Cache, the only CS:GO-specific community map to make it into the competitive mappool, is quite linear in the way most people approach it on CT and T-side: Work for map control, keep the rotation routes open, and be quick on your feet to reposition yourself properly to counter the opposition. Since Cache is rather simple in its layout, it is your job to transform this aim-heavy map into a map that you can control with the resources at hand, namely your utility including flashes, smokes, and fire grenades.

In this article, I will show you twenty grenade line-ups, all of which have a separate paragraph that will show you a picture where the grenade explodes/blooms, tell you what effects the grenade line-up has and how to use it, and then demonstrate using a video to teach you how to actually throw the grenade. Keep in mind that I can only show you these line-ups with my crosshair, so be sure to compensate for your crosshair when translating these line-ups into your game. Be aware that I will only very briefly describe the line-ups since it is rather mad to try and explain a very visual line-up in words. Please watch the videos to ensure that you have understood the line-up.

Let's focus on the T-Side first

As I've said already, Cache is quite linear most of the time: Try to gain as much map control as you can before you decide where to go in, either using a set-piece or a go that's defined by an on-the-fly call by the in-game leader (IGL). To help you win these rounds, you should know as many useful line-ups for any situation as possible, making you the utility king on Cache and allowing your teammates to always rely on you to throw the important utility pieces during an execute.

Smoke: Z/Connector

Quick, fast, and reliable are the words I'd use to describe this line-up. All you need to do is to stand on the third white stripe on the floor from the right at T-Spawn, aim at the window that once was in Garage in front of you and runthrow. Although you need to try this line-up out a few times to get the timing correct, after that it's hard to fail this line-up. You don't need to be excessively accurate with it at all, giving you a lot of wiggle room, and it should barely hold you up in the opening moments of the round.

This smoke is the foundation for a lot of defaults for casual and pro teams alike, costing only one smoke worth $300 to block off a very strong position for the CTs in Mid, allowing you to focus on flushing out a player Close or at Sandbags and at pushing back the potential Highway player. Since this smoke doesn't really cost you any time at all, it is reasonable to throw this smoke basically every round, unless the IGL tells you otherwise, helping the Mid players (potentially you?) gain Mid control every round.

Smokes: Mid left and right

These are pretty easy. Stand at the right side of the door frame in Garage and aim above the left part of the Garage exit to throw the Mid left smoke, stand on the left side of the door frame in Garage and aim above the right part of the Garage exit to throw the Mid right smoke. Both smokes combined form a strong, alternative Mid take foundation that allows you to quickly jump into Vents.

Sometimes you need to do something different than just smoking off Z to properly utilize Mid, which is exactly what these smokes allow you to do. By blocking off the view from the CTs towards Garage (unless they are playing Close), you are blocking information off from them, allowing you to flash through the smokes, quickly jump into Vents, or to let one or two Ts wait in the corners of Mid to catch the CTs rotating later in the round. Since these line-ups only work together, I'd strongly advise against using only one of them in any type of round.

Smokes: Heaven and between Red and Fork

To smoke off Short (between Red and Fork), you need to stand in front of the chain link door in Main, aiming in the middle of the big white box outside of A-Main before runthrowing your smoke. To use the line-up that smokes off Heaven, a line-up that greatly compliments the Short smoke, you need to stand outside of Squeaky, stand right next to the electronic/mechanical devices in the wall, and aim below the tip of the antenna above the A-Main building.

It happens. You smoke off Short and go out, but get absolutely wrecked by an AUG on Heaven, using a headshot angle to catch you off-guard where they gain a big advantage by using their scope. To stop this from happening, you can use this Heaven line-up, taking away that point of approach from the CTs. These smokes are especially strong with the use of molotovs, something you should stay tuned for in this article!

Smoke: B control

For this rather simple line-up, you need to stand on the white line in the wall in front of B, find the line between the windows as seen in the video, aim above it, and runthrow. The smoke will bounce a few times before landing on the B-Main exit, blocking off the view from the CTs in Headshot, Onsite, and Heaven towards B-Main, allowing you to quickly get into Checkers to get a multi-angle approach to the B bombsite.

As I've said before, map control is a big part of playing Cache and this is exactly the reason I chose to include this smoke in this article. Not just are you very safe from everyone but a pushing CT, you can also line this smoke up quickly at the beginning of the round, kind of like you can do with the Z smoke from T-Spawn, allowing you to gain more map control basically at the cost of $300 if you walk into Checkers dry. Be aware, though, that CTs can push into Checkers without you noticing and be there first!

Smoke: CT (B)

For this line-up, all you have to do is stand in the corner of the big white box in Sunroom, shoot out the window towards B, and aim to the left of the most right rusty marking on the wall above the window. Be aware that a sneaky CT that is peeking from B-Main or Checkers could catch you off-guard if no one is there to hold those angles for you or you spend too much time finding the line-up in a real game. In the last case, you should probably spend some more time practicing this line-up!

By blocking off CT, you are not just blocking off a strong position that allows the player to peek whenever he feels like it, you also take away a strong rotation route that sometimes allows for a CT to enter the bombsite mid-take without you noticing, killing you while you plant or when your numbers are thinned out. Together with the B Heaven smoke, a line-up that will follow, you will be able to focus all of your attention on Checkers (if you didn't take that part of the map yet), Onsite, and Headshot. Just like A, the B bombsite takes are easier with the use of molotovs, as you will see later on.

Smoke: Heaven (B)

This smoke is not as simple as most of the other line-ups in this article. For this one, you need to find the correct corner of the texture on the floor and then aim above the second line of brickwork on the wall towards Checkers, crouchwalk-throwing your smoke after you can see the white tiles enter your view on the left. If you do this line-up incorrectly, not only will your smoke fail, but you will also be visible to any AWP holding from Heaven, making you vulnerable to losing a man early on in the execute.

But the positives of trying to use this line-up far outweigh the downsides. You can block off both points of entry for the CTs to reinforce Onsite when you smoke off CT and Heaven, allowing you to fully focus on the more important positions like Onsite and Headshot. Be aware, though, that people like to get sneaky around CT and Heaven smokes and will surely try to catch you off-guard sooner or later, so try to get the execute done quickly and efficiently.

Molotovs: Big Box and Headshot (B)

Let's stay on B for a bit longer. Stand on top of the big white box in Sunroom, shoot out the window towards B, and aim at the top part of the rusty texture in the back of B to molly off Headshot. In order to practice the Big Box molotov, drop down in front of the big white box you're currently standing on and walk into the left corner in front of the box before finding the lines that cross in the texture of the wall to your right before placing your crosshair to the left of it and throwing the molotov.

These molotovs will really help you take B-site, allowing you to flush out the most popular spots, making the CTs who will receive no back-up from CT and Heaven scramble for a better position while you are storming B with four or five players, overwhelming the CTs with your superior numbers. Alternatively, these line-ups can also be used in slower, default-heavy rounds where, for example, a teammate made it into Checkers undetected and suspects that someone is hiding behind Big Box. You can then molly him out and, while he tries to "safely" change position to Firstbox, your teammate will take the kill on the unsuspecting enemy.

Molotov: Sandbags

For this rather precise line-up, you need to stand at the corner of the wall in front of the truck near T-Spawn, aim above the edge of the entrance towards A-Main, and runthrow. This line-up doesn't give you a lot of wiggle room, so be sure to look at the video and to practice this molotov a bunch of times before you think about potentially wasting $400 in an important match.

With all of this being said, this molotov line-up is incredibly powerful, providing you with the means the flush out a CT hiding at Sandbags without even having to get close, heightening the chances of your AWPer who is on boost to get a kill and open up the round for you. Since you cannot get disturbed unless the CTs are already through Squeaky or Main, you should have no problem finding the peace necessary to line this molotov up.

Molotovs: Quad and NBK

Everyone knows this situation. You are in A-Main and are about to execute, but then, when the time starts to get dangerous, they use their last smoke on A-Main and you're stuck behind a smoke where behind there only lies death... Unless, well, you use these line-ups to execute anyway! To do so and to molly off NBK, you can stand in the corner of the bench in A-Main, aim just below and to the right of the upper left corner of the A-Main entrance/exit and runthrow. To molly off Quad, you need to stand in front of the rounded corner in A-Main and do the same, aim below and to the right of the corner of the A-Main entrance/exit to deny cover for the CTs hiding in Quad.

Since the intention is to flush out enemies with a smoke in the A-Main exit, you should also drop a smoke in A-Main before practising these line-ups as seen in the video, providing you with utmost confidence to execute these line-ups well in your matches. Then you can use these line-ups to force the CTs, who would love to play for time, into the open or weaker positions, allowing you to collapse onto them in the last few seconds of the round, securing you the round win.

Flash: Highway

Stand at the edge of the closed gate in front of Vent in Mid, aim at the protruding roof of the building on your right and simply left click to throw a flash that pops just after passing the aforementioned building, blinding anyone close on Highway, hiding behind Toxic or the booth on the left of Highway, allowing your teammates entry.

With the Z smoke and the Sandbags molotov you took Mid control! Great! What now? Well, part of the answer is this flash, with which you allow your teammates to keep heightening the pressure, pushing the CTs back further and further, slowly suffocating their info and their holds. Be sure to tell your teammates to turn around if they could get blinded by it, since otherwise you might cost your team the round.

Flash: Checkers

To ensure safe entry for your teammates towards Checkers, simply stand at the corner opposite of the entrance to Checkers, aim above the right part of the doorway, and use both mouse buttons, letting go of the right one before you also let go of your left one. Since you need to time the mouse buttons right, I'd advise you to practice this flash more than once to ensure that your flash won't come up short and only blind your waiting teammates.

In a similar vein to the flash above, you need to be sure that you don't just die one by one when taking map control and part of that is not going in alone, sure, but also to flash in your teammates. A blind enemy will, obviously, have much less of a chance of hitting his shot against your teammate, which is why I'd always advise going for flashes if you are sure that your teammate runs the risk of meeting resistance.

Flash: Mid

Taking Mid control is more than just one or two smokes. A lot of the time it's good to be sure and use a flash to allow entry into Mid that way, too. This one can be thrown really quickly after you've thrown the smoke wall in Mid, too, as you just need to position yourself centralised in the door frame and aim centralised above the Garage exit.

This flash will blind anyone Close and, in the example mentioned above, anyone who is trying to push through the smoke wall to catch you off-guard. Since this flash pops rather close to Garage, it is not advised to throw this one against an open Z, since the enemy will only get slightly, if at all, blinded by it. This is a different story, however, for a CT pushing out of Z after getting smoked off!

Going to the defensive side

Although it is the job of the CTs to keep the Ts off the bombsite, sometimes offence is the best defence, as you will see from some of the listed line-ups. That being said, we will start off with a few defensive smoke line-ups that will help you set up your crossfire properly.

Smoke: A-Main

The first CT-side line-up is quick and simple. It is similar to the Z smoke from the Ts, and it allows you to barely stop while throwing this smoke, ensuring that you will be where you will need to be once the A-Rush hits although you threw a defensive and important smoke already. Stand at the Truck, aim below the top part of the sickle above A-Main, and throw your smoke.

Blocking off A-Main makes entry to A much harder since, unless the Ts know my molotov line-ups through the smoke, there will be barely any utility available for the Ts to throw should they decide to go through the smoke right now. Unless you find that the Ts never get aggressive early, it is not wrong to throw this smoke almost every round, should you be the A player.

Smoke: Garage

Coming out of Z, just aim at the lower end of the loose tile on the floor and runthrow. You get a lot of wiggle room with this smoke, allowing you to quickly deploy a smoke while crossing to Sandbags or Whitebox, also allowing you to quickly get back into Z should you decide to do so.

Since Mid control is so crucial on both sides, it is advised to deploy this smoke often when you play Mid. This smoke, together with an incendiary line-up later in this article, will help you hold on to Mid, giving the Ts a run for their money if they still want to take Mid later in the round since they will probably use more utility than originally intended, given that you have shown a lot of presence early on in the round.

Smoke: B-Main

As basically every early-round smoke line-up in this article, you barely need to stop to throw this smoke, not stealing away too much time from you. Stand in the corner in Heaven towards B, aim at the corner of the white tiles in the wall to the left, and throw your smoke to have it land between the wall on the right and the box on the left in B-Main.

Although you allow the Ts to peek their head above the box right next to the smoke, you do not allow them to cross to Checkers or to exit B-Main without jumping on top of the box or through the smoke, both of which bear big disadvantages compared to your team, should a teammate of yours peek through Checkers for example. Alternatively, once you've thrown this smoke, you or your teammate can get close and simply wait for the Ts to peek their head above the box and catch them when you already expect the engagement, giving you the advantage in that engagement, too.

Smoke: B-Main and Checkers (Retake)

For the Checkers smoke, stand at the wall of the slope to Heaven, overlap the edge of the wall to your left and the rusty, protruding wall at the far wall of B, and place your crosshair at the edge of the air vent above the Heaven exit. To smoke off B-Main, stand in the far corner of Heaven, crouch and aim at the first slit in the ground, placing your crosshair straight below the lamp above B-Main.

By smoking of one or both of these chokepoints, you allow yourself easier entry into B, not having to worry about some very strong positions that normally allow the Ts to play for time and peek whenever they like, on their own accord. Since you are limiting the number of angles, you have more firepower to focus on fewer angles, making the retake much more likely to succeed. Remember how the CTs will eventually try to catch you off-guard through your Heaven and CT smoke on B? The same applies here! Smokes are not solid walls, eventually a T will try to get sneaky around them, so be aware of that possibility.

Incendiary: Boost

A strong asset in your Mid defense. You can stand in the corner of the railing outside of Z and aim at the top corner the fourth balcony in the distance, runthrowing to set Boost on fire and to force off anyone currently trying to boost.

Especially strong in the early rounds, you can get a bit of chip damage in on the guy who wants to get boosted at the round start, but more importantly you make it very, very risky for the Ts to push out of Boost should they decide to still get aggressive, especially if you also smoked off Garage. Since both points of entry now grant you an advantage over the enemies, should they decide to engage you, it is strongly advised to use both line-ups together in order to heighten the chances of you holding on to Mid control.

Incendiary: Default plant

Stand at Truck, aim above A-site where the two cables meet, and throw your incendiary. If you do everything correctly, the fire grenade should fly just by the building on the left and pop above the default and safe plant position, allowing you to further delay the afterplant situation, also putting the Ts in danger of getting flanked by your teammates and allowing you to set up a strong retake.

This one is a bit finicky, so be sure to jump into an offline server and practice this one a lot before finally using it in your matches. By using this rather safe line-up, unless the enemies like to push Truck/CT, you set ablaze the two strongest and most frequently used plant positions, not allowing the enemies to quickly get into an afterplant.

Flash: B-Main (Aggro)

As I've said at the beginning of the CT part of this article, sometimes offense is the best defense. For this line-up, stand at the right part of the door frame in Heaven on B, aim at the cables above the right part of B-Main, crouch and use, as well as let go of, both mouse buttons at the same time. Make sure to also practice letting go of both mouse buttons at the same time for this one, since that mechanic can be a bit confusing at first.

By throwing this flash, you will blind a multitude of popular spots waiting for your aggression, catching them off-guard and allowing your teammate to either get a kill, inflict some damage on the enemy, or get behind the big box, where you can establish a strong and favourable crossfire. This one is highly timing dependant if you want to kill an enemy with it, but even if your teammate does not spot anyone, that alone gives you so much information that you can change your set-up accordingly and further heighten your chances of winning.

Flash: A-Main (Aggro)

To use a similar flash as the B-Main in A-Main, stand at the end part of the wall leading to A, aim below the "A" in the writing above A-Main, and throw to blind anyone in A-Main who is not crouching behind the box or turned around currently.

Since this line-up lets the flash pop above the box, you will blind even people behind the box, trying to dodge the more common, weaker A-Main flashes that way, probably catching them off-guard should you blind them. Your teammate should still be aware that it is not uncommon to have someone wait for the flash while crouching behind the box or even turned around, peeking as soon as the flash pops.

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