Yikes did things change.

Yprac has locked their maps behind a paywall. You can register and use it for free IIRC but that doesn’t work on Linux.

uLLETiCAL still has their aim trainer going. It’s not bad. I’d love to see room clearing prac maps, naid maps and other such things available for free though. Steam should really fund this because it’s what makes their e-sport possible.

Just did a simple Google search and realized that we’re all a little fragmented on our recommendations these days. There used to be some phenomenal maps, however it’s understandable that people could be demotivated to maintain maps given Valves ongoing disincentivization of community servers.

Rant aside, here are my recommendations.

Aim Training

There are two types of maps that I recommend for aim training;

1. Static aim practice maps
2. Moving aim practice maps

I don’t find maps such as Aim Course 2 useful for developing player aim, but I do not find it useful for developing technical skills.

You’ll also see maps that teach you line-ups and prefires, but these are not considered “aim training”; this is contextual map training so we’ll cover that in another section.

uLLETiCAL has been a staple producer of aim training maps and continues to keep their map updated on the Workshop.

You can find uLLETiCAL’s “Aim Botz” aim training map here: (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3070244462)

For helping understand recoil control, you can check out their “Recoil Master” map to understand recoil a little better: (https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3100869952)

While recoil control is less of a feature in low elo gameplay, it is still useful to keep it as a ‘sixth sense’.

There was a map from 1.6/source that spawned the player on a small elevation, and spawned a bunch of bot T’s in a room. The bots would rush the player to try and knife them. The aim was to kill them all before getting knifed. This was a great aim training map but I cannot find it (we previously shared it privately). If anyone knows the name, please let me know.

Map Training

There used to be a series of maps similar to Dust 2 Prefire. These maps provided crosshair placement training, pre-fire training and smoke line-ups. I can’t remember the name of them, sadly.

From my searching it appears that these were made by “Yprac” and have been consolidated into a single custom map called Yprac Hub by Yesber

While the core benefits of this custom map now branch into aim training, the utility and prefire training can be extremely useful in developing muscle memory for crosshair placement and pre-smoking sites from a distance.

In my recent return to CS2, the biggest challenges have been:

1. Re-learning crosshair placement during retake
2. Knowing where to put smokes to effectively break into a site

General Recommendations

Have been re-playing CS2 for about a month now and have noticed a few issues with low elo plays.

Mollies, Rushing

When making ingress on a site, chokepoints are normally mollied to prevent pushes. Navigating mollies have been a problem for players since CSS, however CS2 has nerfed mollies damage and duration making them less of a threat.

The role of a molly is to deal negligble damage to improve the effectiveness of SMGs and M4’s. Mollies are no longer effective in preventing a push, as most experienced players will push through the fire to make ingress.

But why? Well it’s two part.

Firstly, mollies were nerfed to become supplemental to SMG and M4 damage. SMG adoption has been encouraged on CT for a few reasons; economical, high reward, highly effective.

The MP9 rewards about $600 per kill and deals quite reasonable damage. Pre-damaging enemies with a molotov or HE grenaide improves the chance of a kill, and makes for a good combination with an MP9 for effective eco rounds. It’s recommended to favor util + SMG instead of no util + rifle.

Secondly, the mollies damage and duration were decreased. You can push a molly for a cost of about 20-40 health so long as you push hard. The HP cost is nothing against the time lost, advantage loss, and cost to rotate.

Again, but why? Again, there are a few reason.

Firstly, CT’s eco disadvantage is made up for with strong holding positions on site. This means that if a T can take site early, CT’s are playing at an economical as well as strategical disadvantage. Losing 20hp for 1-3 players on a B rush is nothing against the loss of round control.

Secondly, CT’s are forced to hold positions in a 2-1-2, 2-3 or similar split configuration. This means that T often get’s a 5v2 push if they push the molly, however they lose this numbers advantage if they wait too long.

CT getting intel on the T’s intention early in the round not only eliminates the possibility of a 5v2, but also puts them at risk of flanks and adds variability to the hold.

Most maps encourage a 2-1-2 split while Mirage encourages a 3-2-1 split. This is a relatively new trend that I’ve noticed on Mirage with one player taking mid, one player taking connector, two players holding A and one player on B. Mirage honestly has the most variability in split than any map, but you’ll typically have a 5v1 on all three avenues if played right. A is most dangerous because of the jungle rotate, and teams general preference to play heavily on A and leave B exposed.

Thirdly, T’s benefit from the hard push over the HP loss. The molly can be mitigated with a smoke but losing a smoke to the push isn’t as useful as using the smoke to cut the site apart.

As an example, in a perfect world you would have three smokes purchased on Dust2 for a B push. One for window, one for door and one for molly mitigation in uppers. Generally speaking you’re flat-out getting one smoke in a team though.

Regardless, the HP loss to pushing a molly is completely negligble against the advantage of forcing a 5v2 against two players not expecting the push. If the whole team pushes the molly then the team gets the trades from the entry, and control of the site.

Smoke Fear

Lots of players initiate a fast entry and come up against a smoke. They will not push through the smoke.

This is bad. Very bad.

Valorant gameplay encourages smoke and flash tactics, and players tend to push the smoke on the flash.

This is a little more combersome to achieve on CS2 due to the way that smokes and flashes work. They have more of a tendancy to flash team mates than the enemy. But both smokes and flashes are toothless tigers.

If someone is smoking a position then they’re going to be holding an angle to catch the push, or they’re going to believe that you’re not going to push it. They’re preying on a weaker enemies psychology, and expecting the opponent to be passified by the lack of visibility.

Again, using Dust2 as an example, this is best shown in both A long and B uppers pushes.

Players taking the A long peak will slow down on the molly and hold the team up. It’s a single person choke point and if someone plays the jiggle then they’re turning a 5v2 into a 1v2.

Similarly, holding for the smoke in B uppers gives intels to the CTs for a flank. T’s will be stuck in uppers unable to rotate unless they go through spawn, which is an extremely long rotate. It’s a lose-lose scenario where you’re either fish in a barrel, or you’re giving the CT’s a chance to reset the match.

In all scenarios, it’s better to sacrifice the entry to get two or three additional team mates pushed through. If the entry does damage when they die, they make the trades a lot easier.

CS2 has a growing trend of respecting trades but it’s not as prevalent or expected as it is in Valorant. Trade culture is a huge benefit of Val over CS at the moment.

So suffice to say, you should really push smokes. Your prefires and cross hair placement don’t change.

You can also temporarily clear smokes with HEs if you’re genuinely scared.

Also as an added bonus; smoking B uppers and waterfalling out will almost guarantee a site take without taking damage to a molly.

Playing Spawns

I thought that this was all in my head or some remnant of a culture from an older five stack, but I recently learned on Reddit that this is a pretty common thing in higher elos.

Consider Dust2 CT spawn points. It’s always two towards a, two towards b, and one at the back.

“Playing the spanws” means that the left two players play A, the middle plays middle and the right two play B.

Where you spawn changes every time so you get to play a different site each spawn. In a team of equally capable players, you reduce your time to site by just playing the site that you spawned for.

Similarly for Dust2 T, you also have “good B spawn” moments where you save 1-2 seconds on your B push, and this spawn should be used appropriately as you’ll enter B by about the time that CT get’s to A long, giving you a simple 5v2 with one watching door with sniper, and two on a VERY long rotate (already having expended preventative molly/he/smoke).

Pay attention to where you spawn on maps. In a perfect world (or an experienced, regular 5 stack), players would just play to their spawn and timins would be near perfect.

Jiggling Chokes

Maps are designed with choke points and players have a tendancy to prefer jiggling the angle than pushing to allow a trade.

Choke points often only allow one player through at a time and having someone holding the position can block the team from making an entry or getting into position.

Holding chokes or angles can also block players from engaging with you, so if you have a 5v3 retake you only really have a 3v3 with 2 in reserve. In almost all scenarios, the person blocking the choke will inevitably lose the retake, and the next person will be forced to take a peak with low intel.

Interestingly I experienced this on Inferno. Someone held and blocked the safe apps route by standing on the bridge and holding the CT apps/balcony window. Completely useless play, considering how uncommon balcony is to play now.

The side effect of this players decision was that one or two players would get blocked, have to double back, and T’s lost time on the push. Mid/Short mid intel gave CTs time on the rotate and we lost every round on that map. Team confluence was absolutely horrible for this game and the others were extremely toxic, not playing the objective and trying to solo hero kills.

It was just something that I had never experienced before.

This is extremely common on Mirage Palace and Dust2 A Long T pushes. You also get this on B tunns push but it’s a wider choke so it isn’t always the worst.

Entry needs to push and apply damage. They can’t jiggle; they have to break into the space. The second person should quickly follow the entry and trade out. Third, fourth and fifth should push up to take the site.

Why does this work?

Taking dust2 as an example, A-long push is most effect if the full team pushes long. This makes the contest a 5v2 for long control. The following format works best:

1. Entry pushes smoke/molly for flashed picks
2. Second rifler takes the trades
3. If entry dies, it’s still a 2v2 because third helps second
4. If entry doesn’t die, it’s a 3v2
5. With 2 players dead on long, the worst you’ll often be at is a 3v3.
6. You’ll like have a short player, mid player and B player at this point; A holders are down
7. 3v1 on short, smoke CT spawn to block B/mid players.
8. Short retake is extremely difficult. 3v1 against a short retake is easy.
9. By the time you neutralize short, you’ll either be at a 3v2 advantage or 2v2 against players who have terrible retake possibilities
10. If you get the 3v2, you have one person watching each entry.
11. If you get the 2v2 then you have one watching short and one watching from goose for long/spawn.
12. You’ll almost always get intel, so the hold is extremely easy.
13. Time to retake is at your advantage. Rotate time is high from mid/b. Most engagements can be a 2v1 or 3v1. Most players don’t push in coordination for trades. Shorts a choke point. Longs a long distance battle and awps are easy to counter if you force them to push up. CT spawn is an easy counter. You’ll get intel pretty quick and have better cover.

But what ends up happening is that entry or second ends up getting blocked by smoke or molly or takes the jiggle at the choke point. This gives CT time to rotate and you’ll end up with a 2v2 at bedroom, then a 3v3 for the site take. You’ll always lose one or two if you don’t push because you won’t get the trade and you’re providing making holding the angle easier for the CTs. You’re playing at a disadvantage, all because one player was scared.

Fear & Indecision

Lots of players go to execute a plan and get stopped by something; a molly, a smoke, he, or a strong holder.

The worst thing that a team can do during a push is chill out and wait to see what happens. Unfortunately, a lot of teams just sit in top mid, bedroom, uppers and other such staging positions paralyzed by indecision.

This is probably the worst thing that a team can do.

There used to be a valid strat in CSGO where teams could silently enter a position such as uppers and delay push, waiting or baiting out util. The CS2 meta kind of changes this though as more players are opting to faster intel gathering and faster rotates.

You can use this to your advantage, such as using footsteps to bait a B rotate while watching choke points for long rotates, however this doesn’t give reliable results. Especially in PUGs, it’s best to execute plays rather than trying to complicate things.

Five stacks can definitely get complicated with plays but don’t expect it to work in match making.

Generally speaking, if your team is preparing for a B push then it’s best to commit aggressively to the B push and try to trade out for site control, rather than retreating and rotating into the opponents own rotation.

This is a little more circumstantial for CT. Highly aggressive plays on CT should be kept in reserve for half buys or SMG rounds, and should be used sparingly. Making a B uppers push a sporadic, unpredictable play with an SMG can net $1200-$1800 reliably if done correctly and timing allows, but will not yield reliable results.

CT’s biggest strength is holding a site from the site. There are very few scenarios where this does not hold true, especially on full buys.

But that being said, you should also consider than falling off a site is better than a 2v5. If you can’t get initial picks on the push, it can sometimes be advantageous to play the 3v5 or 4v5 for the retake, as more places to look can decrease the accuracy of your opponents.

This is true not only for T but also CT. Don’t get trapped in a corner. Break yourself out and try to retake control of your angles, and don’t let mollies or smokes keep you from taking your ground.

Weapon Selection

I’m in a flow writing this so I’ll just cover weapon selection while we’re here.

The T sided glock has had a buff. It doesn’t compare to the CT’s USP but it’s now a very valid weapon during a push. It’s extra effective if you can close the gap between your push and the CTs, so play aggressively.

CS2 also heavily favors util, seemingly more than CSGO did. You’re almost always better off sacrificing weapon purchases for util.

Eco/Pistol

Deagle/r8 are no longer kings.

USP and Glock are complete valid selections and are free. You’re better off learning your utils and pushing with the default pistols than you are trying to hold with higher damage pistols.

Deagle/R8 rewards $300 per kill - same as the Glock or USP - and do not provide a team advantage over a $300 smoke or $200 flash. A $300 HE will provide fantastic splash damage to supplement pistol damage. The expensive molly will not net the same advantages as a HE.

I wouldn’t bother with helmet or kevlar. Generally speaking you’re chasing fast, cheesy kills on a pistol round to build your own eco and damage the opponents eco.

You don’t win a pistol/eco by killing everyone on the other team. You win by hurting their economy to reduce their ability to full buy.

General Buys

Both teams get an advantage for SMG+util.

Util can be used to close the gap and make your SMG more effective. Generally speaking, an SMG is more effective close-range than a rifle. This is true for both teams.

M4s hold 20-25 bullets depending on the suppressor. This makes spraying down close range enemies extremely difficult, and the M4 wielder will always be traded on.

The AKs are extremely dangerous to push against, but you will always trade out with SMGs.

If you can’t afford util then you can’t afford the rifle. Always opt for util and SMG over no util and rifle.

SMG offers higher reward per kill and once you’re comfortable with the MP9s headshot aimbot behavior, you’ll be able to carry a $1250 gun across multiple rounds, netting $600/kill.

While the Mac10 on the T side isn’t as powerful (in practice) as the CT MP9, it’s still a pretty effective $1050 gun if you can get pretty close.

What I’m trying to iterate is that in almost all maps, you’re better served dealing HE and molly damage across a full push then you are taking out one or two people. Splash damage will increase the chances of being traded out significantly and smokes/mollies will stop/delay pushes in lower elos.

Full Buy

You’re always well served with one awp. Two is shakey.

Awp purchase is a difficult decision because it works really well as a support weapon, but really poorly for entry.

There are a few scenarios that come to mind;

• Holding an angle and having to play retake against 3-5 players with rifles
• Holding a close angle and being rushed by a committed push
• Actually, that’s about it.

Awps are really strong holding the long angle. Think defensively on Dust2 A, train in general, mirage mid, etc.

If you’re not confident in quick scoping and pistol then you really shouldn’t opt for the one-shot-kill gun. Awpers are also likely to end up playing the retake or being last alive, and so they need to position themselves for two scenarios:

• Holding a strong angle for the win
• Keeping a position where they can swap out to a downed played rifle when distance isn’t an advantage

Generally speaking, you need to play awp strategically. Strongest riflers should stick to rifles and assist with the push. Strongest awper should support riflers watching flanks and guarding the bomb.

Think: two people playing dust 2; planted A for long, one rifler one awper. Rifler guards awper, awper guards bomb. If rifler is downed by bedroom push, there’s likely a rifle to pickup and hold ground. Awper has to make decision between guarding bomb and their position based on context. Shit scenario but at least there’s options.

Playing that poorly is leaving awper on long without support, and expecting them to survive the reliable bedroom flank alone while everyone plays site.

Going onto riflers for full buy, you generally want helmet + rifle, plus kit for CT and util for both.

Each map has their own preferable loadouts. Generally speaking, you want two to three smokes in the team, and you want one to two flashes.

Entry doesn’t need to flash. Entry needs a smoke incase they take site. Entry needs to push hard and take site, or be traded out.

Second should flash entries entry and trade out.

Second/entry provide intel to third, third takes site with second.

Four and five depends. Four could be bomber with rifle. Five could be awper playing support. Four and five could hold together, situation depending, and 3 could be bomber. It’s all variable.

What isn’t is the kit and the util.

If you’re in a full buy and you’re not buying util, then you’re not in a full buy.

Full buy is 16k in the bank, buy whatever you want.

But don’t bother with a full grenaide loadout if you’re taking entry picks or you’re power peaking an angle. Buy a smoke and a flash to help you break out of bad scenarios or stop a push.

Wasting money on a full loadout is a quick way to tank your eco. T eco has been seriously hurt in CS2 somehow. CT is slightly better but still tough… or maybe I’m just getting better at eco.

But dying with a molly, a smoke and two flashes does nothing to help your team or keep you buying gear. If you know that you’re at a high likely hood of dying, then opt for the strategical purchases.

So, for example, holding B on Dust2. Buy a smoke and a HE. Instantly smoke uppers and if you get intel on presence, HE uppers for splash damage. No amount of additional util will help you if they water fall out; you’ll die getting a flash off.

But what if you need to play the retake?

Well maps are designed with a lot of cover now. Flashes are basically useless. You’ll always expend smokes and flashes preventing the push, and a flash on the retake does very little to assist you. Broadly speaking, you’re more likely to flash your team. Flashed players will just hide.

You might get ground from the flash but you’re more likely to be shot doing so by someone who wasn’t holding the angle that you came from.

If you don’t burn smokes, HEs and mollys to prevent a push, then you can use them for the retake.

Basically, buy for the hold but use situational awareness to consider holding them for the retake. You’re almost never well served by a full util loadout unless it’s in specific scenarios like Infernos banana.

Summation

The biggest advantage that CS2 has over Valorant is community servers and Workshop maps.

Make sure that you’re leveraging this and running through training on the above maps. Aim Training on Aim Botz is much more effective than Aimlabs, Yprac is fantastic for no-stress learning of angles and lineups, and good old deathmatch will round you out for those spray-and-pray scenarios.

Be realistic and logical with your loadout and make sure that you’re not focussing too much on AK/M4/Awp so that you can take advantage of SMG rewards.