Make a Death
Deliberately forcing a death — your own or the enemy's — to break a stalemate and reset the fight's momentum.
Sustain wars and prefire stalemates keep burning clock until someone goes down. Factoring in OT time and the ult differential, deciding whether to actively make a death — "go make one on their support," "stick our tank in to crack the standoff" — or not to, is the macro branching point. Conversely, the patience to not make a death in a spot you can't take sits on the same decision axis. Deliberately spending your own life to buy tempo is common at pro level but reads as throwing to beginners.
When a stalemate drags and OT time is bleeding, or the enemy's ult advantage is widening — any spot where the fight has to be moved deliberately. If an enemy support is isolated for a moment, go for the pick even at the cost of CDs.
You go to make a death, die, take no one with you, and are left with nothing but the man disadvantage. Trying to break the stalemate, you dump an ult early and have nothing for the next fight.
Fight Reset
Choosing to disengage from a stalled or losing fight in order to rebuild formation, cooldowns, and HP.
Stagger
Delaying an enemy kill so they respawn out of sync with their team for the next fight.
Tempo
The initiative — who gets to choose when and on whose terms the next fight starts.
Pinch
Pressuring the enemy from two directions at once, splitting their sightlines and escape routes.
Pick
A solo kill before or at the start of a fight that gives your team a numbers advantage going in.
Concede the Point
Deliberately surrendering the current point or map progress to reset at a more favorable position.