How to Open 2-Sets With a Wing

[pancakemouse]

First, a glossary:

Hero: the guy whose idea it is to approach the 2-set
Wing: the other guy who will be occupying the non-target
Target: the girl of interest
Non-Target: the girl who is not the target. Cockblock risk.

In Manhattan Daygame, we usually only send one guy in to open a 2 (or more) set at first. This is to make it so the other guy can come in and save/bolster the frame if needed. You can both roll up at the same time as well, it’s valid, it’s just not as optimal in our opinion.

First, identify who is most likely to get the girls to stop, you or your wing. For example, if they’re whitewashed lings and your wing is white and you aren’t, you probably want to send your wing in to open, even if he doesn’t necessarily like any of the girls in the set.

The opener should address both girls, but your eyes and body language should be mainly facing the target. Keep it going and try to hook/stop them. If they’re not having it at all, just give up on the set, and the wing shouldn’t even enter.

If they do hook somewhat and/or stop, the wing should enter their field of vision. The guy who opened introduces him: “This is my friend [name] by the way.”

From here, we break down into a couple different situations:

2-set where only one of the guys is into one of the girls

In this situation, the hero is trying to game one of the girls in a 2-set and the wing is there as backup to run interference for the other girl.

If the girls can be separated into two 1:1 sets, you want to do that as soon as possible. Upon the wing’s entrance is often a good time to do that. As soon as he’s introduced, he should immediately address the non-target or wombo and tries to isolate her from the target.

Once the girls are separated, each of you should run the set like a normal daygame set, but always be aware of where the other guy is with his girl. The wing should focus on entertaining and validating the other girl to stop her from cockblocking, while the hero should try and number close as soon as possible, expecting a cockblock to come any minute.

After the number close, the wing should bring the non-target back to the target and allow for some cross-talk to get all parties familiar with each other, so that non-target gets to know the hero so she doesn’t try to cockblock later on.

Sometimes it won’t be possible to separate the girls. In this case, just run a 2:2 set with cross-talk (each of you gaming both of the girls) for as long as you need to find an opportunity to separate. If they won’t separate, you’re in a tough situation. The hero can try to do a number close with the other girl in earshot, but it’s low probability.

2-set where the wing is also into his girl

The wing should come in and choose his target, assuming the hero has already correctly picked his own target. If this was done incorrectly, no worries as it’s trivial to switch girls if you’re smooth about it. I recommend having a pre-planned physical signal with your wing in this situation. With Lean, when one of us uses the other one’s shoulder as a crutch to fake getting a stone out of their shoe, we know it’s time to switch.

As with before, try and separate the girls out of hearing range of each other, and both of you should proceed to game the girls separately.

At this point, you break down into two situations:

The girls are pullable

In this situation, the wings need a way to communicate with each other that a pull could happen. This generally happens after the 1:1 sets are over, and when all parties reunite to cross-talk. Don’t overestimate how much girls can actually hear you quickly say something to each other, a quick, low “We could pull” might be all you need to verbally signal. You could also come up with a physical signal for this.

Ideally, one of the wings has already pre-seeded the pull venue and gotten the buy-in from one of the girls. If not, the pull venue will have to be pre-seeded and then seeded during crosstalk, and you’ll have a tougher time because both girls will need to confer with each other about if they want to go or not. You might even have to give them space for girl talk.

If you’ve pre-seeded, just seed the pull now and hopefully the girl that was down convinces their friend, then run it like a normal pull, just with all four of you.

The girls are not pullable

In this case, each wing should just try to get his girl’s respective contact. As with the previous situation, bring them back to the 2:2 set for cross-talk. You could even seed a double-date if you wanted to, but often higher ROI is that each guy just continues gaming his individual girl.

Questions

What about 3-sets?

Same thing, except the wing just occupies the two non-targets.

What about 3-sets with 3 guys?

Same concept as 2-sets, except now you’re evenly matched.

What about 2-sets alone?

You can try, but I’ve found them a waste of time. It’s too easy for the friend to cockblock and/or there’s too much pressure on the target. I’ve probably done 200+ 2-sets alone and never gotten anything from them.