Valve recently introduced Ancient to the Active Duty map pool. Many people are still finding their footing on this brand new map. In this guide, let’s go over the essential line-ups you must know to gain an edge on your opponents!
Last week, Valve dropped a bombshell on the CS:GO community. With no prior warning, the company took Train out of the Active Duty map pool and exchanged it for Ancient. This means that all third party platforms, such as Faceit and ESEA, and professional tournaments will transition to this new map pool.
A brand new map is always terribly exciting, as it allows players and teams to discover new utility line-ups, compositions and even metas. At the same time, for veteran players, a new map always feels a little uncomfortable at first, as the established framework they’ve built up when playing maps for several hundreds of times entirely disappears. In this guide, I go over some of the brilliant utility line-ups that have already been found. However, keep in mind that the map is still in the process of receiving a lot of feedback, so the usefulness of these line-ups may be subject to change.
Due to the height of many of the buildings on the map you will need to jump throw a lot of these grenades. To aid you in successfully throwing the smoke at your highest point in the air, you can use a jumpthrow command as detailed in my guide on the ultimate CS:GO settings.
As always, we kick the guide off with the A-site. The A-site is a relatively complicated site with no immediately obvious utility possibilities. Moreover, the newest update to Ancient introduced a new bunker-like structure for CTs to use. Although several smokes have been found for this position, they are not really useful for taking the site unless you have an entire team for the execute. It’s much better to throw a smoke in the middle of the room after taking control, blocking off the entire angle with only one grenade.
The largest risk you face after entering the site is getting backstabbed by a player from Middle. This means that most A-takes will involve a mid-take as well, as there is no immediate safe way to smoke off the tunnels connecting Middle to A.
The first line-up of this guide blocks off the main entryway into the site with a smoke grenade. This position is also referred to as ‘elbow’. As stated before, smoking off the bunker-like structure isn’t particularly useful as there are many ways around the smoke. However, by smoking off CT-Spawn you immediately block off a direct angle on the site, allowing you to safely smoke the bunker after taking control.
To the left of the Terrorist’s entrance to the A-site there is a small diagonal wall supporting some form of wooden barrier. Walk towards it and hug the left corner. Look up and look at the left-most square-shaped stone on top of the entrance. Aim at the area where the stone has been chipped away and aim up towards the tree until your crosshair is positioned on the opening of the tree’s crown. Then, jump up in the air and release the smoke grenade.
Considering all the angles you have to check on the A-site, throwing an unpredictable flashbang will be crucial to successfully taking the site. Moreover, as this flash does not bounce and lands just behind the leaves of a tree, the enemy will be unable to hear or see it, giving you the perfect opportunity to storm onto the site.
To throw the flashbang, jump onto the ledge next to the stairs leading into the tunnels of A. Aim at the middle of the right-most stone of the third row from the top, aligned with the crack right under it, and jump and release.
Finally, to take the site, a Molotov to warm the feet of your enemies can be much more impactful at first than a smoke in the bunker-like structure.
To throw this Molotov, just aim towards the wall of the right entrance into the room. However, this will leave you quite exposed and should generally only be thrown in case you believe an enemy is hiding in that corner, once your teammates have control of the immediate area and if there’s a smoke grenade blocking off CT-Spawn.
Ancient has an unusually wide middle area, with plenty of corners and hallways giving the CTs ample positions to hide. Moreover, the short room at the end of the alley leading from CT to Middle gives AWP players a lot of possibilities to pick off their attackers one by one. As it will be near impossible to fight a good AWP player, utility usage will be the key to taking control of this area.
To block off the main angle of Middle you have to worry about, you can safely throw a smoke grenade from the entryway into Middle from the side of the A-site. This will allow you to push up the alleyway leading up to A for a split A-take.
Jump onto the ledge of the area leading into Middle and put yourself on top of the second wooden cylinder sticking out of the ground. Then, aim up at the bottom corner of the large slab sticking slightly out of the wall and move slightly towards the right until you’re aiming at the spot where a branch shoots vertically upwards from behind another branch. Throw the grenade and you should feel more safe walking into Middle.
In case you want to leave the CTs guessing as to your team’s plan, you can even decide to take control of Middle entirely. In this case, you might want to smoke off the left hallway leading up to A.
From the alley leading from B to Middle, look at the narrow crack between the left corner and bottom slab of the doorway blocked by steel bars. Then, aim at the spot where the top of the wooden frame and the stick meet on the box in front of you. Release the smoke, and you give your team the perfect opportunity to push towards CT without having to worry about a possible player in the alley.
If enemies are fast enough, they can slip into the right corner of Middle, waiting for unsuspecting terrorists to make the mistake of crossing without checking. Even if you’re aware enough to check the position, the CT will be at an advantage in this particular engagement. Consequently, it is good to preemptively burn this area and crank up the heat under your enemy’s feet.
No super fancy line-up for this one, just make sure to throw a molotov close in the right corner to force out any enemies that may be lying in wait. You can do this from both entryways into Middle, but keep in mind that doing it from the side of the B-site will leave you exposed if there are no smokes. Your best bet, if coming from the A-side, is to aim above the wall covering the player and let it bounce right towards the middle, which lets the fire spread to the entire area.
The B-Site will probably be the preferred site for Terrorists to take. There is no immediate connection with Middle for CTs to safely rotate from, meaning longer rotation times, and all other entryways into the site force the defenders through very narrow chokepoints. However, there are many hiding places for the Counter-Terrorists to exploit. Consequently, good utility usage will be key to taking initial control of the site.
On the B-Site, there are two main positions you want to smoke off, Back Alley and CT-Spawn. These are the narrow alleyways CTs are forced through to get onto the site, but they also allow the defenders to scout the entire site for opponents from a fairly safe position.
To smoke the back alley, put yourself in the right-most corner behind you when facing the entrance to B. There, look at the increments of the wall above the entrance and put your crosshair on the corner just below the third increment. Aim up until your crosshair is positioned right above the white cloud, aligned with the opening in the middle of the leaves of the tree to the right. From here, you can simply throw the smoke.
The smoke for Alley is also thrown from the right-most corner near the entrance to B. This time, however, look at the vertical line of squares just above the entrance. Aim slightly towards the right of the top square on the left, so that your crosshair is positioned on the edge of the leaf and the top left corner of the slab in the middle. Finally, jump and throw.
This next line-up is very useful to know so you can adapt to specific situations. For example, when you decide to rush the B-Site on a force-buy and decide not to take control of the connector, instead having all your players rush onto the B-Site together, this smoke will close off the uncovered angle. Keep in mind, however, that the CT can push all the way through the connector as you’re throwing the smoke, leaving you exposed.
Also, make sure to only throw this smoke when needed. In case one of your teammates wants to take control of this position, this smoke will merely hinder them. If you have thrown this smoke a few rounds in a row without taking control of the connector, it can also be used as a method to bait the enemy into thinking he’s safe inside the connector.
To throw this smoke, put yourself near the edge of the border between the entrance and the wall to the left once you exit the entrance to B. Then, aim at the corner of the top roof of the building in front of you and slightly to the right. Release the smoke, and you’ll have one less angle to worry about.
There are a lot of sneaky corners at the disposal of the CTs all over the map, and the B-Site is no exception. In the bottom left corner of the site, there is a hidden nook for enemies to hide in. Luckily, there is a safe way to throw a Molotov into this area, leaving the enemy no choice but to run out or throw down a smoke grenade, revealing his position.
From the first step leading to the Middle area just in front of the entrance to B, look at the tree in front of you and aim just above the open area in its crown. Step forward and release the Molotov.
With all of these line-ups, you should be one step ahead of your opponents. Make sure to communicate with your teammates to tell them what position you will be bombarding with utility, and you will soon be crowned the Aztec king of Ancient.
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