To all the flames on primal datacenter...

[RiceisNice]

...

And this mentality of "if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me" is encouraged by the format of the game, as well as what second place actually means. It's always the best tactic to go after the team in first (or the team that has two node spawns at the beginning) to either get more points, or bleed them down so the game prolongs for a better chance at you getting second (or even first). The thing is, second place means absolutely nothing; it doesn't give comparatively that more exp in context how much you need per rank, and it counts as nothing toward achievements

[Dimitrii]

And this mentality of "if I'm going down, I'm taking you with me" is encouraged by the format of the game, as well as what second place actually means.

Luckily as maelstrom I dont see this type of thinking too much. We usually always aim to win and make no real distinction between 2nd and 3rd. Even when the last place team is hounding us for no apparent reason, while we are in second, alot of us in the GC will continue to implore the alliance to not get dragged down to that level or give into that mentality and keep trying to get first. However once the spawn camping starts all bets are off since most people take extreme offense to that tactic and it often results in a relentless assault on the GC that tried it (even if its just one party independently trying to provoke another GC) and can even rage into the next immediate matches.

Anyway attacking a GC in first or that has 2 nodes via a pincer is understandable and (because of the way the mode is designed) is something you have no choice but to accept is gonna happen periodically. Its the tunnel visioning with no other intention than just screwing a specific GC that has ppl frustrated with this mode. I don't recall secure ever being this bad in this respect.

[Februs]

Luckily as maelstrom I dont see this type of thinking too much. We usually always aim to win and make no real distinction between 2nd and 3rd.

I see similar reasoning in my matches with the Flames, though with much more defeatist attitudes.

Basically, it comes down to we're either winning or losing, that's it. No one really seems to distinguish between 2nd or 3rd, only 1st or lost. If the Flames settle on pincering a team, in my experience, they usually aim for the 1st place team regardless of what position we're in. There are only two exceptions to this.

The 1st, is that RNGsus decides for us. Sometimes the way the nodes spawn simply pit you against one team or the other, and moving on the other team, regardless of if it's better decision, is either far more difficult because of node positions or simply plain stupid, because it would require putting yourself in a bad tactical spot that's difficult to hold or retreat from, or maybe it just risks too much by opening your flank and suddenly making your GC the target of a pincer instead of the aggressors.

The 2nd is because of a justified grudge. 99% of the times I've seen Flames pursue attacking a GC despite all logic telling them not to, it is because that GC asked for it by going above and beyond to piss off the Flames. Spawn camping is the number one reason for this. If you pushed us back to our spawn and then held us there while the 3rd GC has free roam of the map, as you said, all bets are off. Even after we've chased you off of our spawn you can expect us to continue chasing you off of every node you get, regardless of if it's a good idea for our team. This can happen for other reasons, simple tunnel vision being one of them, but spawn camps (even if it's by a small number of people) are the biggest cause.

There's no logic behind it, and it's not a conscious decision. I've never seen someone deliberately say, "hey, lets aim for 2nd." They might point out that we're most definitely going to get 2nd, but no one cares. It's 1st, or lost... For a good team, that's a strong motivation to keep trying, but, sadly, that same distinction tends to lead a lot of flames to simply giving up on a round and going idle. We have a lot of defeatists.