Counter-Strike is an interesting thing because it’s actually harder than you might think to pin down exactly what it is that makes things really “CS”. It’s some mixture of weaponry and the style of aiming and something with the economy too. All these elements have to be put together in the right mixture.
We also need a map to play on and, as it turns out, not just any old map will do. In this article, I’ll try and explain how I think about maps and why we only really have a few archetypes to build on.
The Philosophy of a CS Map
The CS mapping community, which never really gets enough credit in my opinion, has their own version of what a map is that differs a bit from mine. I think this is because they look at maps in a more functionality-driven way, whereas my interests are more philosophical.
Is cs_office a Counter-Strike map? Obviously yes, but not in the way that we think of it when we’re playing a competitive game. Those maps are different because they follow a simple law that can be broken, I think, only in one way.
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The Evolution of Map Design
What is interesting is that this map style wasn’t so much invented as it basically evolved over time. To try and illustrate what I mean, let’s look at the overviews of Dust and Dust2:
There are lots of interesting things to notice, but the main thing is that while Dust has only two pathways from T to CT side, Dust2 has three. This one difference basically made one suitable for competitive play, and the other not.
The Mathematics of Lanes
In CS we play 5v5, and with only two pathways through the map, there really isn’t much of a challenge for the defense in how to set up. You’ll always end up with 2 defending one lane and 3 in the other. But in maps with three “lanes”, you get a different effect. The defense now has to make harder choices, and to really be in the best possible position you need to proactively move the defense around. This opens up a whole new dimension of the game.
Shortcuts — The Heart of Map Flow
There is one more thing that makes three-laned maps playable, and I call them shortcuts. Shortcuts are what takes you from the A-lane or B-lane to the middle of the map, without having to go through T spawn.
On Dust2 these would be the upper-dark to lower-dark to mid positions and again from mid to A through the catwalk. Without these, players would have to travel back through T spawn to switch strategy — making fakes or quick rotations nearly impossible. The length of the lanes or the shortcuts can vary a lot, which is why all maps don’t look exactly the same. But on the whole, this is the structure of competitive CS maps.
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The Flexible Blueprint
Once you’ve admired my impressive paint skills, I think you should be able to see what this looks like in diagram form.
The rules here are flexible: if you want a shortcut to go directly to a bombsite, you can. If you want it to connect to a lane instead, that works too — but fundamentally, all CS map design fits within these relatively easy-to-comprehend rules.
Breaking the Rules — Nuke and Vertigo
Already I hear the cries from the people in the comments section saying, “Oh, but what about Nuke or Vertigo?”
If you remember at the beginning, I said there is one way to break the rules — or at least bend them beyond recognition. That way is to put the two bombsites on top of each other.
Vertigo isn’t even really doing this because both bombsites are on the upper layer, meaning technically there isn’t much reason for Vertigo to be double-layered at all.
But Nuke is unique. Nuke is what would happen if you installed a teleporter on Dust2, allowing both Ts and CTs to instantly move from one site to the other. On Nuke, the shortcut is obviously the vents leading from A to B. Without this, the map immediately becomes unplayable competitively.
The Importance of Shortcuts on Inferno
Here’s an overview of Inferno that I somewhat expertly “photoshopped” to remove the passages from A aps to mid or from mid to banana. Imagine what would happen in this version if you saw any Ts towards the A aps, knowing that their travel time back to B would take upwards of 30 seconds. No amount of faking A would keep the CTs stuck for that long.
What you might notice too is that the “shortcut” from mid to banana — what we normally call “mid” — is actually just the part leading from T ramp to top mid. Without it, the Ts would have to travel all the way back to T spawn to switch sides.
Why It All Matters
This matters because the kinds of tactical choices you can make on a map like Inferno depend on the travel times for the Ts to get from A to B or vice versa. Specifically, what’s important is the ability for Ts to move from Banana to top mid faster than the CTs can get from B to Arch. If this timing doesn’t work in favor of the Ts, then the mindgames that make CS strategy so rich stop making sense altogether.
The Essence of Counter-Strike Maps
Next time you’re watching a game of Counter-Strike, try to look for the rules outlined here. Once you see how the shortcuts and lanes layout plays out across the various maps, it becomes much more obvious how the maps fundamentally work. The timings between these elements are what make one map feel different from another — and what allows for the kind of strategic depth we all love.
Closing Thoughts
Before we wrap up, I also want to open the door to any and all feedback or criticism on this theory of mine. I’ve spent many years thinking about all of this, but if you can find a way to kill this idea, I am more than happy to hear it. I hope I’ve brought you a step closer to understanding what a CS map really is.
