As you all know, Counter-Strike, that mod for Valve Entertainment’s highly successful Half-Life has captured Battlereports.com’s attention like no other game has… well, besides StarCraft that is, but that goes without saying. But, now as StarCraft is reclining in its peak of gaming prosperity, largely due to the damn server splits we’ve been getting so much of lately, Counter-Strike is slowly coming onto our hard drives, introducing some to the infamous “High-Ping Bastard” that they’ve never had the horror to meet before.

If anything, the first things you need for CS is a high-speed connection, or at least something 56 K not through AOL or any other crappy connection. That may have gotten you through StarCraft A-okay, but in CS, you’ll be seriously frustrated by people that seemingly fly by you and kill you before you even have the chance to strafe left. That said; let’s actually get into the game.

Pistol Round; don’t fux0ring camp

Pistol round is the initial round in a map where the server has just changed, and loads up its previous players in the round. Usually, only people with high-connection connect in time to enjoy pistol round, and that’s fortunate, because every hit point counts here. Basically, pistol round is simply setting you down on the spawn center of the map for your certain team, arming you with a pistol, knife and $800.

Here’s the hard decision; should you buy a Desert Eagle, or Kevlar? Or skip both choices entirely, rely on your knifing and starting pistol-unarmored skills, and obliterate all those who appose you? Remember, you probably will be only doing close quarter combat, unless you pull off an incredibly lucky headshot from afar. Personally, I think the Desert Eagle is a much better buy than Kevlar, because using pistols at long range is basically akin to using ghosts to attack a bunker on high ground while on low; it doesn’t fucking work.

That being said, let’s move on. Now, that you’re equipped with a Desert Eagle, you should wait or follow those on your team who also made it to pistol round, because this is a team game, and you’ll just get slaughtered if you decide to wander off alone. Use radio contact, because any other form, such as actual chat, leaves you naked and unable to move for a few seconds while you type, crucial time in pistol round.

Once your team is co-coordinated enough, move off to the spawn of the opposing force, and remember to jump corners. I cannot stress this enough, simply do not go around corners to check them for enemies. Wait, you did check them for enemies in the first place, right?

OK, so basically, in CS, there are dirty little bastards called “campers.” These are people who find the most annoying, out-of-place nook or cranny lodged in a crate, aim for the only opening, and fire away once they see something that even resembles a human figure. Thus, when you play, it is essential to check corners for these bastards, absolutely essential!

I’d imagine that campers have their own little perverse, and perverted community, and God knows what they’re talking about…

And when you check them, right before turning a corner, jump, and as soon as you land, crouch. If a camper’s there, he’ll follow you with a bullet trail, but he won’t know where you’ll land until you actually do, while you, having the few seconds to glance at where his position is, will fully know where to shoot once you do. Fire away with that D. Eagle and kill the camper.

But, hey, if you don’t find a camper in that particular spot, you’ll look like a paranoid asshole.

With any gun, you want to aim for the head, obviously, but because of the D. Eagle’s low clip, you want to make sure you at least have a clear shot at something. It’s bullets cause high damage, though, so even if you do make contact with a leg, you’ll do significant damage. Headshots, however, make quick and easy kills, and when you notice you’re firing at someone, all it takes it to remember to aim for the head in the heat of the battle.

The knife, a weapon I rarely use, deals significant damage also, if you’re lucky enough to get close to an enemy while he’s reloading or some other oddity that made allowed himself to get into such close range. I can’t say much, so the best tip I have for you is just to close the distance between you and him and hack away.

The Next Round; A Win-Lose proposition

Depending if you won or lost the last round, which I have full confidence you won, you’ll have amounts of cash that differ drastically towards the other team. If you won, use full advantage of it, and buy Kevlar and a Rifle, if you can. Otherwise, buy your choice of Sub Machine Gun’s. Stay in packs of 3-4 again, the larger the better, and take aim and fire true. You’ll win with superior guns if you just work as a competent team.

However, if you lost the last round, I’d have to say you’re quite literally fucked for this one. Unless you scored several kills, you won’t be able to afford Sub Machine Gun’s and armor this round, and without armor, you really are a walking target out there. Your best bet is to trail the idiot that does buy a decent gun, wait for him to die, kill the person who killed him while he’s reloading with your starting pistol, and take either gun of choice.

Remember, it’s only a team game when that team benefits you.

Basically, rush for the objective if you’re the team aiming for it if you lack the money. Planting the bomb almost guarantees victory if you manage to successfully find a camping spot, wait until you hear that Counter-Terrorist walk up to the bomb to defuse it, hear the slight rustle of mechanical parts, and come out to shoot the living shit out of him. And don’t get cocky and pull out a knife just because he’s defusing. CT’s have been known to be treacherous to their objective of defusing the bomb, and instead kill you outright.

However, as CT rescuing hostages is vital if you lack the money. Doing this will make up for it in no time at all, and you’ll get the added bonus of several thousand dollars if you manage to successfully rescue them. But even if you manage to touch them, you’ll be more endowed next round, and you can impress your friends with your bigger gun. No pun intended, because, hey, there is none.

Skill’s my mother, Agility’s my father, and uh, the Aimbot’s my cousin

No, don’t use hacks, I was joking. Plus, it’s far easier to notice hacks in CS than SC, usually because people will wonder how you got three headshots in a row with a pistol when they had rifles.

But, yes, movement is very important. Always keep moving, and never stop, not even if you think you’ve found a great camping spot. If you have the one-shot hot shot AWP, especially, keep moving. By the third round, skill finally surfaces up and rears its ugly head on newbies, so just keep moving and you’ll be harder to kill. But when you finally do find someone to kill, see if you can get in a better spot to kill them in, and once you find that spot, strafe towards it. Use liberal use of your jump key, to throw off headshot attempts by the guy trying to kill you, and once you get to the point where he’s open for a clean kill, crouch, and open fire. Make sure you don’t waste your ammo just strafing to the location. Just using short bursts of bullets can do this.

If you using the AWP, a sniper rifle capable of killing anyone with one shot anywhere on their body, stay behind those “melee” fighters. The last thing you want is to be sniping someone when they’re ten feet away from you. Let’s just say it’s using a ghost against an ultralisk here.

If, for some reason, your team completely sucks and the melee line is left dead and chatting about you not helping them, the enemy will hear your AWP’s thunderous rounds, and will hunt you down and will kill you. Your best hope is to make use of your AWP while you can, when they seem to be about 30-50 yards away from you, then switch to a pistol and try to use cover as best as possible. Again, aim for that head like the Aimbot was programmed inside of you.

For some strange reason, you may want to pick up some of the more expensive sniper rifles this round, or the Scout, a sniper rifle that allows you to move faster than the bulky AWP. Unless you are a very skillful at headshots, do not get these guns. All of them, besides the Scout, are too expensive for what it does, and even the Scout can’t compare to the AWP. With the Scout, you may be able to kill newbies AWP’ers that stand still and beg for headshots, but against a true sniper, if you stand still just to deliver that headshot, you’ll have a bullet the size of Kansas safely lodged in your torso.

So, you can’t kill a guy from far away and it’s come to this?

Close Combat… Gladiator, I salute you.

When it comes to close combat, it all depends on the type of gun you chose. Shotguns will deal the most damage, but considering that they are virtually useless from far away, you need to tag along with either snipers or rifle / SMG users. However, I recommend that instead of the shotgun, you use the versatile SMG and rifle for all close combat purposes.

The Mp5 Navy, an SMG, is your friend. It is cheap, reliable, and has virtually no kick. I would choose it over the Colt in most situations. The Colt comes in handy when you want to snipe from far away, due to its frightening accuracy from even across the map. But you should choose neither of the other rifles, Sg522 or the Steyr Aug, unless you think you’re such a hot shot you could manage to kill in one headshot. These guns have kick, and they will cause bullets to spray out in directions that you don’t want them to.

Another reason why the MP5 Navy is superior to most any other gun is that it has a tendency to deliver you a lot of headshots. If you make versatile use of jumping, crouching, and surprise tactics, you can get the advantage on the bastard trying to kill you and kill him first. Remember to still jump corners, check your back, and most importantly, if you hear footsteps but don’t see little dots on your radar that means someone’s coming that you might not necessarily want to see.

The Colt is a spectacular headshot gun, and its rapid fire and small kick allow you to deal surprisingly heavy damage per shot. Remember that un-silenced, the Colt deals the damage and AK-47 would, so when your presence is known and it’s close quarters combat, where accuracy is not really needed when he’s ten feet away from you, un-silence your Colt and go in guns blazing away.

However, the number one thing to do is to not get this close. You always want the advantage of AWP’ers behind you, and you just clearing the way.

There’s an art to sniping, and you’re not the only Picasso

What that cheesy section title means is that you aren’t the only capable sniper in the game, that is, if you are at least a capable sniper… which I’m sure you are, right?

Ah, OK, sniping…

Well, as I said, sniping is an art form, and an excruciating one at that. But, if you armed with a sniper rifle, you will be in a remote place from the action, quietly taking the chances and shooting when you have a clear shot. Thus, snipers usually have rather high Kills to Death ratios, and if you’re just in it for the stats on ICW, I recommend this pass-time, although it does get very boring after awhile.

The AWP is the “6-ling rush,” the “tank on ledge turbo newbie,” the “when you’re losing, load up Napster so it lags like shit and you drop your opponent” of Counter-Strike. If you didn’t get my incredibly stupid analogies, it’s CHEAP.

Not cost-wise, that is. At a price tag of around $4750 + about $300 dollars per 10 bullets, it’s one of the most expensive guns in the game. But, when you have the money for Kevlar + Helmet, and you have a hefty amount of cash left over, try and bring up your sniping skills to par. The AWP will push them to their limits.

Any gun you choose to snipe with, you must pay attention to detail. If you have not already done so, pump up your resolution to the highest it can go, and learn your maps well! If a little black patch sticks out from a ledge, and it looks suspiciously unlike the terrain surrounding it, shoot at it! Although incredibly cheap, this will ensure quick, easy kills and decimate the opposing team for your close combat team members to mop up.

I’ve mentioned this plenty of times now, but I might as well say it again; keep moving. If you stop for even a second, the person you’re trying to AWP may have an AWP of his own, waiting for that perfect chance where you’re still enough to shove a bullet into your frame.

And, for Christ’s sake, when a guy with an SMG or rifle is about ten yards away and advancing, look for your nearest cover, exploit it well, and pull out the pistol. Occasionally, you will get lucky and the enemy charging you will stand or run at you in one direction for enough time for you to kill him, but if he’s got brains worth a Korean Won, he will dodge, and get in close enough to kill you.

Players who are good at sniping are usually good at pistol round too, because, after all, that is their only alternative once the bastard’s right next to you.

Or you could change your name to “Ninja[R]” and knife.

The Bomb, and I aint’ talking about Tokyo As a terrorist, your objective is to plant the bomb, sit it out until it beeps rapidly, and get the hell out of there before it blows up on you. Clear enough? Yeah, I thought so too. On the most played bomb map (de_dust) and several others, one of the bombsites is closer to the terrorists than the counter-terrorists. By all means, rush this site, guard it well, plant, and continue to guard it until the time has come to get out of there.

On the other hand, some of the bombsites on some maps are accessible to the counter-terrorists more quickly. If this is the situation, always pick the alternative bombsite to plant. For example, there’s the bombsite everybody checks on de_Aztec that is right next to the entrance of the rope bridge over the river, but there’s one only advanced players know about at the other bombsite. Often at times, when the message that the bomb has been planted has alerted the Counter-Terrorists, they’ll check up on the one everyone knows about, and arrive at the other site just in time to hear the rapid beeping of the bomb as it’s about to go off.

If you feel you aren’t competent enough to hold the bomb, or in essence, you’ll be a moron and rush ahead just to lose the bomb, for Christ’s sake, drop it at the site. There’s nothing worse than a fucking moron on your team that loses the bomb in some obscure crevice or whatnot because he fell off a high ladder and killed himself or something like that.

As a Counter-Terrorist, on the other hand, you’re mission is to simply defuse the bomb. Or is it?

When the before-mentioned “fucking idiot” is stupid enough to go out and venture with the bomb, shoot him down and camp the bomb. It’s not cheap, it’s the mission objective, and it’s what will win the round for your team. Likewise, when the message alerts you all of a planted bomb, just type in which bombsite you’re going to and tell the others to check the other one. Don’t whine about stalling time, just briefly type something like, “checking ct spawn, u guys get other one.”

I always die for the bomb, even if I know it’ll blow up on me as I’m trying to defuse it. That’s just me, but it’s more economical for you to run away and keep your gun if you hear that ticking grow too rapid.

It makes for a comical effect, at least.

Alright Let’s go – Hostages To successfully keep hostages away from the Counter-Terrorist’s, lead them away to obscure spots in the map. Although very annoying, and eventually will get you banned or cursed out, it works. Of course, if you don’t want to be an annoying prick, the second best solution is to just make sure that they are kept in a secure place, and at least one terrorist always has his eyes on them.

As Counter-Terrorist, you must work under a time limit to get those hostages out. Be careful for people carting them around, because killing one will be a thousand dollar penalty. Just remember to work towards the goal, and never stop and camp. Camping when the clock is more in favor of the terrorists is not only stupid, but it’s fucking stupid.

That said, more advanced ways to use hostages as Terrorists is to use them as human shields. This is effective, and seen widely throughout servers. Or, better yet, put them in front of doors, which make them inoperable from the other side.

Or you could be that one asshole in the game that runs up to them at the start of the round and knifes them all to death. You choose.

Congratulations, you know the bare basics and some hints to keep in mind out there on the Counter-Strike servers. Apply them well, and you might just live to see another round, soldier.

And don’t kill the hostages, ok?

I hope you’ve had, at the very least, a decent read.

-WarLeaderJustin, “CS_Addict_WLJ”