General Strategy

## Intro

This page is intended to cover the basics of competitive strategy for someone who is new to the game mode. Therefore, some parts of this page may be more focused on a pick-up game (PUG) environment. See Complex Strategy for information going beyond the basics and geared more towards a real team with a dedicated roster.

## How to Win a Round in the Firefight Game Mode

There are three ways to win a round in firefight:

1. Eliminate all opposing players.
2. Have two of the three objectives captured and uncontested when the round timer ends.
3. Capture all three objectives without any of them being contested.

If an objective is contested it will be blinking on the HUD.

## Communication & Team Synergy

The biggest difference between the gameplay on public servers versus competitive firefight is communication and teamwork. Refer to the Communication page for a detailed explanation of how to effectively communicate in a competitive firefight setting.

For an overview of what communication in firefight looks like, watch the short video below:

Even if your team has more experience or is better on paper than the other team, you may lose a game due to poor synergy and lack of cohesive teamwork. This can happen when too many people are playing the same lanes or when there is poor communication. Lack of synergy can result in enemies flanking your support players (players who are in overwatch positions to cover B) from areas of the map that aren't being watched. If you're not communicating effectively, enemies can also secretly capture an objective (AKA "ghost capping", see below). Understand that the lane you play and how you play it doesn't just affect you, but the rest of your team as well. To synergize well with your team, make sure you're all watching different angles and are in positions to easily kill an enemy quickly after he kills a teammate, i.e. re-fragging. When multiple teammates are trying to block an objective, push together, not one by one.

## Game Mechanics

Insurgency is a very low time-to-kill (TTK) game. You will usually die if an enemy shoots at you first. Therefore, you should **always** **think about what you are exposed to**. Consider what parts of your player model may be exposed to enemies despite what you can see from your screen. Always right-peek from a crouched and aimed position when available to minimize your exposure. Check out the Peeking & Leaning page for more information.

**Move in an "all or nothing" fashion**. Full sprint to get to where you need to be and then crouch ADS to avoid making footsteps when you get there. Use sound to your advantage and understand that the enemy team is doing the same. Listen for enemy footsteps and make sure *you* aren't making footsteps when you aren't sprinting. In addition, when you're holding an angle, you almost always want to keep your gun aimed in one direction. The time it takes to aim down your gun can be the difference between winning and losing a gunfight.

**Don't stack up on your teammates.** A common mistake new players make is getting *too* close to a teammate. Coordinating a push with your teammate(s) is good, but if you're right next to them, you risk both dying if an enemy shoots at one of you due to the incredibly low TTK of the game. This isn't a SWAT simulator.

## Map Control

"Map control" is the ability for a team to hold the most important/powerful positions of a map, or the majority of the commonly played areas of a map. For example, if you're playing Station on Insurgent side and none of your teammates cross to the C side of the map, you do not have map control because you are conceding important parts of the map (such as Shrine) and objective points to the enemy team. Having good map control allows your team to proactively hold angles where enemies may push, cut off access to auxiliary objectives (A and C), and cover your B player from support positions.

## Objective Play

If there is plenty of time still left in a round (30 seconds or more), **don't capture two objectives at the same time** (AKA "double capping"). Instead, leave objectives at 99% captured to respawn dead teammates by simply touching the objective. Likewise, don't capture an objective if all five of your teammates are still alive. Make use of that valuable respawn by waiting until at least one teammate is dead.

**Block the enemy** from capturing an objective whenever possible (unless you have multiple people spawn camping and are prepared to capture another objective). When the first enemy capturing an objective is killed and later a second enemy gets on to finish their capture, the in-game announcer will not announce that a second enemy got on the objective (this is referred to as "ghost-capping"). One of the easiest ways to lose a round is to hyper-focus on your individual lane, kill the enemy B player, and then forget about B and let the enemy ghost cap to respawn the people you killed. When you kill the enemy B player, the closest person to B should get on the point within 15 or so seconds to check if there is a second enemy capping.

**Don't leave a power/support position** (e.g., the bridges on Market or Balc on Ministry) to get on an objective unless necessary. Let a flanker or someone closer to the objective block so you can continue overwatch of the area from the support position.

**Support the B player**. Make sure he lives by covering him in support positions and watching the flanks. The B player's life is the most important.

When playing an objective, **don't expose yourself unnecessarily**. If your team needs you to cap and you can cap the objective before an enemy blocks, it is better to stay down and hold an angle than risk dying and losing the round. This is important to keep in mind for players getting on B at the start of the round. Unless another strategy is established pre-round, the B player should focus on staying alive and holding a safe angle while their teammates kill threats to the objective capture. If you lose enough teammates and are contested, then you will need to expose yourself in order to kill the enemy and get your team respawned.

Sometimes, players will run through an objective without staying to capture it. This is called **baiting** **the objective**. This is a strategy that can be useful to force enemies out of hiding or to catch them off guard, but it is not a strategy that should be done every round.

## Rotations and Decision Making

Knowing when to move (also known as "**rotating**") and when to hold an angle takes time to learn for new players. That being said, there are common indicators of when to rotate that new players should pay attention to. Don't wait until you are the last person alive to rotate. A good rule of thumb is that if 3 of your teammates die, you should move. Oftentimes you should rotate before this happens. Check your map every now and then to see where your teammates are alive. Your rotations will often be dictated by your teammates' callouts. When you do rotate, **don't hesitate**. It is better to execute a rotation or plan quickly while there's still time to be effective rather than hesitate too long and have any decision be too late to matter. You will also learn quicker by acting without hesitation and then reflecting or getting feedback on your decision after the round is over.

Understand the **rock, paper, scissors** model of competitive Insurgency. In general, passive play > rushing > objective play > passive play. An enemy playing passively, waiting for you to rush a lane, will often kill you. However, rushing may be necessary to stop an enemy from capping an objective. Likewise, objective play may be necessary to force enemies out of their passive positions. There are, however, exceptions to this model. For example, effective use of frag grenades, flashbangs, or teammates pre-firing can help you push a lane even when an enemy is holding it passively. For more information on decision making in Insurgency, watch the video below.

Play mind games with your opponent. Learn the tendencies of your opponent and counter them. Switch up how you are playing your lane as necessary. Don't play in the exact same spot in your lane, holding the exact same angle every round as you will become predictable. For more information on this topic, watch the video below.