explanation, but due to its subjective nature, I am avoiding having a section like that in the more facts-oriented part of this database.
Thanks to Robb for helping clean this entry up!
Today ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to give you my personal tactics guide. And by that, I mean "here are some simple basics that will help you improve your current 'swing saber, get kills' strategy by actually adding the strategy part."
Section 1: Formation
I can't express enough how helpful it is to have some kind of organization. If you all just flail at any enemy you see you're going to end up clustering and teamkilling each other. Generally speaking, you'll want some kind of set formation with basic restrictions for each team member so they know when and where to go.
3v3 Triangle Formation: Something that gets a decent amount of use is keeping everyone on the outside of the formation so that you trap the opponents in the middle. One of the most efficient forms of this is to have a circling triangle of players that keep to the outer edges of the room.
2v2 Yin Yang Formation: Similar in concept, but you do not have a third player for the formation, so instead it's just keeping the two players on opposite sides of the room, moving in a circle. I like to think of it kind of like this picture, where the two are moving along the outside and keeping the enemy team between them. This is also very effective in a 2v1 situation.
Section 2: Model/skin usage and names
If you're looking for a tricky edge, this tends to be useful. Basically, during any TFFA, a team will be trying to focus weaker members of a team while distracting stronger members in order to free farm the weaker ones while evading being killed by the stronger. When your team uses all the same name or all the same model, it suddenly becomes much harder to distinguish who is who, making it so that the enemy team has a hard time targeting a specific member of the team. This causes them to be far less efficient in their attempts to single out weaker fighters and gives a powerful edge to your team.
Section 3: End-Game Decisions
Nearing the end of a match, your eyes should be on the scoreboard, either watching for kills or watching the time. An uncommon but useful tactic that gets a bit of use every so often is self-kills in matches that look to be determined by the fraglimit. If the kill cap is 31, and the score is 30-29, you may wish to have a team mate kill you, or fall in a hole somewhere when you have extremely low hp. While it will lower your score to 30-28, it prevents the enemy team from getting the last kill off of you that they would need to end the match, and gives your team time to catch up if they play it right.
Time-oriented games mean that near the end, whoever has the lead is bound to win unless the other team rushes for kills. This means that the leading team in the last minute of play can use this to their advantage by playing passive and careful, leading the other team to rush them. The leading team can also use this to draw enemies into areas of the map they otherwise wouldn't go so that they can set traps or use the terrain advantage. Or, of course, if you're feeling exceptionally cheap that day, you can have your whole team just avoid conflict all together near the end of a close match to ensure a victory.*
Timelimit, in this case, is usually the biggest factor of a match. It allows the leading team to always set the pace and control the field because the team that is behind cannot afford to remain passive.
*Do note, however, that in many competitive circles this is classified as running and can disqualify you.
Section 4:Competitive vs Pick Up Game (PUG)
There are some standards in the community for both competitive and PUG games, and these can often differ between US and EU communities, but here is the general rundown:
2v2 - For competitive 2v2 the score limit is typically 20 or 21 and timelimit is 10.
3v3 - In competitive 3v3, the score limit is typically 30 or 31, with a timelimit of 15.
In PUG games, it's usually random players selected by a captain (usually the player with the highest kills from the previous match). These matches are a good way to gain experience in TFFA, and to play with different types of players.
2020 Sidenote: If you see 2v2's happening but no PUG, then it is most likely a form of Rotating 2's. This is where the winning team stays and a new challenger 2's team enters. In this case it's best to try and team up with someone also spectating. This can happen in 3s, but is much less common.
Section 5: Team Leader
Every TFFA team should have an assigned leader. If you go in as every man for themselves, than you're going to get results that reflect that. If you go in with more than one person allowed to be the shot-caller, than you'll end up with mid-match arguments and conflicts that will only lead to worse results. A team leader can keep their team motivated (even when they are losing) and has the task of setting the team strategy. This includes assigning roles, giving mid-game orders (often through binds), and keeping an eye on the score and time to know if they need to adjust.
As with any of my newly-added posts, this is subject to have more added to it. Comment below if you have things you want to add, though.
Thanks to Robb for helping clean this entry up!
Today ladies and gentlemen, I'm going to give you my personal tactics guide. And by that, I mean "here are some simple basics that will help you improve your current 'swing saber, get kills' strategy by actually adding the strategy part."
Section 1: Formation
I can't express enough how helpful it is to have some kind of organization. If you all just flail at any enemy you see you're going to end up clustering and teamkilling each other. Generally speaking, you'll want some kind of set formation with basic restrictions for each team member so they know when and where to go.
3v3 Triangle Formation: Something that gets a decent amount of use is keeping everyone on the outside of the formation so that you trap the opponents in the middle. One of the most efficient forms of this is to have a circling triangle of players that keep to the outer edges of the room.
2v2 Yin Yang Formation: Similar in concept, but you do not have a third player for the formation, so instead it's just keeping the two players on opposite sides of the room, moving in a circle. I like to think of it kind of like this picture, where the two are moving along the outside and keeping the enemy team between them. This is also very effective in a 2v1 situation.
Section 2: Model/skin usage and names
If you're looking for a tricky edge, this tends to be useful. Basically, during any TFFA, a team will be trying to focus weaker members of a team while distracting stronger members in order to free farm the weaker ones while evading being killed by the stronger. When your team uses all the same name or all the same model, it suddenly becomes much harder to distinguish who is who, making it so that the enemy team has a hard time targeting a specific member of the team. This causes them to be far less efficient in their attempts to single out weaker fighters and gives a powerful edge to your team.
Section 3: End-Game Decisions
Nearing the end of a match, your eyes should be on the scoreboard, either watching for kills or watching the time. An uncommon but useful tactic that gets a bit of use every so often is self-kills in matches that look to be determined by the fraglimit. If the kill cap is 31, and the score is 30-29, you may wish to have a team mate kill you, or fall in a hole somewhere when you have extremely low hp. While it will lower your score to 30-28, it prevents the enemy team from getting the last kill off of you that they would need to end the match, and gives your team time to catch up if they play it right.
Time-oriented games mean that near the end, whoever has the lead is bound to win unless the other team rushes for kills. This means that the leading team in the last minute of play can use this to their advantage by playing passive and careful, leading the other team to rush them. The leading team can also use this to draw enemies into areas of the map they otherwise wouldn't go so that they can set traps or use the terrain advantage. Or, of course, if you're feeling exceptionally cheap that day, you can have your whole team just avoid conflict all together near the end of a close match to ensure a victory.*
Timelimit, in this case, is usually the biggest factor of a match. It allows the leading team to always set the pace and control the field because the team that is behind cannot afford to remain passive.
*Do note, however, that in many competitive circles this is classified as running and can disqualify you.
Section 4:Competitive vs Pick Up Game (PUG)
There are some standards in the community for both competitive and PUG games, and these can often differ between US and EU communities, but here is the general rundown:
2v2 - For competitive 2v2 the score limit is typically 20 or 21 and timelimit is 10.
3v3 - In competitive 3v3, the score limit is typically 30 or 31, with a timelimit of 15.
In PUG games, it's usually random players selected by a captain (usually the player with the highest kills from the previous match). These matches are a good way to gain experience in TFFA, and to play with different types of players.
2020 Sidenote: If you see 2v2's happening but no PUG, then it is most likely a form of Rotating 2's. This is where the winning team stays and a new challenger 2's team enters. In this case it's best to try and team up with someone also spectating. This can happen in 3s, but is much less common.
Section 5: Team Leader
Every TFFA team should have an assigned leader. If you go in as every man for themselves, than you're going to get results that reflect that. If you go in with more than one person allowed to be the shot-caller, than you'll end up with mid-match arguments and conflicts that will only lead to worse results. A team leader can keep their team motivated (even when they are losing) and has the task of setting the team strategy. This includes assigning roles, giving mid-game orders (often through binds), and keeping an eye on the score and time to know if they need to adjust.
As with any of my newly-added posts, this is subject to have more added to it. Comment below if you have things you want to add, though.