Forum

Quoted from byte

Course a mentor is useful, as long as the actual mentor is of suffice level and has the ability to teach, then it’s a very good thing.

Only problem is I’ve noticed a huge skill gap in what gets taught to certain people. For example I’ve come across when mentoring say a div 4 player, they tell me that “this guy from div 2 said to do it this way” when I know it’s completely the wrong advice to give. So it’s like no wonder people don’t advance so much.

The idea is when mentoring you make your student understand the logic not tell him if something is wrong or right.

Taught many in the past and I’ve always like tried to maintained a logical and understanding approach, once you get that into your students head it’s just a case of refining and tweaking it :) The best part is, the student won’t know or see that this logic will advance him/her so quickly within a season.

Cheers

Byte

Well said.
What you write here is something that also applies a lot to the world outside of TF2.
For example, when I teach and mentor students in Mathematics, I also try to make the students understand the same message : What is important for the student is to learn how to think and reason independently, not to see how the teacher solves a specific exercise.

I also see a lot of student saying “But that teacher/my parents/friends/the book tells me to do this ?”, even if it sometimes is something totally wrong.
One shouldn’t “learn” things by listen to authorities and then take their word for it. One should learn the arguments and reasons behind the conclusions and learn to question things and come up with new conclusions if necessary.

Besides, “learning” stuff by memorizing them is a very bad way of learning, also because you easily tend to forget things you memorize if you don’t get the reasoning behind the things you memorize.

“Give a poor man a fish and he has food for a day. Teach him how to fish and he has food for a lifetime”, as the old saying goes.

Quoted from Peign slays dragons

Compare it to school. Do you need extra lessons or are you able to learn by practicing.

Or look at it even more generally. (Now comes only my opinion, don’t feel offended.) Have fun playing videogames. The places to practice should be uni/school(!), sports, social stuff etc.

Real success pays off and satisfies way more than virtual success does.

You are of course right in that real life of course should be a priority before virtual life.
And of course if should be fun playing games.
That doesn’t mean practice in video games is something that should be avoided.
To constantly try to improve oneself is rewarding imo, regardless if we are talking about TF2, or other video games or about professional life irl.

Quoted from Max

For div 4 players tf2.euhl.mix works better than asking prem players to mentor you imo.

lol, these mixes are essentially just lobbies now. Half of the people are div 4 anyways. Pls don’t bring more

Currently, there are enough demo reviews or commentaries from top level players (both 6v6 and HL, any class) on YouTube.
There’s also Twitch, where some players review their or other people’s demos.

Personal mentoring would be a good idea for people who have experience, but have hit a wall and can’t improve by themselves.

Just play the game, watch POVs and your own demos.

Quoted from Muuki

[…]

regards worst pyro in prem

mge me pyro 1v1 badlands spire and talk shit again i dare you

Quoted from Pandahh

YESSSSS! Ever since we got our we have improved so much.
#Monkeh <3

Ha! Little do you know you’d have been much better by now without my help. Mu-Ah-HA-hA-ha-HAH-HA-Ha-hahahahahaaaaaaaaa.

But seriously, I’ve had a go at helping quite a few newbies down the years and the main problem I’ve found is that you younglings fail to listen properly and actual try to do what is suggested. The amount of times I’ve told medics to look behind them more or demo’s to stick with the combo more or whatever and then sat and watched an STV where the advice is completely ignored in the heat of battle.

Best way to mentor is to actually play and call for the team in my experience. For individual mentoring watching demos or being in spectate and whispering over a mumble whisper bind can be good.

These guys I’m helping out now actually listen and try to apply what we discuss which makes the whole process sooooo much more rewarding for both parties.

It’s also quite a long road to see major improvements, players have many and more bad habits to break.

Being able to realise your own faults is a massive bonus too, the amount of times I’m telling scouts to watch flank and not choke and them to say, ‘Yeah, yeah I know….’, then why are you at choke then?!?!?!?!?

To make the most out of being mentored I suggest:

Look at yourself and be honest.
Listen to your mentor and try to apply what they say.
Accept you’re bad at the game.
Watch your own demos every now and then and analyse carefully why bits went wrong and why bits went well.
Be nice to people.

you dont need talent for games you just need to practice alot and use your brain

Quoted from Scissors

[…]

lol, these mixes are essentially just lobbies now. Half of the people are div 4 anyways. Pls don’t bring more

Just because tryhard prem peeps stopped playing doesn’t mean its a new lobby 8)

Quitting because something is coming close to being shit is just helping it becoming something shit.