How To Play Eco Rounds In CS:GO [In-Depth Guide]


How To Play Eco Rounds In CSGO [In-Depth Guide]

Eco rounds are extremely hard to win in CS:GO because you’re in a very unfavorable position. However, there are some tactics you can try, and in this article, you will read tips on how to play eco rounds.

What Are Eco Rounds?

An eco round is short term for the “economy round“. Players also call this round the “save round“. Essentially, that’s the round when the team decides to save money and not buy anything. It basically means that you give up on the following round as you drastically lower your chances for winning it, but it gives you better chances in the long run. However, you need to learn how to play eco rounds in CS:GO, because you will have to do that many times in the game.

Unlike in other FPS games, money and economy play an important role in CS:GO. Valve developed a sophisticated money system, and they’re continuously working on it. The current economy system differs a lot from the original one. Hence, we can see that CS:GO developers made many changes as they listened to the feedback of professional and unprofessional players.

It’s always important to have a balanced economy system and to not harm one side or unreasonably award the other side. Valve has been doing this job pretty successfully in the past, although many experts didn’t like their last change when they basically punished winners for winning rounds. Moreover, they have quickly done something about that. In one of the last updates, they decreased the full stack of bonus money to 2,900$. That’s a nice compensation for the winning team, so they don’t feel punished for being dominant.

When Should You Play Eco Rounds?

Besides the fact that many inexperienced players don’t know how to play eco rounds in CS:GO, they also have a problem to decide when they should play eco rounds at all. Before we answer this question, we need to learn how to distinguish:

  • Full buy
  • Force buy
  • Eco round

Full buy means that all players on the team buy the best weapons and as much utility as possible. That happens when a team has a lot of money and that’s something that all players should strive to. Force buy is when players buy whatever they can with the money they have. Eco round means that players don’t invest any money into their equipment, or they invest a minimal amount of money.

If you want to know when you should play eco rounds, you need to be familiar with the money bonus system. You can read about that here. To make a long story short, the purpose of eco rounds is to save enough money so you can fully buy in the next round. For that, you need to do some math. However, the free assessment is that if you have $2,000 – $2,500 on T side and $2,500 – $3,000 on CT side, you should play eco round.

As a result, you will most likely have enough money to fully buy in the next round. If you have less than that or more up to $4,500, you should force buy, because, if you lose that round, you will have to save in the following round anyway.

How to play eco rounds in CS:GO?

When it comes to playing eco rounds, you can use a couple of different tactics. Also, you can choose to just play default tactic although it’s rarely beneficial in eco rounds.

CT side

Dedicate to one bombsite

One of the most used tactics is a full dedication to one bombsite. In ordinary rounds, the only advantage that T side has when they are attacking bombsite is usually man advantage as CTs are split between two sites. In rounds when you have good weapons, this doesn’t necessarily mean anything as CTs have a better position. However, in eco rounds, it’s hard to defend the site with a man disadvantage.

Hence, five players on the one site can bring you easy opening kills. Then, you can pick up the weapons of dead Ts and use them to further defend your site.

Apparently, this tactic is risky, because there are two sites. So, when you dedicate to one site, you are basically gambling, because if you choose the wrong site, you give the other one to T side for free. However, you can’t lose anything in the eco round, so this can easily prove to be a victorious move.

Rush a particular part of the map

Given that you have only pistols, rushing a particular part of the map can be a good choice. If you are lucky enough to confront only one opponent, you have much better chances of winning that 5v1 duel even though you have only pistols. The group of players will always beat only one player.

Again, this can give you an easy opening frag and you will at least damage the opponent’s economy a little bit. Losing a man or two in rounds where opponents have only pistols is incredibly annoying.

Play Close Angles

If your teammates don’t know how to play eco rounds in CS:GO, then they most likely won’t listen to you. So, they will not dedicate to one site or rush one particular part of the map together with you. Hence, you can suggest them to buy Zeus’ and to play close angles.

Also, if someone has enough money, he can buy a shotgun which can be even more effective in those situations. If you are lucky, enough players will listen to you and it can have a big impact on the outcome of the round.

As you know Zeus is lethal when you use it in close combats. Also, it costs only $200 but has only one charge. Therefore, you need to be very precise when shooting. If you succeed, you will get a kill and a free gun. On the other hand, if you fail, there is not so much you can do to stay alive. Regardless, remember that there is nothing you can lose in the eco round, so feel free to try anything.

T side

On T side, there is not much thinking when it comes to how to play eco rounds. But there are still some things you can do.

Rush, Do Not Stop

Although this sounds like very weak strategy, you can’t do much better in eco rounds. As you don’t have anything to lose, it’s probably better to pick a site and rush it. If you have enough money, buy at least one or two flashes and a couple of other nades to raise your chances. If you throw flashbang properly, you can catch your opponents off-guard and possibly take down a few of them. Also, if you are in a position to plant the bomb, do it. Don’t be too greedy to go for a weapon by any cost. Bomb planting will give you more money.

Fully Equip OnePlayer And Support Him

On some occasions, you should risk and fully equip one player. If he managed to save the gun from the previous round, even better as you don’t need to spend additional money. Be sure that the most skilled player from your squad gets full equipment because he will make the most of it.

When you invest your money in that particular player, other guys from your team need to support him. Let him go first in the battle and clear all those angles. Right after he engages in the fight be sure that you will assist him. If he dies, take the traded kill and pick up both guns. If he eliminates opponent, pick up the weapon of the opponent who died. This way, you can deliver a lot of damage with minimal investment and potentially clinch the eco round.

Watch the Best Teams

There is no better way to learn how to play eco rounds in CS:GO than watching the best teams. You can focus on a particular player and see how he positioned himself and what he does during the eco round. Or, you can look for some new strats that have never been seen before.

One of the best teams in terms of eco rounds is definitely the best CS:GO team in the world, Astralis, who win many rounds that they are not supposed to win. Hopefully you’ll be ready to try some of these tactics in your next eco round.

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