Counter Strike: Global Offensive: Learning the more difficult roles of a team

As many know there are 4 core roles to any successful team in Counter Strike (CS). These roles differ greatly in the practice requirements to the brains required. On the brainier end of the spectrum is the In Game Leader (IGL). Shifting towards the more skill based end is the Entry Frag (Entry). In between is the Support and Lurker. These 4 main roles are what make or break any competitive CS team. Another important role is the Awper, which has been covered by Brainstorm.

In Game Leader (IGL)

The IGL of any CS team, is generally the one that sits in the middle of the team. This is done so that the IGL can make more informed decisions based on the players sitting either side of him, which are usually the Awper and the Support. The IGL is responsible for all mid game calls, this can be from the basic end like whether to buy economically (ECO) or to full buy, to where each player will be on the map at any given moment, to when a CT should rotate to the other site.

Pre-Game

Prior to any game the IGL will do research and homework on the next team they are playing. This can range from IGLs like Seang@res from Cloud 9 who are well known within the community for having an anti-strategy to every possible strategy that the opponents may throw at them to being like Xizt from Ninjas in Pyjamas who focuses more on his own team, and fixing their issues. The type of IGL that you moulded into is highly dependent on your team’s needs. If your team requires an IGL who can stop the opponents before the round starts, or to make decisions on the fly, to combat the opponents.

Mid Game: Pre Round

During any game an IGL is required to have constant tabs on both his own team’s economy as well as his opponent’s economy. This is well shown by Neo from Virtus Pro, Neo will often make the call for his teammates to buy economical SMGs, if he is sure that the other team will not buy armour that round. This is a major call that can greatly influence the remaining rounds of the game, as during this round if SMGs are bought the teams economy will increase greatly, where as if the team was to remain with rifles are be overrun by a team of ecoing opponents, they have gifted the opponents a free weapon which can be used in the next round if it is saved.

Mid Game: Mid Round

During any round the IGL of any team is required to know where all of his teammates are. He is also required to know where his teammates have fallen during the course of the round, and if a weapon may have been taken by the opponents. If for example the entry fragger goes down at the entrance of B, Banana on Inferno, is it possible for the other team to have collected his weapon. This information is greatly helped by correct calls from teammates, for example they have thrown 4 smokes at B, banana, 2 came from the sky. This lets your IGL know that there is mostly likely at least 2 people at B, with 2 people throwing their smokes from A. This lets your IGL know that there is a maximum of 1 smoke remaining on the CT side.

Post Game: Debrief

Following a game regardless of the result an IGL should pull the team together and have a debrief, on the game. What went well, what didn’t go as planned, why did things not work, are there any arising issues within the team that are causing a member to not perform at their best. These are important aspects of a debrief, just like any coach does with their team at the completion of a game. These debrief sessions will help your team iron out the kinks and succeed as a team.

Counter Terrorist vs Terrorist

An IGL on CT side is mainly focused on calling when the rotator should rotate. The CT side of any team should be calm and dictated purely on what the opponents are doing. If the other team is putting pressure on to B site of Inferno the IGL should only tell the arch player to smoke banana, and when to rotate. For a team to be successful at a high level, most of the weight lies with the individual players on the CT side. Individual players need to be able notice the difference between a fake and a full push onto site, an excellent example of this is NiP. The players on NiP are extremely disciplined, they will not call a push until the bomb has been spotted. This is a very good strategy for preventing over rotates, however this leaves the defenders of a bomb site open to be rushed down by 5 people.

An IGL on T side is more involved as they call the play that takes place during the round. This can be from calling a bomb site rush to calling a default setup leading into a bomb site. As an IGL it is important to collate and decompile the information given to you during the course of a round. An IGL will often be told multiple individual pieces of information, and be required to process it all. This can be from the amount of smokes and flashes being thrown in an attempt to stop a push to, any rushing CTs. An IGL needs to be able to keep track of where the enemy players are. This is where the research of a team helps. If an IGL knows prior to the game commencing the positions that players play, and the way that they play that position an IGL can call a strat that works around that. For example if Arch side is smoked that the Arch player always rotates to library, a strat can be developed to smoke that player out completely, and to execute on the A site or to go around the world, to B.

Improving as an IGL

As an IGL it is important to practice your strats in game most importantly as well as out of the game. If you are the IGL of a team that is competing in an open tournament, you need to make sure that the players of your team understand the strategy completely as to minimise mistakes. However if as an IGL things don’t go to plan, your strats keep failing, don’t give up, keep practicing and alter your strats to be more flexible. The biggest benefit to an IGL is self-criticism, you need to be able to find the flaws in your strategy, and you need to work on it, to remove the flaw that you have found.

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