Friday, April 16, 2010

Notes on the Chitown PSP layout

I'm moving in a new-ish direction with general field analysis--as recent posts might have suggested. With PSP Chicago I want to point out a few features (or factors) that will come into play and should be kept in mind as you familiarize yourself with this layout. It is a good design on a couple of counts and, in my estimation, is lacking in a couple of others. Overall, it's an interesting design that offers quite a lot of variety in the ways it can be played. I'm not a big fan of design elements that tend to break momentum as the D-side does on this field but that's a quibble.

The red denotes positions and OTB lanes. Keep in mind the snake side cross field lanes are much higher risk than any of the others and can really only be used irregularly. (The alternative method for slowing your opponent down if you're consistently losing the D-side is to a) accelerate your snake attack (which may prove difficult) or b) play the X more frequently with the expectation of cutting down the opponent's d-side player(s) quickly (while forcing them to defend against the X which will also slow their attack in future points.)
Shifting attention to the purple boxes note the orientation of the Cake(s). It has two significant effects; One, it makes Snake 1 virtually unplayable and Two, it neutralizes the gap between snake 1 and snake 2 in such a way that the only positions that can contest a move into Snake 2 is down the wire or from the snake-side MT (and a standing player. Otherwise it should be possible to crawl around snake 1 at will--though the precision of the actual set-up could have an effect.
Moving on to the blue circle [Snake 2] the blue lines demonstrate the domination of the snake position over all the forward D-side spots. The result of this bottleneck (of sorts) is that the race for control is between the D50 and Snake 2. And in the larger context of the whole field I suspect many teams will tend to play this layout defensively or as a counter-punching field. (By counter-punch I mean the willingness to give up some spots because it's more advantageous to be the second one there. For example, always bunker out the D50 instead of seeking to get to it first. One of the reasons for choosing that option is the D50 is a better holding point than it is an attacking position.)
Lastly let's look at the snake corner (circled in green.) There's two things I like about this bunker. One, it's an excellent launch point to enter the snake, two, the wrap dominates potentially key spots on the opponent's side of the field and three, it's susceptible to the cross field 50 if the player isn't careful. All positions on the field should have a balance of risk and reward.
Okay, that was a very quick rundown. If some aspect isn't clear or you have a related (or separate) question don't hesitate to post them in comments.

6 comments:

SSRoman said...

I enjoy your field breakdown thoughts.

Anonymous said...

Do you think we will see slower games and a lot less aggressive play. What bunkers off the break do you think we will see the most used? What plays do you predict teams like damage to use? Does this field cater to a certain teams playing style?

Thanks I love reading your work its really great.

Crotchety Old Fan said...

tough to tell from the 2D image, but it looks to me like the area in the corner behind the snake corner bunker (green circle) is a dead zone and it might be possible to play against the snake from there by briefly running out into it....

Baca Loco said...

Roman
Appreciate it. I do this stuff anyway and if it proves helpful for some it’s all good.

Phoenix
Teams play to their tendencies and/or their strengths. In that respect this layout is relatively neutral–except for the effectiveness of snake 2. This snake offers traditional snake qualities and pummels the D-side so most teams will play the snake hard. So first order of business is to deny your opponent access to the snake if you can. If you can’t deny you play the snake for last man in control.

The most often played bunkers will be the obvious choices; the corners, the D-side MT & TCK and on the snake side the MD, the pins and snake 1.

Most plays–for the teams that call plays–won’t be all that flashy. There are some possibilities for shaking things up but they will work in large part because they will be unexpected. The real difference between the defensive team and the attacking team is recognizing opportunity and how quickly that recognition turns into action. On that score a team like Damage will be breaking the field down in practices looking for those opportunities and preparing to take advantage. The other thing attacking teams do is make their opportunities (and that process usually falls under the category of gun skills.)

COF
I do think wire control from the corner will allow that player to at least harrass the rotation from snake 1 to snake 2.

Mike said...

Their are hardly any teams signed up for this event ....
http://www.paintball-players.org/cgi-bin/showteams.cgi?LID=117&EID=1468

Barnes said...

I enjoy your field breakdown thoughts.