There is no better source for good Counter-Strike than the pro scene. Movement, game sense, and aim are all trained beyond sanity in order to gain maximum performance. Not the most spectacular, but definitely the most interesting, part of the pro scene is the ability of In-Game Leaders (IGLs) to correctly evaluate a situation and call a fitting strategy to win the round. In this article, we will analyse a simple yet, if used correctly, effective strategy and how to implement said strategy properly.

Context

Team Dignitas is playing against BIG in the European Minor on the 17th of July, and we have won the first half of our map pick Mirage with a convincing 9 to 6 T-Side. But instead of giving up, BIG came out all guns blazing in the second half, not granting us any rounds in the second half yet, which leaves us in a tough position, as we are trying our best to finally get our foot into the second half. As BIG takes their 7th round in a row, our IGL Rubino calls a timeout and calls a set-up that adapts to the behaviour of our enemies: Out of 7 rounds, BIG only has gone B twice while playing with heavy emphasis on Mid. Not being able to deny much Mid control, Rubino decided to change it up and resort to an A-Stack with heavy Connector presence in order to finally overcome the second half curse.

I will start with presenting you the first and then the second set-up Team Dignitas decided to use to finally overcome BIG in the second half. We will then move on to the player's point of view in order to fully grasp the role of every player.

The Set-Up

(Rubino: Green, Tenzki: Purple, Jkaem: Orange, Cromen: Yellow, Fox: Blue)

This graphic, created at csgoboard.com, was created to help you understand the inner workings of this A-Stack. It may confuse you at first glance, but it is quite simple really: White splashes represent the flashes, the dark grey cloud is a smoke and the flames are, well, flames induced by incendiary grenades. The dots inside of the grenades are showing you which player threw them. This may seem overly complicated for you, as not all of the grenades are thrown at the very same time or are aiming to deny vision or advancement of the Ts in the same timeframe, but creating a new graphic for every timeframe will clutter this article beyond reason and will only diffuse the information over three to four short paragraphs instead of combining it into one.

Now onto the actual A-Stack: As you can see, the IGL decided to play B Solo, throwing a deep smoke behind Apps in order to deny carefree entry into Apps. He follows it up with a popflash into Apps, trying to deny early aggression and a B rush to get into the proper position on B, which he chooses to be Car, jumpspotting potential players coming into the Apps.

On A there are four players, Jkaem and Tenzki in Connector and Fox, as well as Cromen, are taking care of A-Main and Palace. As everyone was trying to get to their position as fast as they can, Tenzki threw an incendiary grenade into A-Main, following the same train of thought of Rubino's flashbang in Apps. He wants to stop or weaken a potential early aggression push from BIG. After the flames perished, Cromen went close with a smoke while Fox was aggressive in the entrance towards Palace. As Fox finds no success, he throws an incendiary grenade into the Palace exit, trying to bait Ts who are potentially hiding inside of Palace into peeking, as the fire falsely suggests that no one of the CT side is going aggressive.

As this was happening, Jkaem and Tenzki entered the Connector with the assistance of a flashbang thrown by Tenzki, which aims to blind Ts who are going aggressive in Mid, giving the CTs time to set up properly. He then waits a few seconds before throwing a smoke into the lower part of Connector, allowing him to silently jumpspot the Tunnel from Connector, while Jkaem aims just above the smoke onto Short, trying to use it as a one-way smoke. As the smoke disappears, Tenzki hides behind the corner in Connector while Jkaem lines up an actual one-way smoke.

This allows him to safely peek Connector while having backup in Tenzki, who is baiting Jkaem and using him as a distraction, ready to strike at any time. After a few seconds of tension, Dig finally gets the first kill untraded. Jkaem and Tenzki scramble to get out of the Connector as soon as possible, which triggers a change in positioning.

The 2nd Set-Up

(Rubino: Green, Tenzki: Purple, Jkaem: Orange, Cromen: Yellow, Fox: Blue)

During the change of positioning, Tenzki threw a flash inside of the Connector during the retreat, and Jkaem threw an Incendiary grenade into Palace, both in order to further delay a potential A-Split bombsite take. From here on out, it is just basic CS - sit back and play out your player advantage by not giving anything away with a push into the T-Side territory.

Rubino changed his position, knowing that Short was open now, to the Bench position, giving him free movement around said spot in order to either pre-aim Apps or Short. Tenzki rotated through the Window position in order to get into the Shop area, watching the cross from the Apps towards the B-Bombsite. Jkaem rotated over the A-Bombsite, being ready for a fast A-Site take as a reaction from the Ts, but he then rotated through CT to hold the Window, suspecting a Window boost.

Fox and Cromen changed position, as Fox wants to catch Ts off-guard who want to enter A-Main by doing what Fox does, which is taking an aggressive angle while having Cromen there to back him up if he gets the first kill. The rest of the round plays out like planned: The Ts do not get on the Bombsite unscathed, as Rubino successfully trades himself for a T, which reduced them to 3 Ts against 4 CTs. The retake commences after things have calmed down.

Point of Views

Rubino

Rubino, the IGL of Team Dignitas, took the job of holding the B-Bombsite. Knowing that he does not stand a chance against an overwhelming rush from BIG, he decided to smoke off the entrance to the Apps, which suggests BIG that there is more than one person on the B-Bombsite, as using utility early would leave the solo anchor without utility to delay a late round push. Knowing that a player could have already moved past the smoke, he flashed into the Apps in order to stop him dead in his tracks, which gives Rubino more time to properly set up. Knowing that he can rely on his Team to properly call and hold Mid, he decides to ignore Short completely and jumpspots Apps in order to be a hard target, spot enemies early, and be able to adjust his position if push comes to shove.

Later in the round, when we lose Mid, he knows that he is in imminent danger and needs to rethink his positioning. He decides to stand in between Bench and the bombspot, which allows him to fully decide which fights he wants to take where until they are already past the bombsite. He trades successfully and therefore keeps Dignitas' one player lead.

Jkaem

Jkaem had the role of denying entry to A and complete Mid control, which he succeeded in by playing Connector together with Tenzki. Standing behind a box with a wall to the left of him allowed him to have almost full control about which kind of fights he wants to take, which is crucial to his role as bait in this set-up. Allowing him to survive one or multiple hostile encounters, he can catch the attention of the Ts while Tenzki peeks and gets at least one kill. After about a minute, this plan succeeds.

After throwing a one-way smoke, he shot a player he just barely saw, which allowed Tenzki to peek and both of them get out of there and gave Dig a clear advantage. He then threw an incendiary grenade into Palace in order to further delay a potential A-Site split, then ultimately changing his position to an off-angle in front of the so-called Deathhole, which allows him to see anyone trying to enter Jungle through Window.

Tenzki

Tenzki, being the second Connector player, also had the job to deny a fast A-Site take by throwing an incendiary grenade into A-Main, followed by a flash through Connector to delay BIG from meeting them in Connector before Dig are properly set up.

Smoking off the lower end of Connector, he used the slanted roof to silently jumpspot the tunnel, which is important in order to be sure that BIG is not boosting into Window. After the smoke disappears and BIG run into Jkaem, he is allowed to peek and kill an attacking Terrorist and then get out of there with his life and threw a flashbang to delay the reaction from BIG. He then rotates to Window to watch out for a boost and then finally rotates to the Shop position, allowing him to view the cross from the Apps to the B-Bombsite, which allows Rubino to prepare for a fight from that angle.

Fox

Fox, being an aggressive AWPer at heart, was allowed to take aggressive positions, starting with him going into the entrance to Palace and taking an angle with many fallback possibilities once he gets the first kill. Once he can no longer hope for early aggression from the Ts, he throws an incendiary to suggest that he is actually further away than he actually is and that he wants to prevent them from entering A with said incendiary. If a T hid behind the corner he may have peeked, feeling safe for a moment.

After about a minute, he decides to change it up and masks his dropping down with a frag grenade he throws into Palace, taking an aggressive angle at A-Main. He later retook through Short, allowing him to take advantage of the fact that the attention of the Ts was on Shop.

Cromen

Cromen, being the second A player, threw a smoke into A-Main after the fire disappeared and went close, waiting for a hectic rush from BIG, trying to dodge potential flashes. He then changes his positioning to simply have Fox' back from a rather safe off-angle.

As Fox changed position, he went up the ladder and went Upperwood, holding the exit of Palace, having Fox' back. He then went on to retake B through Shop, going together with Jkaem to always have a big tradefrag potential.

Pro Teams, Strategies, and You

Analysing pro teams in my free time and for this article really made me rethink the way I approached Counter-Strike. A lot of these things are very, very natural for pro teams, as they once actively practised teamwork like trading, popflashing properly, checking necessary corners and using the map to their advantage. To do this, you need to actively think about what you are doing during practice matches in order to engrave it into your brain. Same goes for full strategies: Going through it dry and then applying it in practice matches really gets you further than always calling on the fly and hoping for the best.

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