2v2 fun and games
As promised, CydeWeys and I have begun playing some ranked 2v2 games together. Our first match-up was against the current #3 team, SYSTEM17 and SYSTEM26. We ended up winning by both getting siege bots before our opponents and overrunning them. It was a fun little match, but I do have a couple of concerns.
For the most part, the match was basically 2 separate 1v1 matches playing at the same time. The way the starting locations are set up, it definitely favors two separate battles, with little interaction between the two. CydeWeys and I both took out our opponents at roughly the same time, but if this were not the case, then the match would obviously become very one sided very quickly.
Also, I am not sure what sort of positions players will spawn in generally. If it is always the case that the map is clearly divided into 2 separate 1v1 battles, then it excludes the possibility for a lot of interesting strategies, where one player can afford to neglect his defense while he focuses resources elsewhere. In our particular game, it was very intense rushing immediately, and there was very little interaction between the 2 separate 1v1 battles.
As CydeWeys predicted, having a regular teammate is clearly very important to ranking highly in the 2v2 ladder. Our opponents are currently ranked 77 and 482 individually, yet are ranked #3 as a team. This is probably also related to the fact that the 2v2 ladder is new, and there are only 474 teams on the ladder right now. Hopefully, many more people will play some team games and make the 2v2 ladder more interesting.
March 22nd, 2007 at 11:44 pm
To be clear, the starting points are random, so it’s very possible that you do get a setup with is more like 2v2 rather than two individual 1v1 games. However, we just got unlucky, and both of our games ended up being like two separate 1v1s. This is a good replay to watch — the game was very competitive right up to the end, when Grokmoo and I simply out-teched our opponents and overran them with siege bots.
March 23rd, 2007 at 12:15 am
I have also had this issue. I was playing with, shall we say, a less experienced player to the ranked games. With the seperate spawns he was quickly taken out by their combined bomber efforts (I tried to intercept, but he was eventually overrun). I was lucky however, for his parter, the one who started beside mine in the map Field of Isis, was just a tad bit too cocky. He approached my base and tried to rush me with tactical missiles, neglecting to build defenses or a shield first. I had been skirmishing with my neighbor for a while and simply took a wave to destroy the other commander. Unfortunately with the time that my neighbor was given, and shared resources I would guess, he was able to build a wave of t3 bots which walked right through my defenses.
So yes, the 2v2 games can be fun, but I would like to see the positions fixed, at least on the maps where it does not make sense to play otherwise.