Gap Between 5-man and 3-man

5-man [left], 3-man [right]

If you all recall, in a previous post, I had stated that X-ball was a completely different game than the other two common types of tournaments. While writing my post about my first win in a 3-man tournament, I got to thinking about my first 5-man tournament with the same group of people. To make a long story short, we got crushed. This made me think of how different 5-man is than 3-man. Although the point systems are virtually the same (with a few adaptations due to change in team size), there is a large game in strategy and intensity.

The first main difference is obvious. There are four more guns out there! And with all the different kind of ramping settings there are these days, that makes for a huge jump in the intensity of the game. Another big difference between these two formats, is probably the most important. The game is never over! In 3-man, the game usually goes to the team who eliminates an opposing player first. In 5-man, there is always something big that can happen. 5-man is generally played on a bigger field (as seen in the pictures above) and it is easier to lose track of five guys than it is three. Having said that, you're probably thinking that 5-man games would last a longer amount of time than 3-man games. In reality it is the opposite! 3-man is more about digging in and waiting for the other team to make a mistake. While 5-man is a more aggressive fast pased game that has the potential of lasting a few seconds. Clocktapus says "Whichever one you play, play it well".