Trading on a sound cue
Instead of
Your teammate's footsteps stop because he is holding, and you keep running past him alone.
Aim for
You hear him stop, and you slow down with him.
What it is
Your teammate stops moving. In Counter-Strike that almost always means he is holding an angle, and it is one of the loudest pieces of information available without anyone saying a word.
If you keep running when he stops, you walk past the person who was covering you and take the next fight alone.
Why it matters
Footsteps stopping is a free call. It tells you that a teammate has decided something — he has seen something, or he expects to. Running past that decision throws away the pair, and a player alone is a player nobody can trade.
What going wrong looks like
You are moving through a connector together. He stops to hold. You do not notice, because you were watching your own crosshair, and you carry on into the open. He is now covering an angle you have already left, and you are now in a duel he cannot help you with.
What good looks like
You hear him stop and you stop too, or you take the one step that puts you on a second angle covering the same space. Either way you are still a pair.
How to fix it
- Treat a teammate's footsteps stopping as a call, and answer it — stop, or say why you are not stopping.
- If you are the one stopping, say so. A word costs nothing and does not rely on anyone listening to your feet.
- When you are moving as a pair, agree who leads. The follower's job is to react to the leader, which is impossible if nobody is listening.