tsu's guide to smart defense

I'm willing to admit I'm not an elite defender. But I've been around for 14 months, and played three seasons of starting MLTP, and can probably offer something to most people that aspire to be defenders. I attribute my success to smart play, and not necessarily technical skill. Fortunately for me, that's 75% of defense.

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#1. CONTAIN CONTAIN CONTAIN (solo version)

This is rule number one, because it's the most important. Containment is the key to playing competitive defense, whether alone or with a partner. What does containment mean? It means you're holding the flag carrier (FC from here on out) still. You're cutting of viable routes. You're buying time. And POTENTIALLY setting up a return for yourself.

This is also one of the hardest parts to master. It sounds easy on paper, but it's not. It means you have to anticipate jukes, anticipate viable routes the FC will take, and hold the FC within an area. Let's do an easy example first, GeoKoala:

[Figure 1](http://i.imgur.com/wYBuola.png)

What viable routes does the blue flag carrier have? Remember, smart play.

He can go top, he can go bottom. Let's you're alone on defense, and he's an excellent flag carrier that you're not confident that you can return easily. You definitely DON'T want to swipe, miss, and get beat.

You CAN just contain and hold him in base. If you're extra cautious, it's almost impossible to get past the choke at the bottom. Assume he'll be juking back and forth, just anticipate and cut him off. He essentially can't go top, because you can get to the button before he can get to the gate.

Wait for him to get aggressive and make a mistake. If an FC tries to force the bottom, a solo return is very probable. If he's playing it cautious too, all you need to do is wait for a teammate to respawn. BAM, now it's 2 people trying to return, thanks to your ability to contain until help arrives.

"Ok, ok tsu, but GeoKoala is EASY. What about containing on an offensive heavy map?"

[Figure 2](http://i.imgur.com/ts2sdDh.png)

"Boombox?! You can play defense on Boombox!"

Sure, but once the flag is out of base, it's undeniably favored toward the flag carrier. But that's beside the point, we don't need to argue maps here.

So, in Figure 2, a return is not going to happen alone. It's just not. But you can **CONTAIN**.

FC makes a move upwards, you make a slight, _slight_ move upwards. Just let him know that if he's going up, you'll be there to cut him off. He then makes a move down, you cautiously move down.

You STAY between him and his goal. This is not a scenario to get aggressive, especially if you're the last one he has to beat. You need to match his movements, but stay between him and the flag. You need help to return on boombox. Your goal is to match his movements until a teammate arrives to help you.

You let him know that if he goes up, you'll be there to meet him. If he tries to go bottom, you'll be there to cut him off diagonally. He he tries to force it past you in close combat, you'll there there, slowly backpeddling, and making it impossible for him to get all the way around you.

#2. CONTAIN CONTAIN CONTAIN (teammate version)

Hey, you have a partner on defense? WOW! Now things can get cool.

Generally, in the competitive scene, one of you will be more aggressive, and one of you will be containg. These roles don't even necessarily need to be fixed, you can switch it up, but at any given time, you should have one of each.

What the container does is cut off all viable routes for the FC. You see where he's going, where he can potentially go, and cut him off from his goal. What you're going, is making it easier for the aggressive defender to return.

[Figure 3](http://i.imgur.com/zq9nWQA.png)

Let's take Holy See as an example. Red has just grabbed, blue has two defenders. The one closest takes on the role of the aggressor, the one farther away takes on the role of container. What do you do?

Firstly, what viable routes does the flag carrier have?

His long term goal is to get out of one of the two exits. Mid or pipe.

His short term goals are a few:

* He can go left and try his luck juking out two defenders in that corner. In this instance, the container stays above him and makes sure that he can't get out of the corner. You can't get aggressive and go downward, that potentially leads to getting beat on the outside and the FC escaping. It's imperative to stay between the FC and the mid exit. The aggressor essentially has the right side cut off, and therefore the pipe exit is nullified.

* He can go down and try to bounce off the wall and beat the aggressor to the right. In this instance, the container stays above the aggressor, so that if the aggressor gets beat, now the aggressor is on the left, and the container is on the right cutting off the pipe as a viable escape.

* He can try to split the defenders. This is the riskiest and least likely option, but it's still something that needs to be prepared for. In this instance, the container needs to identify the movement and move towards the aggressor. Splits get pulled off when someone is too cautious. If the split gets pulled off, the FC has access to the pipe or the mid exit, which is essentially worst case scenario.

#3. CHASING BEHIND THE FC

SOMEONE NEEDS TO STAY BEHIND THE FC. That's right, you heard it here first. And I mean it. Someone, BUT JUST ONE PERSON, needs to chase the FC from behind. Not many defenders do this.

Let me explain. If no one is chasing the FC from behind, he has no pressure on him. He can do anything he wants. He can turn around, and get lost behind everyone. Forcing people to chase him backwards, and get beat. The easiest way to get beat is when you're chasing the wrong way and the FC can pull off a quick turn around. Suddenly multiple defenders and behind him and he can cap.

When a defender is chasing directly behind him, the FC's options are severly limited. He has constant pressure to move, constant thinking is required making mistakes more likely, and he's not able to pull off things like sharp turns, lining up of boosts, etc.

I don't think you need any figures for this one.

#4. I KNOW I'M ACUTE, BUT YOU'RE TOO OBTUSE, ALL RIGHT? (ANGLES)

You see this pretty consistently throughout the subreddit. "Diagonal is faster!" Let me explain, because the concept is essential to understand fully.

Diagonal is technically faster in the fact that you have more velocity, the very definition of faster. But if you're behind the FC on a horizonal or vertical plane, you're not going to catch them by swerving back and forth. You see, horizontal and vertical velocity are independent.

That means if you're on boombox, and the flag carrier is ahead of you, you can't catch him. Even if he goes the very bottom lane, and you go the very top lane. You can't catch him unless he slows down, because he's ahead of you horizontally. It doesn't matter than you have a straighter line to the flag.

This is essential, because you need to visualize planes when going for a return. You see, since the planes are independent, you can be deceptively fast when returning. If an FC thinks he has beaten you, and it looks like so if this were say, real life physics, but you know you're still level with him on a horizontal or vertical plane, you can move diagonally and get the return. Let's do a figure just for good measure.

[Figure 4](http://i.imgur.com/Ku1HpyI.png) (lines represent momentum)

Blue has a ton of space, he's free for sure! Nope. Why? They're on the same horizontal plane. That means the red defender, moving diagonally, can always catch the blue FC until there is a change in direction. If blue goes down, the red ball can meet him at the corner. If blue goes directly horizontal to hit the wall and go up, red can meet him at the wall. If blue ties to go up, red can meet him at an intersection. Unless blue changes his horizontal velocity, red has a guaranteed return. (Note: any good FC will change their horizontal velocity in that scenario).

#5. GET OUT YOUR CRYSTAL BALLS (PREDICTION)

This is impossible to master? Why? Because it's a human element, subject to human error, and is constantly being challenged.

This is the rock, paper, scissors of defense, and TagPro in general really.

Okay, so an FC has the flag. You're racing toward him for the return. What's he going to do? He's going to move out of your fucking way, of course.

You need to anticipate this. You need to guess which way he'll most likely move, and you'll need to meet him there.

When you're moving for a return, draw a line in your head where you two will intersect. Now, assume the FC is ALSO doing this. He's going to avoid that intersection at all costs. So what do you need to do?

You need to avoid that intersection too. But you need to avoid it in the same direction that the FC is avoiding it in, and meet him at that new point.

Did I mention you also have to do this without sacrificing your position between him and the capture point, so that in case you're wrong, you don't give up a cap?

This, of course, is generally what the aggressive defensive player does while the container is containing, so that if you predict wrong and get beat, it's not the end of the world.

This is hard, it takes practice, and will never be perfected, because every flag carrier is different.

Again, no figure necessary.

#6. BONUS TIP FOR NEWBIES

Please lead the flag carrier. If you're throwing yourself at where he's currently at, he won't be there by the time you get there. You need to throw yourself in front of his path.


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* Trust your teammates. You don't need two people playing no-grab on a single person. Trust your teammate to play the no-grab well, and stay behind the flag so if a grab does get off, you're there for the quick return.

* Blocking. An underrated skill, and one I'll admit I'm not as good as I should be at. Blocking gets caps. It's all about pushing someone away, and then predicting which way they'll try to get around you, and matching that direction so they can't get around.

* Power-ups. I'll repeat this overstated tip just because it is actually that essentially. Any power-ups that are around your base, are the most essential. You should know the times, because they're the most immediate help, or most immediate threat if you lose it.

* Bomb times. That's right, every 30 seconds you should know when the bomb is spawning. This is ESSENTIAL on GeoKoala, Bombing Run, and other maps which are increasingly putting bombs in base CFB, Wormy, DangerZone, etc, etc.

* Chase different directions. (maybe include, sort of covered in first guide)

* Know when to grab and when to not grab! Know when to play offensive defense.

	It depends heavily on the map.

	Generally though, you never want to just barrel backwards. You'll get a return that way maybe 10% of the time, but 90% of the time it's a great way to watch the FC fly past you.

	So after you get a return, pay attention to if a regrab happens right away. Most of the time, it'll either happen immediately, or not at all. Rarely, if there's not a grab after 5 seconds, will there be one for at least another 5-10 seconds.

	If the grab happens immediately, position yourself at a choke point. Base entrances are a good place to be. Koala, and Holy See, even Boombox, and Dangerzone have pretty distinctive ones. Then you play the waiting game. Put yourself some place that the FC has to travel past to score.

	If there isn't an immediate grab, you have a few options. You can grab their flag, no matter how risky, to die and reset. Best case scenario, you get away. Worst case scenario, you're reset on defense. If you KNOW that all four enemies aren't going to be grabbing within the next 3-5 seconds, you can suicide to reset. Or, you can slowly make your way back to base along the fastest or most common route.

	On most maps, you can't stop a regrab chain unless you get two returns pretty close to each other. So just be making mental notes of when each return happens, and once you get a couple close enough together, it's probably safe to reset your position. Until you get returns close to each other, just consider yourself an offensive defense player. Don't grab, just stay in chokes and continue to make capping difficult for the opposition.