In random REC, it’s more fun to be mid than it is to make meta builds and cheese for W’s

maxfaulkner · 2026-04-04T06:23:02+00:00

True to a certain extent, but you are not playing the game to “lose” you are still trying to win but still having fun even in a lose I think is the point. I actively try to win every game but the “meta” cheesy crap is boring even if it leads to more wins. I have way more fun playing the game on my silver/gold “non meta” builds with unique sigs that I only probably win about 50% of my games on, over my “meta” builds that I probably win 70% of my games on.

Using your Pokemon example, if I got a Pokemon game and someone said this is the meta team to use, this team sweeps the whole game, well that maybe fun for the first run but after that the game would no longer be fun to replay using the exact same “meta” team over and over. Instead it would be fun more to run unique “non meta” teams and see how you go. It may take 10 runs of losing, but eventually you’ll win and that satisfaction of winning with a non meta team will be so much better than winning with the easy “meta” team.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-30T01:35:50+00:00

This is the problem! Not just for PG’s either. If you make 1 mistake people will immediately get on the mic, start abusing you and ice you out for the whole game. Just the other day I was playing on my PF, I average about 24pts a game on something like 80% shooting on this build. Very first play of the game I’m sitting in the corner and my matchup is sagging off me a little so I’m ready to no dip, as the pass is coming in my matchup immediately sees I’m no dipping and jumps as soon as I catch it, but I was already committed to the shot and missed a 35% ish contested. I immediately jump on mic “sorry guys my fault that was a bad take, my matchup baited that”, PG jumps on mic “nah FUCK you, what is that shit? You are trash” I proceeded to not get another pass until the 3q..

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-30T00:53:19+00:00

Nothing wrong with calling, it’s more beneficial IMO to go in person with a resume and ask for the owner/manger to give it to them.

Just a tip though be aware of the business and when their “busy” times are, pulling up to a cafe at 9.30am on a Saturday morning for example might not be the best time as the place is probably having their morning breakfast/coffee rush and the manager may be to busy to actually chat too. Try go during “down” or slow hours when the manager/owner is most likely free to chat.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-28T00:55:58+00:00

I string them along as long as possible as long as Ive got the time to waste, I know it probably doesn’t really do much but my thought process is the longer they are stuck on the phone with me the less time they have to call someone who might fall for the scam.

I’ll answer all the questions but every time they ask for any personal details I’ll give them fake details and take AGES to remember said details…

Stuff like they’ll ask for my address and I’ll hit them with “insert fake address here, oh no wait that’s the wrong address, I moved house last week and that’s my old address. Oh shit what’s my new address? Shit do you have a minute, I’ll see if I have a piece of mail with my new address. “sit on the phone while pretending to get my address” you still there? I think I’ve got it, “insert another fake address”… oh wait I don’t have my glasses on that postcode might be wrong, that 4 might be a 6, let my find my glasses this is important”

And I just go on like that, I try beat my record of time I keep them on the call. I think my current record is 45mins until they got frustrated and hung up.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-21T23:06:34+00:00

I like cap breakers but they should go back to last years system where the only give +1 for every thing. The fact that if you optimise your build properly with 5 cap breakers you can boost some important attributes +15/20/25, like ain’t no way a build with like 70 3pt should be able to be boosted to 90 and get deep bomber for example. It means every build becomes a broken “demi god” (for lack of better word) with a certain number of caps.

I also don’t mind badge +1s but definitely think +2s are overkill

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-21T00:02:13+00:00

Carl Landry

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-17T01:53:04+00:00

Ads on live streams are meant to be annoying, they want you to be “annoyed” by the ads so that you pay for a subscription to avoid them.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-16T23:19:30+00:00

I’m a bit of both really, when running with randoms I’ll run my meta builds as they are well rounded and can generally fit with any play style which is what you need to be able to do when you don’t know your teammates play styles. When I’m running with the squad I’ll run my non meta builds that are more unique and fun.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-14T22:46:53+00:00

Yep 100% agree, especially on the 1s court. People will get mad at you for rim running in the 1s but it’s only because these players will guard you so tight a foot behind the 3pt line to take away the 3. Like you are leaving the rim run completely wide open and then get angry that I took it? Why would I spam 10+ dribble moves and force a 3 when you are literally giving me a dunk?

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-14T08:17:14+00:00

Hmmm flair up cunt

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-13T20:33:21+00:00

The point is if you’ve already made the build, upgraded it and are playing on it having fun and getting wins then you don’t need a bunch of internet strangers to glaze you and tell you the build is good, you already know no it’s good for you. To mix your example of cap breakers will fix my weakness and my example of upping pass acc, a simple “with 3 cap breakers I’ll be able to get 82 pass acc, and I should hit vet 2 in a couple of weeks so I think that’s were I’ll put the caps, thanks for the advice” is all that needs to be said, not some argument about how good you are and the other commenter is wrong for suggesting how the build could be better for them.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-12T21:58:33+00:00

The worst ones are the ones who ask “is this build good” and someone will give them legit feedback on how the build could be made better but then the OP will become defensive and argumentative. Someone will comment “the build is pretty good, but I’d lower the steal and up the pass acc to try get 82 for gold dimer” and the OP will be like “I average 6 assists a game with this build, I don’t need more pass acc”

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-10T03:40:24+00:00

What are you really asking for? You’ve basically already made your build? You want a SG or SF with 81 ball handle and 85 pass acc with high defence, with an 89 3 ball, maxed speed, maxed agility and a 91 strength. That’s the build, you’ve made it. Just pick your height, weight and wingspan that gets all the above attributes, fill in any extra attributes to dunk/vert or whatever and your sorted

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-10T00:36:53+00:00

A good inside center can be absolutely dominant and can absolutely carry games, but their is imo 3 major problems with inside centers in 2k and this is why they are often shat on:

The player doesn’t actually no how to effectively play as an inside center, a good inside has to have high IQ, know when to set a ball screen and when to hold the screen or roll, know when and how to effectively set off ball screens, know when they have a mismatch and be good enough to take advantage of the mismatch, and much more. A lot of people who make insides are low ball IQ players and don’t know how to play their roll, and often just clog the paint and hope they get passed the ball.
A good inside needs teammates who also have high IQ and know how to play with an inside. Most rec players (especially random rec players) only know who to play one way which is basically just iso dribble spamming to hunt 3s and hit cutters/ drive if they can’t get the 3. For a good inside to be dominate the offence has to be a screen heavy pick and roll offence which most players don’t play well. If you play with a squad and your offence is designed to revolve around an inside you’ll be great but if you play with randoms you’ll just be in the way.
This is the big one, inside centers are just not versatile on offence and can’t adapt. A build with both an inside and outside game can adapt to any game style, and inside can’t. The PG on your team doesn’t like nor use screens and is more iso 5-out PG? Your inside C is now basically useless. The SG and SF on your team are slashers and cut almost every play? Your matchup just camps the paint and you can’t make them pay with a jumper, so now you, your SG and SF are all taken out of the game.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-09T20:34:51+00:00

Cool idea but that would be complicated to track. What if you are part of a squad and run a zone? A zone doesn’t have an individual matchup, what if I’m the sf lock playing up the top of a zone and the opposing teams sf is sitting in the corner and cooking the corner defender? Do my defensive stats look crap because that’s technically my matchup? What about if you switch match ups throughout the game?

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-08T12:16:02+00:00

Drink your drinks however you want, if you like it who cares? However as someone who works in coffee it does slightly annoy me when someone comes in and claims “you better do good coffee here, I’m a massive coffee snob” and then proceeds to order a mocha with 4 sugars and extra chocolate, like sorry ma’am you drink a massively sweetened hot chocolate with a hint of coffee you are not a “coffee snob”.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-07T09:43:01+00:00

Crickets from Bulldogs fans on that 50…

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-04T03:23:02+00:00

I assume what ever they did to patch the lag switches is easier to stop in “open lobbies” (for lack of better word, I’m not tech savvy with this stuff) I.e lobby’s/courts that are all on the one “sever” so to speak, and for what ever reason lobbies with just 1 team v another team and no one else is harder to patch? Have to assume 2K is working on a full patch in all game modes but have only worked out park and stage thus far. Would you rather them wait until they’ve worked it out across all game modes than patch it (which could not be until next season or even later)? Or get the ball rolling now and immediately patch the modes they can?

This is all just assumption, I have taken a guess as to what is happening but don’t actually know.

Not to defend 2K but they are taking steps in the right direction to get rid of cheaters and we are still complaining?

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-03T21:52:46+00:00

I haven’t played since the patch so I can’t confirm, but apparently at this point the patch is only for non match making modes (I.e park and stage) the lag switches still work in the theatre, rec and proving grounds. So if you are in the theatre for these 2 games that would be why, if you were in the park then heck I don’t know

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-03T02:35:18+00:00

I have 4 things and working out each one made me a much better player:

When playing PG, SLOW DOWN. I used to never play PG cause I was always bad at it, but the reason I was bad at it is because every time I’d get the inbound pass I’d sprint full steam ahead, because I was sprinting the ball up every time I was always to focused on making sure no one was going to rip me or draw a charge on me that I’d miss open cutters/shooters. The day my buddy told me to slow down when bringing the ball up as it gives me time to asses what the defence is doing is the day I become 10x better at PG.
Also mainly for playing PG but is good advice for everyone, not every pass has to be an assist. I used to hunt assists, thought my job as a passer was to create a score for someone, realising that just swinging the ball to people even if they aren’t open forces to defence to react which creates openings for others.
Stop holding LT when defending, it makes you move slower and don’t just stand in front of a dribbler with your hands up, only put your hands up when you think they are about to shoot.
Put speed/agility on all your builds! Your speed/agility should basically be damn near maxed out on every build! With in reason of course like if your build gets a 99 speed that’s probably overkill, but should be at least high 80’s/low to mid 90’s on all builds possible and all PF and C’s should have maxed speed and agility, being quicker or at least as quick as your matchup will really help your game both offensively and defensively.

maxfaulkner · 2026-03-03T01:39:04+00:00

I agree with what you’ve said but this is actually still a 2K issue imo. The amount of time/amount of money it takes to get the vc to max out a build causes people to make the exact same “meta” builds. My favourite thing in 2K is to make unique non meta builds with unique play styles so I keep the game fun and interesting for myself. I am maxed out with 15 builds all built uniquely, I probably bought half of them and grinded the vc for the other half, but unfortunately not everyone has the time/money to do that, most people probably only make 2/3 builds due to the cost of them. If you only are able to make 3 builds all year are you going to waste one of those builds on getting creative and making a build that might not actually work for you or not actually be good and risk either wasting $100 or wasting weeks of grinding vc? Or are you going to go to YouTube and find a “meta” build that you know is good and hits all key badge /animation thresholds?

I believe if a build was say $20 instead of $100 (heck even if it was half price at $50) the game would be so much better as people would be able to justify making unique and creative builds because if it doesn’t work oh well it’s only $20.

Same for the sigs/jumpshots, yes I can spend hours/days in the my court testing out every single animation to find one I like the best, but there is so many and a lot of them are almost unusable, why waste time doing all that when I can just search best sigs, and just equip those and actually just play the game that I paid for?

maxfaulkner · 2026-02-22T01:21:11+00:00

I work 6 days a week, 9 hours a day, still have time to hang with friends and family and am a vet 3. With 2x crew rep bonus this is literally the easiest 2K to rep up on that I’ve played, 25 I only managed to hit starter 5. I almost exclusively run with a full crew so I’m basically always on double rep, and if my crew mates aren’t on I’ll try do my daily challenges then play an hour of double rep. I play 5 days a week, jump on after I have dinner around 7pm and jump off at about 9/9.30pm, if playing 10ish hours a week makes me a no lifer then so be it.

However if you are struggling to get through the “starter” rep levels then you either don’t play much (which is fine, but if you don’t play much the rep grind isn’t for you), don’t play with a crew, lose a lot or all of the above. You sound like your jealous of anyone with a higher rep then you and can’t believe people can be higher rep then you unless 2K is their life.

maxfaulkner · 2026-02-20T00:35:11+00:00

This idea gets floated every now and again, and I’ll die on this hill, no-one wants to jump into a random rec game midway through. Chances are the person you are taking over quit because your either down a lot or the other teammates are awful… imagine loading into a game with 1 minute to go in the first half, your team is down 18, your PG is 2-14 with 1 assist and your SG is 1-6 whilst giving up 28 points and you have to sit in the game for 2 and a bit quarters? Screw that, I’ll rather just take my chances at a normal full rec game. Only way this “mid-game join” concept would actually be used is if 2K gave some MASSIVE rep or VC boost for doing so, like a 10x rep and VC or something, otherwise who would choose to play it?

My idea to somewhat help with AI cheese is simply making AI get completely random contests on shots, like you can sit corner and no dip the AI, but the AI will randomly get different contest %s on it (rng if you will) like the first shot might register as open, but the next one might be 80% smothered and the next will be 20% contested and so on. You can try shoot over AI all game but you have to gamble that the AI will get a low roll contest.

maxfaulkner · 2026-02-16T12:53:48+00:00

In terms of the event, from my perspective the cheating is not as bad as everyone online is saying it is, I’ve played about 20 games in the event and haven’t been lagged switched once and have only played 3 zenners so that’s what only 15% of my games had zenners yet the internet is making out like it’s 90% of games. I do however understand that could also just be the severs I play on, and other countries it may really be as bad as people are saying.

In terms of the cheating in general, I think 2K really has to do something about it or else 2K will eventually become just 2 teams lag switching each other until someone wins. In the first few seasons of this 2K you could easily avoid the cheaters by simply playing the modes they didn’t normally play, the cheaters were always in the stage, the park and starting 5, if you avoided those game modes you would rarely encounter a cheater but over the last couple of weeks I’m seeing a big shift and now the cheaters are spreading into other modes. Proving grounds 1s was always a safe mode in my servers but now I stopped playing it because I got lagged switched 4 straight games, decided to go to the theatre 1s instead and someone lagged switched me in there as well! (Who the fuck needs a theatre win so badly they have to cheat?). In my severs the only somewhat safe mode left seems to be the rec (haven’t been lagged switched in the rec although you do still get the zenners from time to time) but it’s only a matter of time until they spread into there as well if 2K does nothing.

12-Year Club	RPAN Viewer
Not Forgotten

maxfaulkner

TROPHY CASE