Team 3D

Defense

The Good

The best part about 3D's defense is how diverse they can be with it. They can have two playing floor and one rafters one round, and then have two rafters one outside garage the next round. This really keeps the offense guessing. This is a great ability to have as a team on de_nuke. Nuke is a very enclosed map and with the defense being forced to watch all of these small entry points. If your opponent has well planned and timed flashbangs, it can destroy you every round, fast paced or slow.

Volcano did an amazing job in the upper bombsite. He was the rafter player, and if SK ever did a full on rush to upper, he was always taking down multiple offensive players. Then again he couldn't have done it with one of the best players on the team at this time, Dominator. He was great backup, for the most part, and helped delay bomb plants and rushes long enough for his team to rotate while Volcano was picking up most of the kills. Dominator was also one of the main reasons that 3D sent this match into the third overtime.

The Bad

As mentioned above, for 3D, it was way too late for them to adjust to SK's new style of fast play. SK was extremely diverse, but 3D is a very experienced team and really shouldn't have had a problem. One of the biggest problems I saw, was towards the upper bombsite. They just seemed extremely confused and did not know how to bounce back and get those last few rounds. I was behind dominator and I think he could have helped the most stop SK's new play style. He would pre-HE the hut/door corner, when SK wasn't really peeking it at all. When the squeek door was opened, the most effective way to stop is to just drop a flash back in there to delay the rush and completely screw up the offenses tactic.

Another big problem for 3D was in the 7th round. This was the first round SK won due to a rafter flank not being caught and dominator was killed. From then on, volcano and dominator were forced to check their flank way too often. If the rest of the team cannot do their job by making sure nobody comes into the ladder room from outside, it is going to throw off the rest of the team. Trust is a huge factor in this game, if you lose it even for one match, it can destroy you.

Offense

The Good

3D figured out what was working for them, but didn't latch onto it. 3D ran a lot of tactics they ran when I was still on the team that worked out perfectly against anyone. 3D used to have their offense better than their defense, and that is the best situation you can have for a map like de_nuke. They were all fast paced tactics that did nothing but blind the defense and keep them guessing as to which site you were going to attack.

When 3D would run their tactics, right off the bact, they would get mowed down by SK, for some reason it just didn't work. The rounds where 3D would just sit back, and play as though they were doing a pick tactic, they would always weaken or kill SK through the walls. Once they did either of these two, they would figure out who they killed, what players would rotate to help that site that was lacking a player, and then they would attack. When you run a well-planned tactic in late round on de_nuke, after a team is down a player or not expecting it, it works out perfectly. When 3D would do this, SK would be caught completely offguard and 3D would take the round.

The Bad

As mentioned above, 3D knew what was working for them, but fell to one of their biggest problems is that they don't realize that you run a tactic until it stops working. It wasn't a specific tactic, it was just a different style of running their tactics. 3D would win a round, lose a few rounds, win some, and then lose some more, and there was an obvious pattern. It is a leaders job, as well as the teams job, to not only get hyped when you win the round, but to sit back and reflect as to why you won that round. All teams need to sit back and say,"What did we change that round that made us finally pick it up? Let's do it again". From my point of view behind the team, they did not come to this rationalization.

In the SK portion of this article, I mentioned before that when 3D started noticing the SK ramp players were pushing every round, there was a lot of action up top and dominator would usually be waiting for them. Well I watched first hand, 3D didn't do this until extremely late in the half. The SECOND time that SK pulled this on 3D, they should have known that an upper fake with two players waiting for the ramp flank while the other three made sure they couldn't be shot from ramp, would have worked like a charm. Had they have altered their tactic, just the slightest, that match would have completely been in their favor after such a huge 10-5 lead in the first half.

This was a great match in the tournament and the demo will definately go down in history. Stay tuned to GotFrag for more coverage of this event.