In Counter Strike, Iceworld is a controversial map. People see it as something that doesn’t require any skill or requires as much skill as any other map. This article will try to show you some strategies and tactics on iceworld, a map that inspires love and hate in all facets of the CS community.

I learned Counter Strike on classic maps like Mansion, Raid, Dust, and Italy. Each one is a completely different animal. Each possesses a noticeable difference from Iceworld, especially when it comes to tactics. Each one has a goal. Plant the bomb, rescue the hostage and an unnamed target, get the VIP where they need to go. Iceworld has no such goals. It’s a small map and looks a lot like a pound (#) symbol when viewed from above. A buy zone is located in its center and T’s and CT’s spawn across the map from each other. Without objectives the goal is total annihilation. Kill all the opposing forces before they kill you.

Environmentally, each wall can be shot through if you have the right weapon. When you run across the map you can hear your footsteps, or someone else’s, in the snow. The sound of heavy fire from all sides surrounds you from the very beginning and often to the very end. Small walls loom out of the sides of the map on your right and left paths, as well as an extended wall of ice at the midpoint of each spawn point. The weapons lay on the ground on each side to be picked up. The map is very simple. Its lack of complexity draws the ire of many players who want to do something more “complicated” on the map, like the aforementioned objectives.

I find this map stimulating. Its small size and simple design means it’s often total chaos. You really have nowhere to run and nowhere to hide. Iceworld rarely offers time for a player to catch a breath and many players are never able to reload once before the round ends or someone gets them. You might find yourself going solo against 5 TCs or turning a corner into a firing squad. A split-second decision to reload or pick up another weapon off the ground can be critical if you make it out of the round alive. It makes you think on your feet, as you could be overwhelmed by opposing forces from any direction at any time. It is a Deathmatch type map, although there are “Deathmatch” specific iceworld maps for those who don’t like the short cooldown between rounds.

Having played this map for a long time, it DOES have a strategy. The elegance of iceworld is in its simplicity, and in some smaller details many tactics and strategies are lost on this map for its Deathmatch appearance. Iceworld is a great map to learn human behavior and how people react to intense firefights and large player runs.

Using the AWP and looking at two of the three paths is a no-brainer. The middle must first be protected to eliminate anyone who tries to cross it. Oftentimes, opposing AWPers will also have to be dealt with because controlling the mid is strong for any team on this map. A second AWPer will usually cover what you can’t, but if none exist, cover the missing areas. Progress slowly through the level. The AWP is not a silent weapon and only with its sound can an enemy find out where your shot came from. Use the walls to the right and left for cover by shooting through your own spawn point and theirs. Leave it if necessary.

For the running player, SMG, TMP, Mac10 and p90 are taken so they can get to the other side as quickly as possible with a gun they can spray with. This usually doesn’t end well for the runner because an AWPer is watching one of the sides they rushed on. Climbing through the middle often meets with certainty due to assault weapons and the AWP itself, well positioned to protect these areas from the start of the round. A running player may find it better to turn towards the middle of the level and let all the other team’s snipers check their points first before rushing in. Time is short on the map, so staying a second too short, or a second too long, anywhere can have you surrounded at any given time, but the pause is important to make use of the opposing players’ natural pace to check the timing. roads. enemies.

Assault rifles, like the Steyr Aug and Commando, really shine on this map. At first they are as good as AWPs at watching all the main paths. When the map is running low, they allow for accurate ranged shooting without having to engage in close combat. Iceworld’s longer distances are often forgotten and these weapons have the ability to allow you to move faster than when you have an AWP and still get a hit in your possession. Its added power means it will be easier than other weapons to take out multiple opponents at once without reloading. Reloading is a skill all its own in Iceworld and making it so you need to reload less will keep you alive much longer than most.

Shotguns are a game changer for the person who has one. Not the automatic shotgun, or “rookie tube” as it has been immortalized, but the m3 single shot pump shotgun. Under a wave of shots, you’re likely to get one or two shots out of his fifteen or so. On a chaotic map like Iceworld, the pump-loaded shotgun better teaches the use of the environment, no matter how much of it you have. Skills that some players take for granted now but had to learn earlier can also be learned with this weapon on this map. Strafing, shooting while moving, using walls for cover. The biggest of these that the bomb does wonderfully in the chaos of Iceworld is to shoot while moving. As you run around one side, you shoot the enemy while heading the other way, mix movement and stopping to confuse your enemy’s fire without messing up your own. Make sure the one shot you get is accurate and will either kill the enemy or seriously hurt them so if you get a second shot you will finish them off. The bomb will cause you to find yourself hiding, ambushed, and attempting shots you normally wouldn’t attempt if you had a different weapon under the same amount of fire from all directions.

Not all servers allow the use of HE Grenades. I find them much easier to dominate with, but they are not needed on the map. Grenade spam is pretty simple to do, and throwing one at the start of the map will almost always hit someone. There are times when you won’t throw them at your enemy’s spawn, but that’s usually when you see a run coming that way and just throw it in front of them.

In Iceworld, the opposing team is trying to get your spawn point and you are trying to get to theirs. This is very important to remember. Knowing that you are attempting the same thing will go a long way towards increasing your Kill To Death ratio. Once they reach your spawn point, they will return to theirs. As Iceworld is a very time related map and everything happens in less than a minute or two minutes at the most, the time that passes is important to know where the enemy is at any given time. It doesn’t take too long to get across the map without getting fired upon, so you should be able to position yourself in the right spot as the map is running low. Watch your companions. Use your eyes to see around corners and find out what weapon an enemy is using on their end. Locating AWPers is easy when they also remove a member of your team. Your teammates also give you eyes where you are not. You can clearly see if your team is winning or losing the shootout if you went to the right when they went to the left. Keep in mind what weapons they have and if any player can cause you trouble. Particularly useful at the start of the round is shooting at the below of your wall, either on the right or left side. Many players simply hide behind a wall being shot at by the enemy, and in most cases avoid getting seriously hurt, or even hurt at all. Shooting at the foot of the wall often gets them around the corner.

A great training tool and guide to improve yourself on Iceworld and many other maps is the Counter-Strike Pwnage Guide. [http://www.fromhomebusiness.org/csguide]. If you’re rusty at any of the things I’ve mentioned or need to brush up on, it’ll be a great investment and will greatly increase your Counter Strike skills on any map. Iceworld may not be the most respected or popular map the game has ever had, but this guide and regular gameplay will greatly improve your abilities when using them. Hope to see you some Iceworld servers.