If you don’t play a team game, this section will be quick but still relevant. If you play a team game, then settle in. Teamwork is something that occurs naturally with time, but only in the right conditions. In situations where the team is unwilling or unable to work together, moments of good teamwork will be fleeting and incidental, which can lead to frustration for players and coaches alike. A team that plays well together is more likely, on average, to beat a team that lacks cohesion and synergy, assuming that the skill levels of either team don’t tip the scales too much.
Let’s back up for a second and ask a simple question: what is teamwork?
Now’s a good time for you and your team to discuss what makes good teamwork, and write some of those things down before we progress through the section.
Traditionally, teamwork has been defined as: “Collaborative effort of a group to achieve a common goal or to complete a task in the most effective and efficient way.” Now, anyone can search the internet for a definition of teamwork, and that’s fine. What is teamwork in an esports context, though? Whether you’re playing a solo or team game, teamwork is one of the best ways of improving available. In team games, your ability to work as a member of your team is almost as important as your ability to play the game individually. We’ll go through some general applications of teamwork before diving into the weeds of team-play in team-based games.
So, what are some good teamwork habits? Here are some things that any team can do, regardless of whether their chosen game is a solo game or team game:
Good teammates are good listeners and respectful. Like we talked about in the Communication section, good communication can make a good team great, and bad communication can make a good team bad, respectively. Your ability to work as a member of a team is only as good as your ability to communicate with the rest of the team.
Good teammates are always trying to help their peers. It doesn’t matter if you’re a coach or a player, good teammates watch out for their peers. If someone’s having a problem, see what you can do to help. If a teammate is struggling, do everything you can to support them, and help them get on the right track. There will be times when you need help too, so you should help your teammates in the same way you’d want them to help you.
Good teammates take responsibility for their actions. People will make mistakes; they are inevitable, but the mark of a good teammate is someone who recognizes their mistake. Take ownership of your mistakes, don’t try to make excuses, and be open to feedback from everyone, and you’ll be an ideal teammate from a performance perspective.
Good teammates understand their role within the team dynamic. This means that everyone is doing their job to the best of their ability. Nobody is trying to show off by being unnecessarily risky or do anything outside of what’s expected of them. A good teammate is one that is reliable and effective both in and out of the game.
Just like how individual athletes can achieve flow state, it’s possible for a team of people to coalesce and flow together. Group flow is notably different from individual flow, in that group flow requires everyone involved to sustain a shared flow state together. Group flow happens when groups cooperate and have common habits and goals.
In a team-based video game, in order for your team to have group flow, every member of your team must understand their role and what’s expected of them. When every individual piece of the team is acting in harmony with each other, the team stops being a group of individuals and forms a unified consciousness. This feeling of instinctual unity is sometimes referred to as a “hive mind,” named for the way insect colonies all seemingly think with one brain.
The team is at its best when it has all of its pieces acting together. That’s not to say that playing as a team is a guarantee of victory or even competence, but it is a crucial first step for any team that wants to compete at a high level. To this end, team members must work hard on their individual craft, so they can uphold the weight of their responsibilities and be reliable in their ability to perform their role. In working hard to be reliable for your team in the execution of your role, you will find that it’s easier for you to connect with your teammates and play around them or with them. That relationship of trust works both ways, though, and you should consciously make an effort to trust your teammates more in-game. A general truth is those team members who trust their teammates are more likely to experience and add to group flow than team members who play for themselves.
Teamwork is an abstract concept, so it’s hard to give an exact method of how to ‘practice’ the concept. There are, however, certain aspects of teamwork that can be built on through different day-to-day activities. Let’s take a look at some here:
In VOD review, players learn how to think about their role and the team as a whole, increasing the overall team mind.
In walkthroughs, players learn how to physically execute their role within the team, and learn how the team should physically play in-space, strengthening the team’s body.
In scrimmages, players learn how to read and react to different team styles and can enhance the team’s mental fortitude, growing the team’s heart.
In addition, every time you play a game with a teammate, or else spend time with them, you are developing something called chemistry. Chemistry, in this context, refers to the interaction between people working together, especially when that interaction is effective. Teams with good chemistry are better at entering and maintaining group flow, while teams with poor chemistry have a difficult time staying focused and on the same page.