Disclaimer 1: couldn't think of a better place to share this message so here I am
Disclaimer 2: I've been guilty of it, and probably will again in the future, but this doesn't take away from the idea I want to share and general wake-up call I want to spread
I'm going to go straight to the point with this one. As crusty as the title sounds, it perfectly echoes an opinion of mine that I've discussed and shared with other players by now. Here are the reasons why I'm asking people, and builders in particular, to stop sharing, even spreading their teams around.
1) Building good teams is a big part of the game, and it takes skill
I think this one is straight-forward, right? Studying the metagame, knowing what works, or what will work in a given time period, takes time and analysis skill. Translating those observations into good teams is a tool that will help to get good results. You know this is rewarded if you do it well and often, a notorious example is ABR, known for his results and constant teambuilding.
On the other hand, you have players who never build, never take the time to do that task, and get fed teams by their friends and manage to do well thanks to them. Not gonna mention names here, but there are even players whom you know would do a lot worse without that kind of support. Basically, half the work of winning the game is attributed to someone else (if not multiple people considering how that thing goes).
2) If you're a builder, you're actually hurting yourself as a competitor
Allow me to develop here, as I have two separate ideas to share. The first one is, you know how building takes skill and well, nobody cant churn out new metagame defining teams everyday. By spreading your teams to everyone, you're forced to continuously reinvent the wheel, as they get meta real fast since eveyrone is sharing them and thus see a lot of play in tournaments. You're then forced to build again to take another step ahead of the meta, always and always.
Talking about tournaments, let's say you're a player whose force is building rather than playing. Why would you give everyone better chances at beating you by sharing your good teams with them? Especially players who arent self-reliant and would do worse without all that. Sure it feels good to see people do well with your teams, but wouldn't it be better to get that "glory" for yourself? Having a better team than the opponent is a huge step in winning a given game, so if you're a good teambuilder, use that skill to your advantage and get those good results yourself.
3) If you're a player, you're not being complete and not getting all the credits
Ok, this take is very subjective and I don't know if most people would even care about that.
The idea is that, if you wanna be a more complete player, you should want to not be reliant on others. I mean, this is an individual game afterall. I think ideally, the perfect player is both a good pilot and a good builder. If you win a tournament but used other people's team throughout your run, you know all the credits isn't yours either. Once again, very personal take here, but I can guarantee you I have a lot more respect for players who don't NEED others support to do well.
Going in a completely different direction, if you're a struggling player while never using your teams, maybe a good idea would try to make your own stuff. You will use things you're comfortable with, and you will know how your team functions better if you make it yourself. Makes me laugh when I see people in tour games saying stuff like "How was I supposed to beat X when my counter is Y", either because they don't understand how the team they've been fed works or because it just wasnt prepared for.
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I also reckon that, even if people stopped spreading their teams so easily, building-inept players could just scout replays and recreate whatever they like, but at least they wouldn't have everything down to the movesets and EV spreads. Not to mention we're making and more and more progress in the hiding features (both for live games and replays).
For all those reasons, I want everyone involved in the competitive scene to reconsider their take on sharing teams. Make your skills, workrate and efforts worth more. Don't let worse players take the advantages builders deserve.
Disclaimer 2: I've been guilty of it, and probably will again in the future, but this doesn't take away from the idea I want to share and general wake-up call I want to spread
I'm going to go straight to the point with this one. As crusty as the title sounds, it perfectly echoes an opinion of mine that I've discussed and shared with other players by now. Here are the reasons why I'm asking people, and builders in particular, to stop sharing, even spreading their teams around.
1) Building good teams is a big part of the game, and it takes skill
I think this one is straight-forward, right? Studying the metagame, knowing what works, or what will work in a given time period, takes time and analysis skill. Translating those observations into good teams is a tool that will help to get good results. You know this is rewarded if you do it well and often, a notorious example is ABR, known for his results and constant teambuilding.
On the other hand, you have players who never build, never take the time to do that task, and get fed teams by their friends and manage to do well thanks to them. Not gonna mention names here, but there are even players whom you know would do a lot worse without that kind of support. Basically, half the work of winning the game is attributed to someone else (if not multiple people considering how that thing goes).
2) If you're a builder, you're actually hurting yourself as a competitor
Allow me to develop here, as I have two separate ideas to share. The first one is, you know how building takes skill and well, nobody cant churn out new metagame defining teams everyday. By spreading your teams to everyone, you're forced to continuously reinvent the wheel, as they get meta real fast since eveyrone is sharing them and thus see a lot of play in tournaments. You're then forced to build again to take another step ahead of the meta, always and always.
Talking about tournaments, let's say you're a player whose force is building rather than playing. Why would you give everyone better chances at beating you by sharing your good teams with them? Especially players who arent self-reliant and would do worse without all that. Sure it feels good to see people do well with your teams, but wouldn't it be better to get that "glory" for yourself? Having a better team than the opponent is a huge step in winning a given game, so if you're a good teambuilder, use that skill to your advantage and get those good results yourself.
3) If you're a player, you're not being complete and not getting all the credits
Ok, this take is very subjective and I don't know if most people would even care about that.
The idea is that, if you wanna be a more complete player, you should want to not be reliant on others. I mean, this is an individual game afterall. I think ideally, the perfect player is both a good pilot and a good builder. If you win a tournament but used other people's team throughout your run, you know all the credits isn't yours either. Once again, very personal take here, but I can guarantee you I have a lot more respect for players who don't NEED others support to do well.
Going in a completely different direction, if you're a struggling player while never using your teams, maybe a good idea would try to make your own stuff. You will use things you're comfortable with, and you will know how your team functions better if you make it yourself. Makes me laugh when I see people in tour games saying stuff like "How was I supposed to beat X when my counter is Y", either because they don't understand how the team they've been fed works or because it just wasnt prepared for.
---
I also reckon that, even if people stopped spreading their teams so easily, building-inept players could just scout replays and recreate whatever they like, but at least they wouldn't have everything down to the movesets and EV spreads. Not to mention we're making and more and more progress in the hiding features (both for live games and replays).
For all those reasons, I want everyone involved in the competitive scene to reconsider their take on sharing teams. Make your skills, workrate and efforts worth more. Don't let worse players take the advantages builders deserve.