The basic concept behind trading kills, more importantly as a Terrorist side player, is to effectively trade the life of a teammate for the lives of one or more enemies. Players on the T-Side are constantly having to check angles and clear every nook and cranny of the map when trying to push an area, whether it be a bombsite or a control point such as mid. Having to check every single spot to ensure the player won’t be shot in the back puts him/her at a major disadvantage. This disadvantage is amplified by the fact that the Counter-Terrorist side players have the leisure of holding static angles while waiting for the Terrorists to push a site.
To deal with the drawback of having to clear angles on a bombsite, it is essential to having more than one player doing so. Sending out a “squad” of Terrorists, whether it be only two players or the entire team, heavily simplifies taking bombsites and/or control of the map. This ensures the death of the CT player, because more often than not, if two or more T players push that CT, he won’t be able to get more than one kill. In most situations that CT player will quickly get “traded out” by another T player.
Here’s an example of trading kills effectively on the Terrorist side of Inferno:
There are two CT’s on the bombsite. One is in CT watching for a push from banana, and the other one is playing fountain so he can give his teammate some backup. While the Counter Terrorist players are getting into position, the Terrorists are slowly pushing up banana.
At the forty-five second mark, the Terrorists are ready to push. There are thousands of outcomes when pushing a bombsite, but I will discuss two key ones.
This is the most probable outcome when the Terrorists push the site one-by-one:
Clearly this isn’t the better outcome for the T-side, and often leads to the T’s getting killed in one versus one situations. The issue doesn’t reside in the Terrorist getting killed, but in the fact that the Counter-Terrorist doesn’t get traded and thus the Terrorist team is put at a numbers disadvantage.
Now, what happens when a Terrorist team pushes together as a unit and trade kills effectively?
As the reader can see, although a Terrorist or two might die, the Counter-Terrorist on the site are traded out aswell. This gives the Terrorists the bombsite and a good shot at winning the round itself.
The effectiveness of trading kills as a terrorist player is day and night, and unfortunately it is a technique often left unpracticed by lower ranked players. Four versus four or four versus three situations are more favourable for the Terrorists and often lead to winning oh-so-important rounds. Being at a numbers disadvantage as Terrorists puts the team at a much bigger disadvantage, thus it is incredibly important to trade those kills!
How to ensure crucial trades:
There are many techniques the player can use in order to ensure those crucial trades in a round. One that I recommend is the buddy system. Pushing areas on the map with more than one player is key to being able to trade kills effectively. Only having one terrorist trying to make plays on the map causes a big issue, and often leads to 4v5 situations. A well known term in CSGO is "baiting", where one player allows otherteammates to go ahead of them when pushing a site. This technique is often viewed negatively, as it is often used by players who are only in it for the kills. But this technique is essential to trading kills, and when used correctly can be game changing. Allowing one teammate to push first, getting the CTs attention is a good way of givinganother teammate the oppurtunity to pick up one or even two kills on the preoccupied Counter-Terrorists.
Don't make a 3 versus 1 situation into a series of 1 versus 1 interactions.
Over countless games of CSGO, I have witnessed (and performed) the terrible mistake of splitting up in favourable situations such as 3 versus 1's. This gives the enemy three simple gun fights to steal away a round that should have been yours. To guarantee that this doesn't happen, it is essential to play in groups. The same theory applies to trading kills. Sending one player out to push a site puts them at a major disadvantage and often ends in them dying and not getting a kill. When sending two or more players out, this puts the enemyin adisadvantageous postition, and tends to end better for the Terrorists.
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