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K A C H O W

The Art of Main calling

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An Idiot's Guide to Main calling

Quote

Treat your men as you would your own beloved sons. And they will follow you into the deepest valley. -Sun Tzu, The Art of War

The Introduction
Welcome onlookers and Jake Paulers to my guide to main calling. Firstly, let's defined what main calling is...

Main calling

  • a person in authority, especially over a body of troops or a military operation.
  • the elected head of a republican state. (or in this case, a competitive 6's team.)

The main caller is the brain of the team. He/she is the one that is responsible to the strategy or decisions that the team will eventually be forced to face as the situation arises. Main callers can severely be different from each other and even varying in number. Teams usually differ in selecting the main caller as members are reluctant to take such a commanding role, but I assure you, being a main caller is not as what you purport it to be. The main caller position can be both complex and simple depending on how your team dynamic is structured. Main callers are not also limited to the leaders of the team, main callers can be the most invisible person when it comes to scheduling or even any of your players. Let us assess first the types of main caller/s that a team may possess.

The Types of Main Calling

  • Dictator/Overlord

A dictator/overlord kind of ruler is what'd you expect. The team delegates the leadership role to the main caller and only to the main caller. He is the one that calls the strategies and offensive maneuverability of the team, but that is what this type of main calling's achilles heel: the main caller. The team's strategy and capability can only revolve around the leader and with this, tactical miscalculations that could've been easily prevented by a counter call by another teammate would have never happened. Of course it is easy to say that a member of the team would simply call off the entire push but how would that affect the team? The team would simply be in tatters trying to provide support to both callers: the main caller who proposes a disastrous offensive and the member who would like to retreat. Either way, the team would be separated in actions and would leave the team outnumbered and divided. In competitive 6's, you have only have 5 units to control. Losing 2 units in TF2 (explanation: In theory, a 4v6 would always end badly for the outnumbered team) would only cripple your team and it takes a simple opposing call from another player to weaken your force. The only way you can circumvent this is to agree beforehand that you are the one that they will only follow.

  • Monarchical/Kingship/Queenship

It is similar to the dictator/overlord type but it differs in how it treats its members. The members in a monarchical command can offer strategy/ideas and pushes, if and only if, the main caller approves of it. The main caller has the same power of the dictator/overlord but recognizes the intelligence of his/her team and trusts their judgement to a certain degree. This is the type of main calling that I'd like to call suggestive main calling. It is a style of leadership where the upper echelons gather information from the bottom and assess its viability. As such, this is the job of monarchical main callers. They are the end all be all of the team and no suggestion would come to fruition of the main caller would not allow it. It definitely improves upon the dictator/overlord theory on how the strategy and the calculations would be better due to different people having varying outlooks on how to approach the situation; however, this is also one of its weakness. Due to the varying number of opinions, a passive/doubtful/indecisive leader would simply stall or take too much time calling strategies. In competitive 6's, time is of the essence and it is not as abundant as the number of arrows your medic missed while you're standing still.

  • Aristocracy/Aristocratic

You have two or three main callers, this in theory would be better in leading the team but becomes a logistical nightmare in game. In TF2, several players would act on different motivations in several different ways. Say you are 2v5'ing and you have an uber advantage against the enemy team of 30% (You basically have uber). You are alone with your pocket medic and you are a soldier. You have gunboats and a full clip of rockets. The enemy is chasing you and approaching fast, the question becomes will you go for the offensive or defensive? Some would say that they would rather fight, kill the medic and retreat; but others would not stop there, they would still attack the other 4 in hopes of equalizing the number disadvantage as they are scattered across the bomb avoiding the invulnerable combo. This is the main problem, the variety in solving TF2 is numerous and in these happen in seconds. Having multiple main callers would be detrimental to your team as they would be forced to call and options would only confuse the remaining players. They would not know who to follow like an ant who has lost its way to its colony.

  • Motivational

Who is this leader and why is he so noisy? This leader is the morale booster of the group, he does not really take a high command on strategy but rather on emotional factors. TF2 is essentially very stressful and demotivating if losing. Some would say that this leader is essentially useless but I'd digress. This main caller simply is unfazed by all of his surroundings and is the most calm/consistent player of the group. This leader is the guy that rises the morale of the team for you guys to fight longer. In war, it is common to see routings (disorganized retreat) made by armies disheartened/demotivated to fight. This is why the motivational main caller is such an important type of main calling.

  • Republic

I mean, coming from its name, its members have a say in matters but have different abilities. In theory, this type is where it follows three branches of its main calling. You can diversify and create more branches but that is up to you. It is the offensive, defensive and judicial branch. As a general rule, it should only be delegated to three people. The offensive branch would take the most active role as they would call the strategies for attack and where the attack will originate from. The defensive branch is in charge of escape/retreat. The judicial branch exists only to tell the final call, if and only if, both branches oppose each other; otherwise, they would not act. This is definitely a more structured approach since once the offensive has been called, retreat cannot be called by the front lines. The main caller included in the defensive branch would simply wait for the opportunity to speak if the battle has gone out for too long and it is not going to their favour. On the chance that both would call for attack and retreat at the same time, the judicial branch would merely scream, "MARCH YOU FUCKING LOSERS" or "WHAT THE FUCK, ARE YOU RETARDED? GET OUT"

  • Mobocracy

All 6 of you are the main callers, you care fuck all of the strategies and would like to destroy your team cohesion in an instant. If you would like your team to die, this is the route to choose. This is the best type of main calling that literally involves all six of you screaming at each other trying to project your ideas. If you pick this, I sincerely wish your team to die.

 

Main calling is complex subject to touch on because all teams have players that others do not. They all have this certain characteristic of individuality that makes each team special. 

In adopting these styles/types of main calling, it is advisable to not be limited by these and try to find a type that fits for your team.

 

*continuation coming up because im bored*

Edited by K A C H O W
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