Natural Selection League, Season 10! - Natural Selection 2
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Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
Join Date: 2013-01-29 Member: 182599Members, Super Administrators, Reinforced - Diamond
Natural Selection League, Season 10! - Natural Selection 2
We’d like to take a moment and shine a light on our partners over at the Natural Selection League. Sign-ups are under way for season 10 of great competitive NS2...
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Please record those matches. I want to see them.
Also maybe I should look into these "gathers" I have been hearing about...
I actually had my first ever gather the other day, Previously I had avoided them because I suffer with pretty serious anxiety, so the idea of being thrown into an environment like that was kinda terrifying to me... It was actually really good, I saw that the gather had 11/12 and just thought "screw it" and joined before I could psych myself out. People were in general pretty nice, it was all round a pretty well balanced game, people were co-ordinated... I played absolutely terribly, but no one kicked off about it... It was really fun tbh... You should jump in some time, its soooo much better than pub games.
Even though i love comp I still feel twisted here though cause of recent admin decisions...
Anyways. Come 2 comp. play gathers. grab ur friends make a team or get new friends make a team.
NSL wants YOU!
This announcement should have some information about competitive games in NS2. At least about the format (6x6) and tweaked balance.
Most of the playerbase are not even aware that you can play and have fun with such low numbers.
You can also play gathers to get a feel for competitive NS2 if you are not on a team (you can play gathers if you're on a team or not on a team). To join gathers you go to ensl.org and sign up/in. You then click on the word gathers at the top of the page which brings you to a gather page. You can also see how many people are waiting for a gather. It fills up more on the weekends, but has filled during the week depending on the time and day. Once there are 12 people in the gather queue, 2 players that are voted captains pick teams (hopefully making the teams even). Then the players join teamspeak and join a server to play. The teamspeak information is on the gather page on the left side. You can discuss what server to join in the chat section of the gather page or discuss on teamspeak.
Gathers are a great way to enjoy a competitive version of ns2 and get a feel for 6v6.
They are not scheduled so it really depends. You kind of just have to keep an eye out or idle in the gather for awhile. Lately it has not been a long wait.
Obviously, you are welcome to create your own team (it's exceedingly easy to do so) or.. just not join a team with someone you don't think you can get along with. Also, everyone's there for the same reason, all bming aside, so no reason to feel intimidated or anything like that.
Get your feet wet. You're likely to meet or play with more people you do get on with than ppl you don't. I don't think I'll be playing this season as i haven't played on the reg since like April and life is just amazing, but i would love to see more teams created (and for me to possibly sub for
Just seems like there are always people on the fence about joining, starting, or looking for a team with their hang ups being arbitrary. If you're one of those people, bite the bullet and hop in, you won't regret it. And depending on your team and your role, you can dedicate as much or as little time as your want to it (bare in mind that you will reap what you sow - practice makes perfect).
For instance when I'm forced to marine.. My average acc is under 10%... If I run around all gung ho I accomplish nothing helpful, and (if I'm lucky) end up with maybe 4-5 kills by round end, and none of those kills will be important (ie saving a harvester/phasegate/base/etc)...
On the other hand if I play how I like, staying defensive and ambushing aliens, I can end up with acc as high as 40% and most times I can even down a couple lerks or even a fade (by ambushing as they attack res, or by pinching) and end a game with as many as 20+ kills, all of which are from defending harvesters/phasegates/base/etc..
Comp players always try to votekick me if i don't run head first into a room with multiple aliens and kill them all solo like they would...
It's quite frustrating..
holy shit so many rounds where schu was blaming us for some reasons, but i learned more from him than from other people who are just silently accepting my mistakes.
you just need some self-confidence when joining the compscene and don't be a whining boy just because people are telling you your mistakes. its part of the fun to blame other people and laugh about them. but after the round everybody are friends again.
Also @Mofo1 playing in any type off Comp game type, either it be a match, a scrim or a gather, most people want to win. Dont take it personally if someone calls you out on something, just learn and move on, its only a mistake if you do it twice.
Play to your strengths, defending and ambushing are big parts to the game, if and when done right, if your being asked to push forward, then there should be someone else doing that role or a repsawning marine. You got dis.
As there is not that much toxic players round atm i'd say use the time and go take a look into it.
Nobody expects u to be the next herakles or schu (or other prem div player) instantly. they just expect u to use ur brain. communicate. react to calls (no matter how stupid they r)
IMO this isn't the real reason. Rather, people are just scared to go out of their comfort zone and a) die alot at the start and b) interact with new ppl (we are all internet nerds afterall).
So man up and join guys!
People in the competitive scene doesnt mind about your average % in the accuracy.
But what they do mind is how you approach the gather, if you just think it's another "public game" where you dont listen to your team and such. Then you're going have to face the concequence of being questioned. Cause that's what gathers are made for, similar mindset as an PCW/SCRIM are.
So those who wants to play, people dont mind about your accuracy at all, the only thing that's kind of a requirement is Teamplay, listen to your team and your commander + captain. Then you'll be all fine
No one too the piss out of me, no one shouted etc, no one cared that my stats were low... sure they got a bit exasperated because I was losing engagements that I should have won, but shit happens.
As long as you listen and respond, your aim/skill level doesn't matter all that much.
I was actually one of the people giving MoFo a hard time about this recently (not in a gather, but still). Sorry MoFo - I was just particularly frustrated with the team that day. What I wanted was for you to come with me and watch my back, rather than camp in the topo vent. Even if you can't shoot all that well, you are still another pair of eyes, another distraction for the alien, and you'll still land a few (perhaps crucial) bullets. And to improve at this game - which you clearly enjoy - you've got to get out of that vent and practice taking ground on the field (which doesn't mean going all "gung ho"!).
Anyway, sorry for being a jerk.
I have recently started doing gathers again. I did them years ago with what was an entirely different comp community. In all the gathers I have done no one has ever really yelled at me. I was told what I am doing wrong and how to do better. The toxicity you will see in pubs is not present in gathers.
No, that is not it. At least not entirely. Most veterans I know, including myself, that avoid competitive oriented play do so because of the players. I am incredibly turned off by all the negativity. BM'ing is one example. It seems BM'ing is considered a positive by a lot of competitive players. Another example is the rage and stress a lot of competitive players put out. Neither of these make them bad people, but it makes it hard for me to enjoy playing with them. It is the difference between a non-competitive individual such as myself and overly competitive individuals. There are many competitive players I really enjoy playing with too, but I don't always enjoy playing with them.
There are those handful of players who are truly toxic. Most but not all of the ones I know of are competitive players. These players are at their worst in pubs. In gathers or scrims you never have to play with them if you choose not to.
For those considering playing gathers, I say go for it. All the negative behaviors you try to avoid happen no where near as often in gathers or scrims. A gather with Bubba is more tolerable than a pub with Bubba.
If you think you are not good enough, don't worry. It won't be a problem.
The reason I am doing gathers lately is because pubs are just not exciting anymore. I need that extra edge. Maybe it is the same for some of you.
Well that's the thing... after 2800 hours I'm fully aware that I will not be getting any better at Marine. My reflexes and eyes just aren't as sharp as they used to be. Plus to make matters worse I've always been extremely bad at shooters where your targets are fast moving Aliens.
My defending/camping/ambushing playstyle on Marine is actually a somewhat recent development (past 500 hours or so) and it's worked out really well for me... Veil is also the only map where I'll camp a vent all game as Marine.. so you sort of caught me on a bad map that day...
But to give another example lets use Refinery.. I've had times where I can "camp" Turbine and get 10+ kills all while defending the Extractor.. Aliens get frustrated that they can't find me, and it's great! Then someone on my team notices I'm in the same room I was a few minutes ago and it begins.. MoFo isn't helping. MoFo's afk. MoFo's just sitting in a corner. MoFo rush chasm and kill it. Lets vote kick MoFo.. etc.. I get tired of my team bitching (because they all get worked up once one idiot starts in) and move out (like they want) I then die to the first Skulk I encounter, and we lose Turbine, Conduit, and Smelting as a result...
Then the ENTIRE loss will get blamed on me because "I spent the whole game in a corner doing nothing"
Well, for what it's worth: *maybe* you're totally hopeless, but I'm also an old fart with poor reflexes. Success as a marine is, I think, way less about reflexes and eyes than it is positioning and map awareness. And you can also generally improve your aim by tweaking settings (e.g. lowering mouse sensitivity, adjusting graphics to get better fps, etc.). Ask some of the top players for advice. Maybe they would even drill with you a bit. I'd wager that you could improve.
Paging dr. @Deck_ or @Zavaro rn or @MajorTico dds
You realize that there are different roles on a team that switch. What you described in your first post isn't a good compplayer, someone that yolos into a room with several skulks. A good pressure makes smart descisions, not yolos like an idiot. That is my definition of a publicplayer. Capping and resblocking and laning is a "defensive" part that is equally important as being pressure. No res no win. So what you are training on and thriving in is something very important as well, with a good com and teaching yourself to micro you can obviously try to fill up the holes in your lines to constantly keep yourself where you are good, as defence. The only problem is that roles have to switch when people die because you are closest. Which of course might be an issues, but taking better position can help with aim a lot like Hobbes was saying.
It is always more important to bring a brain, being attentive and listening to calls of your team and you will do fine.