1. What is this all about?
CSM is an online browser game where you manage your Counter Strike clan. Just like in every other manager you have several features, here I am going to explain the basics:
a) Season, league and games
One season lasts for 50 days. During this time you will play 30 league games and should play around 100 PCW games (this may vary according to different circumstances). League games take part monday-friday while PCW games you can play every day. League games are played at 19:30 CET (varies for different countries). I am not sure but even without paying for it you can watch league games in 2D-live what is very useful since you can adjust your tactics and stuff.
For each league game won you get 2 points, drawn 1 point and lost 0 points. Your position in the league depends on the number of points, if those are equal for several clans then RW/RL(rounds won/rounds lost) order decides. After the season ends 2 best clans go to higher league and 4 worst drop down to lower league.
PCW games are friendly challenges between clans, during this events your players get some experience and increase in skills.
The games itself last 24 turns, each clan plays 12 turns as terrorists and 12 as counter terrorists. First round is always pistol round (players are armed only with pistols), this is very important since when you lose pistol round your clan will perform eco round next (they're armed with pistols again while enemy has better weapons) what leads to another loss in most cases. For more details go and see 'game engine specifications' to be found on the right side of page.
b) Players
Each clan should have at least 6 players (5 as primary squad and 6th as a stand-in in case of the injury)(injuries may occur only when the players are in red fitness <40%).
How to choose players - at what you should look first when trying to buy a player from transferlist etc:
1. age - younger = better, a player gains 1 year of age with every season, when they are around 30 they will most likely retire. Also younger players train skills faster.
2. talent - it decides of maximum player potential (maximum skills)
3. special attributes - do not under any circumstances take players that reduce your media rating, give -x% to other players/themselves etc. those that are bad leaders or sth you may take as long as you won't use them in this role.
4. skills - here you must decide on your own but most important are: aim, quickness, calmness, teamplay, playing iq, awareness, handling (not exactly in this order except for aim which is most important)
5. stamina - it doesn't really matter but you should pick players with at least 3 stamina.
c) Server
In the beginning it is important to upgrade your server once and buy all available hltv slots (will be 64). You may upgrade it further when you have some spare cash. HLTV slots will be your primary source of income, during league games all slots are taken by hltv viewers (= +640csm/game), during pcw games people will take 50-70% of the slots (none if you consecutively play on your own server all pcw's).
d) Staff
In the beginning take only medic (level 5) and PR manager (level 5), trainer only when you can afford it and scout later on. Here is what they do:
1. Medic - helps your players recover from injuries and can analyze them to see their maximum in each skill.
2. Scout - finds you better tryouts and gives more info about them (with lev 5 scout you see stamina, talent and 2 skills).
3. PR manager - better manager = better sponsors and missions, simple

4. Trainer - makes your players progress faster during individual training.
e) Sponsors and media rating
Choose your sponsors carefully because it is nice source of income too. Sponsors you get depend on your media rating and pr manager.
Missions give you additional media points (if completed, if not they decrease it) so choose them wisely too.
2. The basics
a) Tactics
There is no certain key to how you should make your tactics, I made mine work nicely (since I have them I haven't lost any of my league games). If you'd like to take a peek you may do so here (just dl the archive).
Since there isn't much more basics I recall now follow this advice: ON EVERY PAGE YOU HAVE AT LEAST ONE 'HELP' - READ IT !!!
And if you have any other questions feel free to contact me here by PM, posting a question in this thread, email me at ---censored--- or mail me in CSM.
Small request: I need some real CS players to give me a couple of advice according weapons and de_aztec map to improve my tactics. If any of you would like to help a bit please let me know.
Good luck.