Naming Your Offense

Posted by: DLight

Easier Than You Think
Running an offense is never an easy thing to do. Whether you're having trouble developing a reputable system, or simply losing focus while relaying the information in real time, directing an effective attack can be a strenuous and time consuming ordeal. Time is always in short supply during live-action competition, and keeping things clear and concise can be the difference in calling the right play for your team, or the right play for the opposition. Offensive guru is truly a premium position in the world of Counter-Strike, and requires a level of experience and critical thinking that is not readily available to every competitor, but there are still underlining ways in which a team can not only improve the quality of their playbook, but decrease the downtime needed for strategy repetition and effectively increase the volume of plays available all at the same time.

The trick to running a high-powered, high-volume offense is organization, and terminology. As we have previously discussed, developing a language system can increase comprehension and greatly enhance the number of defensive plays that can be run at any given time, on any given map. Just as we do on defense, we can create a series of words and prefixes to help manage our situation, round by round. At first glance this may appear to be too difficult a task; after all, Counter-Strike is not like other team-based competitions in the world. Players compete on a variety of maps, all of which require different strategies, and utilize different location-based terminology. This problem, however, is really no problem at all. All we need to do is think about the situation logically, and address accordingly.

Let's take a page out of American Football for a second to achieve a better perspective on the situation. In professional football, one would find it very difficult to translate defensive terminology over to the offensive side of play. Even though it is the same game being played, an offense must create their own system, and while that system maintains level of consistency across teams on a basic level, it is still largely unique to each team. Everything from the type of plays run, to the terminology used can differ from team to team. Making the transition to Counter-Strike is really nothing more than a little creativity, and a dash of uniqueness to fit your flavor.

The DL System
Here I have developed a starter-system for offensive language -- its purpose is to help you better understand the concept of this article, but may be utilized and expanded upon freely. You will notice that I have taken five common themes in strategies, and split up my offense into five categories: Quick, Slow, Fake, Option and Pop.

Quick-- plays that are quick to and out of an area.
Slow-- plays that are slower to set up or timed.
Fake-- plays that fake an area with the intent of taking another.
Option-- pseudo plays that are called before a real play (good for prior spamming / picking).
Pop-- plays that involve targeted nades before a play (may be condensed with option).

Just by dividing up my offense, I have decreased the amount of terminology I need for each play by 4. In more linear and less thought-out offenses, plays are generally run on a one-word basis. This can be based on anything -- a TV show, an object, anything really. The problem with that system is, and always has been the need to continue coming up with words to attach to plays, seriously limiting the amount of strategies a player can remember and rehearse on-call. Because I have organized things however, I can use the same word for five different plays if I so choose, and have it easily and quickly understood.

Let's say I have a play on Nuke called "Ramp." Normally, this would be a very poor idea, as it can make things very confusing, but not in this case. If I were to call Quick Ramp, or "Q-Ramp," my team immediately knows we are running the Quick Ramp strategy. The very next round, I could call "S-Ramp," and the entire team is on the same page -- it's Slow Ramp time. What about P-Ramp? Yup, you got it. We're using our Pop Ramp strategy.

Efficiency Is Key
The key to using play pre-fixes is to select those that do not conflict too heavily with regular language. For example, you will notice I used the qualifier "Q" for "Quick," instead of "F" for "Fast." This is because fast is a very, very common word. I do not want to be in a situation where things break down in a play, and I call an adjustment and say "Ok guys, let's go fast ramp!" and have any confusion as to whether I'm calling an actual play, or simply changing things on the fly. Slow is also a common word, but is generally not a problem as it doesn't require such hasty reactions. If that's a problem for your team however, change it -- it's all about customization. Pop is specifically named as such as well. The word Nade is simply too frequently used on the fly.

Every play you name can have a Slow, Quick or Fake counter-part at the minimum. What makes this so great, is that now you can develop and easily learn three plays, for most every strategy. Even just four plays can quickly turn into twelve that is now embedded into your offense. Because names are consistent and are divided so appropriately, a high-volume of plays becomes much, much easier to manage and as a result, your options on offense are greatly increased.

Q-Ladder Jet [Quick]
S-Box [Slow]
F-Ramp [Fake]
O-Spam [Option
P-Door [Pop]

Once your team becomes comfortable with the terminology, they will be able to string plays together, or even develop plays that branch off into others. Take a look at these short situational examples to get an idea:


"Run S-Box, but Pop ivy first" -- a slow play utilizing a nade adjustment at ivy.

"OK guys, O-Spam S-Box" -- a slow play called to run after an option spam play.

"O-Spam... [after spam ends] Ok, let's run the S-Lower Blitz" -- play called on the fly after an option.

"O-Spam F-Ramp." -- pre-play spam option being run before an area fake.

"O-Garage" -- a branching option play that gives the choice of different directions once set up.

Option and Slow plays are a little more difficult to run in the CGS era under time constraints, but if there is anyway to do it, it's with a quick and effective system. Beyond the in-game benefits to an offensive terminology, there is also the added balance of linearity and complexity to be found in your physical playbook. Being able to keep track of the number of Quick, Slow and other type plays in your arsenal is a great way to define the character of your offense. Whether it's online in a folder, spending time in the frontal lobe or sitting right next to you, having an easy-to-use way to distinguish and enhance plays is a welcomed luxury on all levels of play. I promise you, a few professional players learned something here along with you. The foundation has been laid out, and the only thing left for you now is to Name Your Offense.

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Look for David Light's next article to explain how to tie in the terminology in your playbook with easy forms of reference both online, and on LAN. Recalling plays has never been easier as David Light explains in his two part series: Calling it Right.