'Ideal' team balance

Are you fed up of repeatedly getting put in Iron Division on Black Ops 2 league play, through no fault of your own? Or maybe losing 150 points because you missed out on the Hardpoint for 3 seconds, consequently losing 249 – 250? Having the perfect team balance is absolutely key to prevent this happening. You need a team with a number of characteristics and need to work well together. Keep reading to find out how NOT to become Aches and Nadeshot… 

Sure, if you’re all as good at killing as each other, there’s no fault there, right? Not always. A good team will always need someone that’s willing to bait for the others – taking one for the team, literally. This person will need to be wise, and not K/D conscious. If they jump on the B flag and manage to pull off that double kill followed by a 360 no-scope then more power to them, but chances are when the other team are surrounding you with 2 SMG’s, an AR and a Sniper Rifle? None.

This person needs to – in the words of Drake and Twitter 2012 – ‘YOLO’, and leap into their inevitable death, so teammates can back them the hell up and keep that B flag dominated.

There are 4 ‘main’ roles within a team – objective, support, slayer and anchor. At most it might be wise to have 2 slayers, or maybe 2 objective players, but this very much depends on what game type you’re playing.

What you definitely do NOT want is 3 people anchoring, whilst one is playing objectively. It’s just not the way forward, guys. Let’s put it this way, imagine Formal and Scump on the same team?

Sure, it’d be fantastic, and if it was Team Deathmatch they’d hold the reign, but it’s not Team Deathmatch and it’s not Nuketown, so try out different things. If someone’s not so good at the killing aspect but they can survive for a long time, try holding spawns and anchoring. You’re working as a team, not survival of the fittest.

Now, I know this makes me sound like a headteacher, a principal, the Dean – whichever you prefer, but hear me out.

It’s all fun and games (pardon the pun) to mess about, sure. I’m not one to say no to someone if they want to go on Search and Destroy and yell ‘XBOX, OFF’, or to corner my friends occasionally and teach them a lesson for taking so long to spawn in, but in competitive gaming it’s totally different.

You and your teammates need to reach an agreement of when it’s acceptable to fool about, and when you need to get your head in the game. How High School Musical of me. But on a serious note, pick people who are going to be able to turn their immaturity on and off, because when there’s $30,000 on the line, you don’t want to be the one people are pointing at, all because you decided to teabag the guy defusing the bomb, and got unlucky.

Defence is never really the most amusing role to play, but much like baiting, it’s bloody helpful.

Take CTF for example, I always find it easier to play if there’s someone hanging back, watching our flag just for good measure.

Don’t get me wrong, this doesn’t mean you can’t get involved in the action – just maybe make sure you’ve got an easy route to run back to if your flag gets stolen. At least if you get taken out then, your teammates can 3v1 the guy with the flag, and make your death worth it.

We’ve all seen games from Gfinity, MLG and UMG, where there will be those teams that we are all so excited to have listen-in’s with – and there’s nothing to listen in on. The teams that succeed are those that are screaming call-outs every second, those that are communicating on every level possible. Hell, if you need to dive onto someone to show them where a player is because you can’t remember the call out – DO IT.

Well maybe that’s a bit too far, but don’t be afraid to use your voice in game. Chances are if you don’t, you’re going to be the one that looks like the weak link. Use call-outs, inform each other of which gun you’re using and which route you’re running – it might strain your tongue a little bit, but it will pay off.

So now I’ve given you my tips on forming a balanced team, let’s see some new faces on the competitive scene. You never know, I could be writing about your team one day. GLHF!