Will all the Global Elites please stand up! Yes, you guys, who think you’re top dog now you have that highest MM rank. This is where real Counter-Strike begins.

Transitioning to team Counter-Strike is a different beast than that of matchmaking. Many flaws will be revealed when dealing with actual teams, rather than a mix of PuG players. Becoming a successful team is dependent on how a team deals with these problems. Remember that there is usually a solution that doesn’t end with a roster change.

First off, you’re not going to be able to scrape by playing as an individual.

Playing for the team, not yourself.

This is the biggest thing people struggle with, it’s almost instinctual. Your first thought when dealing with a gunfight is survival, which can get a teammate killed. You have to place a certain amount of trust in the guys you are playing with. For example, if you’re executing a rush on a site and entry fragging, you have to trust in the guys behind you to back you up and deliver some decent flashes to open up the site, as well as maintaining a certain proximity to you when clearing angles and be available to trade a frag when necessary.This is the kind of example which becomes intuitive when playing with a team for a long period of time, but vital to mention in order to develop as a team. As a T side, if you run into a site and trade a frag you have the advantage. So it’s critical to play as a team and be ready to return fire if your teammate goes down.

As the CT side, you want to avoid being put in a situation where you can be traded. Set up crossfires so that when the enemy runs into a certain angle, both of you are situated to shoot at the same time, which usually means ending the exchange with no casualties on the CT side. Once you have the advantage CT side, you can sit back and trade frags over the round.

This image shows a crossfire setup of one player hiding sandwich, and the other under balcony. If a T player jumps out of palace, then both CT’s have vision to kill him. If the T’s push up ramp, they will both encounter the T’s at the same time. A powerful setup and when your positions are exposed, you can throw some solid pop flashes and reposition.

Settling into roles.

Something that helps a team find its footing is distributing roles for each player on every map. This way, as an individual, you can watch demos of pro players and figure out how to work a certain area on a map really well. This improves the consistency of each player and the team overall. Of course, you shouldn’t be too strict with these roles. Mix things up every once and a while to keep the opposing team guessing. However, the general premise / setup of T side on every map should have every player knowing the area of the map that’s theirs before they’re even on the server.

Learning from mistakes.

Prepare yourselves, because you will be made to look like fools. Playing a well coordinated side will expose your team's weaknesses. Adapting mid-game is something that takes a lot of experience to enact. Therefore, after the game you should all watch the demo of the game and see what happened, how they did it, and how you can counter it next time. Because, chances are, you will encounter the same kind of execute or playstyle again. If you want to improve as quick as possible, this is a necessary step for growth.

Just remember to have a thick skin when doing these kind of demo reviews, as everyone will be making a mistake here and there. These mistakes need to be pointed out if you want to improve, so try not to take these things to heart.

Executes.

There are countless guides that teach you how to execute a strategy, with smokes, flashes, and molotovs. There are many on this very website, so be sure to check them out.

My advice with learning to execute as a team is to take it slow. Don’t try to learn too many at once. Focus on one good take of a site, and dry run it till you know it inside out. Practice it against numerous teams and see what bits of it work and what don’t. Once you’re happy with it’s success rate then you can move on to the next one. If the execute doesn’t particularly feel good and provides a low return on rounds, then just scrap it and start anew.

Another thing to mention when executing a strategy is that calling it straight off the bat when the round starts may not be the best option. You will find that grouping up on one side of the map early in the round is very easy to notice. For example, if you take banana control every round on T side Inferno, and then one round a CT notices zero presence at banana, it’s very predictable that you’re setting up for smokes on A site. What tends to work a lot better is settling into a default where you contest map control, and then execute a strategy. This leaves room for a lurker as you have greater vision around the map. There are certain situations where you can execute a push straight away, such as Mirage A site smokes, if you do them before a lack of map presence is noticed.

Hopefully this guide has pointed you in the right direction. Good luck in your future team endeavours!

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