One of the best ways to ameliorate your Counter-Strike in-game knowledge is to learn about the thoughts that go through players' heads. This will always give you a clue about your opponents next move so you can better predict where they will be or, get the drop on them.

An example of what I'm talking about is my driving. Much like Counter-Strike, driving is a lot about tendencies. I drive a lot at my job running errands or test driving cars or just driving around in general. From doing this pretty much all day, I know the tendencies of every type of driver: old, young, fast driver, slow driver, bad driver, you name it. I have also never been in an accident in my life. Although I have had many close calls, I have always predicted them and avoided any incident.

In CS, you shouldn't just be focusing on what you are doing, but what the other team is doing throughout the match. Notice if they like to peek and play aggressively or if they let you come to them by playing it safe. Also, notice the little things that each individual player has been doing that has been getting them great amounts of frags in certain rounds, because they will more than likely try them again. That is the philosophy behind the playbooks that I write.

When I am playing people at my skill level, or even above it, I am usually a very clutch player simply because I can predict my opponents’ moves and what they think I should be doing. One of the best clutch players out there, if not the #1, is 3D|Rambo. He has been playing this game for a very long time and really has a great understanding about what other players will be doing when he is in a one on one situation. So if reading this article doesn't really sink in, watch some POV's of Rambo or just focus on him in HLTV demo's whenever possible, you will learn a lot.

Now I am going to go through a few maps and some common situations and explain what your opponent will be thinking during them.

de_dust2



This one is mostly for a player on offense stuck in a one on one and the bomb is down somewhere in the A bombsite. Pretty much all of the time the player on defense will be playing the long A ramp as this gives him the longest range on both long A and catwalk, while being able to check spawn as well. One clutch tactic that has proven to be very effective in this situation is to go for the frag and not the bomb plant.

If you can get the opponent to see that there is a great chance you are going to catwalk, it will help out a lot. I suggest making some noise either from long A or from the defense's spawn if you know this player is in A somewhere. Simply go to the catwalk, and beware he might be playing close catwalk, and confirm that the opponent is sitting on the long A ramp. Strafe a lot during this shoot out, but be more concerned about just pretending to be having a gun fight rather than actually fragging him. After he moves down the ramp to reload, take a second or two and loft a flash bang into the air and fire a few more bullets. IMMEDIATELY fall back to long A; you will run the entire way until a little bit before the corner, just in case he suspected it. And like I said, most of the time you will catch the other player with his side turned to you while he is still checking catwalk or defense's spawn. The timing of this works out very well because the opponent’s thought process will be that you are reloading or going to spawn. It is highly unlikely you will be going to long A if you are hoping to get a bomb plant.

de_cbble



This is an eco tactic for the B bombsite for the defense. You may have seen me mention a pistol round tactic that places one player on the middle ramp barely spotting the little hole to the offense's middle to see if they are crossing to the B halls while you have your other four players in B. This is similar. You are all going to buy HE grenades and place the same single player on the middle ramp to spot. The other four players are going to rush the B ramp into the hallway. Most teams that are not on the top level will get extremely cocky and think that you will be possibly stacking B, but defensively, and they know their mp5's or AK's will rip right through you. Since you will only have pistols, they are usually correct with this assumption. Your best bet is to throw these HE's inside of the halls A.S.A.P. to get into the second corridor; the timing is critical. After throwing them, follow through and go in and take down the weakened offense. If they did not come here, or the middle player spotted them crossing, simply walk through the offense's middle and flank them from the right halls or the middle dip.

de_nuke



With de_nuke, the situation is similar, but reversed for the offense and defense. After the defense wins a pistol round and they are playing with two ramp players, they will expect a ramp rush. De_nuke is one of the hardest maps to pull off a good eco on defense due to its compactness; it is hard to fake anything and the defense is able to be spread out at many different angles. During an eco round, most teams on offense will merely do a suicide rush to the ramp, and a lot of players know this. One of the first instincts for a player on defense is to check for this ramp rush so he can do two things: warn his team that they aren't coming, or hold down his fire button and get as many eco frags as possible. On the second round I suggest you toss at least three HE grenades to the entrance of the ramp room to weaken your opponent. If not, and you want to pick up a third round because you had a bomb plant, do the suicide rush without the HE's and try to win it (you probably will not), but if the defense sprays you down immediately, they may predict it again. That's when your HE's will come in handy along with some AK's to back them up.

Round Predicting

This is without a doubt the most important factor in the game. Good tactics, aim, and teamwork are very important, but if you are able to predict what your opponent is going to do round after round, it is going to help out a lot. Even if you are not winning the rounds, if you are setting up in the right positions on defense, or waiting for certain tactics by the defense while you are on offense, you will get frags just because you knew where they were going to be. You will eventually hinder their gun buying ability and then that one round you win could possibly cost them three or four more after that.

As the strat caller for your team, you really need to understand the money system. Round after round, always have your team type their money. Pay attention to who is fragging and who is getting fragged as well as when you have to save. This will help you learn how much money your opponent has, based off of what they did the round before. This will help you know what kind of guns they can afford and what tactics they will use, because they definately aren't going to try a tactic that will be long ranged based if you know their best AWPer more than likely does not have his weapon of choice.

The next major item to watch for is what tactics they are running (this is mostly for defense). Really pay attention to any tactic that your opponent ran to completely sweep your team, meaning they only lost one or two players in the process of the tactic. If they were losing before they ran it, they are most likely going to run it back to back. If they were winning with this tactic and you stopped it and you suspect their money is good, expect to win one or two rounds (depending on their money), one eco, and then the first tactic that started to work. You don't always have to set up for it every time, but as the in-game caller, just let everyone know "Watch for x tactic". This way they will know exactly what will work to counter it.

Rotation

On the offense, the in-game leader really needs to focus on how the defense will be rotating. Take the first few rounds to get an idea of how they are set up. If it's anything besides a default, you need to realize this and begin thinking of how you would have you're players rotate in that specific setup. On almost all maps, teams will naturally put three players in the larger bombsite (which is usually A, unless it's de_cbble), if not, the second most common setup is two in bombsite A, one in the middle, and two in bombsite B.

The best thing you can do in their default situation is to go after one player in the larger bombsite. In this bombsite there will usually be two players watching the most threatened entry point, so I suggest looking for the single player so the other two will have to then split the responsibility. The larger bombsite almost always has the most entry points to it, and this will allow you to then split the larger bombsite with the bulk of your team going to where you did not pick off the single player.

When a team is in a 2-1-2 setup .with one player in the middle, your main focus should be the middle player or the solo player wherever he may be. This will force the two players closest to him to start watching two entry points at once. From here you have your choice of either bomb site to attack. The defense will not be able to concentrate on where you are going to be yet they are going to have to make a quick decision of where you will be attacking if they spot you at all.

So keep a good watch for trends, even after you are fragged. Click around to your teammates’ point of views and try to figure out what the other team likes to do. This will eventually pay off for when your partner gets fragged and you will have the upper hand knowing how the other team reacts to taking that player out.