Active Team Awareness: Effectively Using The Radar

To all Counter-Strike players out there, don't forget about your radar.

Your radar can be used to easily identify enemy team movement and specific enemy locations. However, many players neglect their radar among other tools given to them. Situational awareness is a key to success that shouldn't be ignored--not at any time during a round. Communicating your surroundings to your team can give you a tremendous advantage over your enemy. If you're playing defensively, calling out what you see on radar can help your team gather the information required to deduce what is going to happen next. A Counter-Terrorist team that rotates quickly after the bomb is spotted will find it much easier to defend or retake a bombsite. In addition to this, if everything is silent for the first twenty seconds of a round, you can assume the Terrorists are playing passively.

I want my teammates to be actively glancing at their radar anytime they hear far off action. I want them to use the radar to know more about what is going on around them. I want them to then use that knowledge and act on it. Try to imagine these scenarios: Do you see the bomb in b-site and you hear your team dying, yet nobody said anything? Rotate! (See example 1) See several enemies on your radar coming toward you? Fall back to an advantageous position!

Most importantly, we should be communicating what we see. To avoid confusion, bad calls, and unnecessary rotation, we ought to only call out bomb positions and strong enemy rushes. Everything else can be written off as enemy action or noise.

Example 1
Here, as I’m defending long, the Terrorists are seen rushing B on my radar. Half a second later, my homeboy Marvin tells me he’s “spotted the delivery boy”. I take this as my queue to rotate out of long.

Example 2
If the occasion arises that you do get duped by a fake, ask yourself this series of questions:

1. Where is the enemy going to attack me from?
2. Why is it quiet here?
3. How might the enemy plan to pursue the objective?
4. Are both bomb sites protected?

Look at the radar and find out.

When I am playing at 100%, I use all of the tools given to me in order to figure out what the enemy team is doing. If I hear my teammates call out a rush, I confirm the information with the scoreboard and kill display, then once more with the radar. As I'm rotating, I can gauge how much precaution is necessary by looking at my radar, seeing the number of enemies alive, listening to the action around me, and guessing where the enemy might be.

A few final words.

1. Many of you already know exactly what I'm talking about. This post is merely meant as a helpful reminder from a friend.
2. Playing with music on might have been a factor in my becoming reliant on the radar.
3. Don't forget: the most important place to look is down your cross-hairs. If you're expecting a firefight, remember to actively look at your screen and move your mouse.
4. Play smart. Remember that your initial job as a defender is to protect the bombsite.

"The best weapon in this game is the grey matter in between your ears." -2manno