Small details make life hard for the terrorist side

It’s a well known fact that an overwhelming majority of the present and past competitive maps are quite heavily CT-sided. It might not seem like a problem, since both teams get to play both sides. However, the difference between starting as the favored side and not can potentially be the distinction between winning and losing.

The reasons behind CT’s dominance overall are mostly small details, but their significance should not be underestimated.

Weapon saving

– A large part of being successful in competitive CS:GO is maintaining a healthy economy. There is one injustice that makes it easier for the counter-terrorists to do so. If an attacker deems his situation unwinnable, he might save his equipment. Although, surviving the round without planting is penalized with an abscent round-income. If a defender sees no hope of winning the round, he might do the same thing. The difference is that the CTs always receive their income, regardless of what happens.

Choke points

– The most heavily CT-favored maps such as de_nuke and de_mirage, are characterized by narrow entrances. Often to the extent that terrorists have no choice other than to rush through them and hope to get an entry kill. On top of that, there are certain elements, such as the auto-sniper and tagg-slow, that aggravates it even further.

The blue house entrance on de_nuke. The red lines are a suggestion on how to increase terrorist’s chances on the map.

Smoke grenades & Molotovs

– Even though both smoke grenades and Molotovs can be useful while playing as a terrorist, they are better – and easier used as a CT. The defenders can easily seal some of the most significant entrances without having to execute any complicated bounces or similar. Attackers often have to complete very tricky tosses in order to position a smoke well without being visible for the enemy. In addition to that, a player that runs through a smoke grenade becomes visible before his own view is clear again. This makes smoke grenades a very viable tool for stalling since several can be put down consecutively.

How does this affect competitive CSGO as a whole?

– On de_nuke, the CTs usually win the first half with a score somewhere in the region of 12-3 presuming they won the pistol round. In this scenario, dropping the first point in the second half would be a lot more devastating for one team than for the other. In summary, the team that starts as CT will have a decent life-line, while failure in the second half’s primary round might be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for their opponents.

In conclusion, there are a lot of elements within the game that continuously shrink the terrorists chances of success. Closing the gap between the two sides would not only remove an inequity that prevents teams from starting on the same conditions. It would also, in my personal opinion, be a step towards an overall improved spectator experience.

Written by Mikael Hemlin