Executes are the bread and butter of CS:GO teams. They are often well thought out, thoroughly planned, and there is a sheer endless amount of combinations when using your utility that can make up your execute. Although we depend on planning when trying to be successful with an execute, Dust 2 isn't quite as formulaic as other maps since we almost always have to cover a lot of ground that is up for grabs for both sides when taking Bombsites and therefore Dust 2 is pretty dynamic, not just when it comes to taking Bombsites.

But just because we need to be prepared for a lot more shenanigans mid-round, like changing the pace to wait out the last bit of utility or to deceive the CTs into sending players back to B, shouldn't stop us from finding ways to make our planned executes the most likely to succeed. In this article, I will show you graphics that illustrate smoke, molotov, and flashbang usage that will help me explain to you what you need to do in order to execute on A correctly. At the end of the article, I will embed a video that summarises the important line-ups that can give you a point to start off from when you want to formulate your own executes!

The Bigger Picture

If we want to execute on A successfully, we need to know when it is reasonable to actually take A, what to watch out for, and so on. In this part of the article, we will talk about the differences between A and B, what to look for when looking for an opening and how to establish a bit of A control early, which is your bread and butter on Dust 2 anyway.

Let's start off by saying this: You cannot just set-up your grenades from positions you will be given by the CTs most of the time in your matches. If you want to execute on A, you will need to fight for wiggling room so you can get in reach for the grenades, compared to B, where all of you can bunch up in Upper Tunnels and run out with a smoke and a few flashes. So let's establish this from the start: You need A-Long, preferably by leaving a player in Pit. And no, not just for rounds where you specifically want to execute A, but for a better part of your half, especially in rounds where you aren't rushing B.

The Pit position has become the most valuable in today's meta, where you can simply hide a T and wait until it is time to strike. If you split B, he will try to catch the enemies from behind. If all of you come from Short, he will wait his turn to backstab the CTs who are focused on Short. Long story short: Get a guy in Pit and you're good to go for now, as he will always give you the room you'll need to execute on A or be a nuisance later on. There, of course, are exceptions to putting a guy in Pit almost every round. Let's say the CTs became wise to the idea that you take Long early on and put four people on Long, which would be your cue to not care about Long anymore and go B.

Being aware of how the CTs tend to play A is crucial, too. In the following graphic, I have marked the most popular spots that CTs like to play and put them in groups. If you kill a CT who was in a position that is part of a group, you find that it is unlikely to find another CT hiding in a position in the same group.

(Graphic created on gametactic.org/csgo)

Let this graphic guide you to further narrowing down the playstyle of the opponents: Rarely does a team exhaust every position possible on Long and Short, but they will quickly show what kind of set-ups they like more. A lot of people on the CT side like to flash Long until a CT is in Pit and will do that the first three or four gun rounds, while others like to bait and switch with one guy on the Long corner and one guy close or beside Pit to split your focus.

OK, so you've taken Long and now you want to execute somewhere, but when do we go A? This answer is simple: Whatever the sound cues of the enemies and your map control tells you! If you didn't execute A from the get-go of the round, you should have a T on every part of the map and you should be able to find out, by baiting out utility or jigglepeeking, where the enemies play. For example, if they're playing really silently on A, they are either hiding with low utility and bad weaponry or they are stacking B.

Before we jump into the example executes, here are a few golden rules of taking A on Dust 2:

Watch out for flashes: People like to get flashed through or flash themselves through smokes like the cross smoke
Move as a unit: It doesn't matter where the majority of your players are, they should stick together and clear out positions before setting up their utility
Peek car together: Splitting the focus of Car on Short and Long, no matter how your numbers are split, guarantees you that Car will not get more than one kill in most cases
Be aware of smokes: People like to hide in your and their own smokes, especially on Dust 2 where you get so many possibilities to catch the Ts off-guard

These already tell you something: Dust 2 is about individual plays and duels, which is why you should stick together to ensure maximum efficiency of your individuals. If one drops off, the slack gets picked up by the teammate next in line.

3-Short, 2-Long Split A

The first example execute will be a 3-2 split with three guys walking up Short and taking it while two guys will stay in Long until you start advancing further from Short. You will need around six to eight flashes, at least three smokes (in case your cross smoke disappears before you could make use of it) and around two molotovs.

(Graphic created on gametactic.org/csgo)

Let me explain something first: This graphic is created with the assumption that you instantly make use of your execute. If you want to get people into Long first, you can execute the flashes and the smoke on Long as step zero and then go to your X-Box smoke to take Short a bit later on.

Although you should use flashes in more areas than just A-Long, I specifically choose to mark the ones for Long just to show you how you can, from almost any position, throw effective flashes. Simply chuck them over the lower wall to the right of the Double-Doors and you're good to go. That loose line-up is about as effective as you can be. There are two specific line-ups for effective flashes shown in my utility video, too. On top of this, you should smoke Long first and then use the flashes to let two, maybe three, Ts take Long and clear out all the positions. If you want, you can also include four players and have one T literally wait in T-spawn with the X-Box smoke lined up and wait for you to be finished with taking Long.

On Short, you should wait for the X-Box smoke to bloom before your three Ts advance and use flashes and a molotov to clear out the part of Short up to the stairs, allowing you to set-up a bit of needed utility. At the same time as you're clearing out the area around the stairs, the Long players should smoke off CT and start advancing on Long, close to the left-hand side wall. In the third step, a player from Short should molotov A-Site and then flash above the building separating Long and Short in order to blind anyone moving out from the boxes on A and the player in Car, not giving him a chance to catch anyone from Long or Short.

From that point on it's easy. Stick together, plant for Short and keep Short under wraps while a player goes back to Long and one plays on A to ensure that no one comes through CT or Long.

Almost every A take is a variation of this. Get at least one guy into Long, walk up Short, and peek Car at the same time while advancing as a unit. Here follows a different variation of the A take:

4-Short, 1-Long Split A

(Graphic created on gametactic.org/csgo)

This one is pretty similar, but instead of leaving two guys in Long, you just have one T jump into Pit and not show himself for the remainder of your take. Then you go up Short with four of your players, clear out everything on Short, and smoke off CT-Spawn from Short. After you've flashed above the building separating Long and Short, one or two people should drop down and walk up from Cross to A-Site, while your Pit player peeks and helps the guy(s) to wrap around A, not leaving the CTs with much of a chance to defend themselves properly without using high-risk individual plays.

As I said above, you can find all of the utility that I think is important for these takes in this video!

Conclusion

With Dust 2 being much more dynamic than pretty much any other active duty map, you also have to play dynamically, which is why you should structure your takes in stages so you can always easily call it off and change plans without having expended all of your utility on a stacked bombsite. You will need to be able to adapt to the information given to you by your enemies, which is why your eyes should stay wide open and your ears trained on hearing every sound cue you can get. Stick together, check positions thoroughly and watch for individual plays and you will be fine.

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