How to Improve Your CS2 Defense Skills

CS2, despite being a first-person shooter, is a game that heavily depends on strategy and tactics. Without a solid team plan and an excellent understanding of how to win 1v1s, 2v2s, and so on, the chances of succeeding against skilled opponents are low. Learn here how to improve your CS2 defense Skills.

The game is made up of two parts: offense and defense. You go on the offense when you play on the Terrorist side, and you stay on the defense when you play on the Counter-Terrorists side. Here are some principles for playing the CT side.

CS:GO Defense Skills

Use Deterrence

You can deter the enemy from rushing at the beginning of the round by using explosive grenades and molotovs. On some maps, that won’t be that big of a threat. But on others, it is, and you must decide how you want to approach the situation. 

If you use some grenades early on, you’ll be safer initially, but you’ll have fewer resources to work with for the rest of the round. And keep in mind that in CS2 defense skills, if you don’t deter the enemy side for at least the first 80 seconds, they will not feel pressured into making risky moves.

Deterrence should be applied gradually and with some degree of effectiveness. Ideally, you want your molotovs and explosive grenades to do some damage. And you also want to use them when it counts. Using the molotov when the enemy isn’t even it is pointless. 

Sometimes you’ll have to do it for safety reasons. You’ll take a wild guess if you don’t have the information and can’t afford to peak. But if you can peak or have the information, use your grenades optimally. Always ask yourself: what does the opponent want to do right now, and what would hinder its plans?

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Save Some Grenades for the Final Assault

Unless you’ve dominated the round before the T-side launches the final assault on one of the bomb locations, expect it to happen sooner or later. The goal is to predict when it will happen and to use your grenades well.

One way to know it will happen is to look at the clock. If there are 40s left or less, then you know that within 10 – 20s, it will happen.

Another way to know is to watch for enemy grenades. Right before invading, the enemy will throw smokes, flashes, and molotovs. These grenades have one goal: to prevent you from using your defender’s advantage. If you can’t shoot immediately, the Terrorists can advance and take better fighting positions.

In response, you should throw your grenades at the enemy and block the path in any way you can. Usually, the Terrorists will come from just one or two directions. This means you will know where to throw molotovs and flashbangs for maximum effect.

Fight for Space

Throughout the round, you should not just passively hide behind a box. If the Terrorists can do whatever they want until they reach one of the two bomb sites, you are more likely to lose the round.

Ideally, it should be a struggle for the T side to reach those sites, and it should take them a lot of time to secure their assault and ensure that no Counter-Terrorists are behind them.

On the CT side, one or two players are constantly expected to gather information, pose challenges, peak, and try to get an entry kill. Passivity for CS2 defense skills is a bad idea. Of course, you can’t be too active when playing as Counter-Terrorists. But that doesn’t mean you should abandon all attempts to be aggressive.

An opponent who knows you’re afraid of him or unwilling to take any risks will often read you easier than someone who knows that you might surprise him with something novel.

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Communicate with Your Team

Always communicate with your team and learn what the situation is. If team members start dying, you will need a strategy for playing 4v5, 3v5, 3v4, etc. Don’t just assume that every round will be a perfect 5v5 until the final moments. Because most rounds won’t be like that.

You may gain an advantage early, but you will still lose the round if you don’t know how to use it. Or you may find yourself at a disadvantage. But if you have a solid strategy, you may still win it.

For CS2 defense skills, communication is essential because you can’t afford to know anything about where the opponent is. If you aim at the wrong door while the opponent comes from a different direction and sees you, you will die before you get a chance to react.

A team of five players works like a system. In football, if a player receives a red card and is eliminated, his team will need to cover his position and prevent the opponent from utilizing that man advantage. The same is true for CS2. When one player dies, you need to understand what territories are no longer safe.

Usually, as part of the team strategy, you usually know that someone always has your back and expect the enemy to come from an angle you can partly anticipate. But when you need to play with a man down, that’s no longer true, and you must adapt to the situation.

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Keep the Enemy Guessing

Don’t do the same thing every round. You become predictable, and the opposing team can start to plan more efficiently. Always ensure you are a variable in the opponent’s strategy, not a constant. Your tactics during the round and position at the bomb location should vary.

Use grenades irregularly and based on clear information. Don’t just throw the same molotov at the same second and in the same location. It’s terrible strategy. Instead, the opponent should struggle to guess what you’ll do next. And your playing patterns should be tough to read.

To some degree, you’ll want to incorporate randomness in your tactics and not just shuffle them. That will make you hard to play against.

Posted by
William Westerlund

William is an author, editor, and an avid gamer with over 10.000 hours in CS:GO (Counter-Strike 2). He also enjoys playing Rust, Dota 2, and TF2 but never became a top 1% player in any of those games.