As a member of the CSGO community, I experience pretty much the exact same situations as the rest of the CSGO community. Let's take a second and hone in on a specific situation. We've all been there, losing 16-0, thinking to ourselves, "Why did I get put with this trash team?" I can almost guarantee that you have thought that multiple times over the course of you playing CSGO. This concept of blaming others for your losses is plaguing team-based games as a whole. It's never your fault right? This thinking is going to keep you from improving at all while playing CSGO. Okay, maybe sometimes it's not your fault, but what if I told you that we can virtually eliminate the need for a team? Yeah, sure, having a good team is better in most cases, but being able to pull out just a few more rounds than usual can give you astronomically higher chances at getting the competitive win that you are striving for.

What I am presenting to you today is a collection of strategies for use on the Dust II T-Side that I have used to solo queue all the way up to Legendary Eagle Master. The lower you go in the ranks, the higher the chances of these working. Also, if you really want to cement your chances of getting the perfect execute, work on your personal movement so you can get into position faster, and dodge bullets if you have to. These are very aggressive plays, so keep up the pressure, and the CT's have little chance to keep up with your tempo. Use your personal judgment to decide when to do what. Spawns are definitely something to consider because the faster you execute, the better. My personal recommendation is to not use the same strategy multiple times in a row, people adapt to what you are doing once you get into the higher ranks. I am going to separate these strategies into general areas, so you have at least a slight chance to collaborate with the rest of your team and potentially get some semblance of teamwork started in your team. Who knows, maybe you'll foster enough teamwork to where you don't need to make plays by yourself all the time.

My team is going to try to move towards B-Site early in the round.

Picking off back plat or a tunnels rush

Using the AWP, use your superior movement skills to get into tunnels as fast as you can. If you manage to not lose speed by bumping into things, you'll be scoped in through tunnels before anyone crosses over to the left side. If the enemy team manages to be fast enough to beat you there, there is little to no chance of them being in position, so simply pick them off as they are still moving. Otherwise, scope into a spot where you can shoot a head that pops up over red box. This strategy requires a bit of skill with flickshots, I'm having you scope in on red box, as it would be difficult to flick to, judging off the size of their hit box. The spots you will be flicking to will be barrels and in front of red box. Just be ready and there is a very small chance that you get picked off for free. If the CT's decide to smoke it, just quickly decide that you aren't going to be able to get anything out of this, and move on to the next strategy for B-Site.

Picking the AWPer mid

Probably one of the best examples of a "one off" strategy. People usually adapt to this one quite quickly, but nonetheless, this is still a very effective strategy. For weapons, you can get away with just about anything. I do mean anything, AWP, AK-47, Deagle, Tec-9, Bizon, anything will work here, just adjust how you play this strategy according to how your weapon handles.

Quickly rush from T-spawn or upper tunnels all the way to lower tunnels. From there, head out towards mid doors. When I watch mid as CT, I'm usually sitting on the left corner (from the T's perspective) of mid looking at catwalk. So what you are going to do is prefire that corner with your higher powered weapons, like the AWP, Deagle, and AK-47, or rush out mid with your "spammy" weapons, like the Tec-9 or P90. You're gambling on him not hitting the flickshot, or being scoped in on lower mid. Hold your ground, if he's out in the open and misses his shot, you get to spray him down for free. If you don't see him right away, check your corners and retreat back to mid. Considering how simple this strategy is, it still amazes me how often I can pull this off, especially on eco rounds. I try this strategy at least 3 times a game when I queue up at LEM rank.

Mid to B-Site with a smoke

In general, when people hear "mid to B" they assume it's a team strategy. But having just one player go mid to B is enough to turn a round in your favor. Get behind x-box and throw the smoke as pictured. Execute the previous strategy, but once there is no one mid, keep on going towards B. Go through window, you get much better angles on the CT's holding B. If you manage to get up mid without dueling an AWP, B-site is basically free kills. Look back plat first, then car, then the actual site. If you survive, congratulations, you have B-site for free. If you manage to get the rest of your team to rush tunnels, there is almost no reason for you to lose here.

My team really wants to hit A-site this round

Getting up Cat without a smoke

So recently on reddit, someone popularized an x-box smoke that you can throw from behind long double doors. Everyone now thinks it is necessary to do this to get up cat safely. But we're solo queue heroes! We don't need a whole team to go up cat, just ourselves! Using the best movement you can muster, run from palm to catwalk, once you get there, jump and strafe across where the AWP is looking and dodge the shot he is going to try and take. Most of the time I get up cat safely, other times, I'm only legged. Have your gun prepared for anyone playing close cat, even though it is rare. If you have your gun ready, it is easy to stop anyone on cat, just check close right, under stairs, above stairs, and on top of the baskets. Once you get to stairs, toss a flash over the corner of cat.

Try and throw it in a way where it flashes low and in-front of A-site. I've found that running backwards briefly before throwing allows it to go off in just the right spot. This should flash ANYONE looking at cat from A-site. Elevator is hit the hardest, while site, ramp, and goose get flashed unless they are ready for it. After the flash goes off, take off for the site. Get ready to shoot site, ramp, and goose if any CT's re-peek. If you do this with your team going long, either you or your team is distracting the CT's on site, and one of you will be getting free kills.

Long Corner Pick

This should be a simple strategy, and it's very forgiving for movement. Get to long as fast as you can, and prefire the corner, if there's no one there, peek wider and shoot anyone trying to get pit. If you get there really slowly, throw the pop flash pictured and then peek.

Long A Solo

This is probably the slowest strategy I have for you guys, so if you can't move around the map very well, this is your bread and butter. I recommend an AWP for this one, but a rifle will do. Throw the smoke pictured by getting into the car door that's by T-spawn. Run to long corner right after you throw it. The smoke will go off on the corner right when you peek if you do it right. If you fail the smoke, you will see it pop above long double doors. Don't peek if the smoke fails. Otherwise, go ahead and see if the corner player runs for pit and pick him off. Even if you pick off the corner player, there's a chance that the CT's play two long, so check your corners. Clearing your corners fast will help you pull this off cleanly. Points of interest include; behind blue dumpster, the right corner after exiting long, and peeking doors from pit. Once you clear everything, jump into pit and look A site. Once you kill the site player that is definitely peeking long by now, ensure that no one is playing car, then peek elevator. After elevator is cleared, toss a smoke on the cross to A-site. Even if it's a "bad" smoke, if you jump across, you probably won't get picked off. Check your corners on site and either plant, or proudly announce to your team that you took A-site solo!

With these strategies, you can inflate your ranks quite a bit, especially if you are currently sitting in lower ranks, like the Master Guardian ranks and lower. I hope to see people trying these strategies in matches, and until we meet on the battlefield, have fun entry fragging!

Are you into fantasy leagues? Then check out AlphaDraft and put together your allstar lineup!