Welcome to Booster Shot! This article is the first installment in what (I hope) will be a regular feature on Esports Edition. It’s going to be pretty great.
“But Josh,” you say, “what’s the article series actually going to be about?”
“Aha!” I respond. “The title is a joke, you see–there are booster shots for like, vaccines. But then you can also do boosts in CS:GO. So, you know…”
“Isn’t there a simpler way to say that?”
No. There isn’t. But hey, whatever–your narrative voice doesn’t belong in my article. Let’s move on to these sweet, sweet boosts.
Dust 2
Long House, Long Con
Alright, first things first. Grab a teammate and post up on the T side of Long House, near the barrel that’s directly to the right of T Spawn. Look, I even included a picture! You’re welcome.
Now, your teammate is going to jump up on top of the barrel, and scoot forwards a little bit. Then, you do the part of the boost that makes it a boost: you get on top of his head. Pretty basic stuff.
The end result? See for yourself below. You get a dirty angle on any player who’s exiting Long House–if someone pushes, there’s no way that they’re going to be looking for this position. You’re also quite hard/borderline impossible to spot.
This particular boost is useful in two scenarios. On CT side, it’s a boost that you can use to try and snag an exit kill or two after making the save call on an A retake. It’s most common for players on the T side to survive the bomb explosion by sitting in Pit, so it’s up to the other team to make the mistake and go frag hunting. If it’s a 5 v 2 or a 4 v 2, it’s far more likely for the Ts to search for exit frags to damage your economy, so the boost is most useful in these scenarios.
On T side, you can use this boost if the other team has a habit of pushing Long House. The drawback is that it’s a heavily committed position–on a map like Dust 2, having two players committed to a boost for the first 45 – 50 seconds of a round limits your aggressive picking options. The boost is essentially a glorified two-man lurk, but there’s nothing wrong with that if it’ll let you get the opening pick or catch off a rotating CT when you already have an advantage. Protip: CTs will be even more likely to push Long House if they think your team is setting up for a B take.
Cache
“ur trash kiddo”
It’s funny–nobody really knows what to call this room on de_cache. I’ve heard it referred to as “Dumpster,” “Trash,” and, of course, “THEY’RE PUSHING B THEY’RE PUSHING B.” Anyways, you’re going to grab your friendliest teammate and book it over to the little connector between B Halls and Mid Garage. After you walk through the entrance, go directly to your left. One person (Person #1) crouches underneath the little ledge above the top of the door, and the other person (Person #2) jumps on top of them. Person #2 takes a jump so that Person #1 can stand all the way up, and then Person #2 crouch-jumps onto the ledge. Person #1 is then free to go–how considerate.
From here, you can take another equally nasty and unexpected angle. Check it out for yourself below–I’ve laid out all of the steps involved in the boost, as well as included a screenshot that shows how player visibility functions in this position.
This boost has absolutely no practical applications for players on the CT side, outside of useless, arbitrary, and hypothetical scenarios that you, dear reader, are probably thinking up right now. It is a reactive boost that the Terrorist side can use to effectively curtail CT aggression. Just like how the boost outside of Long House should be used when the CTs have pushed Long numerous times, this boost should be used when the CT side has shown a tendency to push Long. If you’re willing to commit someone to a hard lurk in this position, it can be very effective if you choose to execute onto A site–most CTs will push through the Mid Garage from B Halls as taking the long route through T spawn is basically pointless.
So, there you have it! The first installment of Booster Shot. What a journey we took together, dear reader. And don’t worry–I’ll be back with more boosts next week.
Special thanks to b_corner for his assistance with preparing this article.