Trading distance

What it is

A trade is when your teammate dies and you kill the person who killed him, before that person can reset. It is the single cheapest way to turn a lost duel into an even exchange, and it costs nothing but standing in the right place.

Trading distance is how far apart you have to be for that to be possible. Too far and his death buys you nothing; too close and one grenade or one spray takes both of you.

Why it matters

Losing a player is not the problem. Losing a player for nothing is the problem, because it turns a 5v5 into a 4v5 with no compensation.

A death that gets traded costs your side nothing on the scoreboard. A death that does not costs you a man, the space he was holding, and usually the round.

What going wrong looks like

Your teammate pushes fifteen metres ahead of you into a contested area. He dies. By the time you arrive, the enemy has already stepped back behind cover, reloaded, and is holding the angle you are about to walk into. You are not trading him — you are queueing to lose the same duel.

The tell is that you never had a shot. Not that you missed one.

What good looks like

You are close enough that his killer is still committed to the fight when you arrive, and offset enough that his body is not blocking your line.

Two rules that cover most of it:

• Close enough to punish, far enough to survive. Roughly five metres, and never in the same doorway.
• Offset, not behind. If you are directly behind him, his death does not open a shot for you — it just means you are next.

How to fix it

1. Before your teammate takes a fight, ask whether you have a line on the angle he is about to expose himself to. If not, you are not supporting him, you are following him.
2. Move as a pair with lateral separation, not a queue. Two people through one door is one grenade.
3. If he is going to take a duel you cannot cover, say so before he takes it. The fix is usually a second of patience, not a better position.