Article Submission

**flame** · 02-07-11, 08:27 PM

Just my .02 it is a great write up, but will be too long (not just for hosting) but because of short attention spans. I say introduce the the article and detail out dust2 as you have. Then conclude it as part 1, the do another map as part 2 and another map as part 3 and so on. Reiterate the important points of the first article in each following write up and emphasize how they apply to the map of the current article and how the same techniques can be established on any map. Teach the player to think of spots on other maps and teach them how to figure out the best ways to get the smokes and flashes in those spots. I like trying this myself, I like tossing a long smoke from port ramp toward ct side boat, then you only have to worry about rushers from warehouse and those brave enough to push out the smoke. Excellent post man!

It is a great write up but breaking it down into a series would probably make sure people read all of it. Halfway through people will be like ok and stop reading. It is too good to let that happen! It takes a lot of time to do what you did, I think everyone just wants you to get max reads for it! Either way great work!

**iLLusioN** · 02-10-11, 05:38 PM

I'll try and split it up but it's going to take a week or so. I'm out of town for a few days and don't know how busy I'll be when I get back.

**iLLusioN** · 03-04-11, 04:57 PM

First off, I apologize for taking so long on this and for the fact that almost all of this is ripped right out of the first post.

I'm aware that you probably want me to put some more time into this but I'm horribly strapped for time trying to get ready for a newborn any day now. I was thinking of basically switching out the screens/strats for each article and keeping essentially the same beginning and ending so that even if someone doesn't see all the articles they can get all the same information from just seeing one. Also partially because I really don't have a whole lot of time to do anything at all right now and this takes far less time than rewriting an article.

Heres kinda what I was thinking of doing for D2 - rip out the strats/screeens in the middle and replace it with whatever map I'm doing next, add an ending an probably an extra pointer or two since each map is getting singled out by itself. Also, in the article itself I would actually show the screens but I figured for the sake of loading time and the fact that they are linked I would just save that until the actual article.

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If you have any problems tracking what I call things here are some overviews with what my team called everything on pretty much every map. Some are common, others I've never heard anywhere else but still use out of habit. If you have an suggestions of other idea's or things you would like to see in the future articles please feel free to pm me about it and we'll discuss it.

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Over the past several months playing on the amazing servers that we call TPG, I have noticed that there is one thing that very few people here do well. That one thing, is beating the AWP. A lot of people start bellyaching the second it's been bought, and a couple of rounds later it's banned because they consider it an unfair weapon, or it completely destroys the game, or it's wrong, or maybe they just don't like it because it's obnoxiously loud. I've seen dozens of reasons why people don't like/fear the AWP.

Well folks, I'm here to show you that there's nothing to be afraid of. All it takes to beat it is a little bit of thinking.

Keys to think of when you think the other team might be AWPing:

Where is he most likely to be?

Which approaches run into that choke point?

Will that affect the strat?

If so, How can you get to where you can disrupt his play without dying?

How difficult of a shot is he going to have?

If it's a hard shot, you can probably get some people through if you send more than one.

The easiest way to make an AWPer useless is smokes. There are tons of nifty smokes you can find in CS:S and I'll show you a few of them here. I'm sure that you will have seen some of these before, but most of you probably haven't seen some of the others. Most of these are smokes that I learned/found/used playing competitively with Unkind Gaming in CAL/CEVO.

Today we're going to go over de_dust2, it's commong AWPing spots, some good smokes and flashes to counter those spots, and I'll throw in a few freebie general tips along the way.

de_dust2:

Common AWPing spots for this map Are mid/dd, A platform, Pit, and the ledge on B platform.

We'll start with the first one you encounter: Mid/DD

The easiest smoke for this is straight from T spawn. Whenever possible I like to line up my smoke with the corner as show in the SS because doing so will make sure that smoke ALWAYS bounce of the right door and bloom directly between the DD's.
Thrown from:

Attachment 3440

Effects:
Attachment 3435

The next, and more effective smoke, is from lower b tunnels onto the mid box. This smoke takes a little longer to setup but a CT AWPer trying to pick mid becomes completely useless with this smoke. They can't see anything past the doors, even if they are on the rock CT side.

Thrown from:
Attachment 3509

Effects:
Attachment 3446

Attachment 3445

Next I'll show some smokes for B starting with 2 smokes from t spawn that are great for rushes – they block off pretty much every effective AWPing spot in B site.

This smoke blocks of the back of B site, and getting it at the right angle will also block the ledge. Make sure you throw this as you are jumping over the ledge on your way to B or this one won't make it.

Throw from:
Attachment 3447

Effect:
Attachment 3435

This next smoke will block of B plat and anyone trying to play crate whore. Make sure you are running when you throw it or it won't make it:

Thrown from:
Attachment 3448

Effect:

Attachment 3449

This next smoke does the same thing as the last one but from inside B tunnels....this works well for a delayed rush or if you recently called a b rush and used the smokes I mentioned previously:

Thrown from: Attachment 3437

Since we're on B I'll show the 2 flashes that I recommend to use when taking B. The basic goal of these 2 flashes is to get a flash back of B plat without exposing yourself and then to bounce the 2nd flash off the top of the big box on B plat. This flash sequence blinds everybody in B site. Make sure you turn from the first one to avoid flashing yourself:

Attachment 3434

Attachment 3436

Moving on to A; the 2 major spots people have to worry about an AWP at are taking long with an AWP on A platform and crossing from long to A platform with AWPs watching mid. I'm not going to show the obvious throw smokes over long...everyone does that whether there are AWPs or not. One thing you can do that I don't see very often is smoke up the entrance to CT spawn from mid. This either makes the AWPer go around to short or long, or makes them push into CT spawn, which is easy to flash out.

CT spawn from mid:
Attachment 3441

Effect:
Attachment 3442

This coupled with the long crossover smokes(which I won't show because it's obvious) works pretty well. The smoke here forces the opposing team to either go around or push through the smoke into an easy kill for you(assuming you have someone drop to CT spawn).

The other place to worry about at A is an AWP on A plat. Make sure that along with the smokes down here you throw flashes over as well. A running-jumping flash over that wall blinds anyone on site and can also get people trying to play aggressively at crossover:

left side of plat:
Attachment 3438

effect:
Attachment 3439

right side of plat:
Attachment 3450

effect:
Attachment 3451

Those 2 smokes and just throwing flashes over the wall should clear out any AWP's for you. Of course the most effective way to clear plat is to pinch it from short and long with short throwing flashes over the wall to clear site and bouncing a flash off the back wall to land somewhere in site. Thats pretty much all the effect smokes for dust2. As I mentioned, you can pretty much make an AWP useless on any strat provided you have a couple people drop smokes in the proper places. If you are doing an A split...think of the other half of the team; flashing over the wall of short can make the people at long have a much easier time pushing up; if you are at long those 2 smokes over the wall give anyone short a TON of cover, and then of course you have your crossover smokes.

Those are all the smokes I have, finding new smokes isn't too hard. Create your own server or play on a private server with sv_cheats 1 on so you can give yourself more smokes and use noclip to follow the smoke and see the path it takes to get there. You would actually be amazed at some of the funky paths some of these things take.

That being said, smokes are not the only way to beat the AWP. There are several other ways – flashes, prefires, baiting(not baiting a teammate, barely showing yourself to make them shoot and then pushing them after), Nading them(most awpers will move if they take any serious damage), and lastly: AWPing the bastard back.

Generally speaking if you think an AWP might be somewhere, prefire it. A couple of really great places to use a prefire is as a T on season coming from lower A. Any time I'm coming from lower A I'll prefire CT upper – it's an easy kill and the angle is almost always the same. Same thing for Z awpers on train. Pick up an AWP, Scout, or AK and jump prefire the dumpster there...it's an easy kill that I can make 80% of the time. If you can out shoot whoever is AWPing, it can make the rest of your strats much easier to come up with.

Another good way to beat it is with a quick flash push. If you want the perfect example of this go watch the Madster. Him and that god damned P90 of his are amazing for this...I don't know how many times I've singled him out to flash somewhere that I knew an AWP would be, and to great effect. It works amazingly well in mid on D2, left side mid of Inferno(arch side), and Z connector on train. Actually, this works even better on inner train(b bombsite) than anywhere else in the game. Once you are in site, keep a steady stream of flashes going to the back of site and you'll make life difficult for anyone back there.

Strafing. DO NOT STAND STILL. If you run in a straight line against any halfway decent sniper, AWP or not you're going to die. There are also a lot of good places to do a quick air strafe to make it hard for an AWPer to get you – coming out of T mid on train if you do a quick air strafe right coming out(not bunny hopping, 1 jump and that's it) Z awps can't see you and 6 track AWPers have a hard shot because you land behind the oil car. Also works well at horseshoe on season and jumping to woodpile down banana on inferno.

The 2 absolute biggest parts to beating an AWP, or anything that is giving you a hard time: Flanks, and being random. Flanking just means to get behind him or come from where he isn't looking. AWPer's tend to be behind the rest of the team(they are sniping after all) so if you leave 1-2 people to come back push behind the ct rotation you'll often find the AWPer there. Hell, you should be trying to get flanks no matter what, but I've always found that flanking an AWP is the best way to beat it. By random I mean be unpredictable... if you keep going in the same area, or if your strats continuously put people in one spot, good players will key in on it. Good players with an AWP will destroy it. Keep them guessing and keep them moving. Being random is great at any time. Trying to figure out what to do in a clutch situation? Be random. Do what they aren't expecting and when you show up there you have the upper hand. You'll notice all the people you see clutching over and over again do things you wouldn't expect them to. You can also do stuff like show your gun and “fake run” at a corner if you know an AWP is there, trying to bait out a shot and then immediately go for the kill.

AWP's can be game changing; they force the game to slow down, and for people to not run out in open spaces without some sort of cover. They are by no means unbeatable. The biggest thing about the AWP is that you have to account for it on strats and take some more time to develop them. Not doing so leaves people exposed to easy shots. Smokes and flashes are your friends. Make the bastard move...AWPs playing mid on D2 rotate to B pretty quickly with some noise...3 people hitting B can move him and let you execute an A split without having to worry about him.

Next week we'll go over de_inferno, and hopefully show you a few things that you didn't know before.