Bluffing in FPS, cheat your opponent to submission

The bluff. One of the most underutilized strategies in FPS games is bluffing. Misleading your opponent is often the best way to gain the advantage over him and I encourage players to do it as much as possible. In advanced matches such as Counter-Strike or COD, it can be as subtle as making a footstep so the other team hears you coming in one direction. More commonly, it will consist of you ‘accidentally’ showing yourself so the opposing team thinks you’re going in a certain direction.

For example in de_dust2, a very popular Counter-Strike map, bluffing B would mean having a teammate make noise / shoot in the dark tunnel at B while the rest of the team waits hidden near their spawn at long A.

The objective you are trying to achieve when bluffing is to make the other team react to your strategy. Sometimes this can be as little as having them look in a different direction, other times you’ll want them to change locations entirely.
Successful bluffs will allow you to take your opponent by surprise, giving you the tactical advantage. The general rule is that the better the other team is, the more subtle your bluff must be. If you go in shooting in circles, they’ll know it’s just a bluff. If you accidentally make footstep sound… they’ll think it’s authentic.

Overall, the hardest things in team bluff is making sure the other part of the team isn’t seen. Too often, the rest of the team is spotted and the the bluff is useless, at which point you’d be better not bluffing at all since it puts you at a disadvantage because you don’t have your entire team with you.

Recap:
- Use bluffs as much as possible, never let your opponent know what you’re going to do.
- Always do the opposite of what your opponent expects
- The most frequent mistake when bluffing is letting your opponent spot your bluff!
- The better the team you are playing, the more subtle the bluff should be.
- Bluffs allow you to gain a tactical advantage by having your opponent modify his strategy, if he isn’t reacting, then the bluff isn’t helping. Usually, if he doesn’t react well to bluffs, a full team rush is often the best tactic to use.