Mercs of higher Divs

craZyfx

Hi,

we play several pcws a week against different clans. In over half of the games, the enemy has not enough players and is looking for mercs. We have enough players all the time, I guess we played with 1 merc for 2 times in the last season.

First of all: I understand the point of getting mercs and letting them play, so at least the pcw has not to be cancelled.

But what's the point of getting mercs which are twice or third your average skill level? We often play against mercs which are 2 or 3 divs higher than we are (yeah, not so hard when we are in Div 4 ) but still. At the end of the round the mercs have the most kills by far and of course we lose most of the time because of this. The pcw is then imo pretty useless for the enemy, because they rely on players which they don't have in official matches. The pcw is also pretty useless for us if we get stomped by players which are way out of our league.

Maybe someone can explain this for me. Currently I've reached a point where I simply won't play those pcws, as long they don't get mercs in their skill level.

Greets

SantaClaws

Obviously it's not ideal that you have mercs that carry the game for you. However, having prem mercs is still an incredibly valuable resource in terms of learning the game. They will tell you exactly what you're doing wrong and what you should be working on, individually and as a team. I highly recommend that you try to contact some of the high level players, if not to merc, at least to spectate your games, you will learn so much!

And remember, scrims are about learning, not winning!

Bicsum

^ this

You shouldn't care about how well the other players are, and should just try to win. If you don't win, you must figure out why and what you did wrong. A lost game against better players teaches you a lot more than winning against players of your level. Most of those mercs are not necessarily better because of their aim, but because of their experience.

Anzestral

I agree that having premier division mercs might help a team to fix mistakes but I think this mostly holds for div 1 and 2, because players have a similar skill level compared to premier division players when it comes to aim and movement. The main difference between premier division and div 1 and 2 are gamesense, timing and positioning. I can imagine this doesn't hold for division 4 (although I can't really estimate the players skill there) and the main problems might simply be related to aim and movement. I can also tell from experience that having a premier player teaching a div 1 or 2 team is a great help (thx Hera) but it can be very frustrating to play against a team that is carried by one or even more higher level players. When going to higher divs the game becomes faster. There is less time to think, communicate or even come up with appropriate strategies while playing. Basically everyone needs to know what to do without thinking or the team will be under so high pressure that the game becomes a stomp. In that case there is almost no learing effect for the lower skilled team.

Neoken

Bicsum wrote: »

^ this

You shouldn't care about how well the other players are, and should just try to win. If you don't win, you must figure out why and what you did wrong. A lost game against better players teaches you a lot more than winning against players of your level. Most of those mercs are not necessarily better because of their aim, but because of their experience.

Yeah, but if we're talking about the average div4 player vs div2 mercs or higher, then they'll most likely lose because of the skill difference (not winning enough engagements) and they won't learn much by losing a game that way. So I can understand the frustration.

kmg

it's really frustrating when teams get mercs especially in nsl matches. it seems like a lot of euro teams get like the maximum number of mercs in every match. i'm not saying they're taking advantage or anything, but if your team can't field six for at least a majority of your matches i don't think you should be playing. on the other hand, ns2 has like no players left. teams don't want to break up but they can't find people to join their roster. it's a tough situation. my team has scrimmed with mercs but we only used higher div mercs if we expected to lose. the goal here is to learn from your mercs. if you're scrimming a lower div team you try to get mercs which are equal or lower to your skill, or mercs your might want to use in a match and you focus on fundamentals. if you're using a prem merc in a scrim against a worse team then you're an asshole and so is the merc.

kmg

i feel like there should be a maximum number of mercs that you can use all season, like you get 20 merc allotments, and one gets subtracted for every merc you have in a round. when you reach zero you can't have any more mercs.

ritualsacrifice

the merc situation in this game has always kinda sucked. it's made a huge difference in the outcome of both seasons I participated in

SantaClaws

Hang on now.. I thought we were talking about scrims, not official matches. In official matches, afaik, you can't get a merc from a division higher than your own right? If that's true, I think you're blowing it a little bit out of proportion - sure, you can always strengthen your lineup a bit, even with a merc from your own division, but it's not like having a prem merc.

If it's really a big problem, perhaps make it so you have to drop down a division to find a merc.

Pelargir

SantaClaws wrote: »

Hang on now.. I thought we were talking about scrims, not official matches. In official matches, afaik, you can't get a merc from a division higher than your own right? If that's true, I think you're blowing it a little bit out of proportion - sure, you can always strengthen your lineup a bit, even with a merc from your own division, but it's not like having a prem merc.

If it's really a big problem, perhaps make it so you have to drop down a division to find a merc.

You cannot ask for a merc in a higher division than you are. That means, Division 2 needs to summon a merc from Division 2 or lower. The issue that @kmg is talking about is, I guess, more about the mercs, in the same division but, with a better skill level. Something like choose a merc from the same division but it doesn't mean that guy can't carry a game.

The rules are the rules, you can easily perceive them to your advantage but it's definitely forbidden to ask for a higher seeded merc.

Season 4 was a huge misunderstanding about these rules.

But come back to the original subject. In my opinion, it really depends of the involved teams. Some of them want a higher merc just to carry, to stomp/rape the opponent team, to say: "hey, we're stronger than you!". And that is bullshit and asshole reactions. It's more often the case when you know you can beat your ennemy without him, for me, ask him to spectate is clearly more helpful if you want your team to progress.

In the lower divisions, ask for a Division 1 or Premiere player is also stupid, I mostly talk about the Division 4 and maybe 3. He will necessarily change the game & depending of the merc, make the game unplayable & not funny at all, especially for the opposite team. Same as before, get him in spectator is a bit better I think. It can also help if you don't see your team evolving and don't want to disband, that's one of the last solution, maybe that guy can help us to find out what's wrong with us.

That doesn't mean you cannot ask for a carry merc or somebody with a better experience of the matches, scrims or something. If you know you'll lose against a stronger team and need to train about them, you can try once, but use him to help you on the field & on the lead, not just on the field. It's like ask for a Commander merc, that can help you to see issues from your own Commander. So regardless of the teams that ask for a merc, against which other team & what merc, things will be surely different. Do they really want to progress or just beat the other team? That's the question.