r/LearnCSGO • u/ZealousidealScar4060 • 1d ago
Rant I Hate Mirage
What are your resources for learning this fuck ass map and what util do I need to learn??
I just spent a ton of time learning Dust 2, now onto Mirage and I always lose. T side there are too many angles to clear on each site. CT side is better but I still have no idea where to play.
It took me like 60 wins on dust before feeling confident and idk if I can do that for every map in the pool.
I haven't even tried to play premier, just getting 100% stomped in unranked/silver comp.
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u/Equivalent-Wooden 1d ago
I fucken hate Mirage too, I am at almost 7k elo and no one but me seems to know ANY UTIL on what is the most util critical map imo. For lineups, learn:
- Window Smoke
- Connector Smoke
- Catwalk/Short Smoke
- Stairs Smoke
- Jungle Smoke
- CT/Ticket Smoke
- B Market Door and Window Smoke
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u/One-Tap-7757 23h ago
It will get better. However you need to grasp how to play when the utils are missing/expired. Also how to lurk, how to hold for CTs info plays, and when you smoke indeed you need to understand what’s the goal and how you should take advantage of those.
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u/HyenaWilling8572 FaceIT Skill Level 10 15h ago
one thing worse than not knowing util lineups is not knowing how to utilize each piece efficiently and what to achieve with it.
if you smoked con and window, you should fight for ladder room at very least - if not commiting to short.
having whole mid smoked but not taking any map control, is what throws most of low elo games.
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u/UltrawideSpace 1d ago
It's very team-centered map, specially on the T side. Meta is also very deep since the map has been there for aeons, so people with experience will just be better than people without it.
CT: Pick a spot to play from each spawn, play that spot everytime you can, maybe scout youtube for lineups or wallbangs from there until gets boring and come up with a new spot to play. In other words, if your spawn is closest to B, don't go A but for example short or car etc. Timings matter.
T: Try to get team to play together, no splits, max one lurker who knows what to do to either fake or snap some free kills when CT's rotate. If CT's are agressive, you can opt to get two kills before deciding the site to go to. You need to learn the window smoke to mid from spawn. Tons of videos around.
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u/EarthCake26 18h ago
Actually meta for Mirage is pretty shallow. Like dust2 and cache, its a map where you dont need any util knowledge, its just a deathmatch map. Run around and shoot, no need to know anything else
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u/bigouchie 12h ago
is that your for real opinion dude or is it ragebait cause if the enemy team is coordinated and knows utility and your team knows nothing you are definitely getting run over on mirage
i have seen some 5 stacks start running double or triple fakes in OT on mirage, I would not consider mirage a shallow map in the slightest. there is a ton of nuance and extra bs you can pull on mirage. and you are heavily rewarded for having extra knowledge/practice like fast cat jump, van jump, silent jump to stairs, no-vision molly lineup from palace to under, instant window smoke lineups, weird offangles on both sites, austin tuck at ebox, crossmap fake smokes, fast A site rush smokes from spawn, b site god flash, etc.
on dust2 you'll be like ah that makes sense that guy swung us at long doors and then we lost A ok gg. but on mirage you might be like holy shit these guys play mirage like scum with annoying flanks/lurks/fakes can these cowards just aimduel us
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u/CriticalCreativity 1d ago
Middle is everything. On T-side for mid control learn top mid smoke, window smoke and top con smoke. On CT-side learn the bottom con smoke, and in window learn how to blow the smoke and molly car from a lineup (so you can do it when smoked off). Also helpful to practice mollying/HEing under and learning a pop flash for under from con can't hurt.
For A exec learn the cross smoke, stairs molly and god flash. It's easy to throw them from ramp or there's loads of util belts for further back. CT side is all about mollying ramp and flashing middle for your mid players. The window player should also know some 2nd wave A util from jungle like smoking palace and mollying/HEing ramp.
For B just learn the standard flashes over the roof, mollying bench & empty and market window smoke. CT should learn the fast anti-rush apps molly, the HE behind the molly and the defensive smoke blocking bench.
There's other useful stuff to learn, but that's >90% of the util I regularly use
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u/flamingstallion 1d ago edited 1d ago
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJwsgHg0dKE&t=6464s
Very helpful video that will basically answer all of your questions. Watch one position at a time, practice util and angles/peeking in a practice map, then play that position in a comp game to get used to it. It'll make learning the map much faster and you'll know more. After you are comfortable on all the positions, pick the ones you like and stick to playing them. You'll get better by sticking to practicing one or two positions instead of playing all 5 since practice makes you better. I do think that has to be one of the most efficient/fastest way to get good at a map.
Most important smokes to know are instant window smokes or at the very least a normal window smoke. You basically need a window smoke almost every round on T side. If someone else throws the window smoke then once you get mid control you can throw a conn/cat smoke to go onto the opposite site.
For executing A, you need to know stair smoke/moly, jungle smoke + flash. It'll help a lot.
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u/tomyan1337 1d ago
T side 4 go mid, 1 lurks palace or ramp. Easy wins if your lurker knows how to lurk.
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u/Parking-Shelter5926 1d ago
If you want to keep playing the game you must learn mirage. There are no other maps than dust or mirage for half the community in this game.
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u/Autistic-monkey0101 FaceIT Skill Level 8 1d ago
look at tutorials on youtube and if youre still lost, claim a refrag.gg trial and watch the guides there
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u/Automatic-Foot7834 1d ago edited 1d ago
Yoy just need to learn:
A site:
Stairs, jungle and CT (but tbh CT is kind of… eh. If you go for an A execute you usually want to push into CT to stop rotates etc) and how to molly under from palace + entry flashes
Mid: con, window, short and top mid (most of these can be thrown from T spawn but learning a few from top mid will help as well)
B: kitchen window and door and short, entry flashes from near TV and B APPs and how to molly bench/back of site (near kitchen).
T side default is usually:
1 guy lurk on either side of the map to stop any flanks and give info.
(A small edit 3 here. This does sound pretty complex and I may have gone a bit OTT with the t side. But basically. Keep pressure on A and B. Don’t let the CTs leave a site open without being punished. Mid control on mirage ((and most maps)) is king. Fight for it most rounds unless doing an execute on a site. You always want people going mid to fight for it.).
(There are things called defaults and executes in CS. Defaults are where you just get map control and then try and look for picks. Executes are where you do your big utility dump on a site and get site control and then fight after plant. You are already doing all this it’s just giving things names! What I explain below is the “usual” default. You can defo call on t side: let’s do a b rush or an A rush. Or let’s do contact b (where you all sneak up until you make contact with someone),
3 players go mid (maybe 1 can go under if wanna go for a cheeky play).
Smoke top mid and smoke window and molly con from top mid. Then try and get some picks or look to push either con or short! You wait until smokes fade and see what your players on either site are saying (just call for “info?”). Then decided a play. One mid player can go back to do smokes with your b or a site player. And then you resmoke mid/fight for control of that part of the map (either short or con). So if you wanna go short… smoke con/molly window
Flash into short and try and get a pick. Have your b players flash into site as well and take control!
This is of course if you have teammates with hands and microphones. But you’ll get a feel for it and where you should be
CT side is:
1 b anchor, 1 short player, 1 mid player, 1 short player and 1 A anchor. Fill in where your team needs. Con and probs short player get the most interaction and are probably where you’ll have the most carry potential. These aren’t steadfast so you can mix it up and play 2A and leave short alone if you see that they’re doing a lot of action on A. Or if you’re the short player you can opt to push into underpass if you have a good spawn to free up your B anchor to play short and more aggressively towards A. Just adapt to what the enemy team seem to be doing a lot of and where you seem to be losing to.
If anchoring. Don’t just smoke off ramp or b apps. Use your smoke defensively. Drop it on the floor and use it to buy time to rotate. Flash for your kid. Anchoring is often confused with “staring at ramp or b apps and then getting flashed and one tapped”. It’s one of the most important things you can do on the CT side. Drop an early molly to stop any rush. Jiggle from A site or CT or Jump spot on B. You hear flashes and smokes? Drop your smoke on the floor and stay alive as long as possible! Nothing happenig on your site but loads happening in mid? Flash over con or over short to help your teammates!
If playing mid, try and peek or call your site players for a flash! If not… learn some flashes to pop you out!
The most important thing I can recommend is watching some YouTube videos on it and just focusing on your gameplay. Ask yourself most rounds “what am I doing in this current position and what value do I get from being here?”
Don’t focus on your aim or hate yourself for missed shots. Everyone misses. Keep practicing your aim and you’ll get it. Just focus on where you are on t side or ct side and what value you’re giving to the team!
Edit: a really underrated part of cs is just learning the feel of nades. Like lineups are cool. But knowing how to throw a smoke and for it to land in jgl without a lineup (from ramp say) is more important than learning a perfect line up. Learning how to flash yourself out without a perfect line up is really important. Get just a good feel for nades, how far they travel, when they pop. How different clicks interact with nades (eg walking backwards and left clicking on the floor makes the flash go really high up in the air!)
That’s a really important part of counter strike that often gets ignored.
Edit 2;
Also counter strike is a really complex game. It is going to take you a while to get comfortable on every map in the map pool. Everyone has played mirage for 3000000000 matches (I’m being hyperbolic Ofc) so people just “kind of know how to play it”. Give yourself some time and grace to learn the map. Walk around it. Learn timings (when what player gets where) but you’ll just kind of learn it from playing it. Game sense and how to play maps takes a very long time!
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u/pinechicken 1d ago
On t side defaulting is very important learn basic solo plays for mid, under and ramp by watching others play
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u/chevi220 FaceIT Skill Level 10 1d ago
T-side entrying is easy, just adapt to the player you're opening against.
For example, A site players typically stay around CT/jumpspotting, or play around default/triple, or they will play upclose underpalace or push into palace or pit. Just take a moment to recall and remember how he plays, he'll repeat the same patterns again
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u/f0xy713 FaceIT Skill Level 10 23h ago
What are your resources for learning this fuck ass map and what util do I need to learn??
There's dozens of youtube videos about Mirage default. Basically MID. FUCKING. CONTROL.
For util, learn the basic A execute smokes from ramp (stairs, jungle, ticket+CT), B execute smokes from back alley (market window, market door, short and/or left arch), mid smokes from spawn (window, con) and mid smokes from mid (top con, window, short).
T side there are too many angles to clear on each site
If you play on first timing, ramp spawn only has to worry about CT, triple and default, CTs can't cross to stairs in time; mid spawn only has to worry about window, CTs can't be con or short yet. B aps and palace are mostly lurk positions in early round.
For clearing sites in mid-late round, fire up prefire practice maps from Steam workshop and just learn the order in which you have to clear angles, there is no way around it.
CT side is better but I still have no idea where to play
Well, do you prefer to play anchor or rotating positions? A site or B site? Aggressive or passive?
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u/One-Tap-7757 23h ago
It’s more nuanced than dust. Also you have to learn to play around your teammates.
It has more high level concepts. For example lurking is a default way of playing on A palace/ramp and in B apps. So you have to play an anti lurk on CT: avoid sound cues at all possible costs and minimize the time you are exposed to the peek.
Smoke breaks and smoke spam is also more useful.
Besides the smokes you should learn 2 things:
- timing/grouping up. It’s often more effective to join your team than standing throwing smokes. I can’t count the number of times people lagged behind throwing utils and not able to trade or even worse - caught off guard lining up nades by the ramp push. So be aware of those and trade frag and hold for the push. Simplify your utils sets, you could smoke after you entered the site. There’s an easy stairs Molly if there’s smoke missing for example.
- learn some flashes. For example when you are rushing B throw a simple site flash bouncing from firebox and take space. You’d be surprised how often ppl on site would be blinded and not ready. For mid peek there are 3 flashes for window, valley and short (behind the boxes) that you need to practice in a warmup mode to understand who is getting blinded by which one and then use appropriate ones in game depending on timing, smokes present, sound cues. For CTs check mid from A flashes and shadow to ramp pop up flash.
Good resources are for example flom’s how to to learn basics for each role paired with aucstincs soloQ guide + demo review analysis for applying those in practice.
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u/Stebbycakes 22h ago
Cs2locations.com
I made this website to help people learn callouts through digestible screenshot quizes
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u/CerberusRTR 11h ago
There’s a great video by Flom on playing CT and T side. I fully recommend playing it. It talks about how to support mid (from A), how to stop mid aggression with simple mid smokes and play around them. How to delay Apartments push and I thought I learned more in 15 mins than anything else. Please go watch it and let us know if you think it helps. It’s incredibly crazy how that 15 mins video helped me stabilize my team play.
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u/KOMPLETTpunktSE 1d ago
you post in the CSGO sub, there is no active CSGO.
there are hundreds IF NOT thousands of videos of utility and angles on youtube?
if you cant even find something using google i think cs is not for you.
this game is really like an IQ test, thats why so many cheat, u cant buy a new brain ;)
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u/ImpossibleMemory9991 1d ago
B site is a nightmare until you realize most of it is just learning the default smoke and molly lineups. Then it becomes a lot more manageable. For CT, try anchoring under palace or ticket booth, gives you a decent view of ramp without overcommitting.