Counter-Strike is a highly skill-dependent game. Any new player will progress gradually. He’ll learn something new with every new step. But there’s a limit to that. In matchmaking you’re limited to playing with random players against a team of similarly random players. After watching professional matches, you might yearn for something similar, like tackling your opponents with a reliable team behind your back. And that’s when the fun begins. In this article we’ll cover how to take a first step and create or find a team in CS:GO.
Who should you recruit to your CS:GO team?
You have several options, either friends or random unknown players. Here lies the first caveat. It’s much more comfortable to play with friends, you already know each other well and you know what to expect from them. The problem is that finding four skilled friends is quite difficult. If you really want to achieve something in CS:GO and create an aspiring team, you'll have to look for teammates among strangers.
And things become even more complicated with strangers. Let's say you met a player somewhere, he has a good aim and kinda knows what to do around the map. You invite him to your team. Do you think it will be that easy? There will be some time of "getting to know each other", your new teammate will not like some of your decisions, and you will not like some of his. It’s easier to find a compromise among friends, but with a person you know for a month, that’s unlikely. Quarrels and misunderstandings are inevitable, that’s why every team needs a person to keep everyone in check, a leader.
Chances of finding a perfect group of 5 players without any mistakes are slim. Players will come and go and you have to be ready for that.
Player Psychology
Understanding how to build a team in CS:GO is not enough. You have to be ready for defeats right after assembling a team. More organized opponents will beat you most of the time and you all have to understand that. Don’t expect success to be right around the corner. Playing as a team will take you all to a whole new level and doing the same stuff you did in matchmaking just won't work. Either it won’t be effective or your opponent just won’t let you.
If you are a player who is very anxious about his own or other people's mistakes, you’ll have to try to keep your emotions in check during the match. Remember, your emotional state also affects your teammates. Ever lost a pistol round and said that you’ll lose the game as well? That means you’re not ready for team-level play. You have to be a strong-willed player who believes in a comeback even with 0-15 score.
That’s especially important for someone who wants to become a team leader. Finding a team in CS:GO is not enough. No five-man team in CS:GO succeeds without a captain. Usually it's the most experienced player, the one who knows how to read the opponent and is actively coordinating his teammates around the map during the match. If the captain gave up, every other member of a team will also feel this way. Never argue with the leader and learn to accept other people's opinions. Your team consists of five people and you may not always be right in some situations. Even if you think you are.
All the hassle should be brought up for discussion after the match. You should not start an argument during the game, especially as a new round starts. It won’t do any good, as everyone is concentrated on the game and it might as well cost you a match.
Look for players with similar play styles. For example, some players like to play more carefully, hiding in the corners and not app[lying pressure around the map. Such a teammate probably won’t help you much whenever you decide to get some intel or make a push. Others, on the contrary, rush straight at the enemy lines looking for a frag, putting your whole team at a disadvantage if they fail.
Player roles in CS:GO team
So, you've finally decided to create a CS:GO team. In the current meta each player has his own role on the map. Obviously, everyone must have a good aim, but just remember the situation from almost any matchmaking game - three or four of your teammates have decided to buy an AWP as attackers just because they have enough money to do it. They don’t care about the team or who’ll push for the key positions, they just sit in some sniper nest or T spawn and wait.
Sniper
Nowadays it is common to have a single AWP player on a team. Using two sniper rifles, especially when playing as the attack, is not recommended. As a defense, however, it can be a somewhat effective way to hold both plants at the same time. Your sniper is the person you’ll be dropping an AWP without any doubts. This person has to also be good with pistols and, optionally, with other rifles.
Entry fragger
Next, you will need a player to take a mantle of a “hunter” on your team. This is the same person who’s not afraid to look for an opportunity to get the first frag on the map to give his team a necessary advantage. He must be good with all types of weapons and have a solid knowledge of the map's hot zones and common enemy positions to effectively weaken the enemy's defense or advance.
Captain
Captain isn’t the first role we’ve mentioned due to a possible combat potential. He plays a key role for his team during the match, taking full responsibility for the decisions and organizing his team to be at the right place at the right time. He’s the “head” of a team and has to focus on thinking rather than shooting, that’s why usually the captain isn’t the one with the best KDA on their team. Leading a team and staying focused isn’t as easy as it might seem at the first glance.
Anchor/Lurker, clutcher, support
These two players are the ones with a lot of responsibilities and work to do around the map. As the attackers they can sneak behind the enemy lines, as the defenders they’re your first bastion against the enemy tide on the plants.
If you decide to create your own team in CS:GO, here are the basic requirements for any player - absolutely all the players on the team must think well, feel the timings, be able to give information and help their teammates in a tight spot. The fact that everyone must be a good shot is obvious, it’s a given in games like CS:GO.
Communication and CS:GO basics
During any training session you should pay close attention to how the players communicate on Discord or whatever voice chat you’re using.
There should be no "spamming" in the voice chat during the game. The importance of in-game sounds in CS:GO is obvious. If you can't hear your enemy reloading or prepping a grenade because of your teammate cracking jokes or talking about his day, the outcome of the match can be quite sad for you. There will be no success for your team without discipline.
The idea is simple: a short discussion of the plan between rounds, short and clear intel on the enemy or any troubles around your position during the rounds. There never should be any squabbles or insults. Get used to clearly giving useful information, like the enemy's position. You should start with that and not “he’s red hp”, this way your teammates will react quicker and will be able to trade you.
After setting your team communications in order, you’ll have to come up with different training courses. Just fooling arounds on DM servers from time to time won’t be enough to create a competitive team to win a tournament. You’ll have to take some time learning the grenade set ups, make grenade binds and come up with several tactics for each map. You can’t play around “smokes on A” on Mirage all the time and expect to win against a competent opponent this way.
You can read more about CS:GO communication in the following article:
Use different tactics like "splits" (splitting players on the map to enter the point from different directions), quick attacks (rush a point) and come up with several "fake rounds" to be able to deceive your opponent. The more fake rounds you have, the harder it will be to read you for your opponent during the match.
Useful CS:GO tools
Your headaches won’t stop after finding a team, now you’ll have to properly organize the training. Not every service can help you with that. For example, in the past people used Skype conferences, but this messenger was quite unstable and could easily stop working during the game.
Professional players often use TeamSpeak 3. This is a fairly simple program that allows you to quickly set up your microphone and communicate with your team. It allows you to create your own local TeamSpeak server right on your computer and to be independent from everyone. You should definitely consider TeamSpeak as your voice chat of choice.
There is also an option of using the relatively new Discord service. It has a huge amount of microphone related settings. You can create your own rooms and show any person can share his screen to others (that’s especially important if you want to discuss tactics). You can also share files and screenshots through it. Anyway, the full list of Discord functions is too long to cover here.
You can always stay in touch with your teammates with the SCOPE.GG community server! Feel free to join!
Websites that allow you to see all the important stats are also not to be underestimated. Both as a team and as a player. SCOPE.GG allows you to check all the default grenades with the help of it’s grenade prediction service and to find any mistakes you made during the matches. You can easily link both Steam and Faceit profiles and the system will upload and analyze your latest matches to find the key moments for you to consider.
Where can you play against other organized teams?
A lot of different platforms exist nowadays that allow you to create a team or find a teammate in CS:GO. You can easily play a 5v5 match or try to win a small tournament. Faceit is the solid road to a professional CS:GO. The platform has a lot of servers with good ping, relatively good anti-cheat and the easy access to try yourself in various ladders and tournaments - everything you need for a comfortable gameplay.
You can take part in the small daily tournaments for the players of every skill level. If your Faceit level is 4, you won’t have to play against level 10 because of the rules.
You’ve probably heard about the FPL (FACEIT Pro League), you can find the best players in the world there. If you grow up quickly, you’ll definitely get noticed.
And there you are, now you know all the basics of creating your own CS:GO team and the main things to look at. Are you ready to try yourself in eSports?
