Enemy Territory What Makes a Quality Player

Everybody knows that the higher the Kill/Death ratio (K/D) the better the player. Right?

Not exactly. A better measurement for killing power is overall damage and accuracy. Even this measure has problems, as there are a lot of pathological cases that can inflate stats. So let's remember the fundamentals to ground ourselves, as it often seems like a pub is just chaos.

An objective is to be guarded or attacked. By default the offense loses, meaning it is the offense's responsibility to make a move whereas the defense can hang back and camp. If there were no weapons the game would be reduced to a race and some shit show of never-ending planting/defusing and likely a lot of pushing. With weapons you can now remove the enemy from the map to make way for the objective. Already from this we know that killing AFK's in spawn are not worth as much as killing enemies on the objective. The same applies to wasting resources attacking/defending anything that's not related to the objective.

Players can be removed from the map, but they come back at regular intervals. This creates "waves" of enemies, where the wave is strongest at the respawn time and gradually weakens as the players flow out of the spawn. Kills on enemies just after their respawn are worth more than on enemies who are about to respawn. A kill on an enemy about to respawn is not worthless, as it still forces them back to a respawn point and removes their map pressure. If you know their respawn time you can purposely wait until after their respawn to kill them for maximum effect. Skilled players will "push out" when their respawn is approaching to deal damage to the next enemy wave before resetting. Remember, the kills themselves are only valuable insofar as they help you achieve the objective. If you don't gain an objective or map control, the kill is worthless.

You don't necessarily have to kill an enemy. If they run away then your job is essentially done and you can shift your focus to better targets. Don't mindlessly chase people. Likewise you can always provide damage assistance even if you don't expect to get the kill. The extra damage makes the enemy less likely to land hits on your teammate, and also you have a more clear shot since you're likely not taking damage while shooting.

Just as a kill on an enemy about to respawn is not worth much, a kill on an enemy who gets full revived is worth even less because they get to keep their map pressure. When a player is revived they get a shield, providing a barrier for the medic. Sometimes players will burn all of their ammo trying to get at the medic. Don't fall for this. There is a similar trick to proning inside gibs. With experience you can know the extents of the hitboxes. Until then, you're likely being tricked into a reload death.

Not all players are equal. A kill on a low skill player is not worth the same as a kill on a high skill player. Unfortunately this leads to successful strategies like letting the low skill players charge in first and allow the high skill players to clean up. Unfortunately for the same reason it's not always to your advantage to spend resources on low skill players. It's especially frustrating when they bleed you when you don't comply. Weapon switch leaves a player vulnerable for a time, so a high skill might decide you are not worth the risk. Here are some tips:

• Die in a better spot. Don't lure your medic into a meat grinder.
  • Die inside choke points that block enemy movements, like doorways. Be sure to crouch while fighting so that your medic can get in some shots.
  • Crouch aiming might be too difficult for you. That's ok, you can still be useful, especially if you're a laggy son-of-a-b***. Do your death charge while maintaining presence of mind: wait until you have backup, don't block your backup's line of sight, move around so that the enemy have to use more resources to kill you, and try to take down medics.
• When requesting ammo or meds, don't stare at the person. You'll likely notice that they are focused on a choke point. You should instead also focus on that choke point while requesting resources so that at least someone is watching. When you shoot or get shot at it gives your teammates information about the map.
• This might be asking a lot, but don't bleed your high skill teammates. Instead, treat them as your cash cow. Feed them ammo and meds, revive them ASAP, and help shoot along side them without getting in their way. It's important to both help contribute damage and take some of the pressure off them by luring enemy attention. The best part is that when you die you'll notice that a high skill player has you revived in no time.

So now you know the complications with reducing player quality down to a number. It's situational. If you think it's kills per death, would you say someone with 5:1 did better than 50:40? If it's damage, is someone who abuses artillery or panzer really that skilled? If it's accuracy is someone with 100% accuracy but only 30 shots skilled? How do revives factor into your model? None of these stats, as tracked by ET, are weighted by the enemy's quality. So don't worry about racking up deaths as long as you're getting work done on the objective.