One of the hardest sides to play against a professional team is defense on Train. It is extremely easy to become overwhelmed by super aggressive teams, who utilize coordinated flashes to keep the defense blind, and unable to get into position in the outside site. Forced into passive positions, the strong attackers can then keep the defense on their heels, getting easy plants and keeping the momentum and money situation in their favor.

With the outside site being as difficult as it is to defend, more and more teams are playing four defenders outside, with one player extremely passive inside. However, with four players in one area, communication becomes even more essential, as it is easy for players to assume that an area is being covered, when in fact it is not.

With four players covering only three entrances, it becomes possible for one of the players to take on the role of outside support. Pentagram employs this tactic in one of their most successful setups. Having one player assigned to a spot, while keeping a centralized player available to help out all three entrances at any given time, PGS ensures that at the very least, two players will be defending an area at any given time.


Here is how they executed this strategy

LUq - Alley primary.
TaZ - Ladder room primary, middle support.
Neo - Middle primary, ladder room support.
kuben - Passive inside.
Loord - Outside support.

In this strategy, you mainly have two clusters of two players in the outside site. Neo and TaZ work together to secure both the middle and the ladder room. Likewise, LUq takes control of the alley, with Loord sandwiching the area. With four players outside, kuben is left inner alone, playing it passively.



In order to get into position, PGS first flashes and nades T side of middle. TaZ has the closest spawn, so he flashes out of the Z halls, underneath the pink 5 train. Since kuben is playing the inside site passively, he has enough time to escort the outside players through the Z halls, and chuck a nade to T mid before heading to his position. Neo and Loord follow suit, nading the middle out of Z before heading to their spots outside. As LUq is playing alley from behind the 6 train, he heads out of CT spawn via the ramp.



TaZ climbs to the top of the 4 train, spams the wall to white halls for a moment, then holds middle. Once Neo chucks a flash into the ladder room, TaZ peaks the area from above, while Neo spams the white halls then directs his attention to the middle entrance.



Meanwhile, LUq scopes down to middle, prepared if any attackers run out. He waits for Loord to take his position underneath the 6 train, and the other cluster to be in place, before peaking down the alley. Alone inside, kuben takes an extremely passive spot on the 3 train ladder. He holds out a flash, only prepared to blind attackers and fall back.



LUq becomes smoked out from middle, so he turns his attention completely to alley. Spotting three attackers deep by ivy, he takes a shot with his AWP, and falls back to between 5 and 6 alley. Once the attack comes from alley, Loord throws both of his flashbangs, and then sweeps out and spams through the smoke which the attackers have thrown.



With the attack taking place only at the alley, Neo focuses his attention there, spamming through the smoke, and aiding Loord. TaZ is now left to watch both the middle and the ladder room, so he moves to the corner outside by T middle.



Once the location of the last attacker is known, kuben rotates through the Z halls, and spams the 5/6 wall towards alley.



The success of this setup is very dependent on both chemistry and communication. While it is very powerful when it comes to shutting down single spot rushes, if attacks on multiple areas occur simultaneously it is important to have pre-established roles for each player. In this case, PGS had three players assigned to each spot, with one player pushed up in an area where he could assist any of the other three entrances. Communication allows the outside players to have a fluid and seamless defense.

In addition, the inside player must know their role. They have to be able to stay alive as long as possible, communication numbers and bomb location to allow the outside players to rotate appropriately. Also, they need to be able to utilize their nades to prevent the inside attackers from completely overwhelming and dominating the site before the rotation arrives.