The AWPer role is one of the roles that has the most impact in the game and it is even more important and valuable when playing on a competitive level, so as done in the previous article related to the Entry Fragger role which you can check here, we will be taking an in-depth look into the AWPer role this time, using Dignitas CS:GO lineuponce again. Now we're specifically focus on the young talent Håkon "hallzerk" Fjærli as he is the main AWPer of the team.

You might ask yourself, "But why is the AWP so important and why does the AWPer has increased responsibility? Don't they just hold an angle and kill the guys running to them?" It's not that simple, it's not that easy and AWPers have a huge responsibility within the team.

Basic Notions as an AWPer

First things first, every time an AWP is bought, remember that it's $4750 less in your team's economy, so you have to justify and make that investment be worth and cause impact in the game, and of course, as the AWPer, you can't buy and manage your economy as well as the others do. You have to be more careful. You need to save more money in order to have a good buy around that AWP. Besides that, you can kill someone with the AWP with one-shot if it's in the head or body. The enemy only survives if it is a leg shot, but they're still reduced to low health, so the AWP is a very powerful weapon.

Nowadays, more and more AWPers stand out and get highlighted as the best players of the world because of the impact they have on the game, the dynamism the AWP gives them, and the plays they make.

As happened to all the roles in CS:GO, the AWPer role experienced changes along the years. The weapon changed, the mobility changed, and the way the players bring the AWP to the game has changed a lot. We now have different styles of AWPers. Aggressive ones, passive ones. Every player has their own unique style of AWPing. One thing that never changed was the fact that sometimes you have a Secondary AWPer on the team. This player is basically someone that is capable of doing damage with the weapon and can pick it up so the team can catch the enemies by surprise having the double AWP setups.

Spawn Peeks with the AWP

Moving on to the first topic about AWPing, we'll be talking about how the AWPer can make the best out of their spawn in order to take a peek in the beginning of the round and get the advantage for their team.

As you can see in the video, Dignitas choose to send their AWPer, hallzerk, or someone on the team with a perfect spawn, as they did with friberg, so they can lead the way and control the beginning of the round to have impact with the AWP.

Contact Plays with the AWP

From aggressive spawn peeks to a more slow, methodical way of working the round, we will be talking about Contact Plays done with the AWP.

When the team does not want to make noise and does not want to make it too obvious for the enemy to understand what the team is doing, they can choose to call a Contact Play, a play where the team gathers on a spot without using their utility or making any steps or any kind of noise and occasionally they send their AWPer to lead the way as we can see in this example. There are multiple advantages about this approach, but specifically putting the AWP in front makes it unpredictable and almost a free kill to the AWPer, a 5v4 for the team, and an easier situation to work out the round.

Glass Cannon

Now let's imagine your team is in a rough economical situation. You're only able to buy some pistol upgrade and no primary weapon, but here's the key point, imagine your AWPer or someone on the team has the money to buy up the AWP and still save some money for the next round in case you lose the current one (usually you don't want to go below 2000$ on this risky AWP buy), they'll do it and have a force buy with pistol upgrades and an AWP to try and find some peeks and win the round for the team.

As it could be seen in the video in both situations an AWP was handed over to hallzerk in order for him to try and cause impact in the round and catch the enemy team by surprise.

The Double AWP Setup

Another mechanism and approach that teams developed is the so called Double AWP Setup. When teams feel the need to pull the ace out of their sleeve, the backup plan, something different that will make the enemy take some time to adapt, we often see the double AWP setup come into play. It's not only a way to surprise the enemy but also a way to have more control around the map, more mobility, and a way of letting the rifles play looser.

The video and the sequence of rounds that Dignitas manage to put up speaks for itself, the way they handle the enemy team and play around their double AWP setup gives them a huge advantage and, of course, hallzerk and f0rest did a really good job working their way around the map.

Importance of Mobility

Last but not least an AWPer needs to have excellent mobility around the map. You need to be unpredictable, yet responsible, and also must try to get the most impact out of the plays and the AWP in order to always catch the enemy by surprise, as you can see in the video below.

It is very important that the AWPer keeps repositioning and changing his position after he gets a kill and sometimes, as shown in the video, you'll even see an AWPer start the round taking a peek on one side of the map and immediately rotate to the exact opposite bombsite so he can lure the enemy team to think they're avoiding the AWP when he's already one step ahead.

Conclusion

Obviously, there are more situations and more specific different moments in the rounds but there's always some common and crucial things to understand:

The AWPer should have a good economy management, as it is crucial to be able to have at least 4750$ for a Glass Cannon buy, but even more is preferable of course;
Mixing Styles is one of the best qualities an AWPer can have, knowing how to be both aggressive and passive as an AWPer, and most important, when and how to be those two versions really shows differences between each player and makes it easier for the ones that know how to do it and are good in it;
Dynamism, mobility, awareness, be unpredictable. Keep moving as an AWPer! Be unpredictable, stand out and catch the enemy by surprise from one side to the other in the map, "fly" around the map with the AWP and take initiative to look for peeks to destroy the enemy setup.

All in all, being the AWPer is not easy, as no other role is, but if you know how to be agressive and passive, be unpredictable and impose your game in the server, practice makes this role perfect and can be a massive help to the team.

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