CS:GO Recruiting Is A Numbers Game: Why Amateur Teams Are Lacking Proper Pickups
CS:GO is a game that has been developed for the competitive community. It requires high levels of teamwork, communication, and all-around good players. Don’t expect to win from someone carrying the team. It’s a game that was built around reducing those types of players.
Within the amateur scene, teams tend to lack solid impact players, if that’s an aggressive entry fragger, fast-paced AWPer, or a crazy smart IGL - a lot of lower-tier teams just don’t have this. FACEIT and ESEA control an entire network of players looking to go pro. 2020 is the best year to build a team having top-notch resources open to the public - but orgs often lack good scouts and will really pick up anyone that can play under a cheap contract.
AGGRESSION IS KEY
Teams often recruit players based on their overall ratings when instead, they should look at impact numbers. Constant entry frags can carry any team to victory with the right players to back them up. If a team has a consistent AWPer known for winning fights with an insanely fast entry fragger that knocks off a good chunk of players. All secondary AWPers should be masters of the mid pick, allowing them to toss their sniper back to the main AWPer while saving team finances.
Another big role is entry fragging. Rather than signing one aggressive rifler, acquire two eliminating the support role, allowing a better chance at exchanging trades when entering sites. Support roles can be replaced with team starts, learning the best smoke setups and flashpoints when entering a site. Consistent players aren’t always the best ones. Sometimes orgs need to take a chance and sign people based on their specific talents. Rather than thinking player ratings are the only numbers which determine a player.
For the CT side of things, both rifle players should master retaking bomb sites and knowing when to push back, lowering their opponent's guard while allowing their AWPer to clear meticulous angles. Every player should have a specific skill set that makes them stand out. CS:GO has a lot of good AWPers, but not all of them use the weapon to its full power. Competitive snipers should be comfortable with wielding an AWP even within close quarters. Any time someone picks up a weapon, the drop sound is easily heard - giving their opponent an advantage of knowing where someone is located in a clutch situation.
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Once a team has found their first four players consisting of two riflers and two AWPers, it’s time for their fifth. That should be someone who is a great IGL and lurker. A player who knows the best map routes and can quietly rotate in a sneaky formation, telling their team what to do before pushing and the best time to rotate. These five player types would create the perfect team and can be easily be put together at any amateur level. Sometimes top fragging doesn’t make you the best but instead a greedy player who can't participate in a team game.
Click to enlargeBUILDING A TEAM TAKES TIME
When comparing players, scouts and analysts need to take time and review more than tournament highlights. Instead, the best way to understand a player is raw footage consisting of one at their highest and lowest moments within a match, allowing orgs to pick apart what a player lacks and if they have the time and resources to train them before upcoming events. Players are often overlooked for the imperfections when instead they should be studied—figuring out how good a player can really be within the right team. Match results, such as most kills, don’t always reflect on a player. Their score should be broken down into kills based on good timing, gun skill, and game sense. Someone could easily spend their time picking up free kills rather than impressive ones.
The last piece of the puzzle for a good player is their SMG and pistol ratings. Anytime a team chooses to eco or do a light buy that usually means cheap pistols and SMGs. These are really important rounds that can turn around a game. Almost like betting on yourself to pick up a frag with a bad loadout. CS:GO is a very back and forth game relying on comeback players. User scores aren’t just KD ratios. At the end of the day, it depends on how passionate team scouts are when it comes to putting together the next best team in their amateur division.
Teams like Triumph and the New England Whalers have perfected the meaning of teamwork - working their way up through A and S-Tier events while studying their opponents. It’s teams like this that will one day take over the NA scene due to the fact they analyse players before signing them. If teams pick the right players for the right reasons, digging their way out of low tiered events should be easy.
Images via Valve
