Why We Win

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​-Community-​
An important part of KoM and how we play is the community that we have created. We are not just a team, we are much more than that. We are a brotherhood, bound together by goals, communication, fun, and respect. KoM directly follows the guidelines of a discourse community that John Swales described in "The Concept of Discourse Community." 

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-Goals-

As can be seen through the player profile page, many members have similar goals within the team. There are two important things about this. One, the goals we share are common. It is important as a team to be working towards the same thing. With a conflict of interest, no one can be moving in the same direction. Two, what the goals are. For KoM, winning is a goal for us as a team, but that is not our only goal. To become better people and players while creating bonds with teammates and having a good time is easily as important for us as winning any match. This is the heart of KoM, and is what drives us to be a team.

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-Programs-​

For any online gaming community, a way of communication is important. Whether that be talking through in game chat, to using phone calls, every team needs a way to talk. For KoM, we like to use the program Mumble. Mumble is a free online Voice Over IP program that allows the team to talk in large group chats that easily allows members to come and go during conversation. Unlike Skype, a very similar program, Mumble allows us to spend more time on the game then setting up calls because any member can join the chat and enter a range of channels to be instantly part of the conversation. 

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-Listening-

As a team, we understand mistakes and do not expect perfection. However, we do have a strong emphasis on our communication, so being an active listener is a non-debatable skill. We are always helping each other and telling others how to improve, but the important part is that they listen. If one teammate is stuck on a problem that is hurting his gameplay, that hurts the entire team. If he is not willing to listen to advice and try to improve, the team is not willing to be dampened by his performance. So, to be a part of the team, one must engage in our conversations in Mumble and truly listen and gain things from them. Otherwise, they are not a part of the team.

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-Fun, Yet Serious-

As a brotherhood, KoM often has times where teammates are communicating outside of our team matches. Whether that be playing together practicing, playing another game, or just talking about anything they want to, KoM communicates a lot. We love this because one of our goals is to have fun, but we don't let that conflict with our goal to win. We handle this by having different expectations of communication in and outside of our matches. Outside of a match, we expect members to be respectful of each other, it is only fair to be respectful. Other than that, we do not have specific guidelines for conversation, however respect is very important. The basic rules that are taught in kindergarten come in handy in this situation. For example, do not speak when others are speaking, and do onto others as you would want to be done onto you. Simple. On the other hand, in game communication has much more defined criteria. All conversation during a match must be constructive or directed towards the game. During a game would be an inappropriate time to ask for girlfriend advice for example. Most communication during a game is informing other teammates of what the other players are doing. MOBA maps are big, and there is to much going on for one person to know everything. To overcome this, players are responsible for telling the team when important things happen. The most common form of this is telling the team when an enemy is no longer in sight. This informs the team that there is an enemy on the lose and that the entire team should play defensively in case he makes a sneak attack. Our conversations in and out of game are much different.

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​-Communication-

In the heat of battle, the most important thing for KoM is communication, and how effectively and or quickly we can do it. In order to achieve this, there is a certain "lexis" or lingo that all the members must know to be able to communicate with each other. This lexis involves terminology that the MOBA community has made, and some words that are specific to KoM.
For a list of lexis, 

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-Leadership-

Just like any team, group, or community, there must be leaders. Not being a leader in KoM does not make that member any less important to the team, things are just more organized if everyone listens to one person. We have tried having no leaders before, and it did not work. In a match, one person would say one thing, and then another person would say something else. Not knowing who to follow, half of the team would respond to the first person, and half of the team would respond to the second. This created a lack of teamwork, which was the opposite of what we expected. Now, our in-game captain is Rotnem, who is co-captain of the team. Any command that Rotnem gives, we follow. This does not mean that other players cannot advise plays, just in the heat of the moment, we are to always follow his plan. However, our leadership does not stop there. From team captain to MVP, KoM is filled with leaders. We all work to improve each other's game play, and to teach new members the beauty of MOBA's.