So you’ve found yourself in Dust II on the T-Side in a game of match making, no one has called a strategy and you’re not really sure what to do. “Rush B!” one of your teammate calls, but as you all head in to the site rushing through Uppers you get team flashed, end up running through fire, and all get aced by a PP-Bizon. For many of you I’m sure this is a familiar memory and one that you’d rather not repeat, so this begs the question: Why are aggressive plays as Terrorists considered effective and how are they best executed?

When taking a site as a Terrorist in CS:GO the key factors to success are gaining a man advantage and reducing the number of angles you can be shot from when entering a site. While most strategies involving technical smokes and flashes are used to reduce the CT’s points of vision and thus their ability to hold from certain angles, an aggressive push from the T side utilizes timing. If both the T side and the CT side rush from the best possible spawn location on there are only a certain amount spots the CTs can reach before their site is breached.

Let’s stick with Dust II. If the Terrorists have the best possible spawn for Long A, by the time they peek Long corner the CT side can't have already crossed to Pit, meaning that he can attempt to pick the player as he crosses or peeks corner.

Most times you can at least damage, if not kill, anyone crossing to Pit and get an early advantage

The same can be said for B site given that the T side has a strong spawn. There is no need to check left and any player jumping to Plat will be clearly seen by the Ts, meaning that Site and Car are the only spots that need to be checked.

If you don't see anyone jumping to Plat, you're good to enter site and start trading

Further positives include:

• Having unused utility grenades to hold the site
• Confusing the CTs with your rapid attack
• Great for economy management and force buy rounds
• Especially useful and easy to execute strategy for pugs where you don’t have team chemistry

Potential negetives:

• Being killed from long range by rifles before you can land accurate shots
• Being damaged by pre-nades and fire
• Being counter flashed and smoked
• More likely to get sprayed down as you are likely all standing close

So what is the best way to pull of this sort of aggressive play and how do you know you have the right environment to make full use of an early round push? Well first things first, you will want to look at the spawn of you and your teammates. You wouldn’t want to call a B rush when 2 of your teammates spawned near Long and 1 at Mid because you’re less likely to trade out kills and take the site. Then you’ll want to look at your economy and buys. Rifles and SMGs are good for aggressive rushes but AWPs aren’t. If you have a couple of snipers on your team you might want to consider another strategy that involves picking players with your AWP before rushing a site. You’ll probably want at least one or two flashes. If the CTs expect the rush and play back on site holding the angle, you’re going to lose that firefight unless you can blind them, so use flashes to push them out of the site or to kill them. Always remember communication is key, use quick and clear callouts if you’re the first person on the site to let your team know where the CTs are. Individually, you’re going to have a lot of ground to cover with your crosshair. You are rushing out into the open and have a lot more angles to peek quickly than if you slowly rounded the corner, so always remember to keep your crosshair head height and stay cool.

Aggressive play is underappreciated in Counter-Strike. An aggressive Blitzkrieg run and gun can be as devastating as a skillful tap shooter that methodically peaks corners and takes off heads. A good mixture of strategies such as aggression, picks, executions and more can often cause CT sides to get confused and go on tilt with your “random” play. Obviously I primarily used Dust II as an example because it resonates with most CS players, but aggressive strategies can be used on every map. It’ll be up to you to learn the timings that dictate where the CTs can play and what kind of aggression you can pull off depending on your spawns. Once you take the site and end up even or with a man advantage, it's time to hold, which is a topic for another article. I hope you all had a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

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