Counter-Strike Glossary

The player whose main weapon is the AWP, a bolt-action sniper rifle that kills in one shot to the head, chest or stomach. Usually the player opponents most want off the map early, because when an AWPer dies with the rifle the team loses its most expensive weapon for the rest of the round. Whether the AWPer or the star rifler scores more varies from team to team.

The main rifle-based fragger, taking duels from favorable positions. On plenty of rosters the top scorer, on others second to the AWPer.

In-game leader. Calls strategy during rounds, reads the opponent's patterns and adapts as the game runs. Some IGLs are strong individual fraggers; others give up personal output to hold the structure together.

Goes first into contested space to open a site for teammates. They are expected to be traded: they may die, but a teammate behind them is set up to take the kill back, and the death buys the team an opening. High kills alongside high deaths is the normal shape, so an entry's deaths are not a red flag on their own. The job is mostly a T-side one.

A player whose main weapon is an assault rifle rather than the AWP. Most of any roster are riflers, playing a mix of entry, support, anchor and lurk roles.

Focused on utility rather than kills: smokes, flashbangs and molotovs that control space and set up the fraggers. Kill numbers tend to run lower than the team's fraggers', and the value shows up in rounds won more than in the stat line.

Holds a bombsite on CT side while teammates play active positions elsewhere. The job is to buy time and gather information until rotations arrive, which often leaves the anchor in late-round situations against more than one attacker. Kill counts run lower than the fraggers'; the impact shows in round wins.

Separates from the team to apply pressure from unexpected positions, catch rotating defenders or pull them out of place. A single lurk can decide a round, and how often the chance comes up depends on how the other team plays.

The regulation format for a CS2 map: 24 rounds, sides switch after 12, first team to 13 wins.

Played when a map ends 12-12. In CS2 each overtime is a best of six rounds, first to four, with sides switching after three. If it ends 3-3, another overtime starts. Every overtime adds rounds, so it adds kills.

Counter-Terrorist side, defending. CTs hold the bombsites and react to the attack rather than commit first. Which side is stronger depends on the map and changes as the map pool and the game are updated.

Terrorist side, attacking. Wins a round by planting the bomb and letting it explode, or by eliminating the defenders. Needs coordinated utility and a plan for which site to hit.

Defenders moving from one site to the other once they read where the attack is going. Rotations that are too early leave a site open; rotations that are too late leave the anchor alone.

The CT side taking a site back after the bomb is planted. The bomb timer is running, so a retake is a race against it as much as a fight.

The first round of each half, everyone on limited money and restricted to pistols. The highest-variance round in the game, and an underdog can win it. Winning one usually sets up two or three rounds of economic advantage, which is why a single round matters so much to the shape of a half.

A round where a team deliberately spends nothing or almost nothing, banking money for a round where it can buy properly. It expects to lose the eco; the value is in the rounds after. A team that loses three in a row and then wins one has likely just hit its buy round.

A team keeps the weapons it already has and avoids fights it cannot win, so the guns carry into the next round. Different from an eco: the point is to protect what is already bought.

The money a team receives for losing a round. It starts at $1,400 and rises by $500 with each consecutive loss, up to $3,400, which is what lets a losing team eventually afford a full buy again.

A round where a team can afford better than pistols but not full rifles and a complete set of utility.

Rifles, armor and full utility for all five players. The rounds where teams play at full strength.

Buying weapons without enough money for a proper full buy, usually because the game situation seems to demand it. Force buys can work, but a failed one can leave a team short of money for several rounds.

The fully bought team playing opponents who are saving. The better-equipped side usually wins it, which is why losing an anti-eco hurts: the saving team picks up rifles and gets a cheap next round.

A short break a team calls to stop the game and reset, often after losing a run of rounds. The coach can speak to the team during timeouts.

Every top team has one, but the rules keep him quiet during play. Valve's rule is that a coach may only speak to the players in warmup, at half time, or in a timeout, so his work happens in preparation and in those 30 seconds.

A 30-second tactical pause, called by a player or the coach. It is the only moment mid-half when a coach can talk, which is why timeouts often come after a run of lost rounds rather than before one.

The idea that winning rounds makes the next one more likely. The concrete version is money: round wins pay more than losses, so a team on a run is usually facing an opponent on a weaker buy for a round or two.

The T-side rifle, $2,700. It kills with one headshot even through a helmet, which is why a T holding an angle is dangerous at any range. The recoil is the hard part.

The two CT rifles. Neither one-taps a helmeted head, so CT fights usually take more than one bullet. The M4A1-S is silenced with a smaller magazine and easier recoil; the M4A4 carries more ammunition and fires faster.

The sniper rifle, $4,750. One hit kills anywhere but the legs, so a single AWPer can shut down a whole route. Losing it to a bad peek hands the other side a big economic swing.

A $700 pistol that kills an armoured player with one headshot. It only works standing still or fully counter-strafed, which is why it is the eco weapon good players buy and others avoid.

The $1,700 sniper, called the Scout. Slower to kill than an AWP but cheap and quick to move with, so it shows up on half buys and on maps with long angles.

The cheap rifles, $1,800 and $2,050. They are what teams buy the round after losing a pistol, when there is rifle money but not AK or M4 money.

MP9, MAC-10 and the rest. They pay $600 a kill instead of $300, which makes them the standard anti-eco buy: cheap, and they rebuild the bank when they hit.

What a kill pays. Most weapons pay $300, SMGs pay $600 and shotguns pay $900, which is why a team on an eco often buys the gun that pays most rather than the gun that shoots best.

Grenades: smokes, flashes, molotovs and HE. Teams buy them alongside rifles, and how well a side uses them decides more rounds at this level than raw aim does.

A grenade that blinds anyone looking at it. Thrown to take an angle away for a second or two so teammates can move into it.

A flashbang thrown so it goes off the instant it comes into view, leaving no time to turn away. The hardest flash to counter, and a common setup for an entry.

A grenade that blocks vision for about 18 seconds, filling the space it lands in. Used to cut a site off from the players who would otherwise cover it, or to stop a push.

CS2 smokes are volumetric, so gunfire opens a hole in one and an HE grenade blows it open for a moment. Players call it breaking the smoke, and teams use it to take a peek or punish a plant. It is also why the one-way smokes of CS:GO no longer work: everyone sees the same smoke.

A fire grenade, called an incendiary on the CT side. It denies ground for a few seconds and forces a player out of a position without a shot being fired.

A frag grenade. Rarely a kill on its own at full health, but it softens a group so the follow-up shots need less.

Credit for blinding the player a teammate then kills. It shows up in stats and measures how much a support player sets up the fraggers.

Damage dealt by molotovs and HE grenades. High utility damage usually means a player is clearing positions rather than hunting kills.

The set of maps eligible for competitive play. CS2 runs seven maps in the active pool, and Valve rotates it periodically. Knowing which maps a team is weak on is often as useful as knowing its best.

The pre-game process where teams take turns banning and picking maps until the series is set. In a best-of-three each team bans two and picks one, and the map left over is the decider. On a picked map, the other team chooses its starting side.

Best-of-one, best-of-three, best-of-five. A best-of-one is a single map and upsets are common. A best-of-three gives the better team room to recover from a bad map. Best-of-five series are mostly kept for grand finals.

The third map in a best-of-three when each team has won one. It is the map left after both teams' bans and picks, so neither team chose it.

A round played with knives only, the winner choosing a starting side. At pro events it is sometimes used to settle sides on a decider map, where neither team picked the map.

An event played in person, usually on a stage in front of a crowd, rather than online.

A stage where teams with the same record play each other each round until they reach a set number of wins or losses. Common in Major stages. A 3-0 team won three straight; a 3-2 team lost twice on the way.

In a double-elimination bracket, where a team drops after its first series loss. A second loss ends its event, so every lower-bracket series is an elimination game.

Valve Regional Standings, Valve's ranking of teams. It drives most Major invites and seeding, and many other events use it for invites as well.

Kills divided by deaths. A quick baseline and nothing more, because the same figure means different things by role: an entry fragger takes the first duel by design and dies more than a player who waits, while a star is expected to come out ahead in most of theirs. Read it next to the role.

Average damage per round. It credits damage that did not finish a kill, so it shows a player's impact more fully than kills alone.

The first kill of a round, which turns it into five against four. Teams that win opening duels force their opponents to play from behind, and which players take those duels is one of the more useful things to know about a team.

Killing the opponent who just killed a teammate, so the lost duel does not cost the team a player advantage. Entries are set up to be traded.

Rounds won minus rounds lost across games or a stage. The usual tiebreaker in group stages, and a read on how close the games were: a 3-1 team with a negative differential won tight series and lost big ones.

The player with the most kills in a game. Top-frag shares show how a team's kills are split: a top-heavy roster funnels them to one player, a deep roster spreads them across three or four.

A temporary replacement for an unavailable player. The stand-in has not practiced the team's systems the way a regular has, so the team usually plays below its normal level. Check the current lineups before a game; a late stand-in changes every number in it.

One player left alive against more than one opponent, usually late in a round. Clutches swing rounds, but they are rare and depend on the situation, so one highlight says less than a player's record in those spots over time.

A pick'em projection on how many kills a player gets, and you pick higher or lower. Most apps count maps one and two only, so a third map never adds to the number and a 2-0 still settles it.

A contract on the map score rather than the winner. A team at minus 1.5 maps has to win 2-0; at plus 1.5 it only needs to win one map.

A contract on whether a best-of-three goes the distance. Taking three maps is a position on a decider being played; taking two is a position on a sweep by either side.

The price a team should trade at if our estimate is right. It is what MARKET sets against the live price.

The market's own estimate with the margin removed: add both sides of a market, then scale them back to 100. A 72 and 30 market becomes about 70.6 and 29.4.

The gap between your estimate and the no-vig price. A trade is only worth making when the edge is bigger than the spread plus the fee.