[quote author=nostar link=topic=209.msg1856#msg1856 date=1274509607]<br />I&#039;ll be honest, I&#039;ve seen some smart guys D and have little success. And I&#039;ve see some of the best shots D and have little success. I&#039;m pretty good at D so I&#039;ll tell you what I think makes a difference.<br />[/quote]<br /><br />[b][i]Could you speak up and stop the mumbling<br />I don&#039;t think you&#039;re getting clear.<br />Sitting on the top, it&#039;s hard to hear you from way up here.<br />I saw you tryin&#039; to act cute on tv just let me clear the air.<br />We missed you on the charts last week<br />Damn that&#039;s right, you wasn&#039;t there.[/i][/b]<br />[img]http://thefastertimes.com/nonsensenews/files/2009/11/justin_timberlake.jpg[/img]<br /><br />You&#039;re garbage on Defense, so I have no clue why you think you&#039;re any good when you just let your team do all the work for you. I&#039;ll share some of my genius to help dudes understand the principles of Defense, which is typically where you should start. Let me point out why this is, how this fits into the dynamics of Defensive players in a 3v3 format, and what anyone looking for pointers on Defense should do, and [b]why[/b] they should do them. This requires a fresh look at CTF and the [b]team dynamics[/b], so bear with me here. There&#039;s a good few posts here that outline Defense pretty well so I&#039;m gonna try not to repeat what others have said too much.<br /><br />======================<br /><br />[color=red][size=5][b]The Wall-In Effect[/b][/size][/color]<br /><br />Now I just accused the faaaabulous nostar of letting his teammates do all the work for him. You might ask, [i]&quot;How would his teammates do all the work for him if he&#039;s on defense, and typically they&#039;re playing other, more offensive positions?&quot;[/i] It&#039;s an excellent question. The reason for this is that if the offense is strong enough, and manages to perpetually stop the opposing team&#039;s runners at the middle or, even worse competitively, their own base, the defense will not see a great amount of action inside their base. This is what I call the Wall-In Effect. The entire enemy team has fallen back to their own base in an effort to purge [b]your[/b] team so their defensive line is secured and they basically don&#039;t get spawnfragged out the ass while someone like mikehail runs flag after flag.<br /><br />In this position, the player in charge of Defense would typically move up to the middle to provide a much closer area of support to the teammates playing a more offensive role, yet still playing Defense. What you should [b]not[/b] do in this position is continue to push up [b]into[/b] the enemy&#039;s base or in range of their spawns. What you typically want is to stay in a zone of control to where you can see any stragglers that take advantage of the chaos to make a quick get-away with your flag, thereby slipping past you and touching your flag. This is another key focal point of playing defense. [b]Awareness[/b], which will be covered more in a bit.<br /><br />But...What about if [b]your[/b] team is the one being pinned in?<br /><br />======================<br /><br />[color=blue][size=5][b]D&amp;O Railroad[/b][/size][/color]<br /><br />There are two [b]primary[/b] (key word, as there are many secondary roles in CTF) separations of players in the league. Defensive players and Offensive players. Offensive players either cuss the hell out of the enemy (wholly ineffective) or, if they aren&#039;t Bloodstrike, they run flags / support the runner.<br /><br />It&#039;s supporting the runner that we&#039;ll be focusing on. What [b]is[/b] supporting the runner? First, one must understand the definition of Support.<br /><br />[img]http://www.upload3r.com/serve/220510/1274551322.png[/img]<br /><br />Pay close attention to 9. 9 is what you&#039;ll be doing as a Support player. Support players typically play in a region of the map that benefits [b]both[/b] primary groups of players (Defense &amp; Offense), some players call them &#039;mid&#039; or &#039;middle&#039; players but really that&#039;s not a fair definition, since being a versatile Support player requires you not to be anchored to one place at any time.<br /><br />Now, if you ask &quot;How does this relate to Defense in any way?!&quot;, I&#039;m about to tell you. Support players not only occasionally drop back to a momentary Defensive role if the Defender is in a heap of trouble (for any multitude of reasons), but they also are the front line [b]defense[/b] against the opposing team&#039;s runners!<br /><br />Picture this. One Defensive player each team. Two runners on the opposite team, while you have one runner and one Support player. Support runs to the middle with the Offense in the first &#039;wave&#039; (more on waves&#039; importance later) except unlike Offense, he&#039;s gunning explicitly for enemy players. He meets the two runners, manages to either heavily damage both or frag one of them before dying himself. What does this leave you? Support spawns back in your base but probably not in time to finish the job. The point is, your runner is going toe to toe with the enemy&#039;s Defense while [b]you[/b] have an advantage due to the weakened Offense of the opposing team!<br /><br />Support is incredibly underrated and I rarely see players credit them, and never as often as the runner gets credit. The principle of a CTF team is that the entire team is at fault if you are losing. [b]Every[/b] player helps the other out in some way, and if they aren&#039;t, that drags your team&#039;s chances down [b]dramatically[/b].<br /><br />Think about this. If the Offense is doing well, that either means they will sacrifice O for D, making your job easier and able to more effectively control the map, or send a balls-to-the-wall counter-push with a strong O force, sacrificing their D, making your runner&#039;s job easier, but your job harder. Using your base&#039;s layout to your advantage and communicating properly to your Support player it shouldn&#039;t be an issue.<br /><br />Every shift in the opponent&#039;s play is a shift in yours, and one to be taken advantage of, especially if your team is the one that&#039;s forcing the shifts. Note that word, &quot;communicating&quot;. Defensive players [b]have[/b] to communicate with the rest of their team to be successful. Again, the team all has to work together, and you&#039;re an integral part of that.<br /><br />======================<br /><br />[color=green][size=5][b]Pins and Needles[/b][/size][/color]<br /><br />In the first part I asked what would you do if your team was the one getting pinned inside their own base? As Defense, the weight falls largely to you, since this is [b]your[/b] forte. Clearing out the base can be easier said than done, but it can be done. I&#039;ll give you some tips on how to go about clearing it easily, although a good deal of it depends on the maps&#039; spawns, your teammates actions and your own judgment, which is practiced, not learned.<br /><br />[b]1.[/b] [i]How many are there?[/i] Very important. Approach killing them with a step system in your head, with # of steps based off # of opponents in your base.<br /><br />[b]2.[/b] [i]Can I kill the runner?[/i] The undoubtedly second step you should take is looking for the enemy team&#039;s main flag runner inside your base. Killing him is vital because he&#039;s the strongest player to you right now. With his teammates holding you down, he would be in a position to run your flag. Kill him first.<br /><br />[b]3.[/b] [i]Sweep the rest[/i]. Self-descriptive. You want to get rid of the rest of them ASAP now that the main threat to your team is down. Focus on one, then the other, don&#039;t try to keep track of both else you&#039;ll probably delay the purging further, and the runner will be right back in your base.<br /><br />[b]4.[/b] [i]Push up![/i] Chances are once their push is eliminated, they&#039;ll be busy collecting weapons/armor and as a result, not launching a jointed attack like they did before. This give you a chance to catch your breath and re-settle into your groove as a unit. Watch your Support and Offense to see what they&#039;re doing and adapt accordingly. Defense is not a static role.<br /><br />======================<br /><br />[color=Purple][size=5][b]Awareness[/b][/size][/color] (most important part)<br /><br />So most of the other focal points of a decent defending player and the logic behind them is covered, now this is what you need to practice a lot in (besides aiming, like nostar already pretty much covered).<br /><br />What constitutes awareness on Defense? Three things: Sound, Visual, Mind. You can call it SVM if you want, but it&#039;s kind of lame so don&#039;t really.<br /><br />Why is sound so important? If you need this answered you prolly shouldn&#039;t be playing in IDL. Using sound you can gauge distance, direction, and status. So if you don&#039;t have a good pair of speakers, get some headphones. Sound can mean a multitude of things. Spawns, hit points of an opposing runner, where runners are coming from, and even more. You&#039;re going to need to [b]think[/b] about the sounds as much as hear them in the first place, which loops it into using your head.<br /><br />At the same time, you&#039;re going to want to pay attention to the actual visual display in front of you, all the while doing little calculations in your head. One specific concept where all three of these focal points of awareness come into play is [b]waves[/b].<br /><br />Waves are what I like to call the time period between the death of a runner in your base, and that same runner respawning, the time between his respawning and his appearing in your base. these are waves, and if you play a map (READ: PRACTICE) enough you&#039;ll be able to tentatively time in your head when you&#039;d expect runners and their support players to appear on your screen.<br /><br />What the bottom line here is for you, is that you basically need to take all the posts here with a grain of salt, find the information you feel helps you, and most importantly, take that into [b]practice[/b]. Practice is what you pretty much need to do constantly if you want to be a good D player.<br /><br />I&#039;d say Defense is the hardest position to play, since a lot of the team dynamics and even the success of the Offense depends on it. A great thought to have about practice is that you&#039;re practicing for when, not if, your middle/support fails and you have to push back every player from the opposing team from your flag.<br /><br />The difference between losing and winning depends on a lot of learned-through-experience factors, but it&#039;s really all about you and your team. But you know, if your team loses be sure to expect everyone to blame you. That&#039;s the Xen Effect.<br /><br />Peace out and screw Fast for making me take time outta my great day to write this.