Understanding the “Why” — Better Thinking for CS:GO
It’s valuable that you understand why you’re doing what you’re doing in nearly all things, and this holds true in something as tiny as a round of CS:GO. Yet it seems that even though it only takes a few minutes to stop, ask, and think, it’s a very uncommon practice.
This is one of the more enlightening conversations I have whenever I start working with a team, player, or come in to start coaching somewhere new, and it goes something like this:
[Player] “Okay so on this, we take mid control.”
[Me] “Why do we take mid control here?”
[Player] “Because that’s what <PLAYER> did in the demo of <TEAM>” (the PLAYER here is usually someone from Astralis or FaZe, and the team is usually… Astralis or FaZe).

Disappointingly, the answer is almost always a variation of “Because that’s what someone else did”, and when that’s the answer given, it means that there is a likely lack of understanding WHY. At the very least, it means no time has been spent thinking things through to try and understand the WHY.
Now don’t think this type of a response comes from just young, inexperienced players — I’ve worked with many veteran players and in-game leaders that struggled to demonstrate any true understanding of WHY things were being done or should/shouldn’t be done, only that the person or team they copied them from did them.
When you actually understand the WHY (which can be many different things, mind you), you can explain it fairly easily to someone, and once they understand it, they can explain it others as well, and so on.
Why the Why
Having a thoughtful conversation about the WHY can provoke creative ideas, new things to try, things to change, tweak, improve, or even to discard things that are not necessary for the given task at hand.
This is critically important to the growth of a teams’ individuals decision making, because when a player can understand WHY they are supposed to do something, and the teammates around that player also understand WHY, they know what to do when things don’t work out — when situations breakdown and don’t go according to plan. This takes a tremendous burden off of the in-game leader, as they no longer need to “think for 5”.
Conversely, this level of game comprehension also helps guide what to do when things go right — what a player can/should do when the team achieves mid control in the example question.
And it makes the time spent practicing more valuable, as each experience can be better utilized in the pursuits of learning, instead of just repeating the same things over and over again without any intellectual growth (an improvement in game sense).
Answers to “WHY”
Here are a couple of examples that could answer the WHY from above — “Why do we take mid control here?”.
Please note that some completely valid answers can be very simple, like the first one, though others can be more involved and complex.
A few of the examples below are quotes from players directly (or as direct as my memory is allowing me to be as I write this).
For context and visualization purposes, picture applying these to MIRAGE as the map.
“The reason to get mid control on this default is because we want to split A through connector.”
“We want to cut off rotations from the catwalk player, because we know from our preparation that he always jumps down cat and runs into connector. So that means we probably want to hold for the cat player and not sprint through connector, possibly even waiting at the top mid boxes holding an off angle for him to peek.”
“We want mid control because we’re going to plant for someone to defend it from connector or catwalk, so when we get mid let’s fall back and we’ll probably have to hold middle passively, waiting for the post plant situation before we make a move.”
“WHY this setup here? Because it’s a great counter to the way they’re taking this bombsite, as this angle supports that one, and the flashes coming from that position will allow us to fight without blinding us”
Again, it’s worth pointing out that the WHY can be a large number of things, but if no one on your team is asking or explaining the WHY, take a moment and ask. Prompt the team to have a discussion until everyone understands what’s expected and WHY.
How the Why
It may seem obvious, but a great way to figure out the WHY is to simply ask… you guessed it… Why? Why this thing, why this position, why this area of the map?
Make this an open conversation where there aren’t any right or wrong answers (at least initially), so that people can share what they’re thinking without worrying about being judged, insulted, etc. by their teammates. Experience has shown that many players will sit quietly and hope for someone else to speak — ask them their opinions as well, as some of the most quiet individuals may also be the most brilliant.
From here, you take the answers that make sense and discuss them further, and anything that may fall outside of this can you dismiss. Before moving on, ensure that everyone understands and is on the same page.
Sometimes you can tell that everyone “gets it”, but other times you may have people nodding along out of social pressure, not because they actually have internalized the conversation. So ask good questions, have different players summarize the point, etc. to be certain all the minds have wrapped around the idea.
The coach can and should also chime in here with their own thoughts, specifically focused on helping to encourage the conversation, outline the ideas/thoughts that make sense, and then summarizing one last time for the group (and updating any relevant notes, if you’re like me).
As a coach, this is tremendously valuable, as most of the time the coach of a team will be a more experienced, former player, and this allows for some level of “knowledge transfer” to occur to the players with less experience. The transferring of knowledge (stated another way, “lending your years of experience”) in a way that has it applied in game is one of the highest forms of coaching.
So hopefully if you’ve read to this point, you realize the importance and impact that asking, discussing, and understanding the WHY can have on your and your team’s potential. Now go put this to good use, and let me know on Twitter (@SelflessRyu) how it’s going.
