While nuke is characteristically slated towards the defense, it is possible for a strong offense to abuse their spawns and start overwhelming the upper site. It is important for every defensive team to have the ability to play dynamically. They have to be able to change their approach to defending the upper site, whether it is a passive, take-back strategy, or push into part of the map to throw off the initiation of the offense.

In this particular strategy, Amazing Gaming pushes four of their players towards the terrorist lobby. While their approach to the defensive push is not overwhelmingly complicated, they do use some timing with their flashes to ensure the overall success of the push. Also, by using some smokes and flashes outside, they allow nearly all of their players to focus on the push, and still have a reasonable expectation that the offense will not full-on attack the outside.

Amazing Gaming used this strategy to finish off MouseSports during their semifinals match at this year's GameGune Event in Bilboa, Spain. They went on to take third at that event, adding that to a growingly impressive list of accomplishments, and continuing to advance Ukranian CS in the international scene.

This is how they executed this strategy

strike - Outside-in, squeaky door pusher
xaoc - Rafters to floor, hut pusher
starix - Ladder, inside and outer support
hooch - Ramp room
B1ad3 - Ramp room



starix and xaoc run up the ladder into the rafters. strike begins his way toward tango from outside. strike smokes outside, and tosses both of his flashbangs over the tango roof towards the outside. This serves to make a defensive presence known outside, forcing the offense to take more time in clearing the area, and therefore preventing a rush outside. starix throws the usual hut flash to also prevent a mound spawn rush of the hut.



hooch, with B1ad3 close behind, heads off to the ramp room. hooch tosses two flashes down the ramp room, and the two begin to push towards radio. B1ad3 holds his flash, and waits momentarily for the inner players to be ready to push.



strike quickly clears the hut window, then tosses his nade through the window into the lobby. xaoc drops from the rafters onto the hut, and then enters the hut. B1ad3 throws his flashbangs into the lobby. hooch and B1ad3 do not push further, but simply prevent any terrorists from entering the radio room. strike rushes through the squeaky door and xaoc pushes through the hut.



During this time, starix is the only player not totally devoted to the rush. Initially he heads back to the outside rafters, spotting the outside from the balcony and chucking an additional flash towards the outside. Then he heads inside in order to back up the inner players if they are overrun and fragged. In order to make his job easier, he tosses a smoke into the entrance of the tango, which usually will prevent any offensive players from simply rushing in. hooch and B1ad3 spam the ramp hallway walls in an attempt to safely help out the inner pushers.



Once all of the offense has been eliminated inside the lobby, it is clear that the remaining players must be concentrated outside somewhere or highly delayed outside. hooch and B1ad3 rotate back to underneath the ladder. hooch goes to the window, while B1ad3 goes outside watching the big garage.



xaoc heads back into the hut, where he take a defensive spot momentarily watching outside from the hut window. After a few seconds, he knows that there is still the possibility of an attacker coming from the lobby (which is back is turned to), so he takes a more passive spot hugging the wall and looking into the hut door. starix jumps on top of the right vent from the hut roof, spotting through the hut window.



Once all of the attackers, save one, are dead, the team makes a few adjustments to cover the map for the LMSer. B1ad3 takes a more aggressive spot outside by the AWP boxes. hooch heads back to the ramp room, where he releases any remaining nades he has.



This strategy works because it takes several things into account. First, they control the outside players long enough that the team can set up shortly to defeat any quick upper rushes and get into position to push. Second, the ramp players take over the flash lane between ramp and the lobby, which allows them to flash for the rushing players. Third, they have a solid backup plan. With starix looming in the inside rafters while the push is happening, even if xaoc and strike are fragged without getting any entry frags, he will be there to clean up any terrorists who think the site will be clean.

To synchronize this strategy for your own team, establish which ramp room defender will be throwing the lobby flashes during buy time. This way, once his second “fire in the hole” has sounded, the upper players will know its time to initiate the rush.