CS: A young talent from Peking University, you want me to play professionally?

"Actually, we all know that the defending side has a core strategy for the Sands II map."

"The defense of Area A mainly focuses on controlling A main and defending the small path. It is very important to gain control of A main as soon as possible."

"After all, for the defending side, the loss of A site will quickly put the CTs on the defensive, while the Ts can attack A site from multiple directions."

At this moment, it's not just the coaches and commanders on both sides analyzing the tactics of both sides on offense and defense; almost all the other teams are now sitting in front of their computers because they all know very well that this match is of very high quality.

Moreover, even top teams must seriously study and review the match, analyzing the tactics of both NA and SQ.

Before this match, everyone knew that Na was almost invincible on this map, and their dominance on this map was extremely strong. In today's match, Na maintained their consistently strong style from start to finish, and they played with almost no weaknesses.

Even under these circumstances, SQ, a team that was almost completely overlooked before the tournament, surprisingly displayed a level of strength that surprised everyone. More importantly, their tactical experiments on both offense and defense provided other teams with valuable insights, because for those teams, their primary concern in this World Championship was actually NA.

Since teams like SQ have been able to achieve excellent results using this tactic and put pressure on NA during the match, they should undoubtedly learn from the tactical issues revealed in this game, especially by making some preemptive countermeasures against NA. This is undoubtedly a very important thing for the coaching staff of many teams.

Even if NA can make some adjustments during or after the match, their overall strategy will likely remain largely unchanged. Therefore, by learning from today's match, they can obviously make some valuable adjustments.

Many teams, after watching this match, believed that if they were to go up now, with some preparation, they would have a greater chance of winning against NA. This idea is actually quite common.

Returning to the analysis of the match itself, the coaching teams of several top teams undoubtedly need to conduct a deeper analysis of this map. The match between NA and SQ today showcased an exceptional level of tactical skill and teamwork.

While many find it hard to believe, SQ has indeed forced NA to make significant tactical adjustments, in what is seen as a major shift in strategy. This aggressive approach undoubtedly allows other teams ample time to adjust and analyze their performance to develop countermeasures. After all, this situation presents a valuable opportunity to exploit and counter their tactics.

So, in this map, especially based on the situations presented in the previous rounds, the most obvious thing they can learn when facing NA as the defending side is the positioning of defenders in the standard phases.

It's important to understand that in this default phase, the CT (Central Counter-Terrorists) actually needs to utilize the tactic of pushing forward and holding positions, quickly securing the A main corner after spawning, and using a small body to peek. If they encounter a Terrorist sniper holding a position, they need to use smoke or flashbangs for cover during their retreat.

Defending A pit is actually a very important tactical point. Although it wasn't fully demonstrated in previous rounds, it's clear that neither NA nor SQ has implemented many tactical plans for this location. This means that both teams have neglected this point in their map control. Therefore, if this point could be utilized and strategically positioned, it could undoubtedly have a significant and unexpected impact during the tactical phase.

After all, positions near A door allow you to hear footsteps but are easy to kill instantly, while positions at a distance offer an advantage in gunfights but are vulnerable to flashbang suppression. Therefore, it is clear from this situation that one should consider using close-range positions during eco rounds or when defending with a submachine gun.

The zone defense strategy on A short is a crucial tactical arrangement, requiring a high level of coordination. Simply implementing basic defense on A short is insufficient for effective tactical coverage. Only a zone defense can effectively apply pressure to the attacking team.

Previously, NA's defense on A short, especially when they had long guns and utility, mostly involved a zone defense. This was because only through a zone defense could they maximize their positional advantages on defense.

After all, for the defending side, defense is often more passive, unlike the attacking side which has more options and initiative. Therefore, in such situations, the importance of their tactical coordination in a zone defense becomes very apparent.

The use of platform smoke and flashbangs is arguably the most basic. CTs can jump and throw from the sandbags on platform A to block the B door, or use a half-open window to bounce back and clear the small enemy on platform A with a flashbang. They can also use the ninja position to ambush, and the right blind spot combined with smoke grenades can be used to ambush Ts who have not yet searched the area.

Even for professional teams, or even top-tier teams, the search points are generally quite clean. However, sometimes when time is tight or the situation is chaotic, they can still lose control of their desires. CT can clearly exploit some tactical loopholes in the attacking side to create very exaggerated defensive designs.

"From the match between these two teams, and from our previous analysis, everyone can quickly summarize the key points of defense against rushes in B site and mid-lane support on this map."

Four elements for preventing RushB.

"The first method is to use throwables to delay: Molotov cocktails (last 8 seconds) can block B hole, and smoke can block vision for 15 seconds. Alternating between teammates can delay for more than 20 seconds."

"We must not underestimate these 20 seconds. In the course of a match, 20 seconds is a very long time for the attacking side. Especially when their tactical intentions are clear and they're preparing to accelerate, using utility items to create distance and create separation can buy us 15-20 seconds. This can potentially force the attackers to reposition or waste a significant amount of their controllable time. In this way, we're effectively relieving a lot of pressure on our defense." "Regarding positioning, long-range rifles should be used for sniping positions or bomb sites, while short-range rifles should be used to close the distance to the white car. In eco rounds, players can crouch behind the wooden door at B to avoid bullets."

"Mid-lane information coordination: If a mid-lane teammate is killed and the T blocks the CT's smoke screen, the CT in B site may be isolated and needs to communicate in time to return to defend or switch to defend."

In fact, for the defending side, in unconventional situations, it is necessary to make predictions, deploy two to three people flexibly to defend the B site, and after obtaining information about the attacking side, use items to actively clear the B tunnel. When encountering a mid-to-B attack, two people should cooperate to use flashbangs to buy time.

In addition, retreating to B site is also a very good strategy for defending the bomb site. It involves strategically giving up control of B site and coordinating with the police team to use crossfire to strike the terrorists entering the site.

The mid lane and its support defense are arguably the core of this map and the linchpin for controlling the map.

After all, on this map, for the defending team, holding the middle lane with just one or two players is only possible if the opposing team hasn't accelerated their entire force. Once the attackers' acceleration position is identified, or once this information is confirmed, the defense obviously needs to focus on coordinating around the middle lane.

Because once you get information that the enemy has more players in the middle lane, if you don't provide support, the middle lane will undoubtedly be easily breached by the enemy. Therefore, in this situation, providing support in advance, whether through crossfire from the CT position or from point B, can significantly limit the attacker's ability to accelerate.

The most classic tactic is, of course, two people pushing forward in the middle, with one sniper positioned at the middle door to pass through, and the other rifleman protecting the person at the close point. If the person is flashed, they need to use items to regain their gun position and then repeek.

This tactical choice clearly offers a greater sense of initiative compared to retreating to the back of the middle. However, this proactive push carries significant risks, as the opponent could strengthen their defenses beforehand or consciously utilize items to clear out the remaining enemy forces.

This forward push could very well lead to the opponent gaining a numerical advantage. Therefore, in most cases, choosing such a tactic is only done when there is a complete disadvantage in terms of economy and resources, or it is to launch an unconventional surprise attack, anticipating that the opponent will not expect to use such a tactical approach.

As for the defending side's quick return route, after area B is lost, they should avoid taking the back roads and prioritize the police spawn or B gate to prevent the T side's "Old Six" from ambushing.

This is a point that coaches always mention during the defensive team's post-game analysis phase, because even top-tier players sometimes struggle to think clearly under intense pressure. Therefore, in this situation, once B site falls, it means the middle lane is no longer safe, especially the first level of B, where the enemy might be lying in ambush. In this scenario, if a player doesn't carefully rotate back from the bottom, their defense could easily be cut off.

During this process, the CT team members in Area A can use smoke from the police spawn boxes to block the view of the sandy area and provide support to Area B.

On the other hand, the core tactical system of the attacking side is actually a fast attack and change of pace, the purpose of which is to break the rhythm of the CT defense.

For example, in today's match between NA and SQ, both sides were constantly alternating between increasing and decreasing the pace of their attacks. This is because as you gradually understand your opponent during the game, you can perceive their offensive habits and common offensive intentions.

In this situation, you must constantly adjust your rhythm, even the tactical preparations made during the default period need to be changed. Because if the offensive rhythm remains unchanged, even if the defending side makes many judgments, during the information gathering process on both sides, the defending side will quickly detect the offensive side's rhythm problems.

Back to the game.

"We can see that NA made a very obvious targeted positioning at A site in this round. After Cobra provided a sniper rifle with a fixed aim, although the two sides did not have a direct confrontation, the opponent could still judge from the information that NA was likely to have a sniper rifle."

"That's right. On this map, Cobra will almost always choose to use the AWP as long as he has the resources to put pressure on the opponent's defense. With his sniper rifle accuracy, as long as he sets up a direct shot from this position, the opponent will basically not take the initiative to challenge the AWP unless they are at a complete disadvantage in terms of weapons and equipment."

As we all know, Li Mo's sniper rifle puts more pressure on the defensive end than on the offensive end. In previous matches, regardless of which professional player he faced, his kill rate with the sniper rifle was over 75%. So, unless the opponent had a long weapon and was looking for an opportunity to engage in a gunfight, they generally wouldn't risk trying to challenge his sniper rifle.

Therefore, during the long default phase at the beginning of this round, the situation on the field was very quiet for both sides. Because NA had dealt a blow, he was not in a hurry at all. After all, although both sides were able to make some analysis and judgments based on the information, the situation was still unknown in a strict sense.

For SQ, having already used up their time in the early game as the attacking side, they now believe that securing the mid lane position allows them to either flank or accelerate their attack, making it a relatively easy and relatively uncontested strategy.

(End of this chapter)