The A site anchor plays on the CT side and holds bombsite A until the team rotates in. It is one of the hardest defensive roles: on popular competitive maps such as Mirage and Dust 2, attackers have more routes into A than into B, so A gets hit more often and the anchor frequently has to fight alone against several opponents. Below is a ranking of the best A site anchors based on stats as of August 2022 (still the CS:GO era), followed by role tips that apply fully in CS2.
Singling out one best anchor among professionals is hard. Every map has its own defensive quirks, its own grenade lineups and strong positions on A, and remembering every detail on every map is nearly impossible. So there is no definitive answer to who the best A anchor is.
Instead, I suggest comparing anchors on individual maps by the gap between their rating and the median (the average result of all players in that position). The bigger the gap, the better the anchor performs, and whoever has the largest gap tops this ranking. For the other positions on a team, see our guide to player roles.
4th place
We start with a player from Russia. Ax1Le (Sergey Rykhtorov, who joined Cloud9 at the end of April 2022) had a 1.31 rating as the A site anchor on Ancient by early August 2022, against a median of 1.12. The gap is 1.31 - 1.12 = 0.19.
In my view, two things drive this result: remarkable calm, at times bordering on emotionlessness (even journalists who interviewed Sergey noted it), and excellent aim. When Ax1Le is on form, he can beat even the world's strongest teams, FaZe Clan included, as FaZe captain karrigan once pointed out.
His achievements go beyond anchoring A. 2021 was the best year of his career up to that point: Sergey won the prestigious Katowice tournament with Gambit and climbed to 5th place in the world player ranking.
3rd place
Third place goes to sjuush (Rasmus Beck from Denmark), who played for Heroic at the time. His signature map is Mirage. Anchoring A there, Rasmus posted a 1.24 rating, while other A anchors on Mirage averaged 1.00. That puts sjuush 1.24 - 1.00 = 0.24, or 24%, ahead of his peers.
The result is even more impressive given the map. Mirage has always been one of the three most played Counter-Strike maps, and almost every top team plays it well. A site on Mirage is tough in its own right: three entrances for the attackers and plenty of cover for them to hide behind. Correct smoke usage and a fast reaction to the enemy's entry decide everything here.
sjuush handled a genuinely difficult job and earns a well-deserved 3rd place among the best A site anchors.
2nd place
Second place belongs to Brazil's yuurih (Yuri Santos of FURIA), who was 22 in 2022.
Santos earned this spot with outstanding anchoring on Vertigo, at the time one of the least played maps in the competitive pool. Against a median of 1.05, yuurih posted 1.38. The gap is 0.33, or 31%, which makes him the best A anchor on Vertigo by these numbers.
Yuurih is a well-rounded player who performs on both defense and offense. In his best year, 2020, Santos helped FURIA into the world's top ten. Back then he had a strong rating against top-30 teams (9th place) and an excellent KAST against the top 30 (6th place), and he reached 14th place in the individual player ranking.
He still has a long way to go to match the achievements of his compatriot coldzera, but yuurih's standing as one of the best A site anchors is beyond doubt.
1st place
Now for the player who ranked first on A site by these stats. His path is striking:
In 2020 he was playing tier-3 and tier-4 tournaments.
He only made the main roster in February 2022, after the team's two most productive players left.
Three months later, in May 2022, he was already playing in the semifinal of the Antwerp Major, where his team lost to FaZe Clan.
So the best A site anchor as of August 2022 played for Team Spirit, came from Russia and was 20 years old at the time. He is Pavel Ogloblin, better known as s1ren.
The record result that earned Pavel first place came on Nuke. S1ren posted a 1.50 rating there, the highest among A anchors, against a median of only 1.07. The gap is 1.50 - 1.07 = 0.43, or 40%, the widest margin in this ranking.
How to improve as an A site anchor
Before working on specific skills, take an honest look at your temperament, because the wrong one can hold you back in this role. It is hard to imagine a young, hot-headed and aggressive s1mple as an A site anchor: he simply could not sit in one spot for a whole round. The role calls for a calm, measured disposition like Ax1Le's.
Skill-wise, first, train your hearing and your ability to read enemy footsteps, and listen closely to your teammates' comms so you know roughly where the enemy is. Knowing every smoke lineup or having great aim will not help if you miss the moment the attackers commit. You can sharpen your shooting on aim maps in CS2 and your utility on an empty server, as described in our guide to practicing grenade lineups. Second, an anchor needs patience. A good anchor resists the urge to help teammates when that goes against the round plan: like an actual anchor, he holds his site and leaves it only once it is clear the attackers have gone B. How the role differs on the other site is covered in our article on the B site anchor. So train yourself to stay focused on the main goal, defending A, and never lose sight of it.
Third, manage information and utility. The A anchor is the first to see the attackers commit, so a short, precise call ("three A, flashes coming") is worth more than any single frag: it buys the team time to rotate. Avoid spending grenades early in the round without a reason. A molotov or smoke thrown at the moment the enemy pushes delays the attack by a few seconds, and those seconds are exactly what your teammates need to arrive. Finally, do not be afraid to fall back to a retake position when holding the site alone is unrealistic. An anchor who stays alive is more useful to the team than one who trades one for one at the very start of the push and leaves the site empty for the retake.
