SLock

SLock stands for stop lock. It’s useful for two things:

• Rapidly close the distance between you and a sniper that’s chasing you
• Throw off the timing of a sniper that’s trying to dlock you

To execute an slock:

• 1. Click to move near your enemy
• 2. Press S (for stop)
• 3. Lock

You’ll notice that these steps are very similar to a dlock. In a dlock, you’ll do steps 1 and 3 but with an slock you throw in step 2, the actual stop. Of course, if you’ve read the article about pulses then you’ll understand that the crucial part is to ensure you face the enemy sniper before locking.

The stop doesn’t add anything in terms of causing your sniper to face the enemy, but it changes the timings of when to lock.

You can either time the lock so that you stance them, or just perform a dlock.

Rapidly closing distance

Imagine you’re being chased by an NLing sniper, and you want to dlock them. If they’re within easy dlock range, that’s fine, you just immediately dlock them. If they’re further out, though, you can’t just immediately dlock because your lock won’t be happening at the right time. You need to close the distance first. There are three ways you could do this:

• 1. Turn back early and do a dlock while running at them. This is often a good option, actually, but it can be hard to time well. Also, it requires a lot of accurate clicks in a short space of time.
• 2. Close the distance slowly by angling your sniper diagonally (so they get closer). This can work but since it’s quite slow, better players will see what you’re doing and pull.
• 3. Perform an slock! You stop in your tracks and face the oncoming sniper. You get a little bit more time to lock than in option 1 but it’s faster than option 2 so you don’t give your opponent lots of time to pull.

Throwing off opponent’s timing

If you NL into someone, they can prepare themselves and execute a dlock at the perfect time to kill you.

If you perform an slock instead just before you get to them, their timing will usually be thrown off. It’s not as obvious as just pulling back to lure, so people tend to try and dlock you anyway, which means that their dlock fails and they get worse range. You, the stopped sniper, now have the advantage in the situation.