CS2 glossary
The terms players, coaches and stats pages use, explained in a sentence or two. Where it helps, with the current average from parsed pro matches.
- Rating
- A single number for how much a player did for their team per round: kills, deaths, damage, KAST and round swing, each adjusted for the round's economy. About 1.00 is average.
- Round swing
- How much a player changed their team's chance of winning the round, averaged per round. An opening kill in a 5v5 moves the chance from 50% to about 69%.
- ADR
- Average damage per round: the health damage a player dealt to opponents, divided by rounds played. Damage beyond what the victim had left and damage to teammates don't count.
- KAST
- The share of rounds in which a player got a Kill, an Assist, Survived or was Traded.
- Headshot percentage
- The share of a player's kills that were headshots.
- Opening kill
- The first kill of a round. It turns a 5v5 into a 5v4, the biggest single swing in most rounds.
- Trade kill
- Killing the opponent who just killed a teammate, within a few seconds (Subtick uses five). A traded death still counts toward KAST.
- Multi-kill
- A round in which one player gets two or more kills.
- Clutch
- A round won by the last player alive on a team, against one or more opponents: a 1v1, 1v2 and so on.
- Eco round
- A round where a team saves money and buys little or nothing, so it can afford a full buy next round.
- Force buy
- Spending what you have on cheaper weapons and armour when you can't afford a full buy, instead of saving.
- Full buy
- Rifles or an AWP, armour, a defuse kit on CT and a full set of grenades.
- Pistol round
- The first round of each half, when everyone starts with $800 and a pistol.
- Anti-eco
- A round against a team that's saving. The richer team plays it safe to win cheaply and not hand over weapons.
- Entry fragger
- The player who goes first onto a site to take the opening duel and make space for the team.
- Lurker
- A player who works alone, away from the team, to catch rotations or take a late flank.
- AWPer
- The player who uses the AWP, the one-shot sniper rifle, usually to hold angles or take the opening kill.
- IGL
- The in-game leader: the player who calls the strategies and makes the mid-round decisions.
- Support player
- A player who throws utility for the others and trades the entry fragger.
- Smoke grenade
- A grenade that blocks vision for about 18 seconds, used to cut off angles or cross open ground.
- Molotov
- A fire grenade (the Molotov for T, the incendiary for CT) that blocks an area for about seven seconds.
- Flashbang
- A grenade that blinds anyone looking at it when it goes off, used to win duels when entering or retaking a site.
- HE grenade
- An explosive grenade that damages everyone near it, often used to finish off weakened opponents.
- Callout
- The shared name for a place on a map, so a team can say where an opponent is in a word.
- Retake
- When CTs win back a bombsite after the bomb is planted, by killing the Ts and defusing it.
- Post-plant
- The part of a round after the bomb is down, when T protects the bomb and CT has to get to it.
- Prefire
- Shooting at a common angle just before you see an opponent there, so the shot lands as they appear.
- Sub-tick
- CS2's system that records the exact moment between server ticks when you shoot or move, so a shot counts from when you fired, not from the next tick. Subtick is named after it.
- Tick rate
- How many times per second the server updates the game. CS2 servers run at 64 ticks a second, with sub-tick timing in between.
- Demo
- A recording of a match from the server (GOTV) that replays every player's movement, shots and utility. Subtick turns demos into 2D replays and stats.
- 2D replay
- A top-down replay of a round on the map's radar, showing every player, kill and grenade.