If you want to bet on CS:GO, you need to understand the basics of the game. Being unfamiliar with the rules and structures of different tournaments can lead to costly losses. In this complete guide to CS:GO, we’ll cover everything you need to know about the game before you start betting. Another way to understand CSGO is to actually play it. The game is available from the Steam Store, usually at a cost of around $15. The more experience you have with the game, the better you will understand the thought processes of teams and players you are betting on.
What Is CS:GO?
Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO) is a multiplayer first-person shooter (FPS) game developed by Valve and Hidden Path. Competitive CS:GO is played in a 5 vs 5 setup with the two teams being Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists. The aim of the game is for each team to kill all of the other or plant/defuse a bomb on set bomb-sites. There are other game modes that involve hostage situations and other scenarios, but these are no longer played in the professional CSGO arena.
Although the game has previously been released on multiple platforms (Windows, OS X, Playstation 3, Xbox 360, Linus), the game is traditionally played on Windows computers during competitive esports events. Most fans of the game prefer the PC version due to the accuracy of the mouse and keyboard setup in first-person-shooter games. Players will commonly lower the sensitivity on their mouse settings to extreme lows, in order to gain better accuracy in game.
History Of CS:GO
CSGO was released in August 2012 as the fourth game in the Counter-Strike series. Prior to Global Offensive, the third game in the series (Counter-Strike: Source) was extremely popular within the world of esports. Source was the first game to run on the Source engine. Previous games had used the Half-Life GoldSrc engine as it Counter-Strike was originally a modification of Half-Life. CSGO has grown alongside the largest rise in esports to date. With prize pools for Major tournaments reaching $1m US Dollars, the world is starting to pay attention to CSGO. Teams such as Astralis are now sponsored by huge corporations such as Audi. The game has also been featured on cable television multiple times including regular appearances on Ginx TV. However, most tournaments are streamed online via sites such as YouTube and Twitch as these are most popular with fans of the game.
Objective of CS:GO
In professional CS:GO, there are two teams of five players each. These teams are the Terrorists and Counter-Terrorists, who each have their own spawn locations at either ends of the game map. In total there are 30 rounds in any one game and it is the first team to reach 16 rounds to win. Depending on the tournament, if each team reaches 15 rounds (maxing out the 30 rounds), the match will end in a draw or go on to overtime. Each round lasts approximately 1 minute and 55 seconds, depending on the tournament organizer. Particularly in the final rounds of major tournaments, games will be decided by Best of 3’s (Bo3) or Best of 5’s (Bo5). This simply means that the teams will play 3 or 5 different maps in order to decide the winner of the match.
The Terrorists main objective is to plant a bomb on two, pre-defined bomb sites in different locations on the map. Once the bomb detonates, the Terrorist side will win that round. Alternatively, if the Terrorist team kill all of the Counter-Terrorists, they will also win the round. The Counter-Terrorists can win a round by either killing all of the Terrorists, or by defusing the bomb after it has been planted on a bomb site by the Terrorist side. The Counter-Terrorists will also win a round if the remaining time in the round reaches zero and there has not been a bomb plant by the Terrorist side. This is known as “denying the plant” or “running down the clock”.
Ingame Economy
When betting on live CS:GO, ingame economy is one of the most important factors you should be considering. With this in mind, what actually is it? Upon starting the first round of each half, each player on both team is awarded with $800 of ingame money, a knife and a basic pistol. Players can choose to save this money for the following round, or spend it on armour, grenades or a better pistol. Other than a different pistol, there is no better gun available that players can buy for $800. This is why the first round of each half is referred to as a “Pistol Round”. Namely because they can only afford to fight with pistols.
Players are awarded more ingame money for completing certain objectives. These range from planting the bomb, defusing the bomb and killing players with certain weapons. The biggest reward for killing an opponent is $1500 if killed with a knife. In an effort to balance the power and reduce the effect of financial momentum for any one team, losing teams are awarded a “loss bonus”. This is an amount of money awarded to each player if their team lose a round. The loss bonus will increase from a minimum of $1400 to a maximum $3400 after multiple rounds are lost. The maximum amount of money that any player can hold is $16,000. Players are able to pass weapons between themselves. This is useful when one team member has a significant amount more than another play on his team.
By paying attention to the amount of money each team has ingame, you can build a significant advantage for your live betting. You can use the ingame economy as a significant factor in deciding which team to bet on when a game is in-play. For example, you may wish to back a team that has a larger amount of money than the other, even if they are currently the in-game underdog (meaning they have higher odds in-play). You should be careful not to take too much consideration in the final rounds of either half of a professional game. This is because at half time, the economy of both teams are reset and they begin the second half with just $800 per player. You may also want to avoid putting too much emphasis on in-game economy in the very few final rounds of a game, particularly if one team is on match point. Their money gives no advantage once the game is finished!
CS:GO Maps
There are a large number of maps in CS:GO, all providing different advantages for certain styles of play. Maps are categorized by the game mode that they are built for. For example, Cache is a map that is built for the Bomb Defusal game mode. Cache is also part of the Active Duty map group. This is a group of maps that the game developers have deemed to be the most balanced and competitive. They are therefore the only maps that are played in major tournament events. Being aware of the maps that certain teams are best at playing will put you at a significant advantage when betting on CSGO. For example, SK Gaming are typically one of the best teams when playing on the map Train. This is because they have played on this map for a considerable amount of time and have developed multiple, advanced strategies to outsmart their opponents on it.
Each map typically has very different scenery to the next. For example, Nuke is set in a power plant themed location and therefore has objects within the map that compliment this theme. Any object or room within a particular map will be explored by professional CS:GO teams to see if they can be used to their advantage. For instance, a map that includes long, open plan areas such as Mirage will be more suited to teams who can develop winning strategies around them. In this case, teams may choose to position an AWP (the most powerful sniper in the game) player at one side of the open area. If you are struggling to choose a winner in a Bo3 event, you may find it easier to bet on the map winner markets. For example, if you know that Team A is better at Map 1 than Team B, you can back Team A to win Map 1. So long as they win that one map, your bet will win, even if they lose the Bo3 overall.