RamboRay Column: Our biggest threat is ourselves Dallas Empire[jwplayer VwDa3xvd]Raymond \u2018RamboRay\u2019 Labussiere is the head coach of the Dallas Empire, the No. 2 seed for the Call of Duty League Playoffs and one of four remaining teams for Championship Weekend. In his Dexerto column, he discusses what it will take for the Empire to come away with first place\u2019s $1.5 million at Champs. At this point in the year, the difference between the better teams and the middle-of-the-pack teams isn\u2019t as great as it was at the start because everyone has a general understanding of how to play the game at a high level. During Champs, it\u2019s really a matter of who performs best each day. That\u2019s why it\u2019s super important to be consistent and be in a place both mentally and physically where you show up to play and are ready to go. This could be a little biased, but I strongly feel that we are the best team in the game when we\u2019re playing at our best. I don\u2019t feel like there are teams out there that can really take us out consistently, besides FaZe. FaZe is probably our closest rival right now \u2014 if we were to play 50 times when we\u2019re both at our best, it\u2019d be pretty close, I feel like we\u2019d win roughly 60 percent of the time. It\u2019s a little cliche, but I feel like our biggest threat, at this point in the year, is ourselves. A lot of people can say that, but more so in our case because when we\u2019ve played at our best, we\u2019ve looked unbeatable. Still, there are a few things we, the Dallas Empire, need to clean up to make sure we are at our best and put ourselves in the best position we can be to win Champs. Communication Number one is communication. I feel that\u2019s the biggest issue we had in the last event: the hecticness of communication and scrambled voice comms. When things aren\u2019t going our way, when we\u2019re in bad situations or just getting out-slayed, our comms aren\u2019t at their peak, which makes it more difficult to manage ourselves out of those situations. Instead of just calling out enemy locations when we\u2019re dying, we should be focusing on the grander scheme of the game. We know this, but executing this in the moment isn\u2019t as easy as it sounds. I was in our Teamspeak listening to our comms while the team played last weekend. During Game 5 vs Toronto, @Huke went HUGE for this 1v2 clutch and everyone went nuts. This is another unforgettable moment added to my career full of memories. Love my team. pic.twitter.com\/fkBTcWCjSZ \u2014 Mike Rufail (@hastr0) August 25, 2020 If a player repeatedly calls out a play he\u2019s making or an enemy\u2019s position, that blocks the communication line for something else happening somewhere else on the map. So one of the things we try to do is make sure that we\u2019re amplifying things that need to be amplified. For example, the minimap already shows an enemy shooting so we try not to amplify callouts for that player\u2019s position, unless it\u2019s really important in that moment. And this isn\u2019t me saying our comms are bad, but when they\u2019re not at their best they can affect our play. That\u2019s why we try and maintain our communications at a level where things are digestible and consistent, even when the game isn\u2019t going our way. When our communication is on, I feel like it\u2019s by far the best in the league. Routing The second thing that to me, as a coach, we\u2019ve been struggling with is consistency in routing, and that is the hardest thing to solve. As much as we try and have everyone thinking the same way, each player has their own way of seeing things and certain players feel like certain plays at certain times are more correct than others. Throne Moments #2 ft @iLLeYYY #TakeTheThrone x @JackLinks pic.twitter.com\/b8sLWM2K4U \u2014 Dallas Empire (@DallasEmpire) August 18, 2020 For example, five players may be in specific positions and we make a really good play where everything went perfectly as planned. But then we encounter that same play, same scenario, in a second rotation of that map or in a different game, but different players are in those five positions \u2014 there will be sometimes differences in the decisions made. Certain players just have tendencies, whether it\u2019s to be aggressive, take long flanking routes, or play the front part of the engagement pattern, which makes it difficult to be consistent. But it\u2019s really important that players make similar decisions on what we feel is right, so that the players around them know what to expect. That\u2019s why we try to buckle down and make sure that we\u2019re doing those small things right, so that the bigger pieces we need to win the game kind of just fall into place. Those tendencies also play a role on the good side of things to ensure we aren\u2019t predictable, so again, this isn\u2019t all bad, just sometimes doesn\u2019t cater to consistency. That\u2019s where small talk and communication come into play, ensuring that we\u2019re on the same page and are maneuvering, routing around the map the way we need to be to play our best.. If you\u2019re communicating well then typically the routing mistakes you make aren\u2019t as impactful, and vice versa. Putting it all together during Champs There is a difference this year in the game we play and how this game affects decision-making and how playing the game the optimal way isn\u2019t really what everyone perceives it as based on past Call of Duty titles. \u201cBrainless\u201d is the wrong word because there is a lot of thought that goes into it, but, often, shutting off, gunning forward, and winning your gunfights is the best way to play. This is not about revenge. This is about legacy. We’re here to take the throne.#CrownedVictorious pic.twitter.com\/bB8rZhPXB4 \u2014 Dallas Empire (@DallasEmpire) August 13, 2020 Every player needs to show up to play their best at the same time. This is really where, typically, the team that shows up and wins an event is a team that has the most players play at a level that is higher than what they were expected to play at. That\u2019s the difference at this time of year when teams are so close on the decision-making front and game understanding. There are a few things that we do better than other teams, but not really enough to make a huge difference. It\u2019s really a matter of whoever\u2019s shooting really well can typically win.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
RamboRay Column: Our biggest threat is ourselves Dallas Empire[jwplayer VwDa3xvd]Raymond \u2018RamboRay\u2019 Labussiere is the head coach of the Dallas Empire, the No. 2 seed for the Call of Duty League Playoffs and one of four remaining teams for Championship Weekend. In his Dexerto column, he discusses what it will take for the Empire to come […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30784","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30784","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30784"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30784\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30784"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30784"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dejan.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30784"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}