Tenacity, strategy, and why winners never quit


Let me tell you about a Battle for Gilneas I just had.

It started off pretty poorly, with Horde getting smashed at Waterworks by an incredibly strong Alliance team containing, but not limited to, a fiendish Ret paladin, two healers (priest and druid), an infuriating Frost mage, and a CC-out-the-ass warlock, all from the same guild. I was healing on Fabulor, and they were really good at focus firing and keeping me chain silenced/feared/CC'd.

They quickly capped Lighthouse and Waterworks, and proceeded to pen us in around Mine. They couldn't actually take it, since we had our entire team + rez reinforcements there, but the 6-7 of them who were there did manage to siege us in quite effectively. They'd even retreat just away from the flag as a group and heal up before renewing the assault, something I don't know if I've ever seen before.

Naturally, Horde got a little surly, and a few tentative attempts at Waterworks and Lighthouse were shut down. At one point we repelled the Mine rush and could have taken Lighthouse, but only one other person came with me and the returning Frost mage annihilated us. :(



We've all been in battlegrounds like this, where the whiners and cynics just complain about everything and moan that there's no point in even trying. "Why even bother trying to take Lighthouse, we're just going to lose it, Horde sucks at PVP, bluhh bluhhh bluhhhh."

Why bother trying to take Lighthouse. Why indeed. Well, sometimes it's hopeless, sure, but I sure as hell prefer to TRY and at least make the other team earn their win, rather than just sit and be camped. And, oh, I dunno, sometimes these seemingly-futile efforts can pay off.

The futile battle at Mine continued for a while, and soon the Alliance had reached 1800 points and were nearing victory. (If you don't know, the match ends when one side reaches 2000 points.) However, one of our warlocks managed to sneak away and assaulted Waterworks...and the Alliance didn't care.

Waterworks flipped to Horde, but the score was like 1920-1300 or something, so it was obviously too late.

Right?

Right??

WRONG.



In base battlegrounds (Battle for Gilneas, Arathi Basin, and Eye of the Storm, without the central flag), your team doesn't accumulate points if you don't hold a base.

As soon as I saw Waterworks flip, I had the sudden realization that we COULD STILL WIN, because even if the Alliance stormed over and took it back immediately, it would take 45 seconds for them to actually control it again and gain points from it. Which meant the Horde could still win, if we prevented all other Alliance point gains.

But, the only way to do this was by capping Lighthouse, which had failed every time we had tried so far. And it would be child's play for their war engine to roll back and crush us at Waterworks or Lighthouse. Finally, we were literally like, a minute away from losing.

Lots of negatives. Lots of reasons not to bother, and just say "oh well, nice try, we got outplayed."

...I'm sorry, did I mention how this was the only possible path to victory? Therefore, there was no choice or debate involved here, and no point wasting time thinking about it. It was either take Lighthouse - RIGHT NOW - or lose.

Engatsu-Farstriders would have just whined, sulked, and accepted the loss. Because that's what losers do.

BUT NOT FABULOR.



Fabulor bee-lined it away from Mine, right through the enemy line, followed the river and hugged the mountain to avoid the 2-3 Alliance players headed over to assault Waterworks, and arrived at a completely deserted Lighthouse.

I assaulted the flag (waiting for the horrible stealthed rogue/druid/shadowmeld ambush which never came), cutting off their point gains, and settled in to wait for the long 45 seconds it would take to flip the base.

The Alliance score was 1980 points. Two ticks away from victory.

All the Alliance would have to do was swing back and kill me, a LONE HEALER, and re-take the base, then wait for those 20 precious points.

They didn't.

I don't know what they were doing, but I'm guessing they were still throwing themselves at Mine, enjoying the stomping they were handing us. They were trouncing us so bad that none of their team died - I know this because I was nervously looking for Alliance coming back from Mine, as well as from their starting base, where dead Mine attackers would have rezzed. And their players that went to Waterworks...stayed there, for some reason, instead of returning and...well, winning.

A shockingly uneventful 45 seconds later, and suddenly the Horde had a 3-cap. And holy crap, the points rack up FAST when you have a 3-0 lead. It wasn't long before we got the "Horde has gathered 1800 resources and is near victory" message. I nervously typed in /bg that I was the only one at LH, but essentially by the time I had hit enter WE FREAKING WON.




The moral of the story? Sometimes it's amazing DPS that wins battlegrounds, sometimes it's awesome teamwork, sometimes incredible healers. But sometimes it's simple strategy and basic knowledge about how the battleground works. Knowing when a battle is lost, and more importantly, when it's not.

But you know what? Sometimes it's attitude. Be TENACIOUS. Make them EARN that win, dammit! And most importantly, DON'T. FREAKING. QUIT.

This doesn't just apply to PVP, either - how many awesome raid kills have happened with one person left standing, because they refused to quit, even when it looked hopeless?



Finally, for crying out loud, don't get distracted by honorable kills or other elements that don't actually help you win. Don't fight on the road, don't obsess over the Eye of the Storm flag if you don't hold bases, and DON'T SURRENDER YOUR ONLY BASE WHEN YOU'RE TWO TICKS AWAY FROM WINNING.

It's like the achievement says.

Oh, and...



That's why.

12 Responses Subscribe to comments

  1. gravatar
    Olivia Grace

    Awesome post/story, Rades! I do, however, want to march right over to Strawberryz of Illidan and kick him or her right in the shins.

    Thank the Light for players like you who don't just bitch and moan that the other side is better, and actually take action, don't give up, and do something.

    I'm a PvP lover, but nothing annoys me more than the '[your faction] suck at PvP why don't we just give up you're all awful'. It ain't over 'til it's over.

    September 14, 2012 at 3:26 AM

  2. gravatar
    Jamie TTGF

    My competitive medium is 2D fighting games, not WoW; but, you'd be surprised how often I see this. Since fighting games are 1v1, it's not so much that the teams tell each other how much they suck; rather, they place the blame on how strong individual characters are, either in relation to their preferred characters, or in general.

    I get this a lot in my main fighter, Vampire Savior (i.e Darkstalkers). I use a character, Jon Talbain, who is largely considered a cheap character. This is because he can do very large amounts of damage without doing anything too complex. What most people fail (or refuse) to realize is, if you guard against his offense correctly (admittedly not easy and not intuitive), the tables turn, and making an opportunity to deal damage with Talbain becomes extremely difficult.

    What I see, instead, is people who bitch and moan about how cheap he is and how strong he is. Even when I put the solutions right in front of them, like "Next time you're in situation X, why not try doing Y instead of always dying because you keep trying to do Z?" It's easier for them to put the blame on anyone but themselve, and say "Nah, Talbain is just lolz, all you can do against him is pray."

    These are people that, by all means, should probably be better than me, from a technical perspective; but, they don't have a champion's mettle, plain and simple. They'd rather complain that they can't win by doing "Z" instead of waking up to the fact that, if you want to win, there's only one option, and it's to do "Y" when I do "X".

    Thus, you get a lot of walking contradictions of players who want to play competitive VS (or any other fighter, for that matter), but they don't want to do with it takes to win. I don't get how it's even possible to separate the two, but apparently they are quite different things in the minds of others. I don't fucking get it. Glad you don't, either.

    September 14, 2012 at 3:54 AM

  3. gravatar
    Redbeard

    BoG is about the only place where you can be down by that much and still come back to win it like that. With AB you need to cap 5, and EotS 4, and those are spaced out far enough that it's too hard to hold all of them long enough for your points to race up to victory.

    Still, an impressive victory, Rades. You took advantage of the weakness in that guild group, their hubris, and exploited it to perfection.

    September 14, 2012 at 5:45 AM

  4. gravatar
    Aleindria

    Thank you. I hate it when I get battlegrounds with those cynics and whiners who just want to roll over and let them win - that kind of attitude results in a vicious cycle. Of course sucks if you're just willing to roll over and let the other guys win!

    September 14, 2012 at 6:45 AM

  5. gravatar
    Anonymous

    Erm, that should be "of course your faction sucks".

    September 14, 2012 at 6:46 AM

  6. gravatar
    Cynwise of Stormwind

    NEVER GIVE UP. NEVER SURRENDER.

    In all seriousness, rez vectors are AWAY from the current node in BfG, thanks rated BGs for screwing that up. Die defending WW, go to LH, eff you spirit healers.

    This means that you'll have forces getting sent all over the map, which can be a good thing or bad thing depending on how you play it. If the Alliance was fighting at Mine *but not dying*, then they're going to stay right where they were. A fatality would have gone back to LH, which would have put them right in Fabulor's path.

    Had they NOT been camping, and had the horde NOT sucked in breaking the camp at mine/ships, the Alliance probably would have prevented the loss of LH. Because they had solid healing and were focused on maintaining the camp at Mine, they lost.

    I love it.

    September 14, 2012 at 9:41 AM

  7. gravatar
    Screwlewse #TTGF

    When I saw those too achievements pop up in Guild chat, I was amazed. "How the heck did Fab do that, it's only me and him online at the time"
    Now, knowing the full story.. I'm even more impressed.

    September 14, 2012 at 12:06 PM

  8. gravatar
    Daniel

    Well played!

    September 14, 2012 at 1:10 PM

  9. gravatar
    Jod

    I've had a few moments like this and they are always so much sweeter after someone decries that doing something won't work.

    September 14, 2012 at 5:28 PM

  10. gravatar
    Navimie

    Rades, a PvPer after my own heart :)
    I love people who never give up. Who never stop trying. My favourite PvPers are in my 3s arena team and the reason they are my faves is because we never stop trying, and it's games like the one you described from continued tenacity that spirit that make them so memorable, rewarding and a reminder that a real winner is the one who tried :D

    September 16, 2012 at 12:41 AM

  11. gravatar
    Darthregis

    I'm pretty sure I was in this BG with you, as I've had an extremely similar experience with a win in that BG. :P

    (I was one of the noobs fighting at WW.)

    September 18, 2012 at 7:51 AM

  12. gravatar
    Dreamy

    I love matches like this. The victory is so sweet! I also have that "NEVER GIVE UP" mentality. I hate when people are like "Well ,we might as well not even try now, just let them win.." NO, at least make it a pain in the ass for them! FIGHT DAMN YOU, FIGHT. By the way, Fabulor is a fabulous name. I remember you posting about him on twitter when you first made him I think. I would have loved to see Alliance's BG chat after this went down. lol. "WHY WAS NO ONE AT LIGHT HOUSE, GOD, YOU'RE ALL NOOBS" ....good times :)

    September 19, 2012 at 11:04 AM