Important - Team suggestions - Please read

[[Ins]]

Ok I thought I’d post in the tactics section as it’s for members eyes only.

Ok, I’m not sure what everyone’s feeling is with this, but I thought it might be worth making a post on it to see what the general consensus was.

Going back a few months (or even back as far as late last year), the CS team was very active, playing a number of competitive games. This came mainly in the form of ED but we did “dabble” in a couple of other competitions. Since then, ED has died a death and we just got stuck playing PCW’s on D2.

Now I’ll be honest, at this stage I kinda lost interest. D2 is fun, but constant PCW’s on anymap gets a little boring. I missed the competitive side of the game, training for a match, the pressure of winning, trying to outwit the opponent tactically, etc. However, LOG then came along as we started to have something to play for again.

You may have noticed that I’m getting more active now (I’m on most nights) and that’s because I love playing in proper competitive games. I know that Dave has had PC problems and that Jiffz has to keep his lady happy, so actively has taken a little bit of a slump. However, I wanted to ping some ideas here to see what the team feeling was?

Here’s some ideas…..

More competitive games:

We need to get more active in competitive games not just playing PCW after PCW. This gives us something to train for rather and having a match night each week allows us to do a number of things. Firstly it allows us to practice for a particular map rather than just D2 / Office.

Secondly it gives us a goal. But above all, learning a new map with the team helps with communication, rotation and teamwork. It’s not about the map, it’s about how the team plays AS a team!!

Therefore perhaps we should look to get back into a ladder such as ED to start with just to get the team work back again. If anyone knows of any decent leagues, cups or ladders elsewhere, let me know! We don’t want to be entered into loads of comps, just a few. Ideally the best are ones like LOG where you get a map for each week. At least this way we’re not trying to stay in our comfort zone and playing D2 all the time as it makes us learn other maps. Again all good for teamwork.

Possible team reformat:

This is a general thought and might not even be worth entertaining, but do we need to recruit or do we have enough active people to play? I’m not looking for people to be online every single night, far from it, most of us don’t have time for that (me included). However what I would like to do is form a core team of 6-7 players that play all the games.

I say 6-7 players as we do need some scope to rotate players if others are unavailable. When I played in mEm, we had 6 players, but 5 played most of the time. Getting a core set of players makes a huge difference as after a few games, you start working as a team without having to call rotations – it just happens! It also will make us more disciplined and compact.

Summary:

So in summary (sorry for the long post lol):

1. We enter a ladder + cup or league with the mind to play maybe 1-2 competitive games each week. Maybe one mid-week game and one weekend game (Sunday).

2. We reformat the team to 6-7 core players and make an “OC3D Elite” team (still retaining A and B teams for PCWs / ED if we wish. This doesn’t mean that we’re kicking people out. Far from it! It just means that on the league games, we use this “Elite Team” as we’ll be more competitive.

So let me know what you think! I’m willing to work on tactics and train the team. I just need some feedback and ideas on this post.

Please do not see this as me “kicking” people out of the A team. It’s more to do with getting a unit of players who wish to play in these cups / ladders / leagues and then training them to get the best possible team performance out of them.

Cheers lads

Ins.

 

[llwyd]

I havent had a PC for a while and now I do, I cant get my microphone to work Think my medusas might have packed up so I might try pick up some cheap / second hand sennheisers asap

Anyway, all good suggestions that I agree with fully. I would love to get back into serious competitive play. I miss trying to drag ourselves into the next stage on ED (top 30 / 40 / 50 )

 

[jiffz]

Good stuff Ins, I think we all agree that the clan has fallen into a bit of a rabble without true leadership and inactiveness. As Ins is more active now and prepared to lead, I don't see any disadvantage of having a highly experienced player with knowledge/tactics on all maps to control the 1st team for a while

Lets get all the members to post up what they feel about this, and if they are available to make up the core 6/7 members. Me and Ham will be able to keep the 2nd team in practice now we have Hyper back and get us entering into Clanbase

Glad to see we can get the clan active again as it is a shame to see such a good amount talented players go to waste.

 

[Ham]

First off your right. But we've had these conversations before and without a kick up the ass it doesn't go anywhere.

The problem with this kind of thing is that everyone in the clan will say 'yeah! Count me in!'. Then 60%of the time they'll just end up scraping together a team 5 mins before the match starts.

Lots of recent inactivity from dave, tom and tangy has been due too xams. But they always take some time out of revison too play (at least when their PCs work). Another thing too consider is that come September/October time we will more than likely lose Dav0s, tom and jiffz too Uni. Where they'll be in halls with nastyass proxys.

After log finishes ill (with jiffz) be more than happy too take the B-team into clanbase or ED and start climbing up there. You really just need a leader too kick start the A-team back up n running fully.

My .02. Seems awfully negative...

 

[JN]

Agreed with everything everyone has said tbh. We need to get the clan back in shape, we need some more competitive play, we need a leader, and we need an 'Elite' competitive team that are always going to be available for matches.

I've been playing less and less recently but only because my workload can't justify hopping on the pubs for a p1ss around. If a proper match comes up I'm always available, and always will be :yumyum:

 

[[Ins]]

Thanks for the replies guys!

Going back on what Ham has said, yes I agree that there are always working issues with a team. I'm not assuming for one minute that we're going to have the same team forever. Yes people have other commitments and this is why teams chop and change.

I've been involved with many teams over the years (too many to keep a count of) but OC3D is the longest I've ever spent in a team. This is mainly due to the fact that I've been quite relaxed to play whenever. However I would (if possible) like to start playing more actively now and getting us back into competitions.

Don't get me wrong, we'll never be the top team in the UK because we are not that sad to play CS 24/7 lol. However, I'd like to think that we could challenge in the top 5 teams in ED and also win leagues like LOG and any smaller cups going.

In terms of aim, we're fine. I warm up with the majority of the team and what I see is very promising. However the main factor letting us down is just our teamwork. On D2 we're ok because we've played it so many times, we don't even have to think about rotations. However on more unfamiliar maps we do struggle. Take Nuke last night. We were fairly organised but there was a lot of things we could have done to make that performance truly special!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not moaning at all. It's just that I think I can offer the team guidance and help with not only the tactics, but the overall teamwork. However to do this, I need a core set of players to work with because tactics you can go over in about 10-15 minutes, but teamwork, rotations and general movement of positions (without being too far out of position) take time. It's not just about where you go, but whether you're partner is backed up or exposed by you moving.

My general training would be along the lines of:

- Map tactics: CT positions (each CT having 2-3 positions where they can alternate their position which removes predictability).

- Rotations: As CT, how to move if a site needs backing up. Not just rushing in, but almost having set areas in which to back up from. This makes back up just as co-coordinated as defending a site.

- Sub-Team tactics: Working in sub-teams, i.e. each site may contain two CT's each. These CT's work together and backup each other. They get the cross angles, flash each other into areas and generally work together. The main function of this is to keep each other alive. If we have to rotate to another site, we work on tactics that still mains this covering of each other. The 5th player is normally a link player who rotates and backs up where possible. If we lose one of the CT's in one of the sites, the link player backs up and partners up. As a general rule - if you get killed, you're team-mate kills your killer!

As T, working in pairs like we do, picking off and looking for an opening. It's like a boxing match, you take a few jabs here and there and if you see an opening, go for a bit hit. If it pays off, we adapt and take advantage of it.

- Advanced Tactics: This will cover things like advanced FB and smoke tactics, both as CT and as T. Taking out the CT's positions as T with smokes. Making them blind and confused so that they start to move out of position in order to compensate.

Also it will cover aspects such as what walls can we spam, can we get nades into areas at the start of rounds that will damage them? How do we unsettle their positions, etc? The bottom line is we know that 95% of CT positions are used by all teams, so with this knowledge we should be able to develop smoke and spamming tactics to reduce their advantage.

However in order to do any of this, I do need a core team. There's no point me going over these tactics and getting teamwork sorted if we're going to be changing the majority of the team each game.

I'd therefore suggest that if anyone wants to be in this core team, then they only commit if they want to be part of this, not if they only want to play now and again.

It's not going to be a major commitment to play in this team tbh. I mean we're looking for people to say "yeah I'll play one official game a week and will be about maybe a couple of nights a week to go over positions and test them in PCWs".

I'm not looking for people to say "I'll be on 7 days a week, training every night and games every other night" because I personally don't have time for that either! However, I'm sure we can all make at least one official a week. If we get a core team and people start dropping out we can do either two things. We can cancel the game and re-arrange or we can recruit in players that do want to play.

I am however not really that much in favour of recruiting in, because the whole point of OC3D is a close knit community and I think everyone in the team is easy to work with and above all, we're all good mates.

Anyway let me know what you think. I'm offering to train and lead this team, but I need people to commit to is as I don't want to spend loads of time training for it not to go anywhere.

 

[llwyd]

I'd be happy to commit to that, I much prefer organised play. Just need to sort my Mic asap

 

[Ham]

Spot on. Your experience is pretty much priceless when it comes too it. Looking from the perspective of leading the Bs, We need too get EVERYONE trained on your basic ideas/tactics at once though imo. Then you can take it further with your core team.

 

[equk]

I agree with loads of that stuff.

I know I have said about the fact we only seem to play dust2 and I know the active members (mainly OXO) have said about becoming more active and serious/competitive.

The B team were getting quite good and the teamplay was pretty excellent, altho we only really ever play dust2.

In the last month I've been asked to join 3 different CS:S clans who play on the IOA servers, but I keep saying 'I play for OC3D' when in reality I don't really feel like the OC3D team are that active.

There don't seem to be many who use IRC either

 

[jiffz]

Well we can become more active now Ins and Ham are taking charge with leading/organising, so we are now looking for dedicated followers now

So far I see the core 'elite' team as - Ins, XMS, Llwyd, Oxo. Just wondering who else has the ability/time to commit?

B team players - Ham, Hyper, Wayne-o, Equk, me when available

Who is left? Tom, Dave, Timmy, Tangy, ??

 

[!TIMMY!]

I finish my exams after Friday so ill be free

 

[Ham]

Too be fair when tom is needed hes alway there. He's not about for PCWs much but you can't blame him for that. That'd be my 5th too Jiffz's elite list. And dave when hes got a working computer & less on his plate.

Timmy has stepped up recently and can play either team no problem, and tangy's the same. Once they've got their xams out the way at least.

I think we need too get kemp playing again too tbh.

 

[Tom^]

Some great suggestions there Insy, and I'd definately like to commit myself to it and should be able to if it's only a few nights a week, leaving time for revision. However, as Ham said, I (and probably others) won't really be able to continue in the clan come September, but until then being more active and organised would be sweet.

Too be fair when tom is needed hes alway there. He's not about for PCWs much but you can't blame him for that. That'd be my 5th too Jiffz's elite list.

Yeah, I'm not really around for pcws as i don't want to waste an evening hanging around to see if anything happens. If its organised in advance though, I'll be there

 

[jiffz]

Thank god I thought I'd missed someone in our clan!

I agree with you there Hambo - Main 4 are Ins, Xms, Oxo and Llwyd. Then Tom, Timmy or Tangy as the 5th.

 

[[Ins]]

Thank god I thought I'd missed someone in our clan!

I agree with you there Hambo - Main 4 are Ins, Xms, Oxo and Llwyd. Then Tom, Timmy or Tangy as the 5th.

That looks like 7 to me

Unless of course anyone wants to drop out or doesn't want to commit?

 

[Oxo]

im happy with that, and to commit, ive sed on a number occasions, latest being last nite, if the 1st team want to improve we need to do what ins sed, as last nite showed up quite well, when we cant even do simple things like rush as a team, but also like ham sed, this has been said a few times but no ones done anythin about it, we shud reli orginise somthing solid and for EVERYONE to comit to.

 

[wayne-o]

Well my eyes hurt after that reading, like an english lesson just with bad grammar. well im always up for css, one day maybe move onto greener pastures, quit my day job and turn pro, Oxo also had this idea, but in my eyes doesnt have the determination atm, and hyper....enough said. lol. if we all pull our sox up, keep our heads high, determination is all we need. Go Tigers!

 

[Ham]

Well my eyes hurt after that reading, like an english lesson just with bad grammar. well im always up for css, one day maybe move onto greener pastures, quit my day job and turn pro, Oxo also had this idea, but in my eyes doesnt have the determination atm, and hyper....enough said. lol. if we all pull our sox up, keep our heads high, determination is all we need. Go Tigers!

Be nice you :whack:

 

[jiffz]

You tell him Ham

So this looks pretty sorted as far as I can see.

'Elite' team lead by Ins - Ins, Xms, Oxo, Llwyd and Tom. Extra: Timmy & Tang

B team lead by myself and Ham - Jiffz, Ham, Hyper, Equk, Wayne-o. Extra: Timmy & Tang.

Timmy, Tang & Dav0s' will become more available in future and at that point we can reasses to fit everyone in, but the above setup will be in place for a little while, which seems workable and fair to me.

Anyone disagree with it??

 

[equk]

im happy with that, and to commit, ive sed on a number occasions, latest being last nite, if the 1st team want to improve we need to do what ins sed, as last nite showed up quite well, when we cant even do simple things like rush as a team, but also like ham sed, this has been said a few times but no ones done anythin about it, we shud reli orginise somthing solid and for EVERYONE to comit to.

I think everyone should commit aswell as the B team could improve a lot more from regular practices and being more competitive

I wasn't online last night as I have done something to my muscles on the left of the stomach wall might not be on cs:s tonight either