I distinctly remember losing an EOTS where we held 3 bases, yet one enemy druid repeatedly capped the flag on cooldown to his single base.
Since that day i became a confirmed “Flag enthusiast” yet I am worried I may overvalue the flag.
It seems in every EOTS match I play, someone subscribing to another school of thought will urge us to “Ignore the flag!”, usually in all caps.
When someone DOES have the flag, they are urged to wait for 2 or even THREE bases, and are accosted if they single cap, even if we control mid and a second base capture looks perilous.
You have the stylish players who wordlessly soar to the flag at the match start with rocket boots etc.
I feel like the initial flag cap and the resulting +100 lead almost always causes 1-2 ragequit /afk’s on the other team, and the “power play” advantage as they wait to refill those spots can often turn the tide.
Let’s settle it right here. What is the optimum way to win EOTS?
By pushing for a third base you force the enemy on to their own territory to defend. Which often means you can get uncontested caps. Going for bases is better
3 bases is ideal but people get hyper focused on it too often when its clear they won’t succeed. To 3 cap you have to either be straight up stronger in fights than the other team by a decent margin or the other team has to be dumb and bad at rotating. You can usually determine this in the first 3~ minutes of a match but people suck at figuring it out.
1 base + caps is bad and will almost always lose the game.
2 + caps probably ends up winning the most games. If your team is well built to fight mid or can force rotations to a base (often through the power of good healers) and get flag then this is probably the most reliable method in pugs.
If you hold mid and see no risk of losing before next flag you should cap the flag regardless of how many bases you own unless there is a base just about to flip.
People obsessed over flags should go to WSG. ES is not the place for it. In this BG, flag caps barely yield any points. It is mainly there as a tie breaker, not a main objective. The points you get from holding a base are ALWAYS worth more than the flag. This means 3 bases is better than 2 with flag. The amount of points from a flag also scale with number of bases you have. Capping with 1 is a complete waste of time. Capping with 2 still isn’t ideal but can win if you can’t get 3, since the enemy team will have the same 2 bases, but no flag on top of it. What’s actually ideal though is 3 bases, even if it means never getting flag. 3 without flag is better than 1 with flag (or even 2 with flag).
If you are issued a directive in all caps it can generally be assumed that the directive was carefully considered and weighed against all other viable options…ignore these warnings at your peril. ALLCAPS guy has been there, done that and knows the best way forward. I mean, I’m not trying to bust your chops but lets use some good ol’ common sense here…lets examine the following scenario:
The team is racing to the objective, swords sharpened and fireballs ready to be hurled but wait, they come to a fork in the path- which way to go?!?..one meek, flaccid BB fanboi spits out a fresh hot load (of warm applesause) from his mouth long enough to stammer out a timid “/raid left i think”. Then an Asmongold-following chad throws his mom’s credit card back to her with the precision of a ninja and sneers to her “its maxxed b*tch”, clears his desk of Cheetos and Red Bull with one mighty wave of his pudgy yet supple right arm and implores…nay, demands…“/raid RIGHT YOU FIN MORONS!!! JFC”. There’s really only one choice here.
I’ll admit it can get dicey if 2 chads go all caps against each other but thats beyond the scope of this discussion.
The optimal way to win EOTS depends on the differential in terms of strength between the two teams as well as the composition/healing levels.
Typically, a 3 tower strategy is more optimal than trying to hold 2 + running flags because you often have to commit too many people to the middle or too many people stop focusing on holding the towers and you end up with just 1-2 defenders at each while 10 are in the middle and try to chase some enemy to the other side.
But 2 towers + flags is optimal if the teams are evenly balanced, and you’re struggling to get a 3rd tower.
Again, all this depends on composition and relative strength of teams.
The biggest problem with running flags is always just “zug brain”, i.e. too many people staying in the middle when one of the towers is being attacked or chasing enemies to the other side of the map far away from your towers.
If you have 4 bases, you can probably ignore the flag. Depending on score once you control 4. Less than 4, hold bases and cap some flags…lol. Again depends on scores at time of caps.
Then you were already behind when you capped the third base. I don’t recall the exact numbers off the top of my head, but holding three nodes awards more points per minute than running flags with only one node. Assuming the score starts tied, it is impossible to win with one base. It’s just math.
On a broader note, don’t be one of those guys that becomes devoted to a single strategy. You can’t just take three bases because your team decided that was the right strat, the other team fights back. If you can’t take three, then hold two and run flags. Adapt to whatever is happening in the BG.