Can someone please lead this mess? LOL

We have all seen it recently... The WST is announced and by Tuesday evening 40 players are standing around the contact and everyone is waiting for someone to actually start a team. Same thing is going on periodically in places like Pocket D and the RWZ with the new trials.

Okay some people have legitimate reasons for not wanting the mantle of leadership thrust upon them. Things like:

1. I have never done this trial before and have no idea what to do or what we need to make a good team.

2. I've run ten TFs the past day and a half and would like to just relax and let someone else do the dirty work

I have taken my turn as a leader but on certain things I shy away from it because I am on a laptop with a wireless internet connection and at times I crash. I feel bad when suddenly someone else has leadership THRUST upon them because I went poof. This also can result in drastic changes that affect the team. Last night I did decide to run an ITF and COH crashed everyone... when we all got back on line one of the other team members had returned first and was now "THE LEADER". His settings were +4X8 and we suddenly found ourselves taking forever to take down one ambush in the second mission.. we had steam rolled through mission one and were doing the same in two prior to the crash. Before long we'd lost like 4 members and the TF folded. I will still lead at times but try not to unless just NO one at all is taking charge

So lets look at the horrible amount of work a leader has to do and the mind shattering decisions to be made. Maybe I can convince a couple of you that it isn't THAT bad.

1. Build a team .. depending on the time of day and other events going on this can be a bit of a task but when there are 30 people standing around the contact all typing in broadcast "Looking for [insert name of TF or Trial here]. you can build a team in minutes and probably even pick and chose what to invite. When there are fewer people around a few well placed ads on the right globals will normally get you a series of tells asking to join.

2. Decide what you are going to do. .. SPEED RUN? KILL ALL? or something in between? two approaches to this that work.. 1) Hey its MY team so we do what I want OR 2) just ask the team what does everyone want to do. In most cases more than half don't care one way or the other and the others will usually either say I need SHARDS/XP I'd like a kill all or I only have a little time on line I'd like a Speed run. Ultimately it is your decision .. One thing I'd suggest to avoid people quitting on you is MAKE the decision for yourself in advance and advertise what YOU want to do.

Okay the hard part is done now the biggest decision you need to make varies depending on what you are doing:

3a. Lambda Trial which team is going after the acid and which goes after the grenades. Part two of that is does every keep what get or pass it along to one person. Most of the rest of this trial is a simple matter of picking a direction to run in while defeating everything that moves.

3b. BAF trial who is going to which starting point during the escapee phase. Aside from that the rest is pretty much just KILL anything in your way. About the only horrid decision to make is.. who is going to go taunt the AV to the tennis courts. OUT OF CONTEXT.. what is a tennis coourt doing in the middle of a prison?

3c. ITF are we climbing the hill and killing the two spawns or are we headed straight up to rescue the Sybil in mission one? In mission three do we want to fight through lag valley for the added XP/SHARD drops or pull the generals and then head to the computer. In mission four are we fighting our way to Romulus or headed straight there and then attacking the towers?

OKAY I could go one forever and break down every single TF here but I think you see you point. The biggest decision a leader needs to make is to actually form a team. The majority of players KNOW what needs to be done and with very little direction will go about doing it. Your hardest job after building the team is getting back to the contact after mission one to get mission TWO. After that you normally have their phone number and can contact them as fast as you exit for the next assignment.

Now there are times when jumping in and leading is NOT a good idea. I got to run part of one BAF trial on test during a sneak peak so until I had a few under my belt no way I wanted to do anything but follow. The Lambda was even worse.. I never saw that until it was live .. but last night I was one of the two team leaders on one and was prompting throughout because I had two players on my team that had never done one before....

OH that does bring up one point. Be prepared to explain stuff so don't lead if you don't know what needs to be done. That Lambda I did last night went well but the leader, like many, was already assuming that everyone on the team had done the trial countless times and aside from deciding who took what elevator in part two didn't brief at all. I was in team chat making sure my new players didn't rush to the vators and start the count down, used or handed me their pacification grenades, didn't attack Maurader until the other team closed the portals, etc.

There is a reverse side of that. DON'T become a micro manager! I one starred a team leader a few weeks ago that put together an STF. Everyone on that team had done the task force multiple times but this guy felt the need to constantly bark out orders and explain in detail exactly what we needed to do next. By the end we were all so tired of him .. It is the only TF I can recall of recently where not a single player thanked the leader for the invite and the team. We all just took our prizes and quit. in other word ..team leader does not mean I CAN BE A TOTAL JERK!

LOOK no one is going to blame you if the TF fails.. and if they do who cares? if you put together a PUG chances are you may not see those people again for week, months, or ever again. As long as you are fair and make it a fun experience you have accomplished most of what a leader needs to do. Now get out there and take charge LOL

The hardest part about leading a BAF is getting 24 people into the same zone without anyone crashing.

Crashing is why I don't lead teams any more.

Everybody knows that when something new comes out, a lot of people would rather join a team with a leader with will guide them through it rather than just jump in blind folded.
Tuesday/wednesday thats what i did, knew that a lot of people wouldnt want to risk being seeing as a bad leader if they failed terribly so for those two days i led them nonstop with a rotation of people who had never done it before constantly.

This was a very positive move because the people who at the time were like "no i dont want to lead, no chance, no way" are now leading their own trials or at the least offering advice as one goes along.

Quote:

2. I've run ten TFs the past day and a half and would like to just relax and let someone else do the dirty work

This is kind of where im at atm, i did run a LOT of trials initially but i didnt want to be seen as somebody who would always take the lead, i wanted to just show people the basic tactics to them so others can not only run their own but improve it [which has been done to the point that a Mo run is almost every time now]

Quote:

3b. BAF trial who is going to which starting point during the escapee phase. Aside from that the rest is pretty much just KILL anything in your way. About the only horrid decision to make is.. who is going to go taunt the AV to the tennis courts. OUT OF CONTEXT.. what is a tennis coourt doing in the middle of a prison?

Not sure if thats the tactic your using on the NA servers, but union we point blank refuse to do that tactic. We find it 100 times easier for one team to go to each AV while one team takes out the reinforcements at the helipad, thus resulting in a MO run for everybody.
Then thats the thing with this tactic, the leader has to decide/mix the teams up so that each time has a good chance in their role and its got to the degree now of such ease that people are wanting to send 1 member of their AV team to the reinforcement team to get a chunk of that ixp + drops [3 purps in 4 days! woot!].

Quote:

LOL Come on Tony you know what I am talking about. There is a fine line between giving good direction and just plain annoying/ticking off people. Of course on something like the Lambda or BAF you need to ensure people do things in the right order. But when a leader is just constantly in chat telling you how to do everything including how to tie your shoelaces they have crossed over from being effective to being an overbearing jerk.

This is both good and bad imo, bad in that i too hate it when a leader says we MUST do it this way or else and expects you to follow his/her orders to the letter. That really ticks me off, even more so when that leader could get the tactics across much better in a more friendly manner.
But it is also good at same time if your running a league with a lot of new players to the trial since sometimes you do need to be strict in these instances.
Suppose all it comes down to is basic manners isnt it

But did think you missed out that being a leader your constantly having to fill the spaces that becomes available After a trial its a good 1/3 of the trial to be refilled everytime

What I don't get are how some Lambda leaders think you have to keep the Gate Closed.

1. Don't Aggro Maurader or the mob around him while outside the walls.

2. If you have aggro, "die in with your boot on" in the courtyard.

If the team understands this, the gate is not an issue.

Back to leading. I lead some TF(mainly SF) and some of the trials. But I am not the greatest typist. Most of the people I team with know this and have learned to read typo.

I prefer to keep things shorty and to the point.

And my biggest pet peeve, those who refuse to Hosp when it is in zone.

I accidentally led a Lambda the first day it was out. It was the best thing that could have happened to me. I told everyone "This run is probably going to fail. If you can't handle it, I won't be upset if you bail."

I was shocked that everyone stuck around. By the end of it, we'd failed and figured out why...

Then we ran it again, grabbed more players, waited at the big door and talked it all through. Super success.

Leading a team with little experience takes:

1. Honesty - Tell people what's up.
2. Courage - Step up and do it anyways.
3. Love - Tell your team you love them. Often.

I get tired of the global nonsense of "Anyone running a....." "Come on people! Someone run a...." "So, no one is doing anything????" "I've been waiting for over an hour...."

Just run it yourself, or wait.

Disagreeing on the BAF strategy (judging by Damz' post it's a Union thing to do so :P), but this post. I tend to get a small laugh out of the global channels when they have 5 or more people all wanting to do the same thing but no one willing to start grouping up the team. Wish more people realised it's not all that hard to lead.

Quote:

Originally Posted by EU_Damz Everybody knows that when something new comes out, a lot of people would rather join a team with a leader with will guide them through it rather than just jump in blind folded. Tuesday/wednesday thats what i did, knew that a lot of people wouldnt want to risk being seeing as a bad leader if they failed terribly so for those two days i led them nonstop with a rotation of people who had never done it before constantly. This was a very positive move because the people who at the time were like "no i dont want to lead, no chance, no way" are now leading their own trials or at the least offering advice as one goes along.

Thank you very much for that, btw. I had no experience with either of the trials before they hit live and the first few PUGs did not go too well. Then you ran those BAFs. Boy did we fail that escapee bit many times before we had it (but then we had it ); it was a good learning experience.

My apologies, then. I misunderstood.