The concept of rotation is instrumental in CSGO. There are a lot of ideas that go into rotation that will help you improve much quicker than you would improve just by DMing. A lot of players tend to bury themselves in improving their aim and mechanical skills as quickly as possible while ignoring the obvious non-mechanical concepts that go into game sense. What makes a person truly good at the game is combination of game sense and their mechanical skill, not just one or the other. Mechanical skill is already well covered. So, today, I am going to write about rotations, an important game sense concept. This will be a more open-ended discussion than a definitive guide, so practice and see how the concepts work and how to implement them after reading this.





Rotation:

Rotation, in its essential boiled-down core, is moving from one part of the map to another. However, there are a ton of things that you have to learn in order to know when to rotate. As a CT, you need to know when and how to rotate. As a T, knowing how to force rotations and rotate to the appropriate bombsite based on calls is crucial. In general, based on the time left, you rotate based on your man advantage, map control, and info about location of enemy players.





CT Side:

As a CT, map knowledge is extremely important. It is important for you to know how long it takes for you to rotate from your part of the map to a different part of the map and what ways you can rotate. This way, you can give people info about how long they have to hold out for and which way you are coming (flanking or not). However, be careful about rotating through various parts of the map. It’s tempting to go for the insane flank that you see in all the highlight reels, but keep in mind that it usually takes a lot of time to get there (bomb timer!) and you might be better off playing the retake as a team.

In addition to this, the higher level that you get to, the more people will watch their flanks. A common example is ladder on Train. It’s easy to rotate up the ladder and try to flank the Ts as they take B, but as you get higher and higher level, people tend to watch this ladder and understanding the timing of when you would want to rotate. If you have map control though, it makes rotating through parts of the map much easier, as you don’t have to check angles as thoroughly (as a good habit, you still should though).

Figure 1: Sample CT Rotation on CT side Mirage

Based on enemy location info, you might feel compelled to push certain parts of the map and tell your teammates to rotate to a different bombsite. You could also turtle if you feel there are all 5 Ts in a certain area of the map and call for rotations to your bombsite. With the man advantage, you can maybe push different parts of the map easier depending if you are up or not. If you are down, it might be better to rotate to stack a bombsite. If it’s a 2v1, you might want to play a 2v1 on one bombsite and play the retake on the other, or you might want to play off angles and split 1 and 1 on the bombsites.

Obviously, the game timer affects all the above decisions I just listed. With more time, the enemy obviously has more time to throw a fake and force your rotations, but if it’s in the last 20 seconds, it probably is the real push. This does not mean that they won’t execute onto a bombsite early in the round; it just means that you should beware the different possibilities that the Ts have in store (Has the bomb been seen?). Keep in mind that in the end, these are all just examples and it’s up to you how you to practice and see how you want to end up rotating in an actual match when you are a CT.



T Side:

As a T, an important aspect to understand about the CTs is how fast it takes them to rotate from their designated spot and the route they will take based on where they were last located. You want to be able to take a site with as little damage as possible and the best way to do that is when there is less people at the bombsite (naturally). To do this, a T needs to learn how to force rotations by showing map presence, getting frags, or executing a fake.

By showing map presence, you are essentially saying, “I am here, you have to worry about me or I might backstab you” to the CTs. By preoccupying their attention, they cannot just leave the bombsite open for fear of you waltzing right in. This prevents full-out rotations and in some cases, will even cause people to rotate to where you are. By having the man advantage, the T side can force rotations even easier. Since the CTs don’t have 5 people alive, they might not be able to maintain a standard default and there will be some parts of the map that might be vulnerable. The pressure that you put on them if they are only say 3 or 4 up is magnified as they have to think about how to use their limited resources to protect the bombsite and still win the round. If you spotted that they rotate 3 B with 4 up, you now know there is only 1 A and you can promptly go 5 A.

Fakes are when you send some amount of people to a bombsite, throwing utility and causing mayhem to illustrate to the CTs that they are committing to the bombsite. It is not necessary for those players to die, but they certainly can full on commit to the fake and go onto the bombsite to try to take it. If they do end up pulling rotations and get multiple frags, you might end up going back to the bombsite they entered on instead of going to the other bombsite as planned.

However, if you are throwing a fake, your IGL will tell the people to rotate back to the other bombsite, which might be not as fortified as they have rotated a player. Keep in mind where you have lost your map control as the CTs might be rotating through a certain part of the map trying to flank you and might hear your footsteps going back and call for a rotation or even outright frag you. Timing is especially key in these moments, so know how long that it is going to take you to rotate back compared to the CTs.



Figure 2: Sample Fake on Mirage

Rotating as a T is fairly simple and is covered in my default article. You will rotate based on your IGL’s calls and based on which bombsite you will choose to attack. Just remember to obey your IGL, and don’t bait too hard. It is important to cut off CT rotations and get key frags by watching flanks, but you also need to know when to be with your team when they decide to execute.

Conclusion:

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. As much as I love to talk about these concepts, if you don’t practice them and actively think about them in your matches, they are useless. It’s not hard to understand these concepts; putting them into play is the harder part. Good luck!

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