Welcome overlay
Opening/strategy/editor shows the Strategy Board welcome overlay over the canvas. From here you can:
Start a new strategy
Choose a game, then a map (or a custom map if your plan includes them) to open a fresh strategy on the canvas.
You no longer pick the game and map from a separate first-open dialog. To switch the map on a strategy you already have open, use the Change map action in the Layers panel.
Starter tokens on supported maps
When you start a new strategy on a map that ships with spawn data - currently every Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 map - the canvas opens with player tokens pre-placed at the two spawn areas instead of being empty. Counter-Strike 2, League of Legends, and custom maps open empty for now; you can drag tokens from the Tokens panel as usual. The starter tokens follow a few rules:- One coloured team per side. Tokens at one spawn are blue and tokens at the other are red so the two sides are visually distinct from the first glance. On Black Ops 7 the blue side is JSOC and the red side is Guild; on Black Ops 6 the blue side is Crimson One and the red side is Pantheon. You can recolor any token from the Properties panel.
- Tokens per side match the game. Black Ops 6 and Black Ops 7 both use 4 players per side, so the canvas opens with 8 tokens in two compact grids (4 blue, 4 red).
- Each side faces the opposite spawn (snapped to a cardinal direction). Both teams open pointed toward the other spawn, with the facing snapped to the nearest of the four cardinal directions (north, south, east, west). The bigger of the horizontal and vertical distance between the two spawns picks the axis, so an opponent that’s mostly east of you puts your tokens facing east. On a small number of maps (Plaza is the worked example) the facing is authored explicitly via per-spawn overrides in the map’s spawn data file instead of being computed from the opposite-spawn axis - those maps’ tokens face the direction the operator chose for the map’s natural orientation. Drag a token to rotate it to any angle like any other.
- One undo to clear them all. Press Ctrl+Z (Cmd+Z on macOS) once to remove every auto-placed token in a single step. Press Ctrl+Shift+Z to bring them back.
- Only on brand-new strategies. Auto-placement fires once when you create the strategy. It never re-fires when you change the map on an existing strategy, duplicate a strategy, or reopen a saved one.
Move, recolor, number, or delete the starter tokens just like any other token. They’re standard player tokens - they only differ in how they got onto the canvas.
Local strategies
Strategies you create are saved in your browser automatically, and the editor keeps an unlimited number of them - starting a new strategy no longer overwrites the last one. Local strategies carry a Local badge in the Continue working grid.Local strategies are saved in this browser only. They survive reloads and an accidental tab-close, but they are not tied to your account and will not appear in another browser or on another device. Sign in and save a strategy to keep it on your account.
?local=<id>), so reloading the page reopens the same strategy.
If you are signed in, your account-saved strategies appear in the same Continue working grid alongside your local strategies, each marked with a Saved badge.
Saving a strategy
Click Save in the editor header to open the Save dialog. What you see depends on whether you are signed in and whether the strategy already lives on your account.Choosing where a strategy is saved
When you are signed in and saving a strategy that is not yet on your account, you pick where it should live:Save to my account
Saves the strategy to your account. This counts toward your saved-strategy limit, and it unlocks a share link so you can share and embed the strategy. You then set the name, description, and visibility, and choose whether to auto-save.
If you are signed out
If you are not signed in, your strategy is already saved on this device. The Save dialog reminds you of this and lets you Sign in to save the strategy to your account, share it, and embed it - or Keep on device to carry on without an account. Signed-out strategies are always device-only.If you have hit your save limit
If you are at your plan’s saved-strategy limit, the Save button shows a small upgrade spark, and the Save dialog offers a choice instead of the form:- Upgrade - Move to a higher plan so you can save more strategies to your account. See Subscriptions for tier limits.
- Keep on device - Keep this strategy as a local-only strategy so you don’t lose your work.
If a save is blocked because you are over your limit, the dialog stays open and offers the same upgrade-or-keep-on-device choice rather than failing silently.
Exporting and importing a project
Alongside exporting a single frame or an animation, you can export a whole strategy as a re-importable project file with the.tbstrat extension. Open the Export menu in the editor header and choose Export Project, then pick one of two modes:
Online copy
A small file that links back to your saved strategy. When someone imports it, the editor pulls the latest version from the server and forks it as a new, editable copy. You must save the strategy to your account first, because there is nothing to link to otherwise. Anyone you share the file with can import it as long as the strategy is Unlisted or Public - a Private strategy’s online copy can only be imported by you.
Offline copy
A fully standalone file with everything embedded - frames, drawings, tokens, and, if the strategy uses a custom map, the map image itself. It works across accounts and deployments, so it is the right choice when you want to hand a strategy to someone else.
Exporting is free in both modes. Use an online copy to share an up-to-date link to your own strategy, and an offline copy when you need a self-contained file that does not depend on the original staying online.
Importing a project
On the editor’s welcome screen, choose Import from file and pick a.tbstrat file. The imported strategy opens on the canvas, starts as Private, and counts against your saved-strategy quota.
Importing an offline copy that uses a custom map requires a Premium plan, because custom-map uploads are a premium feature. The embedded map is also re-scanned for inappropriate content before the strategy is created, the same way a custom map upload is scanned.
My Boards library
Click the My boards button (grid icon) at the left of the editor header to open the library panel. The panel is a two-level sheet: the top level lists your boards (folders of strategies) plus an Ungrouped bucket for strategies that aren’t filed into a board. Tap a row to drill into that board (or the Ungrouped bucket) and see the strategies inside. Each strategy card shows a thumbnail, the game and map it was built on, when it was last updated, and a visibility badge. The strategy you currently have open is marked Editing. The list updates live - changes you make are reflected immediately, with no refresh.For boards (folders) themselves - creating a board, filing strategies into it, sharing a board, and deleting a board - see Managing your boards.
Strategy actions
Open the actions menu on any strategy card (the... button) to:
Open
Switch the editor to that strategy. If you have unsaved changes on your current strategy, they are saved automatically before switching so nothing is lost.
Change visibility
Pick Private (only you), Unlisted (anyone with the link), or Public (discoverable by anyone). The badge on the card updates right away.
Duplicate
Create a private copy of the strategy and open it. The copy starts as Private regardless of the original’s visibility.
Duplicating a strategy counts against your save quota and is rate-limited. If you hit your plan’s save limit, you’ll be prompted to upgrade.
Keeping saved strategies in sync
If you edit a strategy that is saved to your account while you are offline - or with auto-save turned off - and leave without saving, those edits are held on this device and the strategy is marked Unsynced changes. You’ll see the indicator on the strategy’s card in both the welcome overlay’s Continue working grid and the My Boards library. When you next open an unsynced strategy, the editor asks how to reconcile the two copies:Sync to account
Push the local changes up to your saved strategy. The most recent edit wins, and the device copy is cleared once the sync succeeds.
The reconcile prompt appears whether you open the strategy from its own link or from the My Boards library. Only strategies saved to your account can fall out of sync - device-only strategies are never reconciled, because they have no account copy.
Editor header at a glance
The editor header runs across the top of the canvas. A few elements show up everywhere and are worth knowing about up front.Status pill
A small pill next to the strategy name tells you where the current strategy stands:- Saved - The strategy is persisted (on your account or on this device) with no pending changes.
- Unsaved - The strategy is persisted but has edits that have not yet been saved.
- Local draft - You are signed out (or have never saved this strategy), so the strategy lives only as a draft in this browser.
Stage chips
Each frame of the play is a stage. The header shows a window of three stage chips around the chip you currently have selected; click a chip to switch to that stage. Each chip is interactive:Reorder
Drag a chip onto another chip to reorder the timeline. The drop slot highlights as you drag.
Rename
Stage labels are editable inline from the header so you can name a stage “Entry”, “Post-plant”, etc.
Set duration
Open a chip’s
... menu and pick Set duration to control how long the stage holds during animated playback. Durations are clamped to 0.5-60 seconds, and brand-new stages default to 2 seconds.+ button at the end of the row to add a stage.
Loop toggle
The Loop toggle in the header makes the Play button jump back to stage 1 after the last stage instead of stopping. The loop setting is saved on the strategy and is honored by the embed iframe when its URLloop param is absent.
Tokens
The Tokens panel on the right of the editor is a single scrollable list of the active game’s tokens, ordered by their asset subfolder. The catalog is computed from the active game’s icon assets, so each game shows its own set of tokens.Catalog
- Call of Duty (Black Ops 6, Black Ops 7) - 2 player variants (alive, dead) + 16 equipment icons (frag, semtex, flash, concussion, decoy, gas, thermite, molotov, C4, claymore, mine, RC-XD, snapshot, tactical-cover, trophy system, artillery strike) + 5 generic markers (bomb, explosion, objective-point, overload-bomb, pin). Per-game extras layer on top.
- Counter-Strike 2 - 2 player variants (alive, dead) + 4 equipment icons (frag, flash, gas, molotov) + 3 generic markers (bomb, explosion, pin).
- League of Legends - 2 player variants (alive, dead) plus the full roster of ~170 champion tokens (drag a champion portrait onto the map). League of Legends and Valorant now share the Riot Games category.
Placing tokens
Drag a token from the panel onto the canvas, or click a token to arm it and then click on the canvas to place it. On mobile, tap a token then tap the canvas (no drag required). Player tokens are placed with a default color of red; recolor to blue or neutral from the Properties panel. You can also give a player token a jersey number from the same panel.FOV (vision) cones
Every live player token (every player token except the dead marker) can render a vision cone showing what direction the player is looking. The default cone is 60 degrees of arc, 150 px long, at 0.25 opacity, and is on by default for every player token you place. From the Properties panel you can:- Toggle the cone on or off for the selected token.
- Adjust the arc (10-180 degrees).
- Adjust the length (30-400 px in the token’s local space).
- Adjust the opacity (0-1).
- Rotate the cone with the token using the standard rotation handle.
The cone follows the token as you drag and as it tweens between stages, so a player’s facing direction reads correctly through animated playback.
Multi-select
You can act on more than one token at a time:- Shift-drag on empty canvas opens a marquee selection. The default mode is “fully contained” (only shapes entirely inside the marquee are selected); hold Ctrl or Cmd while you drag to switch to “any intersection”.
- Shift-click (or Ctrl/Cmd-click) on a token to toggle it in or out of the current selection without clearing the rest.
Ghost trails on cross-stage transitions
When a token’stokenId changes between stages (for example, a player throws a frag in stage 1 and then has no frag in stage 2), the editor renders a translucent ghost of the previous-stage token plus a motion arrow as you scrub through the timeline. Arrows for authored type-changes render dashed so they stand out from straight-line motion. This makes it easy to spot a token’s path and any cross-stage state change without having to play the animation.
Overlay filters
The header Overlays button opens the overlay-filters panel. The panel only shows toggles for layers the active game actually ships with, so a CS2 strategy and a BO7 strategy see very different rows.| Group | Toggle | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Spawn | Spawn markers | Black Ops 7 only. |
| POI | POI labels | Black Ops 7 only. |
| Objectives | Domination | Per-game; surfaced where the data exists. |
| Objectives | Hardpoint | Per-game; surfaced where the data exists. |
| Objectives | Search & Destroy | Per-game; surfaced where the data exists. |
| Layers | Domination zone | Image overlay; rendered when the game ships it. |
| Layers | Hardpoint zone | Image overlay; rendered when the game ships it. |
| Layers | Search & Destroy zone | Image overlay; rendered when the game ships it. |
| Layers | Spawn zone | Image overlay; rendered when the game ships it. |
| Layers | Areas | Image overlay; rendered when the game ships it. |
| Layers | Headquarters | Image overlay; rendered when the game ships it. |
| Layers | buyzones | Counter-Strike 2 only. |
Using the editor on mobile
On screens narrower than 1024px the editor rearranges so everything stays reachable:- Side panels become a drawer - The Tokens, Layers, and Properties panels move into a bottom drawer. Tap the Panels button in the header to open it and switch between the three tabs.
- Placing tokens by tap - Tap a token in the Tokens tab, then tap the canvas to place it (no drag required).
- Overflow menu - Less-used header actions (Share, Collab, Change map, Help, Settings, Loop, Zoom) collapse into a
...menu. Save, Export, Overlays, Panels, and My boards stay directly on the header.