SkinLords CS2 Guides CS2 Baiting: What Does it Mean and When to Do It

CS2 Baiting: What Does it Mean and When to Do It

Baiting in CS2 is the process of using a player as “bait” (like in fishing) to get an opponent to reveal their location, usually by shooting at or killing the “bait” player. Something that has to be cleared up before getting any further into the article is that baiting, in most cases within a game of CS2, is not a good tactic. Regardless of whether or not you are the baiter (the person who did not die) or got baited (the one who did die), it benefits the enemy team more than yours.

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But just like how life goes, not everything is as black and white. There are still some instances where baiting becomes a strategy, and no hard feelings are shown regardless of what happened.

Premeditated Intentional Baiting for CS2 Map Control

Map control is one of the advantages every team wants during a round, and sometimes the way to obtain a superior position is to bait a teammate or become said bait yourself.

Since it’s inherently poor practice to just let someone run in and die without any backup support, for it to be considered an acceptable form of baiting, it must be premeditated. Whoever peeks should have accepted death in the first place, and those players closest to them must be able to respond with a trade or at least just follow-ups towards the area.

Baiting Out Shots in CS2

Baiting doesn’t always have to refer to the act of someone playing a round with the purpose of dying; sometimes, it’s just trying to provoke a response from the enemy team. A lot of techniques, such as jiggle peeking and utility usage, can be employed to bait out a shot from an opposing player, granting you information without the need to die for it.

Of course, this could go wrong if you unfortunately die in the process, but that’s a risk that one has to take for the love of the game.

Baiting in CS2 To Conserve Health

The most effective form of baiting comes from being in a situation where multiple players are attempting to secure an angle, and someone has already taken a lot of damage. This player can serve as the bait for that specific situation since they’re closer to death anyway and take the fight before everyone else pushes.

Those that are kept alive will be tasked to kill the player who just eliminated their teammate, which is something known as trading. While usually done as a last-ditch effort, this strategy has worked from every level of CS2 and is a well-known tactic that even professionals use.