Supports, Clutches and Flash Assists: Things You Need to Know When Watching Matches and Betting on CS:GO

Today, we would like to explain you which roles are there in CS: GO teams, what to pay attention to when deciding to make a bet on a CSGO team and many other useful nuances of this wonderful game.

In fact, Counter-Strike: Global Offensive is one of the simplest games for average users. Along with that, its balance gets changed not that frequently as it might do in League of Legends or DotA 2. Some maps have been in the game for so long that players know all possible tactics and strategic moves in advance. But teams still can come up with something new, adjust to their opponents and impose the tempo they need. Best teams are those which always know how to amaze rivals and viewers. Now, let’s try to understand how the pro CS: GO game is built and what is worth to pay attention to when watching games and trying to make winning bets.

In-Game Roles of Counter Strike

Nothing got changed since the time of Counter-Strike 1.6 here. Roles differ depending on the side you play.

For counter-terrorists, (CT) there are such player roles:

Playmakers. As a rule, there are two of them on a map. Each of them plays strictly on the point where the bomb can be planted (aka ‘bombsite’ aka ‘plant’). The playmaker is the last one to fall back from the bombsite (unless the opponent carrying the bomb was spotted on the other ‘plant’).  The task of a playmaker is to prevent the enemy’s entries, to give the entry data on time, to make as many frags as possible (to kill as many enemy players as he can), or to live till backup comes. Playmakers able to exchange positively (to pick two frags before dying or to pick a kill and survive) are especially valuable. Famous playmakers: TACO (SK), flamie (Na’Vi), fitch (Gambit).

Supports (helpers). They act together with playmakers/snipers/other players while trying to assist them with lesser risk for their life. Most frequently, captains (aka in-game leaders) play on this position. Throwing flashbangs, going in to the line of fire for exchange frags, collecting the information carefully: that’s what they do. Famous supports: Flipsid3, gob b, LEGIJA (BiG), glaive (Astralis).

Snipers. Everything’s clear here: they play with sniper rifles, cover key areas of the map (mid of  de_mirage, street of de_nuke, ivy of de_train). Active snipers can frequently change their positions and play aggressively on purpose (like FalleN, for instance), and there are passive snipers who rarely let themselves be aggressive, too (device and skadoodle).

The point of the ranked matchmaking and professional esports is in combination of these three roles, different playstyles and strategies.

There are more roles for terrorists (T):

Entry (opener): the type of the player who plays aggressively, he is always first to enter the fight. It is important for them to coordinate with supports, because without quality flashbangs and other interaction, entry-fraggers are more frequent to become entry frags. Famous openers: apEX (G2), fer (SK).

Lurkers. A lurker is totally opposite to an entry-fragger. While the team massively rushes a bombsite, a lurker stays silent and hunts enemy players changing their positions and catches the moment to strike them from behind. This is a pure art, especially when opponents know you are going to hit their back and you know that they know it. Till 2015, GeT_RiGhT was one of the best lurkers. Other famous players on this role are: Happy (EnVyUs), karrigan (FaZe).

Snipers. Here snipers play with sniper rifles rarer than they do on CT side. Terrorist snipers aim to fast aggressive entries during first moments of the round, and then they cover riflemen from the distance to counter enemy snipers when entering bombsites. Good examples: s1mple, GuardiaN, mou, device.

Captain (IGL, coordinator, caller) is a critical person. The one who gives orders, supports the mood and discipline, and makes decisions. Without the ‘cap’, teams start panicking. Examples: Zeus (NaVi), Blad3 (Flipsid3), MSL (North).

Supports (helpers). The role is equal to that of the CT team. This player throws grenades, goes for exchanges, acts together with other players. Bright supports: boltz (SK), xyp9x (Astralis), Dosia (Gambit).

Important Statistical Data for Betting

ADR (Average Damage per Round): it is always low for snipers, but lets you estimate the riflemen job quality. Even if a certain player does not have lots of frags, he can contribute much with grenade damage, shooting through objects to damage enemies, etc. Maybe, sometimes teammates just ‘stealth’ kills (it happens that several players shoot the same target and only one of them can get a frag).

All possible entry frag stats: overall quantity, average number, efficiency percentage (whether a player makes entry frag or dies first more frequently), aggression percentage (how frequently the player is the first in the line of fire). All these stats allow estimating entry-frag players’ skill and effectiveness.

‘Clutches’ (the number & percent of won ones). The stress durable and smart player able to keep his mind cold in critical moments and take 1vsX situations is a priceless team member. Some players can do it better: for instance, xyp9x and karrigan.

Flash assists: this is a relatively new stat indicator allowing estimating the frequency of frags made by teammates of a player that throws flashbangs. The good flash assist statistics shows the skilled support that gives many flash grenades on time for fraggers to work on them. Bright flash assist players: gob b, LEGIJA, Blad3. These are old-school players, veterans who can dominate the map not with their shooting and reaction, but with their experience and thinking.

Pro CS: GO Team Styles

We’d mention some of them. Still, strong teams never keep the only style, otherwise opponents can get used to them very quickly.

Free Style

The team does not play rounds prepared in advance but relies on the players’ mastery with micro-moments (shooting, movement, timing, combinations) and searches for entry kills.

Decisions are made as rounds last depending on the current in-game situation. It is impossible to get ready for playing against such team. But if opponents find their right approach, the free style team is more likely to be stunned. The individual skill of every player has a huge meaning here, because such crews won’t be successful without initiative and effective in-game decisions.

Strict Style

The strict style means a very slow game. Such teams gather information beforehand and make opponents use their grenades. Teams usually have plans for each round and work out correct grenade throws while preparing for competitions.

Every player knows their task for each round, sometimes they even plan what corners they will and won’t check. If strategies are good, then such teams can outplay anyone. But in case something goes wrong, there are no strong individualists in such teams. This leads to easy wins for their opponents. Still, everyone played like that back in days of CS 1.6.

Other teams try to combine these styles in different proportions. There are crews loving to play in a step-by-step manner. They don’t have defined plans for bomb planting, but their actions are planned and directed towards a gradual occupation of the map while pushing the enemy out from aggressive positions. This style seems to be quite free, but at the same time it is slow and unaggressive.

There are also teams that have plans for both slow and fast rounds. They combine quick and slow styles, and you never know what to expect from them.

Coaches and their In-Game Impact

It is difficult to evaluate the quality of the CSGO coach’s job while just watching professional esports matches. There are no coaches on the server, they do not pick frags, and they can’t speak during rounds. But there are players who say that coaches really help them very much.

There are three types of coaches:

The Teacher

This is a person responsible for discipline, training schedule, player’s healthy eating, solving conflicts and minimally impacting in-game mistakes. Such coaches are mainly for young teams, they don’t have to have in-depth understanding of CS:GO to maintain their functions. That is why there are often met old guys’ from CS 1.6 who probably never played Global Offensive.

The Analyst

These coaches focus their attention on the development of new strategies, looking for features, analyzing mistakes, learning future opponents, etc.

The Veteran

These are coaches with experience. Most frequently, they are former pro esports CS: GO players who retired from pro gaming but still have big knowledge base and can recommend a round plan, give an interesting solution or point out a mistake at the key moment. Their opinion is valuable as they perceive the game from aside and have the complete image.

We think, many players can at least teach players something and correct their mistakes with experience and vision, if not to change any team’s playstyle and results.

Captains

IGL’s (in-game leaders), aka Captains are key persons of each team. A captain thinks for everyone, has to ‘see’ the screen of every teammate and coordinate their actions in time and correctly to make interaction as effective as possible.

We don’t think captains are prophets of coaches’ ideas. Things are different: in many teams, coaches and captains may conflict, especially if they have various viewpoints on the game. The perfect model is when the coach fulfills and improves the playstyle and coordination manner chosen by the captain, which means the manner comfortable for him.

During the most part of tournaments, coaches can talk only during timeouts. This means, they only can bring some idea, point the enemy’s weakness or a frequent mistake, or even say what round should be played. The rest of the time, captains control teams. Moreover, captains can’t forget about shooting enemy heads themselves. That is why this role is thought to be the toughest one in CS: GO.