With all the helpful tips being shared on the various maps, I thought I would offer some assistance in my area of expertise... the respawn screen. I can guarantee you that I spend more time on this screen than any of you, so who best to provide valuable information on this somewhat-overlooked aspect of gameplay?!

- After I die by running directly into someone's claymore, or Santa knifing me in the nutsack, someone jumping onto me with a pair of hot shock paddles, jumping off a roof and not pressing my parachute key fast enough, getting run over by my own team's Dingo, or sending my helo gunner directly to hell about a half a second before I follow him during one of my helo "landings", I find it therapeutic to mash down the squad comm key and let loose a string of expletives while the spawn screen pops up, to alert my squad that I will be spawning in again soon.

- Try to anticipate your squad leader's needs. When Mantis is frantically telling you that you should spawn in with an AT kit, that's what he needs *right now*. I go a step further and spawn in as a medic because chances are that by the time I respawn, a lot of people will have died to that tank he was wanting me to destroy. If Mantis is screaming at me to spawn in as a medic because our squad doesn't have a medic because he originally told me to go medic and I ignored him because I thought I would be more useful as a sniper, by the time I spawn in he probably doesn't need a medic anymore. What he probably does need, however, is more ammo... so I would then spawn in with a support kit.

- At the respawn screen, I frequently find myself booted out of a squad. This is a good chance to review the other squads that are formed and find one that could use my skills. Unfortunately, you can't join one until you respawn in, but if you use your respawn delay wisely, you can already have a new squad picked out. If all the squads are full or locked (they tend to quickly become locked after the first warning message that Rick_Slick has 90 seconds to join a squad or be kicked, that is SUCH a coincidence!) then I would go ahead and make my own. On the TG server, I try to make squads called "TEAMWORK" so if I can trick people into joining it, I can tell them all to be medic kits and hang around me to revive me constantly and build me a barrier of first aid kits to hide behind. Because that's teamwork, right?

- Another thing to remember about the respawn screen is this is where you choose where you respawn at. Many people forget this. At least I do, which causes valuable time wasted until I realize I don't have a spawn point selected. Try to select a spawn point away from all the action so there is no risk of getting killed as soon as you spawn in, even though it may take like five minutes to make your way to the rest of the squad on foot. If you spawn in on the squad leader, you may accidentally give his position away when you start firing wildly in all directions to warn the enemy that you are nearby. Mantis loves that, by the way. If you are the squad leader, try not to make the same mistake I make by surrounding yourself with claymores for protection and just laying there uselessly, aiming your rifle 180 degrees away from any threat vectors because you have no concept of where the line of scrimmage is, because your squadmates won't last very long if they try to spawn in on you.

- Contrary to what everyone says, the sniper kit is clearly the most valuable kit, so you should select that one in the respawn screen every chance you get, especially when you are in a squad with ANGELofDEATH.

- Waiting to respawn is the best time to talk trash to any enemies who might also be dead, especially if they happened to be nearby when you died and they got caught up inadvertently in your fiery death. I never get the chance to do this because usually I die in isolated circumstances, mostly due to my own actions, without the assistance of any enemy forces.

- If you die defending a flag, don't bother trying to respawn in at that same flag before it turns white... it is set to turn white precisely one half second before the respawn timer runs out. You're better off going to get another beer while you wait.

- If you are at the respawn screen due to a teamkill, this is always a good time to type "WTF?????????????????????????????????????????? " in chat, in hopes of getting a clear, polite, well-thought out explanation from the teamkiller as to why he ganked you.

Thank you for your time and I hope this solves all the mysteries of the Respawn Screen and how to excel at it like I do.