One of the biggest problems many younger, less experienced teams run into is being able to coordinate well with their teammates. Because of a lack of personal experience, along with a lack of experience playing together, a lot of clans struggle to put together consistently strong Terrorist halves. In other situations, teams don’t seem to have any problems executing on offense, but are just not able to be consistent.

The following is a list of a few basic things to keep in mind when practicing your strats.

First and foremost, find what works for you tactically. When I refer to tactics, I mean smaller scale things that happen throughout an in-game match or scrim; for example, adjustments or making a specific call on the fly. Many teams try to do things that they just simply are not built for and/or aren’t quite ready to do.

For example, a lot of teams out there just simply are not able to pull off rushes or fast strats. This is something you need to recognize. Not all teams have to have rushes in their strat book. Though having a healthy combination of fast strats and slower strats is preferable, it is not always realistic. If you can play a fast, aggressive style of offense (like Rival was known for), then go for it. But if that just isn’t working, then there is absolutely no reason to force yourselves to emulate something that you are not.

Also, on the topic of emulation, players should try use a filter, of sorts, when watching the professionals play. When you watch a player like SpawN, you can see very quickly that his play style is VERY successful.... for him. People do not realize that you can't always try to emulate the play of professionals. SpawN's play style works for him for two reasons. 1) He probably has the best aim in the world. 2) He has a sixth sense that can be also be referred to as a "natural wallhack". Unless you can say the same for yourself, I would suggest picking and choosing from different players until you can find something that works for you.

As a team, you want to try to do things that you are capable of. I have played with numerous teams in which a player just always has to have an AWP in his hands, for better or worse. Teams should recognize what the situation calls for, in terms of AWPing. A lot of times, overall offensive execution can be hurt by an AWPer who is not doing his job because he has a sniper rifle instead of a more versatile weapon like an AK-47.

Even great AWP players like ‘dsn’ or ‘shaGuar’ must know when to buy one and when not to. Though a talented AWPer can do a lot of damage in a lot of different situations, he can also hurt the team greatly if he chooses the weapon at an unnecessary time.

Similarly to personal play style, teams need to recognize what works for them on a more strategic level, as opposed to tactical. Translation: pick the strats that work for you. Thinking on a tactical level is thinking only about the present and overall on a smaller scale, while thinking strategically refers more towards out of game decisions, such as deciding which strats to practice and what bombsites your team should attack more often than others.

Strategically, the biggest mistake a team can make is to continue practicing a strat that is not working for them. If a certain strat never works in every scrim you play and your team just gets mowed down, take that as a sign. To be fair, sometimes you might get unlucky or just mess up a few things here and there during the execution of the strat, which is completely fixable; but in general, if a strat is failing time and time again…take the hint. Otherwise, the team will just continue to waste their time running strats that don't work.

Example: On dust2, if you are trying to do a split rush on site A as your default strat, but never actually get any rounds because you keep getting picked off at cat, you might want to considering switching the default to a B strat, such as a 5-man B push, or a split attack on the B site and the middle area. Because honestly, if your strats end up getting cut down repeatedly, your team should consider practicing what actually does work for them. This is not to say that you should completely remove a split A rush strat from your repertoire, but just to run it more sparingly.

But again, to be fair, strats will not always come together when you first begin playing a map. Sometimes it can take some time to see what will work and what won’t. Be sure to give the tactic some time before hastily deciding, "This strat sucks, it never works,” if you have only played a few scrims.

The third thing to be aware of is probably the most important; adjustment. When playing this game, you MUST be able to adjust to what the other team is doing, as well as what you are doing. If something isn’t working, then try adjusting it somehow. To figure out what needs to be adjusted, ask yourselves: “What went wrong?” and “Why did it go wrong?”, and then make a mental note of it. If one of your teammates continually proves himself unable to throw a specific flash or smoke, don’t tell him he sucks and get into a fight, just switch him to another role in the offensive attack.

I’ve seen this happen a lot on de_train. When teams attack the outer site, most will use a 2-2-1 split. But if the player(s) going middle always get picked, throws bad flashes, can’t throw the right smokes, or any combination of the above, then there needs to be an adjustment. Find which players are comfortable playing where, and then switch them accordingly.

Also, try to take note of what the defense is doing. If they are playing back, recognize it and counteract it. Though it is somewhat unreasonable to expect amateur teams to have a completely separate batch of strats for the endless amounts of different defensive setups, being able to tweak your strats at least a small amount is quite important.

Again, let’s put de_train under the microscope. On a 2-2-1 split on the outside site, a lot of times the CTs will play back to avoid being picked off early in the round. If this is the case, you can still do your split, and do it fast, but make sure to not make the CTs job any easier. If you see them playing back, use smokes and flashes to disrupt their view. Also, use the trains for cover accordingly. If they were playing up, then you obviously wouldn’t want to just be sitting behind a train with a flash or smoke in hand for too long, because a CT would just walk up and pop you right in the noggin. This is why adjusting to different situations is absolutely essential to developing solid offensive execution.

Finally, a team must recognize its competition. Sometimes you will be playing a team way above your level of play with aim and teamwork. Sometimes you’ll end up against some random kids that someone scraped together out of #findpug. As a team, you must take note of these things. Say, you are practicing all week for a big match. All your strats are working great, but your team is only playing bottom-of-the-barrel teams for scrims. Don’t expect to execute well. You have had no legitimate competition to see if you are actually executing well, or if you are simply so much better than the other team that it doesn’t matter if you are executing well. By the same token, if you are playing teams way above your pay grade and losing a lot of offensive rounds, it doesn’t necessarily mean your strats are the problem. Though they very well might be the problem, you must take into account that being beaten by a GREAT team doesn’t mean that you or your strats suck, or that you are unable to execute as a team.

Overall, teams must remember to stick with what works, adjust when it doesn’t, and recognize its competition. Doing these things won’t transform you into coL overnight, but if you keep these ideas in mind while you are scrimming and playing matches, your execution will undoubtedly improve.

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