So, why aren’t there any big money Big Team Battle tournaments?
In my opinion, a professional Big Team would play more strategically and would develop more tactics and give more players an opportunity to play than the current slew of 4v4 close quarters games we only get to see now.
I’m specifically talking about objective games like Capture the Flag, and I’m comparing the current offerings we get to Basketball and a Big Team game being more like Football.
In Basketball the players have jobs (Forwards, Guards, etc.) but everyone is expected to be able to move the ball and shoot. In Football players have specific roles and if they don’t perform them properly the team fails.
I say objective games because in Football, for example, while individual performance is important, what matters is touchdowns. That’s what the fans go to see. A 4v4 slayer game is plenty intense and all but, really, one good player on a team could just about lone wolf it. Teamwork means more in an objective game because the person doing the objective must be kept alive, like the quarterback or a wide receiver.
In a Big Team game you have more of the sandbox at your disposal which ups the ante for action and variety. Other skills besides getting the headshot and placing that sticky get a chance to shine, like driving and flying.
There are currently three Halo games where this could be tried: Halo 3, Reach and Halo 4. My son says no one would watch a Big Team tournament. I say if the prize is big enough it doesn’t matter. I think it’s high time we saw Halo tournaments where it was less about the best player and more about the best team. Is the world ready for that?
I’d say there aren’t any because it’s, chaotic, to chaotic for an audience to follow.
Any sport with a lot of players on the field, more than 4 per team, features a focus point. In football, soccer and basketball the ball is the point of focus. They are also always in motion.
Yes, Oddball, One flag and One sided Assault could work. The problem is that engagements happen between players even when the objective isn’t present, something you don’t really see in ball sports.
While CTF would certainly have action once a flag is stolen, I doubt the build up to the point where it is stolen would provide a big enough audience with the excitement to watch.
Oddball would also be quite interesting once the team holding the ball is worn down so that the other team has a shot at the ball carrier, but until then I doubt it’s going to be exciting because of the sheer number of players doing what they’re doing.
So while I think it’d be fun to be in a BTB tournament, I doubt it’d be a “sport” for an audience. As smaller teams and matches are easier to follow.
I think BTB tournaments could work if the maps were actually large enough to accommodate 16 players. Halo 4 has some of the worst maps, because they are, in actuality, small maps designed with narrow roads and choke points; which ultimately creates a chaotic convulsion in game flow. (Especially with the proliferation of plasma grenades.)
http://www.bigteambattle.net/ is the home of competitive BTB, but there tends to only be smaller online tournaments. BTB doesn’t really have the following that competitive 4v4 has and holding an 8v8 LAN event with multiple different teams is a lot more difficult than 4v4.
> I’d say there aren’t any because it’s, chaotic, to chaotic for an audience to follow.
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> So while I think it’d be fun to be in a BTB tournament, I doubt it’d be a “sport” for an audience. As smaller teams and matches are easier to follow.
> http://www.bigteambattle.net/ is the home of competitive BTB, but there tends to only be smaller online tournaments. BTB doesn’t really have the following that competitive 4v4 has and holding an 8v8 LAN event with multiple different teams is a lot more difficult than 4v4.
All Halo events are chaotic. That’s because there’s no spectator mode. A typical tournament stream has you watching the POV of a player that has been getting a lot of kills, and when they get on camera they start dying so they have to find someone else that hasn’t died… it get’s complicated, but people watch.
Thanks for the link, Subductiion. 4v4 is easier than 8v8. That’s the primary reason we don’t see BTB games more. The other reasons probably have more to do with production values and the size of the prize. A well-produced stream and a hefty Grand Prize could attract more viewers.
People think Halo is like CoD not because of Halo 4, but because of pro Halo tourneys. People should get to see more of what Halo has to offer.
I’m sure it’s very difficult not only to get an 8-person team together, but also to coordinate with that team. If you ever watched any pro Halo matches, the players are constantly calling out positions and such. It’s constant and noisy chatter with 4 players on a team; imagine what it would be like with 8 players.
Moreover, Halo shines in mid-range combat, which 4v4 matches are perfectly suited for.
> I’m sure it’s very difficult not only to get an 8-person team together, but also to coordinate with that team. If you ever watched any pro Halo matches, the players are constantly calling out positions and such. It’s constant and noisy chatter with 4 players on a team; imagine what it would be like with 8 players.
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> Moreover, Halo shines in mid-range combat, which 4v4 matches are perfectly suited for.
The difficulty of getting together an 8 person team is inversely proportional to the size of the prize. Well coordinated teams will win more games and will be more entertaining than those that are not. It wouldn’t be long before teams learned that winning means strategy and tactics as opposed to winging it, which is pretty much what we see now.
Constant noisy chatter can be replaced by an actual coach/leader/general giving coherent directions.
Mid-range combat takes place in any Halo game. Everyone understands that. It’s all the other combat that no one gets to see and thus appreciate. That’s why Halo is stuck in this constant struggle with CoD. They’re different kinds of games, but people that don’t play Halo never see the difference. I would like the spotlight on CQB to be turned into a sun illuminating the entire Halo experience.