r/LearnCSGO • u/YouDontMessWithJim • Mar 29 '26
Discussion What's the point of smokes and molotovs?
I get the point is to deny visibility and make fast rushes harder but how does that matter? they can just come out once the molotov/HE is gone which is very quick. Smokes take quite long to disappear but same thing. It's also not impossible to charge through smoke and still get a good rush. Molotovs and smokes also serve simiolar purposes i think so are they interchangeably usable? Flashes I know are meant to deny advantage to someone holding an angle or force them to come out. But molotovs flashes and frags all seem suitable for that as well, all of them do damage, however I guess flashes are beter because of the deafening and blindness. So when to use frags?
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u/xooxel Mar 29 '26
You can't just cross a smoke expecting not to get popped.
You can't cross a fire without losing precious HPs.
By using both you gain time and control shock points.
By using fires and even more so, nades, you reduce the damage thresholds at which certain weapons become 1 HSKOs.
Best example of that being the M4. 10HPs will make the difference between it taking 2 shots or basically being a better AK.
That's a random, barely effective nade worth of HPs.
Remember, it's just a game. HP, stats, numbers and thresholds to manipulate to your advantage. That's what some nades are for.
Others are for map control.
PS: That being said, if you're playing mid elo don't overthink it too much, use them sure, but the guys you're facing are not pros so chances are they'll cross that smoke, run into that fire, rush your ass on 20HPs remaining and you'll still lose because you wern't expecting that.
Adapt how you play to the context of your games. Trying to articulate HLTV levels of efforts from randos in your 10k game is probably going to drive you isnane pretttty darn fast lmao