Being part of the utility that you may choose to buy and deploy, flashes are the second most inexpensive item, right behind the decoy. In this article, we will establish what the goals of throwing a flash is, what the most common usages of flashes are to reach those goals, and we will look at a few visual examples of a few kinds of flashes.

What are the goals of a flash?

A lot of people would say that the goal of a flash is to, well, flash the opponent. However, this is only partly true. The flash has more goals than to just flash the opponent. The end goal of every flash usage is to either push an opponent back, bait out utility, suggest that there are more of you or there still is more of a presence on a different part of the map than there really is, delay a retake or bombsite take, and help you kill your enemies, either by blinding them or by giving you an advantage in the fight.

For example, you can use a flash early in the round on T-Side to fake a rush towards a bombsite, which will most likely, if you have trained the opponents well the round before, cause the enemies to throw at least a bit of their utility that would normally be intended to prevent a push. You can also throw one around the area where you just took map control before or during falling back in order to suggest that you are still there and still thinking about correctly taking the bombsite that you just left. This, of course, only works if the flash is in an area where it makes sense where you could have the intention to blind an opponent. You can't just randomly throw flashes everywhere and hope that it works and the enemy falls for it.

So, as you can see, there are multiple possible goals for the deployment of a flash. However, before we take a more specific look at flashes that are directed towards enemies specifically (instead of faking, baiting out utility or similar), we should take a look at the mechanics behind throwing a flashbang.



Different kinds of throws

A lot of people still don't know this, even in high ranks: Not only can you throw a flash in three hard modes, but also in a transition mode where you can change the exact velocity and reach of the flash. You have the (default) mouse 1 and mouse 2, which is full force and underhand throw. On top of this can you press both buttons and let go of both at the same time to throw with a force equal to the median between the full force and underhand throw. This is visualised in the example below.

However, if you let go of, say, the mouse 2 key before letting go of the mouse 1 key, you will get a smooth transition from mid to full force throw. If you let go of the mouse 1 key before it reaches full force, you can throw with a percent of force that is equal to the point of transition that the animation shows. This also works the other way, if you let go of the mouse 1 key before releasing the mouse 2 key. This allows for almost endless different kinds of flashes, although these kinds of flashes can be especially tricky to pull off consistently, so I'd advise to go in an offline server and check these transitions out before using them in important matches.



Reflection/Bounce

Due to how this game works, there is, as far as I know, no randomisation in throwing a flash. No matter which button I use or at which point in the transition I let go, the line in which the flash is thrown is always straight. This causes the flash to work kind of like light reflecting off a mirror, where the incidence is equal to the angle of reflection, meaning that you can always predict where the flash is going when you bounce it off of a flat surface, given that said surface is not slanted in a way that you can't quite calculate in your head at the time.

[Public domain], by Nilock (Own work), from Wikimedia Commons

This means that, once you get a natural feeling for how the flashes will bounce, you can throw them against walls and other things while maintaining control over where the flash will go. If you notice that you do not have the slightest of a feel for flash bouncing, you can load up an active-duty map offline and just throw flashes to see how they interact with the surface of objects and walls. It shouldn't take you too long to pick up a basic understanding of how this works.



Kind of flashes

Now to actual kinds of flashes to throw with the main goal of killing an enemy easier compared to a fair duel.

Anti-rush Flash

This is a flash that you throw to make timing advantages of the opposition obsolete. The way you do this is by throwing a flash that is not easily dodgeable, which even more obvious line-ups aren't in these scenarios due to the nature of rushing for timings, into the sight of enemies rushing to a position or rushing to get aggressive early, CT and T-side. The best example of such a flash is at Ivy on Train:

Ts and CTs often fight for Ivy control early in rounds where the CTs have low economy or are failing on the other parts of the map. To counter this, you can throw a flash that blinds CTs before exiting Ivy to the long alley from T-Spawn to Ivy.

Popflash

The most commonly used name when referring to specific kinds of flashes, indicating that a flash is barely visible or audible before popping in a way that often just blinds the enemy. This kind is often seen used with just a bit of noise when you find pros between a rock and a hard place, where the pros often pull out specific line-ups from dangerous areas to be in, to blind everyone rushing to kill them after their position is known.

Alternatively, this is also often used to give the players an advantage when taking a bombsite or duel. Be aware that it only truly is a good popflash if the enemy has basically no way to dodge this flash.

As you can see in the video, the CT has basically no time to react and hears no sound-cue of the flash being thrown or bouncing anywhere. Be aware that you can also throw these kinds of flashes to get an aggressive peek in as a CT, which is especially useful when you fall a man behind or you are getting picked apart when you sit on the bombsites and do nothing.

Flashing Behind You

This kind of flash is often used when you can't really popflash without guaranteeing that the enemy won't hear or see the flash and turn away before it pops, and it allows you to face at the same or slightly after the flash has popped without blinding you, giving you an advantage no matter if the flash hits the enemy or not.

Although throwing underhand flashes makes a specific noise, this flash alone tends to blind a lot of people but jumping in at almost the same time will give you an advantage even if the enemy is not blind, due to him having to turn back around before being able to fight you.

Assist Flash

Also a subset of the popflashes, this kind of flash is thrown from one area of the map to a different one, assisting your teammate either getting a peek, kill, or getting away unharmed in dangerous situations. These often aren't as perfect as a popflash should be, however, they get the job done, passing over big objects and obstacles and slowing the enemies down, either due to them having to turn around or getting flashed after all.

As you can see, not easily dodgeable and allows your CT buddy who went to take map control on Bathrooms and Mid to turn back to A-Site alive due to you delaying any Ts potentially hunting him.

Practice

Finding your own line-ups and learning a few popflashes from the internet will almost always pay-off in games. However, a lot of people underestimate how much time it can take to get it right, so I'd rather use a few minutes more to perfect the throws. Truly prepared, however, you will only be if you also take a look at line-ups for smokes, mollies and nades, allowing you to further minimise the power and control the enemy has. For examples, visit my Ultimate Cobblestone or Train Smokeguides, as well as the more specific B-Bombsite take guide for Overpass, including utility usage. Problems playing CT sides? Don't worry, my CT-Cache guide, including the most common and important grenade line-ups, is there for you!

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