I started this piece talking about teamwork, and yet I have been rambling endlessly about defining roles and responsibilities of the players. Here is where that comes in to play: As a member of a team, having a defined responsibility and fully understanding your position allows you to properly contribute to success.
Now we will talk about developing teamwork skills that every player should have, regardless of whether you are playing in a match making game or playing with your team. The skills you need to develop are: Communication, Positivity, Focus, and Flexibility. These 4 things, in my opinion, are what make a great teammate. It makes you the type of player that other people want to play with, regardless of if you are playing well.
The first, and most important, is communication. Learn that you should be keeping communication open at all times. Talk, relevantly, all the time. Tell your team what you hear and what you see. If you think you have a read on a strategy, tell them. If you are playing with your team, try to use a service like TeamSpeak or Ventrilo and set it up so that you don’t have to use a push to talk key. This will allow you to vocalize what is happening as it occurs without taking valuable time and focus away from the task at hand (staying alive). Also, learn to shoot and talk at the same time.
How do you develop these types of communication skills? One method is to hop in to a deathmatch server and talk out everything you are doing as it happens. There is so much happening at the same time, you will always be talking. This makes vocalizing second nature and will translate fairly well to match situations. You can also go into a random public server with a friend and play a 2 man game. Join the same team and, using a 3rd party voice service, talk yourselves through the map.
You need to stay positive during matches. Even if it is going horribly, find something positive to say. Congratulate someone on making a good shot or getting the bomb planted. Thank someone if they drop you a weapon or save you from getting fragged. Do not berate or put down people when they make mistakes or miss shots. We’re human and can’t be perfect all the time. All we can do is do the best we can and be the best we can at any given time.
I can’t tell you how many time I have solo queued and ended up with someone that was a trash talking idiot. This is the best way to break down and destroy any kind of team chemistry you may build with these random people that the good lord Gaben has seen fit to place you with. This type of thing doesn’t only affect match making. I have watched (and played with) teams that break down when they hit a rough patch mid map, giving up any advantage they had by mentally disengaging from the match without even knowing it.
This brings me to the next necessary skill, focus. I like to use the term “Play the round, not the game”, to try and help people learn to focus. Forget that you missed the shot last round, forget that someone on the other team is playing like shoxie and ripping your team apart. Play each round like it is a game within itself. Focus on what you can do for the next 105 seconds or less. In CS:GO, every round is winnable. There are tons of examples within the professional competitive scene showing that a properly executed pistol save can end up winning or doing massive economical damage.
The last, and certainly not the least, is Flexibility. There are times when you might have to change up how or where you are playing. Sometimes, it might be necessary to run without an AWP, or for someone else to run the entry or pick up the lurk. The hallmark of great teams is the ability and willingness to fill other roles.
