Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a simple and realistic game: no Operators or Agents with unique abilities or skills. Despite this, teams still have roles: sniper, captain, lurker, entry-fragger, support, etc. We will tell you about all the roles in CS:GO in a few days, but today we will talk about the most exciting and advanced role in CS:GO: lurkers. Who are lurkers, what do they do, and how to be a good lurker—all these questions will be answered today by CS.MONEY Blog.
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Who is a lurker in CS:GO? What does a lurker do?
Imagine a situation. You play Overpass and agree with the team to attack Plant A. And then, one of the players runs their own way through the lower connector exit. Two options: either they will ruin your game, or they are trying to lurk. In CS:GO, lurkers are players who act solo. Their task is to deceive the enemy, collect information, cut off a retake and gain control over one part of the map.
Good lurkers bring a lot of value to the team. Starting from simply killing enemies who try to bypass from behind to collecting valuable information about their movement and potential tactics. Let’s return to the situation on Overpass. This loner who escaped in the middle of the round provides you with info: “No one went through the connector; I hear two go from B to A”. Without even making a frag, but only by giving this info, the lurker already helped their team. Attackers of Plant A know that they only need to watch two exits to the bomb site: from the bank and up the stairs behind the truck. This greatly simplifies the Attack’s task!
But lurkers in defence are quite rare. It’s all about the tasks for the round. To simplify, the Defence must fortify a Plant and not let the Attack enter it. In this scenario, there will not be much use from a lurker.
How To Be A Good Lurker?
Theoretically, knowing how to become a good lurker is not hard. Basically, you need to have three skills: individual aim, communication, and game understanding. The last two come with experience. If you remove even one thing from the list, a lurker’s effectiveness drastically drops. Let’s discuss each point separately.
Individual Skill. Lurker is the most solitary role. If you play lurker, you can only rely on yourself. Therefore, you need to be able to win sudden crossfire, or you will let your team down. Decent aim is essential here, as well as good movement skills, and, for example, the ability to peek enemies. We have already written about how to peek effectively in CS:GO. So if you want to upgrade your skill, be sure to read that post too.
Communication. Another important thing in a good lurker’s arsenal: you have to be able to give information. Short and clear. It sounds simple, but there are a few nuances.
- First, you need to give only the necessary and reliable information. There is no point in talking about your assumptions. CS:GO has a lot of sound prompts. Footsteps, zoom sounds, different shooting sounds and so on. Rely on all the clues you can gather before giving information. It’s a detective’s work!
- Second, you need to give information not only about the actions of the enemy, but also about your own. At the same time, such actions must be coordinated with other team members. If the actions are synchronized, you will be much more efficient. As a team.
Game Understanding. Last but not least skill of a lurker is understanding the game. A lurker needs to clearly understand what they have to do in a round, their team’s plan for the round, and read opponents’ actions. Using this information makes making decisions easier as the round progresses. Unfortunately, it only comes with thousands of hours played.
Summing up, playing a lurker requires you to balance between aggressiveness and caution. If you constantly perform the same tricks, your enemy can easily read you and be prepared. Therefore, you might get killed, leaving your team outnumbered.
Below is a good guide on how to play lurker in CS:GO.
How To Counter Lurkers in CS:GO?
The best way to counter a good lurker is to get as much map control as possible. The more area the Defence controls, the less useful the lurker will be. In addition, when playing against a lurker, you need to track their movements and actions. CS:GO maps are not that complex, so a lurker doesn’t have that much room to manoeuvre.
In addition, you can use pretty simple and common tricks against lurkers. You know, they won’t be able to flank you and spy on you if they’re… dead. Just outgun them in a skirmish! Therefore, the two main tricks to counter lurkers are map control and good aim + reaction to destroy the enemy’s lurker.
Remember: part of levelling as a lurker is finding and cleaning up your mistakes. The easiest way to do this is with a demo. We have already talked about how to watch demos and why even do that. Lurking might become a very fun experience if you master it!
