On Kills, KDR, and Kill Stealing

Introduction
There's a big issue in competitive games that involve a health/damage dynamic, and play in real time. Most of these games record kills and reward players for achieving kills. The issue is comes up under various names, including but not limited to the following: KDR Kill count Last hitting Kill stealing and many others Many people have varying opinions on this. They range from each polar opposite from believing KDR is completely useless, to believing that KDR is the sole indicator of skill. Through my experience in competitive games, often with real stakes, I have developed a belief that is somewhere between the two sides. However, please forget what you know about me personally and judge the following arguments based on their own merits. They will be made in the context of MWO for relevance and ease of illustration. I hope the information is both persuasive to my personal philosophy as well as objectively educational. - PewPew

Contention 1: KDR/Kills are a statistic that reflect mechanical skill to a certain degree, EVEN among a team working together focusing a target
The Kill Window
When an enemy is at a point of low health, a window opens where you and your team have the chance to kill it. Once this window is opened, players on your team have a chance to enter this window of opportunity and then kill the enemy. There are several

stages in this process which must be passed through the utilization of knowledge/skill.

Stage 1 - Acknowledge the opportunity exists. Depending on the situation, some

players will see an opportunity while others will not. Seeing opportunities also reflects a player's self-perceived skill. A player who feels capable may take more opportunities than a player who feels incapable.

Stage 2 - Take the opportunity. Depending on the situation, some players will have
enough capability to take the opportunity while others will not. This depends on a player's ability to maneuver into a position to take the opportunity. In some contexts, this may be more or less difficult, and on average, a better player can take the opportunity more often.

Stage 3 - Killing blow. Once Stage 1 and Stage 2 are met, the remaining teammates in
Stage 3 must have the ability to kill the target. In other words, each teammate's individual damage output must be more than the remaining health of the target. Many argue that the kill is rewarded almost randomly to anyone who is firing on the target. However, skill is an important factor here. The person rewarded with the kill is not always the most skilled, but the reward often reflects on the skill of the player. To illustrate, consider the following example: Player A1 and A2 have 10 and 20 damage ready to be delivered (damage is negligible as long as they are both over the remaining HP of the enemy mech) Player A1 has 50% accuracy. Player A2 has 80% accuracy. Player B is their target and has 5hp remaining in the center torso. Both players A1 and A2 fire simultaneously.

In this example, player A2 is more likely to be awarded the kill than player A1 since on average, player A2 will hit the center torso more often than player A2. Please note that this example is made to simplify the illustration and considers all other factors to be equal. However, in reality, statistics will still reflect this trend over enough time and iterations.

Saving Shots
The idea of saving shots for last hits is common in games. Whether because of cooldown or resource cost, players may enter Stage 3 and not have a shot ready to kill the enemy. The kill will be rewarded to another teammate assuming the other teammate successfully makes his/her shot. By saving shots, you can manipulate kill rewards for yourself to a certain degree. HOWEVER, the effect is minimal compared to other factors over the long term. This will be discussed further under Contention 2 and 3.

Contention 2: There are other factors involved in Kills/Last hitting that reflect decision making and tactics, which are involved with but are not limited to skill

Saving Shots as a Beneficial Tactic

There are times where saving shots is actually beneficial to your team. In these situations, your kill reward/KDR may be positively effected, but the statistic reflects decision making and tactics rather than skill. The following are some situations where saving shots or damage is beneficial: Threat Management - Sometimes, it is good to withhold damage in order to manipulate your enemy. Doing too much damage too early may cause an enemy to run away before you can kill him/her. This is detrimental to your team because it is likely that this target will output more damage against your team in the future.

Also note that when an enemy is low on health and engaged, they may spend their remaining resources (ammunition or heat) and output as much damage as possible before dying. In this situation, it is more beneficial to have the enemy spend the least amount of time in a state of low health. For example, doing consistent damage over time (say, 3% per second) may give the enemy a chance to run away. If this particular enemy is prone to run at 30% health, the target would have about 10 seconds to run away. Saving shots or damage can reduce the time the target spends in a low-health status where he/she is more prone to run or maximize damage. Being able to deal the last 30% of this enemy's health in 1-2 seconds may deny the enemy a chance to escape. This is also why burst damage is an important concept in various PvP games, and why kills Warning: In order to take full advantage of this concept, you MUST have both the JUDGEMENT of the situation correctly and the CAPABILITY to succeed in killing the enemy. If you do not, this can be VERY DETRIMENTAL to your team by reducing total DPS and increasing the target's escape time. Improving Window of Opportunity In certain situations, it may be beneficial to withhold expending resources like ammunition, heat, or cooldowns to wait for a better window of opportunity. For example, if you have the chance to deal the killing blow with a 50% success rate, it may be wiser to wait until the success rate is higher because of other factors. However, this requires the

player to correctly assess the situation and ensure that the success rate will increase rather than decrease. Additionally, one should assess the potential time it will take for this

Conceding Last Hits - Negative Effect on Kill Rewards

There are actually times where taking actions to lower your KDR/kill rewards is beneficial to your team. For example, when too many teammates are engaging an enemy that can be quickly finished with far fewer resources, it may be beneficial to disengage at Stage 2 or 3 and engage new targets. (This is discussed to further detail in my resource management guide) However, in general, this situation is not very common. Most of the time, disengaging a target happens at Stage 1 or 2. Additionally, there are FAR more situations where you are faced with killing an enemy rather than being faced with disengaging an enemy.

Contention 3: Ultimately, intentional manipulation of kill scores will, significantly more often than not, be detrimental to team play.
In the long term and in the end, playing smart will always outweigh score manipulation in terms of team outcomes as well as individual score. When making in-game decisions, playing smart will almost always produce better outcomes than playing for individual score. While the best option is usually associated with a good score, there are countless variables of contribution that are not reflected in only in the kill score. Consider the following: If KDR is in fact reflective of good playing, then ultimately, the best way to consistently improve your statistics is to make the smart decision over the decision that is motivated only by the statistic. Especially in a team of competent players that acknowledge good playing regardless of statistics, individuals should have no incentive to manipulate kill scores. TL;DR Manipulating scores and playing at maximum potential are mutually exclusive. In other words, you cannot do both at the same time. Playing well and receiving a good score, however, have a strong correlation. This is NOT to say that score is the single indicator of skill.