The world’s undisputed number one team looks far from undisputed lately, dropping its first match in International competition since the last ESWC on Wednesday. The problem is trying to figure out what has changed or what of the many changes to SK.swe can be seen. The first and most obvious is the loss of their star player Element. His defection to rival team NoA has been witnessed two fold, one in his position on the all of the maps and two his team leadership and strategy calling role. Let’s take a look at both on two maps SK.swe will have to face in the rest of today’s coming group play and possibly bracket play if they are to move on.

Dust 2

Let’s start first with the most obvious and critical match during Element’s reign as captain of SK.swe, the CPL Winter 2003 Championship against his current team NoA. For SK.swe the entire map was centered on the end caps of Element and Potti. Inside of these two ahl, fisker and Heaton where able to control both the middle and catwalk taking down movement near both lower B halls, double doors and the entrance to catwalk. Potti’s spot near window is legendary while a little less known was Element’s play at Long A. SK.swe really trusted Element to control this area, if this was a result of him instilling that confidence due to being team captain or his actual performance is up for debate but his play was never detrimental to the team.


By stark contrast, the recent match on Wednesday: SK.swe against OCRANA.ATI, again on de_dust2 saw an entirely different format and setup. Unlike the past, SK.swe as a whole avoided Long A like the plague. While many teams attack Long A by sending two people to take it, even sometimes creating stacks or high low guards of the area, SK.swe never even sent a man near it. The main person in charge of guarding Long A is ahl who is currently the team leader and strategy caller for SK.swe. His role is very interesting now as he always, every round, boosts both Spawn and Heaton into the middle catwalk before moving around Long A and positioning himself on top of the platform. He never peeks, not even for a second. Comparing that with Element who would often move all the way down Long A, scouting out the position or taking it himself, we can see how the team dynamic has changed significantly.

This also translates into a different form of defense in bombsite B where SK.swe would put fisker into the bombsite with Potti more often instead of playing outside the site. This limited the number of times Potti would play from his famous window spot but also left the middle wide open in the early portions of these rounds. To solve that problem of leaving the middle open, SK.swe would switch it up using a pretty interesting two boost strategy. First they would start out the round pushing four guys into the middle with two guys, Heaton and ahl normally, boosting a third above the double doors in middle, normally fisker. Then the two people who boosted the middle guy would rush to the other side of spawn and get boosted themselves by the Long A guy up onto catwalk to quickly form a strong defense. This is a great strategy because it allows for a unique defense of the middle while still controlling a pretty secure defense at the catwalk. The best place to try and bust in would be to push hard middle and catch them boosting or rush Long A, but their central position on the map will allow them to react to most scenarios with relative ease.


Without Element though, SK.swe has had to get more creative on its CT defense to make up for the gap left. On terrorist though the mindset of SK.swe seems to be prefer a slower attack by comparison on non-save out rounds from before with a sense that they may be less sure of themselves. Element’s leadership and their grasp of the money system before the change gave them a lethal combo. Quick calls allowed them to avoid confusion and bunching up something that was common on their Terrorist halves in recent games. The big key was Element’s unquestioned leadership. The ability to have one person that everyone trusts, respects and listens to is critical for a top notch team. Few teams have these types of people (Knoxville for NoA, moto for 3D and Hare for u5). Recently that feeling seems less evident for SK.swe, who has often changed tactical leaders leaving them looking more like TSG then NoA.