Farm No Magic

"Good Grief: What Makes One the Best Player?" by x RaMb0 4 L1F3 

This article was written in August of 2015, and was originally posted on ZombieLegends.net but is now posted on here because the forums on that site have been taken down for quite some time.

       It may be difficult to believe, but COD: Black Ops II was released nearly three years ago in November 2012. The game introduced a new mode to the franchise called Grief. To this day, one question has loomed in the minds of those who have played fervently over the years—“Who is the best player in the game?”

       In order to answer such a question, one must inquire as to what exactly makes a player good. Is there an objective method to determine a player’s ability? In sports, one can point toward statistics to prove an athlete’s dominance over another. Even with statistics available, there are many disagreements that continue decades later over the worthiness of a player. Some baseball fans may feel that Player A is better because of his ability to get on base and hit home runs, while someone else may value Player B’s ability to field the ball well and score runs with his speed. Unfortunately, game modes like Grief don’t have many hard stats like sports, making it all the more difficult to observe.

       Grief veteran “v Reflex II” chimed in and offered his thoughts when he proclaimed, “qp Derek is the best current Grief player and has been for the past four months. “Terrain322” is a close second after that.” Reflex went on to say that he defines a good player with a percentage system that accounts for: career tourney wins, overall time regarded as a top player, and least importantly their current status. He continued by exclaiming, “Tournaments always were and still are the most official form of competition. If you haven’t obtained a minimum of double digit tourney wins, there is no place for you in the all-time top ten on Farm.” The system that Reflex created that takes into account those three factors listed above is all well and dandy, but it provides little insight into what particularly makes a player skilled. Being considered a top player is good, but we are trying to figure out why they are being considered a top player to begin with. Current status is very important for a competitive game that has evolved so much as Grief has over the course of just a couple of years. The introduction of the Y-Y trick, players becoming smarter, and players adapting to the changes around them make the game very different. He stated that he thought “terrain322” was a close second, but goes on to say that you must have at least ten tournament victories to be considered a top-ten player. Keep in mind that “terrain322” lacks this requirement that Reflex upholds.

       We asked the montage connoisseur “qp Derek” for his thoughts on the topic, and he replied, “Naming the best grief player is tough to say. There are four different skills that a good Grief player will have…they are train running, griefing, decision-making (which includes revives), and communication. The best player is the one who can be the successful in the most situations. Certain players are more individually skilled in specific areas or on different connections. With that being said, “terrain322” is the player that can adapt and succeed in most of these various areas.” Looking at all of the factors is important, and as I will mention later on, having a nice blend of all these factors is a plus. But who’s to say that “terrain322,” or any other  arbitrary player, is the strongest at any of these factors. This question ties into the lack of objectivity in the stats available. 

       When asked who he thought the best player in the game was, “PlzDontRedScreen” stated, “I think Nice Elmo is the best player on Farm now because he has good reactions, skill, teamwork, and has self-belief.” That’s a fair assessment, but does it really provide many unique characteristics to “Nice Elmo’s” play-style that others don’t have as well? “PlzDntRedScreen” continued by stating, “ZombDestroyer deserves a mention because he has the most tourney wins on Farm and Town, that doesn’t happen by luck.” It is worth noting that we are talking solely about Farm in this post.

        With all due respect to the both of them, I would challenge this statement by saying that “ZombDestroyer” having the most tournament wins does happen for several reasons, and being the best is not one of them. Though the number of tournament wins is one of the few numerical methods of measurement available, one must realize that several factors must be taken into account. Tournaments are a very flawed way of determining skill. For instance, one must raise questions such as: how many teams participated in those tournaments, how many of those teams were actually competitive and provided a challenge, were some of the better players not participating in that tournament because of or either unavailability or retirement at the time, were all the teams put together in an effort to compete or were they just playing to have fun, did outdated rules such as being allowed to block the MP5 stairs in the beginning provide fairness or not, were the brackets organized in a legitimate manner, was there an imbalance in connection that allowed one team to have a clear advantage,  how often were these tournaments hosted, did a team win a set solely based off of the fact that they got to host more games because of the rock, paper, scissors rule, etc. One more thing worth mentioning is that a particular player could win several tournaments despite extremely poor performances in those tournaments. “PlzDontRedScreen” also said, “The best players are the ones who are good now, not the people who used to be good.” So with this viewpoint, shouldn’t you throw away all of those old tournament wins and look at “ZombDestroyer’s” current success, or lack thereof?

       If you can’t place too much value on tournaments, then you would have to judge a player’s abilities off of the eye test. However, this is difficult, as well. Somebody might think that they had a really impressive grief and revive, while someone else might look at it and say that it was an average play at best. So who has the authority to judge whether something that someone did was good or not? Other objective means provided in the game include downs, revives, etc. However, these don’t help much of anything either. Someone could get five downs, but they might be productive downs. Or someone might have four revives, but they might be simple stand-still revives that you were able to get because the other team could not train. When asked what he thought makes a good player, “Gef 1 Man Army” said, “The most important skill to have in grief, and indeed in most games, is decision making.” He was reluctant to talk further about the subject matter. I suppose decision making is important, but how do you know if someone is really a good decision maker? I have seen plenty of players praised because of a couple of smart plays they had made in clutch moments; however, I have also seen those same players make fundamentally unsound plays which go unnoticed or they are given a break because of a reputation they have which is arguably undeserved. So it is a bit of a gray area, too.

       A lot of players are close to one another in terms of possessing the skills that you need to win in grief. We can conclude that some of the skills a player needs to be considered good include: ability to knife, using the MP5 to slow enemies, door blocking, breaking enemy door blocks, reviving under duress, pulling zombies to help a teammate get a revive, training over downed enemies, ability to choose the best path in order to escape a tight situation, holding down a certain area, communication, also connection and little bit of luck. I know players who value knifing and training, I also know players who place more of an importance on spraying and strategy. I think it is ideal to possess a nice blend of everything listed above. You might be asking, “How about you tell me who you think is the best, Rambo.” The truth is, I could not tell you who the best player is with absolute certainty, nor will I tell you if I could. The purpose of this post is not to vouch for one player over another, but rather to provide insight into something that is often incoherently talked about amongst the members of the community.

"Nice Elmo’s" Top 10 Factors

       There are a variety of different skills that a player must possess if he wishes to be proclaimed great—or even the best. I feel as if there are ten different factors that must be observed in order to evaluate one’s skill. I will write about these factors in order of most significant to least. To start off, I feel that decision-making is foremost in the skills one must have. Decision-making is all about making the right calls. Overall, if you can’t make the best call, then you’re going to end up getting yourself killed, your teammates killed, or even worse, you will make a decision that costs your team the game. Communication is very important, as there are many instances where a player will go for the certain revive, but fails to call it out to his team. This causes another teammate to think that nobody is going for that revive, but due to the lack of communication, both players will collide with their zombies and fail to get the revive, and put themselves at risk at dying, too. Experience is important because with it, you will know what to do in specific situations, as you have the knowledge of how the zombies react and where they will be at in the map. 

       We all know about that super spongy guy who never goes down, or that one guy who always goes down first every game. Well, escape ability is crucial as you’ll often be tasked with needing to escape from the pit or the top of the barn. These escapes help teams win games. Teamwork is a must on Farm. If an individual is able to work with others effectively, that helps his team do better and also makes him all the better, too. On a map like Farm, you need to be able to time your revives and be capable of performing difficult 360-revives. Sure, with a great pull you may not need the 360, but you still need good timing which ties into the teamwork factor. I feel that griefing ability and running trains over downed enemies go hand in hand. A player that can consistently grief and run the train efficiently is a player to be feared. Being clutch and having confidence in dire moments are key to winning, as if you are not confident, you will probably end up choking those 1v3 or 1v4’s. To be a great player, you need to have a cool-head. If you are constantly raging at your teammates, it often leads to you messing up their judgment, teamwork, and their communication. The final factor in the arsenal that players must have to be skilled is that they must enjoy themselves. Yes, I know this is a foreign idea for many of the die-hard grief players, but don’t forget that this is a game, and the purpose of a game is to provide entertainment.

       If you managed to read all of this, please leave a comment below and give us your thoughts on Grief. Is there a best player, and what makes you think that player is the best? Special thanks to “Nice Elmo” for contributing to this post, along with obtaining quotes from some of the respected players in the community who were willing to share their thoughts. I appreciate their opinions on the matter, as well.