In lower level Matchmaking games, pistol rounds tend not to be utilized to any importance other than the first 3 rounds. Utilizing the pistol round win however can jumpstart your lead in the economic battle as well as put a defecit in your opponent's future early game buys. When trying to maximize economic profitability, what you buy in the early game can have a great affect in how the half plays out.

What you buy on the first round is dependent on the situation of your team and the enemies. Armor should almost always be a go to buy for low level players, since shooting with aim punch can be a very tough task. As you move up in skill level with pistols, however, you can see there are alternatives to only purchasing armor and a decoy the first round.

Starting with the Terrorist side weapons (I am going to abbreviate Terrorist as 'T' and Counter Terrorist as 'CT' for the remainder of this article for simplicity purposes) you will immediately get the Glock and $800 extra to spend. The CT's get the same amount of cash but different weapons. So, you automatically know that the CT's and T's on pistol rounds will be unable to buy head armor. So, the most vulnerable place on either opponent is the head. Starting with a Glock, you can land headshots fairly easy, which is why I push for the armor buy. Pistols such as the Five-Seven and P250 are eco-round weapons, meaning that they are meant to chew through armor assuming you are accurate enough to hit your shot. These guns without armor makes them not viable options considering the aim punch will be fairly high. My exception to this rule is the current Tech-9. It has a high ammo capacity, plus you can fire it as fast as you can move your trigger-finger, making it to be especially effective in lower-level Matchmaking pistol rounds. If you have a teammate who is highly proficient with the Tech-9, it may be of use to have that player buy armor and have another player buy him a Tech-9. My personal success over multiple times in Matchmaking actually makes this a viable plan. However, the player giving up the gun will have to fight Glock and no armor which will prove difficult for newer players.

Now that we have covered the guns in the starting round, what simple strategies could a typical Matchmaking player call and follow through with? Depending on the map, here are simple strategies you can run and get a cooperating team to run.

Dust II

If you ever have a question about how to throw the smokes shown here, there are thousands of Internet videos showing how to throw them. This one is my favorite for Dust II. The simple, 'smoke mid and rush up cat'. There are a limited amounts of flanking positions that take a long time to flank and if done right, you will have A bomb-site in no time. A player completes this smoke and once it pops, have the team run up Catwalk (cat) and enter the A bomb-site. Most players will try to cut you off from the CT spawn, but having a player lurk back in Middle while the team pushes Catwalk will ensure no flankers from Middle or Lower Tuns as well as no flankers from A-Long. Once the smoke clears or just before it does, that Middle lurking player should return Catwalk to either help take A bomb-site or stay on Catwalk to defend the bomb from getting defused.

Inferno

The strategy is based off a quick fake A bomb-site take followed with a quick bomb rotation to B site. This easy trick play works well on pistol especially if you get the kill at A to sell the A bomb-site fake. To rotate B, smoke off the porch side of middle (to the right in the picture) and go into Archway to CT spawn, then onto B bomb-site. Pushing as a team makes this strategy the most effective, attempting to overrun CT's at their positions. What I also like about this strategy is if they stack A bomb-site, then continue the plan with B bomb-site completely open. If they stack B bomb-site, rotate back to A bomb-site as fast as possible and plant there.

Mirage

The most common of pistol strategies is to rush A bomb-site or rush B bomb-site. Players who use middle to their advantage will win a higher percentage of pistol rounds. Middle in Mirage is very big to control through out the game, as it offers many CT and T advantages. In pistol rounds, T's can use middle to split B or A bomb-sites, or use Underpass as a fake B and A bomb-site execute. When going Middle on Mirage, a smoke would be highly useful but not a necessity. A smoke could cover Snipers Nest, Catwalk or Connector based on which way you choose to go. If going A, smoke off Catwalk and take connector. If spotted Middle by a CT from Sniper's Nest, smoke off Connector and go B. The A site rotators will take time covering Connector usually before taking the long journey to B bomb-site. An important detail to note is always have someone watching Sniper's Nest. Killing or forcing that CT off that position gives a great advantage to you and your team.

These are three popular examples of how to execute T side pistol strategies. Keep in mind that there is no "God" strategy that works 100% of the time. Strategies can be gambles, and as a gambler you have a chance to lose. You can increase that chance to win however with smart buys and well executed site takes for pistol round. Winning pistol round gives your team the economic advantage that can be used to dictate how your T side goes. Especially on CT-sided maps, winning pistol round as a T is very important.

Above all else, aim for the head!