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Counter-Strike: Page from the Playbook: SK

By: Rift - Published May 30, 2009 at 8:12 PM EDT - Writer Archive
GotFrag breaks down CT and T set ups of one of the top teams in the World as taken from their strong 2nd place finish at KODE5.


GotFrag.com - Of all the current top teams in the World, there are few who can go into de_nuke with as much confidence that they are going to win as SK Gaming. With their lock down defense on CT side and quick on the fly decisions as Terrorists, SK constantly mixes up their movements and their positions to keep opponents guessing, allowing them to secure rounds.

At KODE5 last month, on their way to a 2nd place finish, SK was able to utilize the bo3 format by almost always guaranteeing themselves a victory on nuke. Even against top teams such as MiBR, EG, and mTw, SK's confidence when playing their favorite map was more than enough to carry them to victory. It wasn't until they ran into the almost unstoppable fnatic in the Finals before they were finally bested.

In this article Gotfrag will take a look at SK's match against mTw on de_nuke in the semi finals of KODE5 and break down one strat from both T and CT side to show readers how one of the best teams in the World makes themselves feel at home in one of counter strikes oldest and most loved maps.

SK Terrorist Side de_nuke:

Overview:

As terrorists on de_nuke, SK has several set ups where they try to do some non combative damage to their opponents with nades before they push up into spots and try to get picks. The two main strats they pull off are a ramp rush where they nade twice into hut hoping to kill the enemy on top of it, then pushing into ramp room and taking lower, or an upper strat where they all nade through the squeaky door at the start of the round then flash and smoke into the upper site and take it. In this breakdown we will be taking a look at the upper strat and how to pull off the somewhat tricky constant nades through the squeaky door into mini without closing the door or having the nades rebound back onto your team. We will also go over the most effective positions to set up in and what to avoid once the bomb is down.

The Setup:

walle - AK, nade, flashes, smoke
robban - AK, nade, flashes, smoke
allen - AK, nade, flashes, smoke
tentpole - AK, nade, flashes, smoke
zet - AK, nade, flashes, smoke, BOMB

*On nuke the entire team pretty consistently buys the same rifle gear for quick close range assaults, as well as plenty of nades, smokes, and flashes to increase their chance of getting a non combative kill then clearing and covering the site for an effective take and hold situation.

Strat Breakdown:

As this strat is rather quick and the steps progress rapidly towards ultimately taking and holding the site, the first couple of movements will come at you pretty fast, but will eventually slow down when it comes time for set up in the site.

Step 1: Captain and In-Game leader walle leads his team into waiting room where he throws his nade into the squeaky door, causing it to open, and then kneels, aiming his ak at mini in case a member of mTw pushes through. Behind him comes the rest of the team throwing their nades through the open door into mini.











Step 2: After the nades have been thrown out of the squeaky door, 3 members set off in different directions to lay down their flashes and smokes as either a distraction or as a key to entering the site. zet carries the bomb towards radio room where he lays down a few flashes and then hesitates for a few seconds to watch for any push with his AK. allen saves his nade and runs into hut where he puts his first flash out of hut door onto the ground below rafters, then crouches next to the door and banks a second flash off the nearby wall into the air to blind anyone playing above the team. He then quickly finishes off by throwing a smoke up towards the rafters. The final member in motion at this point, robban, hurries into squeaky door room where he throws a flash off of the doors wall to blind mini, then puts a second flash off the wall deep into the site to blind anyone on the floor, and finally bounces a smoke off the far wall to land at the bomb boxes to give zet cover to plant.




Step 3: With the front line moved into position and the initial flashes and smokes thrown into the site, the boys in back begin to push up and make their assault. tentpole from his back position throws a smoke over walles head through squeaky door and into mini before pushing into hut to flash into the site for zet who is rotating into hut with the bomb. As for walle, he puts a flash into mini to allow robban to push into the site from squeaky into position besides the right vent. From there, walle throws his smoke deeper into mini to block any awp fire and then flashes again to give him a chance to push into the site and set up.











Step 4 (the set up): Even before tentpole has the flash off up into the rafters from hut door, zet runs straight out of hut into the site and plants under the cover of smoke in front of bomb boxes. From there, walle pushes out of squeaky door, past robban who is set up near right vent, and into mini where the smokes from previous steps give him cover and position against outside invaders. As allen retreats out of hut and into radio room to watch the back, zet gets killed while planting which causes tentpole to have to go out and finish the job. Normally, tentpole would stay in hut, while zet plants and then rotates into squeaky, but the unfortunate turn of events causes the two to switch positions and continue on as normal.












Conclusion: Normally this upper take of SKs is a very good way to converge on the bomb site quickly and safely. Unfortunately for them though, in this round, sunde gets off a nice shot on zet while he is planting which makes SK have to go 4v5 and reposition on the fly. Also, for some reason, most of mTw are away from the flashes and gun fire when SK makes their move, allowing them to eventually overpower the man down Swedes on the take back. Still, if run correctly, this is a very effective strat that can catch enemies off guard and make taking upper bombsite an easy thing.


Running The Strat Yourself:
Sure SK can do it, but how about your team?

For this strat you'll need to realize that most of the work being done is with nades, flashes, and smokes to help penetrate into the site and set up a proper defense. Thus, your timing and accuracy with these items is going to have to be precise. The first thing you'll want to do as a team is practice throwing through the squeaky door. It isn't always easy to get it through every time without closing the door or having the nade bounce back at you. It also takes a lot of work to be able to get each nade through the door flawlessly in rapid succession as SK does. With proper practice though, you should be able to get it down.

As for the rest of the strat, make sure you have the right people playing the right spots. It is good to have a good rifler play the position of walle because this teammate has an important role of covering a rush from mini and then holding that area once the push into the site is made. Another strong rifler should be given the spot of allen so that they can pick any pushers at rafters from hut, and then cover the back push once the bomb is down.

With all that being covered, all there is left to do is make sure you have your flashes and smokes timed properly, and make sure everyone knows where to go once the bomb is planted. It would be unfortunate to be slowed down by a bad flash, or caught off guard because a teammate was out of position. Just make sure everyone knows where to be and knows what they need to do.

With all of that taken care of, and with the diagrams above, your team should be taking upper site on de_nuke like pros in no time.
Continued (1/2) »
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User Comments

2
8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking 8% Ranking
+4 Frags
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almost always guaranteeing themselves a victory on nuke. Even against top teams such as MiBR, EG, and mTw.

something's wrong here
GG.
3
45% Ranking 45% Ranking 45% Ranking 45% Ranking
+6 Frags
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another good playbook , i bet these teams hate having there strats out to the public
4
16% Ranking 16% Ranking 16% Ranking 16% Ranking
+1 Frags
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nice one.
5
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+3 Frags
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# 2

strats are from KODE5......mTw is a given. Majority of people agree EG played well and it was obvious that MiBR was on form. 2 of those 3 teams are in the top 10 in the World, while the 3rd, EG, isn't that far from the list.

Not sure what's wrong.
KSHARP SAVE US!!! "rift is the smartest man on these forums when ksharp isnt posting, dont argue."
6
10% Ranking 10% Ranking 10% Ranking 10% Ranking
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#2 they can't guarantee a victory against fnatic :)
#LostProphets #QuakeLive
7
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#2 I'd agree that MiBR still has to prove themselves, and EG is faaaar from being a top 5 team but... those were the 3 teams SK played on nuke, maybe if they played fnatic, these strats would work too, who knows
mTw.dk = mortal Teamwork indeed.
8
52% Ranking 52% Ranking 52% Ranking 52% Ranking
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Nice one
<3 Heaton <3 Neo <3 roman <3 paN <3 f0rest <3 zonic <3 cyx <3 solo <3 walle <3 hero
9
27% Ranking 27% Ranking 27% Ranking 27% Ranking
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Good stuff, Rift.
o_-
10
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Is this the strat that robban throws a fb in the rut that goes out the window and opens the squeek door ?? If it's not you should post an article about that one too ! =D
11
50% Ranking 50% Ranking 50% Ranking 50% Ranking
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#3 its not like anyone with half a brain couldn't just check a demo and get these strats. you don't need to wait for gotfrag to give them to you :)
13
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great article , love your stuff :)
14
6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking
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this was good but i wish you did it more like most of the other playbooks where they take ss of each flash and play by play rather than a wall of text and screenshots that hardly tell me anything even tho i probly know all the flashes anyway but really its mostly just walls of text X_X still tho good stuff if you do another tho plz take the screen shots from the players perspective of where they throw the flashes ty :D
hei guys!
15
24% Ranking 24% Ranking 24% Ranking 24% Ranking
+3 Frags
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all the top teams know each others set ups and strats anyway. can't remember who the interview was but someone said it "at the top level of CS you can't play with meta game, you have to watch demo's and learn everything you can about your opponents strats and setups". I'm paraphrasing but you get the idea. these teams study each other so in depth that they all know this stuff anyway.

great article rift, keep it up!
16
62% Ranking 62% Ranking 62% Ranking 62% Ranking
+3 Frags
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really awesome rift, but i would love to see some fnatic playbook stuff up here.

they are obviously playing the best counter-strike in the world atm, so i think it would be really interesting to see their stuff.
s(°.^)z
17
7% Ranking 7% Ranking 7% Ranking 7% Ranking
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Cool stuff.
GotFrag is becoming like what it used to be again.
18
113% Ranking 113% Ranking 113% Ranking 113% Ranking
+1 Frags
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already run this : [

now more teams is gona do this

sad_face
19
10% Ranking 10% Ranking 10% Ranking 10% Ranking
+4 Frags
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former roccat squad is better on nuke than SK

they thrashed MYM before :D
[SR]
20
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I love reading stuff like this
Don't sh-t talk me kids.
21
3% Ranking 3% Ranking 3% Ranking 3% Ranking
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#20 me too.
Thanks for this :D
22
9% Ranking 9% Ranking 9% Ranking 9% Ranking
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good read but you could have more ss for the flashes and positions,u got a bit confusing at times(especially for non-native speaking english guys).
btw guys all pro and mid skilled teams know these stuff.they dont worry about being analyzed in gotfrag.walle is more woried about what carn will do against him.NON of the pros expect gotfrag or what ever to figure out how their next day opponent will play.
24
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fnatic strat : f0rest do the work
25
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For sirk:

Before walle joined the team, Robban was the in-game leader and strat caller for SK. When walle came to the team however, he took over as strat caller and in game leader. In December of 2008, at Dreamhack Winter, walle asked Robban to start calling strats again, but still remained as the in game leader, making the mid round decisions and "leading" the team.

Both players work on strats/positions together, but walle himself has said recently that he is still considered the main in game leader of the team. Robban even called wall the better caller and leader. For SK it is pretty much a joint position between the two players, walle just didn't want to call strats at the start of the round anymore.
KSHARP SAVE US!!! "rift is the smartest man on these forums when ksharp isnt posting, dont argue."
27
25% Ranking 25% Ranking 25% Ranking 25% Ranking
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#24 lol what about get right and gux ?!:D
28
72% Ranking 72% Ranking 72% Ranking 72% Ranking
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To be honest over analyzing strats like this sets up for failure. Fnatic's strats come off agressive picks and quick wits not you go here and you go here and you go here.
#EG #gotfrag
29
12% Ranking 12% Ranking 12% Ranking 12% Ranking
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great playbook!
<3
30
14% Ranking 14% Ranking 14% Ranking 14% Ranking
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the squeaky rush is spawnbased tho, we don't have positions on it fyi ;) 1st does this, 2nd that etc
31
6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking 6% Ranking
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The legend has spoken.
hei guys!
32
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# 30, that's what I originally thought, but I didn't really clarify it in the break down :P

Thanks for posting to make readers aware of that.
KSHARP SAVE US!!! "rift is the smartest man on these forums when ksharp isnt posting, dont argue."
33
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this is very good material, its like food for my soul
<3 The Elder Gods, neXtPlease! & I Got Game
35
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nice to see someone show as some strats!
fan elemeNt
36
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YOUR BAD WALLE
37
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Good..:)

This comment was edited at 06/09/2009 7:31 AM
DoppeL
38
2% Ranking 2% Ranking 2% Ranking 2% Ranking
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<3 SK..:)
DoppeL
39
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ty Got frag.com
plz help me
how can i play cs 1.6 on linux

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