CS2 Team Roles Guide: Learn Every Role and Improve Your Game

Over the years, the best esports teams have used a lot of different strategies and ways to play Counter-Strike. But as time went on, the game changed from just defending or attacking a bombsite to something more. It was all about giving each player a different job that used their strengths. That’s how CS roles were born. They’ve changed over time, but in recent years, the system has become well-defined — and we’re here to share it with you. This knowledge won’t just help you follow the pros. It can seriously level up your own game.

It’s a big topic, so grab yourself a treat, and let’s dive in!

Why Player Roles Matter in CS2

Before we jump into the specific CS2 roles, let’s first figure out what they actually are and why knowing about them matters. Is it really that big of a deal?

Absolutely. Every pro and every high-ranked player understands the importance of roles. In CS2, your role defines your positioning, your playstyle, and the ways you can impact the round. It’s also a set of direct and indirect responsibilities you take on to help your team win.

Take the role of a “Lurker,” for example. A player who chooses this role needs a solid understanding of game timing, great shooting skills, and, of course, a lot of patience. These are all vital because this role requires the player to operate behind enemy lines, isolated from their team and support. But we’ll get into more detail on that later.

The importance of CS2 team roles is not only that each player feels in their place and does what they like and are best at, it is also an incredibly important tool for winning in any game, because even if you don’t have strong shooting skills, you can perform your role well and it will certainly help you win, because it directly affects your team.

To understand what we mean, imagine a player who spends the entire game holding the B site with a teammate and throws grenades to help control a certain position. It may seem like shooting skills are not required here, but the importance of those grenades is priceless — they can stop the enemy’s push or help your teammate get a kill.

Also, every professional team builds its roster around roles. You won’t see a team of five strong snipers, because someone has to handle other jobs. That’s why, if you want to improve your game or even achieve something greater, for example, becoming a pro player, you absolutely need to know about CS2 team roles, what they do, and why they exist in the first place.

So, let’s get into the topic!

Overview of Core Roles

CS2 has quite a few roles. There are the crucial core roles and the additional secondary roles. However, all of them are quite important and strongly influence the game. Let’s start our overview with the main roles, and the first on the list is “IGL”.

In-Game Leader (IGL)

The In-Game Leader, also called the IGL, is a person who has an incredible amount of game experience and can see and even predict situations that will happen in the match. This is the person who, during the game, helps and guides their team with various tips and commands.

The primary task of the person playing the In-Game Leader role is, of course, communicating with the team and giving step-by-step instructions on what, where, and how to do things — something like a teacher, but inside the game. Over time, if you keep playing with the same team, you’ll need to explain less, but you’ll still have to give commands, as that is the main responsibility.

In fact, the IGL is a very, very difficult CS2 role, and it is the main one among all roles, because everyone else listens to you and does everything as you say. That’s why you will have a lot of responsibility, and you must understand that.

Usually, players in the In-Game Leader position not only have strong analytical skills, game understanding, and a sense of timing, but they also shoot well and show their skill at a high level. Moreover, the IGL can often help with or even take on another role in the team. For example, an IGL player often also serves as a “Support.”

Currently, one of the best professional players in this role is Finn “karrigan” Andersen, a player who has incredible experience and good shooting skills. If you are interested in learning more, we recommend you visit his YouTube channel, where you will find a lot of interesting things.

Support

Support player is a combined role, which can be either a main role for someone or a secondary one, as in the example with the IGL. The task of the player in the Support role is to help, as strange or funny as that might sound, but supporting the team with grenades and other actions is of great importance.

We have already mentioned above that there are players who help the team with grenades — this is one example of a Support player. Your task is to help the team hold the defense for as long as possible, or, conversely, help in an active push by using grenades and remembering different lineups.

If you think this is quite simple, you are very mistaken, because knowing all the spots from which grenades must be thrown is quite difficult, and memorizing them for all maps in CS2 is even harder.

However, don’t think that players in the Support role only throw grenades. Supports also often help in close fight. Very often, in combination with another player, the Support can suddenly peek from behind a corner to try to kill an opponent.

You may have seen such combinations when two opponents rush out at you at once and kill you without giving you a chance. Even if you manage to kill one, it’s always much harder to take down the second.

There are players who only play the Support role, but most often, players prefer to combine two roles. As we mentioned earlier, a clear example is combining IGL and Support, but it can be paired with other roles as well. This is very flexible and depends only on your preference.

Lurk

You may have seen in the professional scene how one of the players constantly moves around alone without the team. They wait for the right moment and then — boom and get behind the enemy lines. This is exactly what a player in the Lurk role does, also often simply called the Lurker. This is another very interesting CS2 player role that isn’t suitable for all players. It requires patience and good shooting skills to make your work worthwhile and consistently take down the enemy.

The main task of the Lurker is to remain unnoticed and kill the enemy when they least expect it. The CS2 Lurker is often needed on the attacking side, meaning as a Terrorist. While the team attacks the B site together, the Lurker, in turn, goes to the A site and tries to get behind the enemy. However, it’s not that simple, as opponents can often read your moves, and you need to be very careful since someone might be waiting for you.

If you think the Lurker role is only relevant for Terrorists, that’s not quite true, because when playing as CT, it is also very useful, but with slightly different tasks. Playing on defense, it is always important to understand where the enemy is going in order to shift your forces to one site or another, and for that, you need information, which someone has to provide.

That’s exactly what the Lurker does when playing as CT: they are your scout, the player who constantly takes risks and gathers information around the map, giving you an understanding of what the opponents will do next.

In other words, the Lurker is like an invisible ninja-scout who can gather intel and help win the round by enabling your team to rotate in time to the right bombsite.

If you want to study how top players handle the Lurker role, check out Justin “jks” Savage, Robin “ropz” Kool, and Sergey “Ax1Le” Rykhtorov. These guys are some of the best in the business when it comes to mastering the Lurker role.

AWPer

Everyone is familiar with the AWPer role and legendary players like Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev and Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut. However, this is a very difficult and responsible role that requires a great sense of the game, and shooting skills.

You may have been in a situation where your team buys two or even three AWPs, only to lose the round and give up all their economic advantage. That’s because the AWP is an incredibly powerful but expensive rifle that is very unforgiving of mistakes. If you miss a shot, it’s often your last one of the round because an opponent won’t give you time to survive the painfully long reload.

For these reasons, a team typically has only one AWPer. The primary job of this player is to control long sightlines. While other players struggle with long-distance aiming and recoil control, an AWPer can simply scope in and get a one-shot kill, making them feel completely at home in these situations.

The real challenge of this role, though, is game sense. You have to understand that you’re vulnerable in close-quarters combat. You need to constantly change CS2 positions and find new opportunities to get a shot off, especially since opponents often use smoke grenades to disrupt your game.

As mentioned earlier, the most famous and dominant players in this role are Oleksandr “s1mple” Kostyliev, Mathieu “ZywOo” Herbaut, and Casper “cadiaN” Møller.

Entry Fragger

Entry Fragger is like lightning that strikes the opponent at the moment they least expect it. This player possesses an excellent understanding of the game, including all timings, and, most importantly, boasts the best shooting skills on the team. They often face the enemy directly, and their shooting ability determines whether they survive or not.

The very name “Entry Fragger” suggests that this is the person who looks for opportunities to kill the opponent when they are unprepared — a player who takes risks but makes crucial kills that reduce the number of enemies and give your team a numerical advantage.

This is one of the particularly challenging roles in CS2 because you may need to unexpectedly encounter the enemy in unexpected locations, utilizing your speed, or play passively, gathering information. Deciding when and how to act should be up to you, but this requires a great deal of experience.

If you play as Terrorists, the Entry Fragger often runs first, gathers information, and makes the first kill of the round, thereby allowing the team to plant the bomb. Even after planting, these players often don’t stay in one place but instead push forward, cutting off the enemy team from attempting to retake the site you’ve captured. Overall, this is an extremely difficult CS2 role to get used to and requires a lot of training.

The most famous pro players in this CS2 role are Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen, Håvard “rain” Nygaard, and René “TeSeS” Madsen.

Secondary & Situational Roles

CS2 is an unpredictable game, and each round can be very different from what you expect. That’s why many players know how to combine roles in CS2 or switch between them. Sometimes, an AWPer can buy the necessary grenades and block the enemy’s exit from a certain position, acting as a Support.

Also, there are roles in CS2 that don’t have as much strategy and tactics as the main ones, but they still exist. They are called secondary roles because you can combine them with your main ones.

The first role we’ll talk about is the Anchor. Often, a Support player performs an additional role, and quite often that’s the Anchor. But what is an Anchor? It’s a player who is the main defender of a particular site and often stays alone to meet the entire enemy team, one versus three or four opponents.

Why does this happen? It’s simple: the enemy often makes noise on one site, throws grenades, and pretends to attack, but it’s just a fake. Your team rotates to defend that site, but in reality, the opponents are targeting the other one.

The Anchor’s job is to hold the site until he hears or sees the bomb on the map, because the bomb is the key to the terrorists’ victory. Usually, the Anchor is a role only for the counter-terrorists, because the terrorists don’t need it. So let’s sum it up: the Anchor is a secondary role that involves defending one of the bombsites.

You may already know, or maybe learned from our article, about the AWPer role, but there is another one called the Rifler. Their job is pretty straightforward: play their main position, just without using a sniper rifle. Basically, anyone who uses an AK-47, M4A4, or any other automatic rifle is considered a Rifler.

How to Choose Your Role – Self‑Assessment & Strong Suit

It’s important to know what role you want to play in CS2 if you’re just learning how to play, or if you’ve played before but didn’t really think about your role or what your job is on the team, or if you’re trying to build your own team and figure out where you fit.

To do this, take a minute to think about it and answer a few questions honestly. Do you like fast-paced games where you have to quickly take control of a spot, get a kill, and get the first frag of the round? If so, the Entry Fragger role might be a good fit for you. But be real with yourself: are your shooting mechanics solid enough to win most of your duels? Do you know your timings well? Do you have a good sense of the game overall?

These are questions worth answering honestly, because if you jump into a role and it doesn’t go well, it’s easy to get frustrated and want to quit. And maybe you had great potential, but gave up too soon.

To avoid that, take time to learn more about the role you’re interested in, look at how you play, and what kind of player you are, because no one knows that better than you. Decide if you’re truly ready to take on that CS2 role right now, or if it makes more sense to start with something simpler that still supports the team, like the Support role.

Support is usually seen as a beginner-friendly role, as you often play from safer CS2 positions, provide utility to your team, and handle what’s needed. On defense, you typically anchor one spot and wait for the enemy to make a move. These responsibilities tend to be easier for new or returning players, whose aim might not be as sharp as that of more experienced ones. That makes it a great role for beginners or returning players whose aim might still be a bit rusty.

So trust your instincts, learn about the roles, and make a confident decision about whether you want to try that role in CS2 — and don’t be afraid. Everyone started out as a beginner at some point.

Skills Training Guide per Role

If you’ve picked your CS2 role, you need to know what to do next, what to train, and how to be the best at it.

First of all, it’s practice that will help you succeed. For aim-focused players, for example Entry Fragger, Lurk, and AWPer, the main task is to shoot accurately, so train specifically to aim, to quickly peek from behind a corner and get the kill, and train to hit headshots and improve your overall aim, because this is one of the main strengths of players in these CS2 roles.

Even if you are initially unfamiliar with the timings, you will eventually become accustomed to them. However, the ability to fight and prevail, which heavily relies on your skills, is the most crucial factor in any circumstance.

For the roles of Support and IGL, the situation is a little different. Often players in these roles stay in safer positions and help the team with grenades or calls (in the case of IGL). Of course, they need to shoot well, but more important is the execution of their roles — for example, throwing the right grenade at the right time, giving a call to reposition, or something similar.

Knowing different grenade lineups on different maps is crucial to becoming a good support. Similar to this, you need to have a thorough understanding of the game and its mechanics in order to become a good IGL. To become a good IGL, you need experience, which is hard to get quickly. We recommend watching pro players’ games, not just streams, to understand their comms and how they make decisions. Take this video as an example.

Train and strengthen your skills, and you will definitely succeed!

To Sum Up

Roles in CS2 are an interesting and difficult topic, especially when you first hear about it. However, thanks to our tips and information, we hope we were able to give you new and interesting information that will help you in future games. Try, experiment, and keep practicing. You will achieve success!

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