PvP Tournament Basics: A quick guide on how to play professionally

[gidsonBrand]

Heyo, I love PvP tournaments but one of the problems we've never really solved is there's no guides for anything? It just seems to be "ask someone?" Well, here's my attempt to fix that

Plan for Offense/Defense
The first thing you should know about "Light Party" PvP is that the main way to secure kills is through burst. This is having multiple people on your team use their big damage combos on the same target at the same time. This is because with the abundance of healing/mitigation, it is far more efficient to send ~80k damage in one moment than ~300k over the course of 20 seconds. Practice this with your team using the striking dummies in the Wolves Den.

Keeping yourself alive is the first step to success, but can with burst being the meta you can and will die in 1 gcd. This is not because you are bad, it is just the way the game works. Learn to read the enemy's positioning and try not to engage in a fight without Guard/Recuperate/Purify to spare.


Pace of the game
Look, this game is weird. Moment-to-moment, everyone is zipping around and there are 27 different buffs/debuffs to keep track of. What may be a perfect target in one instance can be out of reach of your backline the next.

Conversely, the overall game can be very slow depending on team comps and playstyles. There are several times where a single fight can continue for 5 minutes, with people dying and respawning in a weird revolving door of death.

The pace of the game resembles more of a marathon than a sprint. Each moment requires your focus, but overall progress can be somewhat slow. Embrace the chaos, black out for 5 minutes, and just go out and kill a few beasts. It's what hunters do, after all.


Communication
Standard communication structure works like this:
- One player is the "Main Shotcaller," responsible for calling what target to burst.
- Supporting players call out guard/purify/defensives used by enemies; these are the holes in your opponent's defense

And generally speaking, it is easier to call out the names of your teammates (i.e. "Gidson is on the point") and the jobs of your enemies (i.e. "Astro is out of position). This streamlines communication, which is important when the game can sometimes outpace your words.

Where to play?
PvP tournaments are primarily hosted by community discords. We do this for the love of the game and sometimes for gil prizes. There are three major discords for Light Party PvP events:

Rising Stars (LFG channels, practice setups, pickup games): discord.gg/4fJ9j9QCqs
Temari Anon (M/T/W casual pickup games, good practice): discord.gg/3DCyb9tEte
Bragging Rights (Monthly CC tournaments): discord.gg/Scc4HMXhhZ


Anywho, hope this helps you get into PvP tournaments. Come kick some teeth in with us!