Players fall into different categories. Not only TDM’ers who are described elsewhere but also duellers. With four years of experience as a dueller, playing in tournaments and nerding my ass off watching demos I think I came up with a fairly decent division of player types. These are, of course, general types and most people are mixes. Anyway, read on.

Aimer
This guy plays a lot and even more. With as many practice hours as he puts in, he has a constant, reliable aim, around which he builds his style of play. Aimer is about getting an armour advantage and going for situations where he’ll always kill if he hits his usual percentage. This is why he tries to dictate the pace of the game and be generally aggressive.

The good thing about being Aimer is that he always knows what to expect of himself. Things start to fall apart for Aimer when his aim is matched or when the opponent is controlling the hell out of him. Having good, steady aiming puts your guile to sleep! (That is if you have it in the first place.)

Thinker
Thinker is the opposite of Aimer. Thinkers are usually those lads who have unreliable aim – building a style of play around something unsteady is not always a good idea. This is why Thinker’s game is about outsmarting the opponent or simply outcontrolling him.

This guy will improvise a lot more than Aimer, but he will also rely on ‘crucial’ situations. The very foundation of Thinker’s game is creating a situation where he could succeed no matter what. Against good players you only get one-two chances like that. Sometimes three, sometimes you get no chance. If you’ve heard someone whining that one missed rail cost him the game, you now know what the guy was talking about.

But… Sometimes Thinker gets a good aim day. That’s when the mofo will be unstoppable!

Pussy
The man is a sorry version of Thinker. Sometimes Aimers convert into Pussies when they’ve found out and faced the fact that their 29% LG aim doesn’t cut it anymore, when every other Aimer has 32%. Pussy will pick up as much armour as you’ll let him and then he’ll play as cheap as possible. Passively and hoping you’ll be dumb or impatient enough to charge onto his rails or rockets. That only works against average or hung over players, but the good side of Pussy is that from time to time, when he feels that the opponent is weaker he comes back to being Aimer for a while.

Berserker
The bloke’s a hardcore version of Aimer, especially dangerous on maps with not a lot of armour lying around. Berserker wants to confront you as soon as he spawns. He picks up a weapon and tries to deal as much damage as possible. The reasoning behind it is “I’ll keep him under pressure as long as it takes, I’ll break him and then I’ll crush him.” Hence, the bastard is willing to sacrifice even five or more frags to gain control. Then, if you don’t get a grip soon enough it’s over.

The interesting thing is that this style of play doesn’t have to stem from Aimer… You don’t even need to have awesome aim – playing berserk can be a conscious risk when you expect to be outdone in almost every aspect of the game. Of course, if you slow the game down enough or, in an unlikely scenario, outaim the lout, you’ll have little trouble.

Cynic
A rare kind. This guy’s style of comes more from his mentality rather how his hands serve him in duels. Most often, though, a Cynic will be a very skilled bastard. The guy’s the type that will let you play your game the way you like to play it and still wins. He does that by making sure he’s fine with health, he keeps your pickup routes fairly stretched and the first moment you make a little mistake he’s there to capitalise on it. And then he’ll snigger.

Don’t mistake Cynic for pussy. If you let go of the game one bit, he will take over and he’ll control the hell out of you. And he won’t even keep control to score more frags, he’ll do it just to keep you in his hand. If you play a flawless game you’ll beat him.

Quicksilver
This guy is a curious fellow. He shifts from aggression to defence and back to aggression accordingly to what you’re doing. As such, he doesn’t seem to have his own style of play. He just plays exactly as you allow him to. If he gets lots of freedom, he’ll use it. If you lock the map, he’ll spill like liquid – Quicksilver will find himself just where you aren’t. And he’s no Cynic, he plays the game when he’s allowed to. He likes to hoard treasures like a dragon, and when he’s full he’ll want to confront you.

Puppet Master
A rare version of Quicksilver is the Puppet Master, who’s a shrewder version of the prototype. Not only will be bend like rubber when needed but also he’ll know how to position himself and find the weakest point in your route when you’re stretched. He’ll put a shot here and there and you won’t even know that even though you’re controlling the items, he controls you. And the insidious bastard is waiting. Playing better should be enough for both Quicksilver and Puppet Master. Easier said than done?

Snake
Still another alternation of Quicksilver is Snake. It’s hard to know how he does it but somehow he’s always able to catch you with your pants down. Just when you were least expecting it. Sometimes it’s magic and sometimes it’s just that Snake has the rare skill of figuring out your habits very quickly. Being a snake is good against players who are aggressive. What’s gonna surprise you if you’re not in a rush?

God
God is all of those styles mentioned. And he’s bloody able to alternate between all of them.