A little ahead of your team

pattern

Why you go down before your team

Look at deaths like these on the map and the picture is almost always the same. Your nearest teammate is still on the way when you take position — too far to help in time. Someone picks you, no one answers, and the round goes on four against five.

So shooting and reaction time have little to do with it. What decides it is the distance to your team: in that second you're alone, and the enemy isn't. The map just shows where it happened.

recognition

How to spot it in your own games

It usually looks like this:

• You're often the first death of the roundYou take the fight a little before everyone
• When you die, your team is far awayYou're outside trade range
• You rarely get tradedNo one is close enough to answer
• That “alone again” feelingYou're used to opening the round first

If a couple of rows sound familiar, this is most likely your case. And that's actually handy: what you can see, you can change.

round

It all happens in the first seconds

What I like here is that you don't need to go through the whole match — the first seconds of a round are enough. On attack, you're the first to check the lane while the others are still gathering. And on defense, you peek early, before a teammate has had time to set up next to you.

Either way, you're doing the right thing — just a little before your team is ready for it. So we won't change your decisiveness, only the moment: so that when the fight starts, someone is already there.

the fix

How to fix it — a couple of seconds

Usually you can see the difference within an evening: you start getting traded, and rounds that used to slip away right away stay alive. After a week it's a habit.

What I'd remember: going first is fine. The part that matters is having someone close enough to answer. Then your nerve starts working for the whole team.

FAQ