CS-Nation

Covering the future of Counter-Strike
teamwork
advanced strat: Teamwork
this is a CS-Nation feature
» author: Mr Bond

Counter-Strike is different from regular death-match in one essential area—team play. Unlike ordinary death-match games, CS is all about teams; counter-terrorists vs. terrorists. Before I go too far, I'd like to stress the importance of individual skill! Just because CS is a team-based game, doesn't mean that your individual skill is not important—in fact it is VITAL—most other tactics/guides will teach these skills. I could start to list all those lovable acronyms of "team" (T.E.A.M—Together Everyone Achieves More etc but for the sake of everyone's sanity I will refrain. However, keep in mind this phrase—"The ability of a good team is greater than the sum of its individual parts."

Basically, this means that a group of people working together will perform better than if they had worked alone. Note: I'm afraid that if you have a group of pathetic players—working together is still not going to make a great team! Again, individual technique is a key factor—before a team can work well, the players in it have to have to be reasonably good players by themselves. It must be stressed that a team of lesser skilled players can beat more experienced players with some simple teamwork. Unlike other CS strategies, teamwork isn't necessarily going to improve your stats. Oh, yes, time for Mr bond's pet complaint. GET OVER THE STATS, PEOPLE! This isn't death match. If you want to show off your incredible kill-to-death ratio to all your buddies, go play Quake. Ahem, as I was saying, teamwork might not necessarily improve your stats but it will provide a more rewarding game experience.

So how do you work together as a team? There are two different areas that need to be considered for team play to work effectively—planning and implementation. I will discuss planning only in brief terms as in most CS games, it is usually only applicable if you play regularly in a clan or with others you know.

Planning
As said before, you may not always have a chance at the planning stage of teamwork but when you do, it often proves valuable. You can only properly plan a technique of attack if you play with your teammates on a regular basis. This is one of the reasons why some of the best CS clans in the world have few members. The members in these small clans get to know each other's 'play-style' and, over time, often develop different ways to work together. By doing this, you and your team can decide who should go where and what each member's role is.

By knowing how your team-members play, you can coordinate attacks, create multiple cover and ambush points and out maneuver the opposition. It may also be handy to set up a number of 'key-words' or symbols for different strategies—then when the game is underway, you can quickly decide and carryout what you are doing. This is all great, but if you're the CS average player—who isn't playing in an elite clan or with others you know you'll have to think on your feet—plan as you are playing! I'll talk about this in the next section.


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