CS:GO - Dust 2 Short Control

Short control on Dust 2 is extremely important, as you can stop Counter-Terrorists from rotating around through mid, forcing them through CT spawn. You can also make sure you have control of a push from lower tunnels, and can also decide to either push up through short or wrap around with a couple of your team going long, and a couple of you going short for a push onto the site. Either way works, but short / mid control is extremely important. So, how can you take control of it easily?
Firstly, you’re going to want to smoke the map's most-difficult-to-smoke spot: xbox. While it may seem difficult, just knowing one way to smoke that box in the mid part of Dust 2 will help your team, no matter what rank or skill level you’re playing at. In the images I’m showing you below, you should be able to see where to line up when you reach the third lamppost shadow, and where you’re supposed to look when you throw the smoke as well. If the smoke is thrown correctly (I suggest trying this out on a local server, or through a private server you own for example) it should bounce off the roof to the right of mid, then bounce off a bit of the wall sticking out, and land gently onto xbox.

After that, you’re going to want to smoke off the mid doors, to encourage the CT to fall back or to not push through the doors. The reason you’ve smoked xbox is also because of the fact that a mid smoke (or a door smoke, depending on what you call it) is only going to partially cover your backside from a CT’s vision. The xbox smoke will completely stop a CT from seeing anyone push up short unless he pushes up through the mid doors to see your team pushing up, or unless someone comes up behind you through long. However, you should always have a team mate watching for any pushes or CT advances from different areas, otherwise your setup could be completely ruined.

As seen in the image below, if you throw the flashbang seen correctly, you’re going to be popflashing the enemy team that are holding from the angle at stairs / catwalk. This is a great popflash, since there’s almost no time to react, hence the name, and it’s extremely simple to throw. Just look a little bit right from the top of the window (as shown below) and just simply left click throw the flashbang. Make sure to inform your team first though, otherwise you’re probably going to end up team flashing them, and that’s probably going to end up doing more harm than good, and wasting a flashbang. Once you’ve done this, you should be able to make the push onto site, or at least use it as some sort of fake and work your way around and through under lower tunnels up onto B. Just because you’ve got mid control doesn’t mean you have to push all the way up short onto A site, work with what you’ve got and be creative.

With this information, you should be able to take control of mid a whole lot easier. If you want to keep control of this, you’re going to probably want to re-smoke doors, and watch out for any pushes as you decide what tactic you’re going to go through with: pushing up short, pushing up lower tunnels to B, or just going straight through mid after your smoke fades, clearing CT and making your way up onto B. The choice is yours, and that’s why mid control is so powerful. Being able to go where you want is a key part of mid control!
The ease of access to all the different sites is the one reason you need to know this basic information. Knowing how to take control of mid makes your team's life a whole lot easier, as you’re going to open up every different area you can to be able to take whichever site you wish. The enemy team, unless they push for information from any end, are going to have a hard time deciphering where you’re going to go, what you’re going to do, and what setup to have. If your team has full mid control, you’re faking flashes over short whilst your other team mate has smoked off CT, you’re going to end up confusing the enemy, and having a fairly easy time on B due to the fakes causing a rotation.

James Broughton