Despite being the most important role in any team in Counter Strike, the in-game leader (IGL) does not have as many resources for new IGLs. There is little to no assistance other than dated videos and conflicting opinions on how to go about in-game leading. In this guide, I will explain what some of the unwritten rules of in-game leading are. For the most part, most in-game leaders follow these rules although there are some exceptions.

You Don’t Have to Micromanage

Micromanagement is something that you would think is super important to team play, but it isn’t. In my opinion, I feel that micromanaging players will harm the team environment and make the players feel uncomfortable and it can potentially make the IGL look toxic or too controlling. While asking players to play a position is fine, telling them how to play that position in most cases can be bad for the player himself. If the player does not immediately fit in the position perfectly, they won’t get the kill and the IGL would be technically at fault. It is important to note that telling a player to watch a certain spot is not micromanaging, because that is your job as an IGL. I am under the belief that the in-game leader should know their player’s playstyle more than they do and will be able to predict what your teammate is most likely to do in a given situation. If you know what they are most likely going to do, you can plan around that. Historically micromanaging players harms your individual play because the IGL is too focused on the others rather than his own play. There are plenty of downsides to micromanaging your players and the upsides don’t really make sense.

Watching Your Own Game

Watching matches is a great idea, except when everyone only watches professional matches and never thinks about their own play. The point of watching a demo or VOD is to be able to see what you were doing wrong from a different perspective. I am not suggesting only watching your own games but having a balance of both helps immensely in figuring out issues that players make and come up with solutions on how to fix them. On the other hand, I feel that teams should watch professional games together to brainstorm and figure out things as a team. My advice for newer in-game leaders to watch games on their own and think about it themselves as they learn their role more and more. For more experienced teams I think that watching their own matches as a team will help a lot especially if the whole team is engaged and talking through things. Although watching pro games can be done either way because the IGL is mainly looking at it for ideas to implement, although there are some situations where watching professionals as a team could be beneficial.

Mid-Round Calling

Mid-round calling is a bit different in a lot of aspects. There are two kinds of teams, one where someone who is alive calls and some teams have a dedicated player (usually the In game leader) call mid-round. I am under the belief that most players who play on teams should have a sixth sense (or game sense) when they play. Game sense is when you are almost certain a player is somewhere despite not having information that would indicate so. In most cases an IGL cannot fully feel and see what their teammates do if they die early into the round. Of course, this is on a per team basis and I am generalizing heavily based off my experiences. I feel that if you are an ESEA Open level team, one dedicated person calling mid-round can cause issues and most players should know what they are doing. In my experience playing, I feel that the people who are alive mid-round should talk to each other. And from trial and error, they can learn and make better decisions over time. The IGL making mid-round calls makes the people alive feel that they cannot make the correct decisions, or they might resent you (the dead IGL) for not thinking they can make the right decision on their own. Giving should be fine, but for the most part I am under the belief that the alive players making the mid-round calls is better for teams who are primarily looking to improve.

Correcting Mistakes

I can tell you in hindsight, I tried to correct mistakes in the worst way possible. Instead of doing everything I can to work with the player and encourage them to improve after the game, I told them mid-game and talked down to them in front of the entire team. If you couldn’t tell already, confronting a player mid-game is an awful idea. Correcting mistakes should happen after the game when everyone is cooled off or if the team is ready to talk about the game afterwards. Confronting a teammate mid-game usually ends in at least one person being tilted from the affair and will make the rest of the team stuck on an issue rather than looking toward the next round. If you are going to talk about a mistake, wait till the game is over or wait till the team is not tilted or upset. This helps the player who made the mistake think about it in a rational way, so he can later correct it.

Approaching a Match

As an in-game leader, you want to approach the match with a plan on how you want it to be played out. I try not to look at the other team’s ranks or anything because I feel that will make the team feel too comfortable or defeated before the match starts. Especially for open level teams, it is key to have an open mind going into important games, so you can at least start the game comfortably. Where it goes from there is up to you. Looking at their previous matches is way more important and useful than looking at their ranks.

These are all things that I wish I knew when I started in-game leading. I hope this helps future IGLs and teams in the future to not make the same mistakes I did!

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