---
title: 'How To Play Mirage Like a Level 10 (Full Map Guide)'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=QJwsgHg0dKE'
video_id: 'QJwsgHg0dKE'
date: 2026-06-16
duration_sec: 0
---

# How To Play Mirage Like a Level 10 (Full Map Guide)

> Source: [How To Play Mirage Like a Level 10 (Full Map Guide)](https://youtube.com/watch?v=QJwsgHg0dKE)

## Summary

This video is an in-depth guide to playing the map Mirage in Counter-Strike 2 at a high level (referred to as 'Level 10'). The creator, Wilson, explains he is speaking to his past self, providing every detail he wishes he had known when trying to improve. The guide covers crucial map timings, detailed CT-side position strategies (A anchor, connector, window, short, B anchor), T-side defaults, site execution, and key utility lineups, all packed into a single comprehensive video.

### Key Points

- **Video Intent & Basis** [0:00] — The video is based on the creator's wish to have a 'level 10' friend explain how to play. It's a direct, detailed guide for his past self on how to play Mirage like a level 10.
- **Mirage Map Timings: Mid** [1:31] — The best CT spawn beats the best T-spawn to window. If CT jumps out of window, the best T-spawn can spot them. With best spawns, a CT beats a T to swing underpass.
- **Mirage Map Timings: A & B** [2:51] — If you run ramp and CT runs to underbalk, you'll hear each other at bottom ramp. A CT running to underbalk can hear a T in palace once at the top of the second flight of stairs. The best T spawn can always spot the cross. The best spawn for short will hear a B rush before T's get into apps.
- **CT Default Overview** [3:56] — The typical CT default on Mirage is mid-heavy because middle is the primary space to fight for. Other areas are considered 'choke points' for info and retakes. The default consists of A anchor, connector player, window player (usually oper), short player, and B anchor.
- **When to Fight Mid** [19:16] — The default should be fighting for mid. However, if your window player is passive (sitting behind smoke with MP9) and your short player is passive, swinging mid alone is very risky. Be vocal and coordinate with teammates for mid aggression.
- **Countering A Execute from Jungle** [25:00] — When expecting an A execute with stair/jungle smokes, you can nade the smoke (especially good with a window player), lurk through the smoke edge, or flash over the palm trees and push through the jungle smoke to fight alongside your A player.
- **Window Player's World (Oper)** [35:05] — As an oper on Mirage, you are not confined to window. The world is your oyster. Key plays include peeking palace, playing ticket for retake A, peeking ramp (if best A spawn), and playing double con or double A setups.
- **Short Player's Mid Help** [44:49] — As a short player, if your window player is fighting, you can throw a flash that pops above window without blinding them. If they aren't fighting, you can throw a flash above the blue building and swing with it. Be careful not to blind your window player with deep flashes.
- **B Anchor: High Floor, Easy Role** [54:47] — The B anchor position has a very high floor. Even a mechanically weaker player can be effective with good utility usage (deep molly, correct smoke placement) and proper jump spotting. The biggest value is staying alive and delaying the T-side execute.
- **T-Side A Lurk: Taking Risks** [63:00] — As an A lurk, you must be willing to take risks to have impact. This includes walking through smokes when teammates are active mid. The goal is to catch a timing where the CT feels safe because they smoked ramp and you walk through it for a free pick.
- **Power of Top Connector Smoke (T-Side)** [74:16] — The top connector smoke is underused in pugs but very powerful. It gives T's access to connector, makes it awkward for CTs to hold, and allows for splits onto A or short takes without giving away the strategy as a bottom con smoke would.
- **B Rush Execution** [95:09] — In a B rush, spawn determines role: best spawn = entry (first out window), second spawn = firefight (smoke CT molly) + trader, third/fourth spawn = look for kills (clear space), fifth spawn = support (throw window smoke and supporting flashes).
- **Must-Know T-Side Utility** [102:14] — The 'must know' T-side utility for a 'level 10' includes: window smoke from T-spawn, top mid smoke from T-spawn, connector smoke from T-spawn, right-side smokes for A (stair/jungle), CT smoke for A, and top connector smoke from bottom mid.
- **Call to Action & Series Potential** [109:49] — The creator asks viewers to subscribe and like if they learned something. He is considering making similar guides for every map and asks for feedback in the comments.

### Conclusion

Mastering Mirage requires a deep understanding of map timings, role-specific strategies for both CT and T sides, and a solid utility arsenal. The video provides this complete guide, emphasizing that high-level play comes from process, communication, and making the right decisions, not just raw aim.

## Transcript

What's up, Goober? When I was trying to
get to level 10, I wished that I had a
level 10 friend or person to show me how
they did it, for them to tell me the
details of what they did to get to level
10. And that idea is kind of the basis
of my channel. Most of my videos, I'm
just imagining myself talking to my past
non-level 10 self and telling him how to
get to level 10. So, that's what this
video is. This video is me explaining to
pass me how to play Mirage like a level
10. And I can't do that in 10 minutes. I
can't do it in 20 minutes. I'm going to
do it in however long this video is. I
hope you enjoy it. And if you do, if
this video does well, I'll make one of
these for every single map. Please do
make use of the chapters below. You can
bounce around, figure out, you know,
what sections would be most important
for you and watch those. Or you could
just watch the entire thing. I wouldn't
be upset about that. But before we
begin, thank you to Skins Monkey for
sponsoring this video. Skins Monkey is a
trusted automated CS2 trading site. It's
super easy to use. All you have to do is
pick something in your inventory, check
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also super nice is the filters you can
use to narrow down your searches. You
can either use your skins to trade for
new ones or deposit money with their 30%
bonus offer. This becomes 35% when you
use my code Wilson. Please use it. Using
my code, you can also get up to $5 for
free. Use my code Wilson. Link is in the
description. If you don't know the
timings of a map, then you're going to
struggle on that map. So, let's talk
about the important timings of Mirage.
The best CT spawn will beat the best
T-spawn to window for this midfight. But
if the CT jumps out of window, then the
best T-spawn will be able to spot
them. In fact, the best T-spawn only
beats the worst three CT spawns to
window. With the best spawns, a CT
player will beat a T player to swing
underpass. When running up to short, a
CT could have a T right up in their
face. Insta smokes will plume and window
just around 147, a couple seconds after
the CT can make it to window.
CTS with the best spawn for connector
will get to con around 145. At this
point, T's can already be boxes and even
towards chair.
Oh, okay. Yeah, you made it all the way.
Did you know that your timing to get
over to
twitch.tv/wilsoncs2 and follow me is
remarkably fast and very worthwhile?
Let's [ __ ] go, dude. Good flashes.
Good flashes. as a CT swinging short
with the best spawn. T's can't make it
to chair even with their best spawn, but
they can be quite close to
it. Okay, a sight timings. Now, if you
run ramp and a CT runs to underbalk,
you'll hear each other right about when
you get to bottom
ramp. If you peak palace on CT side, T's
can't cross to the cubby without being
spotted. You also hear them if they try.
A CT running to under Balk can hear a T
in palace once they reach the top of the
second flight of
stairs. A T with the best spawn running
up ramp won't be able to catch a CT with
the best spawn crossing towards Khan.
However, the best T spawn will always be
able to spot the cross. The timing gets
spookier the worse the spawn is for the
CT. For B timings, the best spawn for
short will hear a B- rush coming in
before the T's get into
apps. Lastly, a CT jumping on top of van
will be able to peak T's before they get
into close apps. Well, there are the
timings for you. Now, let's talk about
CT side Mirage. Before we jump into how
to play each specific CT position, I'm
going to give you just a brief overview
of the CT side default. For some reason,
I could only spawn T-bots, so please
imagine that these are chunky CTs
holding these angles. Uh, your first
player is the A site anchor. Their job
is to control A. Our second player is
the connector player. They're going to
be aggressing mid early and then also
helping out this A player hold A. Our
third player is the window player. This
is typically the oper. This player could
start window, but they also have the
freedom to kind of go wherever they want
on the map, wherever they think they're
going to have impact. Our fourth player
is the short player. This player is
going to help out mid early, similar to
the connector player and window player,
but they're also responsible for helping
out their B anchor with B executes and B
rushes. Our last player is the good old
B anchor. This player is going to be
playing for info in apps, looking to see
is there a lurk, are they rushing B? And
they're going to try to stay alive as
long as possible if the T's do come
towards B. So, you've probably noticed
the typical default on Mirage is very
mid-heavy, and that's because this is
the space to fight for. Outside of that,
they're just choke points. And choke
points, you can play for info, you can
play retake on sights, but middle, this
is where the timings really matter. This
is the space that you want info on and
you want to fight for on these defaults
in your
pugs. Let's start with how to play A. As
an A player, your spawn doesn't really
matter all too much. But what does
matter is that on gun rounds, you are
flashing mid from triple like this. I
come around CT and I aim at this Woodbit
and I run jump throw that flash. The
reason why you throw that flash right as
you get to triple at the beginning of
the round is because the timing works
out where this flash is going to pop
right as T's are swinging top mid after
you throw the mid flash. And you're
going to throw that every single by
round, right? And if you're not throwing
it on a buy round, then you tell your
team, I'm not flashing mid. Okay, very
important. After you throw that flash,
give ramp a purposeful peak. The reason
why you want to do this is that a common
play for TE's is to jump up and look for
this pick early. Your con player should
be mollying ramp for you. But one
problem is that there's often a gap
behind it like this. And you just need
to be ready for this. So after you throw
the mid flash, right, throw it, get
ready, and then swing this hard and be
ready for this fight. After you throw
the mid flash and after you give ramp a
purposeful peak, what now? Well, you can
play a in three different solid ways.
Number one is by playing for retick.
When you play for retake, you're going
to play ticket. Your job when you're
playing ticket is number one, getting
info, number two, staying alive, and
number three, maintaining this CT space.
This space is so important because this
space is what allows us to retake the
site after the bomb is down. When you're
playing ticket, you can jump spot ramp
like this and just get info on if
anybody's walking out ramp or if there's
util being thrown over ramp and the TE's
are exeing. Be cautious jump spotting
like this. This is not good. A te's
going to walk out Palace and just
destroy you. So jump spot like this. You
only need like one frame of visibility,
right? Every once in a while during your
jump spotting, give Palace a purposeful
peak because a Palace player on T-side
can hear you jump spotting from front
palace. So they might walk out and look
for this pick. That's why you want to
jump spot not exposed to Palace. So
you're jump spotting like this and then
give Palace a peak. Okay, nothing. Okay,
keep jump spotting. Keep jump spotting.
Okay, give Palace a peek. Now, if you
see smokes, flashes coming over ramp,
your immediate reaction should be
throwing a defensive smoke in front of
you. Ticket. There are two reasons why
throwing the smoke is so good and why
you should never throw a ramp smoke if
you're playing CT. Reason number one,
this smoke prevents T's from taking CT.
Obviously, they can still push it and
try to take it, but it makes it so much
more awkward to push CT and take that
space. Reason number two, it provides
you with lurk opportunities now and
creates ambiguity for the T's. Now with
this smoke, even if they smoked UC, CT,
they have to worry about you lurking
through the the triple side, right?
Right here. They have to worry about you
lurking through this side. They also
have to worry about you just sitting in
the smoke and swinging off of sound,
right? This is super spooky for TE's and
it delays their executes. It delays
their plants. It's so good. So stop
smoking ramp when you're playing ticket
and save your smoke for that defensive
smoke. Now, if you're playing ticket,
don't feel like you have to 1v5 right
here, right? Use that defensive smoke.
But also, if your teammates are super
committed to mid and they're not
fighting through the jungle smoke or the
stair smoke, right? They're not really
doing much to make make stuff happen,
then you shouldn't be aggressive as
well. If they're quiet on the jungle
side, then you trying to do something
from CT isn't going to work because the
T's can just focus on you, right?
They're not distracted by anything. So,
in that case, you're going to play just
like fully for retake back up to about
here. play anti- flash, right? Don't
look, don't just hold CT. You definitely
can jiggle it and like time out peaks,
but for the most part, you should play
anti flash and then bang, if they flash
CT, boom, you swing and you you get
those kills. That way, you keep this
space, right? And you're not like in a
position where they can just 2v1 swing
you, 3v1 swing you, flash you, and then
swing you, right? You don't want to be
vulnerable here in CT if your teammates
aren't being aggressive jungle. So, you
flashed mid, you peaked ramp, and then
you went ticket. What else can you do?
You can flash mid, you peak ramp, and
now you're going to play sight. How do
you play sight? Well, there's a few
different ways. Number one, you can play
off angles. This is one really common
off angle here against this door is just
holding this ramp walk out here. Another
one is right here, holding this angle.
Another decent off angle is jumping up
firebox. Oops. And then holding this
angle here. You can play top default.
There's so many off angles on a site.
The big thing is that if you play an off
angle on a site that is designed to kill
a lurk walking out ramp, then you are
most likely going to be exposed to
palace. So if you want to play an off
angle on site, if you want to counter
lurks walking out ramp, you kind of need
your window player to support you from
from jungle or you need your con player
to support you from stairs or at least
you need one of them to smoke palace for
you. If neither are helping you, then a
slightly safer way to play it is by
timing out peaks. And typically what
this looks like is that you're going to
sit default. You're going to hold
palace, hold palace, hold palace, come
over, and then peak ramp. Okay, you're
going to come back, hold palace, hold
pal. Right, you get it. Come over, peak
ramp. The goal here is that if somebody
peaks palace, right, you're just ready
for it. And then you time out a peak on
ramp. So then if somebody's walked out
ramp, you hit a nice timing on them
where like they've already cleared
default and they're aiming somewhere
else and then bang, you swing in to kill
them. You could also, of course, play
under balk here. You also want to be
timing out peaks, right? You don't want
to just stand here and hold this angle.
If somebody's walking out ramp, don't
play just like a default angle. If
they're half decent, they're going to
clear these and just destroy you. Avoid
playing on angles against lurks. Time
out peaks or play off angles. When you
see an execute coming in and you're
playing a site or you're playing under
balk, don't be afraid of throwing a
defensive smoke just like if you were
playing ticket. Defensive smokes on A
are just so strong because they create
so much ambiguity for TE's. If I run out
ramp and the CT threw a smoke like this,
now instead of being confident, oh, he's
he's default, now he can be anywhere
from default to triple to CT and I like
have to swing him from this one angle.
It's super awkward. And it allows the CT
to isolate fights much more effectively
and to stay alive and delay, delay,
delay. You can see all that impact from
that one smoke. It is so much better
than just smoking ramp. TE's are going
to lurk through the ramp smoke. They're
going to execute through it. They don't
care. Everybody in their mother knows a
lamp flash, right? They're just going to
exec anyways if you smoke ramp. So use
smokes defensively on a site. Use them
to find little, you know, isolated
fights. Stay alive. Delay, delay, delay.
The third way to play a that I'm going
to tell you about is by being aggressive
and taking ramp or taking palace. Real
quick, how you take palace, you just
jump up default. All right, we're going.
We're going. We're going. It's good to
shift after you land. Otherwise, a T
could hear you if you make a step peek
in here. And then you're going to peek
this angle. You're going to hold it. I
don't like to hold on angles while
standing still. So, I do these little
silent strafe movements. And then if
nobody peaks me, I'm going to scale on
this left side. Peek this angle. Okay,
nobody. Peek this angle. Okay, nobody.
And then um peak this one. And then I'm
good. I'm good. I'm good. I'm clearing.
Okay, now I have palace. Right now to
take a fight ramp and to try to take
ramp. I'll come out CT. You can throw
mid flashes like that, too, on the run
if you're in a hurry. Um, I'll get to
default, gun out, go under, and then
peek like this, right? Because I'm
worried about a T walking out ramp
early. I'm not going to just hold W at
ramp and give them a free pick. I'm
still going to be ready for a fight as
I'm scaling towards ramp. Once I'm here,
I like to get mad close to the wall and
just wide swing. The reason why I do
that is because T's who are sitting here
ramp will either be holding jungle low
like this or stairs high up like this,
right? And if they're holding the
stairs, they're typically over towards
this side. For both of those crosshair
placements, if I get close to this wall
and wide swing, they're going to take
the fight way out here, which is like
really awkward for both of them, right?
So, for that reason, close to the wall,
bang, wide swing, ramp. Okay, nothing.
You can see people's feet from here,
right? Some people come here and hold
ramp like this. It's actually a terrible
spot because if you swing ramp, you can
see their feet right here and you can
shoot their little toes. Once you're
scaling ramp, just be careful of off
angles along here and of people on the
top, right? You don't want to get caught
off guard. And then you can make the
decision. Do I want to scale and push T
or do I want to stay ramp? If you want
to stay ramp, I recommend you play an
off angle like this. Sit right here,
right? They're going to pre-im ramp
right here and then bang, you're right
here. Free kill for you, right? And then
if the T's do end up coming A, you have
a very fast flank. Or even if they know
your ramp, this still makes the
situation super awkward for the T's
taking A. Also, please do if you play
for ramp or you play for palace, right?
You take one of the two, then tell your
teammates that the TE's could lurk out
the other, right? If I take ramp, I have
to tell my team, hey, palace is open.
They could walk out palace. Please do
that. Okay, now let's move on to how to
play connector. The connector player is
a very important part of your CT setup,
and that's because they're going to have
a hand in the midfights and in the A
fights. So, the two most active parts of
the map, the con player is going to be
aggressing and taking these fights. And
if they're winning those fights, then
you're probably going to have a really
good CT half. As a con player, when
you're in spawn, you have a decision to
make, and that is if you're going to get
to con via window or via a site. This
decision should be made by essentially
the spawn that you have. There are five
spawns. One, two, three, four, five.
There's two that are really bad for
going A. this back one and this one
right here. These two you should just go
window. Don't risk going A, otherwise
your timing is super bad and somebody
can be top ramp fighting you by the time
you're crossing. When you're running to
con from A, then you should be throwing
some util for your A player and that
consists of a ramped molly. Now I come
around the corner and I aim at the tip
of this kind of chimney or whatever that
is and just run through the molly. I
like this one because it blooms in the
far back and it gets kind of deeper
ramp. And so T's who are looking for
that pick that we talked about when we
were talking about the aside player,
they can't jump up and fight behind
here. They can't fight behind the molly,
right? They they're forced to stay down
here and only look for the cross. So
you're going to come up CT. You're going
to throw this molly into ramp and then
you're going to cross towards jungle.
Make sure you look towards ramp as you
cross just so that you get the info. Is
somebody there? Is somebody not there?
Once you've crossed, you can throw a
flash for mid like this. Avoid jump
throwing this flash. If you jump through
that flash, then it can just hop over
people's heads and like not do much like
that. Essentially, right as you cross
past this wall, you can aim up just in
the air here and as you're running, uh,
let that flash go. And that's going to
blind T's running out mid. Bang. That
should help you with whatever you want
to do next, whether you want to be
aggressive or not. If you don't want to
throw that first flash, you feel like
the T's aren't insta swinging mid, then
you can throw your bottom con smoke and
then throw a flash like this and then
fight up middle with this flash and look
for fights here. Your bread and butter
as a connector player is a bottom con
smoke. The reason for this is that it
makes your life so much easier and you
can do a lot of aggressive things with
it. For one thing, holding con is
naturally difficult because you have a
high low situation here, right? If a T
peaks down here at the same time as a T
peeking up here, you're a dunzo. There's
no world where you win that fight. So
having a smoke bottom con just isolates
this this fight on short for you. This
smoke also enables you to do a bunch of
aggressive plays and to get really
active in mid. When you throw this
smoke, it now allows you to lurk out
behind it, be safe from top mid, and
hold under if you want. Or you can just
use the smoke to try to isolate fights
towards top mid or towards valley. Or
you can jump up on the bench and hold
cat like this. And if you hear somebody
like spamming top mid, right, they're
shooting their their AK, then you can
spam through the smoke, get a kill, and
then fall back into it. It also gives
you this fight here towards top mid. If
the T's have an OP, I would generally
avoid this fight because this is just an
easy angle for an oper, right? You're
probably going to lose that fight.
Otherwise, if you're feeling confident
and you have a window player who's
fighting people running out top mid or
you have a cat player who's fighting,
then I would say go for it and go swing
and go fight with them, you can also try
to overswing this angle, right?
Overswing it and then take a fight here
and then swing back and over swing it
again. That way you just avoid that that
isolated fight that T's have against you
right here. Now, sometimes the T's are
going to mollycon at the beginning of
the round. Sometimes they're going to
nade it. Sometimes they're going to
smoke it like this. and you're just not
going to be able to get active like how
you want. I still recommend you throw
the bottom midm smoke. That way at the
least like you have the option to be
aggressive through it. Even if they
threw stuff con, still having the smoke
down allows you to be aggressive and
forces the TE's to respect the fact that
you can be aggressive. So it'll slow
down kind of whatever they're trying to
do mid. In terms of utility as a con
player, you can go flash or you can go
nade flash. It's kind of a tricky
decision. If the T's are smoking
connector consistently like every single
round, I would buy a grenade every
single round. That way you can nade it
and if they're running up short, you can
actually take those fights and help your
short player. Another good use of your H
grenade is to nade top mid at the very
beginning of the round. If they leave
con open and you can get to bottom con
and you're not worried about them insta-
swinging you, right, we know that the
timing, they can already be here by the
time you swing bottom con. So, don't do
this if you feel like they're insta like
dry swinging mid. Do this if they throw
a window smoke and they wait for the
window smoke, right? If they wait for
the window smoke, then you're going to
beat their timing to bottom con um
before they swing mid. So, that enables
you to then come out bottom mid and
throw nade like this that'll just nuke
them. If they're all sitting here
waiting for that window smoke to land,
you could do a ton of chunk damage.
Also, if the TE's are throwing a top mid
smoke quite often, then having an H can
be quite good because then you can nade
the top mid smoke and fight like that,
right? And this can also help your oper.
If you come con and your your oper
sitting window holding the smoke, then
you can n it for them. Um, that landed
weird, but still worked. You can n it
for them and the oper can just get a
pick through the smoke. You might be
wondering when should I fight mid versus
when should I not fight mid. Now, your
default should be fighting for a mid.
Mirage middle is incredibly important.
This is the space that the T's want to
fight for. This is the space that the
CTS want to prevent the TE's from
taking. But some rounds you're just not
going to be able to do that. When your
window player has an MP9 and they're
just sitting behind the window smoke,
not doing anything, your cat
player/short player is playing mega
passive to sitting here. Then you
swinging out mid being aggressive is
super risky cuz you're just full solo,
right? You're going to be taking like a
1v3, 1v4. So try to prioritize fighting
for mid being aggressive when you know
that your window player or when you know
that your short player is going to do
something aggressive with you. You have
to be kind of vocal. Say, "Hey, let's
fight up mid this round." Ask your
window player to nade the window smoke
as you fight top mid. Ask your A player
to throw a second flash uh so that you
can fight mid once you're out bottom
con. Now, if your team is just, you
know, demuted, they're not saying
anything, they're not helping at all,
then you will kind of be forced into a
more passive play style of just playing
for info at con and you're more so going
to be playing for the mid round rather
than early aggression. You can
absolutely still get away with being
aggressive early. It's just against good
players. Like, if the T's are swinging
top mid together, then if you push up
mid, you shouldn't be getting that many
kills, right? You should probably just
die. So, here's a couple things you can
do to like make aggressive stuff happen
or make fights happen. Number one, if
they're not smoking window and they're
just insta- swinging window, tell your
window player to come double window with
you and you guys play high low, right?
They go here, you go here, and you just
bite them as they swing out mid. Another
coordinated aggressive thing you can do
to ask your teammates is, hey, let's
push mid this round, right? This is good
to do when you know that the T's aren't
insta swinging mid. As you saw in the
timing section, if the if the T's insta
swing mid, they'll spot you jumping out
window like this. So, if they're
throwing like a top mid smoke or they're
just waiting for the window smoke to
land and you guys have decent mid
spawns, then that's a good time for you
to push up mid, right? Run out, play
ante, and then hard swing. Another thing
for you to do is just go double cat,
right? In this setup, we can play one
window player, one A player playing
passive, and you're going to come double
cat with your cat rifler short, sorry,
cat short, interchangeable NA versus EU
lingo. Come double cat. You can throw a
flash like this or you can just left and
right click a flash behind you and then
just, you know, wide swing and just
double fight together. And then lastly,
if the teeth aren't throwing anything
con early and they're just swinging mid,
they can also ask your window player or
your cap player or a anybody, right?
Come double con with you and just double
swing high low here and look for fights
like that. You will, if you swing high,
like be isolated right here, right? So
keep that in mind. But you want to be
aggressive. You want to get kills. You
want to fight for mid. Those are some
options for you to do with your
teammates that are easy and easy to
communicate. Now, in the mid round, your
decision-making is going to highly
depend on the info you have. Let's say
the TE's have taken mid and you haven't
really a really been able to be
aggressive or fight through con. Then
what can you do? Option number one is to
reagro mid with your teammates. This
could be like your window player
swinging window and you flash over
window for them from stairs like this.
Or this could be you guys doubling con.
They just throw a flash towards bottom
con. Bang. And you guys go out and clear
mid again. Um you can also ask for your
A player to throw their oops to throw
their right their second flash over mid
like that. If you don't feel like you
can coordinate like a reagression into
middle. One option that's not that bad
is getting back into A. This is good if
the T's are like four or five middle and
you don't want to just be isolated right
here. Right? How we talked about how
this fight is really bad for you because
they can high low swing you. If you
don't want to just stand here and take
these really bad fights, then you can
just leave. Don't play Topcon. Commit
back into A and then get into a setup
with your A player. If you are able to
get over towards ramp and take ramp,
then you being ramp and your A player
being default is actually a pretty good
setup because your A player can just sit
here and hold palace while you're
holding the jungle cross for your A
player. And then once you take contact
on this cross from ramp, then your A
player from default can swing. they
should be getting, you know, at least a
double kill if the T's are running up
jungle onto a site. The third way you
can play around con the mid round is
more so from
jungle/topcon and just getting info,
right? You can jiggle here, see if any
T's are going to push you con. If not,
okay, good. That's good info to have. If
yes, maybe dropping a Molly Topcon if it
feels like they're going to rush you
after you see them. That can be good.
And then after that, you're more so
going to be playing from jungle. So back
here's not a bad fight. You just have to
be worried about your crosshair
placement here because if you hold this
angle, then if they wide swing con, your
crosser is going to be mega far away. So
holding an angle like this can be kind
of better. That way you're not stuck
between two different angles. You can
also play off angles kind of up here
too. These are okay for catching
somebody just lurking up con. But if
there's multiple T's pushing you con,
then you're very tradable here. So I
like this if you just think that there's
one con who's going to walk up and
you're just going to take an isolated
fight. Now, let's say instead of the T's
having taken mid early, you guys as CTs
took mid early from these T's, there's
not a soul here. What do you do? Well, a
good thing for you to do is come back
towards A and become a second A player.
If mid is empty, then that means it's
probably going to be a B exec or an A
exec. And in pugs and games with
randoms, people much prefer going A.
Now, how do you counter an A exec from
jungle? We're expecting a stair smoke.
We're expecting a jungle smoke. So, our
plays through jungle are going to be
surrounding these two smokes. One thing
you can do is if you come to this corner
here and you see this wood bit right
here, you just left click a molly and
you can shift walk, left click, throw a
nade. If the TE's are running out ramp,
this is going to do a [ __ ] ton of damage
to them through this jungle smoke. You
can make a ton of plays. Number one, you
can nade the smoke, right? And this is
especially good if you have your window
player here with you and you're just
fighting these TE's who are crossing for
sight. Number two, you can lurk through
the edge of the smoke and play around
here. Even if they throw a molly towards
here, benches, you can edge the smoke
and not burn from the molly. I took one
tick, that's unfortunate, but you can
sit here and look for a kill and then
fall back into the smoke. If you want to
be really aggressive, and this is
especially good if your A player is
playing on site, right, they need help.
You can do a flash over the palm trees
here. You can left click it or left and
right click it. And you can just push
this jungle smoke and just go and just
fight while your A player is fighting
from under default or wherever they are.
Another cheeky play you can make is
dropping sandwich while these smokes are
up. This is good to do if your A player
is on site fighting and you want to drop
and help them fight, right? You drop
sandwich and then you take these fights
as they're fighting from default or
under. And now you guys have a little
crossfire. If you're playing mid early
and you notice like, okay, the smokes
are coming in. One option you have too
is just to full clear under or full
clear top mid or do both. If you know
that your A player is playing really
passive and they're not going to fight
the A execute, they're going to play
fully for retake. Then you just full
clearing these lurks is really effective
because you're going to catch a T down
here just walking under or you could
catch a T trying to lurk out mid early.
That way once you clear both of those
then you can full focus on the retake
and not have to worry about a T walking
up con late. One util set you can throw
from jungle if you're playing for retake
or you're trying to contest the bomb
plant is you come into this corner. You
see this right window right here. Bottom
right you throw your molly. Top right
you throw your nade. Bang. This is going
to absolutely nuke default and kill
anybody who's planting right here in
this corner. If you aren't smoked stairs
or jungle and the T's are coming out
ramp and they're fighting your A player,
you can throw a flash like this just
against the wall and then swing with
that and that'll pop down here. You can
also do the same from jungle, right?
just run through your flash there and
then swing with that and that's going to
be really hard for the TE's to react to.
Also with your flashes, just flashing
behind your A player is really good. Or
flashing for ramp just around here,
right? Just flashes in front of them.
Those are really solid as well. Just
communicate them and tell them, "Hey,
I'm flashing for you. Tuck. Okay,
flashing. Bang." And then tell them to
swing. So flashing for your A player.
Really solid as a con player. Let's move
on to how to play window. Window is the
oper position. And the title for this
position being window is a bit
misleading because if your window player
is playing window every single round,
then they're doing something wrong. What
I mean by that is that the oper should
be going where they feel like they're
going to have impact where they're going
to go get a kill. It's not key that you
have a player in window every single
round, right? I'm not defending a bomb
site here. I'm just defending space.
However, window is just a very powerful
position and it's the best timing to mid
that the CTs have. So, starting your
half by defaulting towards window and
playing in window is good. And then once
you recognize what the T's are doing,
then you branch out and you mix it up
and you do stuff that you think is going
to work against what the T's are doing.
So, let's start with plays that you can
make from window. Let's look at early
round spawns, right? We have middle
spawn, we have this spawn, and then we
have this spawn. these two spawns on the
against this wall that are closest to
window, they're going to beat every
single T-spawn. But this middle spawn is
going to lose to the best T-spawn
window. So if I use that middle spawn
and I peak window, the T could already
be out in this space and that's quite
spooky. So if you don't have one of the
good spawns, either A just don't peak
window, right? I don't want to swing
window with my OP if I think an oper
could already be posted on me, right?
They're just most likely going to win
that fight. They should. or B, ask your
A player to flash mid. As this window
player, you have to be very conscious
about is my short player fighting mid.
Is my con player fighting mid? Is my A
player flashing over mid for me at the
beginning of the round? Your job when
you're sitting window is not to 1v5 T's
running out mid. It's impossible with an
OP. You can just get one and then fall
off, right? But re- peaking into four
more people, you're probably just going
to die. You need help. Middle on Mirage
is a group effort. It's not the window
players job to hold mid. That's
ridiculous. So, your reaction if your
team is not helping you mid early,
right? They're not flashing mid, they're
not fighting mid, and you have an OP and
you have a good spawn, absolutely come
up and hold for the peak and try to get
one. Uh depending on what you see, you
can repeat peak, right? If you get one
and then like you see another one swing
and you're feeling good, then totally go
for the rep. In general, you're probably
going to get one and then have to fall
off. And this is assuming they're not
even smoking window early. If they are
smoking window early, sometimes you will
just be able to catch them swinging
before the smoke pops. Otherwise, this
is the must know util as a window
player. You're going to come into this
corner right here. Crouch. I aim at the
corner of this splot right here. Right
there. And then right click, jump
through. And this is going to explode
any window smoke and let you peek
middle. Bang. And then I'm peeking
middle. What you can also do is the same
lineup with a flash. This is
significantly better in the mid round
when you think that T's are going to be
scaled down towards bottom con valley,
right? They're going to be in this area.
If you throw this at the very beginning
of the round, it's not going to blind
top mid people really at all. It doesn't
do anything, right? If they're boxes and
you throw this flash, it's just not
going to blind them. So, save it for the
mid round, right? Use the nade early.
Save your flash with that lineup for
later on. Another way you can counter
the window smoke is by coming against
this pillar, right clicking, and then
jumping onto the pallet here in the
corner. It blows the smoke open, and it
gives you an opportunity to get a pick
top it. If the TE's are smoking window,
and they're not swinging mid until the
smoke lands and plumes, and you don't
get any opportunity for a pick, then
here's a couple things you can do to
counter that. Number one is going for
the cat jump or the short jump for you
EU folk. This is really good when you
think that the T's aren't going to insta
swing mid. If you watch the timing
section at the beginning, best CT spawn
versus best T-spawn, the best T-spawns
are going to be able to catch you
jumping in the air and you're just going
to be dead. Never do this against a team
that is just dry swinging, insta
swinging mid. It's super spooky. Once
you're here, you can either stay here
and hold above a top mid smoke. That is
a really nice play and an easy way to
get a pick. Right. If you're here, you
can look here and look against the back
wall, get a kill, fall. If they're not
throwing a top mid smoke and they're
just waiting for window smoke to land,
then I would recommend instead of
staying up here and holding this, then
you make the jump, you fall off, and you
get onto this angle here on short. This
is so strong because your timing here is
so much faster than any short player
could ever make it here. So, as they're
swinging, they're going to be looking
con. Nobody's going to be looking at you
because it's just impossible for you to
be here unless you did the exact play
that you just did. The other movement
play that you can make is jumping into
ladder room. Now, I'm not going to go
into like how to make these jumps. I
think that'd be a little bit of a waste
of time because there's a lot of videos
about how to make these cat jump, the
ladder room jump. I'm sure CS2 Kitchen
has some good ones. If you make this
jump and once you're here on short, your
timing once again is so good, especially
if the TE's are delaying their midtake.
That would kind of be the only time that
you're making this play that you're here
on short peaking way faster than they're
ready for. And if you're, you know,
scared to go for this jump or you don't
feel confident in it, you can have
somebody crouch right here and then just
boost you up into ladder. It's not as
fast, but you still get there on a
timing that the T's won't expect. Aside
from the short jump and the ladder room
jump, you can just jump out window
towards bottom mid. And there's a few
things you can do. Number one, you can
jump out and then you can just play
towards under, right? You can play here,
hold this angle or you can just play
here and hold this right side angle.
It's risky because of course somebody
could be under. So either you have a
hard read, right? I don't think they're
playing under at all. Or you just smoke
under and then you be ready for somebody
to nade this or to run through it or to
try to fight you through it after you
get a kill. If you don't want to go
under, then your plays should kind of
center around going towards con. So if
you're jumping out window and you want
to do a play towards con, ask your con
player to throw a bottom con smoke. That
way you can play around it, right? You
can hold this cross here. You can also
push mid off rip and play in front of
the smoke here. play this angle and then
bang, you get a kill and then you
immediately fall back into the connector
smoke. It's just key that if you're
jumping out bottom mid with an OP, your
con player throws a smoke. That way you
have an out. You can't be stuck bottom
middle, no con smoke, bang, and then
you're just going to get traded, right?
You're just going to die. So, make sure
they're throwing a bottom con smoke or
just ask them to very politely and
purposefully, can you please throw
bottom con smoke for B? One play that
you wouldn't want your con player
throwing a bottom con smoke for would be
if you want to do the bench peak. This
is kind of best if the TE's are smoking
in connector like this. Some teams, some
players you play against will just throw
the smoke every single round. And if
they throw that and window, then one
thing you can do is jump out window,
jump on top of bench and hold this
angle. And once the T swings, bang, you
get your kill and you just fall back
into, you know, the smoke that the T's
through and you use that as cover. The
reason you don't want your con throw
player throwing a smoke is because then
it'll just cover the angle and you won't
be able to see this cross here.
Sometimes as a window player, you're not
going to want to just throw your body
out at mid, right? You're going to be in
a more of a info supportive trying to
help your team type role. So when you
come window and you hold early and
nobody swings, then maybe you get smoked
window. If your team wants to still
aggro mid or you still want to have a
little bit of impact mid, you want to
scare the TE's, you can come here into
this corner, aim at this line where the
roof meets the wall, and then shift.
Don't move your mouse. Once you get to
the middle window, run and left click
throw. Come here. Right here. Don't
move. I don't have my mini map, so I
might screw that up a little bit, but
yeah, there you go. So, if you tell your
team you're doing that and you molly top
mid boxes and then, you know, you have
two people swinging out con or your con
player swings and your cap player swings
at the same time, right? Everybody's
just trying to fight mid at the same
time. Your a player flashes. That's kind
of the dream scenario, right? In a pug,
people are actually fighting mid and
you're mollying boxes. You know, I I
wouldn't throw this every round. I
wouldn't fully trust your teammates to
make use of it, but it's definitely a
good one to know when you're playing
with a good team or a coordinated team
on middle outside of window. Dude, the
world is your oyster. The Mirage is your
oyster as an oper. There's so many plays
you can make. So, I I can't talk through
every single one, but I'm just going to
like rapid fire just spit off some plays
just so that maybe there's stuff you
haven't thought of. So, number one, Peak
Palace. Hold this peak. Bang. Get your
kill. Number two, just play ticket. If
you play ticket, this is a really
effective way to play retake A, right?
because you get your one and then you
can fall and you can stay alive and now
you're playing retake and now you can
enable two rifers to go towards Khan and
fight mid. It's very valuable for you to
be taken on some of these rounds. You
can go for a ramp peak. So this is
typically if you have the best a spawn,
you want to come here and you can just
double zoom and look for the head of the
person who's crossing. You can also open
the angle up for yourself by as you come
this way, you jump on the bench, twist
your OP and then double peak double zoom
from up here. Um that makes the shot a
little bit easier to hit. It just takes
slightly longer to do that. Of course,
you can just start connector with your
OP, right? You can just double con
early. Either you can smoke bottom con
and peak top con. You want to make sure
your A player is flashing for you when
you do this peak because this is just a
fully isolated fight. So, sometimes
you're going to have somebody with an OP
just holding you here and you don't want
to take this dry. Their timing is always
going to be better to this spot than
your timing to top con. So, kind of
disadvantageous if you don't have a
flash coming in from A to take that
peak. You can also just peak bottom con
without that smoke, right? Or you can
throw that smoke and then peek in front
of it like how you did when you're in
windows, right? Similar play, but this
time you're just coming through con, you
get your one and then you fall back
through the smoke, get back into con.
You can also just get into a bunch of
double A setups with your teammate,
right? So if you come towards A and you
start at triple and you hold ramp and
then your A player gets close to ramp,
you can flash them into ramp by aiming
at this bit of wood. Flash, bang, and
then the rifler here is just swinging
into ramp and taking the space. And that
way if the T's do like insta run out A,
you have two players here, right? You're
triple, your A players scaling up
towards ramp and you're helping them
take space ramp with that flash. Coming
towards B with your OP can be really
strong because if you know that the T's
are lurking one in apps a lot, then you
coming apps with your OP is just
essentially a free kill, right? They're
not expecting the OP to hold apps. So
you can either make this van jump, which
uh can be quite tricky. I still mess it
up sometimes. Um, or you can have
somebody boost you, right? They can
crouch here and then you jump on top of
their head and you go on top. Or if they
stand right here, just past this line,
you can jump onto their head from here,
right? So they'll be standing there, you
jump onto their head and then boom,
you're up. Alternatives, if you don't
want to get into apps, if that feels
kind of spooky, then you can just play
this angle right on bottom van. You can
play on top van. I wouldn't recommend
playing this angle. This angle just kind
of sucks. I would avoid coming towards
apps when you know your opponents are on
an eco, right? You don't want to get ran
over by tech 9 smack 10's. You also
don't want to give a deagle this kind of
opportunity to just 1v one you on a
headshot angle. So if it's an eco and
you really think it's going to be BB,
then I would play, you know, further
back towards sight and just hold window
or even just start short early, right?
Start double short and then if it is B,
you have these nice long range angles
that you can take for a B rush. Coming
short with your OP can be quite strong,
especially if you do something to get a
good timing out here, right? either the
window jump to short or the ladder jump
to short. But if you're coming through B
over to short, getting towards ladder is
still kind of ideal. The reason for that
is being around this area with an OP,
it's really restricting because these
fights for you if you look towards con
or bench are really bad. These headshot
angles are awful for you and then you
also have the possibility of somebody
swinging here. So that's kind of mid
round short is better for a rifler.
Early round, your your focus should be
getting picks towards top mid from
ladder or from a good timing and you're
peeking up this way. When you're rifling
window, you don't have the ability to
just sit here and just hold it dry and
get one and fall off with minimal risk.
Right? If you come here early and the
TE's swing four out mid without smoking
window, flashing anything, you're maybe
going to get one. Like maybe if you
really destroy one person fast,
otherwise you're just going to die. you
don't have that luxury that you do with
an OP to to take that fight. Um,
instead, as this window player, you got
to get a bit more creative. So, if you
want to hold the mid swing dry, it's
better to ask your connector player or
your short player to come window early
with you and you guys double hold it
with rifles, right? And then you guys
take those fights together. If the TE's
aren't into swinging, instead they're
throwing the window smoke and they're
waiting for it and then they swing, then
getting up mid with your rifle is really
strong. This is I mean you see Donk make
this play so much in his pugs. He just
runs up mid and kills people. This is
really good to do again together with a
teammate, right? Have somebody come with
you. You guys double swing and your A
player's flashing for you guys from A to
go for that peak. Coming double short
early too is good. Coming short with
your short player and then you guys
swing. You can left and right click a
flash like that above window to swing.
You can also bounce a flash just against
the blue bit right there. Bang. And then
you guys are double swing off short
together. That's really good to do if
you have a connector player who will
come window and throw the the boxes
molly, right? That'll make that play
even better. But the molly is kind of a
luxury and pugs, you can't really expect
people to do that. So even if it's not
there, still doing that double swing off
short can help you guys control mid. If
you don't want to do anything early,
then if you're rifling in window,
playing more so for the mid round is
better. And the reason for that is
because you can't take these early
fights. Once the T's are scaled up down
bottom valley up short, right? We're
we're in the mid round. Then they're
more vulnerable to more things. Right?
If I'm up here short, I'm exposed to
con, I'm exposed to window, and somebody
who's close short could just swing me
here. But early round, if I'm sitting
here, right, I'm only exposed to
connector. If I'm sitting here, I'm only
exposed to short. If I'm sitting here,
I'm only exposed to bottom con, right?
So, as the T's scale further down mid,
they become more and more vulnerable to
CT aggression, which means you want to
hit that timing where, okay, the T
smoked window, they took mid, they were
at boxes, and now they're scaling down,
and now they're trying to do something
mid. Right now, they're trying to push
short or they're trying to get up con,
whatever, but they're sitting in valley,
and they're figuring out what they're
going to do. That's when it's a really
good time to throw this nade and have
your connector player swing at the same
time and have your short player swing at
the same time. or you go double con and
let's say bottom con is smoked. That's a
good time for you guys to nate it or to
flash through and to get really
aggressive in retaking mid with your
rifles. Regardless of if you're opting
or if you're rifling, your positioning
in the mid round is incredibly important
because you are the rotate player,
right? You should be rotating towards A
or you should be rotating towards B
depending on what's happening on the
map. because of how frequent a hits are
or a splits are, you should typically be
rotating towards ticket instead of
rotating towards market. Now, if the T's
are in a really bad buy, then the
chances of them going towards B goes up
and then maybe okay, market's a better
decision. On full buy rounds, I would
kind of default towards rotating towards
ticket if you don't want to stay window.
Now, you would want to rotate off of
window if let's say you get one and then
bang, you're smoked window. Okay, now
it's a 5v4. You guys don't need to fight
for mid to win this round, right? The
T's are at a man disadvantage now.
Coming towards ticket, reinforcing A and
we kind of give space mid. That's really
strong. Another reason you'd want to
rotate is because you're sitting window
and nothing is happening. It's super
boring, right? Nobody's swinging. It's
starting to feel like a sight hit is
going to come in. Then you should rotate
to where you think that sight hit is
going to happen. If you think it's a
then rotating jungle is okay. The reason
why it's not great is because you're
going to be facing right side smokes,
right? And you can't do a whole lot
through these as an offer unless you
have a nade and you get a good timing
where you nade it, bang, and then you
catch some crossing, you get a kill, and
then you tuck. Otherwise, you're going
to have you're going to have more
options to make plays via CT. The last
two things I'll say about window just in
general, number one, and you probably
picked up on it so far, you should OP.
You need you should be comfortable
opting if you're going to play window.
If you don't op as a window player,
you're kind of wasting the uh the role.
you're wasting the position in a way
because it's just you're limited by
rifling. Number two is that as this
window player and just in general as an
oper, you need to be very vocal about
what you're doing and what you expect
your teammates to do. So, if I'm making
a play where I'm jumping out window, I
need to tell my team that I need to ask
my con player to throw that bottom con
smoke if I want it. Otherwise, I might
just die out bottom mid. Right? When
you're making plays as an oper, you're
going to have to rely on your teammates
at times. And if you can't rely on your
teammates, then you're going to have to
play in kind of a bit more of a of a
passive way. You could still get away
with some aggressive stuff for sure, but
certain things just aren't going to work
without your teammates help. So, be
vocal. Ask for things. Ask for flashes.
Ask for smokes. Tell your teammates,
"I'm rotating here. Let's go do this,
right?" Come up with ideas. Be a vocal
player. It's going to help out
tremendously. Next, let's talk about how
to play short. Short is kind of similar
to connector where early round you're
going to be focused on mid and helping
your teammates with the midfight or just
taking these midfights and then more so
in the mid round or late round. Then you
become a bit more concerned about B or
you're concerned about lurks depending
on what's going on. But you're going to
have a hand in the B fights and a hand
in the middle fights. As a connector
player, unless you're making the window
to short jump or you're doing the ladder
jump, you have the worst timing to mid
compared to the connector player and the
window player. This means that unless
your team like has a plan for this
round, you need to be running up here
towards short staring at the mini map
looking at what is my con player doing?
What is my window player doing? Are they
fighting? Are they passive? What's up
with that? Because that's going to
inform you on how you should start this
round. If you see that your window
player is fighting, then you can come
around to this left side and throw a
flash like this that'll pop above window
and it won't blind your window player if
they're fighting right here. If they're
not fighting, but window isn't smoked
and you want them to fight and you say,
"Hey guys, let's go fight." Then you can
just throw a flash like this above the
blue building, bang, and swing with
that. And then that one your teammates
can swing off of. It's just these
flashes that are thrown deeper can blind
your window player. So make sure that
they're not just like holding it with an
OP and then you throw that. You're going
to full blind them. If the T's are being
really aggressive and like you can hear
your con player fighting, you want to
get out and you want to help as fast as
possible, then come up short, throw a
flash like this, and then just bang and
just insta swing off of this and look
for a fight. You can also just left and
right click a flash behind you like
this. That works totally fine, too. And
neither of those are going to blind your
window player. Now, in the timing
section, we saw that the short player,
even with a really good spawn, can get
up and then the TE's will be really
close short if they fullon rush it. So,
again, stare at the mini map. Think
about, is that a possibility for me
here, right? Do I hear a window smoke
land? Sometimes your window player is
going to get smoked off or not peek and
just not tell you. What do you know
about the round? If you know nothing and
you get up short and you hear some
footsteps up short, might be better just
to block. Just smoke close short. Don't
even mess around with that because you
could just be swinging short into a 1v5.
This is one of those positions where
it's just you really kind of depend on
your teammates's info because you're so
late to the party that if they don't
give you info, you kind of have to play
the role in a little bit more of a
passive way. Now, if the T's aren't
going out mid super fast and you have
the timing to get towards ladder, then
getting towards ladder is really strong
if the other team is a mid-heavy team.
if the other team is just lurking mid or
not really touching mid and they're just
going towards sights. Being in ladder is
really not that good because if they
throw an A execute, you're just going to
rotate, right? But if they go B, you're
leaving your B player just fully on an
island and that's a lot of trust to have
in a random random teammate as a B
player, right? If you're duoed with them
and you trust them more, then committing
harder into mid and getting into ladder
can be quite good. If you don't really
trust them to hold B, then you will want
to lean a bit more towards B. some pugs
like some games like the other team's
just never going to go B and you could
just full focus mid. So again, similar
to window, similar to con, it's one of
those roles where you really have to
analyze like what are the T's doing?
Where can I put myself where I'm going
to have a lot of impact? As a short
player, you're often going to be
reacting to fights or reacting to sound
that your teammates are making. One
example is sometimes you're going to be
playing close short like this and you're
going to be holding bottom con or
looking towards bench. And the reason
why it can be good to be up close like
this is because if somebody's being
loud, short, bang, you're just insta
swinging and you just kill them here if
they're fighting towards Khan. Of
course, you have to be worried about
chair, right? But you can also throw
util towards chair by coming here, just
lining it up kind of like this, like the
lamp is in the red and just shift walk
throw util towards the lamp or a little
bit above it. And then that's going to
land in chair and molly out chair. So
you can throw that and then if you want
to aggro up cat, you can just take like
a fight here. If you know there's
somebody chair, they're going to be here
or they're going to be dropped valley
and then that allows you to aggress
without somebody swinging you from
chair. As a short player, you can throw
a ton of really useful util for your
teammates and just in general. Firstly,
you have a really easy way to throw util
towards underpass, right? You just throw
them over the sign, bang, bang, and
you're going to do a [ __ ] ton of damage
to people who are close under. You can
also resmoke bottom con for your
teammate. There's this lineup that's an
old CSGO lineup where you come here and
you aim like imagine this is a box, you
just aim in the middle of it, left click
throw. I prefer just coming back here
and then at the bottom of this you just
left and right click jump throw. Um,
this one is much faster and kind of
plumes outwards more, which is what you
want from a bottom con smoke in CS2. So
if you want to respoke bottom con for
your teammate, come here, left and right
click jump throw at this dark spot.
That's the perfect bottom con smoke for
for con. If you have a teammate in duo
and you want to help them out, you can
get into this corner, aim at the left
side of this wood thing here and just
run left click throw. And this is going
to nade the window smoke out so your
window player can peek. You can also
throw a flash that pops right above
window. That's really effective. If you
just get back here, right close to this
door, you're not exposed to cat. You're
going to line it up where this line
you're aiming about in the bricks where
this line would meet it. Then you're
going to run, left click, jump throw,
and that flash is going to pop right
above window. and anybody that's
chilling in valley is going to get full
blinded from this. Okay, let's talk
about smokes that land on short. One
smoke that you're going to be throwing
occasionally will be this smoke here.
This smoke is really effective. I would
say not at the beginning of the round,
but more so when the TE's are going to
be going up con or they're going to be
going up short. At the beginning of the
round, it blocks your window player off
from getting info short. Somebody can
sneak up behind the smoke and kind of
use it to isolate fights towards Khan.
It just kind of restricts info mid when
if we want to take mid, we don't want to
restrict info mid, right? It's better in
the mid round where let's say T's are
grouping short. They just smoked Khan.
They want to go up short and then you
throw this smoke, right? And then this
is really spooky for them to push. Or
they do the opposite. They smoke you off
short. In reaction, you throw that smoke
and now if they want to go up con, they
have to worry about you pushing the
short smoke because nobody can hold that
that smoke from chair anymore, right?
You could just push it here and isolate
these fights towards con. It's better as
kind of a a stuffing tool or as like a
scary like, you know, oh [ __ ] now we
can't push con or now we can't push
short because of the short player threw
this smoke. The other smoke that you can
kind of make plays around is a top mid
smoke. If the TE's are consistently
throwing a top mid smoke, then sometimes
disrespecting it and getting up this way
can be really effective. This is just
like a cheeky sneaky little play. In CS
GO, people used to push this smoke all
the time. I feel like I haven't seen
somebody push a top mid smoke in CS2 in
like months. I don't know. people just
never do it for some reason. So, this
can be a cheeky way if they're super
heavy mid, right? Push up here. You can
even get into the smoke and then walk
out this way and just find a couple free
kills. Cheeky little play for you to do.
One thing to be cautious about when
you're swinging mid from short is that
you are just exposed to everything,
right? The connector player has the
luxury of swinging and not being exposed
to top left. So, they can isolate fights
a bit easier, especially if they have
their their smoke down bottom bid. On
short, when you swing, you have a
terrible timing to short and it's just
everything's open. So, if you're being
really aggressive short, try to either
get somebody to come with you or make
sure you're swinging like off somebody
else's info. Cuz if you swing and you
over swing, you take a fight here and
somebody swings here, you should just
die, right? You should just lose that
fight. So, what you can do if you have
teammates who are down to coordinate a
little something, uh, if you feel like
you're confident swinging off short, you
can ask your window player, "Hey, Molly
boxes once we get up to short, have a
teammate come with you short, and then
you guys just flash against the wall and
then double swing." And hopefully your A
player flashes as well and you guys
swing out and you take these fights once
boxes is mollyed. When you're being
aggressive, if you're confident that
you're going to take a fight in this
area, then you can throw just a flash
valley like that and then swing off of
that. It won't blind you and anybody
who's left side boxes or playing Dell
Plan or just out in the open, right?
They're going to be full blinded by this
flash and they can't really do anything
about it aside from run away and turn.
When you do have to turn back and focus
on B, don't feel like you have to 1v5
T's running out of apps. This is a
repeating theme on Mirage I want you to
think about is that you don't have to
1v5 people as they're swinging out and
taking space. Your job as a cat player
is more so to be the person who kills
people, but that means that you can be a
little bit more bity and a little bit
more picky choosy about how you take
fights, right? Your B player should be
the one who's jump spotting. They get
the info, they throw their smoke, and
they just try to stay alive, right? They
force the TE's to try to go find them.
you as this short player get to picky
choosy which fights do I want to take
and one way you can effectively do that
is if the T's are throwing good flashes
they're blinding you they're getting out
apps is to not fight them in apps but
instead fight them as they jump out
right you're going to catch T's swinging
this way who are trying to clear bench
try to find your B player once they're
out apps they're going to be more spread
out and you're going to be able to
isolate fights easier so if you're
playing around this right this is a
really strong place to play to hold apps
from if you're if you're a short player
when you play around this Right. Maybe
take one fight apps and then let them
drop and isolate fights from there. Make
them come get you and find you and make
them go chase the B anchor as well. If
you stand here and let them just fourman
swing apps with their Mac 10s, AKs out,
right? You're probably just going to get
traded. The other thing is that you can
throw really good util into apps from
short, right? You can throw that nade
that's just going to nuke everybody. You
can throw a molly from there. So early
on in the round, you're going to get B
info before your B player does because
you're coming up this way towards short,
right? you're going to default towards
mid early if you hear all those
footsteps in apps and make sure please
if you play short and you hear people
running in apps tell your B player so
you hear those footsteps okay you can
immediately come back and you can drop
you can just util dump it into apps
right like that and you can either tuck
or you can play towards here this is
really effective as well you can also of
course play back here this is better to
do if the T's are on an eco right you
know they're on pistols they're on Mac
10s whatever and you want to maintain
that range advantage it's just if you do
this and they're on a fullby they're not
great fights and you're also super
separated from sight. So, it's a bit
tricky and sometimes you're going to get
smoked off short right here. The last
thing I'll mention is that as a short
player, your job isn't only to be
concerned about short and to be
concerned about B, but you're also um
responsible for helping your connector
player control. That's why T's always
have to throw util towards short, right?
They have to molly it or they have to
smoke it or they have to do something
when they want to go up connector. So,
however you can make it uncomfortable
for the TE's to go up con, whether it be
right, they smoke you short and then you
molly into con, you drop a nade bottom
con, or you throw this this smoke and
then you lurk out behind it and you push
and you try to, you know, catch them.
Whatever you can do to either get info
con or just make tease uncomfortable in
con is really strong. I don't want you
to think that short player, your job is
only short. That's all you have to be
worried about. You should be worried
about con 2 and help your con player
control that space. And that's why
having smokes ready to be able to
resmoke bottom con can be really strong
as well. The last CT position we're
going to talk about is the B anchor. The
most boring but also the easiest
position on Mirage is the Banker
position. And the reason for that is
because the floor of being a Banker is
really high when you know the utility
and you know how to jump spot correctly.
You can be like a really bad player or
just not really but you could be a
really bad player and still be a good
beanker. You can be at a lobby that's
significantly higher elo than you,
everybody's better than you, and still
be a good banker. One way you can make
efficient use of your molly is by coming
here early round like right off of
spawn. You're going to aim about here
and then you're going to run and left
click throw. It's a loosey goosey
lineup, but the goal is to get the molly
deep into apps. This denies TE's from
getting into apps early and it threatens
that, hey, now you could be on Balk, you
could be in apps. It's very spooky for
the TE's. What it also does is that if
they're just trying to lurk, maybe it'll
make a tick sound. Maybe you get info
off of it and your short player will be
able to hear that. And then if the T's
aren't rushing, then you want to play B
for info. The way you do that is by jump
spotting, right? Play for info and then
use your utility in an efficient way. So
there's a couple of different ways you
want to jump spot. And the reason I'm
talking about this, I know it's boring,
jump spotting, but you don't want to get
owned while you're jump spotting. If you
jump spot incorrectly, people can come
here, look for a pick, and just kill
you. The two ways you want to jump spot
is number one, jumping like this. Uh
when you do these side to side jump
spots, you want to make sure that when
you're coming from this way to that way
that you're jumping early enough where
you're just getting a glimpse of it. You
don't need full visibility for a really
long time. This is super unnecessary.
You just want a little glimpse. The
other way you can jump spot is by being
in this corner and then as you come
down, right, you're going to jump. As
you fall down, you're going to strafe to
the right towards the bottom of your
jump. And then that gives you a brief uh
lookie who into that angle right there.
You don't want to jump like this. You're
going to die. Jump and then strafe. Jump
and then strafe. Jump and then strafe.
That way you just get a brief glimpse
and you get the info and you're not
exposed for very long. When you're jump
spotting, you need to be aware of kind
of two things. Similar to a where either
you're worried about a execute or you're
worried about a lurk. If you see a lurk,
right, you're jump spotting and you just
see one person just walking up, then you
don't have to go full panic mode,
especially if there's no util coming in,
right? If you see one person and util
comes in, then you can expect it to be
an execute. If you see one person and
there's no util, then maybe it's just
one lurk and your reaction to that could
be a deep nade. Your reaction could be a
deep molly and then you want to take the
fight, right? Deep molly, jump up, look
for the fight. Okay, they fell back
behind the molly. Now you kind of
reclaimed that app space. You can smoke
it if you want. Jump balcony, be
aggressive, or if you don't want to be
as aggressive and you don't want to use
your util, you can fall back and just
get into an off angle either towards
bench. You can play up here. Oops. It's
right on the tip of this right here. And
hold this. This is a half decent off
angle too right here. As people walk out
this way, they're going to be clearing
this. They're going to be clearing
window and then they expose themselves
to you right there. There's a lot of
different off angles you can play. So,
it's kind of the decision between do I
want to, you know, use my util to block
them from taking apps or lurking in apps
and then I can get into apps or I can
just hold it from here, right? Hold the
smoke from here or would I rather save
my util and hold it expecting them to
lurk out. Now, if the T's are executing
B, you're jump spotting, you see three
people, utils coming over, then your
instant reaction should be smoking right
here and getting out and staying alive.
The reason why the smoke is so good is
because if T's are coming out, right,
they can't see Jail, which is right
here. They can't see bench, they can't
see back sight. If they want to take the
space, they have to push the smoke or
they have to funnel themselves through
midsight, which exposes themselves to
both short and to bench, which is a
really tricky crossfire for them to
push. So once you throw the smoke, there
are many different ways you can play it,
right? You can throw it. You can come
here towards jail and just hold the
smoke push. You can play bench and hold
the van jump. You can get into sight and
play a crossfire right here with your
short player. You can get really cheeky,
throw the smoke, fake the runaway, and
then walk back and play towards van. You
don't want to do this if the TE's
mollied van, right? This smoke I don't
think really ever extinguishes the molly
unless it's like a really bad van molly.
So if they don't molly van, you can fake
it and do that and that could get you a
couple pretty sweet kills. Otherwise,
right, your job as a be anchor, stay
alive. If you didn't use your molly
earlier, you can drop the smoke and then
you can molly midsight like that and
then bang, you're staying alive. You're
delaying the TE's for an insane amount
of time. You're chilling. As a banker,
the longer you stay alive and the more
space you're able to control and keep as
CT space, the easier it is going to be
to retake this site or for your team
just to win this round. So what I mean
by that is that if you stay alive,
right, you spot somebody, okay, you
throw the smoke, you get out, maybe even
run all the way towards empty right
here. But if you can control this space,
right, this rectangle here, then your
retake is so significantly easier.
Retaking B is incredibly difficult when
T's are able to get up here towards
Ebox. When they're able to get up here,
right here close door, or even if
they're able to get into market, then
that retake is like almost impossible.
If you can keep this space and allow
your team to get out of market and
retake the site from the space that
you're going to win the round. So,
similar to the short player, that means
that you don't need to 1v5 spray them
down, go for a hero play. That means
that if you get back here, you stay
alive and you find ones, right? Find
one-on-one fights where you can isolate
them, kill them, stay alive, right? That
way you maintain the space, you take one
or two fights that aren't super risky.
If I just swing this while the TE's are
running out Balk, I could be taken 1v3,
right? That's a terrible fight for me.
So instead, maybe I drop my molly
default and then I stay alive here in
empty. And if my short player takes
contact with a guy midsight right there,
then bang, I'm going to swing off that.
I'm going to try to kill them and I'm
going to try to stay alive. And I'm
listening, okay, listening if they push
this smoke. I'm trying to keep a mental
image of where the TE's are on site so
that I can try to isolate these fights
as easy as possible and to stay alive.
One piece of utility you can use from
empty that's like surprisingly effective
is you just aim about straight up maybe
a little bit more behind you left and
right click through a flash. This is so
strong because TE's won't really be able
to see this. Like obviously a guy
default could kind of see it but
somebody over here won't be able to see
it because it's just covered by the
green. It's really difficult to react to
and it doesn't make any bouncing sounds
and in the flurry of a rush right T's
are running out like all of them get
blinded by it and they aren't likely to
be looking there or noticing a flash
coming out from empty pillar. Now that
we know how to play CT side Mirage let's
talk about the T-side and we're going to
start just again with a brief overview
of the T-side default. T-side defaults
are kind of less talked about in pugs
and games with randoms, right? You join
CT, everybody kind of says their
position hopefully like I'll play
window, I'll play con. That doesn't
happen on T-side. It's a bit more flowy,
less structured. But having a good idea
for what a T-side default looks like is
still a really good thing because then
it allows you to fill the gaps to know
where to play when you're not sure of
where you should put yourself. Also,
again, I was only able to spawn CT bots,
so imagine that they're they're T's. All
right, let's start with middle. On your
typical T-side default, you're going to
have three players towards mid. Two of
them are going to be aggressing while
one is often throwing supporting flashes
for them. Over towards A, you have your
A lurk. This player is trying to walk
out A and get a pick onto the A player
after these middle players are able to
take some space down mid. This player
can rotate, you know, either go ramp or
they can come through palace and try to
get a pick here. Either way, it's just
kind of up to them of which one they
think they're going to have more success
lurking at. Our fifth player is the be
lurk. they get to decide whether they
want to go underpass and help with mid
or if they want to go into apps. I'll
talk more about that decision in the
role specific sections. The first role
in the T-side default/ just a general
concept that's good to know how to do is
lurking towards a as this a lurk early
round. You don't really need your smoke.
Your job as an A lurk is to control ramp
or control palace and then walk out in
the mid round and try to get a kill or
in early round. We'll talk about it
more, but your smoke isn't super
important. Your mid players are going to
need your smoke more. So, if you know
how to do the instant window smokes,
it's best that you throw a window smoke
for your teammates or you just throw a
topment smoke for them or you throw a
connector smoke for them, right? If you
use your smoke for them or like you just
drop it to them, right? Somebody else
throws a smoke, you drop it to them, you
buy double flash, it's better that they
have those smokes to resoke stuff in
middle than it is for you to have that
smoke. Early round as an alert, you're
going to be doing like one of kind of
three different things. Number one,
you're just going to be chilling, right?
You're going to be just holding the push
and you're going to be waiting to
activate in the mid round. Number two,
if you have a good spawn, then you can
look for the ramp cross. You can run up,
come here, be loud, and then just hold
this cross. See if you can catch
somebody jumping towards jungle. Number
three, again, if you also have a good
spawn, then you can look for a pick ramp
early by jumping up and just looking for
this fight. Like we talked about on CT,
maybe you didn't see it, maybe you did.
A really effective play that you can
make is CT's molly ramp. Maybe they
don't throw a very good molly. So, it
can be good early on to like see how
they're throwing their mollies because
lots of times there's going to be a gap
here that you can jump on and you can
look for a fight right here. If you've
been taking the lurk pretty slow, then
what you can also do is just immediately
at the beginning of the round and look
for this fight. Come out and try to kill
them. This is especially good if they
are throwing those mid flashes early and
then they're resetting and going
somewhere else. You have a really good
time. You can just come out and just try
to take that fight while they triple.
when you're lurking A and you're playing
for the mid round, right? You're trying
to walk out after your teammates have
done some stuff middle after the CTs,
you know, one or two of them have died,
their focus is more so towards mid than
it is on A. It's really all about timing
for you. And how you get good timings
coming out of A is one of two ways.
Number one, the CT just tells you where
they are and you swing off that info.
Sometimes a CT will jump top ticket and
they'll look towards con like this. This
is especially common if their con player
dies and they'll look for this fight
because they think everybody's middle
and then you can just instantly swing
off that or you just hear footstep on
site and you just activate off of that.
If the CT isn't giving you any info but
your teammates are scaling up through
con, right? The Aplit is happening, you
need to activate, you need to do
something, then just dry walking out and
just searching for this player can be
really effective. You just have to be
worried about if you're walking out ramp
in the mid round and the oper still
alive, they could just be ticket holding
you right here. So give this a really
purposeful peak. Make sure if they are
opting. Okay, I'm just going to destroy
this guy if they're just standing there.
One thing you have to think about as
this a lurk is that you can't be uber
scared. If you want to have impact as
this lurk, you're going to have to take
risks. And one risk you're going to have
to take is you're going to have to walk
through smokes. You're going to get
smoked palace. Sometimes you're going to
get smoked ramp. And if your teammates
are being active, they're going up con
or you feel like you just have a timing
for a pick, then you should walk through
these smokes and not give not worry
about it, right? The goal here is that
you just catch a timing where they smoke
ramp and then they think, "Okay, because
I smoke ramp, I don't have to look at
ramp anymore and they feel really
comfortable with that. You walk through
the smoke, you get the kill, bang, you
guys just win the round because you got
that that entry." If you're lurking
towards A and your mid players run out
of util and you want to throw a
something to help them, then throwing a
top connector smoke can be really
effective. You're just going to get into
this corner. You're going to aim for the
tip of this palm tree right here in the
green and just left click jump throw.
This is going to land Topcon and Topcon
smokes. We'll talk about it more when we
talk about mid defaulting. But the
topcon smoke is the perfect smoke for
the mid round on T-side. It blocks these
angles from A so then A players can't
see if you're going up short and it also
lets your con players sneak out and
pressure A through these two lurks. In
your Mirage games, filling this role as
the A lurk can be really effective when
your team is able to take mid, but then
we just get fully stuck mid. If you go
mid with your teammate and we're like
teammates and we're like four out mid,
five out mid, we take mid and then we're
just we don't know where to go. We don't
know what to do. Then it's better for
you to go towards A and be a lurk
instead of being one of those mid
defaulters. That's because if you're A
and you're lurking out, you can be a
voice. You could say, "Hey, I'm walking
out A. You guys should pinch. You guys
should go through con." Or if you just
get to pick on A, bang, that's a really
good incentive for your teammates to
speed up con and to actually do
something from mid. So filling this gap
can be really effective, but it kind of
hinges on the fact that your team is
able to do something mid, right? They're
able to pressure mid, they're able to
get kills. If the rest of your team is
super passive and not taking any space,
then you lurking A isn't going to be
very effective because the CTs will take
mid, see nobody's here, and then just
come towards A and just hold you. That's
when lurks aren't going to be good
towards A. If another person is lurking
A or somebody else comes with you, then
you guys should try to do something
together. It's useless for you to sit
ramp and hold ramp while your teammate
is walking out palace. You guys should
try to double. Either you come ramp,
they go palace, and you walk out at the
same time, or you go double together.
Double palace typically isn't that
great. If you're doubling, like, you
know, your teammates's right next to
you, you guys should come double ramp
and walk out ramp and contact it like
this. That's much more effective than
double palace. Next, let's talk about
the three mid defaulters. Sash, just in
general, how to take middle on Mirage.
Your mid tank starts in spawn. And what
I mean by that is that you're going to
throw all the smokes you need to take
mid from spawn. And so you need to
coordinate with your teammates who's
throwing what? And also what's our pace
going to be when we go out mid. There
are instant window smokes you can learn
from a handful of spawns. And I would
highly recommend that you do. They're so
strong and they're actually surprisingly
easy to learn. If you don't want to do
that or you just want to know how to
smoke window, you come here against this
bin and then you aim. You see, I think
of this as a square where this meets
this. And then I aim for the bottom kind
of left of it right there. And I hold D,
jump throw. The instant smokes are
better because they land significantly
faster. And they're also faster to
throw. The other two smokes you should
know from spawn is a top mid smoke. So
you're just going to go to this other
side of the bin for that. And then
you're going to aim at the tip of this
antenna right here. Just a left click
throw that plumes out far enough left
where it's going to cover you entirely
from bottom con on your cross towards
boxes. The third smoke you should know
is a connector smoke. And one consistent
way to throw it is you jump on top of
the bin. You crouch, you aim at where
the rug meets this point where the
orange and tan meet. So right here. And
then while you're crouch, left click,
jump throw. That's going to land inside
connector and smoke fully smoke it off
if you want to cross towards short. So,
what smokes should you throw mid and
why? I would say on most of your
defaults, you should have either a top
mid smoke and a window smoke. This
combination is really solid. Or you
should have a window smoke and a
connector smoke. If your team is only
throwing a window smoke, then you're
giving the CTs a lot of space in
connector and in short to swing you and
fight you guys out mid, right? Coming
out mid without a con smoke or without a
top midm smoke, very spooky. So, if you
are on a team like that and nobody's
throwing, let's say you're throwing
window and nobody else is throwing a
smoke mid, either ask somebody to drop
you a smoke mid, so you can throw both,
or ask somebody to molly con at the very
beginning, or you could molly con at the
very beginning, right? That way, if you
molly bottom con, that gives you some
space to get out mid and relieves some
pressure from being swung on from both
short and connector. Another way you can
take mid is just by dry swinging it. If
you have a good spawn for mid and some
of your teammates have good spawns, then
just tell them, "Hey, let's go dry swing
mid, right? Let's just go fight it."
When you guys dry swing, it's typically
best to do this if you don't think that
they're OP. If they're OP, like we
talked about on CT side and you dry
swing this, they can get one and fall
off and it's really hard to trade that.
But if you think that their rifles or
their eco, then just dry swinging mid
with numbers is really effective. Now,
let's say you're not dry swinging and
you want to get out mid, you have a top
mid smoke and you have a window smoke.
What util should you be throwing from
top mid? There's quite a few different
things that you can throw that will be
really effective at stopping CT
aggression or getting CTs off of angles.
The first one is this, just a flash over
top mid boxes. This is going to blind
any CTs who are pushing up mid like
that. The second one is a flash towards
connector. This is going to pop bottom
mid right here. And if anybody's running
up con and they're going to go for a
peak, this flash is going to fullblind
them. If you feel like the CTs could be
bottom mid, could be valley right right
here, and you're worried about swinging
this dry, you can throw flashes towards
valley just like that. And that's going
to full blind them as you're swinging,
especially if they're sitting here or if
they're sitting under, they have to full
dodge that. And bottom con, of course,
from stairs, you can throw some really
good supporting flashes. One is called
the uh what is this called? The big
flash. Uh I got made fun of by
Freakazoid by asking him for this flash
because he said it's such an old flash,
but it's still so effective. It's going
to blind an oper who's sitting window
and lets you just swing out mid if if
window's not smoked. Less aggressive
flashes, but flashes that are meant to
deal with aggression. You're going to
throw from around here. And you could
just throw these towards uh towards
Valley, right? Your teammates are going
to have to turn them. But you just tell
them that, hey, turn the flash. Bang.
And then they swing. And if anybody's
chilling valley or being aggressive,
they should just kill them because
they're going to be full blind. When you
have a decent spawn towards top mid,
then throwing some sort of piece of util
towards Khan, especially if we're not
smoking conh is really good. You don't
want the con player on CT to feel really
confident with just running out mid and
fighting you guys. So throw a nade into
con or throw a molly. If somebody's here
with you, ask them to double nade it
with you. That can be really effective
as well. Once you're scaling out mid,
you want to get away from boxes. Being
boxes feels very safe and it's good to
be boxes if the CTs are being really
aggressive, right? If they're swinging
short, if they're swinging con, then
being here is really solid. But the
longer the round goes on, the more
useless you are sitting boxes, right?
So, if you cross mid at the very
beginning of the round and you get
towards boxes, cool. Definitely like
hang out here for a little bit. Look for
a fight. If your team is defaulting, you
don't have to be super speedy. see if
the CTs are going to readress into you.
And then you can throw a window smoke
from behind boxes right here. Just aim.
I typically aim just a bit to the right
of this uh antenna and just run left
click throw and that's going to be a
nice window smoke for you. You can throw
that same lineup for window with your
molly if you don't have a smoke. You can
also smoke short from here. This cubby
just aim for the tip of this antenna.
Left click throw. You can flash
connector by coming into this corner,
this other corner. You see this kind of
X right here? just on the right side.
Left click and bang. This is gonna pop
right in front of con. So tell your
teammate turn it. Bang. And then they
swing off of it. Another way you can
flash con is from right here. You're
just going to come against this wall and
then aim above the middle of connector
right here. So I see this, you know,
little vague tan line top of that where
the where it meets the roof and left
click throw and boom. That's your con
flash. And that's going to get any oper
or rifler who's sitting here off of the
angle. The typical kind of way you're
going to scale out mid with your
teammates is one person is going to play
towards chair. They're going to get out
here and hold the short aggress. Another
player is going to get down in valley
and look towards con and they're often
going to throw a topcon smoke like that.
I'll talk more about that in a moment.
And the third player will either stay
top mid and hold towards window or hold
towards short or hold a con peak or
they're going to get up short. And these
two, right, once one guy's up short and
this guy's down to here in valley, these
two can double swing con in a high low
and make this fight super awkward for a
con player. So, if you feel like you go
out mid and then you're constantly being
surprised by CT swinging stuff and
you're not holding it and you die, then
you probably should take a look at how
you're positioned compared to where your
teammates are. Right? If your teammate
comes short and then you double up short
with them and nobody's here towards
chair, well, if a short player swings,
right, bang. That's just an easy double
for them and they're not in a position
to get traded by anybody because we
don't have anybody who could kill them.
So, back to the top con smoke. The
reason why this smoke is so so strong
and why more people should be throwing
it on their defaults, you'll see it a
ton in proplay and I barely ever see it
in pugs, especially lower elo pugs.
Nobody throws a top smoke. It's so good
because it gives you access to con,
right? If a CT wants to fight con, they
just have to commit in front of the
smoke and they have no help from their
teammates. Super awkward. Most of the
time a CT just won't play in con when
this top con smoke lands. They'll just
get out of con and then from a CT
perspective the smoke is super awkward
because they can push, you know, TE's
could push this side, they can push this
side, they can just push through the
smoke, they can flash into the smoke and
I wouldn't be able to see the flash,
right? I can show you one just right
click, just drop a flash in. Bang. And
then as a CT, I just can't react to
that. I'm holding I'm holding. Bang. I'm
blind. Right? If you're a T and you're
getting up con and you throw a top con
smoke, it also allows you to throw util
towards jungle, right? Whether you want
to smoke jungle off or whether you want
to molly deep jungle off and then flash
through and take it and get out. Bang.
It's just suffocating for CTs throwing
the smoke. So, please throw top smoke
more. And the way you can throw it is
left side. You just aim at this like
electrical box here and just shift walk,
left click, throw. That's going to land
top. If you're coming from this side,
then you aim just to the left of this
lamp, this light right here, shift walk,
left click, throw, and both of those are
going to land nicely into topcon. So,
use the smoke as a lurk smoke, walk
through it, get upstairs, and look for
this fight against jungle, walk through
the right side. Or you can do a split
where like one teammate goes there, you
go stairs, right? Coordinate that with a
teammate. That's really effective as
well because if a CT is holding one and
they kill them, then the other teammate
can just trade them from the other side.
I talked about all the ways it helps
with your A take, right? But it also
helps with your short take. You throw a
Topcon smoke, this smoke doesn't
indicate, hey, we're going up short
right now. But a smoke towards bottomcon
does. If I throw this smoke in the mid
round, uh, this tells the CTs they're
probably not coming. A, right? And so
because I throw that smoke, it's more
likely that once we're going up short, a
CT is going to sit here really
confidently and just spam through the
smoke and just try to kill all of us as
we're going up short. But I can get a CT
out of position by throwing a Topcon
smoke. They play around here, jungle,
right? They're worried about the push.
They also have to worry about a window
lurk. And then bang, we're running up
short. They're not in a position to
really action off of that sound or that
info and boom, our short take is much
easier. When you're in doubt with what
to do with your smoke mid, right, window
is always the place where you should be
resmoking. You pretty much never want to
leave window open. So, smoke window or
smoke top con. Smoking short is good for
like set like we are going up con this
round, right? But it also acts as a
smoke against us because if I throw this
smoke in the mid round, then we just
can't go short for 20 seconds, right?
We're kind of forced into making a
connector or window play. Let's talk
about some solo plays/ just some
aggressive plays you can make towards
middle. This one you do need a little
help from a teammate. Ask a teammate to
throw a top mid smoke for you. It
doesn't even have to be a very good top
mid smoke as long as it blocks window,
which that one somehow didn't. Throw a
top mid smoke for you. You're going to
come up. You're going to flash con and
then you're going to molly window and
then you're going to jump through the
midm smoke. You're going to hold window.
Okay, nothing. And then you're going to
insta swing con. This you're so fast and
you're here bottom con is such an
unexpected timing. Lots of times you're
just going to kill somebody top con
who's just not ready for you. Once
you're towards bottom mid, a really
cheeky play you can make is if you stand
here against the bench and you aim at
this red dot and then right click jump
throw and then jump up window, this
flash is going to pop here and it's not
going to blind you. So, even if a CT
hears you running on the bench and knows
you're about to peak this, they're just
going to eat this flash and die for it.
If you're able to lurk into ladder at
some point in the round, then you just
chilling here is really strong. I don't
want you to go ladder when your team is
being loud up short and they're trying
to split B. There's no reason to get
into ladder unless you're really just
hardcore. I'm going to hold the rotate.
But if you don't have sight yet, then
why are you holding rotates? You should
just go B and clear out sight with your
teammates. But if as a solo player, you
come out mid. Maybe the CT weird smoke
that allows you to lurk into ladder and
then bang, you get in here just chilling
here and listening right from ladder,
you can hear a beep anchor rotate. You
can hear the short player rotate. You
can hear the window player rotate. Being
in this spot, even if you don't get a
kill, will just give you so much info.
And then, of course, from here, you're
the ultimate rotate holder. If your team
goes out A, then you can hold the short
rotate right here, and you can hold the
jungle rotate right here. And this is so
good if the CTs aren't expecting you to
be in ladder. Last on our T-side
default, let's talk about the B lurk.
The B lurk is quite a flexible position.
You don't see a ton of action because
you're not taking really early fights
for the most part, but you do kind of
get to pick and choose what you do.
Sometimes you can go four mid and that's
totally fine, right? Four outdid.
Sometimes you're going to go into apps
and you're going to lurk apps and you're
going to see if the T's are or if the
CTs are pushing apps. And sometimes
you're going to go underpass and you're
going to work underpass and you're going
to help your mid players take mid from
underpass. So when should you do what
and when should you go try to be a beer?
I often beer if I'm running towards
middle and I see okay three other people
have already gone towards mid. I'll just
go towards B. I think having four top
mid can be quite strong if you're using
the fact that you have four top mid,
right? You're being really aggressive.
You're all swinging together. But if
we're defaulting people aren't really
calming, then I think it's better to
have a be lurk. So I will fill that role
when it's needed. Early on in games, I
think it's most effective if you do lurk
towards apps. Being a lurk towards apps
can be pretty useless because if the B
player is playing it well, right,
they're jump spotting. They're just
seeing if you're there or not. Then
there's not a whole lot you can do. But
by lurking in apps early in games, you
can try to find gaps. You can try to get
a read on the B player, right? Are they
pushing every round? What are they
doing? And you can see if like they're
just giving you a ton of space and
letting you lurk up. And if they're not
jump spotting, they're not taking info.
That's really good info for you and for
your team because that allows you to
say, "Hey, we should just do a contact
play B. We should all just silently walk
up apps together and just look for this
this guy, right? And then once we take
contact with backside, boom, we shoot.
And then now we're being loud now that
we got the kill." Getting idea of how
the biers playing the site on CT side um
is really effective as a T-side beer.
So, let's say you do that and you spot
them just jump spotting you over and
over again and okay, obviously I'm not
really going to do much in apps if I try
to do that because they're just going to
jump spot, get info, and then not give
me a good fight. Then I'm going to start
most of my rounds by going towards
underpass. Now, if you want to go fast
towards underpass, you can come out from
TV, scale towards this left side, and
then once you're about here, just right
click a flash directly in front of you,
just like 90° upwards, right? Just full
hor uh straight in front of you. I'm
sorry, I recorded so much, dude. My
brain is fried. Uh, bang. This flash is
going to pop lower. So, CT who's running
up. Boom. They get blinded. They either
have to fall or just swing into you
blind and you should get that kill. Easy
peasy. Now, one thing is after you throw
this flash, right? Throw it and then
turn. Turn and then swing. The reason
for that is as a CT, you can throw this.
You come under, then you throw a flash
like that. Bang. And then you swing with
that, right? So, if both of you do a
fast underpass play and both of you are
flashing, then you want to be the one
who plays anti. If you're not going
underpass fast, like you're not throwing
that flash, you're not going to play
ante. Then you should spot it like this.
If you immediately start walking down
and hold like this, then you're just
going to get blinded and a CT is going
to swing you and they're going to
destroy you if they're a decent player
and they're pushing under. So play it
more passive if you're not going to go
fast, right? Play up here, spot it, time
out peak, see if they're going to push,
and then once you feel confident, okay,
they're not taking underpass fast, then
speed up towards under and start taking
it. Being in underpass is an awful place
to be if your teammates aren't
pressuring top mid. If your teammates
aren't out top mid and like they don't
have smokes down, they're not doing
anything. Mid is empty and you're
walking up under, you're just begging
for a CT to swing you here and this is a
super favorable fight for the CT because
there's such little space here. Their
crosser placement is just so easy. They
should just destroy you every time and
you just have to hold W into them when
walking this way. It's super awkward.
But when you're scaling under, don't
just shift and just hold W. go in
diagonals like this. And you can crouch,
hold W and A uh and W and D. Crouch and
go in diagonals. And just make sure that
if a CT peaks you, you're not going just
straight at them. They're going to
destroy you. You're going in diagonals
and you can fight back. Once you're up
under pass, if you're worried about a CT
holding you on this angle, you can just
bounce a flash like this. Bang. And just
get them off of that angle. That's
pretty annoying as a CT. They can just
try to edge the flash out barely like
that. But if they do that, I mean, you
know exactly where they're playing. You
should just [ __ ] on them with your
crosshair placement. Um, and then it
goes the same if somebody's holding you
here. Bottom con, they're going to be
forced to turn this or get full blinded
by it. Once you've pushed up underpass,
there are generally two things that you
can do that will kind of speed up the
round and allow you guys to take some
space. Number one is boost somebody into
window. Window should be smoked. You
come here, you boost somebody into
window. This is good because if
somebody's like being loud jumping into
window, then the CDs know, okay,
somebody's in window. Boost somebody
silently into window or you get boosted,
ask somebody else to boost you. Or the
second option is to throw a topcon
smoke. Like we talked about in our mid
default, this topcon smoke allows you
guys to do something, right? You can
lurk through it, you can push a, you can
go up short, whatever. If you're going
up short, if your teammates are going up
short, then either you getting boosted
into window and you hold the rotates,
you're chilling here, you're playing
sound, or you walk back towards apps and
then you go towards B. That's efficient,
too. You can also smoke short from under
just loosey goosey. You just run it
against run through it against the right
side of that. I uh never do this to be
honest with you. I will always prefer to
throw a topcon smoke than a short smoke.
So it is an option, but I would say you
should prioritize your smoke for top. B
isn't really like A where when you lurk
in B apps, it's pretty tricky to get a
pick on the B player, right? either
they're going to be jump spotting or
they're going to be playing one of the a
billion different off angles that can
catch you walking out B, right? So, as a
B lurk, don't feel like you have to be
walking out apps and finding this B
pick. That's super hard to do. Instead,
get a read on what the B player is doing
and help your teammates take mid, go
underpass, have some impact there. So,
that's how you play each position. Let's
talk about now how to execute a site.
The two most important smokes on a site
execute is your jungle smoke and your
stair smoke. The reason why you wouldn't
want to smoke CT is because you want to
take CT. If US come out a you plant bomb
and you're able to take CT control, you
should just win that round. You having
this space, having ramp, having palace,
bomb is planted for everything, that's a
super difficult retake for CTs. So,
here's two different ways you can throw
right side smokes on your own. If you
get up to this door and somebody drops
you a smoke, you can stand here on the
right side of it. For the first smoke,
you're going to aim just in the jumble
of these wires. Left click, jump throw.
Second smoke, you're going to aim at the
corner of this roof, just off into the
blue a little bit, and left click, jump
throw. You should throw this one first,
actually, the stair smoke, and then
throw the jungle smoke because the stair
smoke takes longer to land. But this is
what they look like. Boom. Jungle smoke
and stairs are smoked. The disadvantage
to these is that they go super high in
the sky. So if an A player sees them,
they can call the smokes, tell their
team, "Hey, the T's are smoking A really
far in advance, right? Because they take
so long to land. So it's better to throw
these when you can, if you can get up on
top of this bit, have somebody drop you
a smoke up here, they can drop you a
smoke here, right? They just jump and
toss the smoke there. You come up, you
drop one smoke there, and then you go
grab the smoke that they dropped. Once
you're up here with both smokes, you're
going to get into this corner with the
wood plank. For your jungle smoke,
you're going to aim up above the middle
of this bit, just right in the middle.
Left click, throw. Stair smoke, there's
this like kind of hook right here, and
you're going to left and right click,
jump throw your smoke at the tip of this
hook, this splotch right here. Left and
right click, jump throw. These are going
to land much faster than those other
smokes that I showed you. It's just a
bit more of a pain to get up and get
into this corner than it is to be at the
door. If you do want to throw CT smoke,
the best way you can do it is come
against this corner. It's kind of weird
clipping, but I get all the way
horizontal. And then once you start to
go forward, you back up and you just
stay on this horizontal edge right here.
And then you're going to aim for the
middle of this stick that sticks out.
Left click, jump throw. The great thing
about this CT smoke, why it's better
than others, is it's going to land on
ticket. Boom. And it's going to plume
upwards heavily. So CTS can still jump
up all the way up here, but they can't
make plays on top of this middle bit.
It's a really nice CT smoke. If you just
threw these smokes, these right side
smokes, then you can flash for your team
by sending one flash deep and then
sending one lamp flash. The deep flash
is intended to push any oper off of CT,
right? If there's an opering here, then
bang, the flash pops, they're blinded,
they have to run away, and then you send
one lamp flash to blind anybody that's
close to ring. Bang, boom, they're
swinging. Anybody here would be blind.
Anybody close would be blind by this
lamp flash. If you just threw the right
side smokes from up here, wait for them
to land and then you can throw one deep
flash towards CT and then you're going
to right click a flash, hold it, shift
walk, and then jump throw right when you
get to the end of this. And this flash
is going to pop right here and blind
anybody who's playing very close and it
won't blind your teammates. Now, my best
tip for you as the person who's throwing
smokes or throwing flashes on a execs or
on any exec ever on any map is that you
kind of need to turn into an IGL. You
need to dictate the timing. You need to
tell your team what to do. If you come
up and you throw the smokes and then you
don't say anything, you don't tell your
team what smokes you're throwing. You
don't say anything. You just throw a
flash and then you run out. Don't be
shocked if your team isn't going. You
haven't told them anything. You haven't
told them when the flash is going. You
haven't told them what you're smoking,
when is when it's going to be smoked,
right? So, you need to communicate when
you're throwing these execs, right? Tell
your team, "Hey, okay, shift walk, shift
walk." All right, smoking jungle now.
I'm smoking stairs. Let's wait. I'll
flash for you. Just wait, wait, wait.
And then we listen for them to pop.
Bloom bloom. Okay, I'm flashing CT. I'm
going to flash close. Ready, go, go, go,
go, go, go, go, go. Right. Like, be
active. Be vocal. Tell your team what to
do. So many people get upset that their
team like doesn't go on execs or I Oh, I
threw util, but nobody went out. It's
because you didn't tell them to go out
and you also didn't give them like a
reason why it's okay to go out, right?
With your flashbangs, use your flashbang
as a way to make people go, right? If I
say, "I'm flashing for you. Ready?
Ready? Flashing now. Here we go." Bang.
If I'm like enthusiastic telling them,
"Bang, here we go." You know, it makes
them want to go because they feel like
they're going to get a kill off the
flash. Sure, sometimes people are still
going to bait. Sometimes they're still
not going to want to entry, but try to
be proactive like that. Try to get
people to go do [ __ ] because you can't
do everything for them. Right now, when
you're coming out a let's say somebody
else threw smokes for you and you're
entrying or you're just one of the
rifers up front, don't get stuck Tetris,
right? You threw smokes. Don't just get
stuck around here. You want to path out
to the left. Clear CT. clear under. You
want to get active, get out. So, if
you're the very first person, be okay
turning your back towards jungle,
turning your back towards CT, hard
clearing under, hard clearing CT, right?
You should have somebody next to you
just following you, ready to trade you
or holding stuff that you're not
holding. And if you see somebody else
entering in this path, then you should
follow them. Be the trader. What I see a
lot of people do is that instead of
scaling towards the left, they scale out
towards the right towards sandwich. And
then they get close to this jungle
smoke. They're not able to take CT.
Rotates come in and then finally by the
time they get up here to try to take CT,
there's two people CT. These jungle
smokes are gone, right? When you swing
out to the right, you're not really
clearing all too much. Of course, you're
clearing kind of ninja, but you're not
clearing under. Somebody could still be
default. You want to get out into sight
and hard clear stuff and take the space
as fast as possible because you don't
want to waste the timing on these right
side smokes. Once these right side
smokes are gone, A is really scary.
There's a ton of space open CT and
jungle. We want to make use of those
right side smokes and take CT while
they're still up. So then boom, we take
CT. Okay, now that we have CT, these
smokes are starting to fade and we're in
a really comfortable spot from Tetris.
If you know like you have info,
somebody's default or somebody's under
balk, then it's totally okay to pause
for a second and throw some util to
clear him out. If you're Tetris, you're
coming out ramp, you just bank mollies
against the left side of the sign. Those
are going to land under Balk and flush
out any CT plane there. You can also, of
course, just like jiggle this and the
molly default like that. If you're one
of the people who is late to the party,
right, you're like fourth or fifth out
and your teammates are scaling up sight,
throwing flashes into CT is always good.
You want to delay these CT retakes. And
you should also tell your team when
you're doing this. That way, if the
opponents are playing retake, right,
there's a CT just chilling here holding
this. Bang, this flash pops, and then
your teammates swing and kill them. They
might even turn that, but hopefully your
teammates just swing as it pops, so then
they kill them while they're turned. For
the most part, you're going to be
planting default. If the if you have the
opportunity to, planting back triple is
significantly better than planting
default because now it's planted for
ramp. If you plant back triple, this
crossfire between CT and ramp is brutal
trying to diffuse the spawn. It's so
difficult. Planting default totally
fine. But if you can try to get towards
back triple and plant here. One thing
you have to be worried about when you're
executing A and you're scaling out is a
CT playing through the jungle smoke
here. So in reaction you can molly it
like that. Molly their swing. This
prevents them from being aggressive.
They can't just hard swing out. But they
can edge the smoke here and play like
this. That is a concern. They won't take
from the molly. So be mindful of that.
Be ready for that. Right. There's some
really important things you need to know
if you're palace during an A execute.
One thing that is key is that you're not
scared. is that you're going to swing
when your teammates are taking sight.
And the reason for that is that if your
teammates are running out ramp, they're
being aggressive. You need to kill this
default player. If somebody's default
and they're just staying alive, you you
can't give them the timing where they
can throw a flash, they can throw a
defensive smoke, they can do something
to delay, delay, delay. Your job is to
swing and just kill this player. You can
throw some pretty good utility from
palace. One is the underbali. You come
to this second pillar, the close second
pillar closest to the balk just on the
edge of it. You aim where the roof meets
the wall right here or the the tiling
and then you run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run run run run
run run run run run run run and then
about when your crosshair meets like the
the top of this light that's when you
let go and that's going to molly under
balcon you can also throw a pretty nifty
flash from the middle of this pillar you
come here this is the closest pillar to
the balcony you see on the wall there's
this crack right here and there's a dark
line like this line that separates a
lighter bit from a darker bit you go uh
where this crack meets that line and
left click throw this flash is going to
bounce and pop right here. So, anybody
playing default is going to eat this
flash. Anybody playing on top of Balk
can definitely react to it, but if they
don't, they're also going to get blinded
by it. If the CTs are smoking Palace at
the beginning of every single round and
you're getting ready for an A execute,
then get this lineup ready because this
is an excellent flash to push the smoke
with. One thing you do have to be
concerned about is that it could blind
your teammates if they're already swung
super far out. I mean, that one didn't,
but if they're already really far out,
it will blind them. So, throw it like as
your teammates are throwing lamp flashes
as they're coming out ramp. That's a
good timing to throw it. If you get up
to close palace like this, then you can
just throw util towards under balk for
free, right? Throwing a flash is
surprisingly really good when you throw
it under because if a player's default,
you throw this flash, they have to turn
it or else they're just going to eat it
or even if they're looking at you, this
is still just going to blind them. It
puts a lot of pressure on this player.
Last thing I'll say about the palace
player is that you don't have to commit
out of palace. Palace is a super strong
postplant spot and a really strong spot
to hold CT aggression on CT. We went
over ways that you can make plays
through the jungle smoke through the
stair smoke. A lot of those ways, a lot
of those plays is countered by a patient
palace player, right? So if you do as a
CT, if you make the sandwich drop, a
palace player will just punish you for
that. If you swing through the jungle
smoke, a palace player should be ready
for this, too. they can easily see
flashbangs thrown from jungle so they
can react off of it. Tell their
teammates, "Hey, they're they're
flashing jungle care." If you really
need numbers to take CT, then okay, go
help your team take CT. You can also
flash CT from palace for your teammates,
too. Otherwise, I would recommend
staying palace regardless of where the
bomb is planted. You're in a really good
postplot, and it's not really worth
giving that up unless you really have
to. One thing I need to mention is that
if you've been going mid every round,
right, your teammates have been
pressuring mid and then all of a sudden
you guys don't do anything mid, it might
be kind of obvious that you're executing
A. So, it can be good for you or a
teammate to throw a top mid smoke and
even to come up and throw a couple
flashes towards mid and then come back
towards A. That way, the CTs don't get
full info mid and they still have to
worry about T's being top mid being
boxes and they're not going to come back
and stack a site based off of that mid
info. Next, let's talk about how to do a
good B- rush. B- rushes are good to do
on lowbys, of course, because you're
going to close distance. You're going to
take a lot of close-range fights when
you get out B. They're also good to do
when you know that their B anchor is
just bad, right? If they're not playing
well, then just abusing that can be
really, really strong. One thing I see
in lower elos is that people will play
two A, one con, one window, and then one
towards B. And a lot of low elo mirage
games are super winnable if you just go
B every round until you force the CTs to
actually play two players towards B. So
if you recognize like every time we go A
there's like four [ __ ] people there,
just go B. Just send a B. Here's how a B
rush works. And this is incredibly
important because what I'm about to talk
about applies to pretty much every rush
ever. So you know, lock in. Your
responsibility in a rush is going to be
based on your spawn. If you have the
best spawn, then you need to use it. If
you have the best spawn, you can't be
the person who stops and throws a window
smoke. You're wasting your spawn, right?
We rush so that we can exploit that
early timing. When we exploit early
timings, we have a better idea of where
CTS are going to play and we're going to
get there sometimes before they expect
us to be there. So, you have best spawn,
you're going to be the entry, you're
going first. You need to be aggressive
and you need to take space on Bite
Mirage. You can come out, you can throw
a flash like this. That's going to
bounce through the window. You can also
throw one just against here on the
bottom of this bit. This flash is going
to pop out here and blind any short
player playing like this. Bang, they're
blind. So, first spawn, you can focus on
a flash. You can throw that one. You can
also throw this one. And then you are
jumping out window. Okay, you're jumping
out the window. If you're first spawn on
a B- rush on Mirage, you're jumping out
the window. No ifs, ands, or buts about
it. All right, the second spawn, the
second closest player to wherever we're
rushing is following the entry and
playing firefight. Firefight means, like
I said, you're going to extinguish
whatever molly the CTs throw. As this
firefight player, I'm going to have my
smoke out ready before the CTs even
throw the molly, right? I'm going to
expect this molly. So, I'm following my
entry. The molly comes out. I molly
this. I smoke the molly and then I
screwed up the movement, but and then
I'm going to follow the entry wherever
they go. The reason for that is because
if my entry runs out window, right,
they're taking space, they get out here
and they hit the short player for 99
damage and then they die. If we don't
have somebody to trade them, then what
are we doing, right? If I'm with my
entry, I'm on their ass and I follow
them and then I trade that kill. Huge.
That kill grants us a ton of space. You
win rushes through trading. So, as a
second player, follow your entry.
Wherever they go, you go. Your job is to
trade them and to smoke the molly early.
The third and the fourth spawn are going
to just look for kills, right? They're
going to come out apps. They don't need
to jump through the window. If you're on
low by like Tech 9 Mac 10, you
definitely can. But if you're on a
fullby, then these two players can just
search. You could think of it as like
two pairs of twos, right? The entry and
the trader are going out. They're taking
space. The other two are clearing the
rest of the space, and they're more so
looking for fights. They're more so
looking for the kill. They're not
necessarily being relentless like going,
going, going. they can be a bit more
patient with how they take the fights.
That means that as this third or fourth
spawn, if you have util, right, you have
a molly, you have nade, you can molly
towards van, you can come up, you can
molly jail like that. That's really
effective. Molly jail, molly bench.
Sometimes this doesn't spread all the
way, but that one did. Another really
good molly to throw is a backite molly.
You throw this and it mollies empty
pillar right here. That, you know, if
you watch the banker bit, that flushes a
banker out and forces them to fight you
guys, which is really good. You want to
kill that guy as fast as possible. The
fifth player is typically the util
thrower, the support player. They're
going to come here. Most often on
Mirage, they're going to throw a window
smoke. I aim at this corner and just
slightly to the right right here. That
way, the smoke consistently lands within
the window. Boom. There we go. And then
I'm going to throw supporting flashes
for my teammates. And to do that, I'm
just going to come top underpass. I'm
going to aim around the top of the
window and just run jump throw these
flashes. If I'm worried about a short
player, I can throw one deep flash
there. And then I can shift walk a flash
throwing it like that. That way that
shorter flash is going to blind any
short player sitting around here. Let's
talk about some solo plays you can make
on T-side to get picks and open the
round up towards middle. Having the best
mid spawn, go dry swing it. If you don't
think that the CTs have an OP, then you
should pretty much always just dry swing
mid with your best spawn and take this
duel against the window player. As we
looked at in the timing section, only
two of the five CT spawns beat the best
CT spawn, which means there's only a 40%
chance that the window player will be
window before you swing mid. So, you
have an advantage. Just fight. Go take
it. Go take that 1v one. With a good
mid/b spawn, going fast underpass can be
really effective as well. You're just
going to come into apps. You're going to
aim like this with your flash, right
click it, jump out, and then turn it.
It's going to pop right there. And then
[100:00] you're going to swing the CTu standing
[100:01] here full blind and just kill them for
[100:03] free. If their B player sucks or is jump
[100:05] spotting in a really terrible way, then
[100:07] coming into apps early and holding for
[100:09] the jump spot can be a free way to get a
[100:11] pick. You can also jump on top of this
[100:13] couch. And then this gives you a higher
[100:15] angle, which means that they're going to
[100:16] be in the air for longer, you know,
[100:18] relative to you. And this can make
[100:20] getting this kill even easier. If you
[100:22] have a good A spawn, then you have some
[100:23] options of what you can do. The first
[100:25] thing you can do is just spot the jungle
[100:27] cross. And look here. This is a a
[100:29] lowrisk, you know, highreward play, but
[100:32] it's not super likely that you're going
[100:34] to hit this shot. Instead, what you can
[100:36] do is get up into ramp and play like
[100:38] this. That way, you open the angle up,
[100:40] and if you have a really good spawn and
[100:41] they try to cross with a bad spawn, you
[100:43] could be taking the fight out here, and
[100:45] that's just a free pick. Another play
[100:46] that you can make is that if the CTs are
[100:48] throwing a ramp molly, but the ramp
[100:50] molly really isn't that good, then you
[100:52] can jump up behind it, like right here,
[100:54] and look for this fight right here. The
[100:56] last thing you can do is just go out a
[100:58] and try to get a pick and try to like if
[101:00] you get traded it's fine but you're just
[101:02] going to be aggressive and you're going
[101:03] to try to go get a kill. What you're
[101:04] going to do is you're going to run up to
[101:05] ramp. You're going to smoke it like that
[101:06] and then you're going to flash it like
[101:07] that. Bang. And then you're swinging
[101:09] with this flash and you're trying to get
[101:10] this kill on the A player. That way
[101:12] you're smoking the molly and then you're
[101:13] sending a flash to so if they are close
[101:15] they will get blinded by this bang. Free
[101:18] pick. You typically shouldn't go fast
[101:20] palace, but if you have a read that the
[101:22] CTs are never really peing palace or
[101:24] they're never playing on top of Balk, if
[101:25] they're playing default or triple a lot
[101:27] and the other CT, the other A player is
[101:30] committing towards connector a lot, then
[101:31] you can go fast palace and just really
[101:34] quickly try to find this pick on the A
[101:36] player. This is even better if you have
[101:37] somebody towards ramp who can throw
[101:39] either above palace flash like that or a
[101:41] lamp flash like that. The above palace
[101:43] is slightly better, but risky play,
[101:46] right? but can work out a lot. If you're
[101:48] coming towards mid and your teammates
[101:49] through throw a top mid smoke, then one
[101:51] kind of risky, silly little play you can
[101:53] make is by walking through the right
[101:55] side of it and looking for this pick
[101:56] against the window player or against a
[101:58] connector player is not looking at you.
[101:59] Another way you can use that top midm
[102:00] smoke is that if your teammate threw it
[102:02] quick, you can immediately run out, gun
[102:04] out, and just swing window from this
[102:05] side of it. A lot of window players,
[102:07] opers, they're going to sit here and
[102:09] hold right side boxes, and while they're
[102:10] scoped, if you swing right here, they're
[102:12] just going to die. Welcome to the must
[102:14] know utility section for T-side. I'm
[102:17] going to run through the smokes,
[102:18] flashes, mollies that I think every
[102:20] level 10 should know on Mirage. And if
[102:22] you're not level 10, then you knowing
[102:24] this util just raises your floor as a
[102:27] player on Mirage significantly. Now,
[102:29] I've shown a lot of this util already in
[102:31] the position specific segments, but I'm
[102:33] assuming people are going to bounce
[102:34] around this video a ton, and this is the
[102:37] part where if you need to know the util,
[102:39] this is the util you need to know. I'm
[102:40] going to sort of go left to right on the
[102:42] map. So, we're going to start with
[102:43] palace. I don't really expect my
[102:45] teammates to know util from palace.
[102:47] There's not really all that much that
[102:48] you can throw. The one thing that like
[102:50] maybe I'm hoping people know is how to
[102:52] molly under bal, but this is kind of a
[102:54] luxury and not a super necessary piece
[102:56] of util to know. So, to throw it, all
[102:58] you're going to do is you're going to
[102:59] come to the second pillar that's closest
[103:00] to the balcony, line up with the edge of
[103:02] it, aim where this tile meets the wall,
[103:06] and then you're going to hold W until
[103:07] you reach the top of that light and left
[103:09] click throw. And that's going to land
[103:10] under balcony. the good CT smoke. You're
[103:12] going to get against this wall. Go all
[103:14] the way until you start going forward.
[103:16] Okay, go back and then just get towards
[103:18] the tip of this weird kind of clipping.
[103:20] Aim at the middle of this wood plank.
[103:23] Left click. Jump throw. This is going to
[103:25] land on top of ticket. This is the best
[103:27] ticket smoke you can throw because it
[103:29] plumes upwards. Beautiful. Right side
[103:31] smokes. Two ways to throw them. One from
[103:33] here on the right side of this door.
[103:34] You're going to left click jump through
[103:36] at the wires. And then you're going to
[103:37] left click jump throw at this corner
[103:38] right here. This is your jungle smoke
[103:40] and your stair smoke. These do take
[103:42] quite a long time to land. And this
[103:45] jungle smoke blooms out quite a lot. You
[103:47] can also throw these from up here.
[103:49] You're going to get somebody to drop you
[103:50] a smoke here. For your jungle smoke,
[103:52] you're going to aim at the top middle of
[103:54] this square. Stair smoke, you're going
[103:56] to aim at this black splot straight
[103:58] ahead of you. And you're going to left
[104:00] and right click jump throw. That was a
[104:01] flash. You're going to left and right
[104:02] click jump throw that smoke. These are
[104:04] going to land much faster and they're
[104:06] going to be a bit more tucked in. So,
[104:08] they're just generally better than the
[104:09] other ones I just showed you. Once
[104:11] you're out Tetris, you can throw some
[104:12] pretty decent utility from here. If you
[104:14] get into this corner and you aim at the
[104:16] tip of this wooden bit, left click
[104:18] throw. That's a CT smoke. You can also
[104:20] smoke jungle by aiming in the middle of
[104:22] this. I imagine this is square. Aim in
[104:24] the middle of it. Left click throw.
[104:25] That's going to be a jungle smoke. Boom.
[104:27] CT smoked. And then jungle. Bang. Bang.
[104:30] Bang. Is now smoked. You can also smoke
[104:32] Topcon. Not from this corner, but from
[104:34] this corner here. You look at this wood
[104:36] plank sticking out just to the right of
[104:38] it and then left click throw. There it
[104:40] is. Boom. Your top connector smoke. If
[104:42] your team doesn't have a smoke for
[104:43] stairs or you just want to molly stairs
[104:44] for some reason from ramp, this is a
[104:46] good molly to know. As you run up ramp,
[104:48] you're going to aim. You see where this
[104:49] line is? Just a little bit below it,
[104:50] just in this area. And you're going to
[104:52] left click throw that molly. This molly
[104:54] is going to land right on stairs. It's
[104:55] going to go downwards a ton for some
[104:57] reason. And it's going to prevent CTS
[104:59] from fighting you stairs. So if your
[105:00] teammate throws a jungle smoke and your
[105:01] team realizes, oh no, we don't have a
[105:03] stair smoke. that you could throw that
[105:04] molly on the run as you come out ramp.
[105:06] How to flash from ramp. Your first flash
[105:08] typically should be a deep flash. You're
[105:10] trying to get an oper off of the ticket
[105:12] angle, right? So, you're going to run
[105:14] jump throw that flash. If your teammates
[105:16] run out ramp with it, they're going to
[105:17] get blinded by it. But the purpose is
[105:19] you throw it before your teammates run
[105:20] out and then you follow that flash up
[105:22] with a lamp flash. This lamp flash bang
[105:26] pops here and blinds anybody playing
[105:27] close. The thing with the lane flash is
[105:29] a lot of people throw it when they know
[105:30] that somebody's playing ticket or they
[105:32] know that, you know, nobody's playing
[105:33] close ramp and it's just not going to
[105:34] blind anybody ticket. So that's why you
[105:36] throw the deep flash first and then you
[105:38] throw a lane flash to clear out those
[105:39] close angles. If you're doing a palace
[105:40] pop and your team is coming out palace,
[105:42] then you want to flash above palace by
[105:44] just aiming up in this area and run jump
[105:47] throwing your flash. That way somebody
[105:49] who's sitting default holding here,
[105:50] they're not even going to see the flash.
[105:51] Bang. And they're going to get blinded
[105:52] by it and then boom, your team is
[105:54] jumping out palace. If you're rushing A
[105:55] and you're entering, one util set you
[105:57] should know is you bounce to smoke
[105:58] against here and you bounce to flash and
[106:00] then bang, you're going, you throw the
[106:02] smoke, so then you pre-m smoke the
[106:03] molly. You don't have to purposely like
[106:05] look down and do it. You just throw
[106:06] that, you throw the flash, and then
[106:08] you're already swinging with your gun
[106:09] out and you're blinding anybody who's
[106:10] playing close because the flash pops
[106:11] right here. Window smoke, top mid smoke,
[106:13] and con smoke all from T-spawn. Your
[106:15] window smoke, you're going to come into
[106:16] this corner. You're going to aim where
[106:18] like this line meets this line, this box
[106:20] right here. I am on the left side of it.
[106:22] Hold D. Jump throw. Your top mid smoke.
[106:24] You're going to get into this side of
[106:25] the bin. Tip of the antenna. Left click.
[106:28] Throw. Your connector smoke. You're
[106:29] going to get on top of the bin. Crouch.
[106:31] Aim where the rug meets the orange meets
[106:33] the tan. So, right here. And then left
[106:36] click. Jump throw while you're still
[106:38] crouched. Here is our top mid smoke.
[106:40] Here is our window smoke. And here is
[106:42] our connector smoke. From top mid, you
[106:44] should be able to throw util into
[106:46] connector without being able to see it.
[106:48] You look for this line right here. that
[106:51] gray line. And if you have a top mid
[106:54] smoke down, you look at that line. Oh,
[106:55] you just aim below it and then boom,
[106:56] you're throwing util into con. So, rapid
[106:59] fire top mid util, you should know you
[107:01] should be able to throw a molly into con
[107:03] through that smoke. Same with same thing
[107:05] with a nade. These flashes are really
[107:06] good. Just flashing behind you as you
[107:08] swing. Throwing this flash to deny a
[107:11] connector peak. Flashing into valley or
[107:13] even mollying into valley can be quite
[107:15] good if the CTs are being really
[107:17] aggressive. If the CTs are smoking
[107:19] bottom con consistently and nating it
[107:21] against that wall, bang, and then you
[107:23] blow open the smoke, that can be really
[107:25] solid as well. From top mid boxes, you
[107:27] can smoke window just by aiming towards
[107:28] the bottom of this antenna where it
[107:30] meets the roof. Run and leftclick throw.
[107:33] That's going to land right in window.
[107:34] You can do that very same lineup with a
[107:36] molly. That's going to land in window as
[107:37] well. To smoke short, get into this
[107:39] cubby. Aim at the tip of this antenna.
[107:41] Left click throw. To smoke top, look at
[107:43] this gap right here in the palm tree
[107:45] towards the top of it. Left click throw.
[107:47] This is going to land towards Topcon.
[107:49] Bounce. Bounce. And then it's going to
[107:51] come down here and land right there.
[107:53] Beautiful. From bottom mid. Stop
[107:56] runthrowing the smoke into window. I see
[107:58] so many people miss this stupid smoke
[108:00] because they run through it and it just
[108:01] bounces against the wall. Just a left
[108:03] click throw it. Let it bounce deep and
[108:05] then it's going to plume out and get
[108:06] window. Stop missing your your window
[108:09] smokes from bottom. It is silly. Topcon
[108:10] smoke from left side. You just aim
[108:12] towards this E box as you're playing
[108:14] safe, right? You're not exposed to top
[108:15] con. You shift and you left click throw.
[108:17] Boom. There's a top con smoke from this
[108:19] left side. You open yourself up and you
[108:21] see this light. Aim to the left side.
[108:24] Shift walk. Left click throw again.
[108:25] There's another top con smoke. Flashes
[108:27] into con one from here. You're going to
[108:29] get against this corner. Aim up here
[108:31] where this line meets the roof. Left
[108:33] click throw. Bang. There's a top con
[108:35] flash. The second one. This corner. Uh
[108:37] where this X is just to the right of it
[108:39] right here. Left click throw. There's
[108:41] another con flash. Bite util. You can
[108:43] smoke window coming into this corner.
[108:45] Aim at this left tip of the roof. Left
[108:48] click jump throw. You can also smoke
[108:50] short this corner just slightly to the
[108:52] left of it. Left click throw. That's a
[108:54] deep short smoke. It's going to bounce
[108:56] and then land about here. So boom. We
[108:58] have window smoked. And then we have
[109:00] short smoked right there. A more
[109:02] annoying short smoke to line up, but a
[109:03] better one that you can throw is you
[109:05] come here, you line up with this block,
[109:06] this rock right here. There's a crack in
[109:08] it right there. You line up with that
[109:09] while you crouch. Stand up. this gray
[109:11] line to the left of it, a little bit on
[109:13] the bottom side of bottom edge of it and
[109:15] a left click throw. This smoke is going
[109:17] to land deeper and short. So, it's
[109:19] better than that first one I showed you
[109:20] because players playing here, they don't
[109:22] get any visibility, whereas a deeper one
[109:24] does allow them to be able to see a bit
[109:27] of balcon, a bit of the window.
[109:28] Everybody should know how to flash B
[109:30] just like that. If you're level 10, you
[109:32] should probably know how to throw that
[109:34] flash. And then also missiles flashes. I
[109:38] actually missed that one. That's funny.
[109:39] Throw it towards the bottom. Bang. And
[109:41] then it lands there. Blinds anybody
[109:42] short. These flashes are incredibly
[109:44] strong for entry and
[109:46] upbeat. Well, there you go. There's the
[109:49] video. Thanks for coming along on this
[109:51] Mirage journey with me. I know that took
[109:53] a while, but dude, you made it to the
[109:55] end. That's insane. Thank you. If you're
[109:57] here and you aren't subscribed to me,
[109:59] then please do subscribe. And please do
[110:01] like this video. If you learned one new
[110:03] thing, uh, drop a like. I would
[110:06] appreciate it. Shout out to my channel
[110:08] members, dude. They help me be a goober
[110:11] on the internet. I appreciate you guys.
[110:13] Thank you. Again, if you found this
[110:15] video helpful, please leave me a comment
[110:17] and let me know. I'm debating between
[110:19] doing this for every single map. So,
[110:21] this is kind of my tester feeler. See if
[110:23] it's good, see if it's not, whatever.
[110:25] Let me know what you think. Give me some
[110:26] feedback if you thought there was stuff
[110:27] I could do better. Thank you for being
[110:29] here and good luck and have fun in all
[110:31] of your future