A lot of teams are fine with reproducing tactics from top teams and implementing them in their own game, but struggle at developing their own ones. In this article I'm going to break down the process of creating tactics.

There are a few different defensive tactic types, and each are perfectly valid. Firstly, I will breakdown spawn related tactics. This is a relatively new style of tactics that is being implemented by all the top 1.6 teams, most notably fnatic and 3D.

When operating spawn related tactics, players cover the area they spawn closest to, and a different strat is run based on these spawns. If a team has a strong tactic for every spawn, this is easily the most dominant tactic system, as shown in fnatic's recent match against SK.de. However, it can be very difficult for the caller, as he doesn't have much time to assess the spawns and decide the tactic, so there needs to be extremely good communication for this to work effectively. Also, each player needs to be extremely confident in holding any position on the map.

A more commonly used method also operates with players covering specific areas, but they are not spawn specific. Each member has a specific area where they are used to playing, and know the spots, angles, and approach times perfectly. The strat caller will normally call a certain split (e.g. - 2-2-1), and the players will all be assigned a certain area. This is less effective than a spawn related defense, but easier to implement.

In this style, I would reccomend each player has 3 main styles of play - aggressive, passive, and default. If synched well, these can be used effectively for quick rotates and effective communication. For example, on dust2, if A is played quite offensively, it allows for very quick rotates/pushes at B, and vice versa.

The final method for defensive tactics is position specific. In this method, for each strat a player will have a specific position rather than an area. For example, instead of covering Long A on dust2, the player will have to play from the car, so he can cover short defensively as well. This method is the least versatile of the 3, but if used correctly it can be equally effective. With this tactic set there is less ambiguity and therefore less room for error. However, if things don't go to plan, it can be harder to recover as everyone is used to their specific positions.

Overall I would not reccomend any method of creating defensive tactics, as they are all dependent on your level of communication. Spawn related tactics are probably the most effective, as shown by fnatic and 3D's recent performances, but they are also the hardest to implement, and there must be absolute trust between players.

Offensive tactics are less simple to create. However, I would suggest (unconventionally), that there is less need for original tactics when attacking. Since Counterstrike has been out in varying forms for 7 years now, there are so many available tactics that originality is not as essential as it may first appear. The key to offensive tactics is in the practice and the versatility. Every variable must be accounted for, and if something doesn't go to plan (which it invariably won't), the whole team must know exactly what to do.

Spawns can be equally important on offensive tactics, particularly for rushes, but not exclusively. If your team get a good B spawn (or even 1 player alone), you could fake a quick rush and hope for an early rotate. This can be especially effective on maps like Contra, where they will rotate very quickly if they see a whole team going to B, leaving the other site wide open.

A lot of teams like to just do roaming tactics, in which each player will push a specific area and aim to do one of two things : Get a pick, or force a rotate. However, this becomes more and more difficult as teams play at higher skill levels, as the defences they're up against become stronger and stronger. Against better teams, it becomes more essential to have advanced strats, with specific nades and timings. At this point, CSStrat becomes very useful.

CSStrat is a program designed for making 1.6 strats, but is also useful in CS:S. It can be found at this website, and is a free download. It is a very simple way of creating strats that your team can analyse and practice, without requiring everyone to be on a server together.

However, the best way to develop tactics is by analysing demos of the best teams (in my opinion 1.6 demos are better), and watching their strats. To use your time most effectively, I reccomend watching in the overhead view and watching the paths of each player, but this can be quite tedious. In 1.6 you can watch it in first person but then enable the mini map, which can be a good compromise between the 2. If you watch how teams push certain areas and when/where they rotate, you can adapt that to your teams style of play, and add your own unique touches.

That's pretty much all I can think to say on the topic for now, I hope it was of interest to some people, and apologies for wasting your time if it wasn't. Thanks to Malaris again for help with the article, and thanks to all my idlers in #xilef.

Felix "xiLeF" Morgan
#xilef