What is target priority? It basically is the concept of who you should target with your throws in a given match. Usually, John-like characters (hairy dude) are the hardest to kill in any team. This is exactly why we skip Swami, as India takes defense to ridiculous levels. Now it wouldn't be advisable to skip Taha in Kenya or Sato in Japan; this would make runs even more RNG-dependant than they already are, for very, VERY minimal savings. The next best thing is to make them top targets.

So in a nutshell, target priority goes as follows:

• John-like guy > Captain > Rest of the team

How should top targets be handled? This is what I go for in order to optimize my matches, in priority order:

1. Aim for top targets as much as the game allows you to (either by throwing the ball at them when they blink, or force the ball towards them when they don't blink) while going for multi-hit throws.
2. In the Kenya and Japan matches, focus multi-hit throws on the two top priority targets, and ignore what happens to the third one. You'll hit him throughout your shots without even trying and won't notice when he'll die anyway. Throws that only hit the least priority target in those two matches are as good as air whiffs, and ultimately result in time losses.
3. If your throw is only going to hit one target, hit the top priority target.
4. Avoid multi-hit throws that don't include your priority target.
5. On multi-hit throws, ensure your top targets get hit first. Sam's blaster has diminishing returns on each subsequent target it hits, so you need to make sure your top targets get damaged the most.

Here's a quick list of priorities per team.

AllStars: Jack > Tom = Fred England: James > Scott = Henry India: Rajiv > Zail = Akbar Iceland: Helgi > Knut = Hans China: Wang > Li = Hsieh Kenya: Taha > Yemi > Oba(1) Japan: Sato > Fuji > Honda(1) Russia: Boris > Ivan = Pavel Shadow: Sam > anyone else(2)

Beanball: John > Sam (if you don't choose him) > anyone else

(1): In these two matches, a throw that only hits either Oba or Honda is as good as an air whiff, and WILL yield time losses. (2): John's defense doesn't scale like other John-like characters in that match, so he's not a priority target

Now it's not easy to ensure your ball hits the targets you want. Positioning has an impact on who your blinking target will be, so pay attention where the opposing team members are, and try to position yourself on your next shot so you have the most chances of hitting your priority targets while losing as little time as possible. Paying attention to priorities will eventually be the difference between a decent match and a gold split.