mOE trolls Wardell on stream with fake Vertigo run boost

M Alzamora Published 05/01/2020

Vertigo has always been a controversial map, but nobody can deny that if offers some of the best run boost plays in all of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive.

During a pick-up game on Vertigo, Counter-Strike fixture Mohamad “m0E” Assad managed to get Matthew “Wardell” Yu to fall for the oldest trick in the book. Literally.

After convincing Wardell that it was possible to runboost from B site to T spawn, Wardell took the bait and attempted the jump. Any fans that know m0E also knew that this was a rib and Wardell figured it out too as he slid past a ledge he was told he could land on. The moment was clipped by fans on Twitch.

Tarik, Dupreeh, and the T spawn runboost

While m0E was trolling Wardell, a runboost like this actually does exist, only in the opposite direction.

Then competing for NRG Esports, Tarik “tarik” Celek famously showed it off against Team Liquid at CS Summit 4, causing the BTS couch to lose their collective minds. The runboost requires a precise angle, a perfect airstrafe, and nerves of steel to get around the stacked barrels Valve added to increase its difficulty, but Tarik nailed it.

The play caught Jonathan “EliGE” Jablonowski completely off guard. The moment was doubly embarrassing for EliGE since Tarik erased the TL rifler with a TEC-9 double dink.

Astralis’ Peter “dupreeh” Rasmussen did the same at the 2019 StarLadder Berlin Major in his own showdown with Team Liquid. While dupreeh didn’t profit from the runboost, both he and Tarik showcased its power.

As of this writing, the jump is still possible from T spawn’s second floor and remains notoriously difficult. It’s also a single-use play. Once a team falls victim to it, they’ll check for it every round.

But breaking it out in the quarterfinal of a close Major quarterfinal is the kind of bold play one would expect from Astralis.

Although the T spawn runboost is still doable, it isn’t viable in all game modes.

Players could briefly abuse this trick in Wingman to access the B bombsite, despite Valve changing the Wingman site to A in a May 2019 patch. Once planted, CTs couldn’t reach the bomb to defuse it.

While the jump is possible from the CT side, it requires a long setup and is much riskier. Unfortunately for Wardell, the runboost was never possible from where he attempted it. While m0E couldn’t contain his delight, Wardell was a good sport about the long fall. After laughing it off, team_Laski won Vertigo 16-10.

M Alzamora

About M Alzamora

There are few things that writer M Alzamora loves more in life than Pokemon. And there are even fewer things that she loves more than her favorite Pokemon, Eevee. But M’s appreciation for gaming isn’t just limited to Nintendo’s famous pocket monsters. She’s interested in every type of game across every genre of gaming, and she has the credentials to prove it. M’s work has also been seen on Working Classicists and gaming sites.

View full profile