In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, teams often play similar rounds. And that’s fine because the game’s maps do not have very complex structures. But sometimes, esports players use tactics that literally change the game. Today CS.MONEY Blog recalls five Gamechanger tactics in the ten years of CS:GO existence.
This selection includes only the pre-made tactics as part of the round in advance. For example, Coldzera’s AWP quadkill may look cool, but it’s clearly not a planned tactical move. So let’s take a look at some pure genius strategies!
Cache Wallbangs
Cache was a massive part of the competitive map set a few years ago. FMPOne, the creator of the map, did a great job and made a splendid battlefield to introduce a couple of very enjoyable matches. All the throws, boosts, splits, and wallbangs in the first seconds. Yes, just like in Dust 2, defense players could get killed in the first seconds of the round. To be more precise, at around 1:49.
Here’s the deal. The side’s spawns are on opposite sides of the map. There is a garage on the attack side, a platform on the mid lane, and a connector on the defense side between them. One of the most popular defensive moves to take control of the center of the map is to jump from the spawn to the connector and throw smoke at the garage’s exit. On average, a defensive player runs to the connector exit at 1:49 and throws a smoke.
This is where the wallbang tactic comes into play. The teams quickly figured out the garage could be shot through with an AWP to headshot a CT player throwing smoke. By the end of the old Cache’s life cycle (the map was removed after Intel Extreme Masters XIII Katowice Major 2019) this wallbang was perfectly mastered. Top snipers have learned the line-ups to perform a shot without leaving the spawn point!
This shot changed the start of the round on Cache. After all, now the defense players were under constant threat when trying to gain early control over the center of the map. And although the wallbang did not give a guaranteed frag, the sniper often spent the first ten seconds of the round on respawn, sacrificing them for a shot through the walls. So this trick shot definitely changed the game on Cache.
Astralis’ Grenades
To sort grenades by importance in CS:GO, stun and incendiary grenades, and smokes are the most important, the decoy is almost useless, and HEs are between these two categories. It is nearly impossible to kill with a single HE-grenade; it’s doubtful; it could only work if there’s an armor-less enemy and the HE hits them directly.
However, one team has made it. We’re talking about Astralis at their peak form. Danish players have firmly incorporated grenade throwing into their list of tactics. And sometimes, HEs even became the main feature.
Take, for example, Astralis vs. FaZe Clan at ESL Pro League Season 11 Europe. The second map was Overpass. Starting on the attack, the Danes quickly took the lead. Then, in the fifteenth round, they pulled off a grenade throwing trick: at the beginning of the round, one player throws an incendiary grenade at the short of B, then unites with two more teammates, and the whole trio simultaneously throws grenades at the boost. FaZe Clan loses two at once as a result.
And this is not the only case where Astralis has previously gained an advantage by sharing HE throws. Overpass again, but against ENCE: the Danes did not throw at the boost but a little deeper. And again, early kills with no risks and losses, except for thrown grenades. Or Mirage windows. Or… name a single map of Astralis’ pool, and it will have such combo throws. It seems to be a simple trick, but it turned out to be a real Gamechanger.
ECOs In Flames
Usually, tactics are aimed at winning rounds. After all, whoever takes 16 rounds first in regular time wins the match. But sometimes you can find tactics that are designed for… defeats. Sounds absurd? Indeed, but they exist! Moreover, they are even used in major tournaments.
Natus Vincere demonstrates a fascinating example of such tactics against Team Liquid at ESL Cologne 2017; they’ve died in flames on purpose. Let’s briefly describe the situation: NAVI players lost the pistol round; Liquid, having taken the first round, bought 3 UMP-45s and 2 FAMAS, as the players were just about to farm some cash (600 bucks per frag) when they were immediately broken off.
At the beginning of the second round, the entire roster of Natus Vincere, having made a zero buy, rushed through the center of Inferno. But, before reaching the boiler, they saw the fire of an incendiary grenade and… entered the flames! So stanislaw got, perhaps, the easiest ace in his life and only $1500.
How good is this tactic? Hard to answer. Yet Team Liquid players spent next to nothing, just a couple of grenades, and that’s it. No damage to armor, no loss of weapons. However, this tactic is still used today, albeit rarely.
Olof-boost
Remembering the most astonishing tactics, we can’t ignore the legendary Olofmeister Overpass boost. This tactic gave Fnatic not a couple of free or taken rounds, no. Instead, it formed the whole defense basis and allowed the Swedish team to take the map! However, a scandal broke out, and the Swedes were given a technical defeat. But that’s an entirely different story.
Let’s go back to the boost. It takes a bigger part of the team to complete it. Without leaving the CT base, players need to push two at once to the fence. If everything is done correctly, the third player, in this case, olofmeister, will be higher than the fence and get a quick view over the two approaches of the map: the water on B and the upper connector exit. In addition, olofmeister himself was almost impossible to notice.
As a result, as soon as the Swedes managed to get their hands on an auto-sniper, the game for the LDLC squad, their opponent, was over. Wherever LDLC’s players went, either olofmeister or Fnatic players were waiting, completely ready to meet the guests.
Aleksib’s ~1k Damage
Do you remember the update to allow dropping grenades? The entire community buzzed in the first hours after the patch. One of the popular opinions was this: now you can drop all the extra grenades on one player who will play a fake while the rest of the team storms another point to plant the C4. Well, reality has surpassed these predictions.
Most teams have simply adopted this feature and used it to allocate costs. But some have gone much further. That is, OG’s Aleksib. More precisely, it happened during the OG vs. Sprout match on Dust 2. Then, Aleksib dealt more than 967 damage with grenades in 15 rounds playing defense!
His average damage per round was 118.1, more than everyone else on the server. But what’s even more impressive is that Aleksib only made 19 frags while his teammate, valde, managed 28 frags and still ended up behind in terms of damage per round. A real Gamechanger!
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