Five rounds from IEM Sydney day 1 that wouldn't have happened in CS:GO

The first day of IEM Sydney gave us a sneak peek at how the new mechanics in Counter-Strike 2 can be used at the highest level.

Counter-Strike 2 brought with it new mechanics and changes to existing features. From new volumetric smokes and the ability to temporarily make them vanish with an HE grenade to the increased bomb radius, these were sure to throw the CS:GO meta out of the window.

On the opening day of the first big LAN in the new game, IEM Sydney, the first signs of what that meta shift could look like began to show already.

Complexity blow up the smoke to get the final round

In their opening match against Monte, Complexity made simple but excellent use of the smoke-vanishing mechanic to win the game.

In CS:GO you'd probably see teams pop-flash through the smoke or wait it out, but Complexity decided to pop-nade it (Can we as a community come up with a better term for it that isn't 'donking', please?) instead for a surprise effect.

FaZe use the new bomb radius for a (sort of) ninja defuse

Whichever side you're on, you have to be more careful dealing with the bomb explosion because it has a larger effect on most of the maps in the pool in Counter-Strike 2. That change is the most pronounced on Nuke, and GamerLegion felt the pain when they decided to vacate the bombsite a little too early in their match against FaZe.

Two in one

In the playoffs-qualifying match between MOUZ and Natus Vincere, in one round both teams used a grenade to blow up the smoke with solid success.

Who liked smoke defuses, anyway?

It was previously somewhat rare for players to keep HE grenades late enough into a round to be used on a defusing player, but maybe that will change in Counter-Strike 2.

Frederik "⁠acoR⁠" Gyldstrand showed just why it can be a good idea in GamerLegion's match against BetBoom, in which he denied a smoke defuse to win a 1v2 and keep his team alive in the map.

FaZe's kickstart the comeback vs. Vitality with a nade combo

Finding themselves in the elimination zone after BO1 upsets in the opening round, FaZe and Vitality battled in Group A's lower bracket at the end of day one.

It was all going the world's No. 1 team's way until they were leading 8-1 on the deciding Nuke, when FaZe finally found a way to break through Vitality's defenses and kickstarted the comeback.