During S11 EU playday #2, Empire showed the attack power we are so familiar with from them. I thought it would be worth taking some time to zoom in on exactly how they were able to pull off their flawless attack round against BDS on Hookah in Round 6. Below is a bit of a diagram of the defensive setup and how the attack went down made using blueprints provided by Sternab (contact him for purchase) with a bit of photoshopping. Note the yellow lines are for movement and red are for shots. Explanation to follow the images (open them in a new tab to view larger).

Initial droning phase and clear

Lion drones into lobby, sees its clear then checks bathroom is clear. Capitao drones and clears Sunrise bar and catches Maestro's position. Ash drones into kitchen through delivery and pinpoints Maestro. Capitao shoots open kitchen window to cut off Maestro's movement. Ash enters delivery and kills Maestro with a tight angle. Ash then rotates to Hookah window rappel. Capitao rotates to VIP balcony. Lion rotates to roof to watch rotates.

Second floor clear and execute

Nomad puts an airjab on Hookah door to prevent runouts. Ash pressures the window from rappel and balcony. Nomad rotates onto Billards window rappel and locks down Smoke behind cocktail. Sledge hammers open aqua window and moves behind bar. Mozzie gives up his position by shotgunning Sledge from below with the intel provided by a Valkyrie camera underneath the sofa. Sledge wins the fight through the floor, killing Mozzie. Lion triggers the EEONED to hold the defenders. Capitao firebolts through VIP drone hole towards Hookah door to top of cool vibes stairs to prevent rotations to the Hookah door. Ash fires a remote breach through the door to further push back Jager onto cool vibes. Ash enters Hookah with support from Lion rotating in behind and locks down the rotate hole to cool vibes. Capitao exits VIP and downs smoke, still behind cocktail. Ash barely finds Valkyrie's head on cool vibes. Capitao kills the Jager Ash can't see.

So let's see what we can learn from this approach:

Firstly that 3 players (Ash, Capitao, Lion) all coordinated their drones to clear up to bottom of cool vibes, bathroom and kitchen to allow Ash to safely enter. This level of coordination and careful (quiet) droning allowed Ash the opening kill on an important operator, nullfying the flexibility of the Evil Eye's late round.

Secondly, both Ash and Sledge immediately locked down an empty Hookah and Aqua to make sure they controlled the rotates back to site, with additional support from the Billards rappel to lock down most of Billards so that both sites were very well controlled as well.

Thirdly they effectively contained everyone except Smoke out of site by using a Capitao firebolt from a smart position (the drone hole), a Lion EEONED and an Ash remote breach charge.

Lastly they collapsed on the remaining 3 defenders using all the intel they gathered and the positioning they had created to overwhelm quickly and lethally as a solid team. Don't forget the work Nomad and Sledge were doing to lock Smoke into his position!

Of course all of this was dependent on the two fundamentals of the game: Intel and Aim, both of which Empire have in spades, especially from what we heard in the interview with Joystick about Sheppard droning for up to 2 minutes to make sure they always had the intel they needed. It was a masterclass in taking map control decisively and controlling rotations.

Hope you enjoyed this deep dive into a single round. If you missed it, watch the round in question below (starts at 24:30)! - mzo