I need to talk about Bacon and being a good teammate on lifesteal, where being a good teammate oftentimes just ends up boiling down to being good at pvp. I need to talk about how often Bacons belittled for being bad at pvp when no one else is. Even though he's half decent. I need to talk about Mapicc telling bacon, "You're a bad teammate" just to go back and team with him again.
Just in terms of PVP, there's the whole team synergy thing. When Flame and Zam were teamed during the practice duels for SMP civ they ended up barely ever working together, their comms were off, their playstyles weren't synergised, someone ended up saying smth along the lines of "this is why we're not teamed on lifesteal". So, there's team synergy. Zam has amazing synergy with Mapicc. That's what makes them good teammates, right? Well, Bacon also has pretty good synergy with Mapicc; they've teamed long enough and played together in fights often enough for that to be the case. But he just drops too fast, so pvp skill again.
Then there's the whole hearts thing. Can you only be a good teammate when you're high on hearts? Because Hannah would complain often about Bacon being low on hearts, on losing them so fast, bacon was so bad at keeping hearts in s5 that Mapicc, one of the better, more active pvper on the server was often not on 20 hearts that season. Bacon can't keep or gain hearts. He just ends up losing them. Pvp again.
Something bacon has in terms of being a valuable teammate is his ability to, at the very least, grind for his team. Create a couple of gear sets so they don't die. But what use is gear sets if you're always dying?
Is it fair to say Bacon's a bad teammate to have just because he's bad at pvp? You can nitpick all this about him that yeah he's bad at pvp, it makes it difficult to team with him, so does that mean that when picking teammates, only stronger players should be chosen? But that obviously just shouldn't be the case because that excludes such a large portion of the server so weaker teammates have to be chosen because the server’s already inactive as is.
But do they have to be chosen? Is it something stronger pvper's do begrugingly? Well no because when Ro logs on, Mapicc is willing to provide him hearts, take care of him, would revive him even when they're not teamed. Even whenever Planet logs on, everyone makes sure to keep him alive at the expense of their own hearts. Why is it that no one else who's weaker when it comes to pvp is criticised and as unsympathised with as much as bacon? And why is it that even after all that no one actually leaves his side, no one ever wants to leave his side?
Well, I think the reason he's criticised so much is because he's active. Other players don't get on much and the remaining players that do tend to be pretty decent at pvp so when the only other player engaging with lore is bacon, the only other active player left to team with is bacon, it makes sense that players would be critical of him more so than others. But that's the thing- he's active when no one else is. So active this season that at times Mapicc would spend more time with bacon than his own team this season. How bad is he as a teammate if he can be relied on whenever you need him?
Also, relying on him. Bacon is someone his team can trust. Bacon is loyal, so willing to help his team and be there for them when they need him. People talk about how loyal Mapicc is, how loyal Hannah is, but why has no one acknowledged how loyal bacon is? He was loyal to the 3ht throughout s4, loyal to gucci throughout s5, even this season loyal to hannah and kab as soon as they became teammates, so how bad of a teammate is he if you have so much faith in him that even after he leaves you you still want him back on the team?
And they still want him back on the team... They trust him enough to have him back on the team, and despite bacon weakening them in terms of pvp, they still wanted him back?? And if he really is a bad teammate, why not just take the opportunity to abandon him while you have the chance. Unless he's just not. He's not a bad teammate at all and you do want him by your side no matter what you say.
Because PVP is important on lifesteal, hearts matter, they make up half the plotlines, its the whole gimmick of the server and the reason it was created. But hearts aren't the most valuable thing on lifesteal- content is. And bacon, not in spite of but rather because of how bad he is at pvp, is a pretty decent teammate to have in that regard.
Bacon's not a bad teammate. He's just bad at pvp. And it's easy to take your teamates for granted when you know they need you about as much as you want them.