[GUIDE] CS:GO Support playstyle guide

[ronnin426850]

This guide applies to ranks between GN1 and MGE.

Those of you who played MOBA or RPG games, and even some FPS, are familiar with the support class. Support is a character whose primary role is not to kill enemies or achieve the game goal, but instead to assist his team in doing so, either by healing, shielding, or using specialized equipment or abilities.
But CS is a classless game, so how do you play support in CS:GO?
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Imagine this scenario: you are queuing up by yourself or with a buddy in a competitive game. The game starts and you are terrible - you can barely get a kill, your aim sucks, your usual tactics don't work, your game sense is still asleep, and you feel like you're dragging your team down. So what do you do?
You have two options: you either keep trying to do what you know doesn't work for you in this match, OR you can play support to your team.

In CS:GO the support character has four main functions:
- Scout enemy movement
- Assist key points
- Drop for team
- Create a moral gap

To successfully do that, you need to learn to use the UMP.
The UMP is the key element in playing support - it is deadly in close- to mid- range, dirt cheap, and doesn't assist the enemy team if you drop it.

In this example, we'll be showing how to support a CT team on Dust 2, since it is the most popular map in the queue, and T's have much less need of a support due to their rush tactics and generally better bank. However a lot of the general rules described below can be applied to T's as well.

Scout enemy movement
You need to learn the thee most critical locations for tracking enemy movement while staying undetected:
- blue container box at long
- mid doors
- car at B

It is imperative that you do not peek. Your enemies will be armed with rifles and snipers, your SMG will need much luck to get you out of there. Instead, you listen and you call out to your mates the movement of the enemy.
From blue container at long, you can hear steps on both long and short, and T's that hurry to get to pit rarely check behind the corner of the box. It is often wise to hold your fire, risk being seen, but to know the number of enemies pushing long, and wait for them to line up or zoom snipers before firing.
From mid doors you can hear short and lower tunnels, and you will also frag anyone who tries to push mid. You have to wait at the CT side of the door so that their AWP doesn't see you cross, T's will think mid is clear.
From car at B you can hear steps in upper and lower tunnel, and alert your team of a B rush long before you actually see it, or callout if T's rotate to mid.
All three locations provide good close-range targeting for your UMP, and much more importantly - if you die, you will still be able to give meaningful info to your team:
- dying at blue container at long will let you see how many push through long, how many stay pit, and what are their weapons.
- dying at mid doors will let you see how many push mid and their weapons, and you will hear if T's are going A or B.
- dying at B car will let you see what defense position T's are taking and where the bomb is planted.

This info is extremely useful for your team's entry fraggers and AWP-ers.
It is of great assistance if you are able to turn on Volume Normalization / Loudness Equalization in your audio drivers, and boos the volume to max. You will hear clearer and farther. Also, set an equalizer that favors mid and high frequencies, bass doesn't help you in CS:GO.

Assisting key points
You playing support means your team will have one person less for map control. That means you will have to rotate quickly when someone is being rushed.
From long, if B is being rushed, push through long doors, check for AWP at T-spawn, then go mid to B or T-spawn to B. This will allow your team to have better ability to react if T's rotate to mid or short, because T-spawn will be clear, and you will surprise T's at B by pushing from the back. If you die at T-spawn, you will be able to call to your team the direction their AWP is going - once T AWP is called at T-spawn, it is unlikely he will remain there, and he will either go suicide or outside tunnels during B rush.
From long, if mid is being rushed, go back to A-site and wait with the UMP behind the crates. If they rotate to B, you can easily reinforce CT-spawn, and if they push A, you will remain hidden and be able to spray them once they close. If you die at A, you will be able to tell your team where T's are defending, what weapons, and where the bomb is planted.
From mid, if B is being rushed, go directly to B doors. Once inside, T's will mostly pay attention to window, and you will be able to spray from door anyone that goes to plant. If you die there, you will be able to tell your team if someone is hiding at B car or if someone goes across to tunnels.
From mid, if long is being rushed, you have time to get to A-ramp in time to spray T's that push to site. You can hide at elevator and boost a teammate to A, or you can intercept T's coming from long and gun them down.
From mid, if short is being rushed, you can wait and see if T's will try to intercept mid-to-CT as well, or if they will go all short. In the latter case, you can follow and spray them while they are engaged with your teammate defending A-site.
From B, if A is being rushed, rotate tunnels to mid to long, you may be able to kill an AWP at pit or save a weapon for the next round.

A critical part of providing backup is using timing grenades. Those are grenades that delay the enemy's push and mess up their timing - smoke, fire, and flash grenades can serve that purpose. Usually buying one smoke, one incendiary and two flashes is ideal for support. If you are low on money, skip the incendiary and get a decoy instead.
In rush scenarios, when you are pushed or kept out of the site, it is good to throw an incendiary at the site, to delay the plant and give your teammates extra time to defuse at the end of the round.
If you are on site, use as many flashes as you can. First throw the decoy, if you have one. Throw it where T's will see it. It is unlikely they will stop their advance, but they will turn to avoid the flash, giving your teammate an opportunity to take them down. Just make sure you explicitly call out that you're throwing a decoy.
Once you throw the decoy, T's will know where you are. Stick to cover, throw both flashes, and then change position. Twice flashed T's will be disoriented and out of cover. They may even teamkill in the confusion. Use that time to kill or damage as many as you can.
If your top fragger is somewhere else on the map, try to divert the enemies to him with fire and smoke. In long doors and upper tunnels, throw a smoke, then throw fire through the smoke. Make sure the incendiary doesn't land in the smoke, because it will not ignite there, and you will have wasted 600$.
In most cases smoke, fire, and flash in those narrow corridors will get T's to rotate to short, where your top fragger can expect them. Always make sure you call "maybe rotating to short" to your team, so they are prepared and in cover when the T's arrive. Keep in mind that during rush, T's expect smoke and flash, they alone will not stop the rush.
If you are defending A, make sure you smoke long or site and wait at a good spray angle and in cover, a good AWP at pit can be devastating for CTs.

Drop for team
Using only UMP will usually get you a pretty solid bank. Use it to drop M4's and AWP's to top fraggers for your team. Do not let a top fragger play with FAMAS or P90 unless it is their desire. Use voice chat to notify them that you will drop, so they can buy armor and grenades instead. It is usually better to drop an AWP to a good AWP-er, than to buy armor for yourself, if you are bottom-fragging.
On eco rounds, do full eco, do not buy armor or pistols, and play with P2000 instead of USP-S. That way you will not run out of bullets, and you will be able to drop SMGs for your team on the next round, if you lose. Your primary role at eco round is to steal weapons from your enemies. Take note of where enemies die. They will probably be fully equipped, and will have left a rifle behind.
When you drop, throw the weapons at the ground instead of directly at an unsuspecting teammate. A lot of people have weapon switch turned off and they will not know that you dropped them, and will waste their money buying an extra weapon.
Watch out for the last round of the first half and do a full buy.
The preferred loadout is P2000, Five-Seven, DEagle, and M4A4. That makes sure every teammate can use the weapons you drop.

Create a moral gap
Often it is necessary to play dirty in order to secure a win or do a comeback. Do not overuse that, it will do more harm than good.
What creating a moral gap means is, you have to make sure you support your team morally, you complement their play, you do not complain of them, and you do not spam the radio, while at the same time you demoralize and distract the enemy.
- Moral support to own team is done by saying a short "nice job" or "good work" when a teammate frags an enemy or two, and countering toxic teammates. Sometimes when a teammate dies or fails to clutch a round, another teammate may begin insulting him. It is your job to tell that teammate to shut up and remind the team that the dead teammate did their best, that everyone gets fragged sometime, and that it is not their job to criticize his play, but instead to focus on their own.
This is important for another reason, as it will most likely save you from being kicked out, if you are bottom fragging.
If a team member is actively griefing, it is your job to grief the griefer, flashing and obstructing him whenever possible. He can not keep griefing with you on their tail, and he can not kill you more than two times. This way you minimize the negative effect of the griefer.
- Demoralizing the enemy is done by targeting their best players with short messages that invoke a long and emotional response. Make sure you slowly build up the pressure without wasting much of your time in chat. Saying "hax" once is a good start, even if the enemy is not hacking. This may prompt him to respond at length, which distracts him. You then follow with "reported" and paste a generic report text in the chat with a made-up ID without actually reporting the person. The enemy player knows that he is not hacking, but he doesn't know if Overwatch won't ban him anyway. This worries, distracts, and infuriates him, leading to worse aim and gamesense. If he is the player that carries the enemy team, this will give you a chance at a comeback.
However, overusing these messages leads you to more distraction than the enemy, as at some point he will just ignore you. Be brief and invoke reaction, that is enough to destroy their team momentum.
Another way to demoralize the enemy team is to consistently make fun of their weakest player and prompt them to kick him every time he dies. He will begin to play even worse, and they may at some point kick him, getting you an easy win, as long as there is an AWP at mid to take out the bot every round.

Achieving these four goals will mean great advantage to your team, even if you are not performing up to par in combat.
Always make sure you let the team know what you are doing, why you are doing it, and that you are playing support because you haven't warmed up yet, or it is just not your day with aiming.
Doing it right, eventually your teammates will appreciate it more than top fragging.

[♥♥♥♥♥♥.gg Game Over Bitch]

F*cking awesome dude! Put it in the guides! I like this!

[Ex Azaleane]

You could make a much simpler guide for ranks between GN1 and MGE

Here's an example:

Guide for support players between GN1 and MGE

Use your brain

The end.

[Killswitch // KMS]

Y is everything d2

[Ex Azaleane]

Originally posted by KillSwitch | Ak is Bae:

Y is everything d2

Because he only plays Dust2
http://csgo-stats.com/76561198032453716/

[haipa]

Make a guide about this.

[Ex Azaleane]

Originally posted by c0smic:

Make a guide about this.

Yes and call it: How to play support on Dust2 only without being a refragger / smoke-flash support for your entry-fragger.

[haipa]

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

Originally posted by c0smic:

Make a guide about this.

Yes and call it: How to play support on Dust2 only without being a refragger / smoke-flash support for your entry-fragger.

He could add those as he goes along making the guide, this is probably not the guide's final form :p

[ronnin426850]

Originally posted by YaskoBG google.com:

F*cking awesome dude! Put it in the guides! I like this!

Thank you!

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

You could make a much simpler guide for ranks between GN1 and MGE

Here's an example:

Guide for support players between GN1 and MGE

Use your brain

The end.

Wow, you must be the go-to guy for advice in your village :)

Originally posted by KillSwitch | Ak is Bae:

Y is everything d2

I'd like more diversity, but since people know d2 best, i used that. Mirage is my favorite map.

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

Originally posted by KillSwitch | Ak is Bae:

Y is everything d2

Because he only plays Dust2
http://csgo-stats.com/76561198032453716/

The miracle of matchmaking, I don't deliberately play only d2. Mirage and Inferno were my favorite maps.

[Ex Azaleane]

If you give me an AWP Asiimov I will teach you how to untick dust2 before you search for a match.

[ronnin426850]

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

If you give me an AWP Asiimov I will teach you how to untick dust2 before you search for a match.

Don't want to. Mirage is most fun to play for me, but D2 helps me improve.

But anyway, that is off topic.

[Ex Azaleane]

Originally posted by ronnin426850:

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

If you give me an AWP Asiimov I will teach you how to untick dust2 before you search for a match.

Don't want to. Mirage is most fun to play for me, but D2 helps me improve.

But anyway, that is off topic.

Yup, playing one map only will teach u a lot.
Until that point where you start playing on Faceit/ESEA/Cevo.
On top of that, you have 300 lousy hours and you're telling people how to play? :D

[ronnin426850]

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

Originally posted by ronnin426850:

Don't want to. Mirage is most fun to play for me, but D2 helps me improve.

But anyway, that is off topic.

Yup, playing one map only will teach u a lot.
Until that point where you start playing on Faceit/ESEA/Cevo.
On top of that, you have 300 lousy hours and you're telling people how to play? :D

Yes. A lot of people have far less hours than me, also that reading is incorrect, csgostats is proven bugged.
And, most importantly, playtime alone is meaningless. I come up with a guide, i share it. You wrote your first guide 11 May, 2015. How many hours did you have then?

If this is not useful to you because you are a better player, you know what to do.

[DocCovington]

Originally posted by ronnin426850:

[GUIDE] CS:GO Support playstyle guide

You should make that an actual guide (that can be accessed via your profile), not just a forum post.

[ronnin426850]

Originally posted by DocCovington:

Originally posted by ronnin426850:

[GUIDE] CS:GO Support playstyle guide

You should make that an actual guide (that can be accessed via your profile), not just a forum post.

Thanks! I wanted to get a few comments and suggestions on it first :)

[Ex Azaleane]

Originally posted by ronnin426850:

Originally posted by dfuze -z-:

Yup, playing one map only will teach u a lot.
Until that point where you start playing on Faceit/ESEA/Cevo.
On top of that, you have 300 lousy hours and you're telling people how to play? :D

Yes. A lot of people have far less hours than me, also that reading is incorrect, csgostats is proven bugged.
And, most importantly, playtime alone is meaningless. I come up with a guide, i share it. You wrote your first guide 11 May, 2015. How many hours did you have then?

If this is not useful to you because you are a better player, you know what to do.

May, 2015, i would've been around 1000 hours back then.
The funny fact is that I know how to play the support role, and more than half of it is missing from your 'guide'.
The funniest part being u claiming that the support is the one in the team playing only UMP and dropping weapons for everyone, that made me laugh pretty much.