RingoThe wisest man I know, Cat Brooks, has a theory for ACL fighting. He calls it dude potential. Dude potential works like this. If there are 5 men on the opposing team, you know 2 of them are down and you can see 1 of them being double teamed by 2 of your guys, that means there are 2 enemies unaccounted for. You have a Dude Potential of 2. The theory goes, if Dude Potential is > 0 some one is likely behind you about to knock you over. As Dude Potential increases the likely hood of someone about to knock you over increases.
It’s a pretty standard idea for team sports operating on an open field. Count the people in front of you. If it’s not equal to the whole team the remaining are behind you reeking some sort of havoc. In something like soccer that means turn around and go find the person to mark them. In the ACL it means deal with the threat. If Dude Potential is 1 you might have time to simply get defensive and take a look around. If Dude Potential is > 1 you need to move, because if 2 people hit you even if you’re defensive it’s a bad place to be and you are too likely to go down to risk it.
I’m working on corollary to this theory(yes I realize I’m not really using these terms right and no I don’t care. I like making simple thoughts sound fancy.) I call the Quantum Buddy System. When you make your assessment of the number of enemies, you also need to make an assessment of allies or teammates. Lets say in our above situation we know 1 of our team is down. That leaves 2 in front accounted for and 1 guy unaccounted for. This means he’s behind us somewhere. We have a Buddy Potential of 1.
In our situation we’ve outlined Dude Potential is 2, which means 2 guys are about to run you over. The Quantum Buddy System says that if you have a Buddy Potential > 1 they are also subject to Dude Potential and therefore are also about to be run over by these 2 guys. Yes for both these things to be objectively true you need 4 men, not 2, but until you have had a chance to witness whats happening you need to assume both are true.
So what do you do? Well for this situation you know you can’t stand still because 2 guys are coming and you don’t want to be in a 2 on 1 fight. You can’t go help with your 2 teams doubling the guy in the corner because that leaves your other bro about to be taken out by 2 others. So you need to move towards where he would be or at least in a direction that will allow you to move towards him to assist. Once you move you should get more information and perhaps can make a new assessment. Maybe you see your guy has gone down, has taken out 1 or more of the enemy, or is in a 1v1 leaving you with a Dude Potential of 1. But until you have the knowledge you need to make the assumption that he is in the same trouble you are.
I’ve not test this idea on the field but it makes sense in my head. Obviously the exact action you should take changes based on the Dude Potential and Buddy potential at the time. Sometimes you might not want to try to help him out but instead just head straight for the double team or any other number of options. I believe however that it’s important to assume your bro is in the same danger from unknown threats you are. As such make a decision based on both the worst possible scenarios being true.