WAR SEASON II: Discussion

[Neo Emolga]

I kind of woke up this morning and realized what I'm doing wrong with this whole WAR thing. And I'm especially embarrassed because I'm a marketing major and should know this stuff already.

Recruitment is just as much of a challenge and a necessity as participation when you've got a WAR team. If you want to cover all bases in the WAR and have the sections covered, you've got to recruit. Yes, if you're like me and you're leading a team this year, I'll say it again and louder this time, you've got to recruit! Serebii's infractions be damned, I shouldn't have let that stop me even if it meant a temp ban (though I plan on recruiting through Steam now, although the very idea of getting banned on Serebii is actually kind of amusing to me now). And that goes for any team of any size. Honestly, if I said anything that could be interpreted as being hurtful against Team Trainer (I don't think I did, but I dunno, I can't read their minds), I take it back. Because they don't deserve it from me and they don't deserve it from anybody. They ended up with a 20 man team because they did something right. They created a team that's user friendly, appeals to just about every audience, and they knew how to market it. So if you're not happy with the situation, learn from their example and leverage it in your own way. Face the music, recruiting is a part of the WAR as much as participation and effort.

What did Team Trainer do right? They recruited people, and that shouldn't count against them. They didn't force or demand people to join the team and jump on in, and I think that's where a lot of the smaller teams are missing the point. They focused on presentation, they focused on promotion (who in their right mind couldn't like their banners?), and found the right place and right time to do it. If you're in a small team and you want more people, get out there and recruit people. Either that, or change your team around so it does attract more people. Nobody owes your team members, you have to get them yourself or you have to work with what you have to the best of your ability. So find your niche. Reach out to your target market of member bases. Team Trainer didn't wave a magic wand and just magically create people to join the team. Whatever they did, you have to do too, or you have to work around it.

So really, that's all I'm going to say. So let's stop this silly nonsense before I start shooting people with silly string and cramming cupcakes in their nose. You know what you gotta do now. And I hate wasting perfectly good cupcakes.