How different are CT positions from one another, really?

We look into the numbers behind each defensive spot to prove the need for specialization.

We've been on a mission to demystify the effect a player's positions have on their statistical output. We started by looking at the average rating per position.

Then, we took it one step further to calculate target rating: a player's expected rating based on how often they play each position on each map.

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Target Rating: Identifying over and under performers on CT side

Now, using 2024 data, we are going beyond rating to examine whether — and if so, how much — a player's positions affect what we expect to see in their overall profile.

Before we begin, here is a much-requested list of this year's highest-rated CT positions.

Dust2 still has a small sample size, but it's noteworthy that two of the four lowest-rated positions are its anchor spots, A Long and B Site.

B on Dust2 will be one to watch in the coming months as teams grapple with how to defend a site that is now incredibly easy to bombard with grenades from spawn.

Anubis' CT ratings have improved as the map evolves into one that is less T-sided, but all four of its rifle positions remain at 1.04 or lower — worse than A Floor on Nuke or B Monster on Overpass.

Other than that, the data is as you would expect. Star positions like the rotation AWP role or high-activity spots like Toilets on Overpass, Connector on Mirage, or Outside on Nuke are ones in which you require fragging power.

That's the rating, but let's dive deeper. There is plenty more to learn hidden under the surface of a high or low rating.

We'll start with an obvious one. If you play B on Inferno, either the more aggressive playmaker or the more supportive rotator, your damage with grenades skyrockets.

This is why you should check if Inferno will come up in a veto for your Kobe booster in Fantasy. Just look at the gap!

This is deliberately an extreme example, but the same trend can be seen in other statistics. Your position is a key factor behind your statistical output.

Another obvious one: Saving is high for AWPers — and for anyone who has the bad luck of having to rotate into a planted bomb on Inferno.

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Saving: How bad is it?

In a whopping 18% of lost rounds on Inferno, the CT AWPer survives into the next round. Take into account Ecos, pistol rounds, and times they have a rifle, and you start to see just how few retakes are winnable.

What about the opposite of saving? Clutches. From a combination of dying from playmaking and impossible retakes, CT on Dust2 and A on Inferno bring up the rear, but it's the blue anchor dots that are most interesting.

B anchor on Vertigo is by far the easiest place to farm clutches, earning 0.12 clutch points per round (1.6 clutches per 100 rounds). This makes sense, given the variety of options available on the rotation from B — fast flanks, smoke defuses, or fighting squishy Ts who suffered damage taking A Ramp — but it's still surprising just how effective this is.

It's from volume but also quality; B anchors on Vertigo win 63% of their one-on-one clutches, the third highest after Dust2's Long players (69%) and Overpass' B rotators (64%).

Other anchor spots benefit from the same trend. There is B on Mirage (0.10), where the jump-spotting simulator can easily turn into a retaking one, and Dust2, where it's far easier to defuse on A than B.

Add A on Anubis and Ancient, Monster and B Short on Overpass, and Nuke's Ramp (all on 0.09), and you can see why teams put clutch kings like Robin "⁠ropz⁠" Kool or Jimi "⁠Jimpphat⁠" Salo in anchor positions.

When players are criticized for being too passive, or when we accept the assumption that star players are in star positions because they encounter action earlier in the round, it's important to remember that some spots are late-round by nature.

Looking at openers per round, Mirage and Dust2's B sites drop below 0.08 per round — about the 2024 average for anchors Jimpphat and William "⁠mezii⁠" Merriman.

That is less than half of what the average is for spots like Outside on Nuke or Toilets on Overpass. In these spots, securing 5v4s is part of the job, and players who cannot secure them are leaving their team at a disadvantage.

AWPers also show up, and all eight sniping spots have opening kill success rates above 60%. Snipers can be more passive on the T side, but even the average AWPer puts their team in a 5v4 in 14% of defensive rounds.

When we look at multi-kills, we can see the usual suspects in terms of star roles, but let's instead examine the outlier: B Connector on Anubis.

E Box, Cave, Connector, whatever you call it, this is where most teams deploy a star rifler. This is home for Danil "⁠donk⁠" Kryshkovets, Mario "⁠malbsMd⁠" Samayoa, Lotan "⁠Spinx⁠" Giladi, Evgenii "⁠FL1T⁠" Lebedev, Guy "⁠NertZ⁠" Iluz, and so on.

But that player list is lying to you. Anubis only has one rotator role: Middle, where you are still more of a supportive presence on A than a true star. B Cave is actually the third anchor spot on the map.

Its 16% multi-kill rate is worse than most 'true' anchor roles. Perhaps this is not helped by traditional stars treating it as a star role and lingering for fights only to go one and done. But clearly, the main limiting factor is the position itself being extremely difficult.

We're on to our final swarm plot, focusing on how often a player's deaths are traded.

This shows how 'solo' some positions are and how others are reliant on team play. Overpass' Monster and Short players normally have a third player close in the form of a rotator and have plenty of delay tactics, leaving more than 21% of their deaths traded.

Nuke is also high, with an AWPer swift up the Ladder and the Outside rifler swooping in from Main to keep the refrags rolling.

Three anchor spots are low on this scale: Ramp on Nuke and B on Mirage and Dust2. This is yet another reason why the B Sites on the two classic sandy maps are the graveyard role: their rotation players are rarely close enough to even trade them.

Star roles, too, can be hard to trade; Toilets on Overpass was often a pure solo role with four players deployed towards B, and the Outside rifler on Nuke is a lone wolf as well. Generally, though, the players traded least are AWPers, for an obvious not-at-all baity reason.

Speaking of snipers: Vertigo is the hardest map in terms of AWP kills per round at just 0.29. We've also extended our chart to feature two rifling spots, Mid and B on Dust2.

Secondary AWPing is somewhat of a dying art form as it restricts retakes, and it's even more expensive in the context of MR12 than it used to be in MR15, but Dust2's re-introduction to the map pool has brought it back.

Aran "⁠Sonic⁠" Groesbeek, a past AWPer but secondary on Wildcard, has 0.26 KPR with the Big Green on Dust2 this year.

Players like Janusz "⁠Snax⁠" Pogorzelski, Jonathan "⁠EliGE⁠" Jablonowski, Valeriy "⁠b1t⁠" Vakhovskiy, and, terrifyingly, donk have also picked it up for 0.08 or more kills per round.

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Explore the data in more detail with this interactive Tableau

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Okay, that was a lot of data. But the point is clear: positions affect many metrics beyond rating.

We can now combine that into one chart using the clustering method we deployed to find doppelgängers by matching similar positions.

The anchor-rotator divide we usually draw is still present here, though marginal spots like Short on Overpass, Connector on Anubis, and Middle on Vertigo all drop into the 'flexible' category that houses most anchor roles.

We can see that most rifler roles — with ultra-star roles at the top and ultra-anchor at the bottom — are on a spectrum that aligns with general community definitions. Just from a few statistics, our algorithm separated rotation and anchor roles successfully.

This is yet more evidence for why positions require specialists and why you can't just put four rotating riflers into a team and hope for the best (sorry, Benjamin "⁠blameF⁠" Bremer's Astralis).

Players have independence and can be outliers in their positions, but if you're building a team from scratch the value of having comfort in your spots is a huge benefit. When you see how different each position truly is, you can see why.