### Offense --- ##### Start of Round Before the gates open you should keep an eye out for enemy stickies. It is very common for teams to roll out with kritz and place traps on the gates and around the first point to catch players off guard delay the first point. ##### Pushing Pyro can fill in multiple roles depending on the specific map and point. In some situations, Pyro's job is to lead the charge and take part in [[Understanding Ubers#Exchanges |uber]] exchanges, taking space for your team and allowing your team to take the point in a [[Understanding Ubers#Post Uber|post]] fight. A common example of this is [[Upward|Upward]] third, where both pyros generally try to contest the corner at the end of the choke point, while the offensive team tries to kill the gun and take space in U-turn (bend, bucket). It is also very common for Pyro to take a backseat in offensive ubers. Generally, in these situations, Pyro's job is to get the combo into the uber safely by clearing traps and making sure no combo members are lost before the exchange. During the uber it is important to stay alive and protect the rest of your team as you can. Make sure to clear sticks to keep your team from exploding in post, watch for the spy trying to get easy picks during the uber on your sniper, and be ready in post to deal with the potential collapse. Depending on how the uber ends, be ready to take space in post with your team so that you can cap the point. [[Vigil]] second is a point where this type of exchange is common. Preemptively clearing the traps on hill, protecting your sniper during the exchange, and then moving in to either reflect spam off your combo as they escape or flooding over hill with your team to take the space. On many points, one of the most impactful things you can do on pyro is to set your sniper up with an angle. Allowing your sniper to safely peek without having to worry about getting stabbed or bombed forces the enemy team to either back off of angles or die. This can be extremely powerful on almost every point of [[Vigil]] and in some circumstances on [[Swiftwater]] and [[Upward ]] as well. > [!example] Secondary Selection > Generally speaking, defaulting to the [[Utilizing the Detonator effectively |detonator]] on offense is a solid idea. Many maps contain commonly trapped choke points that no other class can clear as quickly or effectively. Although this should be the baseline, there are many situations where other weapons can also be as good or more effective, depending on the map and point. ##### [[Spy Tracking#Transition Periods |Transition Periods]] Something very important to be aware of on all stopwatch maps is identifying transition periods. These happen every single time a point is taken on both offense and defense. On offense however, you are not given the luxury of back spawning or resupply cabinets. If the spy is alive after you've capped a point, be extremely aware of places he could be already in position for to capitalize on your teams transition into a new space. ### Defense --- ##### Spy Tracking The most important aspect of nearly any stopwatch point regarding spy is knowing whether or not the spy can be behind you. Catching exact cross timings can be difficult to impossible depending on the map, but it is extremely important to at least know that the spy should be behind and considering that while you are spy checking. A point where this is easily demonstrated is [[Upward]] third. There are very few avenues where spy can cross on this point so you can use this to your advantage to try and keep him from crossing as long as possible, but once he can be behind, you have to completely change your approach to the point. There are many tight corners and fast walkups for the spy to get a stab that can completely win the point and understanding where the spy can be in the first step in denying them. ##### Ubers It is much more common for pyros to be in ubers on defense. There is no better class at holding space given your ability to reliably control player movement just by right clicking. The enemy team will almost always be using uber first, meaning your team uber should almost always be better than theres. What this all means is that you have the time to control space effectively during the uber, and set your demo up to punish the enemy team if they overextend. Tightness in positioning and rotations is extremely important in these situations and any player falling just a bit behind can usually be killed. When taking a defense uber, your goal should generally be to take control of the space. This doesn't mean pushing as far as you can forward airblasting people away, it means taking just enough space to put your team in a winning position post-uber. Use your ability to airblast to not just airblast people back, but up and way. [[Airblast and controlling engagements |Control]] enemy players positioning, make it harder for them to escape, isolate players from their medic, make use of the full range of options that your class has to control a situation. Once you have succeeded in taking control of the space, let your demo take the lead on the rest of the uber as he traps off exits and cleans up any stragglers that you caught out at the end of the uber. These are the advantages that can be abused as a result of having slightly better ubers consistently on defense. > [!example] Secondary Selection > Your choice of secondary is much less defined on defense. In most situations your focus will be on positioning yourself around your team and the enemy teams pushes. You will very rarely have to clear traps or find much utility from the det outside of some spam and spy checking, which can both be accomplished with flares to varying degrees. Stopwatch defense is a great opportunity to equip a secondary that can actually kill people. ##### Body-blocking Cart As nearly all stopwatch maps being played are payload, it very common for a team to forced to deny the cart physically. This happens most frequently pushing points that involve hills that force the cart to roll back down, or when the cart gets close to capping last. In these situations it is usually the heavies job to try and stand on cart and get tanked by the medic, but in situations where you heavy cannot play on cart, pyro is the next most common option. When you are put in this position, the goal is to live as long as possible while preventing anyone from touching the cart, if you can prevent spy from decloaking on the cart to reset the timer, you can get the cart rolling back down the hill and set your team up for retaking a standard holding position. ##### Protecting the Gun The first step in breaking most stopwatch holds is to sap or destroy the sentry gun. Many pushes and ubers are designed to provide space for the spy to get behind or to commit recourses to kill the gun in order to setup a post fight and take the point. This creates an opportunity for pyro to protect the gun in these kind of situations When taking defensive ubers you can prioritize the spam meant for the gun by airblasting the demo away in time with his spam. You can reflect spam off the gun during downtime, and you can treat the gun as another target to protect from the spy. Giving your engineer more space to keep the gun alive will turn into stronger holds and more time successfully holding points. ##### Transition Periods On defense, transition periods tend to look a bit different. These mostly occur when leaving from one point to another or, less commonly, when trying to retake space. It is much less common for the spy to be in position to abuse your team during these rotations as usually he has committed his life to the successful push. If you know that he was behind you as. you lost the point and hasn't committed you should still keep an eye out, but most common threats tend to come from bombs. Soldiers and sometimes Demos will taking the opportunity to sac while their team gets cart time and your team is still setting up the next hold. This can easily catch your team off guard and net a medic or engineer pick which will set the offensive team up to keep rolling through the next point. Be aware of who is alive on both teams as you rotate to the next point and look out for common bomb angles (ie. the high bomb on [[Vigil]] 3rd). Keeping a high level of awareness in these situations and denying potential bombs will help your team consistently get setup for stronger and longer lasting holds.