Making Decisions Under Pressure like the Pros
By subtheorist | Published: May 20, 2008 8:53pm EST
 Dealing with an intense amount of pressure while in a tournament environment is one of the most decisive factors in becoming successful in the league. Here we have footage from Winners Bracket Round 4 of MLG Meadowlands 2008, where Ant and the rest of Team Classic burst onto the professional scene. Let’s break down the footage on an in-depth level and take a look at the decision-making process of Ant during this high profile match. 1:35 – Classic has three players down and Ant has just spawned. After killing Gandhi, who had the flag, Ant follows a call-out on Shockwave near the flag spawn. In this type of situation, one could assume that fully recovering the flag is the correct play. However, had it been recovered, Ant knows Shockwave would have been right there to grab it again. Watch as he takes out Shockwave and stops the potentially dangerous play in its tracks. 2:05 – After clearly getting into a losing battle with Karma and Ghostayame, Ant jumps around inside the bottom-B crate in order to cause Karma to take extra time to kill him. The few precious seconds he stays alive allow Soldier to come in and easily clean up the kill on Karma. 3:57 – By using information from his teammates, Ant knows that Carbon will spawn on B side. Watch as he runs the flag back virtually unscathed until he meets Shockwave at the flag. Although he doesn’t score, this situation is a great example of how great communication can potentially lead to big plays. 4:45 – Directly after scoring a double kill on Shockwave and Gandhi on B side, Ant tells Soldier, who has just picked up the flag, to run it back on B side. He does so because he knows Carbon will soon spawn near A dumpster, giving Soldier daylight to run the flag back. 6:50 – After a clutch flag stop on Ghostayame, without hesitation Ant immediately picks up Carbon's flag and throws it out of the base. Doing so disables Carbon from being able to score due to their flag being missing. This type of split-second decision making differentiates the best players in the league from the average. 8:30 – Karma spawns and immediately starts to put shots on Ant. Ant knows he isn’t going to win the fight, so decides to take the flag instead. Although he knows he probably isn’t going to survive due to Karma coming directly behind him, he gets the flag out just far enough for Fear to grab it. 8:47 – Realizing how close the flag is to being captured and that Fear might also be in trouble, Ant immediately heads to aid the flag from his spawn. The move allows him to kill Gandhi quickly, pick up the flag, and subsequently score for a 5-0 victory over Carbon. |
