Effective Team Work That Includes All Player Levels

The latest NCL season is open, and amidst all the excitement of the competition the final portion is the team event. You will read about and see a large variety of teams, and there is really no “one size fits all” for a team. I’ll tell you the way that I personally find to compete as a team in a manner that includes all levels of player from beginner to elite hax0r.

Connecting with Your School’s Cyber Team

When the season opens, typically at Southern New Hampshire University, we are all sitting in our cyberSNHUper Slack channel (okay, who am I kidding, we’re there on off-season too!). The group, as a whole, has been fairly autonomous from probably before I even arrived at SNHU a few years ago. The structure of the group has players that have graduated and moved on in life with a great new career as well as people who have just begun their journey. We SNHUpers prefer to include literally everyone so that we know we are passing that knowledge torch along and supporting our peers.

We typically do this by me spamming about a new season about a month before a season begins—#sorrynotsorry—followed by Yours Truly spamming around noon ET when the live coaching series begins. We try to foster the learning of newcomers so that they are comfortable, have the resources they need, and do not feel left out to the sharks without any help.

Forming the Team

Now, we’ve finished Preseason and the Individual Game, so it’s time for us to figure this team situation out. First, what you must understand is that we do not want anyone feeling left out and on their own. Again, I will reiterate that this is how we do things and does not necessarily dictate that it is the only way.

Depending on the Individual Game rankings within our little group, we put at minimum 2 to 3 more experienced people per team and then do an open call in our Slack asking what skills newcomers would like to become more proficient at or learn more about. We use that data to pair the various skill levels together. We like to ensure that the 2 or 3 experienced members on the teams are divided in a way that showcases the skills that they have, but we mix them as well so that we are all still learning more about something we did not know prior.

Working with Your Teammates

You can make a difference by choosing to encourage others to learn that have the passion and desire to do so. The NCL Team Game is your opportunity to do just that, and by creating a good balance in skill areas you are also creating an amazing team that can succeed in any situation.

For more views related to team structures please check out some of the other NCL Ambassador Team posts: