Playstyle Spectrum

Above, we attempted to explain how players can contribute to the common goal of the squad. It is important to not mix up those jobs with squad playstyles. Playstyle is the inherent way someone likes to play. People tend to mislabel playstyle as “rats” vs “chads” or “dumb sprinters” vs “pussy proners”. From the experience playing with a lot of different people and playstyles, squad playstyles can be separated into two extremes - aggressive players and methodical players.

Good aggressive players like to quickly poke holes and shove through the enemy as fast as they can. They are often the first players to reach the objective and usually get a lot of kills by making the enemy panic with their speed. The downside of this style is that they will often die a lot. If not playing with like-minded aggressive players, they will often die in un-revivable positions and constantly give up. This playstyle is more inconsistent than methodical but is critical to making sick plays that win games. Think squad version of the Counterstrike entry-fragger and maybe even combine the lurker.

Good methodical players like to remain in complete control of the situation (this is not to be confused with “passive”). They will usually be supporting the team by providing crossfire, anchoring, overwatch, and refrags. Being methodical does not mean they do not push or that they are slow. A good methodical player will still be poking and abusing gaps at the right moments. They will often die in revivable positions and die less than an aggressive player, but will usually get onto objectives later after the aggressive players.

The most versatile and strong squad players are those who can play both the methodical playstyle and the aggressive style. They know when to use one style over the other and can quickly flip the switch on how they are playing (in a matter of seconds), making them extremely unpredictable and deadly (I have no idea how they do it). Let’s call them hybrids.

For inexperienced players, it is recommend you find a style that attracts you the most / the one you are better at. Stick to it and perfect it before moving on to attempting the other style. The aggressive playstyle is extremely hard to get into for the mechanically disadvantaged and can be more punishing for someone starting off (leading into int feeding). The methodical playstyle is difficult to master as you need to have the game sense to know where to play from to not be as useful as an AFK person.

On the topic of squad and team composition, we cannot tell you what the best way to combine these playstyles in a team is. Is it better to have squads of only aggressive players followed by squads of only methodical players? Is it better to have squads with mixes of many playstyles? I think both are viable and combining these two ideologies is the strongest. For squad composition and team composition we would focus on cohesion and synergy at the player level before looking at playstyle.