The money system in Counter-Strike has always been something many players struggle to fully grasp. Several gamers stay content with the general knowledge they have of the subject it and leave it at that. This article will explain the money system in great detail - by the numbers - including examples and scenarios that commonly occur in scrims and, most importantly, matches.

We will start with the basis of the monetary system and show the exact amounts of money awarded (by round) for each of the possible outcomes. Below is a table of raw
values to look over and keep as a reference for memorizing - and ultimately help you learn to know your opponents money.



*The first loss awards $1,400 per player, however if you lose consecutive rounds, you receive more money each subsequent round.

*For each additional round lost (in a row), you receive an extra $500. This pattern caps out at 5 rounds ($3400).

For example:

Loss 1 $1,400
Lose 2 in a row $1,900 (1400 + 500)
Lose 3 in a row $2,400 (1900 + 500)
Lose 4 in a row $2,900 (2400 + 500)
Lose 5 in a row $3,400 (2900 + 500)
Capped @ $3,400

Its important to remember that Terrorists also get an extra $800 per player if they plant but lose the round. If Terrorists lose the round by timeout the Terrorists left alive receive
$0 the next round.

There are a lot of numbers and relative causes here; it may seem confusing at first, but it's not. The table makes it obvious that the best way to know your opponents money is to simply look at the amount of rounds they have won in a row. For every round you win, unless you win by a bomb explosion, you get $3,250. For every round you lose in a row, starting at the lowest possible amount ($1,400), you continue to gain more and more money each time you lose to try to keep you in the game. This system was implemented so that teams that were losing a lot of rounds in a row could have a chance to get their money back on track and make a comeback in the game. Each round you lose in a row, starting at your second consecutive loss, you gain an extra $500 in addition to the $1,400 you normally get for losing a round.

Example: If your team is doing great and you have won five rounds in a row, will the enemy team be broke for the next round if they just played a gun-round the round before ?

The answer is probably not. Here’s why:
On the next round each member of the enemy team will be getting $3,400 plus whatever leftover money they had from other rounds before. This means that there is a really good chance they are going to be able to buy every round after this one as long as they keep losing. However, any round they win resets this system and money awarded for their next losses will be minimal.

One of the most important things I look for is if the team we are facing has followed up a winning round with a loss: 9 times out of 10 in this situation, the enemy team will be saving the next round because their money bonus has been reset. To simplify, the money system provides the losing team with enough money to barely buy in rounds they otherwise couldn't in order to give them a chance to come back in the game. It does not, however, provide them with enough money to build up a good supply for multiple gun rounds in a row – that's what winning does.

In my next article I will be discussing money management - when to save and when to go for the win - and also how to tell if a terrorist team is going to buy early or save again and what to do against it.