CS:GO Insights – Overpass A-Site Defence

CS:GO Insights is a series of blog posts that aim to give valuable information, tips and hints for the game of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

Ranging from how to defend specific sites on each map to useful smoke lineups and tutorials to essential post-plant setups. Today we’re covering Overpass A-site Defence.

When it comes to defending A-Site on Overpass, the CTs must consider teamwork above all else. You can choose to put up the resistance with anything from one to three players but all defenders must be on the same page as one weak link can lead to the rest of the house of cards being dismantled.

There are various set-ups the counter-terrorists could choose to run to defend A-site, which for the sake of this article will include the bathrooms/banana area and long.

By default, most set-ups consist of one player playing long, either by the flower bed, tree or boulder and one playing banana, usually in and around the divider for bathrooms. This can work quite well as it gives a lot of information for the team however it is very easy to get overwhelmed and overpowered holding these positions. If you’re confident with your B rotators, this setup can work especially well as you can engage in combat early enough to allow for backup before the site is taken. That being said, holding these positions and going down without taking one of the enemy team with you is a massive no-go as it’ll leave the rest of your team in an almost unattainable 3v5.

Both of these positions benefit massively from flashbangs as they can allow you to peak into completely blind enemies or even more crucially, fall back to the site if you’re being pressured. Other utility that comes in handy here is smokes to block vulnerable positions from pushing you, such as long side bathrooms if holding from tree or connector, if holding the divider.

Other setups would include both CTs inside bathrooms, one looking towards long and one towards connector. This gives a really strong crossfire where if needed, you can stick together to try and fall back to site. The main issue this setup encounters is you’re super committed as CTs and with two smokes, you can be rendered useless and bypassed, leaving a lot of work on your teammates shoulders. Patience should be the name of the game in this setup, where if you’re smoked off you must call for the B rotators to give you a hand rather than pushing through the smokes or letting the Ts take the site too easily. You can also then turn this into a pincer setup and crush the attackers from all angles.

Flashbangs aren’t super useful in this setup as you’re mostly relying on reaction times and the surprise element of the opponents edging into your crosshairs, rather than going on the offensive. Smokes can be used to give you an avenue to escape down. With this in mind, this setup has the useful consequence whereby the Ts take B-site and you’re left with a lot of utility to retake the site, something that wouldn’t usually happen given other setups.

A final setup you’ll see used often consists of having the two players long, one playing up close near the boulder or by tree, the other really far back with a ranged weapon such as an AWP or Scout. The player nearest the terrorists will try to not be seen until the player at the back of long has taken the aggro and then can pop out and get a few unsuspected kills. Once the ranged player has taken contact, they can then rotate safely away from long and hold bathrooms or banana. This setup is super risky as the Ts can just rush through banana/bathrooms and bypass the CTs completely, or even catch them rotating back to site.

A smoke to block off bathrooms is very useful in protecting the committed player as you may be flanked from bathrooms and the far-back player doesn’t have the angle to cover without exposing themselves. Flashes are useful to allow the forward player to take battles with blinded enemies, increasing the chances of a multi-kill.

Utility is incredibly important on A-Site defence and is usually used super early in the round, leaving nothing after the 1-minute mark. This is obviously a double-edged sword as on the one hand, contacting early and stopping them taking too much area early in the round is important for limiting their options and then they must spend a bit of utility and time clearing areas before they progress. This then leads to the defence being difficult to put up once the site is pushed and given the nature of the bomb site on A and the default plant position being super safe, this can lead to rounds being lost. On the other hand, letting the Ts roam free early on without throwing much or any utility is problematic as once they try to push site, they’ll have enough utility and manpower to overwhelm the remaining defence and their utility.

Working out where best to use smokes, whether that’s to get an aggressive advantage or to play safe and slow down the Ts progression is entirely dependent on the round and team you’re against but you have to be able to adapt this aspect of your defence to put you in the best stead to win rounds. Again, flashes can be used to take early picks towards fountain or long but also if they’re a utility-heavy team, they’re probably best used to delay their site takes once they’ve deployed their attack.

Overall, I’d say A-site Overpass is one of the hardest sites to defend in the main map rotation, second only to A-site Train. Not enough emphasis on the importance of utility can be placed when it comes to holding off the Ts and teamwork is a must as without it, you create a weak link in a very small chain which can lead to complete annihilation.

Written by CGC ~ Specz

Member of the altGaming Community