Is the ‘support player’ a myth in CS:GO?

So, support players. Where to start? In so many esport titles, particularly MOBAS, the ‘support player’ is explicit. As such, the term has carried over to Counter-Strike, usually to denote a player whose role is to create space, to have worse weaponry, or anchor low-action spots such as B on Mirage.

Yet there has been backlash to the use of this term. Traditionally, the ‘support player’ is a less skilled individual, leading to claims that it is used as a cover for bad players to justify their poor fragging. Others, including coaches and players, believe that every role has ‘supportive’ elements, and disagreeing with the implication that helping your teammates is the ‘role’ of one player.

This ambiguity was made even more apparent when TACO dropped this bombshell in late 2016:

Coldzera, the best player in the world at the time, was SK’s support player. But is this really such an oxymoron? The notion that ‘support’ implies the worst player on any team is broadly a construction; it is logical to have the best player on your team have the best weaponry and support through flashes, so it is rare for your best player to be the one throwing the flashes, or dropping the weapons.

Counter-Strike, however, is a nuanced esport. On the T side, in a strict default, there are five roles: entry, 2nd entry, AWPer, half-lurk, full-lurk. To give an example, on Overpass you might see a full-lurker covering monster, half-lurk in connector, with the rest of the team formin an ‘entry pack’, taking toilets control. Note that this can change from map to map with the same roster, and that none of the five are termed ‘support’ — TACO might ‘support’ from entry, Skadoodle from AWP and Xyp9x from passively lurking.

Every player has supportive elements in modern CS:GO, but when I think of ‘support player’ I think of two main distinctions — the aggressive, and the passive.

The Entry-Fragger Support

For the first ‘type’ of support player, I have chosen the entry fragger. This type of support is based on a different Brazilian player: TACO. Bear in mind this is a gross oversimplification, but this type of support will generally have the worst CT spots on every map, often anchoring the smaller site and often on their own. On T side, they will be the first in on every set piece.

Often, they will entry before smokes are even thrown to force CTs to look at them so they are blinded once the real execute arrives. Their life is attributed less value than the rest of the team.

Entry fragging itself does not have to be a supportive role, but I am describing the specific role of bait-entry. You might think of peak fer, or k0nfig. But fer had TACO going in first, and k0nfig had MSL. It is rare a pure entry — someone who goes in first every time — is not termed a ‘support player’. But that does not mean it is impossible to frag; the likes of RUSH or APEX still take over games where it is not obvious how much they are sacrificing by going in first.

Entry fragging is something that is broadly dependant on the opposition: you have your path, they have their spots. If you look in the wrong direction, there is nothing you can do, no matter how good your aim is. But there are occasions where everything goes right, and if RUSH is dropping 20 kills on a T side via incredible entry fragging, is he still a support player?

I would argue yes; we have seen very few players achieve consistency while entry fragging. Fer and Yekindar are incredibly aggressive, and are often (but not as consistently as RUSH) first into a site. But there are not many other examples of entry fraggers becoming top 5 players in the world, and Yekindar has yet to play the same style to such effect at LAN.

The goal of this type of entry fragging is not to get the entry frag — it is to create space for your team. If you are first into a site and you start shoulder peeking angles you have not entried correctly. The reality for the likes of RUSH and TACO is that T sides become incredibly difficult to even find 50–50 aimduels, let alone win them.

This type of support player is less contentious, so I do not want to dwell on it. There are variations — Tarik often goes in first in 5-man set pieces for Evil Geniuses, but he is also the ‘1’ in a 4–1 site take quite a lot and has to lurk passively on some defaults. Often, these supports are IGLs- think Karrigan or MSL. However, most people worth their salt would not bother arguing that RUSH or TACO are not support players. The next category is far more controversial.

The Passive Support

Like RUSH and TACO, the passive support’s CT roles are rarely high-action spots but the difference in style between these players becomes obvious on T-side. Rather than going in first and following a pre-planned path that gives the most space for the star players coming in behind him, passive support players like Xyp9x are often at the back of executes with Dupreeh and Gla1ve taking up the mantle of entry fragging. His role on T side is to stay alive without sacrificing map control, and to throw supportive nades to enable his teammates’ fragging.

That this means he rarely dies early in a round is a deliberate development: Xyp9x is one of the most gifted clutch players in history, so naturally his teams want him to be alive in the late round. This has led to allegations of him ‘baiting’ from some of the more questionable sections of CS:GO Twitter — a claim often levelled at Coldzera too.

And this is the comparison I want to make. Xyp9x is probably the pre-eminent ‘support player’, but his T side role is eerily similar to the star baiter Coldzera. Both players often take up that ‘passive lurk’ role on defaults, are tasked with throwing the supportive flashes in executes and are set up to be in alive in post-plants. This can be seen as baiting — but it is not like they are hiding and waiting for their team to die. They are always helping their team even if it is not obvious, through flashes or controlling part of the map, and sometimes it is obvious: winning several 1vXs a map is clearly valuable.

So why do the two players have such different perceptions? Is it the CT spots that distinguish the Dane as a support, such as his anchoring of B on Mirage compared to Coldzera’s much more active prowling on Short? Is it the difference in team-structure, with FalleN’s ability to AWP meaning someone else has to do the traditional supportive role of an IGL?

A more simple answer might simply be their stats; Xyp9x rarely top-frags from his T-side role, but Coldzera, at his peak, did so most games. Of course, to call Coldzera a support player is hyperbole; any rational viewer would see that TACO, and even FNX, sacrificed far more than peak Coldzera. Perhaps a more fair comparison would be Valde — who up until recently played anchor roles comparable to Xyp9x, but maintained the fragging of a star player.

But his role did resemble conventional support players, which raises an important point: do we define support players by what their teammates say, what analysts say, or by what they actually do in game?

In all honesty, nobody can answer that question. The nature of defining anything is that it is subjective. And, in my opinion, that is the beauty of CS:GO; you are not playing a character or hero that pre-ordains your role. Roles can change between maps and even during games based on individual feeling and the same word can denote several different functions.

Coldzera is not a support player in the traditional sense, but he was in SK’s personal definition. Every player has supportive elements; AWPers are often tasked with throwing nades in site takes since it is difficult to entry with the sniper, but they also have a gun worth $4750. A functional counter-strike team has to be balanced with aggression and passivity, and how you achieve that balance can vary greatly from team to team.

So is the ‘support player’ a myth? Maybe, insofar as there is no one definiton, but that does not really matter. Most professionals believe in support players when they build a team; whether that is an entry/support like RUSH, or a passive one like Xyp9x, every team needs a player that is selfless for the best of the team.

All definitions are constructs to aid understanding. A new player understands that when we call Xyp9x a support player, he is sacrificing something to aid the star players in his team. Xyp9x and Coldzera sacrifice gunfights during executes and risky plays in the mid-round. RUSH’s role is to create space and be traded — not to frag himself.

Both styles are support players but both styles can still top-frag. CS:GO is complicated, and the use of the term ‘support player’ is a useful way to simplify it. It is an inoffensive way to denote players, the same as any ‘role’. Fallen is the IGL of Liquid, but that does not mean he makes every call; Stewie2k and Elige frequently chip in. Roles are dynamic between games and maps (and this will only become more apparent as 6 man rosters become more common) but that does not mean they are useless terms.

It is true that there is a correlation between support players and weak fraggers. But the term ‘weak fragger’ is even more misleading than ‘support players’ — the likes of Stewie2K and Xyp9x used to be star players, but sacrifice their stats since they recognise their teammates have higher ceilings.

If you swap the roles of RUSH and Autimatic in the major winning Cloud9 team, I am of no doubt Autimatic would have worse stats than RUSH. But both players would be providing less value to their team than if they were in their previous roles; Autimatic might be too passive on his entry paths, and RUSH may lose fights Autimatic wouldn’t.

The art of a support player may be less obvious to new viewers, but it is still there — timing flashes, learning specific entry pathing or movement to give the star players behind you more time to secure the kill and so on.

You may be unconvinced: it is obviously easier to learn this than to become as skilled as s1mple overnight. But next time you criticise a support player’s stats, remember that PUG you played where someone was ‘baiting’ or ‘took your spot’ and how badly you played.

Counter-Strike does not have explicit roles or characters you pick at the start of the match but they are implicit in every match, from MG2 matchmaking to the best professional teams in the world.

And those implicit roles include support players.