Using smoke grenades in CS:GO

In Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), the use of smoke grenades is a key element of strategic play. These utility items are often used to block enemy lines of sight, allowing players to advance or retreat, or even just create confusion in the enemy ranks.

Here are some tips on how to use smoke grenades effectively:

Blocking Lines of Sight: Smoke grenades are often used to obscure sightlines, making it hard for enemies to hit you as you cross certain areas. For example, on the Dust2 map, smoking off the middle doors at the start of a round can prevent enemy snipers from picking off your teammates.
Defending the Bomb: Once you’ve planted the bomb, a smoke grenade can be used to make it more difficult for enemies to defuse it. Throw it on the bomb itself or in choke points leading to the bomb site.
Executing Site Attacks: Before rushing into a site to plant the bomb, throwing a few smokes can be very helpful. It allows you to isolate certain angles and positions, allowing you to focus your attention on a few spots rather than a wide open site. This is often seen in professional play, where teams have set smoke patterns they use when attacking different sites.
Fake Executions: In a more advanced strategy, you can use smoke grenades to create a fake attack on one site, drawing the enemy team away from the real target.
One-way Smokes: These are smokes that are placed in a way that allows you to see enemies, but they cannot see you. This is achieved by exploiting the physics of the smoke grenade, usually by throwing it against certain objects or at specific angles.
Delaying Tactics: Smokes can also be used to delay enemies. If you are playing as a defender and hear the enemy approaching, a well-placed smoke can slow them down, as they will be hesitant to push through due to limited visibility.

Remember that throwing a smoke grenade can also give away your position or intentions, so use them wisely. It’s also essential to learn the different throwing techniques (like underhand, jump throw etc.) and practice specific smoke line-ups to maximize their effectiveness. There’s a learning curve to these techniques, but they can have a significant impact on your games when used correctly.

Blocking Lines of Sight

Blocking lines of sight using smoke grenades is a key tactic in CS:GO. It’s used to obstruct enemy vision, providing cover for movements, bomb plants, and defuses, as well as limiting the effectiveness of enemy snipers.

Here’s a more detailed explanation:

Learning Smoke Spots: Each map in CS:GO has specific spots where throwing a smoke grenade can effectively block off a common sightline. For example, on the Mirage map, you might throw a smoke to block off vision from CT spawn to the A site. Learning these spots and practicing the correct lineups for your smokes is a key part of mastering this tactic.
Coordination: In competitive play, it’s often important to coordinate your smokes with your team. Multiple players throwing smokes at once can block off several sightlines, making it much harder for the enemy team to respond effectively. For instance, a well-coordinated team might throw several smokes to completely block off vision of the B site on Dust2, allowing them to rush the site and plant the bomb with minimal resistance.
Timing: The timing of your smoke can also be crucial. Throwing it too early might allow the enemy team to wait it out, while throwing it too late might not give it enough time to bloom before you need to make your move. As a rule of thumb, it’s generally better to err on the side of throwing your smoke too early rather than too late, as the former still provides some degree of cover while the latter can result in an unnecessary death.
Considerations: While smoke grenades are powerful tools, they’re not without their drawbacks. They can give away your position or intentions, and experienced players might even use the sound of a smoke grenade being thrown to predict your movements. Furthermore, enemies can push through your smokes, catching you off guard. So, always be aware of these possibilities and be ready to adapt your play as needed.

Overall, the ability to effectively use smoke grenades to block lines of sight is one of the skills that separates good CS:GO players from the great ones. It requires a good understanding of the game’s maps, excellent timing, and often a degree of coordination with your team.

Defending the Bomb

Defending the bomb in CS:GO is a crucial part of gameplay, especially if you’re on the Terrorist side. After successfully planting the bomb at a site, your team’s objective shifts from attack to defense, and using smoke grenades can greatly aid in keeping the bomb from being defused.

Here’s how:

Smoking the Bomb: One simple but effective strategy is to throw a smoke grenade directly onto the bomb itself. This makes it difficult for Counter-Terrorists to find the bomb and start a defuse. However, be aware that experienced players may use a technique known as “smoke defusing,” where they start defusing inside the smoke, hoping that the obscuring effect will protect them from the defenders.
Blocking Entrances: Another use of smoke grenades in bomb defense is to block entrances to the bomb site. If you know the common access points for Counter-Terrorists, a well-placed smoke can delay their approach and potentially run down the bomb timer significantly.
Post-plant Positions: Consider where you will be after the bomb has been planted. Sometimes it’s beneficial to keep a smoke grenade on you for after the bomb is planted so that you can use it from your post-plant position. You might use it to block off a crucial angle, allowing you to focus on other areas where enemies might appear.
Distraction and Misinformation: In some scenarios, throwing a smoke grenade away from the bomb can be a good idea. This can serve as a distraction, pulling attention away from the bomb, or it can make enemies think the bomb is planted in a different location.
Last Resort Defense: If you find yourself last alive in a post-plant situation, a smoke can also be used as a last line of defense. If you hear the defuse sound, throwing a smoke on the bomb and then spraying into it can often result in a kill and stop the defuse.

Remember, while the smoke grenade is a powerful tool, it also has the potential to be a double-edged sword, especially in post-plant situations. The enemy can utilize your smoke to their advantage. Always be ready for a player to push through the smoke or attempt a defuse within it. Understanding and predicting your enemy’s potential reactions is as important as your own actions.

Executing Site Attacks

Executing site attacks in CS:GO is an important part of the game strategy, and smoke grenades play a key role in this process. A well-executed site take can put your team at a considerable advantage for the rest of the round.

Here’s how you can use smoke grenades for this purpose:

Blocking Enemy Vision: As you prepare to take a site, it’s useful to throw smoke grenades that will block the vision of any defenders holding common angles. This forces them to either reposition (giving you the opportunity to catch them off guard) or to shoot blindly through the smoke (reducing their accuracy).
Isolating Areas: By throwing smoke grenades at key locations, you can effectively divide the site into smaller sections, making it more manageable to clear. For instance, on the B site of Inferno, you might smoke off CT and coffins to focus on taking the site from other angles.
Forced Movements: A well-placed smoke can force opponents out of favorable positions, or make them uncomfortable in their current spot. This can lead to enemies making mistakes, giving you an opportunity to capitalize.
Creating Safe Paths: Smoke grenades can be used to create safe paths for your team to enter a site. For instance, on the A site of Mirage, smokes can be used to block vision from CT, jungle, and stairs, allowing your team to move onto the site from ramp and palace with minimal exposure.
Executing Set Plays: Many teams have set plays which involve throwing multiple smokes in a coordinated fashion to obscure vision in many parts of the site at once. These are usually practiced in advance and can be very effective when executed properly.
Fake Executions: In a more complex strategy, you can use smoke grenades to fake an attack on one site, drawing the enemy team’s attention and resources there, while your team actually plans to hit the other site.

Remember, while smoke grenades are powerful tools, they are not foolproof. Defenders can push through your smokes or use gaps in them to their advantage. It’s also crucial that you use your smokes in tandem with your team’s other utility, like flashbangs and molotovs/incendiaries, to maximize their effectiveness.

Fake Executions

Fake executions are a strategic element in CS:GO that use misdirection to manipulate the enemy team’s movements. This strategy often involves using smoke grenades and other utility to give the impression of committing to one bomb site, while the bomb and most players actually go to the other site.

Here’s how to do it:

Selecting Players: In a fake execution, you’ll want to choose one or two players to “sell” the fake while the rest of the team positions for the real attack. The players chosen for the fake should typically be those with good utility usage skills, as they’ll need to convincingly mimic a full team attack.
Using Utility: The players selling the fake will use their utility to make it seem like an attack is imminent on their site. This usually involves using smoke grenades and other utilities such as molotovs and flashbangs. The smokes should be ones that are typically used in a real site execution to make it more believable.
Timing: Timing is crucial in a fake execution. The players selling the fake need to draw attention and utility from the enemy at the right time to allow the rest of their team to take the other site with minimal resistance. Too early, and the enemy might realize it’s a fake before the real attack begins. Too late, and the real attack might run into unnecessary resistance.
Making Noise: The players on the fake site should make a fair bit of noise, like shooting their guns and moving around a lot, to make it seem like there are more players there than there actually are.
Committing to the Fake: In some cases, it might be necessary for the players selling the fake to fully commit by entering the site and attempting to get a kill. This can be risky, but it can also make the fake more convincing.
Rotating After the Fake: Once the fake is sold, the players who were selling it should quickly rotate to the other site to help their teammates.

Fake executions can be a very effective tactic when used properly, but they also require good communication, timing, and utility usage to pull off. They are high risk, high reward plays that can win rounds but also lose them if not performed correctly.

One-way Smokes

One-way smokes in CS:GO refer to smoke grenades thrown in such a way that one player can see their opponent, but the opponent cannot see them. This is achieved by exploiting the physics and visual effects of the smoke, allowing you to get an angle on the enemy while remaining concealed.

Here’s how you can use one-way smokes:

Learning One-Way Smokes: There are specific spots on each map where one-way smokes can be used effectively. You’ll need to learn these spots and practice the exact lineup and throw technique for each one. There are numerous online guides and tutorials that can help you learn these.
Surprise Element: The key to a successful one-way smoke is the surprise element. If enemies are aware of the possibility of a one-way smoke, they’ll be more cautious and may prefire common one-way spots or avoid them entirely. So it’s important not to overuse them.
Understanding the Mechanics: A one-way smoke works by creating a situation where you can see the enemy’s feet, body or shadow before they can see you. This often involves throwing the smoke against a piece of the map’s terrain to create an uneven smoke edge, which you can see over or around, but which looks like a solid wall of smoke from the enemy’s perspective.
Use as a Defensive Tool: One-way smokes are typically more effective when used defensively, as they allow you to hold an angle on a key pathway or entrance while remaining concealed. However, they can also be used offensively in certain situations.
Combining with Other Utility: One-way smokes can be even more effective when combined with other utility. For example, you might throw a Molotov or HE grenade when you see an enemy through a one-way smoke, dealing damage and causing chaos before the enemy realizes where you are.

Remember that while one-way smokes can give you an advantage, they can also backfire if used improperly. If an enemy anticipates your one-way smoke, they can prefire your position or use utility to neutralize your advantage. Always be aware of the potential risks and be ready to adjust your strategy if needed.

Delaying Tactics

Delaying tactics are an important strategic element in CS:GO, especially for the defending side. The main idea is to delay the enemy’s push onto a site, giving your team more time to rotate and set up a defense or even run down the clock.

Here’s how smoke grenades can be used in delaying tactics:

Blocking Pathways: One of the most straightforward ways to use a smoke grenade for delaying is to throw it onto a common pathway or choke point. The smoke serves as a visual barrier that most teams will be hesitant to push through, giving you extra time.
Stalling Bomb Plants: If you’re on the Counter-Terrorist side and you know the enemy is about to plant the bomb, throwing a smoke onto the bomb site can delay the plant. This is because the enemy team will likely wait for the smoke to clear before planting to avoid getting picked off.
Re-smoking: If a key area of the map has been smoked off and the smoke is about to clear, throwing another smoke into the same place can keep the area obscured for a longer period. This strategy is common in higher levels of play and can significantly delay enemy pushes.
Early Round Delays: Early in the round, throwing a smoke grenade onto a key pathway can delay the enemy’s initial push, disrupting their strategies and forcing them to either wait or change their plans. This is common in maps like Inferno, where CTs often smoke off the entrance to Banana at the start of the round.
Using as a Distraction: A smoke can also be used as a form of distraction. If enemies spot a smoke grenade in one part of the map, they may believe that area is being heavily defended, which can delay their push or force them to rotate.

Remember, delaying tactics are all about wasting the enemy team’s time and forcing them into sub-optimal decisions. Be aware that experienced teams may choose to push through smoke if they suspect a delay tactic, so be ready to defend if necessary.