In a competitive game such as CS:GO, you can find a lot of different opponents in your online endeavors. Some are better than others, some like to play aggressive, others like to play passive until the very last second - and these are just some very basic examples, just scratching the surface of what’s possible in this competitive shooter.

Knowing how to adapt to these different playstyles and learning how to counter them is a crucial skill to any CS:GO player that wants to become good at this game. The faster you do it during a match, the more chances you’ll have to make their match harder, which is essentially what you’re looking for.

Let’s Start from the Beginning - What Can You Do?

In the beginning, whether you play as a Terrorist or Counter-Terrorist, you want to learn the tendencies of your opponents. That’s your immediate priority in the opening rounds and you can do that whether you win them or lose them. Try to understand if they’re aggressive and if they are, in what section of the round - are they aggressive in the beginning? At the 1 minute mark?

Another important thing you should be on the lookout for if playing Terrorist is to learn where each player defends. Generally, players have their own position, and you can learn a lot just from that. Let’s imagine players A and B defend the A bombsite for 4 rounds in a row. If suddenly you spot player C there, you know something’s up - it can be a stack.

If needed, don’t be afraid to note down these findings - even the best players in the world use pen and paper in their matches. Everything you find important, write it. You’ll get the hang of it in the long run and these types of stuff will become automatic.

Start Adapting

After learning what your opponent likes to do, you just need to start adapting. There are lots of ways to do that.

Let’s look at how some professional teams like to play. If we look at the old Fnatic, for example, they were a team that didn’t rely a lot on anti-strating their opponents. Instead, they forced their style into their opponents. They were a super aggressive team that exploited their opponent’s weakest links to force their way into bombsites. On the CT side, they would look for entries as fast as possible, sometimes even being more aggressive than the Ts. Naturally, this is a very hard way to play and requires some insane skill.

Now let’s see what Gambit likes to do. They’re a super passive and strategic team. They avoid going into duels if they don’t have any advantage, like trade setups or well-placed grenades like Flashbangs or Smokes. They study their opponents hard and learn on the fly during matches, being able to adapt to what’s being done and countering their opponents with some prepared anti-strat.

Most of the matches they just avoid looking for their opponents, they let them come to them (while playing CT, obviously). They also try to delay the takes as much as possible with timed utility, forcing their opponents to play with the clock low on time, making the worse teams commit mistakes. When needed, they try to surprise with a push - and that’s just some of the reasons why they became one of the best and most feared teams in the world.

While playing, you can do the same. If your opponent likes to be super aggressive, try to delay them with well-placed utility, try to make them use what they have. On the other hand, if they’re slower as a team on the T-side, you can push to get some map control and probably even get an advantage. Just remember that if you do it way too often, they will start waiting for you and most likely kill you frequently, especially if you push in the same spot every other round.

Avoid Becoming Too Predictable

If you’re playing against decent opponents, your adaptation to their game can also be a nightmare. If they understand what you’re doing, you’re most likely going to be anti-stratted and have a bad time if you keep doing the same.

Be sure to pay attention at all times to how your opponents are reacting to the things you do - yes, it’s tough, but it’s this kind of thing that separates a good from an amazing player. If you’re able to do all those things, you’re amazing.

Being able to take note of all these things at the same time and adapting to their maneuvers is not something that someone can learn overnight, it requires persistence. You’ll be spending thousands of hours playing the game if on your path to become truly good. If you don’t, that’s ok as well - after all, not all players need to be competitive and everyone can play just for fun.

It’s impossible to play a match of CS:GO without making any mistakes, they are simply bound to happen. In fact, I usually say that a CS:GO match is a game of mistakes - in the end, the team who manages to make less wins the match.

Watch Demos From Teams Known to Anti-Strat

The best way to learn how to adapt to an opposing team is by watching someone who does it actively. There are a few super good teams out there that are known for being good anti-straters, and watching their professional matches can sometimes be a big source of knowledge.

I’ve already talked about Gambit, but there are a lot more. The Danish player Benjamin "blameF" Bremer is known to be an amazing in-game leader that prepares its matches to the smallest detail. His time on Complexity was full of good ideas on how to adapt to an opposing team and how to make their own strategies turn against them by exploiting weaknesses.

BIG is also a good team to watch when looking for ideas on how to adapt to your opponents. Summing up, everyone does it one way or another, but there are some teams that make it their main strategy to adapt to their opponents instead of relying on brute force whenever something is not going their way.

Thank you for reading this article! You can contact me for feedback or suggestions via Twitter.