Static CT side in their first match

In their first match of DreamHack Masters Las Vegas North played Optic Gaming on the new Inferno. While losing the match 16:11, they won 7 out of 12 rounds on their CT side using a very basic default set-up. Every single gunround they did the same. K0nfig smoked the old car position in banana from CT spawn before going back to arch. MSL went close to the smoke, playing at sandbags most of the time, while aizy was ready to flash for him from B site.

On the other side of the map cajunb and Magisk played passive at balcony and short A only trying to delay their opponents in case of a fast play towards A and fell back to site when k0nfig rotated.After using their smokes at car aswell, MSL and aizy went back to the B site at the 1 minute mark, usually setting up crossfires at new box and dark or sometimes boosting one on the edge at ct spawn or on 2nd box.

More variations in their match against Gambit

In their quarter-final match against Gambit Gaming (22:20 for North), North played Inferno once again. Their initial set-up stayed the same for the most part, but they made some more adjustments later in the round. At the beginning of the round cajunb sometimes went more aggressive in apartments, but falling back after he got enough information, without overcommiting there.

On the other side of the map k0nfig still smoked car at the beginning of the round before rotating back to arch, but MSL and aizy had more variations afterwards. After waiting for Gambit to use some of their utility, MSL liked to walk behind car to peek with a flash of aizy as soon as the smoke faded. After this didn’t work out that well for North and Gambit focused more on bananacontrol, they fell back to B site after the initial smoke for a couple of rounds, before going even more aggressive at the end of the half.

In two rounds towards the end, instead of falling back, they decided to push Gambit back using a deep smoke in banana and two incendiaries to get full control over banana, with great success.

Conclusion

In their first match on the new Inferno, their CT side was very static, without any noteable variations. Three days later when they had to play the map again, they already showed new and interesting approaches to control banana. While not everything worked out perfectly, it is a good base to improve further. If they can do that, they have the potential to become one of the best teams on CT side Inferno.