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Reference

CS2 Glossary — 54 Counter-Strike 2 Terms Defined

Every term used in professional Counter-Strike 2 — statistics, team roles, tournament structure, economy, utility, ranked modes, betting terminology and analysis vocabulary — explained in plain English. Each entry is structured as a direct answer so search engines and AI assistants can cite the definition cleanly.

Player statistics

6 terms
ADR Average Damage per Round ADR (Average Damage per Round) is the average amount of damage a player deals per round in Counter-Strike 2. At the professional… HLTV 2.0 rating HLTV Rating 2.0 HLTV 2.0 rating is a composite performance score where 1.00 is average for a pro match, 1.10+ is strong, 1.15+ is elite,… Impact rating Impact rating (HLTV) Impact rating measures how often a player's kills actually shift the round — e.g. opening picks, clutches, anti-ecos that prevent economy damage.… KAST Kill, Assist, Survive or Trade KAST is the percentage of rounds in which a player got a Kill, Assist, Survived, or was Traded. Above 70% is consistent… K/D Kill/Death ratio K/D is total kills divided by total deaths. In pro play, 1.00 is balanced, 1.10+ is strong, and 1.20+ puts a player… Opening duel The opening duel is the first kill of a round. Winning opening duels converts to roughly 70%+ round wins for the winning…

Team roles

6 terms
AWPer AWPer (Arctic Warfare Police wielder) An AWPer is the player who carries the AWP — the high-damage sniper rifle — as their primary weapon. AWPers anchor map… Entry fragger An entry fragger is the player who enters bombsites first on T-side and opens duels for the team. They trade short-term survival… IGL In-Game Leader The IGL (In-Game Leader) is the player who calls mid-round decisions and sets strategy. Their individual frag output is often lower than… Lurker A lurker is the player who plays away from their team's main push, gathering information and threatening rotations from behind. They often… Rifler A rifler is a player whose primary weapon is a rifle (AK-47 on T-side, M4A4/M4A1-S on CT-side). Most CS2 team rosters have… Support Support role A support player throws utility (flashes, smokes, molotovs), trades kills for the entry fragger, and sacrifices their individual stats to enable teammates'…

Match format & rules

7 terms
Bo3 Best-of-3 Bo3 ("best of three") is a match format where teams play up to three maps, with the first team to win two… Bo5 Best-of-5 Bo5 ("best of five") is a match format used almost exclusively for grand finals, where teams play up to five maps and… Map pool Active duty map pool The active duty pool is the set of 7 maps currently used in Tier-1 tournament play. Valve updates it periodically (roughly every… Map veto Map veto / pick-ban phase Map veto is the pre-match pick/ban phase where teams alternately remove and pick maps from the active pool until the match's maps… MR12 Max Rounds 12 MR12 is the current competitive format in CS2: each half has 12 rounds, the first team to 13 rounds wins, and overtime… MR15 Max Rounds 15 (legacy) MR15 was the CS:GO competitive format: each half had 15 rounds, first to 16 won, and OT was MR3. CS2 replaced it… Overtime If a map is tied 12-12 at the end of regulation, it goes into overtime: a first-to-4-rounds-wins format played as MR3 (3…

Economy & rounds

6 terms
Anti-eco Anti-economy round An anti-eco is the opposite side of an eco — when one team knows the other is saving, they buy cheaply (armor… Eco round Economy round An eco round is when a team saves their money rather than full-buying, spending little or nothing on weapons and utility. Teams… Force buy A force buy is when a team spends their limited money (often after losing a round) to buy partial equipment — usually… Full buy Full buy round A full buy is a round where all five players have rifles, armor, a helmet and full utility — typically $4,500–$5,000 per… Loss bonus The loss bonus is the consolation money a team gets after losing a round, ranging from $1,400 to $3,400 depending on how… SMG Submachine gun SMGs are secondary primary weapons (MAC-10, MP9, MP7, UMP-45, P90) used primarily on anti-eco and force-buy rounds. They kill bonus is $600…

Utility & weapons

4 terms
Flashbang Flashbang grenade A flashbang is a $200 grenade that temporarily blinds anyone looking at it. Teams use flashes to disable defenders on execute pushes… HE grenade High-Explosive grenade The HE (High-Explosive) is a $300 fragmentation grenade that deals up to 98 damage. HEs are used to soften up stacked defenders… Molotov Molotov (Incendiary) grenade A molotov (T-side) or incendiary (CT-side) is a fire grenade that covers ground in flames for several seconds, dealing damage to anyone… Smoke Smoke grenade A smoke grenade is a $300 grenade that blocks line of sight for 18 seconds. Smokes are the primary tool for denying…

In-round situations

4 terms
Clutch Clutch situation (1vX) A clutch is when one player remains alive against multiple opponents and wins the round. 1v3 and 1v4 clutch wins are rare,… Pistol round Pistol rounds are rounds 1 and 13 (first round of each half) where all players start with $800 and only pistols. Pistol… Post-plant Post-plant situation Post-plant refers to the round state after the bomb has been planted. The T's hold crossfires to deny defuse while the CT's… Retake A retake is when the CT side pushes back onto a bombsite after the bomb has been planted. CTs must kill all…

Ranked & matchmaking

3 terms
ESEA ESEA League ESEA is a subscription-based CS2 league that runs a tiered season system (Advanced, Main, Intermediate, etc.). Top teams in the highest tier… Faceit Faceit (third-party matchmaking) Faceit is a third-party matchmaking service that hosts CS2 pugs (pickup games) on dedicated 128-tick servers. It's used by semi-pro and amateur… CS2 Premier CS2 Premier Mode Premier is CS2's competitive matchmaking mode that uses a numeric rating (0 to 30,000+) instead of the old 18-tier ranks from CS:GO.…

Tournament structure

4 terms
Legend Legend status Legend status is the qualifying tag given to teams that finish in the top 8 of a Major. Legends automatically qualify for… CS2 Major Valve-sponsored Major Championship A Valve Major is the highest-prestige tournament in CS2 — a twice-yearly championship event with a guaranteed minimum $1.25M prize pool, Legends/Challengers… RMR Regional Major Ranking RMR (Regional Major Ranking) is the qualification circuit that determines which non-Legend teams earn Major slots. Each region runs its own qualifier… Tier Tournament tier Tournament tiers classify CS2 events by prize pool, team quality and prestige. Tier-1 (Majors, IEM Katowice, BLAST Fall Final) has $500K+ prize…

Betting terminology

12 terms
Closing line Closing line (CLV) The closing line is the final odds when a market closes (at match start). Beating the closing line over time is the… CPA Cost Per Acquisition CPA is a flat-fee affiliate commission paid per qualifying new player. Typical CS2 betting CPAs range from $50 to $500+ depending on… FTD First Time Depositor An FTD (First Time Depositor) is a new player who has just made their first real-money deposit at a sportsbook. FTDs are… GGR Gross Gaming Revenue GGR (Gross Gaming Revenue) is the total amount wagered minus the total amount paid out to winners, before any fees, taxes or… Hybrid deal Hybrid affiliate deal A hybrid deal combines CPA + revenue share: the affiliate earns a flat fee per new depositor AND a share of their… Map handicap Map handicap betting market A map handicap gives one team a virtual map advantage in a Bo3 or Bo5 series. +1.5 maps means the team wins… Moneyline Moneyline (match winner) bet Moneyline is the simplest CS2 bet: you pick which team wins the match. No handicap, no round spread. Odds reflect the market's… NGR Net Gaming Revenue NGR (Net Gaming Revenue) is GGR minus bonuses, fees, and chargebacks. It's the revenue the operator keeps after removing promotional costs, and… Odds Betting odds Odds express the price of a bet. Decimal odds of 2.00 mean a $1 bet returns $2 total ($1 profit); 1.50 means… Prop bet Proposition bet A prop bet is a wager on a specific in-match event rather than the final outcome — e.g. "will the match go… Revenue share Revenue share (revshare) Revenue share is an affiliate commission model where the affiliate earns a percentage (typically 20%–40%) of the NGR generated by their referred… Round handicap Round handicap / spread A round handicap is a spread bet on the number of rounds a team wins or loses by, within a single map.…

Analysis & review

2 terms
Demo Match demo file A demo is a recording of a CS2 match that can be replayed in the game client. Pros review demos to study… VOD review VOD review is the practice of studying broadcast VODs (Video on Demand recordings of pro matches) to improve tactical understanding. Combined with…

Why does CS2 have its own vocabulary?

Counter-Strike picked up its working vocabulary across 25 years of competition — some terms come from early 1.6 pro play, some from CS:GO, and some are new to CS2's economy and format. A broadcaster saying "MAC-10 anti-eco into a 4-on-3 post-plant" packs a lot of meaning into seven words. This glossary translates every term we use in our match coverage, predictions and betting guides back to plain English, with enough context to make the concept stick.

The glossary is also structured as machine-readable DefinedTerm schema so search engines and AI assistants can cite individual definitions. When you ask Google or ChatGPT "what is KAST in CS2", the answer increasingly comes from pages structured this way.

How we wrote these definitions

Each entry starts with a 30–60 word direct answer — deliberately short enough to be quoted whole by AI systems — followed by a 200–400 word expansion with historical context, current usage, and typical benchmarks. Where a term has a measured threshold (e.g. "elite ADR is 90+"), we state the number so that bettors and fantasy players reading the entry get an immediate reference point. Every definition has been reviewed by at least one of our three credited editors; disagreements are logged on the corrections page.

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