Communication in CS, as important as it is, can also be one of the trickiest arts to master in the game. The dictionary tells us that communication is, “a document or message imparting news, views, information, etc.”. Unfortunately in CS one of these forms is bad, and shouldn’t be used, and I will go into that shortly.

When playing a game of CounterStrike with four other teammates, the key is to let them know as much as possible but also to be as accurate as possible. This can alter the outcome of the game drastically depending on what you say, and how you say it.

An inaccurate call in Counter-Strike can result in poor rotation of teammates, bad understanding of location, and sometimes inter-team frustration, which of course brings the entire team morale down.

How you say something also has a large impact on how your team will react to something. You should be direct and precise, without having to scream at your team. The whole, “Bull#$%# onliner, one dark”, is a prime example. Trust me, when you say things like this it will bring your team down, and they won’t be focusing on the call just made, but rather at the other team being “onliners” when if you actually thought about it you were probably fragged due to other reasons. Staying cool, calm and collected is the key here.

To help some people that don’t understand what I’m trying to get at, I’m going to do a quick Do’s and Don’ts of Communication to explain why we should say certain things in game, and what things should be left out.

The first thing to remember with communication is that if you can’t play the game with people constantly talking and actually comprehend what they are saying at the same time, then this game isn’t for you. If you had ever watched a pro team play, there is talk within their unit almost all of the time, so every member knows what is going on with the team.

The basics are a good place to start, with simple calls being accurate. I’ll use holding B bombsite on Dust 2 as an example, and you can all imagine that you are holding on the platform as a CT, hidden from the offence.

Scenario 1
You run towards the B double door, throw your pre flashes, smokes, etc., get on to the platform behind your favourite box and you hear a flash. What do you call?

If your answer was “Some B”, you have mislead your teammates into thinking something that is not true, like I said earlier, the accuracy of your call will determine how your teammates react to certain situations. So by calling a flash bang as a player or “some” it will alter their reaction, and may even have them rotate.

Calling things as they are is the most important thing to remember. So when the flash bang comes from dark you would call “Flash B”. Now of course, it would be silly to try and call every nade if the offence is spamming your bombsite with them, on a lot of nades you would call just that “Lots of nades B”, never assume that just because someone has thrown a lot at you that they are actually coming, because your assumption will lead to you deceiving your teammates.

Scenario 2
You get a bad spawn for B, but you manage to throw your early pre-flashes but the offences first flash blinds you; you try to navigate your way behind a box, and hear footsteps.

Here is something that you might do and not be aware of, calling flashes as a player if you are blinded by it. The fact that you can’t see anything should mean you can’t call if there is a player coming into the site or not, so instead you would call “I’m flashed at B”, giving any player nearby time to react. Once you hear the footsteps, you should instantly call “footsteps B”, but once again, never assume the number if you’re not sure. Most tournaments aren’t Nazis on the dead talk rule, they won’t mind if you continue to call the number of enemies coming into the bombsite if you are fragged. However, if the fade-to-black rule is enforce, then players should stop calling as soon as the screen is completely black.
 
Now I’m certain that you guys are getting the message now. The big secret to communication in CS is calling things as it is, and not making mountains out of molehills.

Scenario 3
You are playing from an abnormal position (in lower dark), and you’re fragged, you call that there is “some B”.

This is one of the most important forms of communication in CS, telling your teammates when you are doing something out of the ordinary. If your teammates know where you are 100% of the time, it makes your job easier and makes it easier for your team to compliment the position you have pushed into. Simply call when you push into somewhere, and tell them where you are watching, so if you die they know where you died from, and how long they have to rotate a player to cover your choke point.

The final point in my Do’s and Don’ts section is the “view” form of communication. This needs to be left out of the game. If you aren’t 100% sure of something, then you shouldn’t be saying it. “I Think there is one boosted”, if you think something then its more than likely going to either be a fluke guess, or your teammate will look in the wrong direction and be fragged because of a bad call. Obviously, if there are good grounds for suspicion, then definitely relay that to your team, but don't keep your teammates second guessing every call you make.
 
The most important thing for your team to do is to name everything on a map, and adhere to this every time you play together. If everything is named, and you all know what you’re talking about, it makes life a lot easier, and quick precise calls can turn the tide of battle, especially on a rotation as Counter Terrorists. You can choose to look up mainstream names on the internet for maps, or you can sit down in a server with your teammates and name everything from scratch, it doesn’t matter. What does matter is that you are all on the same wavelength when it comes to different location’s names.

Communication is a message imparting news, views and information, but it also goes two ways. If you tell your teammates everything as it is, you are half way there. But good communication is 50% sending and 50% receiving. A good way to practice this in game with your teammates is to paraphrase what has just been called. For example,

“Footsteps in B tunnel”

“There are footsteps in B tunnel?”

As ridiculous as it sounds, it will improve the amount of information your team will take in each round, and the more they know about what is happening all over the map, the more “in the game” they will be.