Fortnite Made Me A Better Team Leader
NO, REALLY!!!
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I’m a 34 year old working professional and I play Fortnite most Fridays. I started the game despite my best efforts to avoid it in 2017 and I’ve been playing off and on ever since. I started playing when I started managing people at work (coincidence) and ever since I’ve gotten better at both (coincidence?). You could say it’s the books I’ve read or the life experience that have made me a better people manager, but I think it’s the Fortnite. Put aside how cringe that statement is for a second and bear with me.
Fortnite Taught Me What?
What It Means To Be Part Of A Team
In squads you need a dialed in team of four to be successful (unless you’re Ninja). There will be sometimes when you are downed despite your best efforts and your team will cover for you and lift you up, but when you are up you need to be up.
The Consequences Of Poor Communication
When you’re moving around the map and the storm is bearing down on you, you have a forcing function for staying together. When you’re in the middle of the zone it’s all about communication so you don’t drift apart. You can’t be flipping back and forth to your map to monitor your squad. You need to keep your eyes on the prize and communicate your movements, call out your risks and align on your strategies.
The Difference Between Strategic Thinking And Tactics
When you have four party members you’re going to be more effective if you have a plan. And as the game unfolds you are going to need to adapt your plan moment to moment. A game typically unfolds in a cyclical fashion: battle -> break -> battle -> break. You want to use those breaks as opportunities to set yourself up for your next battle. Then when the battles starts you don’t have to do the strategic thinking. You can just focus on execution.
Sun Tzu also had some stuff to say about this…
Probabilistic Thinking
A lot of the strategy talk you need to take with a grain of salt. Yes, Tilted Towers is an hot drop spot. It’s also true that Flush Factory is not. While these assumptions hold true a lot of the time they are not always the case. You need to make assumptions to keep moving forward, but as you learn new information you need to update your beliefs and make adjustments.
Continuous Improvement
A winning Fortnite game takes about 25 minutes. Afterwards you start another game with the same map, different people and a new RNG for the item spawns. You are not going to be a pro the first time you drop on the island, but every time you drop is an opportunity to get better. Progress may not be linear, but on the whole you should observe a trend in the positive direction as you play more games over time.
Focus On Skills
If you’re not getting better over time it may be because you skillset is at its logical ceiling. That means it may be time to deconstruct your game, and focus on improving a particular skill. It could be how your approach different stages of the game (e.g. early game, mid game, end game). It could be your aim or your technique for the different types of weapons in the game. I suck with ARs, for instance (and that’s pretty limiting). But I know that and I have spent some time in the range and I’m getting better.
Reframe Your Problems
Sometimes your skills are as good as they can be given the current paradigm. In these situations change the paradigm. Get creative. I did this by remapping my build controls and after a short adjustment period it elevated my gameplay. What used to hold me back now had a clear path forward.
Know When To Celebrate
It’s difficult to get a victory royale. Celebrate your wins no matter how small. First elimination? Celebrate. First game with multiple eliminations? Emote. Whatever it is, celebrate. Eventually you’ll get that victory royale.
We’re taught in school that you have to read the book before you do the thing. Fortnite has taught me that you learn by doing. Point Fortnite.
Fortnite 1 — School 0
Fortnite has taught me that you can learn from anywhere, not just a classroom. Point Fortnite.
Fortnite 2 — School 0
Fortnite’s also taught me that there are a lot of people better than me. It’s okay though because Fortnite’s fun and encourages me to want to be better. Point Fortnite.
Fortnite 3 — School 0
I’m not saying that Fortnite should replace school, but I’m also not not saying that.
Either way, Fortnite has made me a better team mate and people leader and I started playing expecting none of that.
Fancy that.
See ya next time,
Michael
