When watching a pro game, it's easy for us to get caught up in the raw gun skill. Yet, behind almost every one tap, perfect spray-down, or AWP flick is calculated positioning. Happily for us, great positioning is completely obtainable. Whereas we will probably never be able to flick like kennyS or entry frag like GeT_RiGhT, positioning is something that can be utilized and optimized by us normal players. Let's break down the different components of positioning on the CT side.

Ping and Peeking:

Unfortunately, there is some merit to "He shot me before I even saw him." In the situation where a Counter-Terrorist is standing still, and a Terrorist peeks out from a corner, the T will actually see the CT before the CT sees the T. This effect is directly related to the latency difference between the two players, especially when the T is laggy.

Overall, this is referred to "peeker's advantage", and while players generally dislike increased peeker's advantage, it without a doubt plays a huge role in the balance between T and CT. Tangentially, peeker's advantage is one of the prime gameplay differences between online and LAN tournaments.

CSGO is a CT Sided Game

The goal of a CT is to put himself in a position to create unfair gunfights.

All but one map in the current map pool is CT sided (the only exception being Dust 2, with Ts winning 50.4% of the time). The primary reason for this discrepancy is the active vs. passive nature of the two sides. Despite the peeker's advantage, holding an angle is preferable to being forced to peek. We'll be looking into how to maximize our effectiveness in defensive positioning.

What Angle is the Right Angle?

For now though we'll talk about holding the angle. First of all, we have to choose an angle to hold. Let's say we're on cache B site looking into B main.

Now this is an extremely powerful angle to hold for a few reasons. The first of which being that normally when we hold an angle, one shoulder is entirely exposed. This means that if the aggressive player plays slow enough, they will actually see you before you can see them. In this case however, the CT uses the wall in the foreground to nullify what usually would be his exposed right shoulder. A tradeoff to this is that there is less of a window to actually shoot the T, making this position mostly an information-gathering spot unless the CT can land some headshots or is using an AWP. Also, the further the CT is from the angle, the smaller their character model will be. This is fairly obvious, but a CT can use this effect to help mitigate the risks of having part of his body exposed.

As with any situation in CS, crosshair placement is important. Always be aiming head high (or center of mass with the AWP).

Understand Your Weapon:

Now let's discuss another factor that should be accounted for when holding an angle: reaction time and weapon choice.

Cache: left side of A site, peeking A main - terrorists will come from the right

With the AWP, we don't have the luxury of tracking the enemy like we could with a rifle. Notice how my crosshair is slightly left of the the actual location the Ts will appear. This accounts for my reaction time. No player has perfect reaction time, and thus it would likely be foolish to have my crosshairs as close to the angle as possible, as this leaves me liable to the enemy simply running across my crosshair before I can react. With the setup above, the T will run into my crosshair, as opposed to me having to flick onto the terrorist. However, if we expect the terrorist to try and shoulder peek us, or perhaps expose himself slightly to throw a grenade, it might make sense to reduce the margin, this all just depends on prediction and previous enemy behavior. Also, reaction time is a factor to be considered when analyzing pro gameplay; most likely; our reaction time is just not as fast and thus, we should be aware the we might not be able to hold as tight of angles - especially at close range angles with the AWP.

On a pistol round, we should adjust our positioning to match the ideal range of our weapon. For example, it wouldn't make much sense to play barrels at the top of long on Dust 2 or Z (or connector - whatever you call it) on Cache. Instead, we could perhaps hold the angle looking at long doors on D2, or play bottom mid below vents on Cache. Now with this, I do sometimes see pros playing the longer positions on pistol rounds. There are two reasons for this: the first being that their aim is simply better, and they have a decent chance to still hit the shots. Also, playing a longer, more passive position is noncommital, and the CT can gather information without as much risk of an early death. As such, you should balance these factors to figure out what is right for you.

Teammates

Like it or not, Counter Strike is a team game, and to play at our best, we must syngerize our actions with our teammates. This is especially important when holding angles. There are two different ways to accomplish this synergy:

The Crossfire:

A crossfire refers to positioning defenders on two different sides of a potential chokehold. With this, the best case scenario for the enemy is to trade before being killed by the players opposite the side he is facing. More than likely however, a rushing player will struggle to even kill one defender simply do the the dual firepower when running into a crossfire, even if he is aware that is set up.

Comprehensive Defense:

Often though, we don't have the luxury of committing two players to one avenue of attack. With a comprehensive defensive setup, the goal of the defending side is to cover every possible entrance to a location (usually a site). For example, on Mirage A site, we can set up a comprehensive defense with three players: a CT under palace watching A ramp, a CT on stairs to watch palace, and a CT in sniper's nest or connector to control top mid and underpass. Many sites often lend themselves to this method - often where setting up a crossfire would leave the CTs vulnerable to to other approaches.

With a comprehensive defense, communication and map awareness are key. It can be as simple as saying "I'm on stairs, make sure they don't push cat" or even just asking for a roll call of what everyone is holding to make sure your team's limited resource - eyes and focus - are not being wasted. It almost never makes sense for two players to be in the same position, watching the same angle. This neither creates a crossfire nor does it cover other potential vulnerabilities, and should be entirely avoided. The weakness of this defensive style is simply the increase in unfavorable gunfights, whereas with a crossfire you can often expect yourself to at least be even and often outnumber attacks terrorists.

This same concept particularly applies to the terrorists holding a bombsite. Simply make sure as many potential retake routes as possible are being covered. I highly recommend a roll call in this scenario. When holding B site on Inferno, make sure banana, CT, and construction are all accounted for. If you only have two remaining Ts, perhaps then have a player on spools and a player pushed into Construction (or back of site for the more conservative play). In a situation with just two Ts defending the retake, it wouldn't make sense for one T to be pushed up banana and the other one hiding behind boxes. As it leaves the player on banana vulnerable to being picked from a slow pushing CT coming from CT spawn while the T in boxes sits idle.

Final Thoughts

No single round of Counter Strike is black and white, and it would be impossible to summarize all the different factors that affect positioning. You should always be aware of both team's utilities, as well as understanding your own strengths and weaknesses. Be mindful of your teammates and your vulnerabilities - and communicate updates for both.

Above all though, consider that there is more to a great Counter Strike player than raw aim. When it comes to defensive positioning, your goal is to create an unfair gunfight.

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