If you’ve ever watched your A-site hold on Anubis get smoked off, re-smoked, and then run over by three Ts with zero resistance, yeah — same. That site can feel like a coin flip if your default is just “sit in lane and hope.” On Anubis, the teams that win rounds aren’t the ones throwing random smokes; they’re the ones cutting off the exact 2-3 angles that matter, then forcing the defenders to play retake chess with 20 seconds left.
And that’s the whole point here. These 7 smoke lineups aren’t fancy highlight-reel nonsense. They’re the kind of utility that makes A-site defaults look broken, especially in Premier where people still overpeek after one flash like it’s 2020. If you’ve got a team that can hit these on a 64-tick server with Source 2 subtick doing its thing, A-site becomes way less comfortable for CTs.
Why Anubis A-site hates being left alone
A on Anubis is weird in the best and worst ways. You’ve got the long lane pressure from Mid/Connector, the tight site itself, and all those little sightlines that let defenders spam, jiggle, and stall forever. If CTs get to keep Heaven, the long cross, and the connector fight alive at the same time, your execute turns into a bad Vertigo mid take: slow, awkward, and fully readable.
Smoke work matters more here than raw aim. A lot of teams at the Major level — the sort of stuff you see from squads studying demos from FaZe, Vitality, or Spirit — don’t win Anubis by dry peeking into ZywOo or donk. They win by stripping the site down to one or two angles, then hitting with timing. Same logic here.
1) Mid-to-A Heaven smoke from T spawn
This is the first smoke I’d teach any team, because it messes with the defender who wants to anchor A from Heaven and keep vision on the whole site. From T spawn, line up with the wall near the first cover and aim over the roofline so the smoke lands cleanly in Heaven. The goal is simple: make that elevated A support player useless for 10 seconds.
Why it breaks defaults: CTs love using Heaven as a kill box. When that gets cut off early, the A anchor has to play solo and the rotator has to guess. That’s a nightmare if your team is ready to explode off contact.
- Best used on pistol and anti-eco.
- Also nasty when you’ve got an AK buy and want a clean site pinch.
- If your support player throws this at 1:45, you can still fake B later.
2) Connector-to-site smoke that kills the rotator peek
This one is filthy because it doesn’t just block vision — it kills the timing of the CT player who wants to swing from Connector and get information. Stand in mid near the cover by the wall, line your crosshair with the edge of the top architecture, and jump-throw so the smoke lands right where Connector meets the site push.
When this lands well, it forces a defender to either hold inside site blind or rotate through a worse route. That’s a huge deal on Anubis because CTs often lean on fast connector contact to stabilize a shaky A setup. Remove that, and the site starts feeling thin. Real thin.
3) Heaven-to-default blocker from T mid
If you’re holding mid control and want to finish A without showing too much, this smoke is gold. You toss it from mid so it blooms over the Heaven/default lane, which cuts off one of the cleanest CT swing routes. On Anubis, that’s the angle that lets a defender farm the first guy crossing or catch the planter for free. Take that away and the round gets a lot less comfortable for them.
I like this smoke in rounds where your team has 2,100 or 3,000 in the bank and can’t afford to brute-force a bad execute. That’s exactly where utility pays for itself. A $300 smoke denying a $700 headshot position? Easy math.
4) The long-lane wall smoke for A crossing
This is the smoke that makes the whole hit look legit. Throwing a wall smoke across the long lane means the CT on the far side can’t punish your entry pack as it moves in. You’re basically turning a wide, scary lane into a controlled funnel. That’s the good stuff.
The nice part is that it pairs well with flashes, and on CS2’s subtick timing you can chain it fast enough that the defenders barely get a readable response. If your teammate has a good sense for spacing, this smoke lets the first two players cross while the third keeps pressure on mid. It’s one of those setups that looks simple until you watch the demo and realize how dead the CT vision really is.
When to use it
- Against teams that love aggressive A anchors.
- After you’ve shown B pressure twice.
- When your entry is stuck on a MAC-10 or Galil and can’t dry swing.
5) Default box smoke from the A approach
Default on Anubis is one of those spots that feels harmless until the planter dies there three rounds in a row. Smoke it properly and you deny the easiest trade frag for the defenders. That’s huge, because once the planter gets tucked behind cover, CTs have to either spam blind or commit to a retake path that takes too long.
This smoke is especially annoying for defender setups that rely on one player anchoring site and another floating through rotator. You smoke Default, and suddenly the anchor can’t punish the plant or the post-plant jiggle. If you’ve ever watched m0NESY or s1mple make a site feel tiny with utility, that’s the idea: deny the boring angles first.
6) The close-site save smoke for post-plant chaos
This one isn’t about entrying; it’s about making the retake ugly. If you plant for A and expect CTs to flood in from Heaven or Connector, you can smoke the close-site swing lane so they’re forced into wider, slower paths. It’s basically insurance for the post-plant.
On paper it sounds soft. In practice, it wins rounds because CTs burn 5 to 8 seconds clearing nothing, and on a map like Anubis that timer matters more than people admit. A lot of mid-tier Premier teams just panic and leave the bomb in a 2v2 because they can’t isolate the defuse. This smoke helps stop that nonsense.
7) The fake A smoke that baits the entire defense
Not every smoke has to end in a full send. Sometimes the best A smoke lineup is the one that makes the CTs rotate, then lets you punish the empty B side. Toss the Heaven and long-lane smokes together, make a bit of noise, maybe even flash the site once, and watch how many players instantly overreact.
This is where a lot of teams throw rounds. They see one smoke bloom on A and assume it’s commit time. Nah. Good players know how to use utility to steal info, not just space. If the defense is too eager — and let’s be honest, plenty of online stacks are — you can pull two players toward A and then hit the open site with a late burst.
How to actually make these work in real games
Smoke lineups are only half the story. If your team throws them and then stands around like it’s a Faceit warmup lobby, you’re still losing the round. The real value comes from timing. One player should be counting the grenade, another should be ready to swing on the first bounce, and your lurk needs to understand when not to make noise.
A few things that matter more than people think:
- Keep your smoke timings tight — 1:38, 1:30, 1:20 are very different windows.
- Don’t stack utility. Two bad smokes are worse than one good one.
- Call the CT economy. If they’re on half-buy MP9s and one kit, punish the retake setup.
- Use your molotov after the smoke, not before, unless you’re forcing a clear.
That last part matters. I’ve seen way too many Anubis executes where the smoke lands clean, then the team burns their own momentum with slow molotovs that give CTs time to reposition. If you’re trying to look like a team with actual map control — not a five-stack guessing in Premier — the order has to make sense.
What separates a decent smoke from a round-winning one
The best Anubis A smokes don’t just block vision. They change behavior. They make a defender move early, hold too long, or choose the wrong fight. That’s why the map’s such a pain for default-heavy CTs. If you can isolate Heaven, shut down Connector, and smother the long lane all in one hit, A-site stops being a playground for defenders and turns into a math problem they usually can’t solve.
And honestly, that’s why this map is fun when it’s played right. Not because it’s pretty. Because it rewards teams that actually think. So next time your A site feels impossible, ask yourself one thing: are you throwing smokes, or are you actually breaking the default?