Banana control on Inferno is immensely important. Securing it as CT forces the T side to be throttled towards the A bombsite, revealing the likelihood of certain plays.

There are numerous techniques to take banana, and this first method will depict how Fnatic like to control the area.

Car Smoke

Most rounds an A player will run to the top of the stairs at CT spawn and throw a smoke over the roof, which lands in front of the car on banana. This smoke allows the two B sided players to take top of banana whilst having two smokes left to defend. The two B players can then nade down, which stops any early pressure on banana. I.e. if the T side knows you smoke and then nade down every round, they will wait out the nades and then make their presence known. Once this kind of routine has been established, you can throw a spanner in the works and start delaying the nades. Or you can throw a flash / molotov combo, which can catch them off guard.

This should delay the T side until around the 50 - 60 second mark, with you still having banana control. This is when you can flash and fall back into site, or maybe peak for information depending on what has been called on the other side of the map. I.e. if 4 players with bomb have been spotted in apartments, both CT's pushing down banana and killing the lurker for a greater position in the round may be a solid play to make.

If you’re on a weak buy or the A player needs to keep their smoke for an A setup, a safe smoke for car can be thrown from the truck on B site:

Taking Full Banana Control

Another popular method of taking banana control, utilised by most top teams, is to smoke bottom of banana from CT spawn. Then doing a combination of sending 2 / 3 players down banana with varying nade/molly/flash combinations. This particular smoke is demonstrated by adreN:

You can alternatively throw this in conjunction with the car smoke. Once it runs out, a player can throw a smoke bottom of banana. Things to mention when going for this incredibly aggressive banana control, is that if you want the map control, most teams will give it to you. The only real counter for this is to boost on plant pot (from t ramp) and then peak up banana. So you have to be careful as not to expose yourself by standing in the center of banana, or peaking at top of the car. A good position is behind the pillars, or pushing down to the tree. A further idea you can execute, if you know they don’t have an AWP, or if you do have an AWP, is to pre-aim this counter boost angle.

Once a player has managed to solidify himself bottom of banana, then the other player(s) can run back around to A. This B player should have a smoke ready to maintain the banana control. The reason why the other player(s) should rotate is because by taking banana control, you know the opposing sides presence on the map is going to be heavily A sided, so an execute on A site is more likely. Also with the B player pushed so far down banana, if anything were to happen, he can call it early and the A players can rotate by the time the enemies have pushed up banana.

However, this can be punished by the T's if they figure out that you only play one banana, once control is established. They can brute force their way through, which can put you in an unfavourable position. You can always keep a second player on banana if you have trouble with the solo banana setup. Though it should prove a powerful tool.

The Result

Taking heavy banana control CT side will force a seasoned team to probably initiate a play to take control of apartments to solidify their presence on the map, which they can use to execute. So perhaps having a CT player pushed up to bedroom in apartments isn’t a great idea for this kind of setup. As 2/3 players may attempt to wrestle control of apartments with a molotov to force you out. This is all situational however, and if your team takes banana control aggressively most rounds, pushing someone into bedroom occasionally may throw them off if they don’t account for it. Mind games can be a huge facet of late game Counter-Strike. It's about establishing a routine and then testing the opposing team with these invisible rules.

Hopefully this has provided some insight into banana control, and the varying ways in which it can be established, as well as countered.