The molotov in Counter Strike: Global Offensive is one of the grenades on offer to the T side. It is called the Incendiary Grenade on the CT side. On T side it costs $400, on CT side it costs $600. The molotov is slightly better than the incendiary grenade, it has a 90% armour penetration as opposed to the incendiary's 73.75%, is quicker to be switch back to a weapon after use and is of course cheaper. The incendiary grenade however is smaller, making it easier to throw through tight spaces, and the molotov also deploys slightly slower.

Molotov cocktails are bottles with alcohol or petrol inside, with a rag touching the liquid which is lit when thrown. The bottle shatters on contact with the ground and spreads the flammable liquids, which then catch fire and it grows outward slowly, before burning out completely after seven seconds.

The molotov is a tool I rarely see even pro teams use, which is really surprising. There are set strats teams use such as a B site inferno take, however in my view I feel most of the time on T side a molotov may actually be more beneficial to buy than an HE Grenade, being that the molotov costs only $100 more. Be careful however, as the fire can spread towards your teammates and you in a somewhat unpredictable manner.

The molotov can grant a player a free kill at times. An example of this can be seen in Inferno in the corner on long. Rather than peeking long towards library and arch and having to expose yourself to that corner, molotoving it can allow you to clear that corner before even exposing yourself to extra angles you don't have to.

Once a molotov goes down, any smoke grenade coming into contact with it expels immediately. This can save one or two seconds of waiting for it to bounce, or if you need a smoke down immediately. Keep in mind as well with the molotov if it is in the air too long it will explode and not have any effect.

The molotov lasts seven seconds, taking five seconds to kill an opponent with a kevlar vest and four without. This means with a defuse kit and armour you can actually defuse in fire if the enemy throws down a molotov just as you start defusing the bomb. This tactic has been used by pro players, famously used by Olofmeister on de_overpass, where graffiti to pay homage to the play is on the wall.

The molotov has a lot more tactical uses, some that I'm sure some players don't know. When fire is down an idea to rush through it. The reason for this is nobody expects a rush through fire, and if it just went down you can probably catch the other person off guard without their gun out. Pro players have pushed molotovs after their teammates have thrown them to take reduced damage and push an area unexpectedly.

The molotov is useful for trapping enemies, preventing a rush from an enemy, prevent bomb defusals, escaping enemies chasing you in narrow corridors, and can cancel the usage of close range weaponry, allowing you to control the fight.

An example of molotov usage can be seen by the Titan of early 2014 in a game vs Hellraisers on Inferno.

Here you can see molotovs used to clear an entire side of the B site, killing one player and reducing the angles needed to clear the site, allow prefiring and smokes to deal with the rest. This tactic won the round for Titan on a forcebuy, giving an easier site take. Teams like Luminosity Gaming have also used the molotov almost exclusively in a strat and Cloud9 also use them very effectively.

Overall the molotov is a utility item that sadly is underused by many, I rarely see it used in matchmaking and on T side being only $100 more than a grenade I think it is actually the better option in most cases. It allows clearing areas without viewing them, to deal continuous damage, to cancel a bomb defuse and to play psychological games and make unexpected plays, possibly forcing the opponent to overthink every molotov thrown.

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