Every now and again I always run into players asking themselves and myself how they can improve their game, or more commonly heard of, how can I go pro?
Now im not pro myself, but in my opinion I have more knowledge to the game, and by close examination, following real-life lessons and taking the mental approach to the game, you may just find yourself in the pro brackets.
Now I know some of you are already asking what im talking about, and all I can say is sit back, grab a soda, read, and learn.
Now I am pretty sure someone has a complete post written on this side of the game. All I am doing is reverberating what the poster has said, and hopefully adding to it.
Basically Halo is about 60% Mental and 40% skill, we all have heard it, but what does it reallymean? Many players believe they "play smart," and this can be shown through almost all of the Free Agent forums. What I have come to find out when trying out people for my team is that, frankly, NOBODY plays "smart!" You say you do but seriously, just what is "playing smart?"
Playing smart is basically the mental side of Halo, and yet no one truly knows what it means.
Holding spawns for your team: This is something many times people forget to do, in fact all too many times have I seen one person on a team push for an objective by himself and die, when in fact, all he had to do was hold the spawn for the rest of his friends directly behind him. Holding aspawn and stayling low is often a key way to turn the flow of the game. Dead? Tell your teammate he is the last one! Everybody on your team should be telling that guy who is alive to chill back before he dies! Your the eyes on the back of his head. Often enough we get stuck in the middle of a push and we are the only ones alive. Problem- we are too caught up in the moment to notice we're the last ones. So communicate, and always pay attention to your teams icons on the side of your screen.
Choosing your battles: Again, this is one of those ones I can't write a whole guide on, that is why it's about practice.The more you play, the more you will be able to tell which battles you should engage in and which ones you should run from. Typically, you are going to have an advantage on your opponent if you have the higher ground, picking battles from this position makes your target easier to hit, and you harder, naturally. Many times I see players engage in a battle when they are clearly at a disadvantage, and instead of calling him out, and drawing the player out for a nice effective team-shot, they simply go for the 1v1 kill and die. It's truly a hard thing to grasp and understand, let alone write it. =]
I often win my 1v1 battles when need be, but then I get chased down and finished. Eliminate chasers by ...Playing Smart! Stop going into the predictable places and do something confusing and perplexing. Act as if your going one way, act as if your committing to that direction, then reverse it and go back the way you came. Little moves like this throw your opponent off, and sometimes you can put him in the disadvantage which is what your going for.
Make an advantage on your pursuer, don't let him put you at the disadvantage, little things like acting like the grenade he just threw hurt you, can put you at a huge advantage. Think of it this way...
Your on your training, and your opponent is on your green, he throws a grenade, and you run towards bridge in a manner as if your one shot, strongsiding away. Right after you pass the padding, turn around and pop shots into him, more than likely, (depending on the situation) he would have came onto your side training looking for the easy cleanup, and you jumping back out would surprise him.
Well I tried with that example, but basically outsmart your opponent, in every situation. You should be thinking constantly..what does he think I am going to do next, and what do I think he is going to do next. Strike a balance in-between the two, and win.
Another thing I see every now and then within my team mates POV's are the differences in the way we play. My teammate, Flip, and I have always said that if we could get 2 teammates as good as ourselves, carbon-copies..we would be unstoppable. And it's the truth. here's what I notice.
Many players tend to react to callouts on their own time, not when their teammates actually need help, when your teammate calls someone out, and you get to him within 5 seconds, your teammate is more than likely dead, and killing him accomplishes nothing. By trading kills, you cannot efficiently win. For that, you need to react to callouts as soon as you can, even if it means dropping out of position. If you keep your teammates alive, chances are, they will do the same to you, and this is truly how an effective team-shot is established.
Another thing I notice is the lack of focusing on teammates arrows/icons. Maybe this is why im such a good support player, because this is basically all I pay attention to physically. If your teammates arrow turns yellow, turn and look at who he is shooting at, don't be the person who requires a callout before they evn turn and look to support. if your teammates icon turns red, this is when you should be pulling your self into a position where you can help as soon as possible.
These 2 reasons along with pushing as seperate units are the 3 main reasons teams tend to under-perform. If your not paying attention to your teammates, your not team-shotting anybody.
I always use to be against stat-whoring, but after thinking about it, isn't stat whoring good? I mean if your not dying your not giving up kills to the other team, thus providing spawns to your team if your in the positions you should be. The thing about "stat-whoring" that we need to watch out on is putting yourself in the right positions and again, responding to callouts/watching arrows/etc. After examining some VoD, I can see where it looks like some pro players are stat-whoring, and then I thought..isn't that close to the definition of playing smart? Both have similar goals, and both do the same things, it seems that if you strike a balance between stat-whoring and playing as a team player, individually you can develop yourself into a dominant force within the brackets. Just my thoughts.
And one more thing I would like to touch base upon, because lately it has been bothering me is keeping composure. This is just as much as part of the mental game as everything else, and I feel it really deserves a section. Yelling in game, becoming negative, and getting flustered DOES NOT help anyones game. All to often we get pissed at ourselves, or pissed at the game, but if your going to take the game serious you need to come to terms with the game and accept that stupid stuff happens, stuff we cannot explain, and things that are just plain dumb. it's the people that can just keep their head in the game, and not get pissed whatsoever that are going to make it in this ever-growing community. If you get mad, you make everyone else angry, and it affects YOUR WHOLE TEAM'S PERFORMANCE. Even if it's just a remark like "WTF! That is total Bull****!" Nobody wants to hear you complain, just shutup. This definetly seperates the good kids from the bad kids. Summary: It doesnt help to complain about your performance, your teammates performance, or the games performance. Stuff happens. Deal with it.
That about sums up my thoughts for the day and my opinions. Just a little guide to everyone out there who are likeminded.
Copied from MLGpro.com written by:Tank Defined
