Sticking together vs Spreading out

Free Fire India Championship 2020 Fall has taught us many things. Over the course of this tournament, we have seen the meta evolve. The teams have become more disciplined, the games are more structured, and the strategies are more evident. Due to this, we can pick up a lot of tricks and learn by watching them play. In this article, we will talk about some of the basics of Battle Royale that will help you improve your game too. 

Today, we will be taking a look at a game from the Play-Ins, watch the action unfold from a different perspective, and hopefully use these tricks in our own gameplay.  The following match took place on 2nd October 2020, in the FFIC Play-Ins. The map was Purgatory. Team KS won this match, but Optimum Esports gave them a tough run for their money. 

At the end of the 4th circle, Team KS found themselves in a position where they could gatekeep their opponents, hence they tried to stay in the same compound 

Team KS got a massive advantage here. They were one of the only teams who still had a compound in the zone. Several other teams like The Doctors, Incometax and Team Lava had to push into the zone, and Team KS would be able to gatekeep them. This gave Team KS a great chance to pick up a lot of kills. But if so many teams are going to crash into you, it isn’t guaranteed that you’ll survive that onslaught. Hence Team KS curled up close into one tight unit and fought together with all their might. 

This is the exact opposite of what Optimum Esports did. Since Optimum Esports was on the other side of the circle, they never needed to fight Team KS. They only needed to fight to Call Us Lords, which they dealt with easily. Once they eliminated Call Us Lords, they spread out across the hillside. This allowed them to have several lines of sight, get more map control, and steal kills. 

The red highlighted circles indicate how spread out Optimum Esports was. This allowed them to steal kills, third party in other fights, and maintain pressure on both GZ-Army and Team KS.

This is the fundamental difference in the strategy we will explore in the article today. We’ll explore when to stick together, and when to spread out. 

Sticking together

Advantages:

- Fighting as a team is easier

- Can provide backup faster

- Easy to revive teammates if knocked down

Disadvantages: 

- Narrow sightedness. You are only focusing on one fight or one objective at a time

- Very fewer ways to gather info about other opponents

- If pinned down, very difficult to get out of a bad position

- You either win fights, or the whole team gets eliminated. Chances of escaping are low. 

Spreading out

Advantages:

- Greater map control

- More information

- Ability to flank enemies from several directions

Disadvantages:

- Trading kills is difficult

- You can get picked off one by one

- Hard to revive teammates because they are far away

In the following game, Optimum Esports spread out because they had the high ground. Since they already have a terrain advantage, they get a better vision of their opponents. They capitalized on it even more by attacking several teams at once. While The Doctors, Team KS, and Incometax were fighting, Optimum Esports was able to steal a lot of kills. Thus at the end of the game, even though they did not win the game, they had more kill points than anyone else in the game.

They split up 2-2. Two of their members tried to steal kills from the previously mentioned fight, while the other pressured GZ-Army. 

What would have happened if they stuck together? They would not have been able to gatekeep GZ-Army. It’s important to note that GZ-Army too was contesting the high ground areas. Hence it was imperative for Optimum Esports to stop them. Had they stuck together, they would have to focus on either stealing kills or fighting GZ-Army. A part of the reason why it was a good idea was that they had the high ground. 

Similarly, since Team KS was fighting several teams at once inside one compound, it was important for them to stick together. Later on, they needed to move uphill. Since they were on the low ground, if they spread out at that time, their players would run out of gloo walls really quickly. Together, they were able to turtle their way on top of the hill, expending as little gloo walls as possible. 

In the final fight against Optimum Esports, Team KS was only able to win because they knocked out the opponents who were split up. Once the flankers were knocked out, Team KS only needed to focus on the opponents directly in front of them. 

Team KS won the booyah, but that doesn’t mean that Optimum Esports’ decision to spread out was wrong. Both strategies have unique advantages of their own. We hope that this article was able to encompass the full depth of these two unique strategies, and we hope this helps you choose your own strategies in your games wisely.

-Written by Umesh Kripalani