Counter-Strike: Fnatic Playbook

Counter-Strike: Fnatic Playbook
By: Brian Johnson - Published Today at 3:07 PM CET - Writer Archive
Fnatic is regarded as the best Counter-Strike team in Sweden and one of the best in the world. The Swedes also hold the title
for the best team on de_nuke. What key elements make up Fnatic's winning strategies? Karpov answers this and more in his
latest playbook on Swedish team Fnatic.

After placing second at ESWC 2006 and obscuring my predictions by soundly defeating Complexity on de_nuke, it was only
natural that Fnatic join the ranks of community elites in the form of a playbook. This playbook contains detailed breakdowns
of Fnatic stratgeies on de_dust2, de_train, de_inferno, and de_nuke. How big of a role does dsn's AWP play? How often is
f0rest flanking? Turn the page and find out.

Fnatic's Roster

  Harley "dsn" Örwall
  Patrik "cArn" Sättermon
  Kristoffer "Tentpole" Nordlund
  Patrik "f0rest" Lindberg
  Oscar "Archi" Torgersen
Dust2 Offense

Pistol Round

Fnatic works long A slowly and leaves f0rest on the flank. The team attempts to pickoff any lone defenders and causes a
distraction. From there the players rotate back to catwalk and again look for any lone defenders and or holes in the defense.
Once Fnatic finds a weak point the entire team rushes in a unitary direction.

If Fnatic cannot determine a weak point, the team will rush middle and attempt to hit bombsite B from backdoor.

Save Round

Fnatic is prone to playing their save rounds identical to their first pistol round. At the beginning of the round the team scouts
on long A. If the area is clear the players will rotate back to catwalk and eventually attack middle.

Anti Eco

On anti-eco rounds, Fnatic spreads out and looks for any wandering defenders. If Fnatic fails to find anyone lingering, they're
likely to attack catwalk slowly with a barrage of grenades and flashbangs.

Default

Fnatic's default is very similar to their anti-eco. The team spreads out with Archi watching long A, cArn and dsn watching B
(occasionally dsn will watch from inside the halls), and tentpole holding middle with f0rest. The strategy's goal is to begin the
round with an early pickoff and weaken one side of the defense. Once Fnatic hits a pick or finds a hole, they attack that weak
point in a unitary direction. Fnatic almost never leaves a player behind on the flank.

5 Long A

Tentpole watches middle from here. He's not looking for the number of players crossing to B, but rather trying to catch a
player pushing middle.

Archi flashes over the long A box to take control of the first chokepoint. From there the team aggressively pushes up long A.

Tentpole rotates to long A with team and the players commence their attack.

Fnatic tosses a barrage of smoke grenades into the chokepoint and flashbangs into the bombsite and towards catwalk.

If the defense fails to contest Fnatic while the team enters the bombsite, Fnatic will toss the remainder of their flashbangs and
grenades towards catwalk and attack the defense while it stages rather then give them a chance to amass numbers and attempt
to retake the bombsite.

After planting, expect a lone player to be watching the long A flank.

4 Cat, dsn B Halls

When Fnatic is ready to up the tempo, they will try a backdoor B strategy by tossing a barrage of flashbangs and smoke
grenades into the middle / ct spawn chokepoint. From there the players will sandwich the B bombsite as dsn approaches from
B halls.

3 Long A, 2 Catwalk

This is a full blitz strategy with 2 players attacking catwalk and 3 attacking long A with bomb.

The catwalk attack is fueled by leading flashbangs and grenades.

The long A attack is designed to push an AWPer off of long A with flashbangs and grant a free passage into the bombsite via
smoke greanades on the chokepoint and flashbangs in the bombsite. Look for Fnatic to plant for catwalk.

Dust2 Defense

Pistol Round

Fnatic uses a very effective style round with the bulk of their team concentrated in the middle region. Archi holds long A from
the ramp, cArn defends bombsite B from the back of the site, f0rest positions himself on catwalk, and tentpole and dsn stack in
the middle.

Save Round

For the most part the players push their spots and hope to get lucky on save rounds. Occasionally Fnatic mixes things up with a
strategy like this one:

At the beginning of the round 3 players are boosted onto catwalk while one of the players holds middle. Once the 3 are up
catwalk the team synchronizes flashbangs and attempts to push 3 down catwalk and 2 up middle.

Default

Fnatic starts off the majority of rounds in this setup: f0rest on catwalk, Archi holding long A from a passive angle, dsn
aggressively AWPing middle, cArn playing in a corner or behind a box in B, and tentpole supporting dsn in middle. When
there is a hint of action towards one area of the map tentpole will quickly rotate to support.

Each round begins with Archi boosting f0rest onto catwalk.

From there f0rest will most likely move into this spot.

Archi likes to play long a passively from here.

cArn tends to hide inside the b bombsite behind boxes.

Spread Defense

After Fnatic's default has shown some success the team likes to mix it up and spread things out leaving catwalk and middle
largely exposed.

dsn joins Archi and f0rest at long A. The trio grenade the chokepoint and dsn eventually falls back with his AWP to cover
catwalk from a distance.

cArn plays inside the B bombsite while tentpole supports him from outside the site.