THE TRUTH ABOUT STRAFE JUMPING & TEAM GAMES – By David Wilson a.k.a [xeno]charger

dwilson24@sympatico.ca | charger@xenoclan.com

The truth about strafe jumping when used in team games is: IT GETS YOU KILLED!

It’s quite easy to understand how this is so, through the following argument.

Strafe jumping is a technique that has been used for years now and is nothing new. However, this alone does not mean that it is the right or smart thing to do. When you strafe jump you move faster, but you also move less. By this I mean you lose your ability to effectively manoeuvre left and right. You would never unbind your left and right strafe keys in a match. However by using strafe jumping you are effectively reducing your ability to manoeuvre in any given situation (giving a similar effect to unbinding your left and right strafe keys). As we all know a standing target is easier to hit then one that is slightly moving. Likewise a slightly moving target is easier to hit then one that is moving a lot. Because you lose control over yourself when your strafe jumping you have a limited landing zone, which is easily picked up by an enemy player. You also have forward momentum, which can be used against you. This momentum could be used to send you flying into a wall or just simply stop you in your tracks; all with one well placed rocket. Strafe jumping also reduces your awareness of your surroundings, many times you will be concentrating so hard on strafe jumping and making sure you don’t fly into the wall after your next strafe jump or to get to some end goal. That you will miss things in your side view (weapons, enemies, etc..).

Strafe jumping reduces your reaction time by quite a bit, think of it this way; car A going 50km/hr and car B going 100km/hr if someone were to jump in front of car A, the driver would have enough reaction time to safely avoid hitting the person. Where as car B would have a new hood ornament. This is the reason behind getting owned so quickly by players not strafe jumping. They have far more time to react to the situation then someone that is strafe jumping. Another problem arises with strafe jumping is the “point of no return” factor. This comes into play when your strafe jumping around the level and strafe jumps into a room and then realizes there are 2-3 well armed enemies in the room and because you strafe jumped your now in too far to get back out safely (often because of the nature of strafe jumping you don’t stop to look around so your at least 2 jumps into the room before you figure out it was a mistake). This factor alone causes a great deal of deaths. In the same situation if you simply run/walk into the room you will realize before its too late that it’s a bad idea to continue forward. Strafe jumping is also a sign of panic, when things are not going the teams way… for whatever reason the players tend to feel this panicked rushed state “omg we are down we gotta get up fast!” which of course is the WORST thing you could ever do. It often results in the “running around with your head cut off” syndrome. When things are not going the teams’ way it’s important to keep your wits about you and carefully plan an attack or a defence. The teams that make come backs are the ones that slow the pace of the game down and “THINK/LOOK/LISTEN/REACT” they don’t simply run at the enemy hoping for the best, they actually have a plan.

On the other hand many times I’ve seen a team get 10-20 frags down and then get into this “omg we’re going to lose” state and they start strafe jumping like mad all over the map and it always ends up in more deaths. In a well laid out strategy you will not need to use strafe jumping, in fact the use of strafe jumping often means that your not in position and/or your taking unnecessary risks (chasing peons and leaving your team weak). Another major disadvantage to strafe jumping is the sound it makes. If the enemy is running and your strafe jumping you will not be able to hear them coming. However, they will hear you coming from a mile away. Many position based strategies really require silence so you can get the 1^st drop on any incoming enemies, but if your jumping up and down like an idiot at least 2 things are true: a) your not paying attention to your position and watching where your supposed to be watching and b) your making a shit load of noise and any teammates around you wont be able to hear enemies coming as well. Now we all realize that there is a right time to go fast. However in a team game that is not very often, rushing back to help a teammate would be 1 of the acceptable uses for strafe jumping. There are not many others. Be wise, be aware and realize that going fast means nothing more then going fast and making a lot of noise. There is really little need for strafe jumping in a team game. The bottom line: strafe jumping will get you killed.