Introduction[]
Slow-Teamers are players (often clans) who team on FFA and Experimental Mode. Slow-teaming is a strategic formation used by these teamers to avoid Anti-Team Penalty. One teamer will farm viruses in 16 pieces in front, while a teammate with at least a bit more mass than the tiniest of the 16 pieces will follow closely behind to strike if the teammate in front gets attacked. This way, the teamer farming viruses will not get the penalty as they are in 16 pieces when they farm viruses, and they also have a big teammate protecting them behind in case any solo player/opponent slow team tries to attack them.
Teaming in Agario is a nuisance for solo players. This is even more true if you are dealing with persistent slow teamers, who dominate the server for hours, preventing players from soloing, and hunting them down even for their last 20 mass. Their presence sometimes also causes more lag, especially when they are very actively splitting and merging.
Dealing with them[]
How to recognize[]
If you are not new to the game, you already know the signs: illegible nicks and so called clan names/clan tags. The skins that slow teamers choose can give an indication too, e.g; if you see a rabbit skin, you can usually count on it that you are dealing with a slow teamer. Teamers may also trick you into trusting them, so you might cooperate with them to defend yourself - but as soon as they are big enough to eat you or when a teammate comes near, they will reveal their true intentions.
Note that it is not always clear who belongs to a team, especially when they are big. So before cooperating with someone to disrupt a team, look carefully at what they are doing.
Counter strike / Defense[]
Prevention is an extremely important strategy. A slow teamer that has just (re)started and therefore is small in size may seem harmless, but the next minute he may be huge again if you do nothing. Eat them if you can, or prevent them from joining their teammates if you happen to know in which part of the room they are. If you see them emerging again after a successful strike, try eating them again. If you yourself are already quite large in size, you may not well be able to recognize a re-emerging player as a teamer. When in doubt, use the scroll wheel of your mouse to zoom in.
Another way to counter teams is disruption.
a. When there is a green virus between you and a teamer, consider shooting it at the teamer (FFA mode), or into the teamer (Experimental mode). Repeated disruptions can cause a team to crumble. Note, however, that this technique does not work with a (very large) teamer who has the maximum split of sixteen. In this so called harvesting mode, the teamer will simply eat the extra 100 mass without a thank you.
b. When a slow teamer in 16 pieces is following you, do not be too quick to attack and split on them. Most likely, they have a teammate following behind them, ready to eat you with the mass from their teammate in 16 pieces. If you are big enough, double split on them. Double split range is quite far, so you can eat at least half of the 16 pieces before the teammate does. Even if you are small and can't, do not hesitate to split on the teamer, then split away from the direction where you think the teamer will come from. Make them split more and trigger their anti teaming; since you are small, you won't have much to lose.
c. Fake movements can force a team to quickly exchange mass, and as this always leads to losses and will sooner lead to decay of the teamers, it is a good way to defend yourself, especially if you have a virus nearby to use as a shield. However, smart teamers will just eat the virus.
For example: suppose that a teamer that is completely split in parts of the same size is near to you. He may be harvesting viruses and or chasing you. If you are big enough to eat one of those parts, you can move towards him. If you come close enough, one of his team members will have to come into action. If you would actually continue your attack, you would run the risk to be eaten by the second teamer, who would eat the larger part of the first teamer before attacking you. But if you threaten the fully split teamer just to the point that the teammate behind must split, then multi-split away, you run no extra risk, plus you make them incur some extra splits.
Cooperation with others may at first seem a way of teaming, but it is not. However, it is invaluable to counter teams. You can cooperate with anyone during an attack of mobbing teams. Measures you can take are e.g. (1) exchanging mass, (2) firing viruses into the teamer (or threatening to do so), (3) suiciding into another solo player if you are sure that the teamers will otherwise get you and your mass. A variation to this is that, once you are satisfied with the score you have, that you suicide into a player that is under attack, or to a player that is in the position to attack a team himself with your mass.
Parting shot[]
No doubt there are other ways to counter slow teams. The most effective way would be to log out if there are (too many) slow teams in the room. If most solo players would take action together and log out simultaneously, it could leave some rooms completely to some slow teams - but without anyone to bully anymore. Of course, that is just a hypothetical thought. This usually would not work in Asian servers though, as there are many slow teams battling one another, eliminating the boredom problem for them.
Realistically, you could check areas that are more quiet, as solo playing is easier when there are fewer players in the room. E.g. consider moving to other continents when the local time is between 3 and 6 o'clock (a.m.), or try another game mode.
The methods in this brief manual cannot guarantee a pleasant solo playing experience. Sometimes, slow teams are so large, so vindictive, and so persistent (playing for hours and hours until the server closes) that you cannot grow. That's life... The agario team has taken some measures, but they are not that effective yet, and also affect solo players.
Anyway, have fun and share your solo tips and tricks!