In esports, a team has a main roster — five players in CS2 or Dota 2 — who practice together and play official matches. A stand-in situation occurs when one of them, for some reason, cannot sit down at the computer for a particular match, and another player takes their place. That person is also called a stand-in or a sub (short for "substitute").
Why substitutions happen
The reasons vary widely, and they are far from always related to the game:
- illness or feeling unwell;
- visa or flight problems, if the match takes place at an offline tournament in another country;
- technical issues that cannot be fixed before the match starts;
- personal circumstances that the player cannot put off.
It is worth distinguishing a stand-in from a transfer. A transfer is a permanent move of a player to another team or a roster change for a long period. A stand-in, by contrast, is usually temporary: the main player remains part of the team and returns once the reason for the absence disappears. That said, a stand-in who performs well sometimes stays in the roster for a long time.
Who becomes a stand-in
Most often it is the team's reserve player — someone who is signed with the organization and is familiar with its training process. Sometimes it goes differently: the organization has to hurry to find a free player outside the team, and then it is called an outside stand-in. The second case is harder: the person may not know the team's internal agreements, signals, and usual setups.
Why a stand-in is risky for a team
Team play depends on coordination. Players understand each other without needing to speak, know who goes where, and how a teammate will behave in a tense situation. A new person in this system is always an unknown quantity. The role that organizes the game is especially sensitive to a stand-in: for example, the in-game leader (IGL), who calls the plays and builds the tactics. If it is exactly this player who drops out, the entire pattern of play can suffer.
In CS2, it is usually easier for a stand-in to fit in if they can play the same position and are familiar with the team's standard setups. In Dota 2, much depends on how well the stand-in masters the needed role and the heroes the team usually picks for it.
How teams cope
Experienced organizations prepare a reserve player in advance: they take part in practices and scrims, learn the team's setups, and get used to its communication style. The coaching staff may prepare simplified game plans for the case when someone in the roster is replaced. In that case, the game is built on reliable setups understood by everyone, rather than on complex combinations that were worked out over months.
Often a stand-in also becomes a psychological factor: the team is "written off," and it, on the contrary, pulls together and plays without the usual pressure. But this is not always the case, and in most cases the loss of a familiar player noticeably lowers the level of play.