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PUG (Pick-Up-Game) Guide
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AFireInAsa Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:10 pm Posts: 1069	PUG (Pick-Up-Game) Guide PUG Guide This is a guide on PUGs, what they are, how to get in them, and what you should know before you attempt to. Skip to the bottom for the tl;dr. For those of you who think this is too long and you want a shorter guide more about getting into PUGs (with less insight), go to: http://playapug.com For those of you too lazy to read, here's a nice video overview of PUGs by Buhlitz. It doesn't tell you exactly how to get in them, but it does give you a great look into the positions played and the skill level involved. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_1C5B-Dv3w Here's a great excerpt from the video of some clutch plays. If the video is too long for you, I advice you to at least check this part out. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... v3w#t=962s Definitions If you're new to the competitive FPS scene, you might ask "what is a PUG?" And "how does it differ from a PUB?" Even, "what's a PUB?" Well... PUB stands for "public game." It consists of all the games you enter by going into your T:A client and pressing Join Queue for. Conversely, there are comp games (competitive or match games, which happen in tournament play) where you play with an organized team, scrims (the same thing, except not official and more for practice rather than meaning), ranked matches (soon to come?) and PUGs. Now, what's a PUG? PUG stands for Pick-Up-Game. It's an organized, semi-competitive game you can play with other people over some form of voice communication software. The difference between it and comp games/scrims is that the team you play on is picked on the spot. You'll still be coordinating together and playing specific positions (in Tribes CTF, there are positions you need to know about, but chances are you've seen and attempted all of these positions before; they're just more defined in competitive play), but you're not on a team of players you regularly play and compete with (although you can be). From my knowledge, PUGs in the first person shooter genre originated in games like Quake and Unreal Tournament. Where to Get Into PUGs PUGs are generally spontaneous (sometimes scheduled, though not so much in T:A) and casual competitive games that people start for a better game experience. They tend to occur in the evening. NA ones specifically happen around the hours of 9PM-12PM EST, and often stretch into the night until there are enough people to play. There's nothing on the line like in competitive matches (besides bragging rights), so they can be more fun and much more casual. Don't think that PUGs are low-skilled though, often times the mixed teams of PUGs are much better than even competitive teams because many times they consist of top-level players from multiple teams. In order to get a PUG started, you have to have some kind of communication established (AND YOU SHOULD HAVE A MIC!). We do this in Tribes in open VoIP servers. VoIP stands for Voice over IP, and the VoIP servers we use are generally on Mumble. This said, the BEST way to know when a PUG is happening is to idle in a VoIP server which starts PUGs. I'll name the servers people seem to be using the most on NA and EU, and will edit if appropriate. NA Reddit Mumble PUGs mumble.tribespugs.com port:36085 EU Mumble IP: spinfusor.org PORT: 64738 PASS: commune Oceania PUGs organized by an IRC pugbot Join #austa on irc.gamesurge.net When in there, type !joinpug You'll recieve a notification with information about the Mumble server when it's full. You can also use the built in IRC http://www.bittah.com to get into the IRC channel. Getting Picked and Those Who Don't In order to start a PUG, two captains need to step up (which can often take a while because most people either don't know all the players they are playing with in order to pick a balanced team, or don't have the balls to try) and pick teams, dodgeball style (this is to ensure the best balance among teams). With how T:A works in organized play, there are certain team sizes (map dependant) which work the best and give all players the best experience possible. In NA, these sizes seem to be between 7v7 and 10v10, though games occasionally go up to 12v12 or so. This means that there usually needs to be ~14 players ready to play in order to start a PUG, and ~24 players max (sometimes there's so many players that we split it into 2+ separate PUGs) before all the extras end up sitting the bench. Now, this brings me to my next point, those who don't get picked. Since only even numbered amounts of players will work to balance a PUG and certain team sizes are preferred for the optimal experience, often, players won't get picked. If this is you, don't be discouraged! Chances are if nobody knows you or your skills, you won't be picked the first time you try to get in. On the NA side, though, if you say that you haven't gotten picked yet (after a minimum of one game you were in the player pool) by either telling the captains of the next game or by putting an asterix () in your VoIP server nick "Fire", pick-up admins or captains will make sure you get on a team the next game. So, if you don't get picked for the first game, DON'T LEAVE and let people know you haven't played but want to. Skills Needed and CTF Positions In order to participate in these semi-competitive games, you really need to have have knowledge and skill beyond that of an average player. I'll outline the positions you see in competitive games. If you want to play in PUGs, you really should know how all positions work in a CTF game as well as being good at at least one of them. Offense Capping - Grabbing the enemy flag and bringing it back to your own base (often having to hold on to it in standoff situations where both flags are off). In order to cap, you should know some basic routes and be skilled at skiing. LO (light offense)- Also defined as distract or clear, you're responsible to make sure your capper gets out safe with the flag. You might also have to take down the gens and shoot at enemy vehicles if they're prohibiting your capper from making it home. Escorting you capper is also a tactic where you follow your capper home to make sure the enemy doesn't return their flag. During standoff situations (both flags off stands), LO are trying to return their flag. Medium armor offense are still defined by this term. You should be a skilled dueler. HO (heavy offense)- Similar to LO except that you're in heavy armor (mediums are defined as light offense). Most of the time you're firing MIRV/Mortar shots at the stand when your capper is about to come in in order to clear the stand. You should know spots and positions to spam stuff at the enemy stand. Vehicle Offense - You'll sometimes see people get into vehicles such as shrikes and tanks in order to spam projectiles at the enemy stand to clear for ally cappers. Defense LD (light defense) - Term that refers to either stay at home or chaser defense. SAH (stay at home) - The duties of a stay at home defender vary, but the most important are keeping your flag safe from enemy cappers and clearing out the enemy offense so the rest of your team can protect your flag. You may also have to repair your team's generators. You're always basically at your base or around it, and you should be skilled at dueling and stopping cappers. Chase - A chaser goes wherever his flag goes. If it's safe on the stand, you're protecting it from cappers. If it's in the enemy's hands, you're chasing them down to bring it back home or to keep it safe in the field. Should be skilled at dueling and skiing. Shrikers generally fall into the category of chase. HoF (heavy on flag) - A heavy positioned directly on or around the flag, usually with the perk super heavy, who blocks cappers from grabbing the flag. Vehicle Defense - Shrikes are usually used for chasing and defending your flag whereas tanks are used for killing anyone who gets close to your flag. Other Positions Snipe - Snipers most often fall into the stay at home category, but they often play midfield (in order to be in better positions to spot and stop cappers) and o-snipe (offensive snipe, where you harass the enemy defense). You should be good at, well, sniping. Midfield - Not a very common (or effecitve)position on small teams, but someone may play midfield where their duty is to act like a line, making sure the enemies don't get past it and to your base. Sort of like perimeter defense. You should be good at dueling. Float - Might be referred to as swing, versatile, or other terms, but floats basically fill multiple roles when needed (sometimes seamlessly swinging between offense and defense). Most good players do this anyway, but it can be defined as a constant role. You need to have a good understanding of the game and be skilled at practically everything to play this role. TL;DR How to get into games: Get into PUGing voice com server when one's occuring Know CTF positions, be good at one Get picked Play game ??? Have fun _________________ Fire Monomaniac eSport's Chaser Twitch.tv Stream (Tribes and Smite) Twitter(@AFireInAsa) Last edited by AFireInAsa on Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:40 pm, edited 22 times in total.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:18 pm

player3 Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:55 pm Posts: 81	Re: PUG Guide Nice, very helpful! Hope to get in to some PUGs soon. <-- skilled sensor defender, lmk
Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:01 pm

PapaSmurfer Alpha Tester Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:12 pm Posts: 116 Location: unknown Steam Gamer Name: ZiRO	Re: PUG Guide This should be stickied.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:47 pm

ArxBuster Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:07 pm Posts: 936	Re: PUG Guide "be good at one"
Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:04 pm

jaghadai Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:12 pm Posts: 1	Re: PUG Guide Question about the whitelist here, does the whitelist care about my sign-in name or my display name?
Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:25 pm

Apcizzle Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:32 pm Posts: 223	Re: PUG Guide +1
Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:43 pm

BlotterTodd Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 6:55 pm Posts: 218	Re: PUG Guide laugh same people picked all the time dont waste your time heres my constructive feedback: place limits on the people joining. dont let more than 18 in a channel. dont have fat kids.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:17 pm

dodgepong Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:56 am Posts: 176	Re: PUG Guide THAT IS THE WRONG EU MUMBLE The mumble you posted is a private team mumble, and is not used for EU scrims. This is the right mumble: IP: spinfusor.org PORT: 64738 PASS: commune
Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:08 pm

PapaSmurfer Alpha Tester Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:12 pm Posts: 116 Location: unknown Steam Gamer Name: ZiRO	Re: PUG Guide jaghadai wrote: Question about the whitelist here, does the whitelist care about my sign-in name or my display name? in-game display name.
Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:49 pm

AFireInAsa Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:10 pm Posts: 1069	Re: PUG Guide ArxBuster wrote: "be good at one" That's what competitive matches are for though! Above average skilled players. Mostly... _________________ Fire Monomaniac eSport's Chaser Twitch.tv Stream (Tribes and Smite) Twitter(@AFireInAsa)
Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:01 pm

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PUG (Pick-Up-Game) Guide

Author

Message

AFireInAsa

Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:10 pm
Posts: 1069

PUG (Pick-Up-Game) Guide

PUG Guide

This is a guide on PUGs, what they are, how to get in them, and what you should know before you attempt to. Skip to the bottom for the tl;dr. For those of you who think this is too long and you want a shorter guide more about getting into PUGs (with less insight), go to: http://playapug.com

For those of you too lazy to read, here's a nice video overview of PUGs by Buhlitz. It doesn't tell you exactly how to get in them, but it does give you a great look into the positions played and the skill level involved.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_1C5B-Dv3w

Here's a great excerpt from the video of some clutch plays. If the video is too long for you, I advice you to at least check this part out.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=pl ... v3w#t=962s

Definitions

If you're new to the competitive FPS scene, you might ask "what is a PUG?" And "how does it differ from a PUB?" Even, "what's a PUB?" Well...

PUB stands for "public game." It consists of all the games you enter by going into your T:A client and pressing Join Queue for. Conversely, there are comp games (competitive or match games, which happen in tournament play) where you play with an organized team, scrims (the same thing, except not official and more for practice rather than meaning), ranked matches (soon to come?) and PUGs.

Now, what's a PUG? PUG stands for Pick-Up-Game. It's an organized, semi-competitive game you can play with other people over some form of voice communication software. The difference between it and comp games/scrims is that the team you play on is picked on the spot. You'll still be coordinating together and playing specific positions (in Tribes CTF, there are positions you need to know about, but chances are you've seen and attempted all of these positions before; they're just more defined in competitive play), but you're not on a team of players you regularly play and compete with (although you can be). From my knowledge, PUGs in the first person shooter genre originated in games like Quake and Unreal Tournament.

Where to Get Into PUGs

PUGs are generally spontaneous (sometimes scheduled, though not so much in T:A) and casual competitive games that people start for a better game experience. They tend to occur in the evening. NA ones specifically happen around the hours of 9PM-12PM EST, and often stretch into the night until there are enough people to play.

There's nothing on the line like in competitive matches (besides bragging rights), so they can be more fun and much more casual. Don't think that PUGs are low-skilled though, often times the mixed teams of PUGs are much better than even competitive teams because many times they consist of top-level players from multiple teams.

In order to get a PUG started, you have to have some kind of communication established (AND YOU SHOULD HAVE A MIC!). We do this in Tribes in open VoIP servers. VoIP stands for Voice over IP, and the VoIP servers we use are generally on Mumble. This said, the BEST way to know when a PUG is happening is to idle in a VoIP server which starts PUGs. I'll name the servers people seem to be using the most on NA and EU, and will edit if appropriate.

NA
Reddit Mumble PUGs
mumble.tribespugs.com port:36085

EU
Mumble
IP: spinfusor.org
PORT: 64738
PASS: commune

Oceania
PUGs organized by an IRC pugbot
Join #austa on irc.gamesurge.net
When in there, type !joinpug
You'll recieve a notification with information about the Mumble server when it's full.
You can also use the built in IRC http://www.bittah.com to get into the IRC channel.

Getting Picked and Those Who Don't

In order to start a PUG, two captains need to step up (which can often take a while because most people either don't know all the players they are playing with in order to pick a balanced team, or don't have the balls to try) and pick teams, dodgeball style (this is to ensure the best balance among teams). With how T:A works in organized play, there are certain team sizes (map dependant) which work the best and give all players the best experience possible. In NA, these sizes seem to be between 7v7 and 10v10, though games occasionally go up to 12v12 or so. This means that there usually needs to be ~14 players ready to play in order to start a PUG, and ~24 players max (sometimes there's so many players that we split it into 2+ separate PUGs) before all the extras end up sitting the bench.

Now, this brings me to my next point, those who don't get picked. Since only even numbered amounts of players will work to balance a PUG and certain team sizes are preferred for the optimal experience, often, players won't get picked. If this is you, don't be discouraged! Chances are if nobody knows you or your skills, you won't be picked the first time you try to get in. On the NA side, though, if you say that you haven't gotten picked yet (after a minimum of one game you were in the player pool) by either telling the captains of the next game or by putting an asterix (*) in your VoIP server nick "*Fire", pick-up admins or captains will make sure you get on a team the next game. So, if you don't get picked for the first game, DON'T LEAVE and let people know you haven't played but want to.

Skills Needed and CTF Positions

In order to participate in these semi-competitive games, you really need to have have knowledge and skill beyond that of an average player. I'll outline the positions you see in competitive games. If you want to play in PUGs, you really should know how all positions work in a CTF game as well as being good at at least one of them.

Offense

Capping - Grabbing the enemy flag and bringing it back to your own base (often having to hold on to it in standoff situations where both flags are off). In order to cap, you should know some basic routes and be skilled at skiing.

LO (light offense)- Also defined as distract or clear, you're responsible to make sure your capper gets out safe with the flag. You might also have to take down the gens and shoot at enemy vehicles if they're prohibiting your capper from making it home. Escorting you capper is also a tactic where you follow your capper home to make sure the enemy doesn't return their flag. During standoff situations (both flags off stands), LO are trying to return their flag. Medium armor offense are still defined by this term. You should be a skilled dueler.

HO (heavy offense)- Similar to LO except that you're in heavy armor (mediums are defined as light offense). Most of the time you're firing MIRV/Mortar shots at the stand when your capper is about to come in in order to clear the stand. You should know spots and positions to spam stuff at the enemy stand.

Vehicle Offense - You'll sometimes see people get into vehicles such as shrikes and tanks in order to spam projectiles at the enemy stand to clear for ally cappers.

Defense

LD (light defense) - Term that refers to either stay at home or chaser defense.

SAH (stay at home) - The duties of a stay at home defender vary, but the most important are keeping your flag safe from enemy cappers and clearing out the enemy offense so the rest of your team can protect your flag. You may also have to repair your team's generators. You're always basically at your base or around it, and you should be skilled at dueling and stopping cappers.

Chase - A chaser goes wherever his flag goes. If it's safe on the stand, you're protecting it from cappers. If it's in the enemy's hands, you're chasing them down to bring it back home or to keep it safe in the field. Should be skilled at dueling and skiing. Shrikers generally fall into the category of chase.

HoF (heavy on flag) - A heavy positioned directly on or around the flag, usually with the perk super heavy, who blocks cappers from grabbing the flag.

Vehicle Defense - Shrikes are usually used for chasing and defending your flag whereas tanks are used for killing anyone who gets close to your flag.

Other Positions

Snipe - Snipers most often fall into the stay at home category, but they often play midfield (in order to be in better positions to spot and stop cappers) and o-snipe (offensive snipe, where you harass the enemy defense). You should be good at, well, sniping.

Midfield - Not a very common (or effecitve)position on small teams, but someone may play midfield where their duty is to act like a line, making sure the enemies don't get past it and to your base. Sort of like perimeter defense. You should be good at dueling.

Float - Might be referred to as swing, versatile, or other terms, but floats basically fill multiple roles when needed (sometimes seamlessly swinging between offense and defense). Most good players do this anyway, but it can be defined as a constant role. You need to have a good understanding of the game and be skilled at practically everything to play this role.

TL;DR

How to get into games:

Get into PUGing voice com server when one's occuring
Know CTF positions, be good at one
Get picked
Play game
???
Have fun

_________________
Fire
Monomaniac eSport's Chaser
Twitch.tv Stream (Tribes and Smite)
Twitter(@AFireInAsa)

Last edited by AFireInAsa on Wed Jul 18, 2012 4:40 pm, edited 22 times in total.

Sun Feb 19, 2012 12:18 pm

player3

Joined: Mon Jun 27, 2011 1:55 pm
Posts: 81

Re: PUG Guide

Nice, very helpful! Hope to get in to some PUGs soon.

<-- skilled sensor defender, lmk

Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:01 pm

PapaSmurfer

Alpha Tester

Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:12 pm
Posts: 116
Location: unknown
Steam Gamer Name: ZiRO

Re: PUG Guide

This should be stickied.

Sun Feb 19, 2012 1:47 pm

ArxBuster

Joined: Thu Oct 06, 2011 11:07 pm
Posts: 936

Re: PUG Guide

"be good at one"

Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:04 pm

jaghadai

Joined: Sat Dec 10, 2011 4:12 pm
Posts: 1

Re: PUG Guide

Question about the whitelist here, does the whitelist care about my sign-in name or my display name?

Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:25 pm

Apcizzle

Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 10:32 pm
Posts: 223

Re: PUG Guide

Sun Feb 19, 2012 2:43 pm

BlotterTodd

Joined: Sun Nov 20, 2011 6:55 pm
Posts: 218

Re: PUG Guide

laugh

same people picked all the time

dont waste your time

heres my constructive feedback:
place limits on the people joining. dont let more than 18 in a channel. dont have fat kids.

Sun Feb 19, 2012 3:17 pm

dodgepong

Joined: Sun Jun 19, 2011 3:56 am
Posts: 176

Re: PUG Guide

THAT IS THE WRONG EU MUMBLE

The mumble you posted is a private team mumble, and is not used for EU scrims.

This is the right mumble:

IP: spinfusor.org
PORT: 64738
PASS: commune

Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:08 pm

PapaSmurfer

Alpha Tester

Joined: Tue Feb 17, 2009 2:12 pm
Posts: 116
Location: unknown
Steam Gamer Name: ZiRO

Re: PUG Guide

jaghadai wrote:

Question about the whitelist here, does the whitelist care about my sign-in name or my display name?

in-game display name.

Sun Feb 19, 2012 4:49 pm

AFireInAsa

Joined: Tue Jan 11, 2011 4:10 pm
Posts: 1069

Re: PUG Guide

ArxBuster wrote:

"be good at one"

That's what competitive matches are for though! Above average skilled players. Mostly...

_________________
Fire
Monomaniac eSport's Chaser
Twitch.tv Stream (Tribes and Smite)
Twitter(@AFireInAsa)

Sun Feb 19, 2012 5:01 pm