CSGO Esports

No matter if you play CS 1.6, Source or Global Offensive, the game basics remain the same. Counter Strike is made up of two teams, the Terrorists and Counter Terrorists. 

Each team consists of 5 players and battling against each other while completing certain objectives. The game consists of 30 rounds and teams switch places after the 15th round. The team to win the 16 rounds, wins the map.

Each round has a limit of 1:55 minutes and during the round, each team has to complete one of the following to win:

Each round starts with small amount of in-game cash that players use to buy weapons. Every player can carry a number of weapons, including a pistol, a knife, grenades and a main weapon ranging from assault rifles and sniper rifles to machine guns. Each weapon will cost differently, but generally the larger the weapon the more it’ll cost.

If player doesn’t die during the round they get to keep their selected weapons, otherwise they have to purchase them again at the start of the round, spending more cash. Cash is earned by eliminating other players and completing objectives. If there’s not enough cash across the team, players can wait till the next round or purchase armor to protect themselves. 

Armor is something players buy to reduce the damage taken. Armor is a great ingame investment as it can protect players from near death. Pro esports players will always invest in good armor before every round to increase their chances. In some cases, AWP players will take so called “glass cannon” build, where they get the rifle with no armor to reduce the costs. 

Casual play vs competitive play is very different. Casual CSGO gamers usually play on any kind of maps of their choice for fun. Whereas competitive tournaments are played on an ‘active duty’ map pool. This map pool contains all the popular maps to keep the game balanced and intense. There’s also a ‘reserve pool’ that contains other set of maps to mix with active duty map pool. This usually helps with rebalancing and keeping maps mix up to date. 

There are many maps in CSGO so its important to understand how it works. Each player votes for a map of choice in the lobby before the game. The map with the most votes is the one that is played. If you’re just getting into competitive playing, streaming, analysing or gambling you should know each players favourites. In reality, there are no teams that are equally good on one map, making the pool selection of maps a crucial part of winning or losing the game. 

At the start of each round, a map voting is taking place. During this time, players can pick a map they want to compete in. Maps in the voting list are picked based on the process outlined above. This part of the process is crucial from every competitive esports player. As different players will have different map preference, and each map has unique layout fitting different gaming styles. Selected map can determine the success or failure of one team to another. It’s very rare to find both teams to be equally good on the same map.

In competitive CSGO matches, each player is assigned a role, this helps player to organise and prioritise in game tasks. These roles are especially useful on the Terrorists side of the game. Teams are usually split into fraggers and supporters, lurkers and game leaders.

Entry fraggers will aim to take the first kill around the bomb site area. Supporters take position to cover the fire and provide maximum support for the game. Lurkers are taking their position on the other side of the map to cause confusion and destroy spawners. Sometimes you will find AWPers take place outside of shooting zones, to gather kills from a distance. As the game progresses, game leaders will take lead the strategy and progression of the game.

On the Counter Terrorists side, the process is similar but there are fewer roles to play. Ingame leaders and AWPers will take their stand where as others will aim to destroy the Terrorists side. The team would split to check each bomb site and eliminate the entry fraggers. That’s why you often hear players say “A”, “B” or “rotater”, meaning that they need to check either of the sites or stay in between. 

In competitive esports, team will always have one player who performs all of these tasks really well based on their experience, personality and play style. As well as team leaders can usually pivot the game in any direction based on the strategy and on the fly changes. So before jumping to conclusions, or placing any bets on the winning team, make sure you understand each player and their abilities.