The Dual Berettas have become a go-to in pistol rounds, but how good are they really?

Now firmly in the meta, the Dualies are adding a bit of spice to the ever-random pistol rounds.

There is an old adage in matchmaking games in T side pistol rounds: "Rush X, for we have 100 bullets (5 glocks) and they only have 24 (2 USPs)." Questionable logic aside, we can all see the point. We can all remember what it feels like to try and face 5 Glocks running at you at the speed of light, hopelessly spamming your USP.

For a while that was just the reality of pistol rounds; you had to pick the right fights (and range) to get the best out of your USP. Then the Dual Berettas were reduced to $300 in 2021. In a sphere as seemingly random as pistol rounds, teams will look for any edge they can find and with the Dualies it seemed like they had found one. The akimbo pistols have 30 bullets, can one-shot headshot in pistol rounds, and have a rate of fire of 500 shots per minute. Altogether it makes for serious multi-kill potential.

At just $300 they're a bit of a bargain: You can add a defuse kit to your inventory, or drop two pairs to two teammates to make two raid-bosses and still have enough for a flashbang. Their rate of fire means that anchor and close-up positions in front of tight choke-points become viable again; they enable Monster setups on Overpass or stacks on top of Hut on Nuke.

Since that 2021 update they have crept into the meta and are now used in a solid amount of pistol rounds with more than 0.79 bought per CT pistol round and at least one pair of the pistols has appeared in 55% of pistol rounds this year.

Of course, it's not all sunshine and roses. They are still quite inaccurate (even more than the Glock), have a big damage drop off, and the USP's suppressor is always useful giving you that extra few milliseconds before an opponent can pinpoint your location. Not having armor on a player is also a hit, and if you choose to buy two pairs it might mean two players without armor if you still want bits and pieces of utility.

Dualies are still sufficiently powerful that they can be specialist weapons for certain anchor spots and certain situations. Rounds with one pair of Dualies offer the same average round win percentage as rounds without them. It is only after teams buy two that CT pistol round win percentage falls from near the 50% mark.

One reason for this might be that they are bought more often on T-sided (pistol round) maps, in situations where the Glock usually has a far superior advantage. If there are so few long-range fights available that you feel like you need two pairs of Dualies, the balance is probably skewed towards the T Side anyway. So let's look into this data by map.

This chart shows the number of Dualies CTs are leaving spawn with on each map in 2023 so far. Ancient tops the table, with Vertigo and Nuke — where Felipe "⁠skullz⁠" Medeiros showed just how effective they can be — joining it on the podium.

On Mirage, where B Apartments are the only place where they could be viable, teams still seem to be opting for the starter pistol. Overpass and Inferno complete the bottom three.

When we look at round win percentages on each of these maps, we start to see why certain maps feature more Dualies than others. CT win percentages are given a hefty boost on Vertigo and Ancient, and they are a clear disadvantage on Mirage. Nuke gets a small boost, while the CT side appears to be out of luck in CT pistol rounds whatever they do.

The data is a bit more perplexing on Overpass; Double Monster setups with Dualies seem quite powerful, but there is a -8% point difference when teams pick up the Berettas. Given how long-range a map Overpass can be, perhaps this is not all that surprising. A double Monster setup is only strong if opponents play into it; once you are retaking A, the USP-S might be the preferred option.

Another factor that goes into their viability is how well (and how much) teams are actually using the weapons. Teams like Apeks love the guns, buying 1.44 per CT pistol round. HEROIC and FaZe are more resistant, well below the average mark of 0.76 CT Dualies per pistol round.

There is no correlation between Dualie usage and either overall pistol round win percentage or win percentage with 1+ Dualies. It is purely about how effectively teams are using them. There is an argument that the less you use Dualies the more effective you can be; if teams know they are playing against a Dualie-heavy side, they might not rush Monster on the pistol round. When FaZe bring out Dualies you might not be expecting it, and thus could walk straight into a trap.

There are teams that manage to extract decent round win percentages whilst buying the Berettas fairly often. Astralis are one such name, while Natus Vincere are the best performing team in the green zone with a properly chunky sample size. Bad News Eagles also seem to have a knack for the guns on the eye test, and that is confirmed here.

But they are not magic wands. The Dualies are not overpowered like some pistols of years gone by, even in the hands of the very best practitioners. In the same way the P250 offers the T side a USP-S-like experience, the Dualies give the CTs a Glock-like one. Their status in the ever-delicate meta is as a useful tool rather than a must-have, and that has rarely been the case when it comes to en vogue CS:GO pistols.

They have been given a niche in pistol rounds beyond being troll guns for crab-walks, and they have enough drawbacks that the 'overpowered' label would be an unfair one should it be attached.

Some CS fans would like the game to be one with just the six meta guns of old: The starter pistols in the first round, Deagles in ecos, and the AK-47, M4, and AWP in gun rounds. But Valve are clearly not in that group and, with the Dualies, they have achieved their goal of injecting some variety into the game without entirely breaking it.