Taking place at the top of a skyscraper, Vertigo has the most unique location among CS:GO maps. Vertigo operates on two floors, with CT’s starting on the upper and T’s on the lower. In order for T’s to take a bomb site, they’ll need to clear upwards to the next floor and displace the defenders.
A site lies right next to the CT spawn and is connected to the lower floor by a single, wide Ramp. Defenders can play aggressively on this ramp, peeking down it with the help of early utility. When their smoke cover clears however, they must vacate the immediate area and let the T’s have their turn. In addition to the main Ramp exit onto A, T’s also have a second angle of attack in the form of a Sidewalk.
Vertigo B lies at the top of a narrow set of Stairs that T’s must push up to get on the site. There are many points of cover for the CT’s, such as crates and steel girders. Smokes, Molotovs, and Flashbangs must all be used in tandem to force Vertigo B open. Trading kills all the way to the bomb plant is very common, leaving for many tense low player retake situations.
While Vertigo does have a Mid, it doesn’t have nearly the same traffic as the Mirage or Dust2 Mid. The reason is because it’s simply not worth the manpower required most of the time. Since Vertigo’s bomb sites require full executes to take consistently, T’s need as many players trading forward as possible. The CT’s don’t want to be shorthanded on their site defenses either, so they also tend to stack the sites. Teams sometimes set up a single lurker or spotter in Mid, but the area is the least contested point of the map by far.