Introduction:

This will be a look at the strategy called the Mid to B split on the map Dust II. I will cover map pressure and smokes to help set up this strategy, along with how to execute this strategy. Finally, I will cover how to successfully hold the B Bombsite after you have taken it. There will be some screenshots from the recent ESL Pro League Final between Luminosity and G2.

Setting up the Mid to B:

One of the first things you need to execute the Mid to B split is map control. Having map control as a Terrorist isn’t necessarily being somewhere, but knowing that there are no Counter-Terrorists there. Flashing out at Long and walking through Upper Tunnels will give you control of these parts of the map without engaging with the Counter-Terrorists. What G2 did in the first round of Game 4 in the series against Luminosity was to send 4 players into Tunnels to eventually go Mid. One player sat back outside the entrance to Long to throw a smoke that will land on Xbox to block off Cat. This allows the four players in Upper to move into Lower safely without getting shot at from Cat. Below I have pictures showing G2 doing this and how to throw the smoke they use.

The picture above shows an enlarged map from the G2 versus Luminosity game. Four players are pushing into Lower Tunnels and would have been caught out by the Counter-Terrorist playing on Cat, but the smoke blocked that player's vision. This is important because the Counter-Terrorist on Cat does not know if the Terrorists will be rushing up Cat. This gives an advantage to the Terrorist side.

Above are pictures showing how to throw the smoke that lands on Xbox in Mid. Go up to the third shadow of the light and position yourself like the pictures show above. You can use the command cl_showpos 1 to be able to find the exact position and angle to throw this smoke. This smoke is being thrown in a 128 tick server and can change in a 64 tick server.

Map Control:

It is important to have control of Cat, Upper Tunnels and Outside Long when you are planning to execute a Mid to B play. The reasons you want control of Cat is because most of your team will be sitting in Mid, if a Counter-Terrorist peeks out at Cat for information he will be able to get multiple picks, or get valuable information of the Terrorists' whereabouts. Having control of Cat also will slow down rotations, especially if you used grenades and flashes to push the Counter-Terrorists back into more passive positions. Outside of Long is easier to have control of than Cat, since it is so close to the Terrorist spawn all you have to do is hold outside of it. There should always be one Terrorist holding the flank, or watching Mid from Suicide after your team has committed out Mid doors. Having someone stay back somewhere in Mid can catch off Counter-Terrorists when they commit to rotations and is one of the powerful assets to the Mid to B play. When taking the B Bombsite, Counter-Terrorists can fall back into Upper if you have no positional advantage there, which will give them more angles to come from during the retake. Having control of Upper Tunnels will stop this from happening. Below I have some pictures showing off some of these ideas.

Executing Mid to B:

In the pistol round against Luminosity, G2 walked out Mid and threw a smoke to block off CT spawn. Doing this splits the map in half where the Terrorists only need to focus on the B Bombsite side. There are boxes in CT spawn that a Counter-Terrorist can jump on to gain an advantage over the Terrorists moving up to B, but molotov’s will be able to root them out or pre-firing the spot. Move up to the B Bombsite and enter through B Doors, Window and Upper. Before entering Mid and the B Bombsite always make sure to use flashes. Using a Flash on an unsuspecting Counter-Terrorist will give you and your team an advantage while pushing into Mid and the B Bombsite. This creates three angles for the Counter-Terrorists to deal with when there is normally one to two Counter-Terrorists playing inside the B Bombsite. Make sure to check all the angles when entering a Bombsite and check all the hiding places before setting the Bomb. Below is a picture of how to throw the smoke to block off CT Spawn.

Holding off the Retake:

Getting into the Bombsite is the difficult part of this strategy. Once you have control of the Bombsite, everything that was done earlier for this strategy will help hold off the retake. All of the Counter-Terrorists rotations will slow down from you taking control of certain parts of the map. Having a Lurker play Mid to cutoff Counter-Terrorist rotations will help as well. Having a smoke ready for B Doors and a Molotov or two for Window will shut down any retake for the Counter-Terrorists. If you have a man advantage going in to the retake the Counter-Terrorists will most likely save, since when retaking the B Bombsite, you need to enter from multiple directions and if they can’t it would be smarter for them to save. If you have a superior economic advantage over the Counter-Terrorists force, then hunting them down, so they do not save any weapons for the next round is always an option. Below is pictures of a couple other angles to hold and the Cat smoke.

Conclusion:

Though some of the ideas in this are quite basic, I felt it necessary to cover this topic as it is a very common strategy in the pro scene on Dust II. The reason it is a very common strategy is because it can change into multiple variations so easily. You can have three people push in towards Mid and two come from Upper Tunnels for a B Split. This strategy will not work 100 percent of the time of course, but against uncoordinated opponents, it could end up working quite often. Do not use this one variation every time, get inventive with the strategy and add your own little twist to it. Thank you for reading and I hope that this article helped you in some way!

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