Scorpiany Posted May 25, 2015 Share Posted May 25, 2015 Don't worry. I see that you are lost and confused, in need of guidance and support. Lucky for you, thou have stumbled into the Scorpion's Den; with guides aplenty. This particular edition contains A Field Survival Guide to Match-up Melee Tournaments. If these are the drones you were looking for, sit back, turn on some pimping music and read away... all your questions shall be answered here. Match-up Melee Tournaments - they occur once every 8 weeks or so, and consist of 5 vs. 5 fights with random teammates. The people on your team will be there for the entirety of the tournament, but you have absolutely no influence over who will be on there. It could be a group of professional players who've been around since the early Beta stages of the game, or it could be newbies who are just starting out and stumbled across the registration page. Regardless, you'll have to work with what you're given. This guide contains three sections - A general overview of Match-up Melee, a guide for a Captain / Caller and some general information for regular players. General Overview of Match-up Melee: This section simply contains some basic information about Match-up Melee formats, rules, etc. Standard Setup: Match-up Melee is usually a 5 vs. 5 fight, between Tiers 2 and 5. There are usually 13 people on a team, 5 combatants and 8 reserves. Everyone on the team can participate in battle and everyone on the team gets the same prizes that everyone else does. In the map rotation, there are 6 different maps. 2 of those are for Group Stages, 4 of them are for Playoffs. Typically, any map which has an Encounter mode available, will be used (e.g. if Lakesville is in the map rotation, the Encounter version will be used). On the first day of Match-up Melee (Saturday), you will be fighting in Group Stages. These battles filter out the top 50% of teams. Those in the top 50% will be moving on to the Playoffs. No prizes are earned in the Group Stages; rather they are just qualification rounds for the Playoffs. Group Stages usually at 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST) and 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST). There are 6-7 battles in each set of battles in the Group Stages. Assuming you placed in the top 50% of teams during Group Stages, your team will then move on to the Playoffs on Sunday. This is when you begin fighting for Gold. There are 4 sets of battles during Playoffs. Each "set" of battles during Playoffs is simply an engagement with one other team. Your team and the enemy team will then engage until one of the two achieves 2 victories. The first to 2 victories moves on, and also increases their Gold pool for the end of the tournament. You may only fight the enemy team up to 5 times - if neither team achieves 2 victories within 5 battles, then neither team moves on. Playoff times are as follow - 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST), 5:30 P.M. PST (8:30 P.M. EST), 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST), 8:30 P.M. PST (11:30 P.M. EST). Prizing: Playoff rounds are the only battles which award Gold. Group Stages are merely qualification battles for the Playoffs. Playoffs are out of 16 teams, and prizing goes as follows: 5th-8th (having won one set of Playoff battles): 500 Gold per player 4th (having won two sets of Playoff battles, lost semi-finals, lost the fight for 3rd / 4th): 1,000 Gold per player 3rd (having won two sets of Playoff battles, lost semi-finals, won the fight for 3rd / 4th): 2,000 Gold per player 2nd (having won three sets of Playoff battles, lost Finals): 5,000 Gold per player 1st (having won all four sets of Playoff battles): 10,000 Gold per player. The amount of Gold listed on the WoT website is the amount that each player gets. The 10,000 Gold prize means that your team wins 130,000 Gold - each individual gets 10,000 Gold. Please keep in mind that Gold takes up to 7 work days to be delivered. Even players who didn't participate in a single battle will get that Gold (so if you don't get picked for the Playoff battles due to lower skill levels, fear not - you still get the same amount of Gold as everyone else). However, that does not mean that you can leach Gold. If your team doesn't have the players and tanks they need, chances are that they won't win any Gold. Registration, battle times, disputes: Registration - You sign up for Match-up Melee via. e-mail. You will receive the e-mail when registration is available. Simply follow the instructions within. (If you don't see an e-mail, and Match-up Melee is open for registration, check your spam folder. Otherwise, you can sign up on the Match-up Melee page on the World of Tanks website). Battles - For Group stages, battles are 13 minutes apart, with each battle lasting no more than 10 minutes. For Playoffs, battles will last no longer than 10 minutes, and after the completion of a battle, there will be 2 minutes until the next one. (On occasion, a team gets a "bye", meaning they don't have a battle when most other teams do. You can check for such "byes" on your team's page in the WoT website; you will be able to see your individual team's battle schedule there) Disputes - since there are few rules that can be broken in Match-up Melee, disputes are unlikely. However, if you feel as though you must submit a dispute, send an e-mail to [email protected]. Captain / Caller Guide: For success within such tournaments, someone will have to take charge of the team... unfortunately, usually no one else on the team is willing to step up to that role. Thus if you really want to win, you will have to take that responsibility on yourself, at least to an extent. Early Stages: So you've just registered for the tournament. You've been assigned a team, and know that the battles begin within a couple of days. There are several important things you should do at this point: Find the Match-up Melee page on the WoT Website and bookmark it. The schedule is rather strange, so it's important that you have it available for easy access. Go to WoT Labs and quickly do a database search of the people on your team. Alternatively, if you check WoT Scout a day or two prior to the start of the tournament, you will usually be able to see your team's stats that way. Checking your team's stats is essential just so you know who you're working with, and if you have a surplus of players available for the battle, you will be able to select the more skilled players for the more important battles. Please don't forget that you should give everyone on your team who wants to, a chance in combat. On the first day of combat during Group Stages, you should more freely cycle between available players. On the second day during Playoffs is when you'll really want to pay attention to skill, since at that point you are fighting for Gold. (Remember - on WoT Labs and WoT Scout, if the players themselves does not check their stats, their recent WN8 will be displayed as "0". This does not mean that they actually have "0" recent WN8 or that they are not active. All of the players on your team have played within the past 30 days) Setting up Communication: After gathering very initial information about your team, you will need to set up a communication system between all of the players on your team. Firstly, start off by creating a Private Message in the Forums, and add all the people into the "participants" list. (It says that you can only invite up to 5 other people, but that's a lie - during PM creation, you can put as many people in there as you wish.) The format of the P.M. does not matter, however I have a sample one below (this is one that I use for all of my teams): Sample Private Message: Hey guys. This is our “Match-up Melee” Tournament Team - hopefully some of you guys already know each other. We are a part of Team 254. Scorpiany will be the primary caller / captain of the team (due to having the most tourney experience and skill) We will be using the Relic Gaming Team Speak 3 server: ts.relicgaming.com (relic1 is the password). (If you do not have Team Speak 3, that is fine. I will type out all strats and calls via. the in-game chat. The TS3 is only for those who want to communicate in-battle… however, I’d prefer everyone get TS3 if you don’t already have it; it’s free anyways) Tanks I want: Luchs (Most preferred tank, 3cm autoloader) M5A1 Stuart (Chinese Tier 4 light tank) Pz. III Backup tanks (not preferred, but still O.K. if nothing else is available): Covananter Pz. IV D We will select tanks based on attendance, skill, and availability of the tank in question. Battles schedule is below: May 23rd - 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST), and 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST) May 24th - 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST), 5:30 P.M. PST (8:30 P.M. EST), 7:00 P.M. PST (10:00 P.M. EST), 8:30 P.M. PST (11:30 P.M. EST) Make sure to listen carefully to my calls… if you guys want to have a good tournament experience with a Gold profit, listening carefully and working together as a team will be essential. We will meet up half an hour before each tournament session to discuss strategies (hopefully). Keep in mind that there are 2 (two) sets of battles on Saturday, and 4 (four) sets of battles on Sunday. The times have been listed in the battle schedule. The following are simply some links that you may find useful: Scouting Report Tournament Page Our Team Forum Discussion Team Speak 3 Download Page Good luck everyone! Let’s win some Gold! =) On occasion, you will get an error when trying to send the message. Typically, the error says something such as "Users XXX do not exist!". This either means that the person does not yet have a Forum Profile, or that they were permanently banned from the Forums. Simply remove these players from the Private Message list and the message will send. Forum Communication is only one medium however. Not everyone on your team will even check the Forums, and despite the fact that people get an e-mail upon the arrival of a new Private Message by default, they may have disabled that option, or perhaps don't check their e-mails very often. Thus it is also essentially to be able to communicate in-game. With the new Contacts system, it's very easy to organize all of the people for your Match-up Melee team. Start off by creating a new folder called "Match-up Melee". You will then have to copy and paste the names of your team members from the WoT website (not the Forum PM, remember that some of the users may have been removed from that), and then add them into that folder. At the end of it all, you should have 12 people in there (assuming it's the standard 13 on a team format). Make sure to send all of those people a Friend Request! After creating the folder in your Contacts List, send everyone on your team an in-game Private Message. I recommend a format such as the one below (obviously you will have to edit the text): Sample In-Game Private Message: Hello tanker! Don't forget, Match-up Melee 3 begins tomorrow (Saturday) at 4:00 P.M. PST (7:00 P.M. EST). Please try to show up at least half an hour early so that we can discuss a few strategies. The tanks we are looking for are: Luchs (3cm autoloader), Pz. III or M5A1 Stuart. Covenanter and Pz. IV D are also viable if you have nothing else, but we prefer one of the first 3 in the list. Log into the WoT Forums and check your Private Messages for more information. We hope to see you soon! Good luck! The amount of text seen in the sample is approximately the maximum quantity of text that you can fit into one individual message in the in-game P.M.'s. Upon receiving said message, most of the players on your team who log into the game will not only understand where the Friend Request is coming from, but will also be reminded about the battles. Keep in mind that many of the players on your team are not used to Tournaments, and may very easily forget when the battles begin. Thus I recommend "bumping" (sending a new message) the Private Messages during the following time intervals (for the initial set of Saturday battles): 3 days prior to battles 1 day before battles 3 hours before battles 1 hour before battles 30 minutes before battles When battles are up Do not feel as though you are being pushy... I can guarantee that a significant number of the players on your team would forget if you don't bump the messages. Remember, these are random teammates who most likely have never had a tournament experience in the past, thus they will be very confused without a lot of guidance. The most efficient way to send such messages is to type one out, Select it (Control + A), Copy it (Control + C) and then paste it (Control + V). Strategy and Tank Lineup: Any good team will have a known strategy and tank lineup that they will want to follow for the tournament. Since you have random teammates, you can't necessarily expect them to have all of the tanks which are most optimal, so try to have some "backup" tanks available as well. To create a strategy, you may need to talk to professional Skirmish or Clan Wars players. Check out WoT Scout or WoT Labs, find one of the top teams / Clans, and send one of their leaders a message. Hopefully you'll get a legitimate response back. Luckily, many people are willing to help less experienced players, thus you should be able to find some great advice. If you already have a lot of Tournament and Clan Wars experience such as I do, I still must stress how imperative it is to communicate with other players. Often times, top teams will have different (and very successful) suggestions for strategies and tank lineups. Your strat and lineup should consist of two sections: Primary list of tanks / strategy Backup tanks / strategy For your primary list, include the tanks which you believe are most beneficial for the maps within the rotation, and include strategies which you would like your team to begin following at the start of any battle. The backup however, should be just that - in case your teammates don't have some of the primary tanks, which tanks still can work decently? As for the strategy, the "backup" is more of a "flex" strategy. For example - if your team felt that putting a sniper in the middle of Lakesville whilst putting the rest of the force on cap would be a good idea, you have to have a backup for an enemy team that, say, pushes valley before you can even get onto the cap. What would you do then? How many tanks would you send to stop their flanking push, would you stay on cap or not, what would the sniper do at that point, etc. Be ready to change up the strategy as the battle progresses. Now for some specifics - for your tank lineup: Most of these Match-up Melees are lower Tier. In general, penetration values aren't nearly as much of a worry as factors such as clip damage, DPM, gun handling, mobility, etc. Just make sure that the tanks you select can decently reliably penetrate all other tanks of the same Tier, at least with Premium rounds. For example, the Luch's single fire gun may have low AP penetration, but the APCR will easily punch through everything it meets, and the gun can offer great distance fire or cover fire between reloads for other tanks. Thus just due to the lowish penetration, do not disqualify the gun until you've looked at all of the other factors. Keep in mind that there are 6 different maps during Match-up Melee. The tanks which are viable on one map, may not work so well on a different map. Remember that most of the maps which have it available, will be Encounter mode battles - thus you may have to change your strat / lineup based on that as well When picking people for the more important battles, try to keep individual skill in the tank in question in mind. For example, I can easily excel in the Luchs and Pz. III, but I won't be able to perform quite as well in an M8A1, so I'll try to choose someone else for that TD. 30-60 minutes before the battles: Try to get everyone in your team into a Training Room half an hour to an hour prior to the start of the battles. That way you will be able to discuss the strategy as a group, and they'll be able to get a quick view of the maps as well. Hopefully they'll bring the tanks that they'll be using in the tournament, but that's not necessary as it's just a Training Room. I do suggest getting together with another Match-up Melee team however, and fighting a few practice battles, especially on maps that your teammates may not be familiar with. Most importantly however, don't lose track of the time, and remind your teammates when the Special Battles tab pops up. When it's time for battles: Well, you've gotten thus far... now what? Firstly, hop into the Special Battles tab (bottom left-ish corner of the screen) and Team Speak 3. Don't forget to bump the Private Messages that you sent, so those on your team who are online (even if they didn't accept your Friend Request) will be notified of the Special Battles tab. Let's say that you have 8 players in the Special Battles tab. In order to facilitate the best choices for the battle, follow such procedure as follows: Ask your teammates which tanks they have available. Take record of their responses. Filter out the tanks which are not beneficial, so you're left only with the desired tanks for the tournament. Imagine this scenario - you want 3 Luch's on your team, and 5 of your teammates have them. First check their stats - how's their overall performance in-game? What about in the tank in question? If there's still no clear-cut answer (if their skill is about the same), then ask what kind of equipment they have on their tanks, and how many sets of skills and perks they have. A Luchs driver with a 85% crew and all equipment needed may take priority over a 100% crew with no equipment or skills. A player with 6th sense and camo as their only skills and perks will take priority over a Luchs driver with 4 sets of skills and perks who does not have 6th and camo. Just determine who has the most effective crew for the battle scenario's you are fighting in, and pick players that-a-way. If you need 2 M5A1 Stuarts on your team and 3 Luchs, if only 2 people on your team have the M5A1's, make sure that you put them in said tank... you don't want to put your only M5A1 drivers into Luchs, right? Don't substitute a 350 WN8 M5A1 driver for a 1,250 WN8 Luchs driver... even if the M5A1 stuart is a better tank for the tournament, the Luchs driver with significantly more skill will be able to do a lot more in battle. So - now you have your tank composition set up, players selected, etc. You want to confirm that all of your players are fully upgraded, have Vents and consumables. Also, send the TS3 info in chat, so that those who haven't yet gotten it will be able to hop in and communicate. During the battle: Now that you are in combat, chances are that you will need to call your team. If you're not the best of players, and there are people on your team whom you think would do a better job at calling, designate the duty to them. If you are calling however, there are several things you should keep in mind. Firstly, as a caller for Match-up Melee, you will need to determine whether you want to call via. Voice Chat or the regular in-game chat. If you are going to use Voice Chat, double and triple check that everyone on your team has Voice Chat enabled in the settings (under Audio). If your team does not have Team Speak 3, or for some reason they can't enable Voice Chat, you will have to call via. the regular chat. During the battle loading, explain where you want tanks to go for the start of the battle, and ping the map a bit. As the battle progresses, you want to emphasize sticking together as a group. If the battle comes to a stand-still, with no enemies spotted, or no active fighting going on, you can take the time to type out a few plans or strats you wish to go through with. Chances are that your team is not quite as familiar with the maps or strategies as you would hope for. Thus make sure that you: Keep the strategies relatively simple, make sure that everyone on your team knows what is expected from them, and won't be easily confused If you want a tank to do a more complex maneuver, make sure you thoroughly explain it, and make sure the person who will be doing said maneuver understands exactly what they need to do Change the strategy based on the enemy's tank composition Adapt and flex the strategy as your teammates or enemy's move, take damage, etc. Don't forget about the cap circle, make sure that you have a backup plan ready in case the enemy tries to cap Keep reload times in mind. If you're using autoloaders, make sure that they have an easy escape route for them to take during their reload, or at least make sure that they have support fire so that they won't be isolated. Any tank with a howitzer should be closer up to the enemy. The more inaccurate guns should be closer, just so they'll be effective. Do not split your team too far apart - make sure that they can always cover and support each other when it's needed. For the most part, try to avoid sniping. Even if you have a designated scout, he's mostly there to tell you where the enemy is, not for you to snipe at them. At lower Tiers, sniping is usually very ineffective. If you wish to incorporate sniping into your strategy, make sure that you have a tank in your lineup which is capable of fulfilling that role. HP share - make sure that the tanks with full HP are taking a few hits for the allies with little hit-points Pay attention to the mini-map! You want to be able to detect an enemy push as soon as it begins. Don't tunnel vision, and maintain a healthy level of situational awareness. After the battle: Obviously, if needed change your strategy and tank line-up. However, after the set of battles, emphasize the time of the next set of battles (as there are 2 sets on Saturday, 4 sets on Sunday). Make sure that your team knows in how many hours they will need to be back online for the next battles. Also, make sure that you adjust the strat and tank comp based on the next map - each set of battles has a new map. In addition, encourage your team members to check the WoT Forum for the Private Message that you sent to all of your teammates. Lastly, encourage your teammates to resupply their Credits if necessary - you don't want your teammates running out of APCR mid-battle! Other: Remind your teammates of each set of battles, preferably half an hour prior Disputes can be sent to [email protected] There is no special Tier limit for the standard Match-up Melee. If there are 5 combatants and the maximum Tier allowed is 4, the Tier limit will be 20. Do not worry about strange limits such as 17. dance210 will be able to answer most of the questions you have about Match-up Melee that you have. However, since she is very busy I would first ask your questions to someone such as myself or Moguai. Gold will take up to 7 days after the end of the tournament to be delivered to your account. If you feel as though there is an issue, or you haven't received your Gold within 7 days, send a message to dance210 with your concerns. Good luck, have fun! I insist upon it! ^^ Regular player information (non-captain, non-caller): If you do not have the time and / or skill to be a captain / caller for your team, there are still some things you should make sure you do prior to the start of the tournament. Check the WoT website and read through the Match-up Melee Tournament page (WoT Page > Tournaments > Tournaments (you'll be on the News tab for tourneys, you'll have to switch to the tournament list) > Match-up Melee. Add the people on your team to your Friend's List. Even if you're not a caller or captain, I do recommend having your teammates in your Contacts list so that you can message them if they're not in the Special Battles tab when they're needed. Talk to your team's caller / captain (if you have one). Figure out which tanks are most needed. If your team doesn't have a leader, make a tank decision logically. Perhaps message a few other players who have prior tournament and Clan Wars experience, and ask them which tank they would recommend. Prior to the battles, make sure that you are familiar with the maps which will be in the rotation. If not, visit a few Training Rooms and get an idea of their layout. Make sure that you have enough Credits for the tournament. If your tank has low penetration with its regular rounds, make sure you carry a few Premium rounds. Your consumable set-up should be First Aid Kit, Repair Kit, Automatic Fire Extinguisher (manual one is too risky; in a tournament you need to be able to put out fires as soon as they spring up) Put equipment on your tank which fits its role in battle - Vents for most tanks, and then determine whether you're scouting (Camo Net, Optics, Binocs, something of the sort), sniping (Gun Laying Drive) doing a lot of shooting on the move, or circling enemies (Vertical Stabilizer), or just soaking up hits. Light tanks should have camouflage and 6th sense as their primary set of skills and perks. No exceptions. Heavy tanks should hopefully have 6th sense, Brothers in Arms and Repairs Make sure you train your crew prior to the battles. A 100% crew with skills and perks is almost imperative. If you can't get your crew to that kind of level, just do what you can. Talk to your teammates during battle, don't isolate yourself. Focus fire - if you see your teammates shooting at a target within your line of sight, shoot at it as well - sooner you kill an enemy, the sooner you have one less gun pointing at your team. Leave a route of escape for yourself - don't get yourself trapped into a corner. The WoT webpage, dance210, myself and Moguai are your most reliable sources for information about Match-up Melee. Disputes can be sent to [email protected], following the format within the Skirmish Rules v2.1 Have fun. Match-up Melee tournaments are supposed to be special, fun tournaments. Don't stress out too much if you lost a battle. If you lost a battle, think about what you or your team could have done differently. Communicate your suggestions to the rest of your team. If your engine, ammo rack or crew is damaged / injured, or if you're isolated and reloading, let your team know. Your captain won't send you in as a scout if you have a damaged engine, and won't expect you to be providing the primary support fire if your ammo rack is damaged. Just make sure that the caller knows what your situation is (only if it's significant, don't bother him or her with trivial information), so that your tank will be put into a role which it can fulfill in its current state Team Speak 3 is highly recommended. If you can get your team into a TS3 server for voice chat communication, that would be great. At least use the in-game Voice Chat; it's a lot easier than typing. I hope this guide helps! I wish to all of you the very best of luck, and utmost fun and enjoyment! Good luck, have fun! ^^ Link to comment
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