You're a CT playing de_mirage on the first round of the game, what do you expect from the enemy team? The common B Rush right? Now imagine you're playing as a Terrorist and you will play the pistol round, aren't you tired of the same strategy all the time? Well in this guide you will find some options to replace the old, rusty, and weak B Rush!

Before starting, let's just state a basic notion: It's always good to have 1 or 2 teammates buying and bringing utility so you can play out the pistol round but nothing more than that, because if 3 or more players have utility it will mean that only 1 or 2 teammates will have kevlar and it will be more difficult to win the aim duels with the CTs that will have more kevlar overall. Ideally you want to have the 2 players with utility to have a smoke each and some flashbangs on one guy and a P250 or a molotov on the other one.

Starting off with a pretty basic but completely viable A hit.

Palace Contact Pistol

(Graphic made with csgoboard)

Advantages and goals of this strategy:

The smokes cut the bombsite in half as Jungle, Connector, and Stairs are all covered;
Terrorist Players only need to focus on planting the bomb and getting CT Spawn control, which makes the afterplant easier.

Moving on to each Player's POV!

Jungle Smoke Player: This player will have the task to buy a smoke and a couple of flashbangs in the pistol round. He will first hold for ramp pushes and then smoke off the Jungle/Connector area. After this, he will flash over the roof so his teammates can go out of Palace and clear the bombsite. He will then use his last flash so the teammates from Palace can take CT Spawn to make the afterplant easier as the bomb is planted default.

Stairs Smoke Player: Similiar to the player above, this player will also buy a smoke, but he can choose to bring more flashes or maybe a P250. His smoke will be used to cover the Stairs area, so the team can progress onto the site safely.

Now onto the three players going Palace. Notice that these three players will be wearing kevlar.

Entry Fragger: As always, this player will be the first to enter the bombsite. In this case, it means that he will be the first to go out Palace and clear all the angles where the CTs might be. The Entry Fragger starts by entering Palace walking, so the CTs can't assume that the Ts are doing some kind of A hit, and waits until the first flash pops so he can start running. After the bombplant is secured, this player together with the 2nd Entry Fragger should ask for a second flash so they can take CT Spawn control to make the afterplant easier as the bomb is planted default.

2nd Entry Fragger: Familiar and similar role to the Entry Fragger, this player's task is to follow the first player and be ready to trade kills in case he dies. After the bomb is planted, he runs to CT Spawn with the Entry so they can get a better afterplant positioning.

The Bomb Planter: The guardian, the savior, the bomb planter. As the name says, this player's job is only to plant the bomb in order to make the round easier to win. The rest of the team takes out the CTs while this player just has to get the bomb down and get a good post-plant position.

The A Wall

(Graphic made with csgoboard)

Before we start, you will need what I like to call a "Crosshair Aligner" so you can find some smoke's lineup easily. So how can you do it? It's pretty simple, you just need to have a key that you can bind the following command bind "key" "incrementvar cl_crosshairsize x 4000 4000-x" meaning that:

"key" is the actual key in your keyboard that you want to bind the command for, so just replace "key" by the wanted one, in my case I use "n";
"x" is your crosshair's size so if your crosshair is size 4(cl_crosshairsize 4) you will replace in the command "incrementvar cl_crosshairsize 4 4000 3996".

When you need to use the "Crosshair Aligner" just press the selected "key" and when you don't need it anymore just press it again and your crosshair will turn back to normal!

This tactic looks good on paper, but why is it good and why usually works?

Most of the A bombsite angles are covered only using two smokes;
It's an uncommon tactic that the CTs will not be waiting for and because of that you have the element of surprise by your side.

Learn below how to perform this strategy and what each player should be doing while executing it!

Mid Site Smoke Player: Starting the POVs part, the first player will be the one buying a smoke and using it to cover the middle of the A bombsite, then, as always in a pistol round, this player will also buy a couple of flashbangs and throw them over the roof to make the entrance easier.

Wall Smoke Player: Performing a uncommon smoke and kind of hard to find the lineup, this player will have extreme importance because his smoke is crucial to split the bombsite. Since the bomb does not get itself planted, someone has to do it! This player's task will also be focused in running into the mid site smoke and planting the bomb as quickly and cleanly as possible so he can find an afterplant position faster.

Entry Fragger: The team needs someone that can check all the uncovered angles such as the Underpalace/Shadow area as well as Default? This player fits the task and gets the job done! Ensuring that the team can enter the bombsite and progress is this player's main goal.

2nd Entry: Your Entry Fragger died while crossing to the bombsite? Make sure that there is a 2nd player following him that can kill the CT players. That is the 2nd Entry's role.

Palace Player: This player will be the lone wolf, he will head towards Palace to bait some CT shots and help the team by ensuring that the Stairs CT player doesn't come out to kill his teammates.

The B Wall

(Graphic made with csgoboard)

Advantages and goals of executing this tactic:

Isolates the B Short player, preventing him from helping his teammate(s) and from killing your teammates;
Allows your team to focus only in one side of the bombsite making it easier for the taking.

This strategy has already been covered in one of the recent guides, used as a Full Buy Execute, but the same can also be applied in a Pistol Round, so if you don't know what this is about, I'll show it all down below! Notice that the smoke players are holding rifles but obviously in the Pistol Round they will be holding Glocks or a P250 along with the smoke and the flash(s).

1st Smoke Player: This will be one of the players that will use his smoke on Short. He will go straight to B Apartments and align his smoke as shown in the video below and will proceed to the bombsite ready to trade kills with the Entry Fragger.

2nd Smoke Player: The second player using his smoke will do practically the same as the player above, except that his smoke will be on the other side, with a different lineup.

Entry Fragger and 2nd Entry: These players' paths are pretty simple. Both of them just have to jump out of the Aps window and clear the right side of the bombsite as the Short Area will be covered in smoke. Always be aware that a CT player can push through both of the smokes and surprise the entire team.

Bomb Planter: As usually, this is one of the most important roles. This player has the task of planting the bomb in order to make the round easier to win for the Terrorist Team.

The Connector Rush

(Graphic made with csgoboard)

This tactic is completely different from what we've covered since the beginning of this article. In this tactic, only one player buys utility, in this case a Molotov and two flashbangs, while the other four players can buy kevlar. Why is this good? It's easy, check it out:

Only one player is unable to buy kevlar, which means that the other four players will have easier 1v1 duels against the CTs;
The team starts by putting some Mid and Underpass and then rush into Connector what may catch the CTs off-guard.

Without further do let's hop to each player's POV!

Utility Player: As he will be the only one bringing utility to the round, he will start by going Middle, holding for any CT pushes and quickly set up a Window Molotov followed by two flashbangs to blind the CT Short Player.

Entry Fragger: Not new right? First player going in. He clears every angle and tries to kill a CT player. Main goal is to open space for the team to enter the bombsite successfully.

2nd Entry and 3rd Entry: Entry Fragger's favorite teammates, the 2nd Entry is the one that will always enter after the first one ready to trade kills and take the bombsite and the 3rd one will be the one clearing the angles that the first two couldn't clear. In this case, he will get Jungle control as quickly as possible as shown below:

Bomb Planter: And we've come down to what might be the easiest but one of the most important roles of them all, the one who gets the bomb planted. This player will be sitting ramp holding for CT pushes and will enter the bombsite only once the teammates that are coming up Connector make contact, so he can enter with the bombsite cleared and plant the bomb safely.

Conclusion

And that was the last of them! Summing it up, you have a lot of viable pistol round options when playing as the Terrorists on de_mirage. In this article, I've put together the ones I think are the most effective and easiest to learn and perform in-game. It's never easy to decide what to do in a pistol round and harder it is if you are playing solo with random people on Matchmaking, so take these options, learn and teach them to your teammates and you will see results! Stay tuned for more articles and guides.

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