Introduction

A popular map for many, Cache has been a big map for many professional teams during the major and is a common map to find yourself on when playing competitive CS. As the more complicated of the two bomb sites, A has a number of different positions and strategies that can be played successfully as a CT with rifle, AWP and eco options throughout the site. I’ll be taking a look at some of the attacks you can potentially expect and the strategies you can use to effectively counter these plays.

The Terrorist side

First, we have to look at the options available for the Terrorist players to see the kinds of strategies a CT player can employ successfully. The Terrorists have 3 main options when entering the A site; A Main, Squeeky and Highway. Typically, a split will come out involving these areas and if you have a player mid successfully holding the position you really only have to worry about A Main and Squeeky. The players Main can both rifle and AWP from this position, quite often an AWPer will peek towards Quad accompanied by a flash and slowly clear the right hand side of the site before his team will bust out explosively. This can be accompanied by a squeaky player who can do one of two things, clear Fork and Catwalk while his teammate peeks A Main or delays their push until the players on site are distracted towards Main. If you lose Mid it starts to become difficult, as you essentially have 180 degrees of potential entry points, making it hard to keep an eye on all the avenues of attack. This will be the Terrorists' strategy, to give you too many points to defend, cut off vision and trade frags.

AWP

The AWP is a very effective weapon on the A site, being used by players such as Skadoodle with great success. Here the most common position for an AWP is Quad where there are multiple ways for you to peek and plenty of cover to take advantage of. The best thing about this position is that it is difficult to smoke or molly without showing yourself A Main, meaning that players with quick reactions will be able to pick the player before their position is compromised. Primarily you have to worry about being counter AWP’ed from Main or overrun, as the main negative of this position is that it’s quite hard to escape once the push has begun. Luckily you’ll have time to get two or three shots off before the Terrorists reach you and it’s really your goal as a Quad AWPer to be a distraction for your teammates and get as many kills as possible before you die so it’s easy for your team to retake the site.

Another effective place to AWP is Truck. Here you can take maximum advantage of range from the safety of your spawn. However, this position is quite passive and allows the T's to easily access the site with a simple smoke. This position might be better played towards the end of a round if the T players have used their utility and you know they are rotating towards the A site after an unsuccessful B push or playing for picks.



This smoke can be difficult to deal with

Rifle and Eco

Rifles and other weapons have a number of flexible positions on the A bomb site that can be exploited as a CT player. The first is shared with the AWP and is successful for similar reasons being the ability to adjust your peeks and easily defend yourself. However due to rifles being better at shorter ranges, this opens up NBK or Fence as a potential option. This is kind of a one kill position that gives you an advantage over the first person you see, but leaves you no options of retreat. From here you might want to do some damage in initial trades and as they enter the site hide right in the corner and make sure you take one person with you before you go down.

Forklift is another popular spot to play with a rifle due to its easily defensible nature and strange shape. Here it can be quite difficult for T’s to dislodge you as the protrusions of the model defend you from their fire and give you the ability to take pot shots and dodge. Here you can also look directly at Squeaky, being able to take out players before they even enter the site from that position. You also have the unique ability to look into the left side of A main where people might cross to gain scouting info and clean out your position. Your biggest enemy here is being flanked or rushed, particularly SMGs and Tec-9s can be an issue due to their higher moving accuracy and ability to one-shot you from close range. Luckily the typical Fork/Redbox smoke won’t affect you and can even be a boon as it allows you the ability to safely retreat and keep the enemy guessing. If you are getting executed on and they smoke that position, you can cross to site, back off to Highway/Cat, or even hide in the smoke giving you a ton of options.

Catwalk holds a similar position to Forklift with the trade-off of less cover and vision into Main but more verticality making it harder to preaim you and giving you a stealthier position. Furthermore, depending on your positioning, it is really easy to retreat into Highway if you get overwhelmed. This position is kind of a pseudo-A position, when in reality you are almost playing mid and A depending on the info your team gives you. The elevation of this position also means that smokes can't affect you meaning that you can quite often get unexpected kills on entry. Generally keep quiet until the T’s push onto site, then try to get as many kills as possible while they aren’t looking.

Boost is an interesting position to play and requires two people to get there. There are two techniques to reaching the Boost position next to A Main, either performing a run boost on Redbox or boosting on the toxic barrels at the doorway of A Main. This can be a risky strategy, but by getting a player up there you have a massive advantage when defending the site. From this position you have the ability to be completely covered from anyone entering the site from either A Main or Squeaky and as a more unconventional spot it is rarely checked by people pushing Highway. Typically, it is more effective on slower plays that give you time to set up a successful execution defense, your teammate can play passively on site allowing the T’s to enter and then you can set up a crossfire taking them out from behind while their attention is distracted.

Aggression and general tips

Generally, you want to smoke A Main before you do anything else as it allows you to control the site without fear of early aggression. Simply stand in the corner of Truck as you run to A and throw the smoke as shown below to get a consistent and fast A Main smoke.

This also opens up opportunities for aggression. If you want to push A Main you can easily throw a flash on the empty side of A Main that will flash the enemy and leave you with vision allowing you to land a pick and escape back through the smoke into safety. It is also possible to push into Squeaky before the T’s reach it. Simply run in and hold your position for a few seconds to make sure a player isn’t rushing in to secure the kill. If it's all clear you can even sneak out and take a look to see if a player is boosted and get information that the T’s may be setting up for some kind of Mid or B push.

Conclusion

The A site on CT side Cache is very fun to play and offers players of all techniques various successful options to hold. Find out the positions you prefer to play and mix them around to keep the T’s guessing on their executions. Always remember that you don’t necessarily have to completely shut down a push by yourself. Wuite often you just need to get enough kills to let your team retake the site from all angles once you die.

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