The History of Inferno Banana Control

one of the most tactically refined areas in all of Counterstrike is banana on Inferno as the main Pathway to the B bomb site banana has been home to many new strategies over the years and if you look online there's no shortage of content on what the best tactics are to fight for banana control but how exactly did these Tactics come about what was the original thought process to create them so in this video we'll go through the history of infernal banana control and go step by step through its biggest tactical break do in the past decade I hope you enjoy let's first start with why having banana control is so important in the first place by capturing banana you get a certain Advantage depending on which side you're on as a CT controlling banana denies the T from hitting the B site allowing for a stronger defense to be made at a but as a t controlling banana creates a direct threat to the B site this forces the CTS to spread their defense between the two bomb sites making it easier for T's to attack either one one as Inferno has been played for over two decades across four major versions of Counterstrike we'll be focusing specifically on csgo for this video which dates back to 2012 there were two distinct versions of Inferno played in csgo's lifetime most players will be familiar with the most recent version that released in 2017 but there was also a prior version that came with the game's release in 2012 although there are notable differences in the geometry and the visuals between these two versions banana in particular has maintained the same general layout when we look on hltv the very first set of demos played on Inferno came from eswc 2012 cso's first big International Event back then it was common to see CTS leave banana entirely to the te's and simply defend from the bomb site this was because CT spawned further away from banana than the te's did which meant the te's gained more control first this fundamental idea gave rise to one of the earliest tactics for the CTS and that was to throw two two high explosive grenades down banana at the start of the round these H grenades were damaged te as they entered banana making them softer Targets this damage made it easier for CTS to hold if T's continued to progress but eswc 2012 was special that's because it was the first big land event where molotovs were allowed this did not sit well with players in teams because they thought molos were too overpowered as other competitions actually banned their usage they wanted eswc to do the same older versions of Counter Strike only contained HS flashes and smokes so molotovs brought a completely different Dynamic to the game nearly every team used molotovs on the CT side at this event it gave them the ability to break apart entire rushes and to flush out positions without having to clear them physically after the event the consensus was that it slowed the game down too much and that it was too much of a risk to go for any fast rushes this only confirmed what the players thought a couple weeks later valve adjusts the molotov the update makes Molotov spread less reduced the tagging when running through them and made them extinguishable by smokes molotovs continued to be allow in competitive play but its usage dropped significantly over the next few tournaments and actually declines to a point where they're nearly extinct with the clost at $850 it simply wasn't worthwhile relative to the other grenades going into 2013 Molotov fell out of favor but the Double H still remained a key part of how CTS handled banana they also figured out a way to throw the HS from the site uring they couldn't take damage from the te's but these nades alone weren't enough to fight for banana CTS needed something more whenever CTS pushed banana the main problem was that they had to deal with fighting multiple positions at once but the most common position was at the bottom of banana where the tea steps are this is where the smoke grenade comes in CTS have already been using smoke grenades to block this position but it normally came after already clearing banana they needed a way to smoke it before clearing it what was special about Inferno was that it was possible to throw grenades over the buildings this wasn't always the case on other Maps other Maps often had invisible walls called Sky boxes that would prevent such longdistance grenade throws for the next 8 months teams spent time searching for the smoke knowing that it would make the fight for banana much easier so by the time the first major around dream hack winter 2013 nearly every team has figured out a bottom banana smoke from CT spawn they were commonly thrown from two locations one was from beside the well and the other was closer to the arch side the smoke made it much easier for CS to push down and fight knowing that te's at the bottom of banana were smoked off by having this smoke it forced te's to make a decision either stay behind the smoke and give it up or go past it and attempt to fight the push if te's gave been up and allowed CTS to push up close this made it difficult to re-enter since CTS could be hiding in so many different positions with the discovery of the bottom banana smoke from CT spawn CTS now had a couple options they could fight using the HS using the botom banana smoke or even with both but te's realized that this smoke didn't prevent them from getting into good positions at Banana if they had the closest spawn they could actually slip into positions like the logs for cover the logs was a particularly good spot because having just one player there could derail the CT push to deal with this CT's brought something back from the dead molotovs Molotov have generally been disregarded as an option since the Nerf in late 2012 although still in the game CTS primarily stuck to using H grenades an update back in August 2013 reduced the prices of fire grenades allowing some teams to explore its usage complexity was one of the first teams to really try incorporate Molotov into their play at the first major they were the only team on the CT side that actually used more Molotov than H grenades at Banana as time went on more and more teams gave it a try CTS side Molotov usage at Banana steadily increased from event to event but it wasn't until esl1 colog 2014 where we really saw the effect that Molotov had these Molotov made it so much easier to grab banana control by either burning te's alive or by flushing them out into the open where CTS could capitalize by late 2014 Molotov became an important part of CT banana control among the top teams the combination of the bottom banana smoke along with the molotov made it difficult for te's to break initially te's tried to throw Molotov back but this wasn't enough on its own as smokes last longer than molotovs CTS could still take banana control it was now on the te's to come up with something of their own fundamentally the only way to counter a smoke in CS go is to find a way to see past it and at the bottom of banana there's a flower pot nearby this flower pot is short enough that players can jump on it the flower pot gives a bit of extra height but it's not wide enough to actually look at Banana this is where boosting comes into play boosting is the term used when one player jumps on top of the other player's head typically done to get a player onto an elevated position or to peek over a tall object boosting has existed for a very long time as early as the days of Cs .6 and in this case boosting is used to see over the banana smoke this is possible because the bottom player offers slightly more walkable ground for the top player to stand on this allows them to peek past the wall and actually see banana this boost was a great way to punish CTS pushing down banana even if CTS knew that it was happening the boosted player was hard to spot and because the Boost was further back behind the smoke T's were able to contest without facing the possible H's and Molotov the first time this boost was seen was in April 2014 during the sltv star series 9 Mel Sports were the first team to attempt it in an official as more and more teams started to adopt the Boost it became something that CTS had to expect if they were fighting for banana this prompted CTS to start leaning along the left wall to avoid being seen but they could still be seen if the bottom banana smoke landed too deep as a running throw it wasn't easy to get the smoke to land the exact same way every time time so a completely different approach was explored so far CTS have only used the Open Sky boxes to smoke the bottom of banana from CT spawn but much more was possible it was found that the Open Sky boxes actually allowed players at the arch side of a to throw smokes at B this gave a players the opportunity to help defend the B site by smoking the entrance at any point in the round the idea was that if te's were getting banana controlled despite the early grenades the re smokes from a would still make it hard to take the B site this led to a new strategy CTS thought what if we just smoked B for the entire round in 2015 Envy was a team that embraced this idea of giving up banana entirely and committed to remoking be as much as possible here's an example where the first two smokes come from the a side while the last two come from the B Defenders to make a total of four smokes at B this made it extremely hard for teas to push in because the cycling of smokes denied any clear openings in theory it was a great strategy but it was much harder to put in practice as a players often needed those smokes to defend against certain situations on their side of the map so team simply settled on using the smoke whenever it was convenient this idea of smoking the B entrance from a had been known about for a very long time one of the first people to throw a smoke from Arch to B was Angel all the way back at Copenhagen games 2013 the Open Sky boxes also allowed teams to throw what's known as the car smoke like the bottom banana smoke the smoke is thrown from CT spawn at the start of the realm the main difference was that it landed in front of the car which is much closer to CT's spawn this allowed CGS to hold the smoke in time making it impossible for chees to beat it with this control CS could then remoke it since the flower pot boost was so strong the idea behind the car smoke was to Simply ignore the rest of banana and focus only on the car area instead if C were forced back into the site then the re smoke storm a would become an option as the car smoke started becoming more popular some teams actually favored it over the bottom banana smoke resulting in a slight decline the idea behind simply holding car with the smoke was seen by a Nexus back in 2012 while the lineup from CT spawn was seen by 3D Max in early 2013 the combination of these ideas finally come together 3 years later this also created an opportunity for new plays at MLG Columbus 2016 we see a boost on car over the smoke aggressive this boost above the smoke oh oh he didn't quite see it now he took back and he's going to be carrying him with no idea he's there initially T stayed away from the car smoke but eventually they found ways around it either by using a flash to push through it or by using this pixel walk that existed in front of logs to spot over it but in April 2016 valve Mak the decision to remove Inferno from the active map pole leaving this match between vertis bro and na'vi as the last time we see this Inferno in tier one a year later valve unveiled the new version of Inferno and it returns into the active map Pool completely fresh with the number of changes the most impactful one is that the sky box has been adjusted no longer allowing CTS to smoke B site from other areas of the map common smokes like the bottom banana smoke and the car smoke are no longer possible from CG spawn and this also includes the smokes from the arch side dream hack Las Vegas 2017 starts as the first tier one tournament on the new version of Inferno although the bottom banana smoke couldn't be thrown from Spawn anymore the shortened wall near car made it easier to Simply throw it from the entrance CTS that threw a bottom banana smoke along with the molotovs would get banana with ease that's because what wasn't mentioned in the notes was that the flower pot at the bottom of banana was removed te's no longer had a way to counter the bottom banana smoke CTS also brought back the car smoke from the pre previous version although it couldn't be thrown from CT spawn anymore it was still possible from just outside B this smoke denied any possible rushes but it also gave them the flexibility to take banana after it faded if they El to use it the spray downs and the aggression that continues to put on to them it does it again it's a Molotov that burns them alive the Stacked Molotov the shorten wall mentioned earlier known as the half also made it possible to find kills by boosting but the half actually created an opportunity to use one of the most common positional tactics jump spotting jump spotting is the act of jumping to spot enemies rather than peeking in and out of cover jumping is much safer because the player reveals much less of themselves since jumping causes you to be inaccurate while shooting jump spawning is strictly done to gain information on what the enemy team might be doing as this mechanic was present on other maps for example beond Mirage teams used it right away but there was one team in particular that knew how to maximize the jump spot at the pgl crackl major in 2017 big was seen jump spotting at Banana like most other teams this wasn't uncommon the difference was that big found a way to do it without being seen if we look at both perspectives the CT can clearly see the T while the T cannot see the CT to pull it off they actually used an existing mechanic called The Silent jump the silent jump was a way to jump without being heard it involved crouching before jumping and then letting go of Crouch while in the air big discovered that silent jumping created a mismatch in what the player would see relative to their player model it turned out that the point of view was actually significantly higher than what their player model would suggest this allowed them to spot enemies without being seen giving them advantages in both fights and rotations this sparked huge controversy as there was debate on whether this exploit should be allowed teams gathered to talk about the best way forward admins made the official decision to to allow it but teams made gentleman's agreements not to use it after the major what's known as the big jump bug was patched no longer allowing players to use the exploit despite this CT still had a variety of approaches to fight banana while the t's with only the T car Molotov continued to struggle in the second half of 2017 this is when it all changed T's are finally able to find the necessary tools they first tackled the situation when CTS had already taken banana control usually once CTS take banana they leave a player at the car to hold be alone as this player was often jump spotting or oping te's needed a safe way to force them off the position that's where flashbangs come into play this flash known today as the window flash goes over the building and blinds any CTS in the upper portion of banana initially the flash was used as a way to regain banana control once CTS took it but over time T started using it at the start of rounds as a way to prevent CTS from peeking down banana this created an Avenue for te's to move up banana more safely the earliest versions of the window flash were thrown in early 2017 by Gambit and verus Pro as you might notice the lineup was actually quite different it was only as team started implementing jump throws that the actual window lineup was created the next issue that te's dealt with was that CTS liked using the car smoke to block them from pushing up the t's answer was to Simply wait for the smokes to fade in 2016 the round time was actually increased by 10 seconds for the purpose of making smoke grenades less effective this made waiting a viable strategy in addition if CTS actively held the car smoke T's had what's known as the half wall flash at their disposal this flash is thrown from the bottom of banana and Pops just over the half wall it's designed to Blind C's position at the entrance and the sandbags as the window Flash doesn't go far enough to reach them although a variation of The Flash was used in the old Inferno the new Inferno made it better te's could now stand much closer to the choke point while in the past they were further away the half wall flash was sometimes combined with the molotov making it difficult for CS to hold although the very first half wall flash was originally thrown by astrus North was actually the first team to use the flash more regularly before it started spreading to other teams both the window Flash and the half wall flash found their place in The Meta the window flash was useful for taking banana at the start as well as retaking it while the half wall flash created a way to pass through the car smoke causing CTS to actually re-evaluate its usage since the flower pot boost no longer existed holding only the top of car was no longer necessary but CTS needed more ways of fighting for banana although the method of using two molotovs with the bottom banana smoke was successful the issue was that molotovs were expensive with molotovs at $600 it wasn't always possible to buy them in situations when money was tight so CTS came up with something new it was actually back in May 2017 during the eepl season 5 finals where we saw what's widely known as the Fallen flash for the first time this flash is thrown from the CT spawn entrance of B and Pops just over the roof it blinds te's who are running up banana making it a great way for CTS to fight without needing molotovs the Fallen flash was simple cheap and effective by the end of 2017 teams caught on right away and now the fight for banana control was starting to get interesting at the start of 2018 te's made a new addition they started throwing what's known as The Fanatic smoke it was a rather interesting smoke because typically if te's through smokes they'd be to block the front of car but this smoke actually landed past the car the idea behind the fanatic smoke was to stop CTS from holding the car choke point from the top of banana the most common positions were the sandbags in the corner so the fanatic smoke landed past the car to block these positions while still leaving room for te's to push in this allowed teas to grab car control essentially uncontested as the name suggests fanatic were the first ones to use the smoke in late 2017 a few months later teams like verus Pro quickly added it to their playbook as a result The Fanatic smoke Rose to popularity it was an easy way to force CTS back into the site if they were playing banana passively however despite everything the te's have created so far they still haven't come up with an answer to the CT Molotov for The Last 5 Years ever since CT started using molotovs T's often took one or two choices either run through the fire ready to fight or simply avoid the fire and find the gaps where it isn't spreading but there is one option that hadn't been explored very much yet and that was to use smoke grenades to extinguish them the ab ability to extinguish molotovs has existed ever since the molotov Nerf all the way back in 2012 it was only now in 2018 6 years later that te started using the mechanic more proactively by extinguishing the early CT molotovs it gave space for te's to stay in banana if te's are rushing they often designated one player to run with their smoke out specifically to extinguish the incoming Molotov t- side extinguishes that banana began to rise by late 2018 it hit 12% and it may not sound like a lot but this used to only be 1% in the past using raw numbers in the second half of 2014 there was only one Molotov extinguished out of about 1300 while in the first half of 2018 there were 233 Molotov extinguished out of almost 2500 the extinguishes were a key breakthrough for both sides because it removed the idea that molotovs were hard barriers there was a way to pass through them as a result we saw newer tactics emerge especially but clown n they exploiting it and getting a great score line here res will drop the smoke and find the first kill that smoke is designed to extinguish whatever Molotov coming towards him it looked like he missed it almost but that's by Design I assure you by the second half of 2018 CTS were chaining these plays together here we see an example where the Fallen flash gets combined with extinguishing the car Molotov to get an opening kill this got the te's thinking the extinguishing mechanic has really only been used in one particular way a Molotov initially comes in and then the smoke is used to extinguish it but there's a bit more to this mechanic if you swap the order and have the smoke come first and then the molotov second the molotov is extinguished right away at Banana CTS often used molotovs for two spots the close half wall and at the broom so in September 2018 na'vi threw the very first pre-m smoke as planned when the broom Molotov came in it extinguished immediately by denying the motov it created space for teas to take position past the bottom banana smoke a few months later liquid came up with the second pre- smoke this targeted the close half wall Molotov as this Molotov was often used to prevent rushes pre-smoking it meant that te's no longer had to run with their smoke out as the CT Molotov had plagued the te's for so long the prokes finally put an end to it te's now had a way to maintain positioning at Banana so at the IM cadit 2019 major teams like G2 and MBR adopted the prokes creating opportunities to contest banana much more freely with the rise of prokes it was now on the CTS to find new ways of fighting back by 2019 te's have developed so many ways to take banana which often forc CTS back into the site as banana is such a vital area of the map finding a way to retake even part of banana became a priority this is when What's called the retake nades started to emerge the retake nades consists of a smoke for the half wall choke point and a Molotov for the car the smoke blocked off any standing further back while the molotov flushed out players next to the car the combination of grenades allowed CTS to recapture the top portion of banana the idea of re aggressing the top of banana has been around for a while one of the earliest versions of this idea was all the way back in 2012 where CTs would simply throw one Flash from spools to fight te's as they reached the top of banana later in 2017 it transformed into a handful of CT teams occasionally throwing molotovs from the site to push cheese away from banana it wasn't until now that players started combining the molotov with the smoke the smoke was the important piece because it allowed CTS to reposition anywhere within the car area forcing T's to reclear with the retake nades usage of The Fanatic smoke began to drop this is because the retake NES offered CTS a way to recapture the space that the fanatic smoke would take the first team to throw both the smoke and the molotov was G2 all the way back at eso1 colon 2018 but it wasn't until a full year later that it spread among other teams a separate meta developed around the retake nades as they became more common te's came up with ways to counter them te's initially thought to boost behind the half wall since the smoke didn't cover the entire entrance when CTS recognized that this was becoming a common counter they began throwing HS behind the half wall to prevent the Boost the t's adjusted rather than boost directly behind the half wall they decide to use the logs further back instead all this did was move the target CS then figured out a way to H stack the boost on logs it became a guessing game of which counters each team would use along with the retake nades CTS also found a new way to fight typically when CTS Peak down banana they extinguish the T car Molotov by either throwing the Smoke Off The Corner or by simply aiming at the fire directly CTS figured out a better way to do this what's known as the Furious smoke was brought to light at the top level the Furious smoke is thrown from the B side of CT spawn and lands just next to the car the smoke does two things it extinguishes the typical car Molotov and it leaves a gap on the for CGS to Peak banana but not only that the Gap was actually a oneway as the player next to the Smoke could see the player at the bottom of banana much more easily than the other way around the smoke was extremely powerful just the presence of the smoke alone made teas cautious of somebody peing although Furia made the smoke popular they weren't the first team seemed to use it in March 2019 it was actually complexity that used it at ECS season 7 about 6 days before Furia did with the newly found Furious smoke CTS now created an Avenue to directly punish te's using the pre- smokes by late 2020 it reached nearly full adoption among the top teams and the Furious smoke continued to dominate well into 2021 with the ability to go behind or in front of the smoke CTS were constantly catching te's off guard so in early 2022 teas made an adjustment teas began smoking the car choke point more frequently to deny these pushes having the smoke even if it wasn't perfect closed off the Gap in the Furious smoke to ensure that CGS couldn't Peak down as throwing the smoke freehand from the Bon banana wasn't always reliable set lineups became more popular set lineups for the T car smoke have existed even on the old INF fro back in 2012 but it was only now in 2022 where the smoke became necessary it didn't fully replace the molotov but throwing it more often discouraged CTS from peeking down banana and a side benefit was that it can be thrown alongside the typical car Molotov making it harder for CGS to commit as the tea car smoke became more popular It ultimately reduced usage of the Furious smoke if te's were smoking car then there was no use for CGS to be throwing the smoke the drop in usage then opened up a play for the te's work but like we shouldn't forget the fact that they struggled massively on their T side as well well they're anticipating banana from the look we got here be Z that rings out first he's had enough he's going to keep going through it he doesn't really care does he four here [Music] [Applause] again get him out of here this famous play from zyu at the Cs Summit in 2019 serves as the foundation for something that CTS still haven't been able to stop it's a jump on top of the logs by being on top of the logs te's are able to get a deep elevated angle on CTS coming into banana while also avoiding most commonly thrown CT molotovs but in 2022 this play has been elevated by one tweak a pre- smoke just before jumping up Molotov will still burn players Standing On Top of logs so the smoke removed that possibility the smoke created cover for the tea to fall back if necessary while also acting as a oneway this greatly enhanced the play making it extremely hard for CTS to fight banana this forced the CTS to come up with something new so in 2023 they came up with the mid banana smoke the mid banana smoke lands just next to logs the smoke goes high enough to prevent teas from peeking on the top locks and blocks out the potential one-ways that teas could have when throwing their own smoke since teas had developed ways to bypass the bottom banana utility having the smoke Land closer avoided all the possible positions that teas could be in this allowed CTS to fight on their own terms and once the smoke faded they had the option to throw a bottom banana smoke to take further control interestingly the smoke had actually been seen in the past in 2018 ghost gaming was the first team spotted using the smoke later in 2020 teams like North and big used it briefly but it still didn't spread to the other teams it was only as te's evolved their approach that the smoke finally became a main stay in 2023 but as teams discover ways around the mid banana smoke there's a big reset CS2 makes a full release in September 2023 with CS2 directly replacing CS go ESL Pro League season 18 finishes as the final tier one event and with the new game comes a new map with the launch of CS2 Inferno is one of two overhauled maps in the competitive pool the map comes with a massive visual update with one big change the sky boxes have opened up once again with the new changes the community was quick to find smoke lineups mostly revisiting the ones used in the older version back in 2012 to 2016 but the real test was whether or not we'd see usage in Pro play IM Sydney 2023 was the first Tier 1 tournament to Future CS2 as expected the bottom banana smoke from CT spawn makes the return the mid banana smoke also translates over but with a slight tweak with the Open Sky boxes it can now be thrown directly from CG spawn in terms of flashes the window flash half fall Flash and Fallen flash make the transition with slightly different lineups the retake nade still exists as an option for the CTS but something that no longer does is the Furious smoke in CS2 smoke Behavior was changed so players see them identically regardless of how they're positioned around them this meant that the one-way mechanic that made the smoke so strong in csgo is no longer possible in CS2 on the opposite side during the T car smoke using the set lineup is more difficult there's now a building that goes over banana from above making it harder to replicate but CS2 specifically has has brought something completely new and that's the ability to use AG grenades to break smokes temporarily in CS:GO we saw it took time for teams to wrap their heads around molotovs it took well over a year for teams to realize that using molotovs were effective and even longer to figure out denying them with smokes created more opportunities since the benefits around breaking smokes with HS are much more clear teams were quick to try the mechanic in various ways the most common was to break the bond of banana smoke but there are also other applications such as breaking the smoke when the retake nades came down as players continueed to explore the mechanic the possibilities seem endless with the full transition to CS2 we have to wonder what banana control might look like in a year or maybe even 5 years only time will tell but what the history of infernal banana control in csgo has really shown is that the meta and Counter Strike evolves with time when we look at how simple it used to be we can see exactly how each tactic layers on to the next when the map changes it's clear that we don't start from zero Z the previous learnings are used to lay the foundation so that new tactics can be built and with those new tactics we start re-evaluating what we thought was good before we test the boundaries of our knowledge and as we become more creative we might find something that shifts our approach as time goes on the meta only becomes more and more complex but how it's evolved in these past 10 years serves as an indicator as to just how far this game has come and Counter Strike 2 marks a new beginning in thank you guys so much for watching I'll see you guys next time

Channel: mahone_tv

Views: 358,153

Keywords: evolution of csgo, history of csgo, history of cs tactics, banana control evolution, inferno banana control, history of inferno banana control, csgo documentary, counter strike documentary, cs2 banana control, history of counter strike, mahone tv, mahone tv inferno, mahone tv history, mahone tv evolution, speedrunning history, counter strike tactics history, cs meta evolution

Id: vGtCJFSiSpE

Length: 31min 42sec (1902 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 24 2024