Coach Axiom · 33k PRWhy you need a gameplan
Top players do not freestyle. They land on one fixed spot and play a strict gameplan every game, because every decision you have to make from scratch in game is slower and worse. Fewer decisions in game means better decisions.
Two or three plans for one spot
For your spot you want two or three fixed plans, depending on where the zone pulls. Each one covers your loot route, where you storm tank and which direction you go. If the zone pulls one way, you might play outstorm, for example because you know where the vendings are out there. If it pulls the other way, you go deep or full deadside. Weaker players have one loot route at most and call that their plan.
The spot sets the difficulty
How good a drop is comes down to how well you prepared it. With a plan for every zone you can play from anywhere. What the spot changes is how hard it gets.
- Midmap: easier, because you have more and easier rotations to get deep.
- Edge of the map: harder, with fewer ways deep, so every single one matters more.
Match the plan to the spot and to yourself
Your plan, outstorm or midmap, depends on your spot and on the kind of player you are, see Storm and deadside.
The order of a defensive win
A defensive win follows a fixed order, and a good gameplan is prepared for every zone on the way there.
- Survive offspawn.
- Get stacked on your loot route with cap mats, cap heals and a mobility item.
- Get deep. Either box up deep, or play outstorm and come in deep over the deadside.
- Stay deep.
- In the endgame, play a high layer and claim the winning position.
Your plan decides what is right
If your plan is to play outstorm in the midgame, you can farm your metal out there, so low metal after Zone 1 is not a mistake. If not, it is better to have at least around 250 metal by Zone 1. After that it gets hard, because the midgame starts and you have to focus on position.
What outstorm has to lead to
Looting outstorm is nothing special in itself, because it is your plan. What counts is what comes after it: you come in deep, for example with 1,300 mats in Zone 5. So a gameplan outstorm is not a mistake, as long as you come in deep after it.
A midmap spot means a midmap game
If your spot is built for midmap, go midmap early instead of playing edge at your spot. Otherwise it costs you your good position in the midgame.
What makes a good drop spot
Any spot can be good if there is a real gameplan behind it. For the spot itself, two things count: it is not too contested, and there is enough loot on your loot route.
Safety alone is not enough
A spot that is always uncontested but only has a few chests is still a bad spot. In solos your spot does not have to be as big as in duos. Around 10 chests or a really well-built loot route is enough, and you can get creative with it. On a one-chest spot it cannot work. What matters every game is that you get cap mats, cap heals and cap mobility.
Pick it by your offspawn
If you are strong offspawn, land in a city, where you get more loot. If you are not, go where you are more likely to stay uncontested, for example a split. A split is smaller and has fewer chests, but it is often uncontested, and for that kind of player it is the right choice.
Taking a contest
- Spare games left in the cup: you can afford an offspawn death, so take it.
- Only a few games left: dodge it as best you can.
- You are down first or land right on a weapon: take it, because you have the head start.
- Too deep to turn away: you have to contest.
One spot for the whole cup
Best case, you land on the same spot in every game of the cup and play your gameplan. Pick one spot, practice it all the time, find your mistakes there and fix them, instead of switching after every bad game.
1. When you improvise
Only when you die offspawn too often or your gameplan clearly does not work. If you have offspawn strats and win almost all of your offspawn fights, you do not need a backup spot.
2. Mid cup you change nothing, with two exceptions
- The spot keeps ending your game: you go offspawn dead there again and again. Switch to a spot with the same loot where you stay uncontested, and stick with that one.
- You key the whole midgame and keep dying to it: that habit has to change.
3. A spot that worked stays
Switching away from a spot you landed on all cup when it actually worked is a bad play.
4. Opens and finals
Do not switch spots in the finals, because that is the spot you are practiced on. Moving to a new spot between opens and finals is not smart for the same reason. If you want a new spot, switch after the finals, so you have time to learn it before the next cup.