GotFrag 2004 CyberX Games Preview Schedule | Gamer of the Year


Lets get the obvious out of the way, YES! SK.swe is more then beatable, and twice during the last CPL, two teams SHOULD have beaten them. This may be a bold statement, but it’s absolutely true. Both RDW and NoA had outstanding chances to defeat SK.swe and, after reading this piece, they should not make the same mistakes again. First, one must know the enemy in order to defeat them.

SK.swe’s track record is daunting. Three straight CPL Championships show they are currently the unchallenged #1 team in the world. This alone puts teams at a disadvantage; they often give SK.swe too much respect instead of playing their game. Opposing teams allow SK.swe to control the tempo and flow of the match giving into SK.swe’s advanced money management. While TSO isn’t one of the best teams in the world, let alone in the USA, they still are a perfect example of this.

SK.swe starts off dominating with 5-0 shutout pistol round against TSO on de_train. The lower bombsite rush simply overpowered TSO setting up the rest of the half and the match. While individually TSO was no match for SK.swe, strats wise they seem very much equals. SK.swe’s strats were nothing impressive. Basic lower bombsite rushes the first six rounds followed by split two ladder, one middle, and two alley rushes for the last six rounds. Anyone who follows GotFrag will have seen this breakdown from SK.swe before. Remember back to zEx at ESWC and the original SK Playbook, same strat with hardly any changes and the same people even going the same directions. This was common place all CPL for SK.swe. They don’t reinvent the wheel when it comes to attacking strats; they simple execute better then most people with unbelievable timing.

Basic strats were common in their next match against Online on de_cpl_mill. Pistol round was a basic split right bombsite rush that was saved by a brilliant play of Ola “elemeNt” Moum. Online was defusing but elemeNt came from sewers to grenade the guy before he could finish in a 1v1 situation. Online seemed equal to SK.swe’s skill, but basic money management was lacking. This idea of money management is often called overrated or that all professional teams should know about it. This isn’t true at all, most teams may know about it but don’t properly understand its effects. Online was a perfect example of this, much like the rest of the teams SK.swe played.

Online allowed SK.swe to save out every round that SK.swe lost on terrorist side, and after watching this it became obvious what SK.swe’s motto this CPL was – Never lose a round the entire tournament outright as terrorist. If you can’t win the round, save it out. They did this to ruthless effectiveness, never giving the CTs a free win when the numbers were against them. At least four times during the half SK.swe saved out rounds after initial attacks against Online failed. The importance of this wasn’t often the next round but the round after that. Just like a chess match, SK.swe was thinking more then one move ahead. In many situations a gun round win next round would then force Online to save at least once, and if they bought the second round it would be without head armor giving SK.swe a slight but important advantage.

Second half saw even more ways that SK.swe was able to swing things in their favor. After losing pistol round to Online during a rush through sewer to the upper left bombsite, SK.swe was able to stack right bombsite on their eco round fragging four members of Online. Throughout the tournament SK.swe consistently was able to frag over three people per save round as CT. This damages the terrorist’s ability to hurt SK.swe’s money management. If the opposing team is forced to constantly buy guns, they are much less likely to save out a round than go for the win. Even with the pistol round loss SK.swe was able to swing momentum and finish the half with a 6-4 score. Losing pistol rounds here only prepared them for their next match, RDW.

This is the first time SK.swe should have lost at CPL. RDW in the first half of this match on de_cbble could have put SK.swe away with proper understanding of what SK.swe was trying to do. First, RDW won both pistol rounds, a huge plus in an mr12 format. They jumped out to a lead of 5-0, which featured two full save out rounds by SK.swe. The astonishing part was the lead up to the 10th round. The score currently sat at 7-2 with SK.swe winning their rounds at the 6th and 9th of the half.

Now there’s no way a team should have to fully save at the 10th round of a match after winning seven of the first nine but RDW did here. SK.swe went on to finish the half 5-7, winning the last three rounds. This just proves how devastating full save out rounds can be. RDW should have never allowed SK.swe to save out rounds after they won the 7th round. It was ok to allow SK.swe to save out rounds before the score hit 5-1, but once SK.swe had cleared their money build up by winning a round (increasing money gain every round lost gives more and more money to the losing team) any further save outs would completely destroy RDW’s money management. This allowed SK.swe to attack, pull back if they needed to, and save out the round. They repeated the process until they picked up that critical gun round in the 9th. If RDW had attacked in certain situations, especially when SK.swe saved out in terrorist tower in the 8th round with one member carrying an AWP and the other a deagle against five RDW’s, they would have carried a 9-3 score at least into the second half.

In retrospect that 9-3 score would have been enough to win after RDW won the second half pistol round. RDW gambled rushing hard right into the non-spawn bombsite. They got lucky to a certain extent as SK.swe also gambled pushing two guys into the far right halls. This left SK.swe way to overextended and while Emil “Heaton” Christensen plays that site perfectly delaying as long as he could for backup to create crossfire, no support came. RDW was able to clear the bombsite just in time and even get a boast plant. This was SK.swe’s third lost pistol round in as many matches so far this tournament.

The rest of the half didn’t go as well as the pistol round. RDW finished off SK.swe in their eco rounds, 2nd and 3rd, but didn’t have the momentum to continue the pressure the rest of the half. SK.swe’s solid defense featured a simple three man rush right for the initial rush and then dropped one man back into the main bombsite. Some teams rush four into the right, non-spawn, bombsite but SK.swe didn’t need to here (check out the screenshot). RDW’s biggest mistake was not returning the favor to SK.swe. With the number of save out rounds in the first half, RDW didn’t even save out one round against SK.swe even rushing with glocks once into the right bombsite on one of the later rounds. This is just unacceptable against a team like SK.swe; giving them free money while trying to turn the momentum is like shooting your own foot. Shaguar’s article on GotFrag about the money system is absolutely true, something I have been preaching for a while now. Not only does it slow the game down, but it forces teams to match the other team if they do save out, especially on heavily CT favored maps (de_cbble, de_aztec). RDW didn’t do this allowing SK.swe to rally off eight straight rounds and clinch the match at 8-3.

Dodging a bullet with RDW, SK.swe then got what turned out to be an easy draw of mouz on de_nuke. For those who read the NoA Playbook, they know what’s coming here. Mouz is arguably the worst de_nuke team of all the top International teams. Between matches against NoA and SK.swe they managed a combined four rounds. SK.swe managed to sweep both pistol rounds and dominated mouz on terrorist winning 10-2. Second half wasn’t much better with SK.swe winning pistol round after giving up ramp room. SK.swe overreacted a little bit here. Giving up the ramp room, SK.swe’s ramp players, Heaton and Christer “Fisker” Eriksson, called for backing and two members of SK.swe in upper bombsite dropped lower through vents too quickly. This left one person below ladder to guard the entire upper site against five members of mouz. A smart play by mouz would have been to wrap around, go back outside by CT spawn, and then into the upper bombsite. But they didn’t, and got dominated in the lower bombsite, only fragging one.

SK.swe didn’t receive as favorable of a draw in its next match facing the red hot NoA in the Winner’s Bracket Final. This is the second match that SK.swe should have lost. Unlike the RDW match, SK.swe did win a pistol round here, opening the match with a win on a slow banana rush. Early in the match SK.swe begins with a lot of slow rushes to the banana bombsite but then shifts gears going after the primary bombsite with split rushes.

The key rounds of this half and this match are the 4th and 10th. These are the two rounds that NoA won. In a half where SK.swe went 10-2, the two rounds they lost, they both saved out, the 4th round one is probably the most unbelievable. In a 1v4 situation Michael “ahl” Korduner was stuck in the middle of the primary bombsite in one of the corners above the main ramp. Four NoA members allowed him to camp out over a minute without even challenging him. By doing so and then losing the next round they were forced to save out.

Like Online before them, NoA bought after that but most of their team didn’t have head armor which became costly as SK.swe rushed the banana bombsite getting in but losing three members. NoA then had a 3v2 reentering the bombsite but SK.swe held in large part because of two devastating headshots that might not have been so with head armor. Little things cost NoA big time, and this loss forces them to save basically giving SK.swe three rounds because NoA didn’t chase down ahl in the middle. The 10th round wasn’t as powerful with only two rounds remaining but it was a very similar situation proving NoA hadn’t learned their lesson. This time it was Tommy “Potti” Ingemarsson who again in a 1v4 situation was allowed to save out. This only affected the last round, limiting what NoA could buy in a lost 12th round after losing the 11th round.

The second half was really dominated by NoA with superior aim and good rushing tactics. A few mistakes by SK.swe did lead to some extra round scoring chances by NoA. In the 5th round SK.swe made a huge blunder, see screenshot, by leaving the right middle into CT Spawn completely wide-open while not spotting middle from left middle. NoA manage to sneak three members up the right side through spawn and into the banana bombsite which was then hit by the other two members from the normal route. This round cost SK.swe a few further rounds that a gun round win would have prevented. One other thing stood out this half that was a growing trend in the tournament. Similar to Dave “moto” Geffon, elemeNt’s increase wandering became more and more noticeable. At least four times this half elemeNt was off by himself. Most of the time it was by design on save rounds, but other times it was when he pushed in areas of a little bit higher risk. While things didn’t work out for NoA, the close overall score of 13-10 and an 8-3 second half score really proves how important those save out rounds in the first half really where.

Speaking of save out rounds, NoA got even more of it in the Grand Championship on de_dust2. ElemeNt opened the match with one after a failed SK.swe pistol rush on terrorist side. SK.swe then saved out against second round completely destroying NoA’s money situation and allowing a win third round. After winning the first two rounds, NoA could only manage 2 out of the next 10 round in large part to this double save out. The second half saw a pistol round win for SK.swe leaving them with a 7-5 mark for pistol rounds on the entire tournament. Not very good compared to the 12-4 mark by NoA. The only noticeable thing about the second half of this Championship match that ended 5-0 was a move by SK.swe. Smartly in the second round while NoA was trying to save out, SK.swe rushed them. It was obvious that they were trying to prevent their own tactics being used against them.

So how can someone beat SK.swe? Here are my six tips:

1. Must win at least one pistol round.
- This is obvious but SK.swe is a mediocre pistol team and to allow them to sweep you is a death blow.
2. Ignore the hype.
-If you are thinking about their unbeaten record or their three CPL championships you have already lost.
3. Control the tempo of the match, don’t let them control it.
-After looking at the breakdown of the CPL tournament, SK.swe played terrorist first EVERY match. Take this away from them and take the tempo away. Save out or rush them when they save out don’t allow them to dictate play.
4. Look for elemeNt.
-Obvious save rounds or when you need to pick off a guy, remember where elemeNt is playing. If you can find him he’s often alone or pushing.
5. Fight for money not rounds
-In SK.swe mind this game is more about the money battle then the rounds battle, who ever wins the money game wins the match. Every gun lost or round saved out hurts your money and helps theirs. Keep that in mind.
6. Take risks as a team, not mistakes by yourself.
-Team risks against SK.swe can often be rewarded in massive dividends, but trying to pick one off or chase one down by yourself can be disastrous. For instance, see Shaguar on opening pistol round of the championship match.

With all of that said SK.swe is beatable but teams need to respect how good they are. In their six matches at CPL, SK.swe was 51-21 during terrorist rounds. That is over 70% won compared to 26-15, 63% on CT rounds. The difference is largely because of their ability to control the money system and this difference is enough for them to win the close matches. To beat them you must take that away from them.

GotFrag 2004 CyberX Games Preview Schedule | Gamer of the Year