The 'Nades and Their Uses

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive you have the economical system which rewards the players for doing good, or for loosing horrible, in which case it is duly needed. Each player decides on what inventory to buy at the start of each round. They choose from weapons, armour, utility items and from different kinds of grenades of course. This entry is about the latter.

Grenades in cs:go come in different shapes and sizes. There is the high explosive grenade, the flashbang, the smoke grenade, the incendiary grenade or the Molotov cocktail, and the last and probably least important decoy grenade.

Here are the costs:

HE grenade - $300
Flashbang - $200
Smoke grenade - $300
Incendiary grenade/Molotov cocktail - $600/$400
Decoy grenade - $50

As you can see, there are two types of flaming grenades. The incendiary grenade is only available to the counter-terrorist team, while the Molotov cocktail is reserved for the terrorist team. At first glance, it may seem that the price is the only difference and that the terrorists are more inclined to set things on fire, but it is my personal belief that the price difference comes mainly from paying for collateral damage caused by burning local areas. There are some other differences as well. The incendiary grenade is smaller and easier to deploy through tiny holes and crevices. The larger Molotov cocktail is easier to recognise and harder to fit through narrow points on the maps. However, another positive in favour of the Molotov cocktail is that it has a higher armour penetration, making it better against armoured opponents. Otherwise, the two teams are equal in their 'nading capacities.

Each player in cs:go may carry a total of four grenades. They can only carry one of each type at a time except for the flashbang, which may be carried in pairs. A counter-terrorist buying the maximum amount of most expensive grenades will be coughing up a total of $1400 (!) which is a lot of money, especially considering they spent that on grenades only.

Unused grenades are dropped on death, which means any survivor with the carrying capacity may pick them up. You cannot voluntary drop grenades, except by arming them of course. Enough of the silly information, let us get started with actual applied 'nading.

HE Grenade
When you see the word grenade, this is probably what comes to mind. It is the intuitive thrown explosive designed to take out infantry with explosion propelled shrapnel. The in-game effectiveness of the HE grenade is rather limited. Unless the players within the blast radius are unarmoured. In that case the He grenade can deal a whopping 98 points of damage. If the players were armoured, they would receive a maximum of 57 damage. That is still a respectable amount of damage, bet it decreases the further the player is from the blast radius's centre, and it is hard to have the grenade detonate right at someone's feet.

The HE grenade is best suited for picking off damaged enemies that have retreated behind cover. Another good use that requires some coordination is grenade stacking. Stacking requires two or more players to throw their 'nades at the same time at the same target. Combined, the blasts are strong enough to take out armoured players at full health. Since the HE grenade is cheap compared to most guns, grenade stacking is a respected eco round strategy, especially on maps with good choke points such as double doors at long on de_dust2.

A saving team could throw a couple of grenades at the choke point hoping there are enemies trying to get through. I have seen entire teams loose within seconds because they tried a long rush against a 'nade stacking saving team. Just remember, if you aren't going for the stack you are probably better off buying a cheap effective gun such as the P250. Also, grenade stacking isn't used widely at higher levels of counter-strike since the players are aware of the devastating effect it can have, and therefore they respect it and plays around it by not grouping up together at choke points.

Additional uses of the HE grenade is that the explosion causes dropped weapons to move. If you get a kill and want to retrieve the dropped gun without exposing yourself to the remaining enemies you can throw a grenade and hope to blow it into reach. This is a very rare situation and in my many years of counter-strike it is yet to show up. That doesn't mean it never will though.

Flashbang
The flashbang is one of the iconic grenades of counter-strike. It is the griever's dream item as it could be everything from great to greatly depressing. A detonating flashbang temporarily blinds people looking at it as well as depriving them of their hearing. This means flashbangs are at the uttermost importance when pushing into enemy controlled positions. Usually, this is when the terrorist team tries to make their way unto a bombsite, where the counter-terrorists have dug down into defensive positions. However, it could also be when the counter-terrorists are trying to make their way back into a lost bombsite to defuse the bomb.

The effect of a well placed flashbang is that whoever is trying to hold a certain position either gets sensory deprived or has to fall back to avoid this. When the defender then tries to return to his defensive position, he or she is the one who has to peek the enemy, negating the player of the advantage.

A veteran player knows of this and will therefore quickly step behind cover alternatively look away as soon as the player spots an incoming flashbang. This technique to avoid being flashed is crucial to learn since most matchmaking players don't know how to throw a flash properly. They just throw it, wait for the bang, and pushes forward. In such a scenario, the defender could very well have avoided the flashbang and is well prepared to mow down the enemy.

The proper way to throw a flashbang is to make sure that it lands where the enemy can't avoid to look at it. This requires some practice and some testing. Usually, this means the flash detonates high above the players or bounces first and then detonates immediately after being visible, leaving no reaction time to avoid it. Synchronizing your team's flashes is another important tactic since defending players usually are spread out around a bottleneck part of the map. One flash might blind one of them, but leave the other unaffected which means you're at a disadvantage trying to push through.

A nice trick one could do is something I learnt back in counter-strike 1.5. I don't know if it has a name, but I know it as the "Mooneyflash". The Mooneyflash takes advantage of enemy players looking away as they spot the incoming flashbang. Usually, one uses it as they want to peek a player around a corner. Instead of throwing the flashbang in front of you, you throw it in the direction opposite of where the corner turns and immediately steps out before it detonates. The enemy sees the flash, looks away and slightly before or at the same time it detonates the player steps out and has a free shot at the enemy. The detonating flashbang will be in your back, which means you will only be partly blinded, but if the enemy tries to return the fire, they will be blinded completely. That's the Mooneyflash and it works all the time for me.

Smoke grenade
When I was a new inexperienced counter-strike player, I thought the smoke grenade was in the game because of flavour reasons. I believed it to be useless, a waste of money, and only there because in reality smoke grenades were a thing. As the typical beginner, I was completely wrong. The smoke grenade is not just good, it is crucial for competitive counter-strike.

The effect of the smoke grenade is a thick cloud of smoke (duh) that blocks line of sight as well as it obscures vision for whoever is inside of it. The thing is whoever tries to move through the smoke will be visible to people outside of it before they can see through it themselves. This means that pushing through smokes is a pretty poor idea, which brings us to the first use of the smoke grenade, holding back the enemy team.

As moving through smoke puts you at a certain disadvantage, you should not do it. Therefore, the best solution to a smoked off passage is to wait for the smoke to clear or try another way. Pushing through is seldom worth it. Since good players know of this, a smoke grenade will stop them in their tracks. Therefore, a smoke grenade comes in handy when the enemy tries to rush your position. Mostly, this strategy is used by the counter-terrorist side to buy time and stop the terrorists from having an easy entry into the bombsite. However, the smoke grenade can also be used by the terrorist side to hinder the retake of a captured bombsite or to block off visibility and allow for some mobility without the fear of being spotted.

Usually, the terrorist side will use the smoke grenade to smoke off a certain passage of potential threat, such as CT spawn in middle on de_dust2 when moving mid to B, or route to CT spawn on B on de_inferno. This means that any counter-terrorist who is currently watching that passage will be blind and the terrorists can move in on the bombsite feeling safer as they now can focus their attention on the remaining angles and camping spots. 

Incendiary grenade and the Molotov cocktail
The flaming grenades are expensive, but can be put to great effect if used aptly. What the flaming grenades do is that they ongoing damage to whoever is standing in the effected, aka burning, area. No surprises there. Much like with the smoke grenade, I didn't recognize the utility of the flaming grenade at first. Experience has since made me wiser. The reasons I had for disliking the flaming grenade was the expensive price tag and the small amount of damage it did to players since nobody would remain stationary in the flames as soon as the grenade detonated. I thought of them as a more expensive less damaging high explosive grenade. This is where I was wrong.

The flaming grenade is good at flushing out camping players. If you now of a defensive position where people usually are hiding, so that they have the advantage on incoming players, throwing a pre-emptive flaming grenade in that position will force the camping player to move or take considerable damage. Usually, this means they will move. This means that the flaming grenades often are used by the terrorist team when taking bombsites. Set the common camping places ablaze and watch the defenders get their pants on fire. When the counter-terrorists fall back from the fires they move out into the open and are easy targets for the entry fraggers (the players whose task it is to be the first one to push into enemy controlled areas).

The counter-terrorists, on the other hand, have their uses for the flaming grenade as well. Usually they are used in the same way as the smoke grenade, blocking off narrow passages and holding off incoming enemies. Seldom the flaming grenade is used to frag an opposing player.

Decoy grenade
At last we reach the cheapest of the grenades, the decoy. When thrown, this grenade will mimic the sound of the main weapon of the player who threw it, showing up at the radar as an opposing player. Usually, nobody is fooled by this grenade. Even the moderately experienced players have enough game sense to realize where the opposing players ought to and not ought to be.

One tactic I met on several occasions is the fake decoy rush. This goal of this strategy is for every player on the team to buy one of these and then throw them towards on direction, and then run the opposite. In theory, this could very well fool the other team as they would see five enemies firing off on their radars, but since they are no idiots, they will realize that there is no way in de_inferno that the enemy team will open fire in unison on nothing but chickens. The problem is, if nobody actually encounters the enemies, the location and the timing of the decoys will give away the tactic. The only good thing about it is that it is cheap. It is still a waste of money, if only by a little.

I usually never buy the decoy grenade. Since you know of my history with the smoke and the flaming grenades, you are wise to question my judgement, and should actually. I have found one use of the decoy, and that is to throw them in clutch situations, when the enemy don't know where you are. The trick is to throw it without giving away your position, so that it lands on a spot where it is logical for you to peek the enemy. I once saw a pro player manage this feat; unfortunately, I don't remember who it was.

The scenario was the following: the map was de_dust 2. The bomb had been planted on A. There was one counter-terrorist and one terrorist left and time was ticking down. The terrorist didn't know where the counter-terrorist would peek. The counter-terrorist approached the site from CT spawn. In the slope, the counter-terrorist threw a decoy onto short, where the stairs are. The terrorist who was camping on the site, the place called "goose", thought the decoy was the prefiring counter-terrorist and engaged short. This allowed the actual counter-terrorist to move up slope and get an easy frag.

This scenario is awesome, and it surely is what you imagine will happen every time you buy that decoy. However, if you consider the circumstances for this scenario to play out as it did, I think it is safe to say, that the expected value you get from purchasing the decoy never meets the price you are paying. Buying decoys is a loosing proposition. I can think of one instance when you should buy it. The last round in the half or of the game, when you have $50 remaining and can't save the money for the next round, and of course a free grenade slot.

Hopefully, you are now much wiser on using the 'nades in Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. This was my explosive, sorry, extensive guide on how to count to three not five. As always, good luck, have fun!

The Importance of a Team

In earlier entries I have discussed the importance of communication regarding eco rounds and how to manage your teamplay. Without communication it could be hard convincing random players in the matchmaking cue to upgrade their sub-machine gun since you died and lost yours. This is where playing with people you trust and know is important.

When I went to high school, I played counter-strike in a clan. A clan was the e-sport equivalent of a team back then. Nowadays, I am sure we call them teams in e-sports as well. Anyway, back then I had a clan to play in and we played every single day. In school, we discussed strategies and when we did not play matches or practiced aiming we studied demos from professional players. All in all, we wanted to be good and we went a long way of making that happen. The thing is, we all wanted the same thing, so we had a good basis for cooperation.

I am not saying that you should not play with your friends or for fun, all that I am saying is that if you would like to be as good as possible in cs:go, you need to find people who share that attitude. Otherwise you will find yourself with random people from the Internet on your team, and chances are that the average internet dweller could be a troll, a griever, or someone who does not even try.

Another person who could frustrate your games is the solo player. The solo player cares for one thing. Himself. To him it is more important to have good statistics rather than winning. For him it is more important saving up a personal bank rather than dropping weapons. Usually, this is the same kind of player who is flaming when it goes poorly. In other words, calling teammates names and questioning their skill, intelligence, or even sexual orientation (!). Such a player's reasoning is simple; if I could hold my own, so should everybody else.

The problem is that if you guard your personal bank so that you always will be performing at your personal best, your team will not be functioning at its best. Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is a team game. The sum of the whole is worth more than each of its parts. It is as simple as that.

An explanation to why it is hard to make a team of randoms cooperating could be that everybody is used to being attacked by other players. Many times when I tried to communicate with team mates I did not know, trying to give them a tip on how to handle a situation, they would become defensive and not realize I was trying to help. There is no easy solution to such a conflict in-game. A way around it would again be playing with people you know.

When you play with a full team of premades communication is important. That is the reason you are bothering to  match your schedules to be able to play together. Without communication there is no difference playing with premades and randoms.

Good communication within your team is synchronizing your actions. Play long enough with the same crew and this become second nature. Soon enough you almost take for granted that your 'mates will push with you and lend support. Examples of synchronizing your team's actions are:

• Let's go long A.
• Wait for the smoke and the flash.
• Push short now!

There are other times when synchronization is used, but I think you get the point by now. Other important parts of your team communication is informing everybody on your and enemies' location:

• I'll watch short.
• Leaving middle, care for arch.
• Two guys coming tunnels.

Other times it is more important to have a dedicated player caring for the overall communication within your team. This person is called the "caller" or "stratcaller". The caller's job is to inform the team on what plays the team is going to run. It is important that every player on the team accept and trust that the caller's decisions are beneficial for the team. If you need to eco, the caller calls it. If you are going to rush B like idiots, the caller calls it. If you are going to camp and go for picks, the caller calls it. I hope you get the idea. The point is, if the caller calls for a certain strategy or tactic, going rogue is harmful for your team's success.

It is a good idea to rehearse strategies together so everybody know their part. This reduces the need for in-game communication which leaves more room for concentrating and playing at your best. Before I end this entry, I would like to stress some examples of when silence is preferred over communication:

• That f@cking lagger, luck-shot, maggot! He is so lucky. He gotta have WH! Cheater, report him. Ass reported.
• ... and then my boss was like 'hey, try to do something', and I am just like 'what does it look like I am doing' and then I got fired and security escorted my off the premises.
• You probably should have went B instead of A.

That is it for this time. Happy fragging everybody!

The Weapon of Choice

Counter-Strike has always had an array of weapons to choose from. I remember how first person shooters used to be before the more realistic games (cs, cod, battlefield) were introduced. In the past, the fps standard arsenal was the melee weapon, the gun, the rifle, the machine gun, and the rocket launcher. Back then you did not have a choice; you either had a certain gun or you did not. The counter-strike franchise challenged this set up by allowing the players a choice. What gun? What rifle? Naturally, those weapons were not all the same. Some of them were more efficient than others and therefore became the elite.

This weapon metagame was counter-productive to the design of the game. The will of the players to be competitive clearly outmatched the freedom of choice. In counter-strike's past, the game revolved around the following weapons: the standard pistols, the glock and USP; the Desert Eagle or Nighthawk; the MP-5; the side characteristic guns, the AK-47 and the M4A1; and the AWP.  All the other weapons could just as likely have been left out of the game.

The weapons in cs:go follow the same pattern. There is an elite group preferred over the rest, but overall the weapons have been tweaked and balanced compared to older versions of the game. However, if you want to succeed, you need to focus your training on the elite few. The first weapons you should learn to love and appreciate is the standard issue pistols.

The starting pistols, in cs:go you have some to choose from, come without costs. This is important since this allows you to buy armor, defuse kits, grenades, smokes, or flashes during pistol rounds. If you think about it, this can give you an edge compared to players who buy another pistol instead, especially considering the fact the no one can afford helmet on pistol rounds. Without helmet, all the pistols are one shot headshots. Unless you are firing long range.

The starting pistols are the glock, the P2000, and the USP-S. The terrorist side does not have a choice. They get the glock, so practing and getting used to playing with it as a sidearm and during pistol rounds is important. The counter-terrorist side on the other hand can choose between the P2000 and the USP-S. Damage-wise, the weapons are identical. The P2000 comes with one more round in a clip and more ammunition in reserve. The good thing with the USP-S is that the silencer has a possibility of not revealing your position while firing. This is a really minor benefit and a good player will quickly realize where you are firing from. Compared straight up, the P2000 seems like the better choice.

Even though it seems slightly worse than the P2000, I prefer to use the USP-S. I found that the similarities in handling the USP-S while playing is close to the same as in earlier versions of counter-strike I have played. In other words, I am able to land headshots with the USP-S while I am struggling to do the same with the P2000. I cannot say I have any proven facts on the subject, so I recommend that you start with the P2000 instead of the USP-S (as well as start practicing myself so that I can relearn my starting pistol).

The second weapon group you should learn to handle and appreciate is the rifles, specifically the AK-47, the M4A4, and the M4A1-S. Once again it is the counter-terrorists that have a choice between the M4A4 and the M4A1-S. These rifles are equal in damage. The only difference is that the M4A4 does more damaged when headshotting a player without helmet. Both weapons, however, are one shot headshot in that scenario, so it does not matter. They are on all purposes considered equal in dealing damage. The differences are, as with the pistols, the number of rounds in a clip, the amount of ammunition, and the silencer on the M4A1-S. When you compare them the M4A1-S actually also has a greater recoil control to compensate for the low clip capacity. The M4A4 is also a little bit more expensive at $3100 compared to the M4A1-S price of $2900. That is a free flashbang each buy round, if you can spare the ammunition.

These weapons are kind of equal in their performance. Going with one over the other is not a poor choice. One more time do I find myself going with the M4A1-S since it handles like the old M4A1 (duh). You need to be careful with the nerfed clip capacity though, which has greatly reduced the rifles ability to mow down a group of rushing players. Because of this reason, the M4A1-S is at its best at medium to long range, while the bullet spewing M4A4 has the edge in close quarters.

This leaves us with the terrorist side's choice of standard rifle, the godlike AK-47. This is arguably the best weapon in the game. It comes cheaper than its counter-terrorist counterparts. It is always a one hit headshot no matter armor and helmet. It is accurate and has 30 rounds in its clip. What is there not to like? If you should practice with any gun, this is the gun you should grind with. The AK-47 is harder to use than the M4:s but in skilled hands it is way above them in efficiency.

The last weapon I would like to put into the elite group is the AWP. This sniper rifle is the bane of players everywhere. Sitting at an expensive $4750, this is not a gun everybody should buy. Not being able to frag players on the first attempt(s) or dying with it is a huge concern. Be sure you have practiced a lot before you bring it to your matchmaking games. Otherwise, you will frustrate your team and chances are your mates will let you know how they feel about it in an impolite manner. Had it been a cheaper weapon, it would not have hurt the team economy and that is why this is a sensitive issue.

However, every counter-strike team need a skilled AWP:er. The gun kills you in one shot, no matter armor and helmet, and no matter where it hits you. Except for the legs. A legshot from an AWP just takes away roughly 85 % of you maximum health and scares the living sh!t out of you. Therefore I conclude that counter-terrorists and terrorists never skips leg day.

As you can see I don't intend to discuss the heavy and SMG categories more closely. This is because they, even though weapons on an average have been more balanced, still cannot compare to the other weapons mentioned on my elite list. Sometimes it is correct to buy from them, but that is mainly during anti eco rounds or forced buys, and if you could afford a better gun, you should buy that instead.

Now, go on becoming one of the elites using the elite's choice!

The Eastern European Buy

After reading my two entries on eco rounds, found here and here, you probably thought you knew everything that you need to know about counter-strike finances and how to resolve when to eco. You are wrong. For every decision you make there is at least another line of play to choose. Does that mean that everything we learned about eco rounds is wrong? No.

You see, in the previous entries on the subject we determine the value, reason, and strategic implication of ecoing. In this entry, we will take a closer look on circumstances not yet covered. For example the "semi-buy" also known as an "Eastern European buy". Feeling curious yet? Let's go!

The Eastern European buy is a round when two or three players on the team are buying, and the others are not. It is a valid strategy since it gives you a round of firepower which you should not have. The catch is that even though some of your mates are buying up, you are still behind in firepower overall. My inclination is that whenever someone needs to eco and nobody can afford to drop, your team probably should eco to minimize the financial losses during an unfavored round. Therefore I cannot say I agree with this strategy. However, if you have strong clutch players on your team, making sure they are in a position to frag as much as possible is certainly valuable.

Sometimes you go for an Eastern European buy since you happen to have some surviving players from the previous round, with weapons and armor, but not enough money to make a full buy for the entire team. In either case, survivors or not, you have a choice to make regarding putting armor and helmet on your saving players. If they do, they can certainly not be referred to as saving players anymore. However, it is the optimist's strategy since the main reason for doing this is the chance you get an entry frag on an opponent and have the possibility of liberating a gun or two. If you manage to do that, you have another fully armed and armored player on your team. If things go poorly, one of them might be able to pick up one of your dropped weapons and the recycle it. However, the worst case scenario and a strict possibility is you being outgunned and the armor and helmet buy suddenly starts to look silly.

It certainly is quite the surprise when you are up against ecoing opponents and one of them drops you with an AK-47.  There is an element of surprise to the Eastern European buy that can come in handy, especially if you have excellent marksmen in your ranks. Even though I myself do not feel comfortable with such a semi-buy on my team, I must admit that it could be a valid strategy. The key to success is not just having skilled people with powerful guns in their hands, but the coordination of your team. If everyone is buying what they can at all times, they are not executing any tactics; they are burning money. Therefore make sure that your team is in on it before you buy anything. At the most you could buy armor and helmet if you have liberated a gun in a previous eco round, without announcing it. But you probably should either way. One of the worst feelings is when you have a certain pattern in your team with about half the players saving and the other half buying interchangeable every round. 

Now it is time to hit the servers soldier!  Practice makes perfect.

The Eco Round - Part 2 Variations in the Early Game

Now that you know the importance of ecoing, we can discuss certain situations. The classic round structure of ecoing in counter-strike was losing the first round and then ecoing twice. From that point forward you only eco once. This is mostly still the truth and the correct way to compete successfully in cs:go. However, if your opponents' score is fourteen or fifteen you do not have the luxury of ecoing since there might not be another round to capitalize on that saved money. This is only true for matchmaking, since competitive games otherwise have overtime if tied, 15-15. In that case, you might stand a better chance of winning the map if you go for the tie rather than buying what you can.

When you have mastered the understanding of the eco round, you will find that with that knowledge a whole new metagame appears. Whoa, whoa, whoa! What is a metagame?! A metagame is the influence knowledge of the game mechanics and people's standard actions has on the gameplay. That is my definition, and I believe that it is sufficient for my point, which is explaining to you that not all games of cs:go is the same.

Consider the following situation, which you will know of if you read the entry about the eco round here:

It is the first round of a cs:go matchmaking game. The counter-terrorists loses the round and therefore they decide to eco the next one. This means they will not buy anything.

This happens almost every cs:go game, unless you do not know about ecoing, which puts your team at a disadvantage. This is the standard procedure, and the terrorist team knows about this. This means they know that they will be favored in firepower and armor, and since the counter-terrorists are not buying, they decide to buy sub-machine guns instead of rifles and P-90s, which is a lot cheaper and still have them at the firepower advantage. Frags with these weapons also earn their user extra cash rewards in cs:go, which is yet another reason to buy those MAC-10s, MP-7s, and Bizons when winning the first round. Another reason not to buy a rifle or P-90 this round is, heaven forbid, you get fragged by the counter-terrorists and they liberate your firepower to their team. This could translate to a sudden comeback from the counter-terrorist side and is a major reason why sub-machine guns should be bought.

This procedure makes sure that the terrorist team's economy will be looking great for the mid game, and that they have a bank if they were to lose a round or two. If the terrorists manages to win the second round as expected, the counter-terrorists are going to make a second eco on the third round. This is a familiar pattern, but let us break it down a bit. I think it is safe to assume that the terrorist during the second round might have taken some casualties even though they have the advantage all over the board. Even if the counter-terrorists are making a second eco round, those casualties will not be buying typical anti-eco weapons (the smgs etc.) This is because if they win and survive, the anti-eco weapons will be outmatched by the counter-terrorists' M4s and AWPs, and they will need to upgrade wasting their sub-machine guns. Just remember to not expose your upgraded gun to liberation and all is fine.

To deal with this, the teammates of the fragged terrorists will upgrade to an AK-47 or AWP during the third round even though the counter-terrorists are ecoing. Their previous weapons are then picked up by the respawned teammates. If two terrorists were fragged, only two terrorists should upgrade. We do this inconvenience to boost our chances of success. Counter-strike is a game with an economy mechanic and using it wisely gives you an advantage. More advantages lead to more victories, which is the point of competitive matchmaking.

This is all logical, but there are variations to this. Especially in cs:go has the metagame evolved from the first round loss translating to a second and third round eco into certain other lines of play. Let us use the same scenario for simplicity. The terrorists win the first round. The counter-terrorists know that they are being expected to make a full save, and that the opponents will be on an anti-eco strategy. This opens up the possibility of an "armor, helmet and pistol"-buy from the counter-terrorist side. In cs:go the P250 is a cheap pistol with good accuracy, rate of fire, and firepower. Paired with armor and helmet, the P250, or the recently added CZ75 Auto, the counter-terrorists now have the advantage against anti-eco buying terrorists. Therefore, it could sometimes be correct of the terrorist team to have some of their players buy rifles even though they are expecting an eco round. This is something that would almost be unforgivable in counter-strike's past since it could risk the expected 3-0 start from winning the pistol round by allowing liberation of firepower.

The reason the P250, armor and helmet buy is so effective is because anti-eco weapons are poor against armored opponents. It is also the reason why a liberated AK or M4 is more dangerous than a liberated Bizon or MP-7. If captured, the sub-machine gun will not be an efficient threat to your armored teammates. A liberated AK-47 will.

There is another variation playing as counter-terrorists and losing the first round. If the opponents buy a mix of sub-machine guns and rifles, the pistol, armor and helmet buy round two will be poor. Therefore, they could decide to eco and make a full save the second round. However, instead of ecoing the third round as well, they go for the rarely seen "FAMAS buy". One of my favorite quotes state "when nothing but second best will do" and this also happens to be the perfect description to the FAMAS buy. What it is, is a third round full buy, only that the weapon purchased is a FAMAS instead of a M4, P-90 or AWP. Much like the second round pistol, armor and helmet buy, this is a shock tactic used to capture the enemy off guard. The upside of the FAMAS buy is that you get one round less of ecoing if you win and you do not have to upgrade if you do. Remember, if you take casualties, have the surviving teammates upgrade and drop their FAMASes to save money. The downside, well, you lack the firepower of the M4 or the AWP and maybe even some of the auxiliary items such as grenades.

This pretty much summarizes the, by me, legalized early game actions for losing the first round as counter-terrorists. Unfortunately, this is not true if we switch the scenario to the counter-terrorist winning first round and have the terrorists ecoing. In short, terrorist eco decisions in the early game are based around the bomb being planted or not. Why? Because the terrorists are awarded extra cash for planting the bomb, effectively canceling out a round they otherwise would have needed to eco. That, combined with guns cheaper than the counter-terrorists' mean the terrorists eco less than the counter-terrorists.

The easiest scenario is losing first round as terrorists and ecoing the second. If no plants are made during any of those rounds, the terrorists will eco the third round as well. However, if they manage to plant the bomb once or twice during the first and second round, they will have a full third round buy, which is bad news for the counter-terrorists if they have anti-eco weapons. This is only possible if the terrorists did not make an armor, helmet, and pistol buy round two. Because of this, the losing terrorists main goal is to get the bomb planted. This means that a strategy that gets the bomb planted but loses the round is actually a winning play in the end. This is a fine example of the metagame warping the actual gameplay.

The terrorists are of course able to to the second round armor, helmet, and pistol buy, or a rarely seen third round GALIL buy if they feel it is the correct decision. Mostly, it is better to go for the plant and a third round full buy though. Therefore the easiest eco decision is when the terrorists lose the first round but got the bomb planted. That translates to a second round full save since the third round full buy is already secured. 

That was my advice regarding ecos and the early game. Be sure to comment if you find anything strange, faulty or missing.

Stay tuned to be the next Sir Fragalot!

The Eco Round

One of the things that truly gets to me as an experienced counter-strike player is the amount of players out there who have no idea what an eco round is. The eco round is short for economical round and the short version of the explanation is: a round where you buy nothing or next to nothing.

The value of the eco round is probably hard to learn since the eco round's nature is quite counter intuitive. Not buying a gun, armor and helmet, grenades, and a defuse kit surely does not sound like a good way to win the round, and it is not. The gain lies within the fact that counter-strike is played over the course of multiple rounds. You save your money to fight another day, or in this case, another round.

Think of it this way. If the opposing team has the firepower advantage and the armor advantage as well as the auxiliary advantage (grenades, flashes, smokes) and your team only has the funds to match one out of the three categories, the odds are that you are not favored to win even if you spend your hard earned cash. Your chances of winning that round increase if you buy guns anyway, but if you do not that money was wasted.

The eco round allows your team to sacrifice one round to equalize the next (note: in some cases you need to sacrifice more than one round e.g. second and third as counter terrorists side after losing the first). The point is that you would rather play one equally favored round and one disfavored one, compared to two disfavored ones. This is especially true since there is no risk involved in the eco round, but the "buy what you can"-round risks your team economy.

When should your team go for the eco round? Whenever a member of your team cannot afford to buy a gun and armor plus helmet. Sometimes you should also take into consideration if your team can afford the necessary auxiliaries as when deciding when to eco. If you press "tab" and reveal the scoreboard, your team's statistics as well as each player's funds will be visible. Once again, communication is key, not all players have the good habit of checking team funds each round, so make sure that you inform your team if your funds are low. This is crucial to prevent your teammates from buying when all members cannot afford to.

Sometimes, however, there are just one or two persons who need to eco, but the rest of the team have all the money they need. If any of the other members can afford to buy their own equipment (gun, armor and helmet) as well as an additional gun, then they are able to and should buy a gun for their poverty ridden team members.

Before I end this segment I will yet again stress how important it is to keep track of your team's money, not just your personal funds. Whatever you do, do not be the guy who goes gung-ho and always buys the biggest gun affordable. It is very frustrating having that guy on your team, and it reduces your chances of winning a great deal. If winning is not what you care about, which in itself is alright, then maybe competitive matchmaking is not for you. Do not grief your team mates, eco the round.

Over and out!

A Blog to Help You Improve at CS:GO

Counter-Strike Global Offensive is a first person shooter focusing on team based combat rather than a free for all fragging contest. Being the fastest, most skilled individual sure goes a long way to becoming good at this game, but to be great one will need to become a team player. Therefore it could be rather frustrating playing when your teammates have no clue of what they are doing since you need to come together as a group. Otherwise, your team will most likely fail. This blog is my contribution to the cs:go community, or cs:gommunity as I like to call it, and it aims to help you avoid being the person on the team who is clueless.

Short? Long? Catwalk? WTF!

Why should you listen to me? Well, for starters I have at least ten years experience in the Counter-Strike franchise and I have seen enough players, in real life as well as online, that play counter-strike ineffectively. I do not say that they cannot aim or do not get the goal of the game. I am talking about players who just need a little bit of help to improve a lot, and who willingly are looking for ways to improve their game. Such people are everywhere on the cs:go matchmaking servers. Some of them are even aware that they are lacking in the "skills department", but not all of them. These are the people who are beginners or who are unfamiliar with counter-strike matches. I was once one of them and back in time when matchmaking were done manually through MIRC I picked up a whole lot of important know-how from my teammates since that was a necessity for success. Remember, back then, all teams consisted of players who knew each other and played together every evening and sometimes even every night. They also used any voice over net provider, such as ventrilo or teamspeak, to synchronize their strategy and tactics. Compared to today's randomized matchmaking, the teamplay of counter-strikes past is far beyond the level of today.

Communication is key.

What does this have to do with anything about improving as a cs:go player? Well, remember the know-how I picked up from experienced teams, you could play a lot and never learn about them today. Because of this, I am going to reveal these somewhat forgotten secrets in this very blog. The contents of this blog will therefore include individual as well as team based tips and strategy advice, weapon guides, tactical guides, map guides, and configuration advice. The blog will not include advice concerning maximizing your frames per second or anything that has something to do with the flow of the game since those are not what I call counter-strike skills, even though they may come in handy. There are, however, other sites that can effectively help you with that.

Hopefully, you are one of the players out there that will benefit from my blog, and if you are, be sure to let me know. Nothing makes me happier than helping a fellow gamer improve, except for maybe fragging them in-game.

Well met!