Teams Mentality

[rhan]

Probably a thread already out there but no harm in making another.


So what is your mindset in teams? I went to a couple smashfests in my region and one of the top players in the area is saying how he needs to work on teams. He's really efficent when it comes to singles. In teams he's a solid player but when he plays he's kind of in a singles mindset. So we had this discussion on how does each player play teams and what factors are a result of the team combination. Like it was me and another player going YL/Marth. Now the player I teamed with is better than I am and the two players we played against I would say 1 of them is the best in our region and the other I'm about even with when it comes to skill. Me and this Marth beat them repeatedly with a few losses under our belt (Not bragging but it helps the discussion). They tried to play Fox/Fox, Sheik/Fox, Marth/Fox but somehow nothing really worked. They tried to come up with different tactics to do in game. That was that. I feel the team combination has a lot to do with winning and whatnot.

Now for the question(s):

What is your mentality when it comes to teams?
Do you have a specific partner?
Do you and your partner have a set plan when the game starts?
How do you feel about certain team combinations (Their synergy)?
How often do you look over to your partner?
When do you go our your way to help your partner?

All those are questions that came up in the discussion. For me though since I'm Young Link people usually connect YL with a campy/boring play style because that's how he is in singles. But when it comes to teams I'm allowed to play aggressive because the campy play style comes from being safe because once you get hit there's no saving you. Since there's a partner on the field that risk factor is there but it is severely reduced because the partner is able to get him out of a terrible situation. So when they see YL come out and he's all in your face they tend to become confused and they don't exactly know what to do against that. If they do try to retaliate how they do in singles the partner can interrupt and give the YL another chance.

In teams I tend to watch my character and keep an eye out to whoever comes near my character. The only time I look at my partner is when I hear a lot of hit going off from the other side. If it's my partner doing the hits I focus on what's going on with me. If I see my partner's in distress I try to knock away the player closest to me and go help. If he's in a situation where's he's kinda dead I try to stay from being in between the opposing characters.

Thanks for reading. I was curious about other players thoughts on the topic.

 

[t3h Icy]

On the right:

 

[LittleBoyLarry]

Couldn't had said it any better. ^^

 

[Dr Peepee]

Whoa 13 guests viewing a thread....


I'm sort of a work in progress for teams, but I played pretty well in them at NWM(better than usual for myself I'd say) and this is mostly what I worked on:

-not playing singles matches unless my partner was hitting someone offstage/in a way I couldn't follow up(really high and I couldn't get to them)

-holding the middle and taking my time to analyze the unengaged opponent as well as my partner's situation

-going for grabs whenever I could and yelling for my partner to get a kill


The middle thing is really all that is worth discussing because the way I got hits and team combos in doubles stemmed from that. Falco, being slower than Fox(my teammate), needs to stay in the middle of the stage so he can save his teammate if he gets hit, as well as follow up on any team combos.

I realize now that I should have asked Cyrain(partner for the tourney) to combo more with uptilt and upair because Falco is fast at rising upward so we could have had better combos using our best character strengths if I told him to send his opponents upward often. This is all a side thing though and a kink I have to work out lol.


My teams mentality differs from my singles one in that I have to work on playing a support role more often typically, when in singles I can approach as I please. Support role to me means that I hang back and catch anyone suffering damage or pressure that my partner dishes out, as well as stop my partner from taking excessive damage/dying. Basically I have to focus on my partner and not myself too much.


Plans for me change based on opposing player/character matchups. I'd always want to wall the slower character/better player out, but sometimes one/both of us can't do it. Then it depends on their partner/other character and that gets too vague lol.


I wanna make a post in the Falco boards about Falco in teams now. Ima do it today or tomorrow lol.

 

[DerfMidWest]

I'm one of the best at doubles in cleveland.
so yea.

What is your mentality when it comes to teams?

Its a lot like two different singles going on at once, but you need to recognize situations when you need to help your partner as well. You just gotta be aware. It comes with practice.

Do you have a specific partner?

Yes. We understand how the other plays and stuff, so we can work pretty well together.
I can play with other partners, but I don't have that same connection and don't do as well.

Do you and your partner have a set plan when the game starts?

Not really. We kinda make it up as we go along.
We do have specific combos that we will practice though.

How do you feel about certain team combinations (Their synergy)?

I'm not really sure what you mean by this, but I think everybody is most comfortable in teams when they partner with somebody who they practice doubles with often.
Sometimes you just gotta play with a bunch of people and see who you play best with, then practice with that person.

How often do you look over to your partner?

Uh.. its subconscious. You do it automatically once you play teams a lot. Your mind recognizes situations when your partner is in trouble. I usually recognize when my partner is in trouble more often than he recognizes when I'm in trouble though...

When do you go our your way to help your partner?

I'm guessing you mean "ouf of my way." It depends. If he's getting combo'd hard, I'll sometimes try to take some pressure off of him. If he's being chaingrabbed, I'll run over there. And if he's about to get gimped, I help him out. And if I think i can help him recover, I will. Also, at times, if i notice him set stuff up that he can't finish, I'll jump in there and smack his opponent back to him.



so yea, hope that helps.

 

[Massive]

I'm only good in teams when I'm drinking.
True story.

 

[Teczer0]

What is your mentality when it comes to teams?

Not to oversimplify the match and do 2 1v1s like PP said. Although sometimes it depends what character I'm using, since I usually go sheik in doubles I try to find what gives my partner trouble and do my best to disrupt it as a support player.

Do you have a specific partner?

If I had to pick one, its definitely Vanz. I played vanz in a TON of games for fun and for practice. I know his tendencies in doubles and stuff pretty well so it becomes very easy for me to pick up on when to support him and when to just leave him be. The one time I teamed with Jman our team chemistry was pretty good though so maybe in the future I can hopefully tea with him again.

Do you and your partner have a set plan when the game starts?

Not really, usually I try to play safe and look for things to abuse first game. Then develop a more thorough strategy in my head.

How do you feel about certain team combinations (Their synergy)?

I honestly don't believe too heavily on it as long as you know your partner. If you're teaming with someone new it might play a bigger role because some teams have much more clear cut strategies (Fox/sheik , Fox/Jiggs for example).

How often do you look over to your partner?

Probably too much, but a lot.

When do you go our your way to help your partner?

When I can land a clean 'get off me move' on my opponent or roll/escape to safety momentarily. This one is harder to answer definitively.

 

[Sinji]

My mentality would be ensuring that my teammate is out of harms way when he is at killing percent. He is a peach main btw. I mostly focus on gimps since I use fox and peach can auto cancel stuff and use dsmash and they will fly to me so i can get the easy gimps. When one opponent is off of the stage, I focus on grab combos, mainly peach grabs, I usmash or I grab, peach dsmash. Peach can nair or bair out of hit stun from 0-50% which makes the fox/peach team so strong. I'm learning a bit from Mew2King and my partner is doing the same with Armada.