What 25K+ Premier CS2 Players do better than everyone else

Every CS2 Premier bracket below 25,000 rating has the same largest gap to the top of the ladder: flash assists. We compared advanced stats across all of Valve’s rating brackets using Premier match data from Refrag users, and the stat at the top of the list was identical in all five.

On the surface, this says something about the utility usage habits of all of those groups, but looking a little bit deeper, it’s more indicative of another key attribute that separates the best CS2 players from the rest of the pack.

How we compared the brackets

The baseline is every player at 25,000 Premier rating and above, which covers the Red and Gold tiers. For each of the five brackets below that, we sorted the advanced stats by how far the bracket’s average sits from the 25K+ average.

Counting stats like kills, deaths, KAST, KDA, ADR, and multi-kill rounds were left out. So were combined ratings like Refrag Rating, HLTV Rating, and Impact. Those numbers summarize a whole match. The goal here was to isolate individual skills you can train.

We ran a similar comparison for FACEIT earlier this year. You can read it in These 3 stats are the difference between you and FACEIT Level 10.

The biggest gaps at every CS2 Premier rank

The largest gaps at every level are almost exclusively utility-related. There is, of course, a couple of entries that have to do with aim, but they make up for the smallest gaps.

What is a flash assist in CS2?

You earn a flash assist when a teammate kills an enemy who is blinded by your flashbang.
That makes it one of the few stats that takes two players to earn: your flash has to blind someone, and a teammate has to take the fight while the blinding effect is active.

Why flash assists are the widest gap

The data points to two separate problems, at least initially.

Flash quality. Flash duration measures how long your flashes blind enemies. It is 27% to 36% lower in Gray, Light Blue, and Blue Elo brackets, and 14.2% lower in Purple. Flashes in those brackets blind enemies for less time, or miss them entirely.

Timing. The Pink grouping shows this most clearly. Flash duration is not among Pink’s three largest gaps, which puts it under 4%. Pink players blind enemies for nearly as long as 25K+ players do, and they still finish with 13.8% fewer flash assists. The likely difference is whether a teammate is peeking when the flash pops.

The data cannot tell you whether the person throwing the flash or the person peeking with it is late. It does show that the two are in sync less often below 25K, and that the gap is widest in Light Blue and Blue, and this all points to a few things that are lacking amongst Premier players.

What the data actually means for your game

Flash assists, as we’ve established, require two teammates to earn, and as such, these gaps actually point to a lack of communication and teamplay amongst the average player. It’s not just about knowing the lineups for a flash (though you can learn them all from NADR and the Utility Hub), but it’s about knowing when to throw it and how to communicate to your team to set up something like that.

Flashes are thrown in many different contexts, and the data doesn’t discern which is which. These assists can come from retakes, entry frags, or taking map control in the mid-round, and all of those things take varying levels of communication and teamplay.

How to close the gap

Learn one pop flash for each fight you take

A pop flash detonates as it comes into view, so the enemy has no time to turn away. Pick the two or three spots where you take fights most on your main map and learn one pop flash for each.

NADR makes this quick to test. Type .bot to place bots where defenders usually stand, then throw. Each bot prints its flash time to chat, so you can see how long that position would be blinded and adjust the throw until the number goes up. Use .rethrow to repeat the same flash without resetting.

Call the flash before you throw it

A flash assist needs a teammate in the fight while the enemy is blind. Say where the flash is going and when, and thinking ahead is half of the battle. Noticing opportunities to work with your teammates for a flash is a part of developing your gamesense, which can take a long time.

Peek on your teammate’s flash

When a teammate calls a flash, you are the other half of the stat. Be at the corner before it pops and peek as it detonates, giving yourself the best chance of securing a frag on a blinded opponent.

Throw your flashes before you die

A flash in your inventory when you die blinded nobody. Refrag Coach tracks this as unused utility value. If you’re struggling to remember to throw them, start there. If you don’t know where to throw them, take a look at the Utility Hub.

Practice with the person you queue with

NADR works with friends on the same server. One of you throws while the other peeks the bots on the pop, then you switch. This is the part of the stat you cannot train alone.

Check whether this is your gap

These numbers are bracket averages, and your own weak spot may be different. Refrag Coach imports your Premier and FACEIT match history and compares your stats against target averages from players at the level you are working toward.

The Utility category shows enemies flashed, friends flashed, average flash time, utility damage, and unused utility value. Stats where you fall short are flagged in orange or red, and Coach builds your training routine around them.

Coach is included with every Refrag subscription, and you can try it for free for 3 days with code playsmarter3