Roles and understanding those roles is one of the most important parts of being a great Counter-Strike 2 player. There are many roles in the game, such as anchor, support, AWPer, entry, and IGL, but today we’d like to focus on another role – the lurker.

One of the most impactful roles in the game, lurkers can flip a round on its head and steal key moments away from an enemy team. Therefore, playing the lurker role effectively is of utmost importance, so we here at bo3 have put together a useful CS2 lurker guide that will teach you how to play lurk in Counter-Strike, the spots you should play, and the decisions you should make.

But first, what do lurkers in CS2 actually do?

What does a lurker do? CS2 lurker role explained

As opposed to entry fraggers, lurkers often begin rounds in more passive positions, typically on the extremities of the map. They will then wait for the action to play out in more active areas of the map to see how they can capitalise on the gaps and rotations caused by this action.

The lurker role in CS2 is typically played by someone with great knowledge of every map, as well as the ability to communicate and coordinate plays in the late round. Counter-Strike lurker strategies can also include waiting on one side of the map while your teammates execute on the other bombsite, from there, you can either try to steal a kill on enemies rotating away to disrupt their retake or move silently into a position where you can be the safety net to prevent the bomb from being defused.

To correctly carry out the lurker role in CS2, a player must also understand the importance of default setups, and where gaps in default setups are likely to occur when an enemy player is killed. 

How to improve as a lurker

To see improvement in your CS2 lurking skills, try watching professional players in order to pick up CS2 lurker tips and see how they play in the same spots as you. 

Here is a list of CS2 professional lurkers you could watch:

• Nemja “huNter-” Kovac
• Robin “ropz” Kool
• Lotan “Spinx” Giladi
• David “frozen” Cernansky
• Keith “NAF” Markovic

By watching professional players you will not only see excellent CS2 stealth gameplay, but you will also see how those players manipulate rotates and man-down situations. You’ll pick up lots of great Counter-Strike lurker techniques, tips, and tricks that you will then be easily able to apply to your own game.

Outside of watching professional players, you can also see CS2 lurking skills improvements by simply practising your aim. Aim is one of the most fundamentally important roles of all Counter-Strike roles, but this is especially true for lurkers. You can practise your aim within CS2 itself by playing a map like Aim Botz, or by using third-party options such as Refrag or Aimlabs.

CS2 lurker positions

In the next part of our CS2 lurker guide, we will tell you the positions that you should look to be occupying on the T side. To do this, we’ll go map by map. 

Before that, we’d first like to remind you that these are just default setups for lurkers in CS2. To be an effective lurker you will need plenty more Counter-Strike lurker strategies and should look to move around the map based on what the majority of your team is doing in order to remain unpredictable.

• Mirage: On Mirage, the most common CS2 lurker gameplay strategy is to begin rounds in the B Apartments. Often a more passive lurking role, from here your main task is to delay rotations and make the B players worry about the threat of you creeping up on them.
• Nuke: Lobby is the best place to start as a lurker on Nuke because of the variety of options you will get later on in rounds. Once CT players have died, try walking into Ramp or out onto the A site as it is likely a player may have rotated away to cover a gap elsewhere.
• Overpass: Lurkers on Overpass are most commonly found towards B. Like Mirage, it is a more passive position. Your main goal on Overpass is to prevent CT players from pushing Monster and flanking or easily taking control of B Short.
• Inferno: Because of the fact CTs will often stack three players towards the site feeling the most pressure, Inferno is a dream for lurkers. The A site will often be left exposed as a result, and you can easily strike by ensuring you have control over Apartments and taking fights from Balcony or Boiler.
• Ancient: One of the more difficult maps to lurk on, you will have the best luck by lurking towards the A site. The A site is often only guarded by one player, so finding a kill on that player can easily secure the bombsite for your team.
• Anubis: Just like Ancient, Anubis is a difficult map to find impact on as a lurker. Try playing towards Mid in late-round situations to walk behind CTs when they don’t have the manpower to defend every angle.
• Vertigo: Similarly to Anubis, our best CS2 lurking tip for Vertigo is to play in Mid. The middle portion of the map will often be left exposed after kills have happened, so CTs will only check it sporadically. Find a flank and solo split a site while your teammates execute on it.

Although lurking is primarily a T-sided role in CS2 and you should typically build your strategies around the T-side, you can still lurk to some degree on the CT side. Play in active, rotator spots and don’t be afraid to use mid-round aggression to find gaps in the T-side default to flank and ruin executes.

You should be a master of rotations and stealth gameplay in CS2, that can be applied to both attack and defence.