The ultimate decider, Inferno has delivered some of the most thrilling finales competitive CS:GO has ever seen. One of the best-designed maps in the entire Esports world, Inferno is a relatively easy-to-understand pick but comes with one of the biggest strat books for callers to feast upon. It has consistently been one of the most balanced picks and remains the second-most played map in official events with over 18,000 matches taking place since its initial entry in Global Offensive. To help you get ahead of the competition in your next matchmaking adventure, here are Gamelevate’s top three tips you need for impressing on Inferno.
At A Glance: Inferno By The Numbers
Times Played: 18,620
Round Win Percentage: 49.9% CT / 50.1% T
Pistol Win Percentage: 46.2% CT / 53.8 T
Top Player: ZywOo – 1.28 Rating (177 Maps)
Top Team: Team Vitality – 1.06 Rating (138 Maps)
The A Site
Inferno’s A site can be a seriously tough nut for Ts to assault, with all of its tucked away spots and hard to clear spots for CTs to settle in. Player advantage or parity is absolutely key in unlocking the site, and logically breaking down the likeliest spots the defenders can be is also a crucial factor in mounting an attack.
Strong utility usage is essential in finding the opening frags to successfully make it onto the site. Coming up through mid, Ts have the option of either going right to Short or left to Long. If choosing to go right, a molotov on to Pit and a smoke a little bit shallower is generally a good go-to for obscuring CT vision, whereas opting for Long requires a much faster approach centered around getting on to the site as quickly as possible.
There’s also the option of hitting the A site through Appartments and out through Balcony for the Ts, but the narrow hallway and sudden exposure from Pit and the site mean that some seriously quick reactions and good teamwork are usually required to make this option a success.
Playing as a CT on A site is all about being aware that there is always cover available, and having the movement skills to maintain the spacial advantage. As we mentioned above, Ts need their utility to crack open the A site, so defenders will often move off a position and play more passively than on other maps. If you have the teammates available, rotate away into another one of the strong defensive positions on the site, feedback on the information, and wait for the reinforcements to come through.
The B Site
Thanks to the ridiculously tight approach of Banana the ‘rush B’ meme isn’t much good on Inferno. The only way into the B site, taking Banana as a T is once again all about strategic and calculated utility usage. For starters, make sure teammates are as spaced apart as possible as lining up in a straight line on such a narrow straight is essentially asking for a quick CT spray down.
A good option for Ts is a molotov to force the rotation off Barrels, a smoke on the CT pathway, and then a flurry of flashes for the final push onto the site.
For CTs defending the B bombsite, the biggest way to lose the natural advantage Banana has for defending is being too greedy. Hanging around Barrels is undoubtedly the biggest error we’ve seen from defenders looking to pick up some early frags.
Nade stacking the bottom of Banana is a good option for CTs to find that crucial opening kill in a round, and defenders should always be eager to pick up as much intel as they can from the position as rotations from B to A pushes are extremely common on Inferno.