Many things set people apart when it comes to being the best. Some people’s styles are more or less aggressive than others, some players adapt well to situations and others just read people really well. One thing however that every player takes advantage of is their intelligence. ...

Many things set people apart when it comes to being the best. Some people’s styles are more or less aggressive than others, some players adapt well to situations and others just read people really well. One thing however that every player takes advantage of is their intelligence. Face it, some players are just smarter.

Sun Tzu saw the importance of being smarter than your enemy more than anyone else to date. A testament to this is the book ‘Sun Tzu; the Art of War’, a book comprised of ways on how to win in war. I bought the book expecting it to help me improve my own personal skill at any given game.

And it did, at least to a certain extent. I first went about reading it the wrong way when trying to improve my game. I thought the book would be full of strategies and ‘How-Too’s’ of certain conflict situations. There was, maybe one or two things that I could relate to the game right away. But after that I was at a loss and quite upset with my purchase. I then however took a second look at the book, but in a different way; instead of looking for quick tips I contrasted the book to the games I was playing. It had an interesting outcome to say the least. I was finally able to improve not only my personal skill at any given game but it also had profound effects on team play theory and team management as well.

Personal skill was why I had purchased the book in the beginning and it paid off considerably, it helped with confidence, strategy, reading players, money management and a few other things as well. However I never expected it to help with team play theory and management.

This will be a multi piece feature containing my interpretation of the book in regards to E-Sports. Starting with a Warcraft III edition, followed by a Counterstrike edition then a Quake edition to finish.

1“ Warfare is the Way(Tao) of deception. Thus although you are capable, display incapability to them. When committed to employing your forces, feign inactivity. When your objective is nearby, make it appear as if distant; when far away, create the illusion of being nearby”

Translating this to Warcraft III the first thing that came to mind was a players expansion. To make it seem as though you aren’t as far along economically as you really are, placing your expansions in irregular positions on the maps will make it harder for your opponent to scout you.

For example, on Twisted Meadows most people do not use the 4 corner expansions due to inconvenience however, if you hide your expansion right behind your enemies main base, it is unlikely that they will scout there. Most players scout the map according to your spawn in relation to theirs; thinking that certain expansion areas are more likely than others therefore they rule them out to save time in scouting. If you think like they do and deduce your enemies most likely scouting pattern, you will be able to choose your expansions more wisely.

Warcraft III also comes with many ‘nick nacks’ that help you with your final ‘endgame strategy’. Certain items give you certain opportunities. For instance Wand of illusion (not used regularly) but if used properly can distract your enemy for a long enough period of time. As well, the goblin laboratory creates many useful ‘nick nack strategies’ for you to use.

For instance, using the Zepplin to drop units in the back of your enemies base; most people bring their hero along for the ride to get out quick if in trouble via a TP, however if you take advantage of this assumption, you can creep other parts of the map, while simply dropping units in the base and harassing with them. This way, your opponent assumes you are close (actually in his base) when you aren’t, you are creeping or expanding or whatnot and using this as a distraction.

These are just simple ‘nick nack’ strategies that of course won’t win you the game, they aren’t supposed to be ‘your main strategy’ but every game is situational, no two games are the same, and using the right combination of nick nack tactics can move you to your endgame strategy.
2“Display profits to entice them. Create disorder in their forces and take them.
If they are substantial, prepare for them; if they are strong, avoid them.
If they are angry, perturb them; be deferential to foster their arrogance.
If they are rested, force them to exert themselves.
If they are united, cause them to be separated
Attack where they are unprepared.
Go forth where they will not expect it.
These are the ways military strategists are victorious. They cannot be spoken of in advance.”

This is where your in-game sense comes into play. You cannot plan these things ahead of time, you need to make sure you adapt to what the other player is doing, and attack where they are weak so as to make where they are strong, weak as well.

If your opponent has a stronger position in-game than you do at the moment, avoid them. So many players try and fight or simply run away when using a TP would have been much more useful. The objective that people seem to lose sight of is, you want to win, period. You aren’t playing to win the fastest, or to just let your units do whatever they please while in battle. You need to work, and part of that is knowing when it is smart to engage and when it is stupid to engage.

Emotions tend to get in players ways since they cannot control how they feel at that moment. Take advantage of this and use a very ‘cheap’ trick to perturb them further so they make mistakes and cost themselves the game. Using a simple strategy such as sending Sappers to your opponents base to take out a few buildings in an instant can really send someone over the edge depending on their emotional state, and how their situation is in-game.

Attacking where they are unprepared is vastly already used, in relation to when a Human player tries to fast expo and you need to deny it. He is not prepared for the attack very well. His militia will run out (turn back to peasants), the creeps (depending on your timing) will help in the fight, you can steal the creeps item to help get hero advantage, and his units will be somewhat hurt from attacking the creeps before you get there. Taking advantage of these situations helps you stay in control of the game.

“If they are united, cause them to be separated
Attack where they are unprepared.”

These two go hand in hand; if you attack an expo with one part of your army, and when he moves to attack you, you run away and with the other part of your army hit his main base or another expansion can cause a lot of panic.
3“When employing them in battle, a victory that is long in coming will blunt their weapons and dampen their ardor. If you attack cities, their strength will be exhausted. If you expose the army to a prolonged campaign, the state’s resources will be inadequate.”

Long battles are the hardest to win, you must control more for longer periods of time and it puts strain on you as a player. Instead of having to concentrate for a 10 minute game, you may be forced to play a 30 minute game. You may begin to be sluggish in the late minutes of the game, getting tired of always thinking how to counter your opponent and wishing to quit because you think it is futile.

You need to think of ways that the map control will benefit you more than just income, or hero levels. If you hide in your base when they attack they will obviously be weaker as the base supplies much needed support, you can survive longer and gain the upper hand in times like this. Unless doing hit and run tactics you do not want to attack a base, it will only hinder you and chances are, not hurt them.


4“For this reason, the victorious army first realizes the conditions for victory, and then seeks to engage in battle. The vanquished army fights first, and then seeks victory.”

If you run off into a battle, or even an entire match without knowing what to do to garner a victory then you will lose. If you do not know how to defeat your opponent before hand, then doing so when the time comes is almost impossible. You will be forced to make up strategies during the game, in which time he will be focusing on other important aspects of the game as he already has strategies on how to beat you.

Being prepared mentally for each individual opponent is a point looked over by many players. If you generalize that all Orc players are the same, chances are, you will only beat a certain percent/type of Orc player, and the rest will always beat you. The same goes with every other race; each players’ individual style is what you need to be focusing on in regards to the race, not what the rest of the players do.
5“In general, commanding a large number is like commanding a few. It is a question of dividing up the numbers. Fighting with a large number is like fighting with a few. It is a question of configuration and designation.”

Some players fear using larger groups of units because it makes things harder as the group of units gets more diverse to counter whatever your opponent may be doing. This is where control groups comes in, this combined with custom-keys makes controlling a larger number of units the same as controlling a small number of units. It’s a matter of how you do it, and what the desired outcome is.

As well, when in battle many players focus on small pockets of the battle, and disregard the larger picture before them. Instead of microing small pockets, and then thinking on why you let each unit died while still trying to micro the rest, think of the larger picture and just continue on with microing and configuring the battle layout to YOUR advantage.


6“In general, in battle one engages with the orthodox and gains victory through the unorthodox. Thus one who excels at sending forth the unorthodox is as inexhaustible as Heaven.”

Professional players use cookie cutter strategies because they work, they are strategically sound, there is no arguing that. However it is not their ability to play these perfectly that makes them that much better than other players; it’s their in-game sense. When playing the game, situations develop that just cannot be foreseen before the match starts. Their ability to devise the previously mentioned ‘nick nack’ tactics is what allows them to win so much more than regular players. Which isn’t to say that they aren’t the best at micro/macro either, however if you have two of the same skilled players in terms of micro/macro, the player who outsmarts his opponent will be the victor every time.
7“The notes do not exceed five, but the changes of the five notes can never be fully heard. The colors do not exceed five, but the changes of the five colors can never be completely seen. The flavors do not exceed five, but the changes of the five flavors can never be completely tasted. The unorthodox and orthodox mutually produce each other, just like an endless cycle. Who can exhaust them?”

There is no limitation to the type of strategy you can employ when it comes to orthodox or unorthodox. They feed off of each other. You may use a Shredder on a certain map to harass his workers, but how many ways can you harass those workers with the Shredder? Many professional players think that they know every strategy and that it’s pointless in trying to come up with new ones. This is only partly true. They know the best matchups between units, and the best counters. That is a given. However the tactics to employ these measure’s, are endless. Some are better than others’, however the fact remains that the right combination of tactics and strategies will put you ahead of the pack.


8“Thus if I determine the enemy’s disposition of forces while I have no perceptible form, I can concentrate my forces while the enemy is fragmented. If we are concentrated into a single force while he is fragmented into ten, then we attack him with ten times his strength. Thus we are many and the enemy is few. If we can attack his few with our many, those who we engage in battle will be severely constrained.”

Scouting the enemy is one of the most useful things you can do, if not the most useful thing you can do. By seeing how your enemy is situated financially, as well as how his army is spread out on the map, where his buildings are located and positioned you are able to react to it. Without knowing any of that information, you are forced to go further into the game ‘blind’ as to what your opponent is doing. Albeit most of the time professional players know what the others are doing because they study their replays, and they play them often in practice games or competitions, however if your opponent takes notice of that and switches up his style and strategy, it can result in a lost game for you.
9“The location where we will engage the enemy must not become known to them. If it is not known, then the positions they must prepare to defend will be numerous. If the positions the enemy prepares to defend are numerous, then the forces we will engage will be few.”

Surprise attacks, easier said than done. But it is possible to run your enemy into a trap. Either lead his hero on into your army, or perhaps come up on him while he is creeping to give you the upper hand, where more options will arise, such as stealing the item and XP from the creeps to give you a hero advantage.

If you attack him from both sides, having ground units come in from one side, and air from the other. Or flank around a group of trees like on Terenas Stand in front of the lower right spawn. He will have to defend against more positions and lose more units faster giving you a position advantage.


10 “Do not encamp on entrapping terrain.
Unite with your allies on focal terrain.
Do not remain on isolated terrain.
Make strategic plans for encircled terrain.
On fatal terrain you must do battle.
There are roads that are not followed.
There are armies that are not attacked.
There are fortified cities that are not assaulted.
There is terrain for which one does not contend.
There are commands from the ruler that are not accepted.”

Being able to read each individual situation and react in a logical thought out manner will lead you to make fewer mistakes. Sometimes it is a bad idea to chase that one last unit down even if it is low, what if he runs you into creeps, reinforcements or his base and you end up losing 2-3 units and you only got his one (if you did indeed kill it).

Knowing when to attack relies on many factors; strategy, economy, positions, unit counts, army types (caster, melee, air, etc.), timing, etc. Running into a battle just because you have reached 50 Food and are about to expand does not constitute a smart time to attack. What if your opponent has a larger army? What if your opponent already has an expo and can counter quickly while you are still waiting on yours to go up? What if his army was better suited to beat yours and you attack anyway?

Constantly thinking on these situations will allow you to make fewer mistakes, and capitalize more on the mistakes your opponents make, not to mention you might be able to force a mistake or two out of him.

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