Improving In-Game Sense: Ways to Better Predict Enemy Movement and Tendencies
We've all heard that to be great at Counter Strike you need good in-game sense, but what does that mean?
A lot of new players seem to think they know what in-game sense is but normally when you ask them to actually define that they end up with no definition or the wrong one. In this guide I will help you understand what in-game sense is and how players can improve it. Before I start, I'm going to say a cliche. The best way to improve your game sense is by playing Counter Strike over and over. Good players and professional players say this as a alternative to a real definition because it is true, but if you don't know where to start then simply playing the game might not be enough. Let's start with the definition of in-game sense and what that means.
The first thing about gamesense is that players will have predictable moves more often than not, but there will always be some unpredictability. More specifically, in-game sense is the ability to predict common types of enemy movement while maintaining coordination with your own team. Counter-Strike, as we all know, is heavily a team game, so even if you know where the enemy team could be heading that isn't enough for battling them.
When playing a PUG (pick-up game, like Matchmaking) the first step of game sense is to be aware of where your teammates are playing. Usually at the beginning of each round until you have set positions, your teammates will call out where they are. Getting a feel for your teammate's play style greatly helps in-game sense because you will know when to become aggressive or passive based on your teammate's play style. If you are pushing a certain position, call that out immediately and watch for your teammate's reaction. If he comes with you then you know that you probably should play more passively to defend the site. If he stays back without giving you support grenades then that is a good sign he doesn't like to play aggressive and you can hold more aggressive positions without huge fear of leaving the site completely open.
Take caution if the enemy team is playing passive and you seem to die early in the round continuously. This leads into the second part of PUG game sense, predicting enemy movement. A lot of situations are rather predictable like B Site rushes in pistol rounds. If you are playing a team that likes to rush B Site a lot, play more players in the Middle parts of the map for quicker rotations. Doing default strategies against more unpredictable teams works better in PUG matches, because it forces that team to commit to one site. If you recognize on the T-side that a CT regularly plays a certain position with an AWP, try to switch your own play style to combat him sitting there. This change could include different grenade combinations or different timings of when you push him. A good way to improve your PUG game sense is to attempt to play each position to get a grip on what map timings feel like. Map timings are critical, because they can give you a lot of information to where your enemies could be playing.
A lot of PUG game sense on the Terrorist side has to deal with predictability. The last thing you want is for CT's to know is where you are going and when. Since you cannot control every teammate in game, the best you can do is control your own predictability. Beyond calling strategies, try to switch up the timing of each strategy to be different each round so you can keep the CT's guessing. Getting feel of how CT's play each map can be difficult. It often comes down to them using default strategies which is why it is important to keep the timings different. Forcing rotations to clear a site is ideal on any map. You can get a feel for how CT's are playing each position simply by asking teammates where they were at during the previous round. If they are consistently at a certain position each round, then you can predict that they will still be there the next round. This is also important for grenade placements and combinations so you know to either use them more effectively or conserve them for site executions or position advancements. One of the greatest ways you can learn how the CTs rotate on you own is to attack middle positions, either on your own or with a support player.
The more aggressive CT's will rotate to Middle faster, while more passive CT's will try to get you out in the open at Middle before attacking. This can help in-site executions because you can understand CT tendencies on how they will defend the site, either through in the front positions or waiting till you are on site. Also, throwing grenades can help you get a feel of how CT's play positions. Smokes and flashes are the best for this, because they can reveal if they fall off easy or "stick to their guns" at certain positions. If a player falls back easy then you can rush quickly with flashes and smokes, but if a CT likes to stay at that current position, you can change it up with a HE grenade to do damage to him. Doing these mental strategies over the course of many PUG games will give you the best feel on how to predict enemy movement and how to predict your own team's movement.
Like I've stated before, the best way to improve in-game sense is to play and play. There is are no things in an empty server or any training maps that improve game sense. It all comes down to how you play against other players. Game sense is also not something to get frustrated with. It takes a lot of time and a lot of mistakes to train your brain to correctly read certain situations in game. Outside of playing, there are other ways of improving gamesense. Watching matches of professional Counter-Strike can be beneficial. Watching to see how players react to certain situations can teach you a lot about how to predict what is going on in the round. There are also YouTube videos of professional players giving commentary on top of eSports footage. Viewing these and taking mental notes to implement into your own game will help you grasp game sense as a whole. The important part of this is to actually implement what you learned into the game. When I started out in Counter-Strike, I'd write down notes from those videos and review them in game to ensure I was actually implementing what was said. It not only improved my strategy but it made me comfortable in difficult situations, which is why in-game sense is so important. There is no golden strategy to improving game sense but with time and learning how to gain more awareness of what is going on in the round, it will help you develop better in-game sense all around.
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