Build/Join A Team
This may seem obvious! People want to fight and you want to fight
but IFL can be a several-month event that involves multiple nights per week of getting out in the fray. It's very important that you are with like-minded people. Get with friends or get with people who have the same wavelength as you. If you're not sure where you can land when registration opens check for recruitment posts and if that doesn't work you can reach out to captains and list a Free Agent.Establish Goals/Your Culture
Short of getting on a team/making one of the most important things is to establish goals, personal and team, and a culture. The idea here is that all of us are in varying experience levels and have different expectations. One of the new things I'm going to start this year is doing a team-building session where we all share individual goals with each other. This can help everyone align their thoughts, come together and see where maybe some people feel differently about things in a positive light.
IFL to me is a lot like a poker table or a game of -insert your favorite battle royale here-, there are a lot of entrants but only one can win. It's super important that the culture lines up with the math on it. If your goal is set on lifting the IFL Championship you should make sure everyone participating agrees on that. Likewise, if that's not the ultimate goal then it should be shared comfortably. Personal goals help a lot with this: ie do your best, try to outdo your performance from the previous year, try to ensure a rank increase for the next season, attend at least two nights of unrelated matches. There are plenty of goals that you can accomplish that don't require coming in first in every leaderboard.
Be Kind to Each Other
It takes a lot from all of us participating to make this event happen. It is very exciting and a lot of us are competitive so we all know that it can sting to take a fat L on the week. Be considerate to one another- we're players behind the screens we're not emotionless bots. When you win shake the other person's hand, when you lose tip your hat. It's the small things that let us all share in this big event.
Writers keep it honest as all good journalists should but maybe save the harsher criticism for the older players we can take it
These are the keys to victory in my mind because if you can say you completed a season and you all enjoyed your time you will find that those memories are the real prize of IFL.
