The Importance of Synergy🤜🤛

2 + 2 = 5… That 1 extra point comes from Synergy. No matter how good you are, having a strong team around you can pull out your true potential.

Synergy doesn't always come naturally to the player and their teammate. There is a degree of work & skill involved to get that high level chemistry.

Awareness is the most important aspect, you won't be able to analyse a situation correctly if you don't have this skill - you want to be a 360 degrees player. It will guide your decision making and help sync you up with your team.

The ability to read your teammates and play off one another will create opportunities and raise your skill cap. Five good players who synergise can develop into five great players. Learning how to work together and capitalise on these opportunities can be the difference between winning or losing a match.

Knowledge

Having good game-knowledge and planning ahead can improve your chances of winning the round. Depending on what agents are in play and what utility your team has will help determine your roles and how you should play.

If you're in a 2v2 retake situation with a Reyna, and you're a Sage 1 point away from your ultimate - Reyna should enter the site first. The benefits are:

• Reynas Flash to help her get the entry kill
• Reynas Devour and Dismiss for a heal or escape
• Potential for Sage to trade kill and Ressurect

You need to adapt to the game - not the other way around. You may prefer playing Battle-Sage and entering a site first, but you won't be able to capatalise on these opportunities. Which evidently puts you at a disadvantage.

Pre-Planned Strategy

You may find you and your team have off days where you may not be on the same wave-length. Having pre-planned set ups in place will keep your synergy and teamwork consistant.

You can plan your team composition around each other as well as positioning and timing on plays.

Set strategies with a goal in mind (E.g. map control) and a default to fall back onto is a strong approach against any team. Or if you prefer, try the default strat first to get a read on the opponents and figure out which of your set strats will work best.

Rules of Thumb

During a match, you won't always have time to communicate the specifics. Having basic guidelines will improve your consistency and keep your teamwork at a high level:

• When taking a site, there are too many angles to clear at the same time. So, the first person in should peak the most plasuable spots and the second person should clear the angles your entry isn't able to (Those pesky corners😡).
• Keep an eye on where your team are and what they're looking at - so you can help cover the blind spots 👀
• Check the utility your team has and think about how you can support them E.g. If your Sage uses her slow orb, toss a grenade/molotov to get some damage 💥
• If it's a 2v1 you should try and remain close together to secure the trade kill 👊

Experience With Teammates

Syncing up with another player takes time - how much will vary depending on who you're playing with and what kind of playstyles you both have. Keep this in mind when playing with new players, it won't immediately come together.

Trust is also a major factor - you need to believe your team has your back. If you're worried and cautious about them making the wrong play, you'll spend too much time being distracted rather than thinking about the in-game stuff that matters (...How do i counterplay their A push?).

Overtime, playstyles and patterns will start to emerge - you can then adapt your gameplay around your team to give yourself the competitive edge.

E.g. The opponents have just taken B site and your A player seems slow at rotating. That said, they may be worried about a lurker they've encountered a couple of times - that's fine. All you do is slow down your retake until your teammate is with you and ready to push.

Be sure to check out our previous Blogs involving teamwork 😁
What makes a Team, a TEAM.
Communication is Key 🔑

I’d love to hear your side of things, do you agree or disagree? Or have I missed something? Please pop into our Discord and let me know what you think ^^