This is a counter article I decided to write after reading Midway's article in our queue. He is a smart man and I am in no way trying to argue his points, but merely give you all a second point of view on the entire subject of having a successful offensive half.

It is true that there is an obvious skill gap between players on any team from CAL-Open and the CPL championship team, but it is not always about skill. It is hard to believe that the top teams in the world would ever assemble a squad that wasn't the absolute best, given the resources that were available (e.g. availability, likeliness of joining, location, personality, and style of play). When any team is formed, and you actually know the players, it always comes down to a simple formula. It is true that each team has two or three players that maintain a very high rate of getting the most frags, but this ability is not the most important.

Teams also recruit two other types of players. The first one is the experienced, or smart, player. This player is one that can teach the skilled ones how to utilize their skill through gaining a better understanding of the game. He can teach them how to predict where their opponent will usually be in certain situations, and how to catch the opponent off guard. The experienced player has a great probability of racking up lots of frags, due to them just predicting where the defense will be at all times and how they will rotate. The the second one is the clutch player; those mediocre players that can keep their calm in a one on one, two, or even three situation and always pull through. Now isn't that the kind of guy you'd like to be playing with?

One point that I really disagree with is the baiting aspect of the entry of any bombsite - the weaker players hanging around the front of the rush to get fragged while the other three clean up. Have you ever watched a coL or 3D demo? Well, they have two of the best AWPers in the world (Ksharp and fRoD). You don't see fRoD baiting warden or tr1p; you will see him clear out bombsites from the farthest ranged angle possible to get an idea of where the defense could be set up, or actually is set up.

There are certain situations where you should put your best players together, and certain situations when it will most likely get you the round when they are spread out. A good example is an old pistol round tactic that I used to run. It would send my two best players on a full B rush on Dust2; their job was to sit in the bombsite as long as possible. They were sent here because if they are my best, they are going to be able to frag at least one or both B players, which will cause an easy rotation from the three playing in bombsite A. I would sit middle and throw a quick flash before hiding behind the middle box, this would help sell the fake of a B split rush. My other two players were smart and obedient, but not the most talented; however, I knew they could delay the bomb well. They would wait outside of the long A double doors until we picked off someone, we got picked off, or I caught someone jumping off of the catwalk to B halls. Then they would plant in the A bombsite and it was a great flank.

You have to call your tactics like you are a parent - you have to hold someone's hand. It's not really a bad thing to hold their hand; you're just protecting them from the bad so that they can do something good later on. For instance, on my old team I would usually put weenus with me if we were in a tactic that required two players somewhere. His aim isn't as good as mine, but he is smart and knows grenade angles like me, so he can help me enter bombsites. This, with a timed attack from our other players, would help us fraggers clear the bombsite while the others could watch for flanks and rotations.

Another great consequence of putting the two different players in the same positioning is learning from each other. You can learn how to be a little bit smarter, as well as the style of play that it takes to become a better fragger. It all works out in the end - you just have to figure out which group of players works together the best and have them go to specific spots that can utilize both or all three of their skills.