Can't stab them?

[Archie]

So, I'm sure we know them all. Player's who are strafing. So, we know that they can't be matador stabbed. Why? Imagine this: When you go for a matador, and the guy follows you with W, you strafe one way, he follows you, but because you strafe right only for a fraction of a second, you have enough time to strafe right and get the side stab on him.
But when he's strafe running at you, he's holding W but he is also holding a strafe key. He cuts the turn, so he gets to the same place faster. But that also means, that when you strafe back, he's too far away from you to get stabbed. And in addition to this, he's aiming at you. So he's strafing and aiming at you with his mouse. But since a strafe key has been added, that means that they have to move their mouse less, than with using purely the W, and because of this, they just don't turn enough and at the right timing, to actually get the stab.
Some example of this stab can be found over in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KGb2r1wH2tg&feature=youtu.be
If you can do it, congrats! You just learned a Lv.1 Circlestrafe stab. If you still have any questions, or just you're not able to execute the stab at all, I posted an original video which this cut was made from into the description. That original has 40 minutes, and I highly recommend watching all 5 episodes that he made on this. Cheers, Pin.

[♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥]

Mhmmm... so if you see a strafing enemy going for you. You don't have to strafe left & right or vice versa, just strafe in a circle around him and because a strafing target technically bumps into you, they auto show their backs, cuz the playermodel bumps into yours?

[Archie]

Yes. When this works and you get to their side, you can get a side stab on them. If that doesn't work, for example you can't get to their side, or they just back off, they might be on a higher level. There are 4 main levels of strafing.
Level 1: Strafing Towards (That circlestrafish stab i wrote about)
Level 2/0: Backpedaling
Level 3: Strafing Around (juking, right to left strafes)
Level 4: Strafing Away (forwards + backwards stab)

If you see an enemy juking, he is still only strafing. When he is strafing around slowly (not juking), and you get close to him, just go for the free spot, and he will show his back.
Level 4 is a complicated one, because it splits, it chains into every single level. Also it splits into 3 extra levels. These are called the amazing levels. More on that later. Level 4's aren't still the same. I wrote down my finding's and i'll put some here.

-Collision with Matadors
-Forwards \ Sideways N' Backwards
-Strafing across \ Outer walls (aggresive and defensive)
-Collision with level 1
-Manage your matadors
-Strafe edged out
-Strafe reaches the wall
-Strafe gets behind you
-Lv.4 Backing up into a corner
-Lv.4 Pulling tricks!
-Counters to spies
-Early stab! Early Lv4 stab!
-Lv3/4 Strafes away \ Strafes to outstrafe
You can also watch the tutorial, if you still not 100% understand.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3IQ_7KIotE

[♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥]

If i'm right, if you get a strafing character like on your side, you can move backwards for a stab. I always thought strafing would beat a forward-backward moving character

Looking at it, spy gotten soo complicated

[Archie]

Yeah, but it's not so popular, so not many spies know about it.

[♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥]

sometimes its hard to see if a guy is strafing sometimes.

[♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥]

but i'll train it now those counters and all. Butyeah. I mostly fight in Luxemburg servers and yet... there from all the actual trickstabbin spies, i seen like 3 in 2months. And mostly i counter them with the "spy main" knowledge of Mr.P. But this info might help too on taking out W + M1 pyros and soldiers.

[Archie]

Originally posted by 妻 ♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥ 妻:

sometimes its hard to see if a guy is strafing sometimes.

You gotta get the eye for that, see how he moves, why did your circlestrafe fail, imagine the tactic's - just ask yourself "Why did my circlestrafe fail?" Was it edged out, did he break away, how did he move? Was he cutting corners or taking them wide? All this information can help you. I also got a text file which explains everything, so i will post it here. Whenever you forget something or just you dont know what can he do, you can just look at this text file.
So here it goes:

---Levels of strafing---
Level 1: Strafing Towards (That circlestrafish stab i wrote about)
Level 2/0: Backpedaling
Level 3: Strafing Around (juking, right to left strafes)
Level 4: Strafing Away (forwards + backwards stab)
--------------------
Recognition
--------------------
---Amazing levels---
Amazing level 4.1:
-Cannot fall for the previous lv.1\4 stabs (outstrafes or brakes away)
-Movement similar to in a corner
-The Glue stab and it's true purpose
-Spamm of 4.1 strafes
-3\4.1

Amazing level 4.2
-Extremely Wide and timed lv4
-Extremely wide and Early lv4 stabs
-Don't let them get to your side (seriously, dont to that).
-???

Amazing 4.3
-Inner walls
-The lv. 4.3 stab (C3C)
-Which corners can he cut? (props?)
-In what situation he cuts it? (positioning\pursuit)
-How does he cut it? (before\after the corner)
-How tightly can he take it?
-What movement is he vulnerable to? (juking?)
-Relation to C2C
-Reverse stab
-Understanding Over\Under angle

--------------------
Normal levels - how to spot them.
--------------------
Lv.4 Strafing Away
-Collision with Matadors
-Forwards \ Sideways N' Backwards
-Strafing across \ Outer walls (aggresive and defensive)
-Collision with level 1
-Manage your matadors
-Strafe edged out
-Strafe reaches the wall
-Strafe gets behind you
-Lv.4 Backing up into a corner
-Lv.4 Pulling tricks!
-Counters to spies
-Early stab! Early Lv4 stab!
-Lv3/4 Strafes away \ Strafes to outstrafe

Lv.3 - Strafing around
-2 spots - Between lv.1 and lv.3
-Combat sense
-Normal strafes (free spot)
-Fast strafes (occupied spot)
-Jukes (identify supports)
-Skip to the backpedal (C2C\Moonwalk)
-The Glue stab!

Lv.2 - Backpedaling
-Backpedaling, there's nothing more.

Lv.1 - Strafing towards
-Keys and results
-Done by strafing on people who are strafing
-Adjusting\Edge of the view
-Strafing is reflex
-Dodging\Walls
-Flame and Melee
-The 3 Angles: Forwards\Sideways\Backwards
-Leading
-Overhead potential
-Strafing is avoiding-The power of circlestrafing
-Backpedaling (LV.2\0)
-Turning the strafe\Shortstrafes
-The Corner (C2C)

[♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥]

yeap. Okay thx, i'll copy paste all that and read it carefull like a professor studying xD

[Archie]

Alright, but at least it's actually more useful than what you learn in school xD

[Wulfspade Ace Zero]

what would you lable this as, will it still be a circle strafe stab.

1.) Attept to stab the enemies back
2.) Deadringer infront of them and decloak intantly
3.) circle to their back and stab away

I only did this once on a server against a heavy who seems new to the game at the time and I always remember this one backstab that i did with the assistance of a Deadringer, though in a real game against players who know how to play, this would most likely be useless cause I only done this ONCE.

[♥ Mrs.Femmie ♥]

i seen many elite dead ringer spies do this, Dead ringer, and decloak near a heavy, use the DR speed to jump on a object or prop and jumpstab him overhead. I wanna try that but its so damn risky, it takes but soooooo few seconds for a heavy to mow a player down at close range

[nohacksjustcrits]

For the record, I'm not CRD. So what you are talking about the DR feign stab, is not a good circle strafe. Circle strafing happpens on people who are avoiding using strafing or backing up.

[76561198301657303]

But some reason: I failed stabbed someone because someone was being a ninja to block 1 of my stab