Disclaimer: no matter the role, every single player has a gun in their hands and there's no written rule that the Duelist has to always entry and be the top fragger. Obviously not, but other roles are expected to live longer than being a first blood, some are expected to support "someone's" entry, and Duelist is that "someone". Their kits are always designed to be well equipped for entry and I don't think anybody would prefer to sacrifice a Controller over a Duelist early.

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So I'm currently sitting in ASC3, winning some games, losing some games, I think this may be the rank for me. But I noticed a weird trend recently where very often the duelists in my team play way too safe. If you'd look at their stats you'd think they are doing their job because they do something like 2K/D which is pretty amazing at this rank, yet you lose such match because you don't feel the impact of these frags. So what gives? The problem is - not every frag is equal.

Here's my reminder to all of the duelists out there - just because you have a bunch of frags doesn't mean you're doing your job right. More often than not one entry kill is worth way more than 3 exit frags, at least in my opinion. I prefer a Jett or a Reyna that sometimes can clear a site or sometimes dies in the process but gives others an opportunity to refrag and enter a site, than a lurking individual that does two times the frags. Don't get me wrong, good lurk is still a good lurk, but you need to sometimes also be the bull that leads the charge and breaks the defense. If you will always wait for your team to die to get easy unexpected 2/3 kills then you'll get them, but don't expect to win every match this way.

I had a Reyna yesterday that was a pinnacle of that. We lost a match, but she was a top fragger and even by a good margin (8-10 frags more than the next person iirc), but the problem is a great majority of these kills weren't meaningful. I noticed a trend throughout the match that she was usually the last person standing in our team, obviously complaining every now and then about how she does most of the kills yet we are still losing. The problem is she was always the last person in the push. Obviously you'll get more frags if you wait long enough for aggressive flanks or an opportunity to finish off weakened foes. Even something as knowing enemy's position after your teammate dies already gives you a huge advantage over the guy that just died in the gunfight, yet that dude finished his match with the usual "can't carry bad teams" mindset.

I was hoping his behavior would be more beneficial once we got into Defenders' team, but he had an ace up his sleeve. He would back up for a retake every single time there's any activity on his site. Now obviously there's nothing wrong with that, many sites are played like that, and it was Icebox we are talking about so playing retake A is a very popular and valid option. But the problem is dude would always back up to spawn and just wait for others to push. He waited for Viper, Killjoy and Sova to peek first. And you know what? I wouldn't even mind it that much if he would at least refrag every now and then, but he would always wait for way too long just to get the upper hand on the enemy. Yeah, you got 2 kills on retreating attackers, but spike just exploded so round is already lost. There's nothing I could say to calmy explain why this guy needs to entry every now and then, or at least use his blind to support his team's entry. All he cared about was that the first number in the stats was the biggest in his team and that was all he was looking for, not even realizing his behavior was detrimental to our team's success and we've lost a match as a result.

I'm just dissapointed really, because most of the duelists that play this way are offended right off the bat when I ask them for an entry or aggressive push every now and then, because "their (ratty) playstyle gives them a lot of kills". Yeah, I know. But your team has a harder time pushing the site as a result. And if the enemy duelists have no fear but you do - it sometimes means the game is already lost. Yes, Viper and Sova can entry frag on the site, but Phoenix can make it easier with a flash, Reyna with their blind and Jett with her smokes and dashes. Duelists bring confussion to the enemy better than any other role, because they do it suddenly and quickly.

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What you think?