Communication is essential for coordinating strategies and for informing other teammates
of valuable information.
It is something that you must master on your road to becoming a good team player.
So how can you share information?
The most practical way is by using the microphone, though I find I sound stupid when using it
and nobody can understand me.
Never mind, maybe you'll have better luck.
The microphone is the K button by default, but I recommend rebinding it to make it easier
to reach in the heat of battle- for me it's the side button on my mouse.
Let's set it up first.
Before loading up a game, check your controls to see what your 'Use Mic' button is and test
it out in the audio menu to ensure that it's working properly and is the right volume.
You don't want to be too quiet or too loud, or you may upset people.
And we don't want that.
Hold it down in-game for people to hear you.
Unfortunately most people who use the microphone tend to be the people you don't want to hear.
If you encounter somebody like this, rather than telling them to shut up, which usually
does the opposite, load up the scoreboard, click on their name and BLOCK COMMUNICATION.
There.
All's silent again!
You can type messages by pressing the talk button (Originally Y).
This works a bit like a chat room and also displays important information about the game.
You can type messages and send them using the ENTER key.
Beware that people may not notice if you message them here.
It's best used for quiet chat once you're dead.
If you want to say something that you don't want the other team to hear, use the 'team
chat' button, which is usually U.
The third method is by using the Z, X and C buttons where you can post short voice-clips
to let your team know what's going down... or just to spam everybody else.
Nobody pays attention to them.
Their one use is if your team-mate leaves and you're left with a bot who obliviously
rushes to his death every round.
This gives the other team money and weapons and sacrifices a 5th player that you probably
really need.
You can use the HOLD POSITION radio command by pressing Z and then 4, which if you're
lucky, will get the bot to guard your current position which is hopefully a bit safer.
The problem is that some bots, like real players, go rogue and don't listen.
Don't expect your commands to work every time.
Communication in casual play works differently from competitive.
In casual, anything you say will be heard by both teams.
Once you're dead, only those also dead can hear you.
Text messages also work in this way to prevent ghosting, which is where dead people spectate
for those still alive to give them an unfair advantage.
I have it set so that I can hear whatever I say in-game.
This teaches me to speak in a way that I'd like others to do in return.
I strongly advise you do this as well.
It's VERY confusing to try talking when you can hear yourself in this manner, but that's
good since it will make you talk less!
To do this yourself, enable the Developer Console from the options menu.
You only have to do this once and it will be enabled forever!
You can load this up by pressing the button under ESCAPE on your keyboard.
It's useful for all sorts of advanced things.
Typing voice_loopback 1 will let you hear what you sound like when you talk in-game-
you'll have to do this every time you load the game unless you want to edit some files.
You can use an external program, like Teamspeak, to talk with friends when in-game.
I prefer this to using CSGO's built-in talk function, but it leads to further complications
when only a few of your teammates are using that program, since others won't be able to
hear them.
Imagine being in a game where you're unable to hear anything your teammates are saying!
Because of this, I urge you to use the in-game voice function to share important information
and to reserve your external teamspeak chatroom for less important information...
or for slagging off bad teammates without saying it to their faces.
A nice little feature of CSGO is your current location, shown in the top left hand corner
of the screen.
These are universal call-outs.
Use these and your team SHOULD immediately know where you're talking about.
It may take a while to learn, perhaps load up an empty map and run about for a while
to familiarise yourself with some of them.
It will eventually become natural to use these names in-game and you'll be the envy of every
Dick and Fanny out there!
There's a language barrier in CS GO.
Everybody has a native tongue and it's a lot to ask for everybody to speak the same one
when I can only speak English myself.
But I'd argue that on European servers at least, English is the most widely spoken language-
closely followed by Russian.
And no, I can't understand your native tongue even if you speak really slowly!
So please, if you're going to use a lesser-known language, try to keep what you say short and
concise so that others can pick out key words such as 'A,', 'B' and 'Cyka Blyat'.
Thank you.
Communication is something that really isn't done well often enough in CS GO.
Be an asset to your team and master the art of communication!
With this, you're now ready to study the topic of teamwork, which builds on what we've learned
here.