The CS:GO landscape is littered with established superstars, rising newcomers, and bonafide playmakers. That makes playing fantasy CS:GO both exciting and challenging, given the number of high-caliber players and the likelihood of unexpected results in the competitive scene.
In fantasy CS:GO, competitors can select a team of pro players who they think will do the best during a specific match, tournament stage, or full event. Their in-game performances translate to points for your team as you face off against other teams of picked players.
Looking to get involved but don’t know where to start? Let’s get you situated to become the best fantasy CS:GO manager you can be.
Where can I play fantasy CS:GO?
HLTV
One of the most popular choices for fantasy CS:GO is to play directly on HLTV, a major hub of CS:GO stats, news, and discussions. Each HLTV fantasy game takes place at a specific tournament, with each game making up a complete season that typically lasts around six months. The top 10 players in the official HLTV fantasy league can earn cash prizes, including up to $5,000 for first place. You earn points per fantasy game based on your top placement percentage, with a max of 25 points earned during a single fantasy game if you finish in the top one percent of players.
The current season, the spring 2022 season, is set to end in the middle of July following the conclusion of IEM Cologne. The next season should begin right after.
DraftKings
Fantasy CS:GO players can also participate in daily fantasy games on DraftKings. These games typically open roughly 24 hours before a match day is set to begin, and each game usually has an entry fee.
How to play fantasy CS:GO
Whichever site you play on, the goals and rules are relatively the same. You’re given a budget and asked to build a team of players based on how well they’ll perform in that match, on that day, or in the entire stage, depending on which specific game you’re playing. Because the best players cost more money, you can’t just build a team of superstars. You’ll have to pick and choose a team that fits your budget.
On HLTV, you can also assign roles and boosters to each player. The roles you assign to a player will award you bonus points if they satisfy certain conditions, like winning matches, posting a certain player rating, getting trades, posting a high headshot percentage, and more. But if you fall well short of reaching that role boost, you might suffer penalties.
For example, assigning a player the “HS machine” role means they get a bonus if they get above a 35 percent headshot rating or a max bonus if they get a headshot rating above 60 percent. But if they get below a 35 percent headshot rating, they’ll incur a penalty.
Boosters can be applied to individual matches and can reward additional bonus points if certain conditions are met, such as making clutches, getting knife kills, and getting flash assists. There’s no risk of penalties with boosters, but they can only be applied to one match.
Tips and tricks for drafting fantasy CS:GO teams
There are two ways of going about drafting fantasy CS:GO teams. Either you can load up on a couple of superstars before filling out your roster with cheap players or you can go for a more balanced roster with players who are pretty even in value. Going for the top-heavy approach with more stars can be riskier, while the balanced approach is generally safer.
Overall, you want to pick as many players from favored teams as you can since you’ll also earn points based on how well the teams your players are on do. A good rule to follow is to pick two players from two favored teams each, with at least one “star” player on your roster. Roles like “Leader” and “Support” are ideal for the lower-rated players on your fantasy team.
For roles and boosters overall, check each role and booster for each of your players since it actually tells you how likely the player is to achieve their goal based on previous matches.
