Deep Sea Tournament - how do TX teambattles actually work out?

[Crysantos]

Hey guys,

 

For those who didn't notice - we had the first cross-server tournament (EU vs. Asia) in a showcase environment this week. It was a regular teambattle mode, that means 7 vs. 7 with the usual 20 minutes time limit, same regulations when it comes to ship choice (1 CV, 2 BBs per side) - the only additional limit that was enforced was a cap to one Gearing (probably due to the incredibly strong smoke). This event got over 17.000 viewers on the Chinese streaming platform PandaTV on both days! This tournament took place on a special Chinese test client (it was hosted and sponsored by the Chinese side), our EU teams and broadcasters had to connect via VPN, giving them a slight disadvantage and in contrast to the usual Tier VIII meta of the EU servers when it comes to competitive gaming, this mode was actually in TierX ships. Right now WoWS doesn't really have a spectator mode available for games - so what we did was using the freecam mode after suiciding our ships with our Chinese broadcasting counterparts within the first 2 minutes when the teams deployed. Interesting additional info - the KKtm vs. Maiden Tea Party game was on game version 0.5,6 but the Tora Tora Tora vs. F3 game 2 days later was done on 0.5.7 - due to the Chinese WG team dropping the newest patch on the test server. So check out how the new spectator mode looks like.

 

I'll shamelessly plug my broadcast here for the battles themselves so you can take a look at how these battles actually went down and to see for yourself how competitive gaming could look like on a tournament teambattle scale. If you're not interested in watching all of these, just watch the recommended ones. I feel like they were really well played and executed. You can see the entire broadcast on my Twitch channel if you're interested.

 

KKtm vs. Maiden Tea Party:

battle #1:

(recommended to watch, pay attention to what the Chinese Hindenburg and Des Moines are doing)

battle #2:

battle #3:

 

Tora Tora Tora vs. F3:

battle #1:

battle #2:

 (recommended to watch)

battle #3:

battle #4:

 (recommended to watch)

battle #5:

 

So why do I post these videos? Well, first of all - being one of the guys who went to Warszaw to participate in the exhibition match during the WGL finals to showcase WoWS I felt like that was a little bit...unfortunate when it came to displaying the actual gameplay. People weren't really able to follow what happens, the focus was on fast paced action instead of the real strong side of WoWS - the strategic approach on a greater scale. Now this opportunity arose and I really wanted to see how it works out. TX is always a very "meh" Tier for me, due to huge balancing issues within this class - and most TX battles usually ending in very boring drawn out camping battles. So my initial fear was that this meta could actually result in even campier approaches to TB as we're already seeing on our EU servers, but luckily that's not true - especially the TX cruisers open up a lot of strategic variety.

 

This tournament - at least for me - actually showed us that the teams with a more dynamic and versatile setup actually won the games, always beating the more campy setup. Please let us know what you think about these battles and the possible competitive future for WoWS. I thoroughly enjoyed these matches and I hope that we get to see more of them - being able to do some other cross-server tournaments like against the NA server. What's your opinion?

[WarburtonLee]

Very interessting to watch. I agree with you that the teams with the most map control won, since they can faster react to different strategies the enemies might have. In the first match, we saw Maiden Tea Party using one or 2 "lurkers" as we call it in Counter-Strike, to provide information + they kept resetting with the help of radar. As i know from playing on competetive lvls of CS, one can not afford to be "pinned down" like that, taking fire from all angles. Sometimes, you rush one spot yes, but then you have to follow through. Various strategies will soon become common knowledge as/if the game grows and attract competetive play, and the best teams will have to come up with knew ones continually. This was actually the first match ive watched were i have seen some "advanced" strategy in this game, and it was very refreshing

 

Also, good commentary and awereness of whats happening

[Sub_Eleven]

Kinda similar to the Supremacy Leage over on the american server, which I LOVE. They use a 9 vs 9 format though on T8 (which is a bit more interesting and action packed imo). Would like to see more competitions like this.

[daki]

Looks very interesting. I have watched 2 matches so far but I plan to see them all.

I am pleasantly surprised by the variety of tactics. Some of them while seeming quite strange at first glance in fact turned out to be very effective.

 

I wish this type of events was more promoted, both here on forums and on WG website.

I guess CCs could help with that . I failed to catch the announcement in the video section and I would have loved to watch the streams live.

Please next time announce it in General Discussion as well. I would rather see that, then tons of crap topics

 

All in all, good job!

[Ataw]

T10 7v7 was actually surprisingly enjoyable, partly due to EU honour being at stakes

 

The balance between cruisers makes the meta more interesting than T8 imho, with a larger variety of composition (5 Shimas anyone??) and gameplay is not as stale as I expected, although that could be due to our inexperience of T10. I believe that it is also due to the Gearing having enough range to torp from outside radar range and BBs having to close the gap if they don't want to get burned to death. Our CV also enjoyed it a lot because reserve doesn't melt instantly to Kutuzov and there is potential for damage on top of the fight for air control.

We had a very limited experience at T10 but we still gave the Chinese a run for their money and it was a great learning experience. I'm really looking forward more competitive T10 in the future

 

Beta-1 out

 

Edit: and of course thanks to DST for inviting us and Crysantos and BloodLegend for the cast!

[Spithas]

That Zao in Battle 2 of Tora Tora.... situational awareness 0.

[Slauter]

Looks like Chinese team had better tactics and more skill at that level, in few games i've watched they had ships really playing the game. European tactics (and i'm not saying that's wrong) is based on too much camping and sitting in smokes, which is extremely boring. I think these games would be more fun without CV's, they exclude almost every kind of surprise and tactical maneuvering.

[Fakiru]

Im curious about how would omni fare against F3.They are the best,aren't they?

[rafparis]

nice watch, thanks

surprised no team takes any shimakaze?

[Ataw]

I wish this type of events was more promoted, both here on forums and on WG website.

I guess CCs could help with that . I failed to catch the announcement in the video section and I would have loved to watch the streams live.

Please next time announce it in General Discussion as well. I would rather see that, then tons of crap topics

 

It was announced in the community area and on Reddit, but I agree some support from the CC would have been nice!

 

nice watch, thanks

surprised no team takes any shimakaze?

 

You haven't watched TTT vs F3 then

[Spithas]

nice watch, thanks

surprised no team takes any shimakaze?

 

In 7 v 7  with CV IJN DD is nearly useless.

[gr0pah]

 

In 7 v 7  with CV IJN DD is nearly useless.

 

It can maybe punish a very heavy smoke ball team. But as soon as you go up against an enemy with a modicum of mobility it quickly becomes useless.

 

We wanted to try it on Ocean,

 

 

having never actually tested it before (not much time for training beforehand). It could have worked - and definitely worked better - but our comms and execution was very flawed in the first game. Prime examples:

1. Our in-game leader and Shima (me) thought we had agreed on exact opposite things of what the Shima was going to do - he thought I was going to freestyle flank torp, and I thought I was staying with the fleet (and our Gearing got rightfully confused by this). Sorting that out mid-game was not optimal.

2. The Shima smoke, oh the smoke... Suffice to say, it was a combination of comms disaster and Shima brainfart. Not pretty.

 

There was more, but those two points alone ensured that the Shima just cost us a lot of DPM without bringing much to the party. Still wouldn't rule it out though (against a smoke ball team).

 

 

[MBrandis]

Were all those games played on the chinese server only? Why not alternate between games, as is usually done to make  it more fair in terms of lag/ping? 

[gr0pah]

Were all those games played on the chinese server only? Why not alternate between games, as is usually done to make  it more fair in terms of lag/ping? 

 

Yeah all on CN server. Well, in part because it was a CN/ASIA event by an Chinese organisation - the matches were against the no 1 & 2 ranked CN/ASIA teams before their grand final (this Sunday). The Asian stream also peaked at 18k viewers...

[Tyrendian89]

that, and there is no EU tournament server sadly - everyone got accounts with all ships and 19pt captains for the event to ensure level playing field in that regard

[rafparis]

(shima)

You haven't watched TTT vs F3 then

 

well, that didn't go too well for them...

 

Without CV shima can do something, but with good CVs always spotting ships and torps you can't do crap...

Gameplay without CV would be completely different, and more interesting i think.

[gr0pah]

 

Without CV shima can do something, but with good CVs always spotting ships and torps you can't do crap...

Gameplay without CV would be completely different, and more interesting i think.

 

Different sure, but I'm not sure I'd call a game with 5 Shimas and no CV more interesting. Well, unless you really like to watch torpedo dodges for 10-15 minutes.

[gr0pah]

that, and there is no EU tournament server sadly - everyone got accounts with all ships and 19pt captains for the event to ensure level playing field in that regard

 

Yes and this is a big thing, as far as ships went the playing field was absolutely level.

[Ataw]

 

Yes and this is a big thing, as far as ships went the playing field was absolutely level.

 

Only things missing were signals

[Ictogan]

 

Different sure, but I'm not sure I'd call a game with 5 Shimas and no CV more interesting. Well, unless you really like to watch torpedo dodges for 10-15 minutes.

 

May the team with the better torpedobeats win. 

[creamgravy]

Watching good teams battle at any tier is great. 

 

Tier 2-3 meta would be awesome if you don't want to see carriers. I was disappointed the Storozhevois weren't part of the battle! 

[Trigger_Happy_Dad]

Damn, that was interesting to watch, gg + gj on the commentary and camera work!

 

So much better than what we've seen in the WoWS "show match".

[Ataw]

So much better than what we've seen in the WoWS "show match".

 

Awww come on, who didn't enjoy the critadels from USS Atago??

[Unintentional_submarine]

TTT vs F3 looked nice, or rather nicer. Active movements, trying to get localised advantages etc. Though at times it had certain aspects of peek-a-boo to it.

 

But the first battles... dear god.

It was not pretty at all. Ugly camping behind each other behind an island and not moving at all. If this is the meta that might come then I'm out. This is not the sort of gameplay I'm interested in. I want to play warships, not tanks on water. Thankfully this tactic lost decisively, but it should be noted that the Chinese were not much more active, they just camped in different places for the most part.

The corner peeking and shooting on North was especially ugly, and I wondered why there were even ships since they were literally playing tanks.

[Allied_Winter]

TTT vs F3 looked nice, or rather nicer. Active movements, trying to get localised advantages etc. Though at times it had certain aspects of peek-a-boo to it.

 

But the first battles... dear god.

 

It was not pretty at all. Ugly camping behind each other behind an island and not moving at all. If this is the meta that might come then I'm out. This is not the sort of gameplay I'm interested in. I want to play warships, not tanks on water. Thankfully this tactic lost decisively, but it should be noted that the Chinese were not much more active, they just camped in different places for the most part.

The corner peeking and shooting on North was especially ugly, and I wondered why there were even ships since they were literally playing tanks.

 

After checking a vew replays... Unfortunately I have to agree. They started quite well, but it became rather stale. Maybe to see a full TX Team Battle potential we need to move it to Ocean. No cover to move forwards or backwards.

 

Greetings