So you've decided to be a shotcaller

General Discussion
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So you’ve decided on the path of the “Shotcaller skill” you are hmm Stern yet kind you know what you want and when you want it, BUT do not get this confused with being a Beep

“dps why arent you killing anything”
“Omg our tank is useless”
“Why am I not being hard pocketed”

Coms like this are useless… not worth any time the time you’ve spent saying this is time you could of made a useful call put or thought of a useful strategy.

Remember you still need skills of your own, this isn’t a get rich free card you have simply decided on the path of a shotcaller.

You make the call “Reaper behind” “Dive the ana” “re group here” I have lost more games to kewping my mouth shut period then to people simply not listening to X call out (do not get mad if they dont tho yes they will sometimes ignore the most obvious win conditions DO NOT TILT).

I have to even remind myself speak, use your damn voice, you are the shot caller remember? If you want to be a shot caller open your dang mouth.

Oh everyone on your teams outta VC besides this 1 guy? Guess what he’s your friend now yall are 2 peas in a pod, not a single damn other person on your team is relevant on your team outside of ult charge. You and silent John are now the deciders of this game, silent John dosen’t speak himself but he will listen to every word you say… bad… or good… even if you say nothing at all so Mr.shot caller what you gone do? Cause guess what now the spotlights on you to prove this man stays in coms for a reason. Hehehe good luck…

Yes you are allowed to ask people to switch, obviously ask yourself first but I don’t care what anyone else says or what they think you are allowed to ask nicely for people to switch period that is the end of the conversation.

However what you put them on it is 100% your fault whatever happens next, if they run it down mid every fight as Rein… hmm damn thats tragic… that’s unfortunate… how terrible how awful. Shouldn’t of put em on Rein sorrryyy I don’t know what else to tell ya.

How to handle toxicity: Mute them with the quickness don’t even think about it I give people 1 warning but you dont eveb have to do that, the games not over till its over , and as a shotcaller that last moments gonna be down to what you say next 1 word from you is literally the difference between winning and losing I assure you don’t need useless distractions.

Remeber as well no one else needs to talk most people don’t until like later down the line, but just remember they have acknowledged you as the main shot caller okay the pressure is indeed on you, and if you can’t handle that I suggest you go work on like your mechanics or something and get them at least 2 ranks higher then your current rank.

Developing the “Shotcaller” skill isn’t as easy as just barking a bunch of orders, you have to know what the hell your saying and doing for 1 like lets just start there tbh.

But don’t worry if you think the shotcalling skill isn’t for you and you just don’t want all that damn pressure (understandable), it’s not like its the only or “Best” way to win the game everyone is different and everyones methods should be respected outside of straight up cheating… if you want to attempt to get people in coms every game just type VC in text chat it usually works for me.

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Even calling out points in a battle is likely to get you reported for no reason other than “i don’t like being told what to do”. That’s just one of the reasons why chat and VC rarely get used.

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One of the biggest mistakes people make is assuming the shotcaller knows best. All because someone decided to use their voice in this game, doesn’t mean they actually know what they’re talking about. They are just as smart and stupid as anyone else.

Don’t blindly listen to them just because they’re the only one speaking.

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In many circumstances, that’s true. However, pointing out a flanker being behind someone (even when they’re marked on the map) deserves attention. But players have a bad habit of not checking their six. It’s almost as bad as failing to look above them.

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That is instant report. I bet it is also the same ppl who ask why they are banned.

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Shhh don’t encourage it.

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Unless you’re in a premade group, trying to be a shotcaller does more harm than good most of the time.

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“I’m not going to call the hospital, because you won’t learn anything.”

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That would be very hard for me to do since I’ve decided on the path of not being in voice chat due to toxicity in this game.

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Silent John is my goat.

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Very accurate.

There was a thread a while back about why comms are not beneficial to most metal ranks because of the amount of useless and confusing shot calls most players make. Shot calling is a very hyper-awareness skill and requires deeper understanding of the team you play with.

I err on the side that comms are not useful to most players in lower elo and do not help players play better at all because most can’t react fast enough and or get flustered and panic while lacking understanding of the situational awareness that’s required of them to act on said shot call. And even if they want to act on a shot call, how do you know that shot caller is even calling out something relevant to you specifically?

“They are 1, over there” is vague. Where is ‘there’? and who is ‘they’? The Genji, the D.va? In the Church. On catwalk?

This is a perfect example of why in low elo it doesn’t work well because not everyone or most of everyone is not going to know what a catwalk is on Gibraltar or where the church is on Dorado or what courtyard on Dorado.

A lot of players confuse shot calling with randomly Calling out stuff on a screen like a play-by-play narration that’s going to “win” them the fight. And in some off-the-wall scenarios, it might. But shot calling must be beneficial to the entire team and clearly understood for it to contribute to winning your team fights.

When someone deciphers your shot call to mean something that it isn’t, that’s when you get confused players not knowing what the hell the “Shot caller” is trying to do.

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LOL yeah, it’s ridiculous. Reminds me of a story:

My first job was at a ski resort, at the snow tubing park. There was a day and a night shift and I typically worked the day shift.

One day, my shift is about to end and I’m getting ready to leave, and a few people have called out for the night shift. My boss approaches me and asks “hey 0rnery, would you be interested in working a double?”

This being my first job, I wasn’t familiar with the term. I ask my boss to explain and she’s like “well instead of leaving now, you keep working and basically just work the night shift too”.

I was like “why… that sounds awful… why would I want to do that?” out loud to her and in front of all the other staff. I remember a few of the guys started cracking up, and my boss looked flustered and slightly embarrassed.

Needless to say, I wasn’t invited back to work there the next season :sweat_smile:

Moral of the story? its best to just keep your mouth shut sometimes lol

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Well yes, if they’re just making general shotcalls then yeah. I’m mainly talking about the people who tell the team what to do in VC, where to flank, who to focus, what comp the team “needs” etc.

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Ok, but it could still lead back to my first point where you’ll probably get reported even if you have good intentions.

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I recently played with a Dva who was a seriously amazing shot caller. Made it so much easier to deal with snipers and flankers.

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There’s a difference between shot calling and making general call outs.

A shot caller is a player on the team that directs the entire team and will most likely be someone that is on a stacked team and not something you will see in low-mid ranks (and not even necessarily in high ranked games, because high ranked players are skilled enough to read what’s going on and what needs to be done).
There’s multiple reasons as to why you won’t see shot callers in lower-mid ranks.
Low-Mid rank players are not knowledgeable or skilled enough to make the correct shot calls. They lack the game sense that would make for a good shot caller.
Even if you were to put a high ranked player in a mid rank game to shot call, it still wouldn’t work that well because low-mid rank players may not follow the directions of the shot caller or aren’t skilled enough to pull off what is being called out.

Call outs in a general sense is fine, but you have to keep a couple things in mind that will be helpful to make good call outs.
Call outs should be seen more as useful information than a direct command of what one thinks their teammates should do.
Examples: Calling out a threat like an enemy diver in the back lines or pointing out that an enemy player has their ultimate. It’s just information that may or may not be used by your teammates.
Teammates may not use the information to their own or the team’s benefit or they simply are not able to do anything about the information given due to different factors (they aren’t in a position to do anything with the information, they are busy with another situation, etc.), but the information could still be useful to them even if not immediately being able to action anything on the call out (like simply knowing where an enemy is, lets them know where they are not at).

If you are in low-mid ranks, use call outs that aren’t demanding teammates to do anything, but is good information. The calls should be short and useful.
Saying “Enemy Zen is killable” may not make teammates go after Zen and get the kill, they may not be able to help with that, but it’s still a good call out as it could result in someone helping get the kill. If not, that’s ok, move on.
Calling out threats in a general sense, like “Enemy Reaper is behind our team” may not result in killing the Reaper or even forces him out, but it’s still a good call out to hopefully help whoever the Reaper may be targeting and maybe the Reaper gets focused.
The point is, don’t direct people what to do, simply provide them with information and then they can choose if they want to use that information or not (you can’t make people use it, even if it’s good information for them).
If they can use that information, great, if they can’t (and there may be good reasons why they can’t), that’s also ok and just keep playing and giving out the information as it can be helpful.

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