After Externals moved briefly to SVS premier league, Strangle was created for Externals still interested in t3g play. At the time I was the captain of externals, and very concerned with winning, so I wrote the following guide to help the tiny squad of Strangle win in t3g despite hardly playing here. These are my words from when I was at my best, and I think they are still the best advice for league strategy.


A brief guide on targeting

Bunny fat III



This is a guide to efficient team targeting in T3 The Gauntlet league. Before I get into it, let's start with some definitions of terms.

Target : the enemy player whom you are actively shooting at any given moment. It is possible to have no target, and occasionally possible to have multiple targets. Multiple target situations rarely last more than a few seconds, as after firing at a group of enemies one will almost always emerge as a primary target.

Push: This is the team effort of doing damage to the other team while taking little damage themselves. Often when pushing there is a lot of rapid target switching and multiple target situations.

Rush: to attack without regard for dodging. In theory rushing would seem silly, but in practice it's a very powerful technique. If you have more energy than your target, trading bombs 1 for 1 will lead to a kill for you. Rushing is also psychologically difficult to counter, when the target seems a wall of bombs coming for him he will usually try to dodge most of them, taking his attention away from firing back and giving you more time to fire on him.



So here it is, the golden rule of targeting: Your target should be the most vulnerable player to you. This is a little oversimplified, but it holds in 99% of subspace games, especially in the Gauntlet. Most people will agree with it, but it is often implemented very poorly by those same players.

The number 1 error in targeting is to assume that low energy makes a player vulnerable. In good targeting, the split in vulnerability between energy and game play is about 10%/90%. A max energy rusher for instance, is vastly more vulnerable than a low runner.

Specific discussion in 2v2.

I'm going to explain specific situations in 2v2. I think it fully illustrates the concept without adding complication of a third or fourth teammate.

Your teammate has pushed well and is now rushing an enemy player. His target is running. You are close to the other enemy. When faced with a situation like this, there are plays you can be pretty sure your enemies will make. First, if you try to assist your teammate in the kill, you are both going to be opening yourself up to the other enemy. If you do nothing, the other enemy is going to chase your rushing teammate. Without your pressure on him, he will probably force a rep or get a kill. If however, you follow the doctrine, and target the most vulnerable player to you, In this situation the enemy close to you, you do several very good things for yourself and your team. Being attacked, he wont be able to harass your rushing teammate. If your teammate made the right decision on attempting the rush, he will get a kill or a rep out of his target. If your target goes after your rushing teammate, he will become even more vulnerable to you. If your teammate is also following this doctrine, he will switch targets from the runner (not very vulnerable) to the rusher (very vulnerable, and also already taking damage from you) and a quick kill will be had.

The next situation is similar to the first, but this time both of you take up a rush on a single low energy target on the enemy team. The targets teammates chases the two of you. A lot of mediocre players think that going after the low target is the right move here. They figure that if he is low, and being chased by both of you, that it's a good position. This is wrong. Remember that I said low energy is nine times less useful them ship position and movement when picking a target. In the Gauntlet, where 4 direct bombs is often enough to kill a player from comfortable energy levels, a runner is much safer than a rusher. If the two of you suddenly turn and fire on the more vulnerable player, he will be dead before he even notices he is being attacked, regardless of energy.

Now let's look at how to behave when low on energy. The instinct of course is to flee. If you truly are alone, fleeing is the right move. The most common case of a low energy player is not one of him alone, but of a team, both players in the same area, and one with low energy. One of the interesting things about gauntlet play is just how fragile everyone is. If your opponent isn't firing back, you can kill them just as efficiently when you have 2700 energy as at 700. It's this threat that you want to leave open. Remember, your team is pushing to make targets vulnerable, and if you aren't in a position to take advantage of that, you're playing poorly. This isn't to say that caution at low energy isn't good; but don't dodge or run any father than the opponents make necessary. When a good target presents itself, you want to be on top of them, even at low energy.

Exceptions to the golden rule:

There are strategic reasons to violate the golden rule, but they are rare. The biggest is of course players on last life. A player on last life may not be tactically more vulnerable, he may run away against any pushing, but because he will be out if he dies, he is strategically more vulnerable.

When an enemy team has a particularly dangerous player on it, it is sometime useful to preference your targeting to the stronger player, in order to prevent them from pushing your team too hard, even if their teammate s more vulnerable.