Game sense

Reading the game

Good aim wins duels; good decisions win maps. This guide covers the question behind almost every fight in comp: should we take it right now?

Aggressive or passive

Every player and team sits somewhere between two styles:

Aggressive: Taking the initiative: starting fights and duels, even when you have little or no advantage, to create one.
Passive: Refusing the initiative: waiting, holding, and only fighting when the advantage is clearly yours.

Neither is right on its own. The skill is knowing which one the situation calls for, and that comes down to three things: where you are on the map, what advantages you have, and how much time is left.

Where you are on the map

On a 5CP map, the point you're fighting over sets how much risk you can afford:

Defending last
Losing here gives away a round. Play safe, wait for them to come to you.
Defending second
Still careful, but a lost fight only costs you ground.
Mid
Even. Both teams start level, so play the advantages you have.
Attacking second
You're ahead on the map; press it before they reset.
Attacking last
A capture wins the round, so commit everything - the all-in last push.

Most passiveMost aggressive

The advantages that matter

A fight is worth taking when you're ahead on enough of these. They add up, and one can make up for another:

Players: How many more (or fewer) players you have alive. The biggest one of all.
Über: The difference between your Medic's charge and theirs - who can über first, and who has to answer it.
Health: How much health your team has going into the fight. Hard to read in the moment, and decisive in big team fights.
Ammo: Matters in a duel: a Soldier with one rocket left should not be the one starting it.
Height and held positions: Owning the high ground or a strong spot on the map.
Numbers in one place: Catching part of their team on its own, even if you're even overall.
Class: Some situations favour some classes - and their Medic or Demoman being dead opens plays that wouldn't work otherwise.

Playing the clock

Most 5CP rulesets end the map on a timer, so late in a map the score and the time left change what you should do. As a rough guide, the fastest a team can go from mid to capturing last is about 1 minute 20 seconds, and all the way from their own last point to yours about 2 minutes. That tells you whether you still have time to come back.

Passive

Run the clock - Ahead with little time left: hold, delay, and make them come to you.
Extend the lead - Ahead with plenty of time: keep playing normally.
Catch up - Behind: you have to force fights, and the less time there is, the harder you force them.

Aggressive

A team that's behind with almost no time left makes desperation plays. The leading team should expect them and refuse the fight rather than giving them one.
Once neither team can change the result, the rest of the map is dead time.
Check your league's rules: win conditions differ between leagues and formats, and some rulesets change partway through a map.

Keep learning

The fundamentals videos go further into midfights, last pushes and last holds, with real examples.