Introduction

Dust 2 is not only the most popular map of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive, but it is also one of the most iconic images of our beloved game. In this article we will discuss the possibilities this map offers us, as well as the actions you need to take in order to take advantage of its layout!

What is important for playing Dust 2?

The first thing you need to know about is timing and chokepoints. Timing will decide who will get the slight edge in preaiming spots where the enemy could or should be, and when you know the chokepoints, you know where the enemy will have to pass to get to a bombsite. The most crucial ones on Dust 2 as a CT are A long and Tunnel, the entrance to B. We will first talk about A long. The first thing you need to know about is this corner, which is creatively called A-Corner or simply Corner.

As you can see, Double-Doors are visible from Corner. CAREFUL! Your FOV can deceive you, if you stand too close to the corner. It is possible that your model will stick out, even when the corner obscures your view of Double-Doors. When you get a good spawn(rather to the left of the CT spawn zone) you will be the first to have eye contact with Double-Doors, most likely even before the Ts can rush out. If you want to deny any Long control, it is crucial to take this spot early. Still, careful is the name of the game, as you can get prefired easily. The crosshair of the Ts will almost at all times be to their right of this corner when they enter A-Long.

How do I avoid getting prefired?

There are various ways of avoiding the prefire of the enemy. The first is to go all the way to pit if there is no early aggression from the Ts. In that case you need to always have your crosshair pointed at the Double-Doors, and be ready to stop your movement and fire. You could also crouch at Corner when you have an AWP. When you point the crosshair right at the edge of the Double-Doors entrance towards A-Long, and an enemy tries to prefire you head-level, you will have a good amount of time to just pull the trigger and kill your enemy. You can easily fall back after that, perhaps towards car, if you want to keep holding Long. Of course, it does not always stay this simple. The enemy will use his utility to his advantage, try to flash you off, molotov popular spots and work as a team to gain ground. To counter this, you need to watch their behavior. Do they come out of long early, with a lot of flashes? Maybe give them Long, only go towards Car and have one teammate play CT, maybe elevator. Establish a crossfire, let them walk into your trap after they have wasted all their utility to gain a bit of ground. You could also wait for their flashes to pop, line up the following flash and popflash a teammate out to get a kill and fall back, to then establish the crossfire.

(You will need to stand at the corner of the barriers at car.)

If they take their time to get out of long, set up crossfires from the blue container and from the right side of Pit. Alternatively, you can bait and switch with one shoulderpeeking Corner and one waiting on the bricks besides the blue container.

The Next potential chokepoint is Dust 2 Short or Catwalk.

This one only comes into play once the mid player, if there is one, has lost control of Short, or a good placed smoke blocked off his view from CT towards Short by landing on X-Box. The timing on this part of the map can be weird. First, to make sure that you even have a chance to arrive in time, if they go for short right away, you would need to get boosted, either on Trash or from Elevator. If they run through suicide, and your AWPer can not pick them off, you will have a hard time arriving at short before they do, even with a boost.

How do I position myself on Short?

First we will talk about the ways to play this position alone, and then how to play it with backup. First, you need to think about the situation of your team and of the enemy team. Can they afford to lose another player? This is not the case if they are behind by two people. If it is 5 CTs versus 4 Ts , another loss would still grant them enough ground to justify their loss, as long as they trade you, especially since you were the only one covering Short, and the chances would be good that the long players are too far away to stop them from planting for Short. If the situation is 5 CTs versus 3 Ts, then every loss is a big hit. If they trade you after you have killed one enemy they will be down to 2, which is not enough to stand a retake of 4 healthy CTs. If they are indeed behind 2 players, you can play One-And-Done, meaning that you only plan on getting one guaranteed kill from a surprising position. This can be right in the left corner next to the dark boxes, to surprise anyone coming from Middle through the extended Short walkway, or play next to the stairs.

If you play next to the stairs, chances are again bad for you if you just stand still and wait to be prefired. To avoid this, you can either stay hidden and repeek every few seconds just enough to gain info, or simply wait in the corner. This can, of course, backfire. If you want to be safe, throw a flashbang when you hear footsteps or prefiring. You can also throw the flash against the side of the stairs so it will bounce behind you. You can then peek slightly before it goes off, to catch the Ts turning around. If you play Short alone and do not have this big of an advantage you need to stay alive to keep the CT numbers strong. You can fall back to onsite and bug them with small stings every peek by inflicting slight damage (or getting headshots) when they come near the A-Site. This will slow them down significantly, and will allow your teammates to rotate. If you want to try to get a pick while they are still taking Short, you could position yourself on the ledge of the closest part of the Short walkway towards A.

You can position yourself clever by staying really close to the edge, just so that you can get a few hits in when they come around the corner and then drop down. Alternatively, if you have an AWP, you can hold an even tighter angle, to not even give them a full head to hit. The powerful thing about this position is the ability to simply drop down. From there you can throw flashes, molotovs or frag grenades to slow them down, or position yourself for another kill. If you play with backup, he can position himself on the ledge and get the first damage in. When you position yourself in the corner of the stairs, you can wait for action from your teammate to peek out. You will get 1 guaranteed kill. If your teammate dropped down he can throw a flash to assist you. This will grant you a second, and potential third kill. If your teammate was good enough to get the first kill on the first contact on short you would have eliminated up to 4 Ts this way. If you do not want to bait and switch, you could simply play one to the right of this ledge, close to the wall. The other could hide behind the stairs and you could take turns with aggression, or peek out at the same time.

The doors in Mid

This door is both a powerful tool and a dangerous burden. It bears a big deal of cover for thrown flashes before they become visible to explode and blind you. There is really not much you can do to avoid a good flashbang thrown from the lower part of Middle. Under normal circumstances, you will play this position with an AWP. Do not be too greedy and try to pick T-Spawn players more than once early in the round. Your job is to make sure that Short stays clean, so you have to watch Short from the corner shown above.

You also need to be cautious of players rushing out of the doors. They can sneak towards you, hidden from your sight, in Tunnels. If you lose this position, be sure to inform your teammates, as it is a crucial part of Dust 2. When you fall back, you can position yourself either in CT spawn, especially if you already only held for people pushing out of the doors, behind the boxes in front of the B-Site, or in the doors of said Bombsite. If you want to catch them off guard, get into B-Site, throw a flash over the wall, and peek through window. This will most likely grant you at least one kill, and you can easily hide again, which is useful for buying time.

We already touched on B-Site and how the Mid player can take advantage of its cover. The B-Tunnels are not just a chokepoint I already mentioned, but they are also the "easier" way to enter B-Site.

The first thing you need to know about these B-Tunnels: You can not have one defensive tactic which ensures safety for all possibilities of a B-Site hit. You either have to use your utility early, on action, or late in a round. If the Ts are really fast, they can be out with a flash as soon as you would be able to throw the first smoke or flash. This can be mixed up greatly by the enemy team, mainly because they will almost all the time have control of Upper and Lower Tunnels. After a few rounds of action, you will find a tendency in action towards the B-Site.

How do they hit the B-Site?

Is it early, late, or are they trying to get picks constantly? If it is early, you will either need a early molotov or a flash almost all of the time. You can either peek for information or follow up with a smoke. Especially suitable for this is the position behind the big-box. You can simply stand behind it, without your head showing to enemies in the Tunnels, to then throw a smoke into the tunnels. Make sure it does not go exactly at the edge towards the B-Site, otherwise this could turn into a flashbang nightmare for you. Try to bounce it off the wall, halfway through the entrance. You may need to practice this in a practice mode to get a feel for the position and the smokes. If you have denied any early action, you can start to wigglepeek to get information. You also need to change up your position, often even in the round, to not get picked by an AWP. If you see a push coming to fruition, throw either a flash for easy kills, or a molotov to hurt them badly, maybe even to divide their forces. After that, wait for backup. Alternatively, if you have a teammate near you to help you, you can ask him to throw a smoke on contact. You should still be ready for a push, though. If the enemies play a more patient game, you may need to save up your utility for contacts, or simply throw a smoke at something like 1:20 of roundtime left. But be careful, they could become aware of your patterns and counter you, either by pushing early, or simply waiting for your utility to run out.

We also need to talk about the dynamic of this map, its advantages and its disadvantages for CTs.

First, be aware that a T can jump from Short into CT. This can catch off anyone playing the middle part of the map, or even people playing B. If a T jumped down, he is dangerous for all of your setup. He can assist a A-Split, or even a simple Short-push. Also, be aware of the position of your Teammates. If the Mid player has come over to A-Long, to help out the CTs working on A by watching short, a B player will need to take care of the CT part of the B-split. If you have an AWPer on B Plateau, who is reliably watching tunnels, you can peek CT from Window every few seconds. If you see someone, throw a flash and then a smoke into Tunnels to make the possible B-split harder, and watch tunnels, while the AWPer rotates to Window to get a pick in CT to B. You can also reinforce certain Bombsites. Let's say that you have successfuly taken the full Long control, you can now place a CT into Pit to be a thorn in every Long pushs' side. If you can come to short, maybe to play on the ledge of Short, you can make sure that the Mid player will not get pushed as easily by letting him go into CT-Spawn, to concentrate on anyone coming out of Mid-Doors.

Be aware of the high split probability

Dust 2 is in general a Map that is highly suited for both, splits as well as full out rushes through one part of the map. If you think that a split is happening, try to figure out where the enemy arrives first, while you smoke off one part of the split. This was already mentioned in the example above, where you smoke Tunnels in a Mid-B-Split. When you divide their forces you can wait for the first push to appear. Try to position yourself smart enough to not get picked on the first contact. Always think of the rules mentioned in the Short paragraph, you need to trade kills favourable to give your team a good chance at the round, especially when you try to anchor a bombsite alone.

Conclusion

In general, it is good to find out patterns of your enemies and to be unpredictable. You need to switch it up more often than not, simply to keep you from becoming a free kill every round. If you try to be stubborn with certain things, chances are that you are not going to win many rounds as a CT. Be adaptive. Also, keep in mind that there are various ways to play Dust 2 as a CT, solo and as a Team, and these are only suggestions, the possibilities are not limited to my ideas.

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