The amazing art of Strat-Calling
Intro
Well, here I am with the dubstep blaring with 3 bottles of cranberry juice/blueberry juice writing up this article/guide on strat calling. Why? For a couple reasons. Mainly because I see teams breaking up every two weeks, saying ''our strats sucked. no one called'' and all this sort of rubbish. This annoys me so much its bizzare. It isnt exactly complicated.
Second reason is that, we all have to start somewhere and when I was a bad pubstar I had people that did help me out [credits to PhantomPain and Will mainly] although to learn more I did watch quite a few crossfire/cs casts and of course, learnt so much from those. Hopefully this guide can give some eyesight to little-rustmeisters.
And lastly, I see so many teams that are just so predictable and common in their strats that hopefully they will learn to expand their minds. I don't claim to be the best caller there is, and I don't come from a gaming background but my record does show that both teams I've led have finished 4th and 5th in Wogl season 1 and 2 respectively so I do believe I'm quite decent at it. Anyway, onwards with the little lesson.
Counter-Terrorist/Global Risk
I've decided to start with CT set ups since I think I'm better at predicting the opposition and preparing my team to counter-strat them. Well, firstly I'm going to talk about how other teams seem to start playing using Ceyhan as my example. They're is nearly always 2 playing A (1 platside and 1 pipeside], 1 scoping mid [near A doors] and the last 2 B [1 tunnels chokepoint and 1 bridge stairs]. I'd say 80% of teams that I come across will play this and it will barely change throughout the whole match besides possibly playing mid more aggressive or B passively.
Set-Up
Of course, there is nothing wrong with setting up this way if it works and I never change the strat if it is working just fine. However, if things start going south its time to change things up and fast, since with a 7 round match every round is so crucial - and if T side can determine you're weakpoint a half decent team will just abuse it.
What I like to do with my teams is just make sure there is no way they can take A as it is almost impossible to re-take if T side take it. By doing this I'd play two in A standard, 1 playing back of site, I'd play two mid [one camping behind close-box or beside the ledge and the other rifling near A doors]. My B player would be my best m4'er or SG552'er and he would be playing in Barn just watching if T take B site. The thought behind this? If they take A we can delay with counter flashes as the 2 mid players can rotate extremely fast. If they take B and we have 5 players remaining, I think we should be able to re-take it [I will cover re-takes later].
Map Control
As Ceyhan is such a wide map, I think that taking map control on CT can be invaluable. If your mid player gets a good spawn he could push into deep-mid and get a good position near the pipes or the wide box. Or if he was smater, he would get down A connector and just check how many/if any are in A tuns. Doing this, communication is crucial which I think most players in this game really lack [the EU language barrier doesnt help]. Simply telling your team that you're pushing down A connector can be really useful [2nd A player could flash lower giving you an easier opportunity]. On top of this, if it clear it will definetely be a B or Mid take and if your team plays smart - rotate 3 to B plat, and one player watches mid by playing B connector and just watches the small crack.
Another way to take map control here is definetely for an A player to try ninja into tuns and get behind the boxes at the tunnel opening. If one of my players got here I'd expect him to get an easy 2k at minimum, therefore I'd playing 2 players aggressive mid and two passive B. All this should be thought of at a split second. If they do hit a full A, and its a 3v4 situation it should suite CT since the 2 players mid can quickly flank sewers to A.
Key players
Another thing I see with teams is that the key players are not being being given the best opportunities. People will say ''Dellz carries seals so bad / all3 and sweboy carry pen15 so much / nip is a one man team for deluxe'' but that doesnt happen by accident. Of course all this guys have fantastic raw abilities but they get into positions to enhance this talent. For example, when I know I have a really special player in my team I'll normally try get as far up the map as possible. On B site Ceyhan, I'd try to send 3 players there. Get smoke down and flash bridge while the teams best player would be able to push up and get a crucial position under bridge or aggressive in alleyway. This gives us so much options from here, like telling two to push the B into mid, or just using the map control to stack A/mid.
Scopes
From the European point of view, there havent been many real ''amazing'' snipers to play here but if you are lucky enough to get a good scope in your team they really should be used a lot more. On CT, I always put my faith in the scope getting the crucial entry frag and getting your scope into a simple pre-aimed area it should be a simple shot for any decent scope. For this, I'll use Black Widow as an example. Get a good spawn for A long, take the opportunity to get map control [obviously send 1-2 riflers with the scope just to clarify that they can take A long]. From there, I'd probably get one of the riflers to camp barricades watching A long and then the scope could play on A ramp watching cat with 2 riflers playing B and another rifler in close mid. If a cat push does take place, the sniper should get at least one entry frag - get a counter flash then retreat to Long A. Also, the rifler mid doors can get a good flank into cat if he's fast enough and get an easy 2k minimum.
If you do have a quite amazing sniper in your team, I think they should be able to take two positions on BW easilly. With a good scope, I like to play 2 cat, 1 A [trybox] and 1 A ramp [behind gaybox/lower A box/stairs] and the sniper playing B window [peeks B, peeks mid, peeks B etc]. The role of the sniper is just to see if anyone pushes these area's and if possibly, get an entry frag. The focus here, is obviously holding A.
Another useful role of the scope is of course, just to peek B off the beginning of a round if they get a good spawn. If they see 1, they should easily get them. If they see none, they should call an A stack and if they see 3 or more - I'd definetely tell my teammates to push down cat and take control of that or to rotate B.
Re-takes
As promised, here is the paragraph on retakes. In this game, most teams retakes are absolutely atrocious. I don't know how many players/teams just go in one by one getting easily taken down by T side who have control of the site. If I was preparing for a massive tournament, I'd definetely have these down to a fine art with my team [knowing how to approach 2vX, 3vX and 4vX situations] but since there isnt anything big to prepare for here, it should be calling pretty much on the spur of the moment by the strat caller. As I've written earlier, for example stacking A on BW and if you're B/mid player calls a full B and you're left in a 5v5 situation, I think it should favour CT. As a strat caller I'd tell my team to shut up and rotate, from there I'd say get nades down under windows and at gaybox. Then two smokes on right side of door. Two guys mid flash in, one from windows flashes in. Players 1,2 and 3 go box and don't look right. Player 4 goes directly to plat trying to get to the defuse as soon as possible, and the window player comes in around 3 seconds after the mid guys looking towards plat. Getting box room is crucial, since by getting that you've eliminated anyone that can kill the defuser from there or anyone camping double-stack. Calling out ''nade windows, smoke right, Paddy go window, flash when me and Johnny flash. 3,2,1 Go.'' isnt exactly difficult and it doesnt exactly take long.
Another example would be the first demo of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNzSh1FtXF8&feature=related which is also a perfect example of a re-take.
Rushing
This isnt done near enough in my opinion from CT sides. Throwing a rush early in the game willl make the other team cautious for the remaining rounds. For example, 5 man rush up mid in Ceyhan. Get a smoke over from CT and just Nade/flash as ye push out. This should get at least one kill here, then I'd tell two guys to rotate straight back to A [going down A connector to sewers is never a good angle], and the others to go Bridge and clear all that general area. Rushing out mid on Black Widow, Factory, Sub Base can all be really easy rounds to pick up.
Nade Stacking
This is the last part of CT play I can think of right now. Since nades in this game are relatively weak, I think having 2/3 people stacking an area can be so usefull. For example, if ye get a good spawn get 3 people to nade Long A on Ceyhan. If they were hitting either a slow A or fast A, or just regular picks this will always kill at least one and do damage to the rest. Throw the nades, and get out. Its a lottery whether you'll get a kill, but you should be left with full HP regardless. Another example would be nade stacking mid on Ceyhan, you MIGHT get a kill but everyone that threw a nade should get back safely.
It can also be used as sort of a fake. On Mexico throw 3 nades up mid early in the round might make the other team think you have 3 players holding mid, which might lead to them htting alleyway or sewers. However, instead of having 3 mid you might only play 1 there and instead, play 2 sewers and 2 on A plat. Likewise, throwing 4 nades up mid on Factory might make the other team think you're playing mid aggressively, but instead only leaving 2 players in mid. Its all mind games.
Hopefully this will be somewhat useful since this is only CT and it took fcking ages to do. T side should be coming up hopefully pretty soon. Apoligies for grammer / my sentence structure / spelling mistakes I might have made.
Well, here I am with the dubstep blaring with 3 bottles of cranberry juice/blueberry juice writing up this article/guide on strat calling. Why? For a couple reasons. Mainly because I see teams breaking up every two weeks, saying ''our strats sucked. no one called'' and all this sort of rubbish. This annoys me so much its bizzare. It isnt exactly complicated.
Second reason is that, we all have to start somewhere and when I was a bad pubstar I had people that did help me out [credits to PhantomPain and Will mainly] although to learn more I did watch quite a few crossfire/cs casts and of course, learnt so much from those. Hopefully this guide can give some eyesight to little-rustmeisters.
And lastly, I see so many teams that are just so predictable and common in their strats that hopefully they will learn to expand their minds. I don't claim to be the best caller there is, and I don't come from a gaming background but my record does show that both teams I've led have finished 4th and 5th in Wogl season 1 and 2 respectively so I do believe I'm quite decent at it. Anyway, onwards with the little lesson.
Counter-Terrorist/Global Risk
I've decided to start with CT set ups since I think I'm better at predicting the opposition and preparing my team to counter-strat them. Well, firstly I'm going to talk about how other teams seem to start playing using Ceyhan as my example. They're is nearly always 2 playing A (1 platside and 1 pipeside], 1 scoping mid [near A doors] and the last 2 B [1 tunnels chokepoint and 1 bridge stairs]. I'd say 80% of teams that I come across will play this and it will barely change throughout the whole match besides possibly playing mid more aggressive or B passively.
Set-Up
Of course, there is nothing wrong with setting up this way if it works and I never change the strat if it is working just fine. However, if things start going south its time to change things up and fast, since with a 7 round match every round is so crucial - and if T side can determine you're weakpoint a half decent team will just abuse it.
What I like to do with my teams is just make sure there is no way they can take A as it is almost impossible to re-take if T side take it. By doing this I'd play two in A standard, 1 playing back of site, I'd play two mid [one camping behind close-box or beside the ledge and the other rifling near A doors]. My B player would be my best m4'er or SG552'er and he would be playing in Barn just watching if T take B site. The thought behind this? If they take A we can delay with counter flashes as the 2 mid players can rotate extremely fast. If they take B and we have 5 players remaining, I think we should be able to re-take it [I will cover re-takes later].
Map Control
As Ceyhan is such a wide map, I think that taking map control on CT can be invaluable. If your mid player gets a good spawn he could push into deep-mid and get a good position near the pipes or the wide box. Or if he was smater, he would get down A connector and just check how many/if any are in A tuns. Doing this, communication is crucial which I think most players in this game really lack [the EU language barrier doesnt help]. Simply telling your team that you're pushing down A connector can be really useful [2nd A player could flash lower giving you an easier opportunity]. On top of this, if it clear it will definetely be a B or Mid take and if your team plays smart - rotate 3 to B plat, and one player watches mid by playing B connector and just watches the small crack.
Another way to take map control here is definetely for an A player to try ninja into tuns and get behind the boxes at the tunnel opening. If one of my players got here I'd expect him to get an easy 2k at minimum, therefore I'd playing 2 players aggressive mid and two passive B. All this should be thought of at a split second. If they do hit a full A, and its a 3v4 situation it should suite CT since the 2 players mid can quickly flank sewers to A.
Key players
Another thing I see with teams is that the key players are not being being given the best opportunities. People will say ''Dellz carries seals so bad / all3 and sweboy carry pen15 so much / nip is a one man team for deluxe'' but that doesnt happen by accident. Of course all this guys have fantastic raw abilities but they get into positions to enhance this talent. For example, when I know I have a really special player in my team I'll normally try get as far up the map as possible. On B site Ceyhan, I'd try to send 3 players there. Get smoke down and flash bridge while the teams best player would be able to push up and get a crucial position under bridge or aggressive in alleyway. This gives us so much options from here, like telling two to push the B into mid, or just using the map control to stack A/mid.
Scopes
From the European point of view, there havent been many real ''amazing'' snipers to play here but if you are lucky enough to get a good scope in your team they really should be used a lot more. On CT, I always put my faith in the scope getting the crucial entry frag and getting your scope into a simple pre-aimed area it should be a simple shot for any decent scope. For this, I'll use Black Widow as an example. Get a good spawn for A long, take the opportunity to get map control [obviously send 1-2 riflers with the scope just to clarify that they can take A long]. From there, I'd probably get one of the riflers to camp barricades watching A long and then the scope could play on A ramp watching cat with 2 riflers playing B and another rifler in close mid. If a cat push does take place, the sniper should get at least one entry frag - get a counter flash then retreat to Long A. Also, the rifler mid doors can get a good flank into cat if he's fast enough and get an easy 2k minimum.
If you do have a quite amazing sniper in your team, I think they should be able to take two positions on BW easilly. With a good scope, I like to play 2 cat, 1 A [trybox] and 1 A ramp [behind gaybox/lower A box/stairs] and the sniper playing B window [peeks B, peeks mid, peeks B etc]. The role of the sniper is just to see if anyone pushes these area's and if possibly, get an entry frag. The focus here, is obviously holding A.
Another useful role of the scope is of course, just to peek B off the beginning of a round if they get a good spawn. If they see 1, they should easily get them. If they see none, they should call an A stack and if they see 3 or more - I'd definetely tell my teammates to push down cat and take control of that or to rotate B.
Re-takes
As promised, here is the paragraph on retakes. In this game, most teams retakes are absolutely atrocious. I don't know how many players/teams just go in one by one getting easily taken down by T side who have control of the site. If I was preparing for a massive tournament, I'd definetely have these down to a fine art with my team [knowing how to approach 2vX, 3vX and 4vX situations] but since there isnt anything big to prepare for here, it should be calling pretty much on the spur of the moment by the strat caller. As I've written earlier, for example stacking A on BW and if you're B/mid player calls a full B and you're left in a 5v5 situation, I think it should favour CT. As a strat caller I'd tell my team to shut up and rotate, from there I'd say get nades down under windows and at gaybox. Then two smokes on right side of door. Two guys mid flash in, one from windows flashes in. Players 1,2 and 3 go box and don't look right. Player 4 goes directly to plat trying to get to the defuse as soon as possible, and the window player comes in around 3 seconds after the mid guys looking towards plat. Getting box room is crucial, since by getting that you've eliminated anyone that can kill the defuser from there or anyone camping double-stack. Calling out ''nade windows, smoke right, Paddy go window, flash when me and Johnny flash. 3,2,1 Go.'' isnt exactly difficult and it doesnt exactly take long.
Another example would be the first demo of this clip: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LNzSh1FtXF8&feature=related which is also a perfect example of a re-take.
Rushing
This isnt done near enough in my opinion from CT sides. Throwing a rush early in the game willl make the other team cautious for the remaining rounds. For example, 5 man rush up mid in Ceyhan. Get a smoke over from CT and just Nade/flash as ye push out. This should get at least one kill here, then I'd tell two guys to rotate straight back to A [going down A connector to sewers is never a good angle], and the others to go Bridge and clear all that general area. Rushing out mid on Black Widow, Factory, Sub Base can all be really easy rounds to pick up.
Nade Stacking
This is the last part of CT play I can think of right now. Since nades in this game are relatively weak, I think having 2/3 people stacking an area can be so usefull. For example, if ye get a good spawn get 3 people to nade Long A on Ceyhan. If they were hitting either a slow A or fast A, or just regular picks this will always kill at least one and do damage to the rest. Throw the nades, and get out. Its a lottery whether you'll get a kill, but you should be left with full HP regardless. Another example would be nade stacking mid on Ceyhan, you MIGHT get a kill but everyone that threw a nade should get back safely.
It can also be used as sort of a fake. On Mexico throw 3 nades up mid early in the round might make the other team think you have 3 players holding mid, which might lead to them htting alleyway or sewers. However, instead of having 3 mid you might only play 1 there and instead, play 2 sewers and 2 on A plat. Likewise, throwing 4 nades up mid on Factory might make the other team think you're playing mid aggressively, but instead only leaving 2 players in mid. Its all mind games.
Hopefully this will be somewhat useful since this is only CT and it took fcking ages to do. T side should be coming up hopefully pretty soon. Apoligies for grammer / my sentence structure / spelling mistakes I might have made.
Comments
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Well, this is just an insult to my ego and genius that a thread of some handicap that makes the same thread 5 times about choosing two guns while talking bullsh1t while my thread which is actually useful just gets completely ignored.
Seeing no flaws in your logic, I see no reason to post here. Just taking the information and moving along. Posts are for questions/comments/fixes etc. You would probably have many thanks if there was that option on these forums. -
Not a competitive playa but understood all of it good job
Thank you. Even for fun scrims every piece of knowledge is helpful I guess.Seeing no flaws in your logic, I see no reason to post here. Just taking the information and moving along. Posts are for questions/comments/fixes etc. You would probably have many thanks if there was that option on these forums.
Lol, thats one way to put it I guess. Thanks for positive feedback. Just seeing the thread go down the list rapidly and without that many views/replies was a tad bit irritating after I spent quite a while writing all of that guide/article up. Cheers.send pm to support saying you're sorry and you'll get unbanned. :P
ot: rust would be a good strat caller if you understand him and his dirty accent.
haha, no need now I guess. Makes no difference to me. Tbh, I'd probably have like 7k posts if my main wasnt banned - then I'd seem like another 'MyAwm' which would NOT be good!!!
About my accent, the sad thing is I try to sound clearer when I'm online and still only like 10 people can understand me properly.
-
This is flawed because you say things like:
If your mid player gets a good spawn he could push into deep-mid and get a good position near the pipes or the wide box. Or if he was smater, he would get down A connector and just check how many/if any are in A tuns.
Your advice is only applicable to specific teams' playstyles. And advice like sending one guy on CT on a suicide mission for a possible call does not apply to the vast majority of teams (in my experience).
Too specific to be effective for the majority of people. This would be fine, but you labelled it as a guide to strat calling, is misleading.
Not a suicide mission if you tell him to just peek places/use his brain or ears. It isnt that difficult to do and helps the team a lot more. The only thing I ask of that player is not to get picked, and if they play any bit smart then they won't. Also, I recommended using the sniper for this use. All the need is an entry-frag, and its a 4v5 situation with full use of health and nades.
All of my article was guidance on how you can approach a match. I basically used examples, and then wrote about why I made this decision and how we can re-act to the situation.
On a side-note, I've led 3 pug teams. Two in leagues. One of them we were just messing about 99% of the time, in ApeSchit we all had good teamwork, great chemistry but only Craig,Ks0yp and Jelle were anywhere decent shot makers and still ended up 4th [shouldve made finals but we had a pretty bad fight >.>]. PEN15 just had talented players, although completely inactive we managed to place 5th using the ability of All3/Sweboy/Snookie/G3n0m. What I'm saying here is, even with completely different play styles - mixing up your standard can get you key rounds and can play with your oppositions minds. Every round is crucial.YourSistaa wrote: »Pretty much agreed on everything,
When I used to call I was more thinking how to surprise the enemy, at some point we are actually doing the same.....
like a baws. -
Running a guy to a position where the only cover he has in a thin alleyway is a small indent and a small Z hallway, and enemies on BOTH sides of him is a suicide mission. BL side takes mid on Ceyhan, if they don't then they're doing a full rush or they're stupid.
You have to assume that BL has 5 people going A, 5 people going middle, and 5 people going B. At this point there's nobody in CF who can, against a team who know what they're doing, predict-call properly, which means
that you have to assume that BL has 5 people going A, 5 people going middle, and 5 people going B.
You cannot write a guide on prediction based calls, even using exampels, without providing EVERY SINGLE ACTION that has happened in the game up to the point of the descision made by the caller.
Then title your thread "aggressive calling from an amateur prediction caller's view".
In your piece you say
You then NEVER mention playing 4/5 player site-stacks or pushes. If you are prediction based calling, and you are NOT 4/5 stacking, then you are not confident enough in your ability to consistently predict the opponents' movements and are therefore an amateur at it.
My complaint is with what you have chosen to title your thread, not the thread itself. You content is good for aspiring callers, however it is potrayed in a way that makes it seem as though it is to educated everyone, including existing callers, and how to improve their calling.
Maybe that's just me.
On the first part ; if you're fast enough you can get across without them noticing. Or, you can hide behind the box for a couple of seconds and then ninja down. Believe me, I've done it quite a lot and it works. And BL takes mid? BL expect to have mid. The maximum I ever see is two people going mid, and if that does happen one of them immediately veers right to peek bridge.
Second part: Using predictions correctly is smart. If your team is any good playing together, stacking one site - you'll be able to lock it down. If they take the other, you have the advantage of having nades and a full team of full health players.
Anyway, I've played my way since I've began and all of my teams ; although without putting in 10 minutes of practise, not even having our shots up to standard, have managed to go to the wire in every tournament we've entered. I made this thread to help people out, not to spark a debate with some person that simply cannot seem to imagine that another person has another play-style. -
On the first part ; if you're fast enough you can get across without them noticing. Or, you can hide behind the box for a couple of seconds and then ninja down. Believe me, I've done it quite a lot and it works.
Not like I base my ENTIRE PLAYSTYLE around this, nooooooooooooo.
If the BL team plays their spawns correctly, like they SHOULD be doing, you can't get into mid passed the boxes without being seen due to server lag. Yes, you CAN get behind the boxes, however this is inneffective against any team that understands that that area can be contested by GR. Which is any GOOD team.[/quote]And BL takes mid? BL expect to have mid.
Not if they're a decent team.The maximum I ever see is two people going mid, and if that does happen one of them immediately veers right to peek bridge.
This statement is stupid, you are trying to use a possible sceneario which depending entirely on the other team's thought process, and is incredibly different depending on the match, as a fact.
Unless of course your guide is to teach people how to beat bad teams.
Where the **** did I say it wasn't? Prediction based calling is the most effective, as long as the caller can do it FULLY AND CONSISTENTLY, and the players listen and don't suck.Second part: Using predictions correctly is smart.If your team is any good playing together, stacking one site - you'll be able to lock it down. If they take the other, you have the advantage of having nades and a full team of full health players.
This is completely irrelevant to my point and yours.Anyway, I've played my way since I've began and all of my teams ; although without putting in 10 minutes of practise, not even having our shots up to standard, have managed to go to the wire in every tournament we've entered.
Then the teams you have played against are ****. Which the VAST MAJORITY of CF teams are.I made this thread to help people out, not to spark a debate with some person that simply cannot seem to imagine that another person has another play-style.
Now you're just being stupid. Of every competitive player, I have the most unique playstyle, 100% garunteed. I can main weapons like the Xm10 and MP5 and still pull my weight against good teams. I am the person MOST inclined to believe thet people have different play styles.
BTW I heard discussing ideas with people who see flaws in them in order to IMPROVE those ideas is a bad thing?
Thought you weren't as reactionary as the rest of this forum Rust. -
Thank you. Even for fun scrims every piece of knowledge is helpful I guess.
Lol, thats one way to put it I guess. Thanks for positive feedback. Just seeing the thread go down the list rapidly and without that many views/replies was a tad bit irritating after I spent quite a while writing all of that guide/article up. Cheers.
haha, no need now I guess. Makes no difference to me. Tbh, I'd probably have like 7k posts if my main wasnt banned - then I'd seem like another 'MyAwm' which would NOT be good!!!
About my accent, the sad thing is I try to sound clearer when I'm online and still only like 10 people can understand me properly.
i don't even know you and you're talking sh1t?
also your thread is useless as nobody will learn how to properly strat call while reading.
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